Y’know, I’ve been thinking recently, and I’ve come to a bit of a realization. Over the years I’ve built up a bit of a reputation among many of my anime-loving friends and among some of the websites I visit (chiefly Anime News Network) as a bit of a Gundam fanboy. I’ve become “The Expert,” the person everyone runs to when they have a Gundam-related question, and the authority whose opinion is often regarded with the most weight. Like many other Gundam fanboys, I took sides in the whole “UC vs. AU” turf war (for the unfamiliar, the Universal Century timeline—the “main canon”—and the various Alternate Universe timelines), and I absorbed every bit of Gundam lore and “political history” like a Trekkie takes to Klingon. I’ve developed my own stubborn, inflexible opinions and had some pretty epic fights online with other people of similarly stubborn, inflexible opinions, and I’ve jumped on bandwagons because Gudam fans were “expected to.” But y’know, after stepping back and taking a more critical look at the actual Gundam anime themselves over the past few months, comparing them to some of the other anime I’ve seen and especially taking a good hard look at the fanbase surrounding them, I’ve become awfully worn out on the whole thing. Kinda sick of it, really.
First off, there’s the Gundam franchise itself. Honestly, what is so great about it? Okay, so the original Mobile Suit Gundam almost single-handedly inspired the entire trend in anime towards more realistic depictions of giant robots. It led away from rocket punches and alien mad scientists and towards plausible human conflict and mass-produced mechs with about as much value as your average tank or fighter plane. Ultimately, everything from Macross to Code Geass to Full Metal Panic! to more abstract titles like Evangelion and Eureka Seven owe their existence to Gundam in some way. And of course, Gundam is positively huge, spanning nearly three dozen television series, movies, and OVAs, and far too many publications to count, all illustrating a massive, bloated single continuity and a half-dozen smaller alternate realities.
Beyond its historical significance and immense size, though, Gundam as a whole honestly doesn’t have that much to it, to be completely honest. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s just generally underwhelming and unimpressive. The vast majority of Gundam anime tend to just recycle the same basic story about a bunch of unwitting teenage angst-balls getting wrapped up in a conflict between a vague and undefined Earth government and its own space colonies, magically becoming the crew of the most advanced spaceship ever and commanding the most powerful robot(s) ever—all despite being underaged civilians—and either fighting until mutually assured destruction occurs or renouncing war and shacking up with some overpowered Mary Sue third faction of peaceniks who magically end all war ever for all time without spilling a single drop of blood. Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Gundam Wing, Victory Gundam, Gundam SEED, same shit, different title. And the setup’s only ever done right about half the time, if that. Most Gundam anime tend to be horribly clumsy in their execution, either completely botching or contradicting the themes they set out to portray, proving completely inept at writing likable characters, or having absolutely no sense of pacing in the plot, leading to either an uneven pace or a story so diluted with fillers and false starts it barely even registers. Even many of the series and movies that don’t fall into the same formulaic structure fall victim to things like horrible characterization, as evidenced by Gundam 0083’s leading man and woman being completely, unquestionably unlikable.
And yet Gundam has a very large, very vocal, and mostly very reprehensible fanbase. Now I know we’re deep in the middle of nerd territory here, and as a rule, nerds are over-opinionated, smug loudmouths more than willing to start a shrieking slapfight about who’s the best Enterprise captain or whether Greedo or Han shot first or how to best lynch Michael Bay for his Transformers movie, but I’ve found Gundam fans to be far more hostile and closed-minded than most toward things like differing opinion or critical analysis. Like SEED? Prepare for a shitstorm if you dare admit it. Dislike Zeta or Victory? Shitstorm. Say a Gundam looks nice with wings on it? Shitstorm. Say you liked an alternate universe over UC Gundam? And it’s not G Gundam or Turn-A? Definite shitstorm there. Unless you join in the hivemind and masturbate furiously to Tomino’s very image while screaming bilious statements about how awesome Usso Evin is and how shitty Gundam Wing is for one homophobic reason or another, you’ve pretty much doomed yourself to a lifetime’s worth of being told you’re lower than shit and deserve to die. There’s no rational, intelligent discussion involved with these people, no friendly debate, no camaraderie, you either join the other cavemen in waving your club around with glee whenever Char says something faux-intellectual or you make yourself a target. I mean these people have already begun to ostracize fans who think Gundam 00 might be worth watching when it debuts, purely because “it has bishounen in it, so it’s a show for faggots.” Of course, the fans that do like Gundam Wing or Gundam SEED aren’t much better, as they typically tend to be squealing yaoi freaks who don’t initially seem as hostile on the surface, but turn into absolute wailing twats if you so much as dare question the absolute canon status of their imaginary boy coupling (despite the fact that nearly all of these characters end up boning women at some point in the show). That, or they’ve been so broken by the UC crowd that they get extremely defensive and over-react over so much as the slightest criticism of their show of choice (of course, UC-tards get the same way, but AU fans tend to be scarier with it). Finding a reasonable, amicable Gundam fan with well-rounded tastes who’s able to tolerate the mere notion that other fans like shows he or she doesn’t is the sort of nigh impossible trial Eurystheus would’ve given Heracles if he’d only hated him just a little bit more.
Of course, the biggest cardinal rule among hardcore Gundam fans, the one that’ll cause the biggest shitstorm of all if violated, is the questioning of Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Godlike infallibility. Well, I have news for you, not only is he fallible, but he’s actually damn significantly fallible. He has great ideas. He has great concepts for worlds, for characters, for storylines, but he kinda royally sucks at executing them. His plot progression is among the spottiest and most uneven I’ve ever seen, for one thing. The buildup to the climax of Zeta Gundam is suddenly thrown to the side in favor of what is essentially a filler arc about a random character pretending to be Kamille’s sister (which Kamille just…allows, fully knowing he’s an only child and not once thinking she might be a spy despite knowing that’s what the Titans DO to girls her age), which ultimately has no point to it other than to very weakly remind us of the psycho psychic chick that died not five episodes earlier. By the time this shit is over, we have less than three episodes to go in the series and things just magically become one big battle with little setup. This shit is hailed as “genius” because Tomino did it, while hypocritically lambasted when Gundam SEED Destiny does it with character Meer Campbell. And then there’s the way Tomino writes characters, which couldn’t be clumsier even if he tried to ruin it. Using Zeta Gundam for yet another example, the death of the aforementioned psycho psychic girlfriend, Four, isn’t so much met with grief by Kamille, as anger towards his mentor (who wasn’t involved in her death in the least) over his nickname, just before she’s completely forgotten in the next episode. That’s some powerful character development right there, using a major character’s death to dredge up tangental script filler before erasing her from existence until time to kill off someone completely unrelated (the other chick who pretends to be Kamille’s sister). Genius. Or at least the Gundam fanboy crowd would have you believe so. And then there’s Char, who goes from being a manipulative visionary with delusional desires for the human race in the first two television series, to a petty self-insert character in Char’s Counterattack with a grudge because Amuro stunted his pedophilic mommy fetish some fifteen years prior (and of course, when he met Amuro in Zeta, none of this was ever an issue and they were both bestest buddies!).
Shitty character writing, irregular plot progressions, bizarre changes in tone between installments (let’s make Gundam ZZ a retarded comedy while its predecessor and sequel are both grim as hell), and the fact that other people manage to take his world and do far better things with it? Why I dare say Yoshiyuki Tomino is little more than the Japanese George Lucas. The difference being that at least Star Wars fans had sense to call bullshit on George when he fucked up. And of course, the two of them both have their anomalous pieces of genuinely good work. For Lucas, it was A New Hope. For Tomino, it was Turn-A Gundam, and at least most of the original Mobile Suit Gundam.
So what does all of this mean, anyway? I’ve become disgusted with the Gundam fanbase, I’m sick of hearing vastly overstated praise for Tomino’s mediocre work and not being allowed to say shit about it, and I think most of the Gundam anime themselves are actually fairly dull in retrospect. So am I giving up on all Gundam ever made and never touching the stuff again for as long as I live? Not necessarily. I’m not going to call myself a “Gundam fan” anymore to be sure. I can’t honestly bring myself to say I like the franchise as a whole at this point, so I refuse to associate myself with it as a whole. However, I’ll admit there are individual titles I still find enjoyment in, including The 08th MS Team (my personal favorite by a considerable margin), SEED and its Astray manga, and what I’ve seen so far of Turn-A, but that only makes me a fan of those shows, and not all of Gundam (I am a Turn-A fan, but not a Gundam fan). I’m not going to discuss Gundam with Gundam fans anymore, because they’re mostly stubborn sacks of shit, and I’ve had far more lively discussions on Gundam with people who’ve maybe seen one or two OVAs in their time, and aren’t so absorbed in it as to not be able to look at it critically. However, if someone asks me a Gundam-related question or asks my opinion on Mobile [blank] Gundam [blank], I’ll still answer it, though maybe not as enthusiastically or in as much length as I used to. And on occasion, you can still stop by here to hear me tear into Victory Gundam and give it every ounce of shit it deserves, or hear me praise Turn-A or Gundam X as I finish them up and (most likely) enjoy them. And when Gundam 00 comes out, I fully intend to watch it with the sort of objectivity Gundam fans are mentally incapable of and judging it on its own genuine merits. I’m rejecting the fanbase and the franchise as a collective, but I’m not going to be so stupid as to throw away the bits and pieces of both that I can still stomach, and I appreciate you taking the time to allow me to vent about it here.
I am also a reformed Gundam fan. Having seen at least some of all of it (with the exception of pure crap like G-Savior) I can honestly say that you might as well throw the bulk of it out the window.
- Mobile Suit Gundam
People say to watch the movies. The movies are crap. The original show is much more engaging, and when you watch it you can definitely see that for its time it was an incredible show. It’s dated poorly.
- Zeta Gundam
It’s reasonably good, but Tomino absolutely sucks at writing character interactions. If you like Gundam it’s watchable. If you don’t, it’s awful.
- ZZ Gundam
It’s supposed to get good about halfway in, but given that that is according to UC fans who hold up ZZ and Char’s Counterattack as the pinnacle of the series, I don’t think that the horrible slog through some of the most unfunny crap ever is worth it.
- Char’s Counterattack
There are two good things about this film. Sazabi and Nu-Gundam. Everything else about it is below average.
- 0080: War in the Pocket
UC fans absolutely fucking love this OAV. I simply can’t see why, it’s got the most annoying lead ever and it’s just generally poor.
- 0083: Stardust Memory
I watched a bit and thought it was crap. Nagi expressed his surprise at me for saying that because he liked it. But I think he’s seen the light now.
- 08th MS Team
Without a doubt, this is the best part of UC Gundam, and probably the best Gundam series in general. Actually worth watching.
- F-91
Compressed a (bad) 52-episode plot into a single movie. It just doesn’t work. F91 is an awesome Gundam design, but that’s really about it. I want those hours of my life back.
- Victory Gundam
It might as well not even be a UC series for all the integration with the timeline that it has. It’s also got the most retarded plot, terrible writing, and an unlikeable, arrogant little snot for a lead character. Hell, even Tomino says it’s bad.
- G-Gundam
G-Gundam, as a Gundam series, is awful. As a super-robot show, it’s reasonably enjoyable, but there are others which you’d want to watch first, like GaoGaiGar.
- Gundam Wing
My entry into Gundam. I thought it was good way back when. It’s not. It’s hard to pick whether this is worse than Gundam Seed Destiny, but it probably isn’t as it didn’t take my hopes and dreams into a back alley and rape it every Saturday for a year.
- Gundam X
It wasn’t that bad, one of the better entries in the franchise. It never really hooked me though, and I think Japan in general had the same problem.
- Turn-A Gundam
This is actually reasonably good. Definitely a refreshing take on Gundam, and the Turn-A’s design is awesome, especially the way it moves. Of course, Gundam fans hate it because it had an American designer or something.
- Gundam Seed
The best of the AU series, and I’d say that it’s overall on a level with the series it remade. They both have flaws, and certainly Seed isn’t a revolution, but in terms of average quality they’re both around the same. Among the only stuff I recommend people watch.
- Gundam Seed Destiny
Take everything that was good about Seed. Drag it into a dark alley. Violate it. Repeat until it stops moving. Then rape the corpse. The result is everything in Destiny after episode 6. Before that it was going along absolutely fucking awesome. Incidentally the first six episodes were all they bothered to plan out. From then on they’re winging it. It shows.
So in summary… MSG and Zeta are worth watching if you feel like it. X is reasonable, Turn-A and Seed are good, 08th MS Team is excellent. G-Gundam is good if you like what it is. Everything else ranges from bad to terrible.
Hallelujah! Someone has called out all the horrid Gundam fans swarming the intertubes! I haven’t gone near the fanbase since I was torn to shreds for liking Gundam X and saying that Gundam Wing, while not high art, was fairly enjoyable. Good lord, if only there were more people like you.
I can’t wait for Gundam 00 - the animation looks really nice ^__^ And the last installment I liked of Gundam was Turn-A, so I kind of am pinning my hopes on 00 being good.
To be fair while there’s a lot to be said said here, it’s really been-dun.
Tomino also knows what he sucks at, btw. A lot of his shows are experimental in terms of trying to implement his ideas, and it frequently doesn’t work (and he knows). In fact, Turn-A turned out only as well as it did (even if it’s still ridden with flaws) only because Brain Powered has been sacrificed wholly on the Tomino alter.
I really do believe that through the first 20 or so episodes, GSD could’ve been the best Gundam ever. I loved how they totally flipped everything from the previous season, but then yeah…that second half.
I guess like Negs, I owe it to everyone to just give a quick spot-opinion of each major Gundam incarnation just so people know exactly where I stand. There’s a TL;DR version down at the bottom if you’d like to skip the bulk of it.
Mobile Suit Gundam - A bit wonky in places with regard to dialogue and such, but not nearly as much as most of Tomino’s other stuff. A certified classic, and rightfully so, but like Neg says, it’s aged badly. Personally, I’d like to see just a straight remake of it done with updated themes and animation techniques.
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - It has its moments, but mostly wavers between good and godawful. The only time it’s really, truly spectacular is when Haman shows up. She’s uncharacteristically well-made for a Tomino character (until ZZ, at least), and the Qubeley is my favorite UC mobile suit by far. Seeing her one-up everybody is an absolute treat, and I’ve dragged out my Zeta box purely to rewatch that arc alone. The movies are nice for toning down the personalities of some of the more obnoxious characters (Fa? Likable?) thanks to what Tomino learned doing Turn-A, though the jarring mix of new and old animation detracts from those.
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ - I actually have not seen more than an episode or two thus far, but I can’t imagine myself getting into this one much. As I said, Haman is my favorite UC character, and I know full well what this series does to her (as well as other returning characters). The whole premise just seems silly, wanting people to “cheer up” after Zeta before plunging them into dismal bullshit again right after.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack - I really liked this one at first, but subsequent watches have soured me. What should have been a grand, climactic battle between Char and Amuro is tarnished by Tomino effectively warping Char’s character for no apparent reason, and focusing far too much on a bunch of inane side characters and that magical flying letter T that Deus Ex Machina’s the end with a bunch of Newtype baloney. Gundam’s answer to The Matrix Revolutions? No thanks.
Mobile Suit Gundam F91 - A combination of a sudden migraine and sudden boredom put me to sleep while watching this one. I laughed at the generic Gundam setup and the blatantly plagiarized Imperial March, conked out, woke up an hour into it, and just gave up. I intend to watch it all the way through someday, but it was just…uninteresting as all hell.
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam - HA! Read my previous two blog entries, and the next half dozen or so after this one. It’s not pretty.
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket - I actually like this one, as it pulls off the “war is grim and sucks :(” message far more effectively than Tomino did, and has some frickin’ sweet mobile suit designs (Yutaka Izubuchi’s handiwork, which also saved Char’s Counterattack). It drags a bit, though, and I tend to conk out if I’m not wide awake when I watch it.
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory - Don’t get me wrong, I still like this one. While I’m not a fan of Zeta, it’s interesting seeing exactly what led up to it, and the supporting cast are real gems. It’s just that the leading trio—Kou, Nina, and Gato—are complete shitbuckets that drag the whole thing down greatly. Show shoulda been about Keith, Monsha, and Burning taking Delaz to task instead of the shitty, Kindergarten love triangle we actually got.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team - Easily, far and away my favorite Gundam anime. Aside from MS IGLOO, it does the best job of actually showing Gundam in a plausible military style, it doesn’t saturate itself in whining emofuck teenagers and has a reasonably likable cast of main characters, it has the best romance in Gundam (for being a couple of lust-driven dreamers, that is), and it’s just generally a pleasant watch all the way through. Gineas is a bit of a drag as a villain, though, until the last three episodes.
Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO - It gets a bit dull and repetitive with the “secret weapon introduced, angry old war veteran introduced, angry old war veteran hops in secret weapon and dies blowing shit up” formula, but it’s another nice, sobering, ADULT Gundam series that sets the whole thing in a decent military setting. The characters are reasonably likable for being fairly stiff, and the show gets more likable the more you know about the One Year War.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam - It’s cheesy. It’s very, very, very cheesy. Hokey, even. But that aside, it has some of the best character development Gundam has to offer. As a serious military type show, it fails miserably, but as a fun, light, shounen romp with strong characterization, it’s really an understated gem.
New MS Report Gundam Wing - Like Negs, I was introduced to Gundam with this show, and I liked it at the time. But the number of anime I’d seen at that point I could count on my fingers and have digits left over, so that’s not saying much. Some 390 anime later, it comes off as seriously shallow and shoddily paced. Long stretches of nothing but bishounen angst, and characters that seldom get more intriguing than their face value. Hardly anyone develops, and we hardly get to know any more about the cast by the end than we knew at the start. Props for Treize and Epyon, though.
New MS Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz - Still as shallow and mindless as Gundam Wing, but the prettier animation, faster pace, and gorgeously over-the-top mobile suit designs make up for it somewhat. The perfect Gundam to watch if you have absolutely no desire to stimulate your braincells.
After War Gundam X - It doesn’t really stand out in the Gundam pantheon, but it’s an enjoyable little show that doesn’t really have anything inherently wrong with it, either. At least from the ~10 episodes I’ve seen so far. It’s a nice little show that I think will be entertaining without being absolutely standout spectacular.
Turn-A Gundam - Tomino gets it right. Mostly. The unique setting and (like Gundam X) generally pleasant approach to characters and plot have had me hooked ~10 episodes in, and I anticipate it will continue to do so up to episode 50.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED - Hardly anything unique, but it’s a nice, streamlined approach to the old formula that starts slow, but picks up, and really comes into its own about a dozen episodes in. My favorite among the alternate universe titles, like Negs, and despite the constant flashbacks and some overdone melodrama, it’s a nice little show that gets more flak than it deserves.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray - Not anime, but the only Gundam manga/novel material that ever left enough of an impression on me to warrant mentioning (the majority of what I’ve read is just…soul-crushingly DULL). Parts of it are dumb, parts of it are genuinely compalling, but for the most part it’s all a fun, fairly light read with a motley cast of really likable characters. Helps to fill in some of SEED’s and Destiny’s gaps, and has my favorite alternate universe character and mobile suit (Rondo Mina Sahaku and her customized Gundam Astray Gold Frame Amatu). Some installments like X Astray are a bit lacking, but it’s generally a reasonably enjoyable read.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - Ick. Now granted, I’m partially disappointed because I bought into Sunrise’s promises of a darker show with a new leading cast that, like Fullmetal Alchemist before it, played to real-world events. But even without the sting of being completely betrayed on that end, the show is an exercise in shitty storytelling. The entire thing goes nowhere until the last twenty episodes or so, the returning cast are mangled, the NEW cast are mangled even more, and the whole thing just seems like a meandering, pointless fanwank. Probably because it is.
TL;DR, I genuinely like 08th MS, Turn-A, MS Gundam, SEED, and SEED Astray, I think MS IGLOO, 0080, 0083, Endless Waltz, G, X, and bits and pieces of Zeta are alright but lacking in places, I think Char’s Counterattack, F91, and the rest of Zeta pretty much suck, I absolutely cannot STOMACH Wing, Victory, or SEED Destiny, and I have no opinion yet on ZZ, but I can’t imagine it being anything decent by the end.
Gundam nowadays is reduced to nothing more than a franchise, where their aim is to just sell more model kits. I don’t know, thinking of the other alternatives just makes me want the good old days of 08th MS Team.
In spite the thinking of Tomino as the Lucas of Anime (a comparison more likely for Shouji Kawamori this days), Gundam has made a name for itself with ups and downs. Unfortunately, with the hordes of gundards, the name itself has been target of some of the more degradating threads in most BBS’s… Well, as a veteran of the whole series, these are my thoughs:
MSG: The beggining of all. Maybe not the brightest of all, but sent the bases.
08MS Team: THE best Gundam incarnation up to date. Brilliant in all aspects.
0080: Full of drama. The lack of actual combat annoy me, but since it POV is from a civilian, it worked somewhat.
0083: Good first part, but went down in the latter. Kawamori’s work on the MS is almost flawless, but could’ve been a better prelude to Z.
Z: The series where being a regular didn’t mean a thing. I like more the remake on the movies than the actual series.
ZZ: I still need to ask where did that first part came from? If you can whithstood it, Haman Kharn is a good reward.
Char’s Counterattack: The closure of the original generation. Nu-Gundam Rocks.
F91: I’ve seen the F90 manga (and play the F91 SNES game) and the whole could’ve been a good series, but the movie was only a shadow of it. I expected a more extended battle againt the F91 and the Berga Dalas squad.
V: Almost simmiilar start as ZZ but without the annoying things. Better latter part. V2 was truly overkill.
G: Why, Bandai? It was necessary to make a WWE of Gundam? This is not SRW, if Gundam, for Christ’s sake!
W: What could’ve been a glorious return became a symphony of mistakes, overrated characters, and the birth of the infamus plot-armor on any Gundam series.
X: So much better series that was cut because of ratings (you gotta love the Japanese) Double X was badass.
SEED: Started as a remake of the original MSG, then became a solid series of its own. Updating the original mechanics of the story (PS Armor instead of Gundanium Gamma) was briliant. The only miss here is that the ratings determinated that some characters (Natarle, Flay, the Astray Girls, Aisha) were to part ways and some others (Yzak) stayed.
SEED Destiny: Rushed, without the time or money that Seed had and Chiaki Morosawa were the reasons of this free fall.
And now, the main problem with the upcoming Gundam 00 is that Bandai is turning the series in a FMP!-look alike. Things where better in the old times…
I with ya man. I’ve been a die hard Gundam fan since I was 7. I’ve seen some of the craziest, stupidest, fights about Gundams and their respectable shows all over the Internet on forums and in chat rooms..it makes me laugh looking back. Especially since the fights would never resolve and the whole community would constantly be at battles over the same arguments for months.
I’ve seen almost all the anime shows and ovas (with the exception of SEED and Turn-A, I haven’t finished them yet. Im about half way done). They all have their own good points and bad points but the basic problem with the fan base is, people claim to be die hard Gundam fans but most haven’t seen more then one series. For example when Gundam Wing came out for the first time in USA on Cartoon Network, the Internet lite up like a forest fire with sites dedicated to the show and its characters. Anytime someone started a thread asking “what’s your favorite Gundam series” the majority would pick Wing since that’s all they ever saw. Then when someone posted something else (in my case Gundam X) the whole forum would blindly turn against you, posting flames that had nothing to do with either of the shows (ie. your a *** for liking Gundam [insert any name thats not Wing here] and you obviously don’t know anything).
However, the Internet has changed allot since then. Still the Fan base is very vocal about their opinions and, still will blindly go into battle over stupid, sometimes trivial things.
My personal Favorites are 8th MS Team, Gundam 0083, and Gundam X. Gundam X wasn’t popular in japan because of the time it was played. They used to play it late at night when no one would watch it.
Wow, I’ve never read such a blog entry in my life. Although I do share your sentiments on the Gundam fanbase. I barely know people who actually like Turn-A. I love Turn-A, but unfortunately when it first came out people dismissed it because Turn-A looked “weird because of its moustache, it’s not a Gundam because it doesn’t have the trademark V-Fin and it walks on high-heels”. How superficial. What’s funny about it is that Gundam Ez8 didn’t have a V-Fin but yet I don’t hear any negativity or close-mindedness towards it. I too like GX and dislike Wing (but I don’t hate Wing). I did enjoy G Gundam too, but if you’re looking for a Super Robot show, there are tons out there that would fare better IMO, say GaoGaiGar.
Gyakushu No Char was my 1st Gundam ever and I still think it’s cool. Although it left an ambiguous ending, the debate even until now never ended if Amuro and Char really died. At this point I didn’t care anymore and just left people killing each other about it. I don’t have time mediating people who have nothing better to do in their lives than debate on what happened to anime characters.
I prefered SEED over SEED Destiny, well in SEED Destiny you can tell how crappy the story progression went, it’s like the writing was done to please certain fanboys or fangirls. I dunno. SEED Destiny had a nice pick-up on the 1st EP for me and it went down the drain after Junius 7 crashed. Oh yeah let’s not forget the “homages”. I wonder if “homage” is another term for “ripoff”, but to each his own.
ZZ was ok for me, and so was Zeta, but Zeta is kinda too dark and grim for my taste. I just justified to myself is that it being dark is what made it unique. V-Gundam IMO isn’t too good, so much death, but then again, anyone who recognizes Tomino’s works (rofl Ideon) would have been used to it by now. V-Gundam’s ending was kinda sad, because of Katejina (I wanted that ____ to die).
Like many “fans”, I too am anticipating greatly on Gundam 00. It’s gonna be on HD too so at least the animation quality department is pretty much set, but I’m more interested on the story. You got Chinese, Indians, Americans, Europeans, Russians all in interaction so this racial combination might be a good start. I’m already impressed they had L’arc sing the OP already and their MS designs aren’t the paperdoll designs that I have seen in SEED Destiny (take this Gundam’s head, another Gundam’s legs, and that Gundam’s body and poof! You got a new Gundam!).
Hey, I enjoyed this. =) I actually just started watching Gundam, starting with SEED (because of Super Robot Wars, lol), and I really enjoyed it strictly on the basis of being a sci-fi fan. Decent writing, reasonable characters, good Gundam designs (especially the first set of five) and a good conclusion in my opinion.
But when I bumped into actual, dyed in the wool Gundam fans, I was pretty surprised to see them rampaging around screaming, “SEED sucked! SEED Destiny sucked worse! Wing is bishounen bullshit! All can die in the name of the Universal Century!” I’ve stuck to my guns in saying that I like SEED (with Japanese fans, no less, since I live over here), and the result has mostly been bemused condescendance.
The thing is, you’re right, a poisonous fanbase can really ruin some things. People on the Internet too often feel like they have to dictate your tastes to you, like when a guy was telling me that I basically had no right to enjoy playing GameCube. Qwa? Since when is it your business?
I’ve watched Seed Destiny now (well, it was pretty ridiculous, I’ll admit), and I’m currently watching the original Gundam and Wing. Watching Wing is almost like a guilty pleasure because I feel like I’ve been poisoned a little by the fanboy rhetoric. It’s a shame, I kind of wish I had stayed away from the crazy fans bumping around the message boards screaming things like, “Gundam Seed sucks! It was marketed for 12-year-olds! Wing is far more mature!”
Or something.
Anyway, the point of this long and drawn out comment is to thank you on behalf of a very new Seed fan (because that’s what I am at this point) for calling out a poisonous fanbase. Good luck, and I’ll check out Turn A sometime.
What about Stargazer?
Ah, right, I forgot about Stargazer.
I thought it had a nice premise, but simply ruined it by being way too short. The characters were interesting, the mobile suits were slick, but everything went by way too fast to really build on it all. If it were just a little longer—even just three half-hour episodes versus three fifteen-minute episodes—it would’ve bee incredible, but now it’s simply alright, in my opinion.
I wrote this on my DA journal about Fans: Friends or Foes?
“I don’t know if any of you guys out there has ever got yourself into this kind of ’sticky’ situation made up by some overzealous fans against you, but I’m certainly not a goody-2-shoes who only say nice things and appraisals in a forum because I find it superficial and hypocritical. I don’t expect everyone to loves me…
Fans, as being described as supporters, enthusiasts, devotees and loyalists in the dictionary. Any industries such as Anime-Comic-Games, showbiz, books, religions and even politics need them to stay alive in this dog-eats-dog world, fans are like your regular customers who would always come back to you provided as long you maintain good services and entertainments. Going overboard definitely part of human nature, you can find fanbases everywhere and zealous fans are usually highly defensive and devoted to their idols or products. So here are the good and bad of fans:
The Good:
1. Enjoying supports and good reviews from fans who will cash in their money and time over your products.
2. Morally encouraging and boosting you to perform better and live up to your standards in order to maintain the fandom.
3. Getting various kinds of feedbacks which can help improving your skills and performances.
The Bad:
1. Overzealousness can be resulting to exchanging flamming remarks over any comments deemed condemning to one’s favourite.
2. Creates a scrutinizing atmosphere where zealots are oblivious to general issues and the world around them.
3. Mindless acts like suicides (Jpop idols…) and sending dead cards (to Micheal Bay) are clearly the works of overzealous fans who just can’t accept changes and never grow up.
At the end, it all comes down to the fact that we always take things for granted. What really disgust me is that fanboys/girls do went overboard in defending the things they are so devoted to and they do this very often in any forums where you’re expected to give total submission and not allowed to make any remarks which are deemed degrading and negative. This only proves these fanatical admins or moderators who can’t access remarks (good or bad) openly are actually a bunch of attention seeking whores who enjoy gaining appraisals and powers which often go over their heads, what difference does it makes with having an iron-fisted boss in your real life? And for those who comments, when you post your rants/opinions (depends on how mean you can go) you must bear the consequences of getting flammed, banned and not being likeable… “
You guys are a bunch of whining babies. Get over the “QUIRKS” of fans and find something batter to do. Faggots.
Looks like someone doesn’t understand the way the internet works.