The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread AGE-7

[bullethead]

Which seems a little strange to me. Most Gundam is ostensibly aimed at the 15 and up crowd, yes? So if AGE is aimed at pre-teen boys... er, why then is romance and/or fanservice okay for kids a few years older but not the other way 'round?

Probably because pre-pubescent kids aren't likely to be interested in girls romantically or sexually. Plus Sunrise at some point early in the production process considered licensing AGE in other territories, so minimal fanservice in a children's cartoon would avert complaints from parents in those regions.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

[sarcasm]I wasn't aware Sunrise still cared what other people in the world thought of Gundam.[/sarcasm]

But yeah, I can see your point. I suppose it's not wholly unprecedented either (just look at Wing) but at the same time, I don't think Sunrise had thought it out as well as they should have. And they should have pulled a 180 as soon as they realized that pre-teen boys were not at all interested in this show.

[Mythgarr]

THE IMMORTAL PATRICK COLASAUR and LUCKIEST WOMAN ALIVE KATI MANNEQUIN.

There. Fixed.
And yes, their love is something to be treasured. A real, bravado man's and a caring woman's LOVE!

[Janx_Dolaris]

THE IMMORTAL PATRICK COLASAUR and LUCKIEST WOMAN ALIVE KATI MANNEQUIN.

There. Fixed.
And yes, their love is something to be treasured. A real, bravado man's and a caring woman's LOVE!

Whats kinda sad is that even with a only a few token moments, and not having much of any plot significance beyond being humorous, those two pulled off a much better developed relationship than the AGE guys and their baby makers.

With how little time AGE gets to focus out of combat, they would have been better making atleast one of the love interests a pilot.

To think Romary's 'crowning achievement' of a character was ensuring that Zeheart wasn't captured by the Federation and actually have his character go somewhere other than be a boring rival who goes insane with power.

[Evex]

I think the main problem with Gundam AGE is the way the entire property is just handled by Sunrise/Bandai. You have to remember that Gundam AGE was originally an idea pitched to them by Level 5, which sunrise liked and decided to run with. Level 5 isn't an anime company, but a video game developer best known for the Professor Layton series of games on Nintendo portable systems. The company is most likely used to having a story that spans over a few hours instead of telling one in fifteen minute chunks. You also have to figure that some aspects of the story are covered in the Gundam Age game also developed by Level 5. I'm sure they (level 5) thought some points weren't necessary for the show, and instead placed them in the game.

The show is also very different, since it spans three generations. It's also one of the flaws in that the generations are told to quickly in order to move onto the next one. It's not structured like Gundam 00 where you have the first 25 episodes with episode 25 being a time skip into season two. S2 picks up in that time skip from last season, and at the end of its season it sets up the time skip into the movie.

This is apparent from the last episode which features the MA SID, which is from a Gundam Age side story called memories of SID. (I might be wrong). In that comes to another flaw in Gundam Age design. It suffers from what I call multimedia dysfunction. This is when a series is spread across multiple media arena's using the same story. Again Gundam 00 did this a bit better, since its side stories were just that side stories, which most likely used the MSV from the series that weren't used in the show. Gundam AGE story is essentially cut between its side stories, game, and the actual show to have any sort of real connective story. An example of this is from the Game Gundam AGE Cosmic Drive, where Flit had an argument with Emily before launching in the AGE-1 Razor. On the way back he contemplates how to best make up with her. From the looks of it the game seems to tell a lot more story then the actual show does, but this topic isn't about the game but rather the show.

[bullethead]

This is apparent from the last episode which features the MA SID, which is from a Gundam Age side story called memories of SID. (I might be wrong). In that comes to another flaw in Gundam Age design. It suffers from what I call multimedia dysfunction. This is when a series is spread across multiple media arena's using the same story. Again Gundam 00 did this a bit better, since its side stories were just that side stories, which most likely used the MSV from the series that weren't used in the show. Gundam AGE story is essentially cut between its side stories, game, and the actual show to have any sort of real connective story. An example of this is from the Game Gundam AGE Cosmic Drive, where Flit had an argument with Emily before launching in the AGE-1 Razor. On the way back he contemplates how to best make up with her. From the looks of it the game seems to tell a lot more story then the actual show does, but this topic isn't about the game but rather the show.

Uh... the 00 sidestories featured a bunch of stuff that was important for understanding what was going on (especially in S2). For instance, that one scene towards the end of 00 S1 where Lockon implies he knows that Tieria is an Innovade is explained in 00P, where the 0 Gundam's GN drive has been was covered by 00F, the amount of Innovade infiltration into the general populace was elaborated on by 00I (IIRC), and I'm pretty sure that the QBW user levels thing came from one of those sidestories or the numerous info dumps in magazines that should have been in the show (like Wang Lu Mei's financial status).

If anything, AGE has been slightly better off, since there's less sidestories and we all knew from the start that the game was probably going to be the definitive version of the story.

[Strike Zero]

Um except not a single one of those things you just said were in any way necessary points to the primary plot of Celestial Being vs. the Innovades. You cannot compare "explaining how Lockon happened to know that Tieria was an Innovade" to "introducing the anime's final boss as an enemy that originated from optional supplementary material from out of left field with no build up."

But, hey, you know what, it doesn't even matter because, as you said, the Japan-exclusive PSP game that looks like garbage is the "DEFINITIVE VERSION" of Gundam AGE's story, so let's just everybody go home and write off the entire year-long animated production right now, no loss.

[DuelGundam2099]

Well, I just watched the movie compilations of the Age games and......... Nothing. Nothing worth spoiling. You saw the Age-1's weed-wacker of doom and gen 1.5 Flit? That is the only real change I found so it is safe to say that the ending it legit. I am not going to spoil it, but it is corny. Very, very corny. Just....... Fibery, fortunately not of the glass variety.

[bullethead]

Well, I just watched the movie compilations of the Age games and......... Nothing. Nothing worth spoiling. You saw the Age-1's weed-wacker of doom and gen 1.5 Flit? That is the only real change I found so it is safe to say that the ending it legit. I am not going to spoil it, but it is corny. Very, very corny. Just....... Fibery, fortunately not of the glass variety.

I'm actually playing the game and aside from some of the changes to make this a game (Zedas being a boss), the most major change I've seen is Largann's sortie in the Nora attack. I can't comment on story, as I can't read Japanese and have a hell of a time playing due to the controls.

[reeoyuy]

"introducing the anime's final boss as an enemy that originated from optional supplementary material from out of left field with no build up."

If you're talking about SID and EXA-DB, I disagree that they came out of left field. Yes, Memories of SID was first released way back when Gen-2 aired, and reading them kinda gave us insight on Bisidian and hinted on what will comes. But let's pretend we are average viewer who never heard such sidestory existed. EXA-DB first mentioned in that message capsule episode, with Captain Ash telling the Diva crew and viewers (who never read the sidestory) what EXA-DB is and why it is so important. That's enough info already. Then we got the occasional talk about how awesome and dangerous the technologies contained within EXA-DB are from various characters (like a random mechanic in 2nd Moon Hangar). That at least should count as build up. As for SID, Lei mentioned about said guardian of EXA-DB to Zeheart and we have Asemu flashback to show how powerful that thing is. That's enough introduction for SID. Then we have one whole episode dedicated for SID fighting with two skilled pilots and somewhat survived. It pretty much shows that SID is no ordinary enemy.

Maybe those aren't enough for some people like you. Maybe you'd prefer the final boss to be hinted from very beginning and have symbolic meaning like 0 Gundam in 00. That's fine, I like when everything comes in full circle too. But saying that SID and EXA-DB came out of nowhere and we need to read the sidestory to know them is unfair. They got their basics covered at least. If only we never knew the existence of Memories of SID, then maybe everyone will content with what the anime gave us. But no, we suspect that the sidestory has more juicy info and thus we never satisfied and demand more from the anime.

But, hey, you know what, it doesn't even matter because, as you said, the Japan-exclusive PSP game that looks like garbage

From what I've seen, it looks and play like Danball Senki games. I'm not a fan of such graphical style, but those "garbage-looking" games are undeniably best seller in Japan. And that's all that mattered.

[Evex]

Checks to make sure jugular is still in one piece. I think there might be some misunderstanding somewhere along the way from my last post to this one. Let me try to clear somethings up, or at least hope to do so. The first thing is I'm not comparing Gundam 00 to Gundam AGE that be like comparing apples to oranges, or trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It just doesn't work and winds up being frustrating. What I was getting at was how Gundam 00 had a better structure and way of telling its story. The side stories didn't take away from the actual show but instead added detail to the universe the show in itself created.

What I was getting at is that Gundam AGE story structure is a bit all over the place. From what I can tell, due to the three generations story arc, is that the producers are more concerned with developing the characters that will appear in the next generation. There simply isn't enough time in the schedule to develop every character that they introduce. To some people this is a flaw because they want to get and know these other characters. Okay now I'm going to be comparing AGE to Gundam 00 a little bit. Gundam 00 didn't have a three generation cast, and so they could spend time developing characters. In season one they developed the misters, and in season two they developed what was left of the supporting cast, or characters that needed a bit more depth. When Gundam 00 was finished with a character they didn't need for the next season they normally killed them off.

This is very different from Gundam AGE, where like I said before there dealing with three generations worth of characters. They don't have the time to develop every aspect of a character, or every character for that matter of the fact. They're only going to spend time developing the characters they need for the next generation, and unfortunately some other aspects of the show suffer from this when it comes to characters. Some characters are introduced only to be killed off a few episodes. This is one of the consequences of Gundam AGE story structure. I'm sure the side stories might give a little bit more information on say Flit and Emily's developing relationship, but for the most part people watching the show don't know that material is out there. In that regard the show comes across as not very well developed, due to them spending so little time developing such things. Flits arc was only 15 episodes, before we got time skipped to Asems arc. Asems arc was only 13 episodes, before we are shipped off to Kios arc. Kio arc seems to have the lions share of the episodes with 21 episodes. Like I've said before the show structure just doesn't allow for a lot of things to be developed character wise, or any other way before were shoved into the next segment. This leaves a lot of the development of the shows "secondary" characters and world left to be done in the supplement side stories, and video games. At least I hope so.

[Strike Zero]

@reeoyuy: But see, that's wrong. None of those things you just mentioned -- various people delivering exposition on EXA-DB and the information it contains prior to SID's actual appearance -- did anything to establish EXA-DB as an enemy, merely as a dangerous artifact left over from the past that, once acquired by either the Federation or Vagan, would dramatically tip the balance of the war in either side's favor. Which, by itself, works perfectly fine as a plot device to drive the story.

Except now these latest episodes have established that not only is EXA-DB an ancient and dangerous relic, it is also its own independent entity and a force to be dealt with at a later time, presumably as the final enemy of the conflict for some yet-to-be-specified reason. This is the aspect that comes virtually out of nowhere because the only piece of Gundam AGE media that did anything at all to allude to this was -- wait for it -- the Memories of SID manga.

So, no, it's not unfair to criticize the show over this, because it's genuinely a major oversight when it comes to the pacing and flow of the story.

[ShadowCell]

Asemu straight up admits that Bisidian "lost" the location of EXA-DB in the episode when he explains what it is. if that's not a portentous allusion to its abilities, i don't know what is. AGE certainly could have devoted more time to EXA-DB and Sid, but it's not like they just conjured it out of thin air.

[Chris]

I think the problem isn't that the EXA-DB wasn't established enough, it's that the plotline vanished for an extended period of time. Asemu mentioned it after returning as a pirate, and it seemed like there would be an urgency in both sides searching for it. Then that's completely dropped for the next seven episodes, three of which are spent at Second Moon and four for the Moon battle. We see that the Federation isn't even really looking for it, and suddenly now it emerges just before the final battle.

[Soma Taozi]

Yeah I do agree that the EXA-DB and Sid kind of came out of nowhere as a final boss where no one talked about it for several episodes...then again, I am reminded of Zeta Gundam, where they mention the colony laser over 15 episodes before it appears (if not more) and no one seems to care about it until the final 3-4 episodes. What? Did no one care that the Titians were building a mega-death ray?

So I am not going to get to worked up about this. Sure it isn't the best of writing, but it isn't the worst element in Age.

It makes me wonder if watching this series all at once would provide for a better viewing experience...so this dropped plot lines come back again after a few days instead of months of waiting for them to reappear.

[DuelGundam2099]

What? Did no one care that the Titians were building a mega-death ray?

I actually did....

[Strike Zero]

Asemu straight up admits that Bisidian "lost" the location of EXA-DB in the episode when he explains what it is. if that's not a portentous allusion to its abilities, i don't know what is.

Well, I'll give you that one.

Though in my case I just figured it meant that they were crappy pirates. =P

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Though in my case I just figured it meant that they were crappy pirates. =P

Ditto.

[yazi88]

At this point, I'm just waiting for Age to end just so I could finish watching it. It feels like a major chore now compared to Asemu's arc which I found quite more enjoyable than Kio's sudden Kira 2.0 pansy mode. At least I'm able to do that, especially compared to the last 15 garbage episodes of Destiny of which I only saw 2. I still haven't seen the endings of Destiny. None of the three versions to this day.

[Khandri]

Somehow I convinced my fiancé to watch AGE. I don't know how, since most of the things I said to him about it were complaints, but I did. He liked the first arc for the most part, then started getting frustrated with the second arc, especially the gods-awful treatment of the female characters. He recently finished with that, and has been waffling on whether or not to continue. "Will I be watching this for entertainment or for the trainwreck factor?" was what he asked me. Inevitably, I told him it was the latter, and that the show's treatment of women only gets worse from there. I still don't know if he's decided to continue on or not.

And then there's me, who's mostly still watching it for the trainwreck factor, and because I'm a dopey completionist who, after getting far enough through a series, has to see it through to the end. It's been a seriously long time since I've encountered an anime that's felt like this much of a slog.