The Official Gundam The Origin Anime Thread Mk I

[penguintruth]

I hadn't gotten far enough into the manga for this flashback. Is Zeon Zum Daikun supposed to have been a lunatic? No wonder the wrinkled potato man had him killed, I think even Giren wasn't so over-the-top. He did say he was exhausted from working on his speech, so maybe he was so burnt out he was getting loopy over it.

Otherwise, wow, the entire Newtype ideal comes from a completely delusional maniac. And I'm not just talking about Mr. Tomino.

(Aw, I kid Big T. I kid because I love.)

[Kratos]

Thanks HEDGESMFG! That's really interesting, and confirms a couple of my thoughts on why Banrise might be hesitant to remake MSG.

I hadn't gotten far enough into the manga for this flashback. Is Zeon Zum Daikun supposed to have been a lunatic?

I think before THE ORIGIN he was more or less assumed to be a political idealist whose views get warped post-mortem by the Zabis. I'm not sure where else he even shows up; pre-OYW works are pretty rare, after all.

As for THE ORIGIN, he shows up two more times, IIRC:

Spoiler

The first is in a reminiscence of Astraia's, while she's talking to Hamon and reflecting on how she met Deikun, but he doesn't say or do much - mostly just rest his head in her lap. The only other time we see him is in a short chapter depicting Char's birth included in the last hardcover. There, he's shown as being attentive to his pregnant wife, though he makes another hackneyed Biblical reference and everything, this time to Bethlehem.

From those, I think Yas is trying to portray him as an essentially caring man with perhaps a few too many messianic delusions, which I think is more or less in line with the scene in the 7-minute preview - that bit where he cuddles Sayla comes across as an attempt to soften the initial impression his ranting might give, which I think it succeeds at, though others may disagree. The lunacy (if you wanna call it that) is likely an attempt to give a bit more of a political "edge" to his desire for independence, making him a bit more of a revolutionary figure than he's traditionally portrayed.

(Also, hey, I recognize that name from the ANN forums! Welcome!)

[Kratos]

[double post]

[toysdream]

There's actually a long excerpt from Deikun's writings in Tomino's Zeta novels - it's inserted, with no particular justification, right before Char's Dakar speech. Sunrise asked me to translate it so they'd have some text to put on all those manuscript pages in The Origin. And wow, it's pretty mental.

As it turns out, I'm not sure they actually used it - the manuscript pages we see in the 7-minute preview animation are from Deikun's warmer, fuzzier speech in Tomino's original Gundam novels. It's possible that Sunrise had second thoughts about using the one from the Zeta novels because it's honestly kind of fascist. :-\

-- Mark

[penguintruth]

I always kind of pictured Daikun as being a rabble-rouser, but ultimately one with an earnest, well-meaning passion, who had all his faculties. But apparently Yas sees him as a pretentious, nearly unhinged political firebrand who sees himself as a martyr. Which, to be fair, he kind of was.

No wonder his kids were so screwed up. I don't think he was all that better than Degwin, if this preview is any indication of how he was.

(Also, hey, I recognize that name from the ANN forums! Welcome!)

Thanks!

[Kratos]

I'm not sure his softer side should be discounted entirely, though.

[domtropen]

??? I do not think Sayla is a nutcase like her bro

[BrentD15]

If you can't see an Origin full 2D TV series being an yen printer, you'd make a bad investor.

By your logic they should've done the Origin gunpla as the manga was being published or not long after it, yet we got nothing until now. Not to mention the Okawara redesigns are awesome and popular.

Same reason there aren't any HF official gunpla for now, they will only do them if they're confident there won't be a HF anime or they decide to animate it. Do you really think a MG Xi wouldn't sell like hot cakes?

We've got Sentinel gunpla since the photonovel was released and we know there are issues about the Sentinel IP. The chances of Sentinel being animated are next to zero.

Balofo, you're starting to sound very condescending about this whole issue.

As the one who actually 'discussed' the topic with the Sunrise Producers, I wish to clarify something here.

Now, this is based off of a conversation I had 2 and a half years ago, but I recall enough details to add some perspective.

After the Otakon 2012 official panel, I had a brief conversation with the sunrise staff there, mainly to thank them for their interest and patience with our market, and to give them some small insights I've noticed (as I've been hosting dedicated Gundam fan panels throughout the country for over a decade now at some of the country's largest anime events, which gave me a rather unique view on Gundam's western presence).

In addition to expressing my excitement and optimism for G-Reco, renewed interest in bringing over the other unlicensed titles (via streaming or disc release, if possible), and dropping in fun little reminders such as the ideas that /m/ seemed to love titles like G and Crossbone (in 2010, the same Sunrise Producer asked me if we wanted more G Gundam out of the blue, without me dropping any hints! I told him straight up yes, sequel or otherwise!)... the key question I had to ask was why we hadn't heard anything about Origin for 13 months since the original announcement. The response I got surprised me at the time, but wasn't entirely unexpected.

It was explained to me that they had been deliberating for a year because they were firstly unsure of which format they wanted to choose (likely for fiscal reasons), but secondly extremely hesitant to even touch the original 0079 series material 'at all'. No one in the studio was sure about replacing something so iconic. First Gundam really is a culturally signifigant production to them.

It is true that I then offered a suggestion to perhaps do an OVA featuring only the original material if 'and only if' they felt uncomfortable remaking the whole of 0079, as I still felt this was a good compromise. I still told them that a TV series remake would be a great thing to see, and should be a pretty obvious money maker. I just wanted to offer a reasonable compromise to prevent what I feared could be the dreaded development hell that some shows/games get stuck in. Of course, all of this assumes they actually listened to me at all (one single, mildly fanatical international fan), like you jokingly suggested, rather than whatever budget or agenda Bandai put before Sunrise to make this production.

Of course, I certainly didn't want CGI battles, but that's another story, and if that'd be the approach they take for a full length series... I'm not sure how I'd feel about it. We'll see when we get there.

All I can say is, just because they've chosen to focus on the backstory NOW doesn't mean they won't do more. If Origin does well (which I agree that it certainly should), there always a chance for more. A 39-ish episode TV series could easily happen if they want to do it.

On another slightly less relevant note... based on a conversation I had with a Vertical rep during Katsucon this weekend, I can assure you that Origin manga is not only doing very well abroad, but they're taking the market for Gundam as a whole very seriously here. More UC titles are quickly approaching. The sales numbers are there, and their recent poll for what the viewers want generated a much larger than expected amount of participants... or as he and I both said, Gundam in the west did NOT die the moment it went off cartoon network. It was still only the first stage of this franchise's global expansion. All things considered, it's a good time to be a UC fan.

Thank you for your insights and personal experiences into this matter, HEDGE.
It's certainly nice to finally hear that Gundam didn't die in the West (especially after all the pessimism).

On the issue of an MSG remake, the only thing I can think of would be an update in animation (sorta like what we were seeing from a certain PS1 game from the late 1990's ) with no change in the story and characters.

??? I do not think Sayla is a nutcase like her bro

Same here. I found her much more stable than Char ever was (probably from being raised by Jimba Ral).

[penguintruth]

I don't know, I'd say Sayla had some problems, too. She was wound way too tight, even making Bright seem easy-going.

[balofo]

So OVA 1 is vol 9 plus the incomplete Loum part from vol 14.

that leaves vols 10, 11, 12 and 13 to be covered in 3 OVAs.

What will be cut?

Also what will they add to OVA 2 since the only MS shown in vol 10 is the MS-01 prototype? Need to sell gunpla

[Kratos]

Plus the rest of vol. 14, don't forget that. And it's always possible that we'l get a 2-volume/1-hardcover coverage per episode (do we know how long each one is going to be?), which gives a bit more room for flexibility. It's hard to say what would get cut entirely though...maybe all the stuff on Side 7? I can't see them passing up an opportunity to spend time with Amuro though.

So far, we've been given two "flagship" kits from episode 1 - one redone classic (Char's Zaku) and one exclusive to the manga (the Guncannon, which is being passed off as a prototype in the OVA). If they follow this pattern, 6 more are needed. IIRC, the only other flashback-exclusive MS are the MS-01 and the one upgrade that sees action on the moon (MS-03? 04? I don't remember). I imagine they'll release a Guncannon like they did the Guntank. That leaves 3, so my money would be on either more flash forwards (RX78-01? More Char stuff?) or MS totally unique to the OVA.

[balofo]

My assumption is that OVA 4 will end just before OVA 1 beginning coming full circle. I can see they cutting that civilians being gassed part and shortening others. The main focus are the Char/Sayla bits plus the MS development parts.

MS that appear in the manga flashback vols(not depicted yet in the OVA):
-MS-06F
-MS-01, MS-02, MS-03 prototypes
-MS-04 orange and Ral blue
-MS-05 Tristars colors
-MS-05 Char colors
-RX-77-01 Guncannon prototype

That's it, they are obviously doing the Von Braun fight between the Zeon Aces and the Proto Guncannons, but besides it there are no other MS battles in the manga.

IMO they will show other famous Char battles at the beginning of the other OVAs

[Deacon Blues]

Hey Mark, what chapter/volume of the Zeta novels does his speech appear in?

[Kratos]

My assumption is that OVA 4 will end just before OVA 1 beginning coming full circle. I can see they cutting that civilians being gassed part and shortening others. The main focus are the Char/Sayla bits plus the MS development parts.

I hope they won't cut the civilians getting gassed part. That's one of the best-done parts of the manga. My inner optimist tells me that Operation British is too big a part of the early OYW for anything regarding it to get cut (as is the civilian gassing, and that's the only time said gassing is shown, yeah?).

But come to that, there's not really any evidence that those are the "main focus". I agree that it's highly unlikely for anything regarding the mechs to be shortened/cut (as there's so little of it already), but it's not called "Char and Sayla" or "Char: THE ORIGIN". I think there's a pretty good chance that the elements not involving them will make it in.

MS that appear in the manga flashback vols(not depicted yet in the OVA):
-MS-06F
-MS-01, MS-02, MS-03 prototypes
-MS-04 orange and Ral blue
-MS-05 Tristars colors
-MS-05 Char colors
-RX-77-01 Guncannon prototype

Wow, that's a lot more distinct MS than I remember, though I was deliberately leaving out colour variants like the Tristars' Zakus (which I'm sure we'll get, but not as the "flagship" for each episode, and possibly even as P-Bandai releases).

The more I think about it, the more likely an RX-78-01 cameo/kit seems. It does, after all, show up on a schematic, and it's the predecessor to THE most iconic MS in the franchise.

[laj12387]

After seeing the 7min preview of Gundam the Origin I. Is it just me or does the 2d animation seem very stiff even more with Astraia?

[excalibur2008]

for much the same reason that remake-happy Hollywood wouldn't redo the original Star Wars trilogy (too much of a pop culture institution).

Actually I have no doubt whatsoever ever that someone will in fact at some point decide to remake the original Star Wars films and the studio will in fact not give a crap if nerds on the Internet cry about it (because they're going to be the ones doing it)

Just as Paramount and JJ Abrams did not and still do not, and probably never will give a shit that a minority of Trek fans turned into loud obnoxious infintile jackasses with delusions of grandure becuase the rebooted Star Trek.

[balofo]

After seeing the 7min preview of Gundam the Origin I. Is it just me or does the 2d animation seem very stiff even more with Astraia?

IMO both CGI and 2D animation are cheap.

Anyway, OVA 2 is called Texas Colony

[Kratos]

Source?

[Deacon Blues]

TVBros magazine special on the Origin.

[Epic SA-X Guy]

Grumbling about the price of the regular edition, I could understand - that's a fair complaint about "the price of Gundam fandom".

Grumbling about the price of the deluxe collector's edition doesn't make any sense to me, since it's a luxury good by definition. You may as well complain that Donald Trump is being asked to pay too much for his yachts.

-- Mark

You wouldn't happen to know if the regular edition they're selling in Japan is subtitled as well, would you? It's been a point of contention in some circles and possibly the source for all this complaint.

On another slightly less relevant note... based on a conversation I had with a Vertical rep during Katsucon this weekend, I can assure you that Origin manga is not only doing very well abroad, but they're taking the market for Gundam as a whole very seriously here. More UC titles are quickly approaching. The sales numbers are there, and their recent poll for what the viewers want generated a much larger than expected amount of participants... or as he and I both said, Gundam in the west did NOT die the moment it went off cartoon network. It was still only the first stage of this franchise's global expansion. All things considered, it's a good time to be a UC fan.

Can you reveal what kind of stuff they were thinking about localising? I always thought that Vertical should localise the Unicorn novels, but when I spoke to their Editor he said that, at that moment, they were only particularly interested in localising high end Gundam manga, the problem being that The Origin is really the only manga of that level of production quality.

Is anyone hyper for this? I watched the latest PV and it was just meh to me

Can't believe Imanishi did the awesome Votoms OVAs yet only did garbage for the Gundam franchise

But your avatar is literally from Gundam 0083.