Oh, the news has already been posted. Well, my two or three cents, and positive/rational spin:
From the limited info is this what I'd ideally want? Nope. (Which is a bit unfortunate as I often count on Gundam to set the tone for anime releases). But think of it this way: Unicorn is the so-called "adult" Gundam series, which is still ongoing, so it makes sense to try to capture another, wider audience through a series like this (Gundam AGE). With some of its ideas, like the war, and the self-learning computer, and pilot/Gundam link, it's definitely paying homage to 0079/UC. From what can be seen, the mecha designs seem to have an intriguing G-Gundam-ish feel to some extent. The main Gundam reminds me a bit of V Gundam somehow. I see some shades of SDF- or F-based Macross with the captain. The character designs are fairly bland and "kiddy," but styles similar to these have nevertheless yielded excellent anime such as the first three Zoids seasons (Chaotic Century, Guardian Force, New Century Zero). And like Zoids, it sounds like it has an intriguing "generational" story. There is a lot of wiggle room right now as to how this story, and its presentation, will be executed; but there is some promise to it and precedent in other enjoyable anime. All and all, this new Gundam gives off a vibe of ZZ Gundam meets Turn A meets G-Gundam meets SD Gundam meets Zoids meets Digimon. It doesn't feel totally unprecedented even in a Gundam context, and makes sense in the current TV market trends...
From a historical marketing standpoint, again, this makes sense. They already did the "re-imagining of 0079" with the CE series (SEED/Destiny/Stargazer); they already did the new "tough guy teen team/political series" (via 00), trying to emulate the style/success of Gundam Wing; and then they did the classic hardcore fan UC OVA series (via Unicorn). They didn't want to repeat any of these, and wanted a new angle. And this isn't an angle that's been explored much in a while, outside the SD series maybe. And a lot of people of all ages ended up liking the SD series as I understand it. Actually, like it or not, it's been a while (since V?) since there was a main kid pilot. If you think of Gundam as a whole, particularly from the UC side, this is sort of due.
I don't have tons of confidence or excitement in Gundam AGE, but I'm somewhat intrigued by its seemingly different approach. I'll give it a shot.
In the meantime, I hope Bandai will go through with a Gundam X NA DUB release (Please!). Just my hope.
TetraVaal wrote:You can have all the patience in the world and with all due respect (and I mean that), the rest of us don't, certainly not me. In fact, I'm going to predict that this series in time will end up in the States, being played on NickToons along with the Naruto/Last Airbender dreck.
They're not 100% my cup of tea, but actually, the Last Airbender, and
particularly Naruto, have segments of incredible storytelling and nice TV-level animation mixed into them when you give them some time. I haven't stuck with either in the long term, but I had fun with Naruto when it was on Toonami up until the filler eps got too heavy. Anyway, Tetra, you might as well get caught up with Gundam Wing. Should be a good excuse to follow through with that amazing series (which stuns and delights me to this day with its pacing and the amount of ground it covers).