The Official Gundam AGE Anime Thread AGE-9

[ShadowCell]

last one, probably. unstickied since the show is over. you guys know how this works.

They could do a sequel that addresses the weird time travel angle Treasure Star brought in.

Seriously, I don't think even the Gundam standard on 'canon' is flexible enough for that sidestory.

Wait, what? Time travel? I assume this is one of the side-stories, because I think this is the first time I've ever heard mention of that.

Treasure Star is a manga that occurs initially at the same time as Flit's arc, with another kid piloting his own AGE-1 inherited from his father and friends piloting similar knock offs of show MS. They even get an AGE Builder later.

It turns out the kid's dad is a time traveller from the far future who built an AGE-1 because he had the data and didn't want to upset the timeline. Flit encounters this second AGE-1 briefly and all the cast have crazy X-Rounder powers that suggest the writer thought they were X-Men instead.

The second part, which is set in Kio's run, suggests Kio was told bedtime stories about the second AGE-1.

[pk-man]

At the end of the day, as long as the gunpla sales are good, the quality of the series is pretty irrelevant. If the kits don't sell, then Bandai will just quietly sweep the whole thing under the rug, otherwise we will be seeing more of Age.

[Mythgarr]

There were rumors when AGE began that UE is actually time travellers coming from centuries ago , acting as the devil to forcee humans to prepare for high-tech alien invasion a century later. Hence the strange mecha designs, the advance technology they possesed (mecha powers, cloaks, etc).

This idea got me truly excited. I was expecting epic story.

Instead we got Martians, pirates, and pacifist with a high tech weapon...

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Unstickied already? That was fast.

[angelwingzero]

We done here guys? I think we're done. Party at the Macross thread!

[YazanGable]

Continuing from a post in the last thread

seems a bit presumptuous to say that the production team was happy with the product. In fact how much do we even know about the production period for certain? AGE wasn't perfect, not by a long shot but I definitely don't think it deserves near as much vitriol as it's getting.

Actually, comparatively speaking, quite a bit. Several of the people who had worked on the show (including guest animator Masami Obari) tweeted while working on it. The last episode saw enthusiastic congratulations to cast and crew, and the anime, despite claims of a changed ending, followed the game's story almost to the letter.

Considering the anime basically existed at the behest of Level 5 to suit the game, the fact the anime flowed prettymuch as L5 dictated makes it hard to argue there was a whole lot of unrest behind the scenes on this one.

[Gelgoog Jager]

At the end of the day, as long as the gunpla sales are good, the quality of the series is pretty irrelevant. If the kits don't sell, then Bandai will just quietly sweep the whole thing under the rug, otherwise we will be seeing more of Age.

Speaking of AGE gunpla, any idea how is it selling? I haven't heard about sales, but around different boards I have consistently heard that one of the things people do liked about Gundam AGE were the Vagan MS designs. It would be pretty ironic that after such poor treatment to the Vagans and their MS in the series, that they were the ones that end up providing enough sales to keep AGE alive.

[Kuruni]

During first generation...

Photo of discounted Genoace 50 Yen...
"Rumor" said that, they actually bundle AGE-1 Titus with Madoka figma, since people only buy it to build Madoka Titus. No source to confirm this, but fact that you think "possible" for such rumor say something...

Don't know about later generations though.

[ShadowCell]

of course, it is worth noting that in the show, the Genoace spent almost all its time on screen getting its ass kicked, which doesn't really help sell gunpla

[HellCat]

Shops cross promoting AGE-1 with Madoka toys really happened, I've seen photos. It was a meme very early in AGE and so hobby shops ran with it to get extra sales from Madoka fans.

With cheap Genoaces, I think ShadowCell nailed it. The Genoace line rarely if ever got anything awesome to do. I'd say in Flit's generation there was a warmer response to Largan's efforts then his actual MS. The only real time a Genoace got to do something cool was grabbing a Dorado's ankle and taking down two named X-Rounders (both Obright actions if you believe the novels). I was really hoping they'd make the Genoace have a charm but they never really pulled it off. Compare to the likes of 00 where got to see Flags and Tierens outwit the Gundams.

[YazanGable]

At the end of the day, as long as the gunpla sales are good, the quality of the series is pretty irrelevant. If the kits don't sell, then Bandai will just quietly sweep the whole thing under the rug, otherwise we will be seeing more of Age.

Speaking of AGE gunpla, any idea how is it selling? I haven't heard about sales, but around different boards I have consistently heard that one of the things people do liked about Gundam AGE were the Vagan MS designs. It would be pretty ironic that after such poor treatment to the Vagans and their MS in the series, that they were the ones that end up providing enough sales to keep AGE alive.

From the sounds of things, overall gunpla sales were par for the course and about the same as 00.

...of course, they were claiming they expected a 150% increase from 00's sales, so success is in the eye of the beholder here.

[Wellman]

Eh, felt middling as a show overall but it had its moments and characters.

At the end I sort of wished Kio would suffer some sort of crippling injury at the end of it, but that is me.

[Gelgoog Jager]

My greatest dissapointment is Frma Nara:

I would have loved to see that they had put Fram's character to better use, and there were certainly some elements out there that would have allowed a much better conclusion for the situation between her and Zeheart, with only some minor changes to be made:

First, since Leil receives the Ghiraga Kai, just leave it in Zehart's colors and he would have been the perfect bait for the Federation. At that point only Asemu would have known that Zeheart was no longer piloting it, so the Federation Forces could have thought that it was the enemy commander in the middle of the battlefield and felt reassured that they were not going to fire Lagramis.

Anyway, have Zeheart use Lagramis, sacrifice Leil and the other Vagan forces, which in turn would make Fram realize that in the end Zeheart do was the kind of person he wanted to kill from the beginning: a man who disposes of his subordinates as tools. It would greatly help to show Zeheart not hesitating as much as he did, a change they could have emphatized after his last meeting with Ezelcant to have the audience actually buy the change of heart as a direct result of Zeheart wholly accepting Ezelcant's ideals.

Anyway, instead of forcing the plot to have Asemu kill Zeheart as fast as possible to in order to fit it into the same episode, they could have Zeheart remained calm after sacrificing his foces and display the same kind of power and skill he had in his fight against SID and overpower all 3 Gundams.

Finally, as he is about to finish them off, have Fram betray him and kill him/mortally wound him. What could have happen afterwards could have go in several different directions.

Considering her initial background: herdesire for revenge for her brother, her scheming against Zeheart and her abilities as an X-Rounder (Newtype) just as her brother, she had the potential to become a magnificent character on the same league as Haman Kahn (one my favorite Zeon characters). Unfortunately she fell quite short of this, due to the poor story telling and sudden rush to "kill them all" before the last episode of the series, which sealed away such possibilities and instead left her as an impulsive romantic fan girl along the lines of Quess Paraya.

[YazanGable]

Considering her initial background: herdesire for revenge for her brother, her scheming against Zeheart and her abilities as an X-Rounder (Newtype) just as her brother, she had the potential to become a magnificent character on the same league as Haman Kahn (one my favorite Zeon characters).

Actually, to clarify, she wasn't scheming against him and she wasn't in it for revenge. She wanted to see what kind of a person Zeheart was like in order to be sure her brother died for a good cause. If she found Zeheart to be a bad commander or just in it for himself, THEN it would have turned into revenge. What we saw was more her initial misgivings and distrust as she was still trying to ascertain the kind of man her brother gave his life to save. Once she learned more about him, that distrust gave way and she worked with him more.

[HellCat]

And then she was like 'I'll happily be killed if it's to protect my romanticised view of him!'

I wouldn't really want to see Fram become like Haman but for someone who seemed to have her own agenda when she first appeared, it's really sad that her final scene is taking a super weapon to the face with complete humility because she's become such a lovesick puppy for Zeheart.

[angelwingzero]

Considering her initial background: herdesire for revenge for her brother, her scheming against Zeheart and her abilities as an X-Rounder (Newtype) just as her brother, she had the potential to become a magnificent character on the same league as Haman Kahn (one my favorite Zeon characters).

Actually, to clarify, she wasn't scheming against him and she wasn't in it for revenge. She wanted to see what kind of a person Zeheart was like in order to be sure her brother died for a good cause. If she found Zeheart to be a bad commander or just in it for himself, THEN it would have turned into revenge. What we saw was more her initial misgivings and distrust as she was still trying to ascertain the kind of man her brother gave his life to save. Once she learned more about him, that distrust gave way and she worked with him more.

I gotta that Fram was looking for revenge from the beginning, but Zeheart proved himself to her through his actions before everything went to hell.

[Chris]

During first generation...

Photo of discounted Genoace 50 Yen...
"Rumor" said that, they actually bundle AGE-1 Titus with Madoka figma, since people only buy it to build Madoka Titus. No source to confirm this, but fact that you think "possible" for such rumor say something...

Don't know about later generations though.

That picture has been photoshopped to support the argument that the gunpla weren't selling. The original photo had it priced at 500 yen, and I think the MSRP was about 700 to 800 yen.

[Kuruni]

Ah, silly me. Thank for correction, Chris.

[HellCat]

It occured to me while watching a Victory episode just now that one thing I think AGE did right was taking the orphans off the ship (granted I like what V does in that regard). There wasn't really any reason to put them in harm's way, unlike what so many old school shows did.

Of course that just furthers the desire for a proper epilogue. Would have been nice to see them as adults with kids of their own.

[Chris]

It occured to me while watching a Victory episode just now that one thing I think AGE did right was taking the orphans off the ship (granted I like what V does in that regard). There wasn't really any reason to put them in harm's way, unlike what so many old school shows did.

Of course that just furthers the desire for a proper epilogue. Would have been nice to see them as adults with kids of their own.

That's giving the show too much credit. There was no reason for those kids to even exist in the first place, except as an unnecessary reference to the White Base trio.