Female Characters: Which Gundam series does the BEST job?

[Gyra Solune]

Guys why are you all forgetting Loran Cehack? :D

...but really, it may or may not be from the combined factors of UC's age and length that it has a teensy bit more misogynistic inklings about it. Nowadays people will rip you apart for implying that girls are helpless, but back in the 70s and 80s it was more or less a given that your typical revolutionary hero was a manly man of manliness and that females were supporting characters. After all, Gundam and the mecha genre in general were (and sorta still are to a lesser degree) shonen things, and obviously to relate to the target demographic it tends to focus more on the males.

[2NA Fish]

It's been a long time since I've watched Gundam X, but I can remember first looking at Tonya and thinking "oh, here's the dumb blonde fanservice." Boy was I ever wrong about that. Tonya was a much deeper character than I expected. She doesn't get many lines at first, but in later episodes you realise that there's a lot going through her head that she's just not saying.

My favourite female from Turn A is Lily Borjarno. Powerful character who never even has to step into a cockpit. Here's a character who's happy to play along with what people expect from her, but behind the scenes she's got a handle on everything.

I like the ZZ cast, but really, in this area, no other series has anything on X and Turn A. In terms of Tomino series, I think he really didn't understand women enough to write them well until a bit later in his career.

I haven't read much of Ecole Du Ciel, so I can't comment on details, but the way women are protrayed in that one seems a bit objectified, like one of those dating sims...

[HellCat]

I kinda liked Asuna from Ecole du Ciel. I liked that she had an actual talent outside of being some amazing Newtype and that really she just wanted a happy life to enjoy that.

Of course I kind of lost track somewhere between the translated volumes and the Japanese ones and suddenly her former rival was apparently literally trying to become Asuna or some such

[lgcsc]

I like the ZZ cast, but really, in this area, no other series has anything on X and Turn A. In terms of Tomino series, I think he really didn't understand women enough to write them well until a bit later in his career.

I would also include Victory. Sure the shrike team was slaughtered, but so were many other members of the cast (equal opportunity) and it lasted until the penultimate episode. Furthermore, each and every member had their own (feminine, not simply that of a guy with boobs) personality and in show they were treated with respect. We also got Marbet, which has a very good amount of depth and development as well as piloting skills, Martina and Elisha who feel very defined, Fuala (crazy and desperate yet relatable), Katejina (EVIL bitch but still had extremely subtle characterization), etc.

[Gyra Solune]

So in essence, the AUs tend to have fairly good female casts (Turn A and X seeming to be the most agreed upon, but G has pretty strong girls too, Wing has some that manage to be very influential despite not being on the battlefield, and SEED does a decent job when the writing quality's up to snuff), with it being more UC that's seen as the problem. Even then, Victory does pretty well, and ZZ isn't even that bad. And since, in all honesty, parts of the original MSG are written weirdly, the problems that applied to the female cast apply decently well to the males as well.

...In short, Zeta has the most problems (weellll, AGE seems to as well, but nobody's really touched upon it), and since it's easily the most well-known show, the whole "It's a man's world that women just live in" thing going on tends to get spread around the franchise as a whole in the fandom's eyes.

[lgcsc]

And Seed Destiny. In fact, I have trouble thinking of a single decent female character there - and no, "Darth" Lacus doesn't count, she's as mary-sue as anyone can get.

[HellCat]

Destiny's females suffered for the fact that someone decided SEED was apparently now a bad harem comedy. Even the adults aren't much better. Talia throws her life away to die with Gilbert (including leaving a son behind!) and Murrue just lets Neo leave because "You're not my Mu!".

[Antares]

True, GSD can't touch GS when it comes to solid female characters. I kinda liked Meer's potential, but aside from the too-little-too-late character exposition, her role was best summarized by Thundermuffin's ATDOGSD, as "shaking her cans to music".

Unicorn isn't faring much better either; Audrey is borderline because she does have some convictions but seems to lack any power to see them through (and hence relies on Banagher). but Marida falls to the usual "bitches be crazy" -category of female Gundam pilots. Aside from them, I can only think of 3 other women in that show: the officer on the Argama, the woman of the Vist Foundation whose name I forgot, and the one who came onto the Argama with Banagher in ep 1 and hasn't done much anything since.

[DuelGundam2099]

You guys seem a tad harsh on CE chicks. (they didn't seem bad to me) And where is this harem comedy bit coming from?

[Antares]

Seed did fine, Destiny less so.

I assume the harem bit refers to Athrun juggling four women (Meer, Luna, Meyrin and Cagalli) in Destiny, albeit quite inexpertedly.

[DuelGundam2099]

Destiny less so.

I don't see how.

[HellCat]

I think Marida's been an interesting look at the classic Cyber Newtype damsel. She's repeated elements certainly but I think she's a more solid character, probably helped by the core idea she's a Cyber Newtype from a previous show who survived and tried to forge a new, full life for herself. That to me is more intriguing then 'Hello, I'm an unhinged teenage girl who has way too many beam cannons. I'm gonna get angry and shoot at the Gundam!"

Too bad the writers messed up Loni so bad.

[Admiral Larsen]

I think Marida's been an interesting look at the classic Cyber Newtype damsel. She's repeated elements certainly but I think she's a more solid character, probably helped by the core idea she's a Cyber Newtype from a previous show who survived and tried to forge a new, full life for herself. That to me is more intriguing then 'Hello, I'm an unhinged teenage girl who has way too many beam cannons. I'm gonna get angry and shoot at the Gundam!"

Too bad the writers messed up Loni so bad.

Agreed, from what I read of the novel, its a shame Loni turned out the way she did on the OVA.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

You guys seem a tad harsh on CE chicks. (they didn't seem bad to me) And where is this harem comedy bit coming from?

Perhaps this will shed some light on the subject?

[YazanGable]

To play the devil's advocate for a moment, promotional art is the kind of thing one should take with a grain of salt as far as how it relates to things in the actual show (remember how everyone got their hopes up over that piece of promo art of Destiny and Strike Freedom dueling each other to shreds?)

That said, the more we see of Gundam AGE, the lower and lower my opinion of how it's handled its female characters goes. Especially after seeing them replay the 'loli with a tragic life' card these last two episodes. To add insult to injury, in both cases, said tragic loli also comes across as obsessed with the main character, so much so that nothing else seems to matter except being with them (though, to Lu's credit, in her case it was at least somewhat better framed in the context of wanting to have a normal life, where Yurin just felt like the archetypical devoted 'waifu', even allowing herself to be captured under the promise of seeing Flit again.)

I realize the generational system doesn't allow for too much development for side characters...but man, most of the AGE women just feel like they went for the worst archetypes. Say what one will about Zeta, at least there most of the women felt like they had personal opinions and beliefs beyond just their love interest (even Sara's devotion to Scirocco felt more framed by the fact she believed he could change the world rather than desiring affection from him.) In AGE, it feels like they're a slot where they had a character concept and never bothered to actually fill it in.