The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread AGE-7

[HellCat]

This is reminding me of someone who used to get very angry about G and say it's designs weren't real Gundams, just generic robots with Gundam heads

Despite the fact I don't think the story gave a good reason for it to be a Gundam, Legilis clearly is one passed through the Vagan aesthetic.

[Kei Katsuragi]

I agree with your point. I mean if the Mandala Gundam was in 00 I wouldn't think it to be Gundam, but I do call it one through G's aesthetic.

[DuelGundam2099]

This is reminding me of someone who used to get very angry about G and say it's designs weren't real Gundams, just generic robots with Gundam heads

Strange, they seem gundam-y to me; I do see your point though. It just looks more like a vagan mobile suit with a gundam color scheme than an actual gundam (I'm starting to think it's in the head, mostly that visor) or at least what normally makes a gundam look like one if that makes any sense.

[Dark Duel]

This is reminding me of someone who used to get very angry about G and say it's designs weren't real Gundams, just generic robots with Gundam heads

LOLWUT?
G Gundam designs, generic? Shining Gundam, maybe, but I don't see how ANY of the others can be called generic by ANY stretch of the imagination.

Now Legilis, that thing IMO looks like a pretty generic Vagan design; to me, you could give a Dorado a blue-and-white paintjob, and it would look nearly exactly the same except for a couple of aesthetic details on the torso and head. There's just nothing about its design that says "Gundam" to me. At all. I look at it, and I think "mobile suit with Gundam-style paint job".

[Kei Katsuragi]

Let us digress this. I'm sick of talking about the Legillis. So what are the odds that this show will have a sweet recovery for the finale?

[Admiral Larsen]

Let us digress this. I'm sick of talking about the Legillis. So what are the odds that this show will have a sweet recovery for the finale?

I would have to say low odds.

[mobiusdiablo]

Let us digress this. I'm sick of talking about the Legillis. So what are the odds that this show will have a sweet recovery for the finale?

I would have to say low odds.

Given all that's happening, plus this giant asteroid/space station thing coming into the Earth Sphere for no reason, and having the FX be awfully like the Nu, I'm almost tempted to call that AGE is going to end with an attempted colony drop, with Ezelcant saying only the fittest will survive and build the new Eden from the ashes of destruction or some shit.

[Mythgarr]

and with the opening being what it is, I have high hopes that the three generations of gundams will hold hands and stop the Second Moon from being hurled to Earth and they died in the process.

Or Second Moon falls nonetheless and we have Mobile Suit Age X Gundam series *wink wink*

[angelwingzero]

Its looking pretty cliche up in here. Wonder what that big MA is in the opening.

[Soma Taozi]

It also would have been better if her relationship with Zeheart was explored further, as he did seem genuinely concerned for someone he barely even knew. What's more is that I can't understand why the Vegan, knowing how powerful and unstable Spriggan is, did not give her a device to wear similar to what Zeheart has. Seems that would have saved a lot of grief.

I do believe it is nothing more then simple respect (he even says that to her). We have seen how Zeheart cares about his soldiers and it has been previously established that he remembers the names of all the people who died under his command. He simply did not want to add another name to the list. Kind of sad actually.

And Spriggan's X-Rounder powers were adversely damaged and affected by her accident. Unlike Zeheart who has VERY powerful X-Rounder abilities that became unstable at high levels...Girard's abilities were damaged and became unstable after long periods of use.

I personally hope that this whole X-Rounder extreme resonance thingy comes back again, since it might explain a few things...

[ShadowCell]

We have seen how Zeheart cares about his soldiers and it has been previously established that he remembers the names of all the people who died under his command.

and boy is that a lot of names!

seriously, i really do have a hard time taking Zeheart seriously, especially in Kio's arc. it would probably help if he were to actually accomplish something, or win a battle, or whatever. as it stands now he almost comes off as a mocking, biting parody of Char.

[Kei Katsuragi]

Its looking pretty cliche up in here. Wonder what that big MA is in the opening.

My money is on Sid. That little guy might have his time to shine

[Kenji]

Y'know, it's kinda funny.

For all the talk about 00 being like Wing, AGE seems most apt to claim that title, what with it being the second Gundam AU to try and cram three UC TV shows and one movie into less than 50 episodes.

As much antipathy as I have toward CE, at least those showrunners had the sense to give every rehash its due time.

[Compass]

Spoiler

I'm disappointed in how Girard played out. What a wasted character. Swap her with Arisa, and THEN you might have had more emotional impact. Building a character and killing them off almost immediately is such a cheap tactic.

[HellCat]

I don't really see how you could explore Spriggan's story with Arisa at all, nor why certain viewers seem to still think killing Arisa is somehow going to improve things.

[Kaioshin Sama]

I don't really post here much, but this seems like a pretty good time. For the vast majoirty of the series I've been a pretty stalwart defender of the show against what I've felt was a predetermined effort to hate the show by any means necessary and I still see some of the stupidest and most arbitrary of complaints levelled against it quite frequently by people that are clearly just looking to bash it and nothing else, but after reading some of the more carefully considered criticisms of the show over the course of last night and thinking about all that's happened in the show in careful detail, I've come to recognize that there are a lot of very fair and deep cutting criticisms that can be levelled against some of the writing in the show and actually stick.

This by absolutely no means means that I'm willing to lend even a bit of credibility to the people that have clearly looked to bash AGE since before it even started and are just leaping on whatever scraps the show feeds them now when it's convenient since criticisms still manage to feel opportunistic and less sensible than some of the weirder things that have happened in the show....but there are some nagging issues that have kept cropping up since about the time Kio's arc started, chief among which is it's failure to explore aspects of the story that are begging to be explored and that there should be plenty of time to explore and a frequent failure to further explore ongoing plotines from events that happened in previous generations at times when the show is practically begging for it. This is something the series didn't really struggle with during the 2nd generation by comparison. When I talk about this sort of thing I'm referring to things like Asemu's time with the Bisidian and relationship to his crew members, Fram and Zeheart's motivations for continuing to tow the Ezelcant line when they seem like otherwise reasonable people who have been shown to be inquisitive and discerning in the past, Flit's failure to make any sort of recognition as to the Fawnfarsia resembling the unit that Yurin died in which is basically the event that shaped the rest of his life, which makes it look like they were only concerned with giving the girly character the girly suit to pilot and nothing else, what happened to first and second gene characters like Millais, Vargas and Dique. Just a multiltude of missed opportunities and the show slowly starting to use it's time less and less well in the second half after a pretty decent start, which frankly is the time where it should really be making the most of it's minutes. Another lesser nagging issue that I hope can be addressed VERY soon is the semi-cyclical development arc for Kio in constantly witnessing sympathetic characters on the opposing side rushing to their death but utterly failing to come with a more viable solution to prevent it, continually drag Kio's arc down into mediocrity from time to time. I guess their saving the whole becoming a savior part for the very end of the series since basically nobody has managed to succeed at much of anything in the series in the previous 60 years and I suppose that's partially the point, but man it has kind of gotten a bit repetitive in a way.

That said the show has it's moments and even the current arc, I loved the multi-stage battle to take over the moon and Seric and the Diva crews part in carrying it out, but generally the rule does seem to be that anything Kio is directly involved in ends up feeling like a wasted opportunity for another character, as a tradeoff for what amounts to cyclical development He really is turning out to be something of dampner on the series potential, when I really though he was going to be smarter about it at the start of this arc when the AGE-FX debuted.

Oh one last thing, Chris does kind of have a point when he mentions that the Vagans up till now really haven't earned the right to be considered symphathetic and worthy of having peace made with them on anything approaching their own terms, but I don't think they deserve to be completely wiped out just yet so much as hit hard like their Post WWI German Public equivalents like another poster suggested and I don't think they are a horribly written villain faction so much as grossly underexplored by comparison to past villain factions up until very recently thanks to them basically being Unknown Enemies for the first quarter or so of the series and us only getting a glimpse at their culture and policies as recently as a month ago. That said there really is no avenue at the current stage for Kio having much justification in his quest to make peace with the Vagans on equal terms so either that gets addressed by showing the general public doing something like finally showing some resistance to Ezelcant's obviously mad plan so that the focus can be redirected on focusing on the corrupt enemy government ala MSG or frankly Kio's character arc can end up biting me as completely illogical and unearned. Hope that doesn't happen, but given that I'm starting to lend some credence of late to the idea that the writers aren't putting in their best effort towards fleshing out the motivations and aspects of characters and factions in the show in a way that is sensible up front I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried that it might actually go that route.

Looking forward the next couple episodes and how it leads into the final battle and circumstances under which it and the characters part in it are portrayed are probably going to make or break this final arc. The characters really need to be moving into their final solutions and locking down on how they are going to pursue the end to this war and what their goals are going to be in how it comes to an end and the manner in which the aftermath of the conflict is resolved between the Vagans and the Earth Federation. There can't be any more limp-wristed half-baked poorly fleshed out sentiments for Kio, Ezelcant and the Vagan people.

[Bryant Molirse]

Spoiler

Well that was another wasted character, and 2 wasted episodes in a series that has so far underdeveloped important connections, and overly shown stupid moments. This would have been forgivable if Kio had to be the one to pull the trigger on Girard in order to save everyone, but this kill going to Flit seriously makes you wonder what the hell are they doing with series planning. For this outcome I'd rather it have only taken 1 episode, and given the other 24 minutes to a different part of the story, but that's just me complaining. Something tells me they only have 2 endings left, colony drop attempt or the Exa db guardian comes, and attacks the lot of them. (my guess on the blacked out monster looking thing in the intro)

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Now I thought that after the Lunar base battle, the end game of the show would be to stop Ezelcant from obtaining the EXA-DB and using it to further his not-Destiny Plan. Now... I'm actually starting to think they might end up doing the Throw Big Nasty Thing At Earth song. And if something does happen with the DB, then what what was the big honkin' hoo-hah point of bringing Second Moon to the Earthsphere?

[Bryant Molirse]

As a way for them to create a peusdo-peace since everyone won't be dying from Mars radiation anymore?

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

But then why aren't the Vagan civvies screaming bloody murder about how this thing's been capable of interplanetary transport this whole time?