Would it be cool if ...

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CJack90
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Would it be cool if ...

Seems more and more shows are doing origin stories would it be cool if sunrise did a ace pilot show of both the federation and zeon pilots who where on the top score list. I really am curious about all the pilots, yeah we see glimpse in the mangas but animated with a more fleshed out bases would be amazing . Your thoughts please
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

CJack90 wrote: Tue May 11, 2021 11:55 pm Seems more and more shows are doing origin stories would it be cool if sunrise did a ace pilot show of both the federation and zeon pilots who where on the top score list. I really am curious about all the pilots, yeah we see glimpse in the mangas but animated with a more fleshed out bases would be amazing . Your thoughts please
To be honest, I think that kind of thing would really only appeal to the Gundam super-fans. The sort of story that'd be better suited to a manga or at most an OVA. Casual viewers aren't going to know who the characters are and since their deeds are largely overshadowed by Newtypes like Char and Amuro, they're not likely to care much either.

Gundam loses a certain je ne sais quoi when you take away its core anti-war message and the Newtypes who form the heart of it, you see.

Johnny Ridden's already kind of been flogged to death in a series of manga side stories like Brave Soldiers in the Sky, MSV Chronicle, MSV-R: the Return of Johnny Ridden, etc. He's one of the few who really got some development, as I understand it most of them are just a name and a portrait.

There is some peripherally-related material like that in Master Archive Mobile Suit Gundam: MSV Ace Pilot Log, a book that covers the personal units and careers of five aces: Johnny Ridden, Gabby Hazard, Ian Graden, Tenneth A. Jung, and Lydo Wolf.
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MythSearcher
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

Seto Kaiba wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 12:39 am Johnny Ridden's already kind of been flogged to death in a series of manga side stories like Brave Soldiers in the Sky, MSV Chronicle, MSV-R: the Return of Johnny Ridden, etc. He's one of the few who really got some development, as I understand it most of them are just a name and a portrait.
Also not supportive of an anime doing that, but other than Johhny Ridden, you also get Shin Matsunaga, who also has his own MSV-R manga along with his unnamed cameo in Evolve 9.

I would actually love to see them making the anime adaptation of Gihren's assassination plan, but that would be extremely hard to not turn into another Patlabor WXIII.
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

To be fair we do have Gundam side stories that don't actually involve Newtypes as the main characters( Shiro and Aina from 08th MS Team, Kou and Gato from Stardust Memory, Christina and Bernie from War in the Pocket).

I agree that the target audience may be too small for Sunrise to decide to adapt one of their stories. However they could always have a cameo in another UC work (for example Narrative added the Luio family to the movie when they weren't in the novel), so they could always retcon them into the story in a film.
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

In addition to the manga the above posters mentioned Gundam Legacy includes some vignettes from characters that appealed in Gundam side stories like the Thouroughbred, Lost War Chronicles, Zeonic Front etc. It also features Lydo Wolf for one segment who is one of the Federation top aces.

Gundam Evolve and Igloo will occasionally show the story Ace pilots, for better or for worse.

Overall I think it's a good idea but it would be best for a short OVA series, perhaps each episode focuses on a single Ace of the OYW. However, like Seto Kaiba said it would best appeal to Gundam super-fans, in particular OYW super-fans.
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MythSearcher
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Fri May 14, 2021 5:43 pm
Overall I think it's a good idea but it would be best for a short OVA series, perhaps each episode focuses on a single Ace of the OYW. However, like Seto Kaiba said it would best appeal to Gundam super-fans, in particular OYW super-fans.
I was rethinking about this.
While I do not like Thunderbolt, it seems like there is a possibility to attract non-UC fans if you have a show targetting a certain group of people, and if you do it right, you will get a new group of fans.

The only problem is that it will most likely create yet another heated debate the franchise does not need.
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

Bandai / Sunrise currently seem pretty intent on regrowing the Gundam fandom in the west with the upcoming live-action show on Netflix as well as the Gundam Universe launch over here. Launching a UC show that is easy to jump into wouldn't be a bad idea. For most Gundam fans I know 08th MS team is an easier entry point into UC than well, I guess anything else. I imagine Thunderbolt is also a good entry point for those that prefer a more modern animation style.
MythSearcher wrote: Sat May 15, 2021 4:43 am I was rethinking about this.
While I do not like Thunderbolt, it seems like there is a possibility to attract non-UC fans if you have a show targetting a certain group of people, and if you do it right, you will get a new group of fans.
As for Thunderbolt, I think it's best enjoyed when you view it as a quasi-UC AU show like Gundam X, otherwise you start to notice the technology is a bit inconsistent with the time period.
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 2:11 pm Bandai / Sunrise currently seem pretty intent on regrowing the Gundam fandom in the west with the upcoming live-action show on Netflix as well as the Gundam Universe launch over here. Launching a UC show that is easy to jump into wouldn't be a bad idea. For most Gundam fans I know 08th MS team is an easier entry point into UC than well, I guess anything else. I imagine Thunderbolt is also a good entry point for those that prefer a more modern animation style.
Yes, usually its the long and tedious pseudo-history and the need to understand those recurring characters' back story that makes it hard to enter a long franchise like UC Gundam, especially most of those shows are in super long TV anime format in the 40~50 eps.

While I like 0080 better than 08th, 0080 is harder to attract viewers because it features a boy that will not pilot a MS as the lead character.
08th is more inline with regular military movies/drama(ignoring the fact that later it became Romeo and Juliet in space which is a complete hijack of the story because the original director died and Umanosuke Iida took over.)
As for Thunderbolt, I think it's best enjoyed when you view it as a quasi-UC AU show like Gundam X, otherwise you start to notice the technology is a bit inconsistent with the time period.
I don't like TB mostly because of the author. He messed up his own manga Moonlight Mile(which was at least fairly fine until the time skip to the slump on the Moon) and completely ignored his own settings, and with TB he did not only completely ignored UC settings but also basically just made it goring for gore's sake. I don't see it as necessary or reasonable. And the strange cult and weirdly waste of manpower is just completely non-sensible.
Tech-wise I don't really care if it is inconsistent considering I can accept MS Generation(GT FOUR) and the Matsuura trilogy(Outer Gundam, Moon Crisis and REON). (Come to think of it, TB must have taken the double shoulder shield design from Outer Gundam's Gundam Zephyr just like Unicorn obviously took plot points from Moon Crisis and system design from REON)
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

MythSearcher wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 10:28 pm Yes, usually its the long and tedious pseudo-history and the need to understand those recurring characters' back story that makes it hard to enter a long franchise like UC Gundam, especially most of those shows are in super long TV anime format in the 40~50 eps.
That's a great point, Unicorn is a beautiful show and available to anyone with a Netflix account but some of its most satisfying moments require a knowledge of previous works. Not everyone has the patience nor the access to watch that volume of filmography either.

I will say the MSG compilation movies are excellent for necking down the series to something watchable in a week without losing too much of the original core concepts. It's actually what my wife started with when she first started watching Gundam. The Z Compilations are a different beast.
While I like 0080 better than 08th, 0080 is harder to attract viewers because it features a boy that will not pilot a MS as the lead character.
08th is more inline with regular military movies/drama(ignoring the fact that later it became Romeo and Juliet in space which is a complete hijack of the story because the original director died and Umanosuke Iida took over.)
I had no idea the 08th MS Team director original director died. I was aware of the directoral musical chairs for 0083, so I'm surprised 08th also had a last minute change. I didn't mind the Romeo Juliet part, but I wouldn't say it improved the story either.

That said I think star crossed romances have the potential to be done really well in Gundam and would also be a good selling point to target folks who care for more space opera than war drama, MSG has always had a bit of both to some degree.
I don't like TB mostly because of the author. He messed up his own manga Moonlight Mile(which was at least fairly fine until the time skip to the slump on the Moon) and completely ignored his own settings, and with TB he did not only completely ignored UC settings but also basically just made it goring for gore's sake.
That's exactly how I feel about Narrative. Watching it it felt like it was a movie made by committee who saw the success of both Unicorn and Thunderbolt and decided to mash them up, clashing tone and themes be damned. Then I saw the credits role and saw both directors names. I had high hopes for the show but overall was just a misery fest with unnecessary shock value.

Hopefully, we can avoid that with the forthcoming Netflix series, fingers crossed. If the Netflix series goes well, we may even get a OYW Ace series like CJack90 suggests as a gateway into UC.
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MythSearcher
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon May 17, 2021 9:28 pm

I had no idea the 08th MS Team director original director died. I was aware of the directoral musical chairs for 0083, so I'm surprised 08th also had a last minute change. I didn't mind the Romeo Juliet part, but I wouldn't say it improved the story either.

That said I think star crossed romances have the potential to be done really well in Gundam and would also be a good selling point to target folks who care for more space opera than war drama, MSG has always had a bit of both to some degree.
The problem of the Romeo and Juliet part made it really strange if you look at the characters' back stories.
Shiro was facing the brutality of the colony drop at its foremost. Not only seeing tens of millions of people being killed, but also the most devastated things being done when the GG gas was inserted to the colony he was living in so he witnessed the death of his friends, colleagues, parents, etc.
The original 5~6 episodes seems like it is only going for a story like FG, where "the enemy also has good people and not everyone is evil just because they are your enemy", that doesn't mean going over board to "Now I must protect every single one of them and my love even if it costs my life."
Yes, the Zeons are retreating, but they have not surrendered. Not killing them means they will be fielded again and kill more of EFF's soldiers. They are not even a medical ship, but a ship full of soldiers well capable of fighting. Also, it would seem like the plot of sending GMs and detonating them hoping for a nuclear explosive(which it should not occur in any reasonable possibilities) is also very likely the new director's request if you read the prequel's afterword where he talks about how space battles should be with his limited knowledge of Physics.(talking about the peak of the Dunning Kruger curve, well, at least he admitted he made a mistake in a later volume so he is better than a lot of other directors)
A friend of mine even put it as "Shiro suddenly thinks with the lower part of his body instead of using his brain in the latter half of the story" everything we talk about 08th.
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Iris Scope
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

Had it not been for Kanda's death, what do you think the remainder of the episodes of 08th MS Team have concentrated on in terms of the war and the Shiro/Aina relationship? Would it have been as "Romeo and Juliet" filled as Umanosuke Iida put it? Also, what does FG stand for? I am not familiar with all the Gundam side stories.
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

FG isn't any side story - it's short for First Gundam, a common nickname for the original series.
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Iris Scope
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

My mistake. Just that I don't usually call it that. More of a MSG guy. BTW, what was the original endgame for Kanda's 08th MS Team series before his death and Iida taking over the reins?
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MythSearcher
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

Iris Scope wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 6:16 pm BTW, what was the original endgame for Kanda's 08th MS Team series before his death and Iida taking over the reins?
No idea, it will likely be more like FG (MSG sounded like Monosodium Glutamate) that you have good guys in both sides, but will not have them become lovers and fled the scene.
Mafty
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Re: Would it be cool if ...

Mabey it would still have tied into Aina/Shiro in the end anyway. The first episode does show the encounter between them, and even the fourth episode(which would have been the final one Kanda worked on) features them meeting across battle lines without knowing it. That being said it could have been aiming toward a 0080 style ending , so who knows? I've heard there was a novelization that apparently was much darker, does that have the original ending?
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