I can’t believe you’re willingly submitting yourself to watching G-Gundam.
Lynxara
1902
G Gundam has some very good bits (some groundbreaking mechanical sequences) and some very very bad bits (the episode where Domon is afraid he’s too short to beat the Greek dude). Devil Gundam in particular is something that has been ripped off and referenced regularly for the past 20 years, especially in games. It’s almost worth watching just to see the original article.
G Gundam’s defining problem as a series is that most of the things it did well were cribbed from contemporaries that were just kind of better. Imagawa recycled a substantial portion of the Giant Robo OVA plot into the series, the “international” theme and some plot details were lifted wholesale from Shin Seiki Cyber Formula, and a lot of the general details of the story’s execution parallel Lord of Lords Ryu Knight.
You can also move forward in time a little and just watch Vision of Escaflowne instead, which was produced almost completely by G Gundam vets and Shoji Kawamori. The plot and especially the male protagonist are intentionally reminiscent of G Gundam’s (which was extremely popular), but Escaflowne was an attempt to strip out the goofy retro stuff and tell a story that was a bit easier to take seriously.
That, and Escaflowne is really good, and G-Gundam is really bad.
Lynxara
1904
I have a hard time believing anyone* who’s actually seen it would refuse to acknowledge that the climax of the Guyana Highlands arc was, at the very least, some truly excellent mechanical animation.
- Exceptions granted to folks who detest mecha anime, of course.
I don’t really know 2/3 of the gundams mentioned, but I thought Escaflowne was quite good (although the movie was amazingly mediocre at best).
Lynxara
1906
The movie was apparently a victim of being produced with foreign markets in mind. The producers got it into their heads it needed to be something stand-alone for viewers who had never seen the show instead of something that would give fans a better resolution.
I really like Imagawa’s style, and I was hoping for some retro stuff to enjoy.
But man, the plot is bone stupid so far.
You can also move forward in time a little and just watch Vision of Escaflowne instead, which was produced almost completely by G Gundam vets and Shoji Kawamori. The plot and especially the male protagonist are intentionally reminiscent of G Gundam’s (which was extremely popular), but Escaflowne was an attempt to strip out the goofy retro stuff and tell a story that was a bit easier to take seriously.
I watched it years ago. I’m really not looking for another fantasy show right now.
Might be time to watch Stardust Memory again.
Lynxara
1908
How far in are you? The plot is never really intelligent stuff-- the show imitated Go Nagai’s vices as well as his virtues-- but I do find it gets more emotionally affecting around episode 20 or so. There’s also some nice stuff in the run-up to the big ending.
Of course, there’s plenty of absurdity to leaven even the most dramatic moments in the plot. Whether or not you enjoy that really comes down to whether or not you can appreciate the weird Mexican magic realism of pre-Gundam 70’s anime that G is trying to recreate.
Well, like Turn A, I thought that G-Gundam had some great animation at times, and at other times really bad animation. But I detested the characters and plot from both, and that sort of kills it for me. I slogged through the last 20 episodes of Turn A recently and watched G-Gundam years ago, and all I could really think about were that they were both inherently stupid series, with terrible writing and mind-boggling decisions from the main characters, at the same time admiring each for some of their animation sequences. That said, Char’s Counterattack is really the pinnacle of the “old” Gundams when it comes to mecha animation, and it had a great story and characters to boot. So yes, sometimes I do watch anime purely because it has great animation (DtB) but for the most part, I just want a really engaging story with engaging characters. And neither Turn A nor G have those.
Lynxara
1910
That’s an interesting comparison. G Gundam is allegedly the only Gundam work that Tomino actually likes, probably because he hand-picked Imagawa to direct it.
That’s why Turn-A only acknowledges G from the alts in-series. Quite a few mechanical sequences and writing tics from Turn-A are based directly on G or Escaflowne, too.
On a funnier note, I did a google image search for some G-Gundam memories and found this:
I remember that scene, and thinking how hilarious it was.
Lynxara
1912
Anime News Network has a new piece up today about Unicorn’s production. About an hour of footage has been produced, allegedly covering the first two of the ten light novels.
Format is still not confirmed, but Sunrise is allegedly planning worldwide simultaneous release of the project. I wonder if this is why they’re staying so quiet about format?
Whoa, Phantom just took a really weird turn. SPOILERS FOR EP 20 BELOW
I knew that Cal would end up being groomed by Scythe to be the new Phantom after seeing the end of ep19, but wtf is up with her appearance? They never mention her age before, but she was just a little girl in the last episode, maybe age 10-12 at most. The show jumped ahead 2 years, and it looks like neither Reiji nor Ein have aged a bit, but Cal suddenly now looks around 18-20 with D-cups? Some kind of growth manipulation by Scythe? I also do find it a bit odd that Reiji looks absolutely the same as he did 2 years ago, but earlier in the 6 month jump ahead (after Ein’s “death”) to when he was the new Phantom and fucking Claudia he looked like he had aged dramatically. And Ein just seems ageless. She looks no different now than she did in episode 1. The wacky disparity of aging in this show is really strange.
Cool promo shot. Love the oldschool art style. Well, if they’re planning to squeeze 5 hours of screen time out of it, that’s not all that bad. That’s not to say they will – they just say that 2 of the first 10 have been translated into an hour of footage, not that every two volumes will be the same length. Still, thinking in terms of how long the average anime TV show is, you can get 3 episodes out of an hour, so that’s equivalent to 15 episodes. I could definitely see that working pretty well, although they may end up sticking with a more traditional length like 13.
Lynxara
1915
What I’m wondering is if Sunrise intends to produce a “double dip” project like GaoGaiGar FINAL-- an OVA series that would later be edited into a slightly altered TV or film version after everyone who will pay for individual episodes already has.
Ironically, the Phantom OVAs sort of did the same thing, although it took them like 10 years.
Lynxara
1917
Unicorn’s format is finally confirmed: 6-episode OVA, each episode 50 minutes long. This works out neatly to 12-13 TV episodes so I expect a broadcast at some point.
Here’s one of the better-quality videos of the trailer floating around right now.
So I guess I was right. All said and done, 13 episodes, although the format of 50 minute eps is very off-standard for Sunrise and most other production companies.
I agree with Lynx that this will be a BR/DVD release for a while, then split into half eps for a total of 13 broadcast. That way they hit their purchase target and then nail it on the advertising for broadcast. Pretty smart on their part. Good trailer also, loving the art – back to UC at last!
Are either of these kid friendly?
- Evangelion
- Full Metal Alchemist
Both are pretty violent. FMA less so (has some disturbing moments and some stuff that may be over kids’ heads), but Evangelion is most definitely not kid-friendly. As an aside though, how old are we talking about?
