Gundam General Audience?

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Mafty
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Gundam General Audience?

So after reading an article in Zimmert Moe about the changes that occurred in the anime industry in the 80s, got me thinking, is Gundam generally targeted toward Shonen, Otaku or a bit of both? I know we discussed this a bit last year, but the article went more in depth. By the 80s the mech market seemed to try to cater a bit more to the older, grown fans of Gundam/Mech in their releases. Zeta Gundam had much more emphasis on Mechs over other weaponry, Sentinel had detailed mech designs, and a more overt military feel, a number of mech shows incorporated Idol Music in one way or another(Macross, Mospeada, Megazone 23) and several OVA'S were made exclusively for the Seinen crowd (Megazone 23,Project A-ko, Iczer, and Zeorymer). You can also see some of this in the 80s Gundam shows, and manga's. So was Bandai/Sunrise largely making shows geared to older Otaku, or still younger audiences with some references put in for an older audience?
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Are you asking in relation to a specific time period like the 80s or in a general sense?

In a general sense I would say that Gundam targets multiple markets in order to get the most viewers. Each series they make tends to focus on a different market share with sequels to existing series bringing back older fans and occasionally bringing in new ones depending on how it is marketed.

As you mentioned many of the OVAs tend to be made more for the older fans but there are certainly AUs out there that are targeted towards a younger audience both in terms of art direction and complexity of the plot. I think NHK did a few polls recently that showed a demographic breakdown of each Gundam series, let me see if I can find them.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Mafty wrote: Sat Jan 08, 2022 7:12 pm So after reading an article in Zimmert Moe about the changes that occurred in the anime industry in the 80s, got me thinking, is Gundam generally targeted toward Shonen, Otaku or a bit of both?
"Otaku" isn't a demographic... it's basically an insult. :lol:

Basically, what you asked is "is Gundam generally targeted towards young men or obsessive weirdos?".

The first few Gundam titles were mainly marketed towards the junior high and high school students, though once it really established itself in the mid-to-late 80's things segmented a bit as it expanded into a multimedia franchise and its owners started targeting a broader audience.

Gundam's alternate universe TV anime titles are usually the franchise's ambassadors to new viewers, aimed at the same junior high and high school audience that the first Gundam series was courting. Their subsequent OVAs, the manga, games, etc. are aimed at slightly older audiences just because they tend to follow a few years later when those same young viewers have aged a bit. It's where all the actual creative work is, trying to keep the franchise fresh for the next generation of audience members.

The Universal Century is generally now aimed at an older audience in late high school, university, or beyond. Mainly, it's because the core Universal Century titles were from the 80's and 90's and the newer offerings are mainly just continuity porn and edgy fanservice intended to keep the long-time fans who watched those shows in the 80's, 90's, or reruns in the 00's invested.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Sorry I forgot the words negative connotations; I meant it basically as anime fan(Otaku kinda gets that usage outside Japan in anime fandom), but now I remember it's original term as obsessed over a specific subject(not just anime).
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Otaku, back in the 70's did not carry negativity as it was just an honorific used among, well, otakus.
FG was towards the end of that period but still well within it. So even if it is targeted towards otakus, it shouldn't be in a negative sense.(Foreign usage of the word without the later negativity basically shares the pretty much similar same time re-popularisation of the term in the form of Wotaku in the late 90's to 00's after Evangelion)
In a sense, FG might have been one of the reasons why people think otakus are weirdos...(consider it is the first anime that gathered a relatively large crowd[~20000] dressed weirdly) and it seems like Macross is the first otaku anime.(and made by otakus, at least they were the ones that used otaku as an honorific among themselves)

But FG is not.

FG, while its sponsor's wanted it to be a kids' show, Sunrise obviously had other plans. They wanted the show to be aimed at "All ages", but also obviously, they didn't just plain out ignored their sponsor's request. Thus you see those child show's elements like weekly monster(those one off MS & MA). While during airing it probably did have more audience in the secondary school age range(according to the kinda biased, dramatised and clearly not adhering too much to the real events Gundam Genesis), the later re-air and gunpla boom obviously brought the show to a much much broader audience.

In the general sense, most TV shows are aimed at shonen but labelled as being aimed at all ages, especially Tomino is pretty insistence about it.(Sponsors do want to make a show that can appeal primary school kids but at the same time wouldn't matter if it tries to appeal to a larger audience as well. V is likely the last one that Tomino and sponsors had a big clash and influenced the show's quality too much) OVAs are aimed at old audiences, likely university or above because video LDs and tapes weren't cheap(while you can get copies that are cheaper, those aren't the concern of the sponsor because they don't make money out of those) and it is pretty much only affordable to the working adults and maybe only a few richer kids. Movies are in between because while you need to pay for it, the price is much lower.(so primary kids likely won't be that interested but secondary ones will be)
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Mafty wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 7:59 pm Sorry I forgot the words negative connotations; I meant it basically as anime fan(Otaku kinda gets that usage outside Japan in anime fandom), but now I remember it's original term as obsessed over a specific subject(not just anime).
Yeah, "otaku" doesn't mean "anime fan"... its colloquial meaning is "someone with an obsessive/unhealthy interest". Hobbyists self-identifying as "otaku" is basically a form of reappropriation or "owning the insult".


MythSearcher wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:01 pm Otaku, back in the 70's did not carry negativity as it was just an honorific used among, well, otakus.
It's not an honorific... it was originally a noun, and its usage later evolved into a respectful semi-formal second person pronoun. A collective "you", essentially.

It didn't gain its intrinsic association with fandom until later, though, and wasn't considered a demographic at all until it evolved into a pejorative term intended to criticize what Americans would probably recognize as "Comic Book Guy" types.


MythSearcher wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:01 pm FG, while its sponsor's wanted it to be a kids' show, Sunrise obviously had other plans. They wanted the show to be aimed at "All ages", but also obviously, they didn't just plain out ignored their sponsor's request. Thus you see those child show's elements like weekly monster(those one off MS & MA).
IIRC, wasn't the switch to a "enemy MS of the week" format an attempt to improve the show's terrible ratings?


MythSearcher wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:01 pm In the general sense, most TV shows are aimed at shonen but labelled as being aimed at all ages, especially Tomino is pretty insistence about it.(Sponsors do want to make a show that can appeal primary school kids but at the same time wouldn't matter if it tries to appeal to a larger audience as well. V is likely the last one that Tomino and sponsors had a big clash and influenced the show's quality too much) OVAs are aimed at old audiences, likely university or above because video LDs and tapes weren't cheap(while you can get copies that are cheaper, those aren't the concern of the sponsor because they don't make money out of those) and it is pretty much only affordable to the working adults and maybe only a few richer kids. Movies are in between because while you need to pay for it, the price is much lower.(so primary kids likely won't be that interested but secondary ones will be)
Really, the easiest way to tell what audience a show is for is its timeslot.

Anime for the real young'uns is early in the afternoon. Anime aimed at the junior high and high school crowd are mostly aired around 17:00-19:00 in the early evening. The stuff intended for mature audiences is on late at night, often after midnight.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Yeah sorry I totally forgot how negative Otaku really was; and in outside fandoms it's probably pretty split between people appropriating the insult, and not knowing/forgetting what it means. As Mythsearcher mentioned :and I've read in a few places "Otaku" as a term originated in Macross, which came from terms used around Studio Nue.

The demographics of Gundam do bring up a few different things(SPOILERS), look at Victory Gundam for instance. The show is incredibly dark from the get go, but actually has some seemingly more kid oriented content oddly placed in. A lot of the Zanscare Mobile Suits are elaborate designs in very bright primary colors, but said units are used to commit terrible war crimes. The cast is very young and almost look like they belong in an NHK World Masterpiece Theater series: a lot of the kids interactions amongst themselves are on the lighter side for most of the series(i.e. Shakti caring for Karlmann, Oldelo and Warrens crush on Elisha and Martina, Mothers Gundam has the kids racing around a lunar city almost like they're in a kids detective series). However they still go through the same horrors the rest of the series showcases ( Karlmanns mother is cruelly shot dead, implicitly Oldeo, Warren, and Suzy's families were executed by the guillotine, The children huddle sobbing around a traumatized Uso as he holds his mothers severed head).

Then we have 0080 which really fits at subverting the kids show aspect, and hammering home its message. Al is 10 years old and has a glamorized view of war. The show is quick to point out how wrong he is. Every battle in the series is incredibly brutal ( Hardy clutches Andy's body, the first battle in Libot leads to numerous casualties, and mass property damage, the second battle has people shot and stabbed graphically, over 200 people dying from Mikhails careless use of the Kampfer, with the aftermath show destroyed buildings and a bloody child's body being removed from rubble) even before the battle hits Libot we see more darkness on the civilian side (Al's home life is far from happy, and his parents marriage issues effect him deeply). As an OVA it seems as though it was made for an older audience; however it's viewpoint character and message suggest it's more geared at least to the child demographic who watches Gundam. Granted the shows violence and dark themes might make it hard to believe it is for kids(not to mention the cost of an OVA back in the day); but what's appropriate for children varies depending on place and time, plus it's no more dark than any preceding Gundam show. Some of the other OVA's seem like their for an older crowd ; not so much in content, but in an older group of characters, and more focus on military life and mechanical detail on the suits, 08th MS Team and Stardust Memory seem like good examples.

Gundams timeslot also seems to change somewhat: It started late Saturday afternoon( this was when Japanese schools still held classes for half a day on Saturday) then seems to have moved to Saturday (or Friday for a period in the nineties) evenings, thus suggesting a more middle ground older kids/all ages type of thing.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Mafty wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:33 pm read in a few places "Otaku" as a term originated in Macross, which came from terms used around Studio Nue.
Not "Originated" in Macross but more like made famous by Macross. Its creators were using the term before the show and only used it in the show in a pretty minor instance.
The term turned pretty negative during the 80's, the 2nd chapter of Ah! My Goddess carrying the title "Into the Lair of the Anime Otaku" showed how at the time Otakus are depicted, even in pretty much an otaku manga. And this was published in Oct 1988, before the Miyazaki incident.(And it is likely the media decided to use otaku as an easy target in the Miyazaki incident because of the already negative reputation of them)
Seto Kaiba wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:41 pm It's not an honorific... it was originally a noun, and its usage later evolved into a respectful semi-formal second person pronoun. A collective "you", essentially.
Okay, put it in more detail, "O" is an honorific, the term "otaku" is used by some of the now more famous creators back in the days to refer to each other in a more polite way.
IIRC, wasn't the switch to a "enemy MS of the week" format an attempt to improve the show's terrible ratings?
Yes, but as you can see, they get more like monsters or villains than the original Zaku. Gouf gets those impractical curved horns/spikes on the shoulders, amphibious MS mostly gets claws, etc.(I really don't want to mention Zackrello but I guess that is a pretty clear example of feeding sponsor's request.)
If the ratings is fair, I don't think the sponsor will care that much.


Really, the easiest way to tell what audience a show is for is its timeslot.

Anime for the real young'uns is early in the afternoon. Anime aimed at the junior high and high school crowd are mostly aired around 17:00-19:00 in the early evening. The stuff intended for mature audiences is on late at night, often after midnight.
Yes, but while secondary students just couldn't get home quick enough to watch it(again according to the biases Gundam Genesis, I find this very dubious because it aired on Saturdays 17:30~18:00 so probably they are talking about a particular student, side note, Zeta and ZZ both aired in this time slot as well), the sponsor is obviously printing out toys for younger audiences, so it is not as simple as "It is aired during the 17:30~18:00 time slot so it must be targeting secondary students". (since younger kids are already home and can still watch TV and it aired on Saturdays so all of them should be off school)

V, G, W, X, Turn A all aired on Friday 17:00~17:30 time slot, the more childish SD Gundam OVA, when ported back to TV airing in 1993, was aired on Tuesday 18:30 and SD Gundam Force was Wednesday 18:00.
While SEED, SEED-D, 001st aired on Saturday 18:00~18:30, the same slot as Full Metal Alchemist and Blood+. 002nd switched to Sunday 17:00, which AGE also shared that time slot(with the drop in the overall intelligence of 002nd, I can kinda understand it they wanted to appeal to a younger audience?) but then GBF went to the Monday 18:00 slot and G-Reco more extreme Saturday 01:49~02-19(or Friday 25:49~26:19 as some stations like to put it), IBO is back on Sunday 17:00, while GBF Try is Wednesday 18:00 with GBD Tuesday 17:55. I kinda doubt IBO's target audience is younger than Try and GBD. UR Re:0096 is Sunday morning 07:00 which is a clear outliner. But the new SD Gundam World Heroes had 19:00 or even later 22:29 time slots(on different channels) which should be aimed at lower aged audiences. It is complicated.
That is why it is often mentioned that they aimed the shows to target all ages, especially the alphabet Gundams were mainly targeting a more father and son watching the show together type of style.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Mafty wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:33 pm Yeah sorry I totally forgot how negative Otaku really was; and in outside fandoms it's probably pretty split between people appropriating the insult, and not knowing/forgetting what it means.
As is the organic process of linguistic development... it works in reverse too. There are quite a few insults which used to be considered polite, even politically-correct, ways to refer to people.


Mafty wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:33 pm As Mythsearcher mentioned :and I've read in a few places "Otaku" as a term originated in Macross, which came from terms used around Studio Nue.
No, it didn't originate in Macross.

"Otaku" (お宅) was/is originally a slightly obscure noun and second person pronoun (form of "you") that is used in respectful speech (sonkeigo).

Its use as a pejorative slang term is generally agreed to have originated in August 1983 in an article by columnist working under the penname Akio Nakamori, in which he coined the term "otaku" (おたく) to refer to what for the sake of brevity we might call "stereotypical socially-awkward nerdery".


Mafty wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:33 pm The demographics of Gundam do bring up a few different things(SPOILERS), look at Victory Gundam for instance. The show is incredibly dark from the get go, but actually has some seemingly more kid oriented content oddly placed in. A lot of the Zanscare Mobile Suits are elaborate designs in very bright primary colors, but said units are used to commit terrible war crimes. The cast is very young and almost look like they belong in an NHK World Masterpiece Theater series: a lot of the kids interactions amongst themselves are on the lighter side for most of the series(i.e. Shakti caring for Karlmann, Oldelo and Warrens crush on Elisha and Martina, Mothers Gundam has the kids racing around a lunar city almost like they're in a kids detective series). However they still go through the same horrors the rest of the series showcases ( Karlmanns mother is cruelly shot dead, implicitly Oldeo, Warren, and Suzy's families were executed by the guillotine, The children huddle sobbing around a traumatized Uso as he holds his mothers severed head).
Some of that is just art styles changing with the times... and Gundam's writers have always loved to ensure children in the series end up good and traumatized. Nothing jerks the heartstrings in your war-is-hell drama like shattering the innocence of a bunch of kids.

"For adults" didn't always equal "dark and gritty"...


Mafty wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:33 pm Then we have 0080 which really fits at subverting the kids show aspect, and hammering home its message. Al is 10 years old and has a glamorized view of war. The show is quick to point out how wrong he is. Every battle in the series is incredibly brutal ( Hardy clutches Andy's body, the first battle in Libot leads to numerous casualties, and mass property damage, the second battle has people shot and stabbed graphically, over 200 people dying from Mikhails careless use of the Kampfer, with the aftermath show destroyed buildings and a bloody child's body being removed from rubble) even before the battle hits Libot we see more darkness on the civilian side (Al's home life is far from happy, and his parents marriage issues effect him deeply). As an OVA it seems as though it was made for an older audience; however it's viewpoint character and message suggest it's more geared at least to the child demographic who watches Gundam.
It's not a great example, as OVAs in general are intended for a more mature audience and were mainly meant for distribution via video rental shops. It's also not a great example because War in the Pocket was specifically meant to be a rebuke of Gundam's audience for completely missing the point of the franchise as a whole by obsessing over the giant robots and ignoring its War is Hell Aesop. That's literally the ending of the OVA, wherein Al's being reassured by his friends who blithely assume Al is upset because the war is over and he won't be able to see all those cool Mobile Suits up close again when he's really HORRIFICALLY TRAUMATIZED by seeing Bernie killed and Christina almost die.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

You really can see that in the Gundam OVA's(at least in the late 80's to 90's UC); something about them does give off a more "mature" vibe, not just in content, but also in mech and character designs. Granted all the anime had different character designers(and there's nothing wrong with the other design's), but the OVA's have a different style completely.
The characters seem to be drawn more realistically and detailed in terms of facial features; also the multicolored anime hair and eye colors disappear almost completely,( there's none of it in War in the Pocket, Only Gato(Silver), Cima(Deep Forest Green, Haman(Pink), and a few extras in Stardust Memory(one of whom bears a striking resemblance to Chara from ZZ), and only really Aina(whose hair changes from Mint Green to Blue-Silver depending on the lighting) in 08th MS Team).
As said before the Mobile Suits are more detailed and realistically mechanical than in other shows (well as realistic as a giant robot can get anyway), and this contiues into the shows general art style. I'm not sure if there was a reason behind adding these elements; or if it was just the fact that OVA's cost more, and often had an increased animation budget compared to tv Anime.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

To add on to what Mafty said about the more "realistic" relative appearance of the late-80s-to-early-90s OVAs especially with regards to hair colors, the same holds true with 0080. Off the top of my head, I cannot remember any single character in 0080 that didn't have a more or less normal hair color.

And speaking of 0080...
War in the Pocket was specifically meant to be a rebuke of Gundam's audience for completely missing the point of the franchise as a whole by obsessing over the giant robots and ignoring its War is Hell Aesop

I absolutely love that about it. The sheer, ruthless brutality with which 0080's ending shreds the naïveté of its earlier episodes and reminds us all that, for all the giant colorful robots, war is HELL is an absolute masterpiece of cinematic direction.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

The reason OVAs are more detailed in facial features ,mecha and overall is because they have a higher budget and more time to work on it(generally).
Unlike TV anime, which has to meet a weekly schedule, OVA has the luxury to be made with more time per episode. Also, an analogy is that TV anime is mass production models, OVA is the limited high-end models.
TV anime schedules are so tight that once something bad happens, they will have to just show whatever they can show, either a filler episode they made beforehand to accommodate the situation, a recap ep., or have the ep. air in a barely finished state.(Search of Yashigani and lettuce scene in anime and you will understand. FG also has similar situation where YAS went to the hospital, causing the quality of some ep. to be really poor.)
Dark Duel wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:32 pm I absolutely love that about it. The sheer, ruthless brutality with which 0080's ending shreds the naïveté of its earlier episodes and reminds us all that, for all the giant colorful robots, war is HELL is an absolute masterpiece of cinematic direction.
That is why 0080 is always my favourite Gundam show. It is much better than some other shows that have characters/director saying war or killing is bad but just keeps on fighting with little to no purpose other than being the protagonists.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Totally I watched it for the first time as a kid, and a lot of the deeper themes went over my head(Al's issues with his home life, Chris and Bernie becoming his surrogate parents/sibling almost). I also thought it dealt with the war message a lot better than IBO did. IBO was relentlessly brutal from beginning to end, 0080 kept it more in balance.

For example the battles are much less flashy than in other series; in most series the mech explode in spectacular fashion, here they are heavily damaged and fall apart, there's only two examples of suit explosions (SPOILERS) one is a Guncannon that falls on a heavily populated area in Libot and kills 200 people, the second is Bernie's tragic death, so those wouldn't count as flashy either. The violence in other battles is more direct as well(Andy's body is clutched by Steiner, Mischa is implicitly graphically shot to death, dead and wounded are seen everywhere after battles etc.). However the violence seems more pointed to the message in this series, while IBO overdid it to the point of shock value, unlike IBO, 0080 didn't try to make a happy ending out of a tragic situation; Al mourns Bernie, but doesn't blame Chris, and all he can do at the end is cry over the unfairness of it all.

I agree that the higher budgeted OVA's brought higher quality artwork and design, and it's always nice to see hand drawn animation at it's best(Especially with Mikimoto and Izubuchi bringing their A game in designs). Even some of the modern OVA's/ONA's don't have the same animation level; of course a lot of this is due to the local economy at the time, after the economic bubble burst in the 90s spending money on more risky, expensive projects understandbly went out.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Tracked down the NHK poll I was thinking of, it was from 2018 and one of the categories was favorite animated work for Gundam. They took down demographic information for series, as you can see older series tend to have more older fans and newer series tend to have younger fans. Of course there are always exceptions but it's a good rule of thumb. Unfortunately the demographics were only for the top 10 so the only OVA that made the cut was 0083 Stardust Memory.

NHK Poll: https://www.nhk.or.jp/anime/gundam/ranking/
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Thanks it helps to put it in perspective. Plus Gundam came as the Anime fandom was growing so it makes sense there would have been people watching all this time.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

That's a great point, population growth and the increasing number of viewers each year can definitely sway a popularity poll.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Also people literally "grow up" watching a series and it's sequels over several years; so it makes sense that after awhile you'd have adult sci fi fans in the audience group, and that parts of the show might be geared toward them. This probably got jump started with Macross (which was made by a studio formed by anime fans), and continued into the 80s real robot boom. As has been said before Idol Music began to be incorporated into real robot shows more often (Macross, Mospeda, Sothern Cross, Gundam never had Idol characters in the 80s, but it did use Idol singers for its music), as well as adding some more cute Moe(though it wasn't called that then) style characters to the series (see most roles Chieko Honda, Maria Kawamura and Sanae Miyuki did in mech shows in the 80s), also the mechanical detail and amount of new mechs in shows at the time was said to be directly related to a more broad audience. Even from the start Gundam attracted a slightly older crowd in parts of its fandom, and as time went on it seems to have come into appealing to several different demographics actually.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

From everything I've come across, Tomino was really tired of doing heroic giant robot anime that were aimed primarily at young schoolboys. FG was what he wanted, a mecha anime that started and ended in space, but had enough fighting on Earth to keep it relatable to the audience. there would be plenty of action, plenty of character drama, plenty of angst, but he would keep the action grounded and remind the viewers that war means death and destruction, often indiscriminate and often not at all heroic. There was something for everyone: Amuro's exploits in the heroic Gundam for the boys, Frau Bow and Sayla for the girls, the Terrible Trio for people who labor under the deceit that children and other small animals are cute and adorable, big sci-fi battles and Char with his sort-of red Zaku for the military nerds (he was the Red Baron in spaaaaace), and the socially conscious "war is heck" message to please adults who didn't want the youth to get ideas and repeat the errors of the not so remote past. And lots of mecha and other stuff to be turned into toys, models, and character goods that would keep Bandai happy. It really started a trend, and like another popular SF universe set in a galaxy far, far away proved that science fiction could truly be popular entertainment with the right amount of action and adventure, relatable characters, cool mecha suits, and well-aimed marketing. And it's been that way ever since, with only Gundam OO and IBO really challenging the formula.
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Re: Gundam General Audience?

Zeonista wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:47 pm From everything I've come across, Tomino was really tired of doing heroic giant robot anime that were aimed primarily at young schoolboys. FG was what he wanted, a mecha anime that started and ended in space, but had enough fighting on Earth to keep it relatable to the audience. there would be plenty of action, plenty of character drama, plenty of angst, but he would keep the action grounded and remind the viewers that war means death and destruction, often indiscriminate and often not at all heroic. There was something for everyone: Amuro's exploits in the heroic Gundam for the boys, Frau Bow and Sayla for the girls, the Terrible Trio for people who labor under the deceit that children and other small animals are cute and adorable, big sci-fi battles and Char with his sort-of red Zaku for the military nerds (he was the Red Baron in spaaaaace), and the socially conscious "war is heck" message to please adults who didn't want the youth to get ideas and repeat the errors of the not so remote past. And lots of mecha and other stuff to be turned into toys, models, and character goods that would keep Bandai happy. It really started a trend, and like another popular SF universe set in a galaxy far, far away proved that science fiction could truly be popular entertainment with the right amount of action and adventure, relatable characters, cool mecha suits, and well-aimed marketing. And it's been that way ever since, with only Gundam OO and IBO really challenging the formula.
The sponsor at the time was Clover, and Bandai was still just this small backwater company that aren't in anyway resembling the giant you see today. One of the workers in Bandai determined himself that Gundam was going to be the next big thing and went to negotiate for an exclusive license deal so they would be the only one that can make plastic models for Gundam, which also wasn't anything trendy at the time(as you can see, plastic models aren't of good quality back then and was still in development). He ended up agreeing to pay more than he was allowed to offer, thought he was going to lost his job, but still swallowed the deal.

That deal made Bandai the monster it is today.

Also, this is not really Tomino's thinking that much. He only joined after half year of preparation by others, both YAS and Okawara participated in the planning phase about half a year before him. Tomino is more like the face of the project, he went out to scam the sponsor to pay for the project.
Mafty
Posts: 1132
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:43 am

Re: Gundam General Audience?

So how exactly did Tomino scam the sponsors ?where they mislead about the shows actual story? I've heard that Dunbine was a loss because it didn't sell enough model kits to recoup the costs of building new molds for the elaborate designs.

Also the whole Multiple Demographic Appeal thing really did work in the long run, something you can even see in newer shows. For example a previous post pointed out how there are numerous Easter Eggs in newer series to older Gundam shows/older mecha shows in general (Ie the "Walking War Museum" in Unicorn, The Ideon References in 08th MS team and Gundam SEED, Gundam Sentinel ALICE system references in Gundam Wing, numerous visual and mecha shout outs in CE in general etc,)
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