R.I.P. Gundam

Here’s my rant pasted from Asuki.

The poll results shock me. Though I guess seasons and seasons of shitty anime have considerably lowered the bar.
How can anyone who’s seen more than G Gundam think this is anything but a pile of steaming shit. I could take a dump on it, and I doubt anyone would notice the difference.

The character design is one of the main elements getting a lot of flak, though I consider it one of the lesser problems. What I disagree with however is how easily people discard character design/art style as a matter of preference, or not really important at all. How can you possibly think that? Art and design are so inherent to the very feel of the show. They influence the atmosphere, credibility, tone, etc. of the show. How would you have liked Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion if the characters were designed like they belonged in My Little Pony. In this case, the character design is some weird attempt to emulate at times Mobile Suit Gundam (0079) and at times Space Battleship Yamato through some cute shouta filter. Its feel ranges from inconsistent to disturbingly out of place.

This choice of character art reinforces another element of this POS series.
When Tomino started working on the original Gundam series back in the 70s, his goal was to move mecha anime away from the then omnipresent super robot style. He wanted more realistic mecha, and a serious story that dealt with, amongst other things, the ravages of war. Although the original series still had some traits from the super robot genre, they were almost completely removed in the three summary films that followed. In, perhaps a failed attempt at nostalgia, this show seems to be moving back into time, back to the era of BURNING PASSION AND COURAGE. The simplistic nature of the dialogue and plot is not as much an attempt to make Gundam more accessible to the younger generation as it is a return to that simplified style of the 50s-70s (and even 80s-00s for certain subgenres, for example, Gao Gai Gar, etc.). The choice of character art is proof of this.

Wanting to make Gundam more accessible to younger generations is perfectly fine, but why does it have to be a main/long-running series? Children’s shows are not exactly known for their good production values, Gundam shows are (despite reusing battle scenes, etc). Couldn’t they have made a shorter series for kids? Or just a parallel series for kids? Did it have to be this or nothing? It’s an insult to all Gundam fans (much as G Gundam was). Despite the boys band Gundams that were Wing and 00, they still treated serious matters, and were they themselves done an a more serious style. Haven’t we all come to expect Gundam to be synonymous with quality, serious space operas about war and the people that are swept along?

This Gundam just feels really half-assed to me. The mobile suit designs and animation look almost worse than the original 1979 series. Even the character animation, however I might dislike the design, looks better than the mobile suits and parts of the background. But the most striking thing about this new show is just how hollow it feels.
As an experiment, I rewatched the first ep of Gundam SEED, and then the first ep of AGE. Try it for yourself and you’ll notice that almost nothing happens or is told in the first ep, which is usually the ep that establishes the feel of the new series. Even in Gundam SEED, with all its little and bigger flaws, the first episode establishes, introduces so many things. Characters, factions, inter-character relationships, suspicions, backstory, etc.
AGE only manages to introduce us the elements that make it so we can recognize it as a Gundam show at all: boy loses his mother, boy lives on colony now, boy is a genius, boy works on/is related to the Gundam, enemy attacks the colony, boy uses Gundam for the first time, boy defeats a mobile suit, done. The outlines of a Gundam show are there indeed, but where is the rest inbetween? It’s called ‘fleshing out’ a story. AGE fails to do this. Being satisfied with Gundam AGE is like being satisfied with fapping to porn rather than real sex. The idea of two people f*cking (well, usually two) and you getting aroused is there, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t feel the same way.

Lastly, instead of trying to find the good in this Gundam incarnation by any means, try thinking of it this way:
Long-running Gundam series only come once every few years. Is this a show that was worth the wait since the end of Gundam 00 S2? Is this a show that will keep you talking about it and rewatching it until the next series comes along?

Thank God Menclave is dead, or I’d somehow have felt compelled to sub this turd.