The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk III

[Deathzealot]

Wonder how many movies it is going to be? The normal three or less then that since it is a shorter series then others.

[BrentD15]

Wonder how many movies it is going to be? The normal three or less then that since it is a shorter series then others.

I'm guessing somewhere between 2-3.

[Deathzealot]

Yeah I love to have it as three then maybe we can get an expanded storyline...

[BrentD15]

And remember that the original Gundam wasn't all that popular back when it first aired. However, it did manage to age like fine wine.

[RLZIII]

I just finished up G-Reco and while I really enjoyed the world, story, art, characters, mobile suits, et cetera, I feel that the presentation, the directing, is where the ball was dropped. It seems that most people have this feeling as well.

I am very happy to hear about compilation movies, or the possibility of them, as right when I finished watching the series, that's the first thing that I thought would be able to help fix it. It gives Tomino time to rethink how to "show" the story and gives him a complete work to look at, instead of always working week to week.

Is there an official source for the compilation movie comment?

[zerogradius]

I just finished G-Reco after dropping early after the first two episodes during its run, and I have to say, it turned out better than I thought it would be. Given how Gundam fans were reacting to it, I thought it was going to be as bad as Seed Destiny or Age. At first I did not find the character designs appealing but the more I watched, I no longer minded. The mechs also looked really good, and the battles looked spectacular. I was really worried the battles were going to be as restrained as they were in Turn A Gundam, but thankfully, I was wrong there, too. The main cast also grew on me. Bellri was an okay protagonist, but he never really grew much as a character. Noredo was good as well. I was worried about her, because she seemed really petty when she was first introduced, especially in that ep when she used that slingshot on Aida for 'sticking her butt out' while dangling over a ledge. Aida stole the show for me, she had a far superior character arc. If there is a sequel, which I doubt will happen, I hope she will get a lot more focus. She's also one of the better looking gundam protagonists too.

As much as I liked those aspects, there were a bit of problems that made this series more of a net positive for me than something I would watch in repeated viewings:

1. Poor dialogue. This show seriously needs a good dub to clean up the conversations between characters so that it would make more sense.

2. A large cast with poor characterization of too many of them. For example, the show hinted at a close friendship between Steer and Aida, but then did nothing with it. Too many characters just seemed to exist to play a role without having any distinct personality. Ringo, on the other hand, was a character that did not even need to exist.

3. Wasted female characters. We got to have two female Gundam pilots, which is good. But Aida was a subpar pilot throughout most of the show and Raraiya was out of her mind for at least half of it. Mashner was supposed to be a strong leader, but turned out to be obsessed with her boyfriend and then got her entire squadron killed so she can meet him again, which was just horrible. Wilmit was okay, though, but for someone who was in charge, she did not seem to have a lot of power. I was shocked she survived. I thought for sure she would have been killed in the last episode.

4. Wasted mobile suits. A ton of MSs were introduced in the last third of the show, and many of them did practically nothing despite how cool they seemed. Kerbes got a new MS that did so little, I never even caught its name. G-Lucifer hardly did anything as well despite its power and the fact that it had two pilots. Manny piloting G-Rach seemed forced. We never got to see the true potential of the G-Arcane since Aida was a poor pilot for so much of the show. Even when it got its big upgrade, it still didn't do much than defend. Did Aida even have one kill of a named character throughout this entire series?

5. Way too many allegiance changes. Practically in every episode there was a new alliance made, which, made this show terribly confusing because it was hard to determine who was fighting who. The episode when they were cleaning up debris was a perfect example.

6. Bad editing. The episode when Bell killed his teacher and the episode with the cleanup again were perfect examples.

7. Towasanga. They were introduced too late and were never properly developed. They mentioned different factions between them, but that was poorly explored. Dorette's motives were never properly explained either.

8. Too many important moments happening off-screen. Why was Nug captured and rescued off-screen? And the way they explained it away so cavalierly, it was like it wasn't a major event. The debris ejected from Towasanga is once again another example (I really didn't like that episode).

9. Poor development of character motives. What really was Cumpa up to? Why would Mask engage in a reconguista of Earth? What were Dorette and Mashner really after? How about Gu La and how he came to be in a body suit?

10. What is the true purpose of the reconguista? They never even explained what exactly it was? I assumed it was a genocide of Earthlings, but you would think they would at least take the time to expound on that, of all things.

[latenlazy]

9. Poor development of character motives. What really was Cumpa up to? Why would Mask engage in a reconguista of Earth? What were Dorette and Mashner really after? How about Gu La and how he came to be in a body suit?

10. What is the true purpose of the reconguista? They never even explained what exactly it was? I assumed it was a genocide of Earthlings, but you would think they would at least take the time to expound on that, of all things.

9 and 10 are answered, but require a bit of work and reading between the lines to piece together. The reasons are discussed earlier in this thread, but to summarize:

1) Reconguista refers to the repopulation of Earth after a long moratorium to help the Earth recover environmentally from all the damage mankind has done to it. Everyone in space wants to pursue Reconguista because Earth is a superior place to live in. However, Reconguista has not been religiously sanctioned or politically discussed between the leaders from Earth and Space. Furthermore, some factions in space are more willing to pursue it aggressively and by force than others. The Dorette fleet represents that faction from Towasanga. The reasoning behind these more aggressive factions is the belief that people on Earth are inherently belligerent, and that prejudice enforces a belief that Earthnoids won't let Spacenoids repopulate peacefully.

2) Venus Globe is in part an attempt for people to leave and live beyond the Earth Sphere under the belief that human species cannot grow in the Earth Sphere indefinitely without ravaging its resources and ecology. However living in space for several generations has resulted in physiological degeneration, despite other beneficial mutations like long life. This is why people in Venus Globe wear body suits (not just La Gu, but everyone we see from Venus Globe). This surmounts to a loss of human identity, which is why Mbeki and the G-It group are so eager to aggressively pursue Reconguista against the wishes of Venus Globe's leadership. They just want their kids to have a better future. Like Towasanga, they have prejudices about people from Earth, but for the entire Earth Sphere and not just terra firma.

2) Cumpa is a cynic who, shaped by the physical degeneration of humanity that he witnesses at Venus Globe, wants to initiate repopulation of the Earth, but only for the fittest, so he incites war between multiple factions to initiate a weening process.

3) Mask is a natural ally because he believes the Kuntala, being descendants of people who were relegated as a food source, are more worthy than anyone else to control the future of earth. For Mask Reconguista is a chance for the Kuntala to rise to power and prevent them from every being persecuted again.

[excalibur2008]

2) Venus Globe is in part an attempt for people to leave and live beyond the Earth Sphere under the belief that human species cannot grow in the Earth Sphere indefinitely without ravaging its resources and ecology. However living in space for several generations has resulted in physiological degeneration, despite other beneficial mutations like long life. This is why people in Venus Globe wear body suits (not just La Gu, but everyone we see from Venus Globe). This surmounts to a loss of human identity, which is why Mbeki and the G-It group are so eager to aggressively pursue Reconguista against the wishes of Venus Globe's leadership. They just want their kids to have a better future. Like Towasanga, they have prejudices about people from Earth, but for the entire Earth Sphere and not just terra firma.

Huh, seeing as this is the far future of the Universal Century its almost like Zeon was full of shit.

[vrj_rrls_2015]

Any news on when the last BD with the really changed up last EP is going to come out?

[Chris]

Bringing this back from the dead because the entire series is now on Hulu:

http://www.hulu.com/gundam-reconguista-in-g

[iguanaman8989]

That would probably explain why they pulled the episodes from the US on YouTube, they were probably working out the deal with Hulu.

[InjuredPelican]

It looks like you need a Hulu subscription. Is that true or am I misreading it? I don't use Hulu much so I'm not entirely familiar with its interface.

[Deathzealot]

You can get a free trail for a certain amount of time then I do believe you have to start paying a subscription fee like CrunchyRoll and some other Streaming Sites. Therefore the reason i am kind of upset over this decision mostly that they are going to be showing Orphans on Crunchyroll which I already have a Subscription too but now I am going to have to get another subscription to re-watch G-Reco if I want. Gah! No thanks!

[Chris]

It looks like you need a Hulu subscription. Is that true or am I misreading it? I don't use Hulu much so I'm not entirely familiar with its interface.

From what I see, you don't need a subscription for G-Reco, but you do for Iron-Blooded Orphans.

[balofo]

Another Tomino interview where he mentions working hard on editing G-Reco.

Compilation movies are pretty much confirmed by now, just need an official announcement

[Amion]

Maybe we'll actually get a better overall story from three movies. If it's two or less than it may be no better...

[balofo]

Source:

>Tomino is working on the second G-Reco movie (storyboarding?). Something happened in between the second and third movies and there's now a massive barrier which means they might not even be able to make the third one. He's so sick of it that he thinks he might be better off dead
>Tomino was fucking mad that those dumbasses broadcast a kids' show in the middle of the night
>He wants to turn G-Reco('s movie) into "film"
>He's making the G-Reco movies so that children can see it easier. It's targeted at children up to 12.
>Tomino read David Hockney's Secret Knowledge. It was garbage.
>Tomino on the Olympic logo scandal: It was an obvious photoshop. Anyone who photoshops tits onto ladies all the time can tell. (His words)
>He says Gundam has fallen because the people working on it now like gimmicks like MS and war.
>Latter half of G-Reco went all gimmicky with new mecha all the time because they had no time and had to satisfy sponsors. THIS IS REALISM.
>Tomino has never read Murakami Haruki, doesn't want to, treating the books like bombs.
>He loves mecha and likes using sponsors as an excuse to do whatever he wants.
>It wasn't just the sponsors; Among the mecha designers was a certain massive dumbass who kept bringing in new designs and asking him to use them after the scripts were already written.
>He insists that he isn't influenced by Tezuka in any way. He's a fan of Atom (and only Atom) though.

[Soma Taozi]

Source:

>Tomino is working on the second G-Reco movie (storyboarding?). Something happened in between the second and third movies and there's now a massive barrier which means they might not even be able to make the third one. He's so sick of it that he thinks he might be better off dead
>Tomino was ZOINKS mad that those dumbasses broadcast a kids' show in the middle of the night
>He wants to turn G-Reco('s movie) into "film"
>He's making the G-Reco movies so that children can see it easier. It's targeted at children up to 12.
>Tomino read David Hockney's Secret Knowledge. It was garbage.
>Tomino on the Olympic logo scandal: It was an obvious photoshop. Anyone who photoshops ZOINKS onto ladies all the time can tell. (His words)
>He says Gundam has fallen because the people working on it now like gimmicks like MS and war.
>Latter half of G-Reco went all gimmicky with new mecha all the time because they had no time and had to satisfy sponsors. THIS IS REALISM.
>Tomino has never read Murakami Haruki, doesn't want to, treating the books like bombs.
>He loves mecha and likes using sponsors as an excuse to do whatever he wants.
>It wasn't just the sponsors; Among the mecha designers was a certain massive dumbass who kept bringing in new designs and asking him to use them after the scripts were already written.
>He insists that he isn't influenced by Tezuka in any way. He's a fan of Atom (and only Atom) though.

Wait, where is the source for this?

Also...if Tomino wanted G-Reco to be a kids show and or well-received/watched, maybe he should have made it easier to follow? Instead of having the character's dialogue so off-putting it forms a natural disconnect with the average audience AND forcing the viewer to read every single line of dialogue AND to go over every scene/character motivation with a fine tooth comb in order to figure out what the hell was going on...? Did Tomino just want to get mad about the "state of the anime community" and made G-Reco as a self-fulfilling prophecy? 12 year old kids don't have the attention span for G-Reco's story...unless the movies are going to be completely different from the show? Does G-Reco even have the following to warrant that kind of overhaul?

It is nice to have smart shows and I like an anime you can analyse/dig deep into, but I don't see how Tomino feels he has ANY ground to stand on for being upset about G-Reco's reception. The late night slot didn't HELP but that was the least of Reco's problems in my opinion.

Additionally, 'gimmiks like war and MS'?! Does he realize that with maybe the exception of Turn A...ALL HIS entries into the Gundam franchise have been exactly that? Does this man lack all self-awareness? I swear the more stuff I read about Tomino these days, the more annoyed I get with him. Plenty of people don't like the state of anime these days...but all these complaints remind me heavily of Max Landis' twitter rant about American Ultra's reception.

[Chris]

That post sounds like made up 4chan garbage.

[JDogindy]

Yeah, I find that to be complete nonsense.

Anyway, I recently completed the series and, in all honestly, it's one of my favorite installments of Gundam. Is it flawed? Oh, God yes! But I think that as time goes on, the series won't be given the tongue-lashings that fans love to abuse this series about, and it'll get some sort of redemption.

My main issue was the execution of the storytelling, because things were made too complicated for a short series, which meant Tomino should've limited the focus of the characters and instead tried to tell a more compact plot. But to say the series is a piece of garbage is incredibly narrow-minded, as far as I'm concerned. I won't go the high and mighty route because I got into G-Reco AFTER the series ended because I don't want to follow current series due to my anxiety problems (where I found out that G-Reco fans were actually pretty harsh on those who didn't like the series, which sorta puts people who wanna watch G-Reco after it ended in a bad spot), and I was really happy with the stuff that I had saw. In a way, and I hate to say it, but it's sort of a fluffy Gundam (even with the fact that you had a character whose caste was treated as livestock in the past...) when you compare it to some of the other installments, including Victory and Iron Blooded Orphans.