thehod wrote:
Overall I am enjoying AGE and my critiques about the show are mostly pacing issues. I would have preferred the first arc be a run of 25 or so episodes and then do season 2 as the next 25 episodes, and finally do a season 3 with 25 more episodes.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't work. Full length Gundam series are typically 50 episodes. And often times, that's all you'd need to tell your story.
25 each seems like the best, although personally I welcome the current condensation. I even feel like the arcs after the escape and before the final battle were a bit slow honestly. The only thing I mostly dislike is the lack of screentime for the variant; in particular Spallow (because I dislike the Titus) but Titus didnt get much time either.
SonicSP wrote:25 each seems like the best, although personally I welcome the current condensation. I even feel like the arcs after the escape and before the final battle were a bit slow honestly. The only thing I mostly dislike is the lack of screentime for the variant; in particular Spallow (because I dislike the Titus) but Titus didnt get much time either.
Lack of screentime for the Spallow? Dude, the Spallow's gotten plenty of screentime.
I believe the Spallow made its debut in episode 10, so it was around for 5 episodes max (and was not used in every ep in that stretch), which is nothing compared to the screen time of Age 1-Normal.
We're almost to the end of the first arc now, and in typical Gundam fashion, we finish out with a dose of tragedy.
But before we get to that, some explanation is once again needed. I’m partly behind once again, considering that episode 15 just broadcast a few days ago. However, they were really slow in getting the English subs up, so I actually have only seen the episode raw. So, I’ll get caught up with 14 and do 15 later and then it’ll be time for my Gundam AGE half-time report… even though this is supposed to be the first third of this series…
In any case, on with the show! As I said, episode 14 delivers a tragedy that we saw coming from at least the previous couple of episodes. Some said Yurin was doomed the second she appeared on screen, and I guess they were right. The set-up is that the battle against the UE continues, and Flit has a Newtype moment (no X-Rounders here!) and goes off from the main battle. Here he runs into none other than Desil Galette, everyone’s favorite pocket-sized psychopath. Now, I gotta take a moment here and talk about Desil. When he first appeared all the way back in episode 5, I really hated this kid, mostly because he was this annoying little kid. But now I hate him for a whole different reason: he’s completely certifiable! This kid is the kind of kid that fries ants with a magnifying glass and enjoys it. No, that’s not quite right. This is the kind of kid that has deep and complex mental problems that result in him flaying the family cat alive. Desil is in the battle with Flit purely to have fun, blow things up and prove he’s better than Flit. And his secret weapon turns out to be none other than Yurin in her own customized pink mecha. ‘Cause, girls would totally pilot pink mobile suits… ‘cause they’re pink… and pink is for girls. Riiiiiigggghhhhhtttt.
Anyway, the Farsia is kind of neat because it’s the first AG mobiles suit we’ve seen with bits/funnels. And they do remind me somewhat of George DeSand’s rose bits from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. The kicker here is that either Yurin has no control over the Farsia or she does but is getting constantly overridden by Desil. The only reason she’s here is because apparently when two AG Newtypes are close to each other, their powers resonate. So basically she’s just a 1-Up mushroom for Desil. The fight itself is actually pretty well done, with Flit getting kicked around some but just when Desil is about to get the drop on him, Yurin breaks control and puts the Farsia between the two and gets her suit stabbed through the torso.
We then get to have a Flit/Yurin Newtype moment, but thankfully they do something fairly unique instead of weird naked Newtype space. Considering its Flit and Yurin, that’d be pretty pedo. What we get is Flit and Yurin in a forest, which gradually fades away as Yurin dies. Not too shabby, I would say. We shift back to reality where Yurin has a last line and then her helmet visor cracks and the Farsia ‘splodes. This of course, was Desil’s Big Mistake, and bragging about it doesn’t help as Flit goes into Gundam RAGE mode and absolutely decimates him. Remember future villains; don’t EVER kill the protagonist’s Newtype girlfriend.
Here, Desil’s childishness is reemphasized as he starts to lose, he begins to have a serious freak out, especially when the Age-1 does its glowing-eyes-rape-face-look. But instead of killing Desil, Flit tosses him off into space. I really don’t know why he did that besides the obvious answer to have Desil come back in the next arc.
All in all, even though the Newtype girlfriend death is one of the oldest tropes in Gundam, AGE manages to make it still tug at your heartstrings, especially when you consider that Flit has been ignoring Emily for quite a few episodes now. Really makes you wonder how their relationship in the next arc is going to be, but I’ll talk more about that in my “half-time show.” Also, even though this was the main focus of the episode, you still get some more moments with other characters here. Wuulf and Largan still cheat death even though I was kind of expecting at least Largan to die at this point. The Titus armor for the Gundam Age-1 makes a return appearance and gets trashed just like the Sparrow armor but at least it gets to awesomely ‘splode UE mechas and pulls a Superman.
The Diva has landed and the crew, led by the fearless DAT BEARD/Cool Hand Grodek, prepares to charge into battle, which may or may not be a good idea. And at the last, Yark Dole or whatever-the-crap-his-name-is, boards a monstrous looking mobile suit called the Defurze or something, which was apparently made for combat on Earth. Guess it’s time for the last hurrah.
I just saw ep 15, it was ok, the real thing for is I finally get to see if this gimmick of the generations is going to to work.
Even if I know it was meant to be, the series really feels hush, that's my only complaint so far. In any other series this would be a negative. I am still waiting to see if this will work for me, but I will wait to see where things go.
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I was personally pleased with the ending of season one. If it hadn't been for the overlong fardain arc, flit's arc would be perfect.
I have to agree with everyone that I would like to see a 75 episode anime with AGE, it would just work better. Still, hopefully season two will pick up the pace and get the series where it needs to be. Personally, I think AGE is riding on Asem's arc, considering the midpoint of a show is important when time-skips are involved. I like the idea of this notchar with white hair, its been a while since we got a good char type in the franchise (I absolutely do not count Rou from SEED, as I consider him his own character, which I enjoyed).
I know no one has mentioned it yet, and it IS a bit early, but does anyone else get the feeling that Kio will be a Uso kind of protagonist? He looks like a Uso, so maybe Asem will be a Hangelg.
SonicSP wrote:25 each seems like the best, although personally I welcome the current condensation. I even feel like the arcs after the escape and before the final battle were a bit slow honestly. The only thing I mostly dislike is the lack of screentime for the variant; in particular Spallow (because I dislike the Titus) but Titus didnt get much time either.
Lack of screentime for the Spallow? Dude, the Spallow's gotten plenty of screentime.
Relative to the Normal? I don't think so. Neither variant got that much time, it probably doesn't help that they were introduced pretty late too. I don't expect them to beat Normal in length, but they really got very little.
SonicSP wrote:25 each seems like the best, although personally I welcome the current condensation. I even feel like the arcs after the escape and before the final battle were a bit slow honestly. The only thing I mostly dislike is the lack of screentime for the variant; in particular Spallow (because I dislike the Titus) but Titus didnt get much time either.
Lack of screentime for the Spallow? Dude, the Spallow's gotten plenty of screentime.
Relative to the Normal? I don't think so. Neither variant got that much time, it probably doesn't help that they were introduced pretty late too. I don't expect them to beat Normal in length, but they really got very little.
No, not relative to 1-Normal. But in comparison to Titus, Spallow got quite a bit of time.
the Spallow also gets the distinction of having gutted the dreaded Zedas twice so mayhaps you should take it as a quality over quantity kind of thing, SonicSP
I think if any AGE form got shafted it was Titus. Was introduced as a flimsy counter to the Baqto, was quickly displayed to be too slowl and the writers seem to just be keeping the Baqto out of the way afterwards and when it did appear its previous abilities seemed non-existant. Spallow in comparison has got quite a bit of usage and beat Desil twice. If anything, it feels even more lopsided to me because it basically does all of this with a dinky knife. Thank heavens for X Rounder abilities negating the need for Flit to improve as a pilot with training.
I think if any AGE form got shafted it was Titus. Was introduced as a flimsy counter to the Baqto, was quickly displayed to be too slowl and the writers seem to just be keeping the Baqto out of the way afterwards and when it did appear its previous abilities seemed non-existant. Spallow in comparison has got quite a bit of usage and beat Desil twice. If anything, it feels even more lopsided to me because it basically does all of this with a dinky knife.
I think if any AGE form got shafted it was Titus. Was introduced as a flimsy counter to the Baqto, was quickly displayed to be too slowl and the writers seem to just be keeping the Baqto out of the way afterwards and when it did appear its previous abilities seemed non-existant. Spallow in comparison has got quite a bit of usage and beat Desil twice. If anything, it feels even more lopsided to me because it basically does all of this with a dinky knife.
This so very much it is not even funny.
Well, I guess the AGE staff took a cue from the launcher strike from SEED Gundam. On the other hand, it's quite possible that they realized that the Titus wasn't going to be very popular, and decided to remove it from center stage just in case.
Just saw the live broadcast for episode 16, and I'm loving Gen 2 already. First off, Flit is Spoiler
AN AWESOME DAD. In your face everyone that was expecting him to let his grudge strain his family situation. The beginning of the episode made it clear that Flit is still out to destroy the Veigan, but it hasn't manifested in him neglecting his family, at least for now. In fact, he seems to have passed on good values to Asem. I was actually surprised to see that Asem also has a younger sister. Good for you Flit!
Other than that, Asem is a pretty cool lead, and already he has more chemistry with Romarie than Flit ever had with Emily. The action was also great, and the Dorado is one bad ass Veigan MS. Seeing Asem put up a decent fight in the AGE-1 was also nice. More spoilery stuff: Spoiler
It seems like if Flit, Emily, and Yurin were an example of your classic doomed newtype lover girlfriend love triangle, then Asem, Zeheart, and Romarie are being set up more as a "fighting your old friend" kind of thing. Zeheat is obviously a Veigan spy, but it seems like he's going to form a friendship with Asem and Romarie. It'll make things interesting when Asem and Zeheart meet on the battlefield. I want to speculate wildly and guess that there might be a love triangle between these three, but I'm hoping it's not the case. I'm hoping Asem and Romarie's relationship is developed better than Flit and Emily's.
phew, anyway, I'm excited to eventually see the AGE-2 finally in action. It looked great in the OP and ED.
Great start, I like it. VentZX already covered most of the points, so I'll just add some more. First, the VA. Adult Flit and Asem themselves are OK and likable. Emily didn't have more than one line (IIRC) but I recognize Sheryl Nome in her voice. Hiroshi Kamiya and Takehito Koyasu didn't sound like previous and more well-known Gundam characters they did before, which is refreshing. I almost didn't recognize Koyasu there. Secondly, OP and ED songs are great. I like ED more but OP isn't that bad either. Again, like before, the ED can pass as OP.
Other miscellaneous thing I notice is that Vargas is still as healthy as he was in gen 1. We also saw one of his traits that we didn't see back then; his crazy appetite, got himself three times more serving than everyone else and still asking for more. But I bet nobody noticed that mountain of pasta on Vargas' plate in that birthday dinner scene because everyone is shocked
Spoiler
With Asem's never mentioned before sister. Seriously, with Japan's huge imouto fetish that must be the biggest surprise of this episode. Wonder how they keep that secret for so long.
The fight is amazing, much better than Flit's Gafran beam shank. I need to re-watch it to catch all the details, but I think they successfully portrayed both Asem's skill and amateurishness. Overall, I'm looking forward for more.
Saw it live, too. It's a nice touch that the anonymous Genoace pilot was quite useful, even after all the damsge. I was half-expecting him to emerge from the MS and wave at Asem after that fight. It also seemed like some of the AGE-1's components looked different, probably to reflect technical improvements over the years. Spoiler
And yeah, everyone pretty much did a double-take at Unoa IMOUTO OUT OF NOWHERE.
Just finished the episode. It mostly feels like Zeta ep.1 with some X ep.1 thrown in.
*The fight scene was okay. Never thought we'd see spinning blades again after CE, but seriously, how did Asem get to spin and throw the beam saber like that? And the fight poses a lot of questions.
*Lol'd at the sight of Asem fighting Zeheart in the OP, Zeheart with Char mask and all. Bigger LOL at kid!Asem playing with G-Exes gunpla at the ED.
I am very glad that the 'Flit is now a complete bastard who took pity sex from Emily and then gave the resulting children the cold shoulder' was proven wrong. He's not fully healthy but he's not Gendo Ikari with green hair.
