The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

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Nick Izumi
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

I went into this show in much the same mindset I did with Transformers Animated believe it or not, and I'm having similar impressions so far. Very fluid animation, solid acting and some really nice, but subtle nods to old Gundam that left me with a huge smile.

Overall, I think this show is on the right foot. There's a lot to enjoy, and in regards to Chris's review, I also agree that I don't want Flit to be right about everything and be the best, but considering how well the kid did using the Genoace rifle, I'm kinda assuming his victory was more thanks to the Gundam than his skill. So here's hoping that he meets a someone who can match him with skill.

I had a ton of fun with this show and I'll be looking forward to next week for sure.

Almost forgot, anyone else think the music was really good? I think it gave the show a feeling of grandeur. (Yes, as it was said at Gundam Guy, it was epic.)
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

After coming off the first episode, I can definitely say that I'm excited for more of Gundam AGE. As many have said, the episode wasn't exactly mind-blowing, but it was still a good start nonetheless. Flit/Frite/Furito/Fritos/whatever seems like a pretty competent guy who can handle himself in a tight situation, which is good.

The OP wasn't the greatest OP I've ever seen, but I thought the song was pretty nice. Kinda gave off an Eureka 7 vibe. I did like the ED song better, though.

I actually found the AGE-1's first sortie and battle to be pretty exciting, but then again I tend to get excited whenever any giant robot makes its initial debut, so that's normal for me. As cool as it is though, the titular Gundam sadly can't even begin to measure up to the awesomeness of the UE mecha. Those guys are some of the best designed mobile suits I've ever seen out of a Gundam show.

Wherever the series may go from here, for better or worse, you can bet I'll be looking forward to next week Sunday.

P.S.: I hereby propose a friendly home activity: the Gundam AGE drinking game! Every time you see the show make a nod to the original Gundam's first episode, take a shot!

Anybody who is playing the game correctly should be hammered off their ass by the time the episode is over. :D
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Chris wrote:Naturally I disagree. Shinn seemed like a nice guy, but he always had anger boiling just beneath the surface that could make him explode at any time. He was very poorly adjusted for the kind of life he was supposed to live - a soldier who constantly disobeyed orders and ignored his superiors. He was fixated on his dead sister and could never move beyond that, not at least until after the series with FINAL PLUS. On the other hand, Flit seems pretty well-adjusted and has friends, even though some kids tease him. From what little we've seen so far, he doesn't seem to obsess about his mother the way Shinn did about Mayu. Shinn took his anger... and never did anything with it. Flit so far is taking his anger and channeling it into something positive because he wants to protect people.
One could argue that Flit has a similar fixation. It's why he dedicated his life to developing the Gundam.

The way you put it you make it sound like Shinn didn't have any friends. He did have a lot of anger but it always had direction. He never snapped at any of the people he cared about.

Certainly Shinn and Flit are examples of different outcomes from similar circumstances but I wouldn't go so far as to say they're opposites.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

BTW, was it just me or do the Gafran's beam guns sound like plasma rifles from Halo?
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Arbiter GUNDAM wrote:BTW, was it just me or do the Gafran's beam guns sound like plasma rifles from Halo?
That's exactly what I thought when I heard them. (and I have no doubt they are the same sound effects)
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Destiny_Gundam wrote:One could argue that Flit has a similar fixation. It's why he dedicated his life to developing the Gundam.

The way you put it you make it sound like Shinn didn't have any friends. He did have a lot of anger but it always had direction. He never snapped at any of the people he cared about.

Certainly Shinn and Flit are examples of different outcomes from similar circumstances but I wouldn't go so far as to say they're opposites.
I don't want to get too off topic here with Shinn, but it's debatable what kinds of friends he has. The early episodes show him and that engineering kid Vino as being friends, but then they have barely any interaction after that. He considers Rey a friend, but eventually Rey becomes Shinn's chief manipulator, so I don't think that's a friend. I don't know if he considers Meyrin a friend, but he had no trouble attempting to kill her. And as close as he was to Lunamaria, he almost shot her when she tried to stop him and Athrun from fighting. Sure, Shinn went more nuts over time and we've only seen one episode of Flit, but even at the beginning of GSD, you could see he wasn't quite normal. Flit may be fixated on building a Gundam, but I'd say he's more well adjusted than Shinn was.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Strike Zero wrote:/Frite/Furito/Fritos/whatever
I'm pretty sure it's Frito, but since Japanese syllables demand certain foreign names/words to end in unnecessary vowels, I think it's safe to say it's Fritte. It's some kind of fried snack-food, at any rate.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

I also noticed that many of the AGE cast were from Gundam 00 as well. To the point that Flit's mom and Setsuna's "love interest" have both the same first name and seiyuu [if animenewsnetwork is correct.]

The OP is normal, but the music is upbeat and rather laidback and relaxing.

I also noticed that there is a Jamil Neate type of personality in Grudech, and it's not just the looks.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Arbiter GUNDAM wrote:BTW, was it just me or do the Gafran's beam guns sound like plasma rifles from Halo?
I've never played Halo so I don't know what those rifles sound like, but the SFX used for the weapons have all been used in Gundam numerous times before.
Chris wrote:I don't want to get too off topic here with Shinn, but it's debatable what kinds of friends he has. The early episodes show him and that engineering kid Vino as being friends, but then they have barely any interaction after that. He considers Rey a friend, but eventually Rey becomes Shinn's chief manipulator, so I don't think that's a friend. I don't know if he considers Meyrin a friend, but he had no trouble attempting to kill her. And as close as he was to Lunamaria, he almost shot her when she tried to stop him and Athrun from fighting. Sure, Shinn went more nuts over time and we've only seen one episode of Flit, but even at the beginning of GSD, you could see he wasn't quite normal. Flit may be fixated on building a Gundam, but I'd say he's more well adjusted than Shinn was.
Well, like I said before most of Shinn's screentime was with people he didn't particularly like. He never had a scene where he was just hanging out with his friends to let us see what he's like in peace time. It's one of Destiny's issues.

Here we get to see Flit hanging out with Emily and we see that he's a good kid. As of now he definitely appears to be more well adjusted than Shinn, I'll agree with you there. But rather than opposites they exist on the same end of the spectrum.
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Strike Zero wrote:/Frite/Furito/Fritos/whatever
I'm pretty sure it's Frito, but since Japanese syllables demand certain foreign names/words to end in unnecessary vowels, I think it's safe to say it's Fritte. It's some kind of fried snack-food, at any rate.
Official english subs says Flit, soooo
Kyuzo Aoi wrote:I also noticed that there is a Jamil Neate type of personality in Grudech, and it's not just the looks.
A lot more green, though. When the UE first show up you can plainly see that moment of fear.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Destiny_Gundam wrote:
hotlimit wrote:
Strike Zero wrote:/Frite/Furito/Fritos/whatever
I'm pretty sure it's Frito, but since Japanese syllables demand certain foreign names/words to end in unnecessary vowels, I think it's safe to say it's Fritte. It's some kind of fried snack-food, at any rate.
Official english subs says Flit, soooo
Sooo.... Fritte it is! :wink:
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Destiny_Gundam wrote:A lot more green, though. When the UE first show up you can plainly see that moment of fear.
I don't think it's necessarily meaning that he's green. Perhaps he had some traumatic encounter with the UE and this brought back bad memories. Rather like Jamil's cockpit phobia in the early episodes of X.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Destiny_Gundam wrote:A lot more green, though. When the UE first show up you can plainly see that moment of fear.
And how cool under pressure would you be if your previously-peaceful colony was suddenly attacked by an enemy which your military had been unable to defeat in fifteen years?

Cut the guy some slack. He didn't fold under pressure, he had an "Oh, crap, we're all going to die...but I'm going to die doing my job" moment.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

I'm not raggin' on the guy, but next to Jamil he does appear to be far less experienced. In such a situation I imagine Jamil would act like the old commander dude.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Just watched it.
Pretty typical Gundam introductory episode, nothing too terribly special. Though now that I've seen it in action, that spoiler on the Gundam's back doesn't bother me so much, as overall it looks much better in animation that in the lineart or model.
That said, so far the Gafran is definitely far cooler than either the Gundam or the GenoAce. Though the Gundam shanking the Gafran repeatedly with its beam knife was pretty cool.
I personally doubt that the UE are aliens.
Finally, I really didn't like the OP much, but I liked the ED.

Note: I dunno if it's been mentioned, but early in the episode I was amused to see two people walk by wearing what looked suspiciously like the Union and HRL uniforms from 00.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Dark Duel wrote:Just watched it.
Pretty typical Gundam introductory episode, nothing too terribly special. Though now that I've seen it in action, that spoiler on the Gundam's back doesn't bother me so much, as overall it looks much better in animation that in the lineart or model.
That said, so far the Gafran is definitely far cooler than either the Gundam or the GenoAce. Though the Gundam shanking the Gafran repeatedly with its beam knife was pretty cool.
I personally doubt that the UE are aliens.
Finally, I really didn't like the OP much, but I liked the ED.

Note: I dunno if it's been mentioned, but early in the episode I was amused to see two people walk by wearing what looked suspiciously like the Union and HRL uniforms from 00.
If no one remembers anything of Gundam AGE in the coming years, the one thing they will remember is that Beam Shank!

And yes, I noticed that HRL/Union thing too but it could just be Federation uniform variants.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Is it just me or is there a big glasses/visor motif in this show? The old man mechanic and the fat friend both had googles while the Genoace pilot Drace and the Deputy captain had visors/shades on.

The whole eagle/bird flying in the colony was kinda overplayed as well to MSG cause I can handle the whole 3 MS sneaking into the colony cause that was also done in F-91 as well.

The Genoace seems like a pretty wimpy MS especially for a world judging from Flit's dialogue that supposedly had mobile suits for many years but then again the lack of conflict before the UE probably had something to do with that. Although I really liked the flashback of Flit studying MS development and seeing the actual skeletal frame of an MS especially one of a MP unit.

The uniform of the soldiers outside the military installation looked pretty much the same as the Earth Federation from 00 which isn't a bad thing.

I was a little surprised that the OP didn't show Flit's son and grandson cause I was somewhat expecting a quick shot of them but it didn't really bother me at all.

Really liked the ED though, I haven't seen one that actually focuses on the relationship of the main protagonist and the love interest in a while, especially one that wasn't shifting stills. (Damn you SEED and Destiny)

Can't wait to see the actual ace pilot of the white Genoace.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Given the way the story is being told, I expect that each generation to have its own OP and ED with the animation focusing on that particular time period, perhaps with flashbacks to previous generations as applicable. It would be kind of odd for the first OP to show people who won't be born for decades at least.

I've got some thoughts on what you said about the Genoace but I think I'll take those to the Mecha thread.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

So already I've started seeing people wax nostalgic for 00 like it's the greatest thing ever. Truly the age of Gundam AGE is upon us and the Gundam cycle has started anew...pun very much intended. :D

What can I say, I loved the first episode. Truly I'm hard pressed to think of much in the way of anything it did wrong by me. I like the characters, especially Flit who was given cause to fight early and the grizzled old professor Vargas Dyson who in his own way is kind of gar and true to the spirit of old men in Gundam....well as close as one can get without being a pilot. Something about the way he deferred to Flit on a number of issues kind of reminded me a bit of General Revil and his deference to Amuro and the White Base crew as the heroes that could win the war. Looks like the beginning of a new entry to the pantheon of awesome engineers to me.

I appreciated the pacing, even if it follows close to the standard Gundam opening episode formula as well as the hints at the true nature and origin of the UE or really lack thereof since the build the mystery but of course can't explain it yet. I liked the way they built up the mystique around the Gundam, kind of having it act as a living legend that people can rally behind when things look the most hopeless, just like the original RX-78. The show just reeked of the spirit of Gundam to the point where I think that if people can just look past the superficiality of the characters designs (which I actually kind of find refreshing and not a detriment to the series at all), they'll see it too.

For a show that's trying to introduce new fans to Gundam I don't really see how they could have done a much better job with the first episode. Hell it reawakened the youthful spirit in me in a way that Gundam 00 could, much as I enjoyed it's philosophical tale of the future of mankind and kind of reminded me yet again why I got into this franchise in the first place. Couldn't be much happier that Gundam is back on TV right now.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

Noticed a few homages:

Age-1 walking out from the hangar bed is the same as the scene with the GP01 in Stardust Memory.

Age-1 knocking down the Gafran might have been from the Kira vs Miguel first fight or somewhere else.
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Re: The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread Mk 1

I just watched the first episode yesterday, and to be honest, I'm with Chris on most of the points. Flit (that's the subtitle name I got so there) seems decent enough, I'm just worried about him devolving into a sort of Weasly Crusher-type character who knows everything and everyone admires him for it and is never wrong.

Second, and this may be just me seeing from the comments and coming off of Unicorn and 00, AGE's animation doesn't seem that consistent, only in the fight scenes did it seem all high quality. Granted, the animation isn't terrible but I noticed into the later parts of the episode things started to look weird (i.e. Flit's eyes at the end were lopsided, the AGE itself seemed less detailed after the fight, etc.)

I didn't care that much for the AGE before or after seeing it animated (like what happened with me regarding Exia and Turn A), but I sure do like the UE suits now. And as a parting note, I've been getting remarks of 'oh no, AGE is using aliens again, it'll ruin everything', and to that, 1) if it did it wouldn't ruin everything, and 2) in my opinion I think they're either piloted, or some of them being mass produced drones which are controlled by a leader unit (like how at the end, the purple Gafran made a very human movement to stop one of the normal ones, whereas the normal ones just shot and killed things.)

And yes, they really DO sound like Plasma Rifles when they shoot.
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