The Official Gundam Unicorn Anime Thread Mk III

[prince_of_zeon]

Absolutely--something that really struck me while watching this is how much it refers to the original series and not Zeta, ZZ, or CCA. The only real mention of anything outside MSG came from someone remarking that Char's disappeared after the second Neo Zeon War...

I mean, certainly we have overt references like the Argama, but, again, one really only needs a basis in MSG to understand this story.

[VentZX]

Absolutely--something that really struck me while watching this is how much it refers to the original series and not Zeta, ZZ, or CCA. The only real mention of anything outside MSG came from someone remarking that Char's disappeared after the second Neo Zeon War...

Um, there were plenty of references to ZZ in episode 2 alone. Like Banaghers friend, who I am sure is a poster in Space Mechatalk, mentioning that the Gundam Team was stationed on the Nahel Argama or when he saw the Delta Plus and mistakenly called it a Hyaku Shiki based on its appearance.

[flamingtroll]

I think each of the previous show add bits and pieces of understanding to the political situation of UC to add to the appreciation of the political themes in unicorn ( even though I think it could have done better, but that's for when the show is done). It's hard to get a full picture of the conflict between Earthnoid and Spacenoid, and how it alludes to our 20th century which unicorn continues to do ( i.e. 9/11 and Darkar), just by watching MSG alone.

[yazi88]

Absolutely--something that really struck me while watching this is how much it refers to the original series and not Zeta, ZZ, or CCA. The only real mention of anything outside MSG came from someone remarking that Char's disappeared after the second Neo Zeon War...

I mean, certainly we have overt references like the Argama, but, again, one really only needs a basis in MSG to understand this story.

They also showed a Dression on the mining asteroid which also references to ZZ. Other ZZ Neo-Zeon suits are probably going to be in defense of the asteroid in Episode 3 cause the sleeves do have quite a few units left over from the 1st Neo-Zeon war that make an appearance in the novels.

Also Mineva Zabi had quite a large role in Zeta while in MSG there was just a small tidbit after Solomon. People would need to know about Zeta to know exactly how much of a role she had in Axis Zeon and Zeon in whole.

[Dark Duel]

The only real mention of anything outside MSG came from someone remarking that Char's disappeared after the second Neo Zeon War...

There are a TON of references to almost all previous UC works. (In SP tags b/c of some reference to events not yet covered by the anime

Spoiler

-IIRC, Cardeas Vist in Ep 1 referenced both the first and second Neo-Zeon Wars during his philosophical lecture to Captain Zinneman
-Marida herself is a walking, talking, butt-kicking tribute to ZZ, as is the Kshatriya
-Ditto the Nahel Argama(funny thing, but during their interception of a derelict Salamis, I noticed that the MS team leader pronounced the ship's name slightly differently in the dub - placing the emphasis on the second "a", ar-GA-ma, rather than on the first, AR-ga-ma, as in Z.)
- As has been mentioned, Takuya, Banagher's mecha-geek friend referenced the AEUG "Gundam Team" from ZZ
- The political/strategic importance of Dakar(relevant to later episodes) requires knowledge of background information established in Z. I've been told that Torrington Base is apparently also mentioned, requiring at least a passing familiarity with 0083.
- A Dreissen shows up in Ep3, and other Z- and ZZ-original MS appear as well. (A Gallus-J variant, the Gaza series, the Nemo)
- Takuya referring erroneously to Delta Plus as "Hyaku Shiki" is a reference to both Z and ZZ.
- The very presence of Mineva's character requires at least some familiarity with her situation as of her last appearance, in Z Gundam.
- The Loto serves to establish a firm bridge between F91 and its predecessors

Like I said - a ton of them. And that's just two episodes in. Most of them are minor, so that you don't really HAVE to know to enjoy Unicorn as it is, it's so good. But having that knowledge maximizes the enjoyment of the experience.

[prince_of_zeon]

well...I stand corrected.

[NastyNate]

Ironically, CCA (or rather, Amuro and Char's continued rivalry) is makes a slight bit more sense if you DON'T watch Zeta Gundam and just go there straight from MSG.

What about the part in the CCA movie where Amuro ask Char "why is he turning on the Earth when he and Char fought together to save it?" That would not have made any sense without watching zeta Gundam.

[J-Lead]

Ironically, CCA (or rather, Amuro and Char's continued rivalry) is makes a slight bit more sense if you DON'T watch Zeta Gundam and just go there straight from MSG.

What about the part in the CCA movie where Amuro ask Char "why is he turning on the Earth when he and Char fought together to save it?" That would not have made any sense without watching zeta Gundam.

That's just a passing mention; I was more referring to their rivalry, at which Lalah's death is portrayed as a big source. In Zeta Gundam, Amuro and Char seemed to have finally buried the hatchet in that regard. It seemed like even though they were still saddened that she perished, that they had finally put it behind them as a regrettable event in both of their lives, and even agreed that Kamille was headed down the same path with Four and that they should do what they could to stop it. Amuro had seemed relieved that Kamille had come to terms with Four's death, stating that it took him and Char several years to put Lalah behind them.

...THEN in CCA, Char and Amuro are seen to be angry at each other about Lalah again, Char specifically butthurt about it still. Honestly, given their actions alongside each other in Zeta Gundam, you'd think the seething hatred between them would have smoothened out at least, that they would be fighting again this time over conflicting ideologies rather than past events in their lives. It was just incredibly forced and contrived, which made their renewed rivalry hard to take seriously.

Basically what I'm saying is, Char's Counterattack would have not been affected, rather maybe even improved, with the omission of Lalah Sune from the picture altogether. The duo already had conflicting views on how to handle Earthnoid elitism and foolishness; that was plenty reason for the two to be fighting. Lalah at this point was practically irrelevant.

...And that's why I said that their rivalry makes more sense if you skip Zeta and go to CCA straight from MSG.

[Dark Duel]

Amuro seeming so obsessively hung up over this whole Lalah thing never made any sense to me in the first place, because Newtype weirdness aside, IIRC the two actually meet face to face exactly once, and then never again until she commits suicide by blocking his attack on Char. Personally I feel that Kamille and Four were handled much better.

With that said, it does seem a weird regression in Amuro's character that he was evidently over it by the Gryps War, and then in CCA is bringing it up again. However Char still being buttsore about the Lalah thing is not so much of a problem, since IIRC the whole Lalah thing in terms of what Char felt about it specifically wasn't ever actually mentioned in Z Gundam; Amuro talked about it briefly with Kamille during the Hong Kong arc, which is when he mentions being over it and assumes that Char is as well, but Char himself IIRC never states this.

[Chris]

Let's stay on topic, as the Amuro/Char/Lalah thing has nothing to do with Unicorn. If people want to keep discussing that, take it to another thread.

[Dark Duel]

You know, that's a good point. How'd we get on that tangent anyway? (rhetorical question)

Anyway, one of the things I'm somewhat curious about is Micott and what happens to her next. Because it's pretty obvious to me that she has a major thing for Banagher, and is apparently HUGELY jealous of the budding relationship between him and Audrey.
(The look on her face when Banagher regains consciousness and the first thing he says is Audrey's name...kinda made me chuckle.)
By the same token I'm seeing the beginnings of a one-sided rivalry growing with Riddhe and his apparent opinion of Banagher. Which should be interesting, depending on where that goes.

I have one last question: In the preview for Ep3 that's cropped up.

Spoiler

That ugly old woman...that wouldn't happen by chance to be Martha Vist-Carbine, would it?

[Wingnut]

I have one last question: In the preview for Ep3 that's cropped up.

Spoiler

That ugly old woman...that wouldn't happen by chance to be Martha Vist-Carbine, would it?

There's no way I can confirm it without probably spoilering myself, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least if it was. That was who I thought it was as well.

[flamingtroll]

That can only be her, even though she does look a bit too ugly. The novel described her to be fairly attractive for her age. I don't know why the character designers decide to give her a man face. Alberto's design is very different from the novel too. He looks way too old to match his over-weighted man-child character in the novel.

[Dark Duel]

I actually have no issue whatsoever with Alberto, but I saw one image a long time ago from the novel of her, and it seems to me that the anime added about thirty pounds to the character - she's visibly fatter than the novel picture I saw depicted her as.
I personally despise the character from what little I know of her so I don't really care. I was just a little surprised so I wanted to be sure.

[Kratos]

Speaking of probably-Martha, does she remind anybody else of an evil Susan Boyle? I saw the latter on TV this morning, shortly after viewing that preview for the millionth time, and did a total double-take.

[blind_dead_mcjones]

Speaking of probably-Martha, does she remind anybody else of an evil Susan Boyle?

nope, she did remind me of margaret thatcher however....

[Ocho]

Speaking of probably-Martha, does she remind anybody else of an evil Susan Boyle? I saw the latter on TV this morning, shortly after viewing that preview for the millionth time, and did a total double-take.

I was thinking more of a professor Umbridge.

Anyone know why Daguza's arm was in a sling. I didn't see him get injured in the first movie.

[Mr Bushido]

Anyone know why Daguza's arm was in a sling. I didn't see him get injured in the first movie.

Maybe he got hit off-screen when his Loto blew up. It's the only thing I could think of that makes sense.

[Momaru]

I'm not sure if this has been covered yet or not, but after doing a mini-marathon of gundam UC I was wondering if perhaps unicorn gundam was originally meant for amuro before he went and got himself chared like an overdone turkey? I know his symbol is a stylized A with a unicorn and I can't help but think there's some connection there. Also, does anyone know what that thing that was zapping poor little Banagher was? No wonder his mom took him away, Cardias was giving him the 'ol shock treatment!

[Sume Gai]

I was wondering if perhaps unicorn gundam was originally meant for amuro before he went and got himself chared like an overdone turkey? I know his symbol is a stylized A with a unicorn and I can't help but think there's some connection there.

While I don't doubt -some- connection, even if only an out of universe reference, I don't think the time-line fits for the Unicorn to have been intended for Amuro. it's been roughly three years since Axis and the Unicorn is likely much newer than that (the Sinanju, a precursor to the unicorn, is roughly two years old according to dialog). Add to that Amuro got a brand spanking new machine (using a prototype version of the unicorn's main feature) only days before stopping Axis and it simply doesn't make much sense.

(I'm hoping this goes here since it's time-line stuff more than technology)