The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

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The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

New thread, you know the drill.
Turkuru wrote:and i've seen all of them except X bc it was cancelled prematurely and i didnt want to watch it without an ending.
X does have an ending, and it's one of the most satisfying ending of them all, especially considering the circumstances.
darkhunger wrote:It's not the translation. It's just how Tomino writes. Keep in mind this is the first Gundam series that's entirely scripted by Tomino, so it's got more of his usual style than anything that came before.

The only Tomino Gundam series that had narration that gave useful info was MSG though, and other Tomino Gundams definitely start off similarly vague and weird as this one did (ie Kamille's antics in the beginning of Zeta).

I think the real problem is for many people this is the first Tomino series that they are following the broadcast of and not just marathoning, so it's harder to keep track of all of the information being unveiled slowly and complex characters, and therefore tougher to maintain interest.

And no kid of today would be able to watch this show. Kids these days are about instant gratification and all the info spoonfed to them, which is the exactly what this show isn't about.
Zeta Gundam certainly did not start off vague, as it made it clear that Titans = EVIL and AEUG = GOOD. Though Turn A is probably the best comparison as it's a whole new era without past shows to establish anything. Turn A spent it's first bit establishing how life is on Earth now and how Loran adjusts to it. G-Reco is more like if Turn A started off with the While Doll ritual and never bothered explaining what the heck was going on. It's one thing to not 'spoonfeed' (honestly you sound like a bitter old man) the audience, but it's another to toss them a tangled ball of string and say "You figure it out!"
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Why do people continue to think Gundam X just stops midstory?
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

I feel like I kinda need to address things like the way characters seem carefree, or people talking about Aida's characterization.

Is it necessary for a death to turn someone into a ball of angst? I've experienced lots of deaths in the family over the course of my life, and I'm not constantly just huddled in my room with my arms around my knees and whimpering. Heck, my first reaction to hearing about my grandmother dying was, "Oh. Well, she was pretty old, I guess."

Not everyone reacts in the same way, and Aida might recognize that wasting her time grieving isn't going to get anything done. Her initial reaction was one facet of her character - she lost someone important to her and instantly broke down - but ever since that, she's tried to remain professional. In her line of work, their lives can be compromised at any moment, after all.
Destiny_Gundam wrote:G-Reco is more like if Turn A started off with the While Doll ritual and never bothered explaining what the heck was going on. It's one thing to not 'spoonfeed' (honestly you sound like a bitter old man) the audience, but it's another to toss them a tangled ball of string and say "You figure it out!"
That's probably true to some degree, but I think G-Reco is closer to the opening episodes of King Gainer than anything else. While the fundamental exposition (like Minovsky particles, the orbital elevator, etc.), there's little reason to go out and dump exposition like what a kuntala is, or what public memory about the UC wars is. Why would they do that? Exposition in Turn A was necessary since Loran didn't know the first thing about Earth culture, but the characters in Reconguista DO. We've had a lot of small hints about what's going on in the world, and why the Capital Army is going to be our antagonists. It's done way more maturely than things like Zeta's admittedly blatant "bad guys" since it's the kind of classic Gundam debate where both sides have solid arguments.

You gotta pay attention and really think to get Reconguista. I don't even fully understand what's going on, I'll admit, but it's not nearly as incomprehensible as people make it out to be.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Just to make sure I got this, the Capital Tower people are the 'bad guys' because gas prices are too high?
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Destiny_Gundam wrote: Zeta Gundam certainly did not start off vague, as it made it clear that Titans = EVIL and AEUG = GOOD. Though Turn A is probably the best comparison as it's a whole new era without past shows to establish anything. Turn A spent it's first bit establishing how life is on Earth now and how Loran adjusts to it. G-Reco is more like if Turn A started off with the While Doll ritual and never bothered explaining what the heck was going on. It's one thing to not 'spoonfeed' (honestly you sound like a bitter old man) the audience, but it's another to toss them a tangled ball of string and say "You figure it out!"
All the Titans were a bunch of elitist a-holes in the beginning of Zeta. You don't get a sense of what they did, why they are "evil", and what not until Episode 7. Even then, my point was in regards to Kamille, who acted really strangely ("illogical" to use your words) in the first bunch of episodes.

Turn A? You aren't ever explicitly told what's going on other than just some vague hints on what the situation is that you still need to piece together. You're not told who Loran/Fran/Keith really are and what their mission is until Episode 4. Like I said, it's much easier when you have the whole series in front of you, that you can watch all at once, plenty of information on the web, etc.
Destiny_Gundam wrote:Just to make sure I got this, the Capital Tower people are the 'bad guys' because gas prices are too high?
To Amerians they are monopolizing energy. To the SU-Cordists (the religious faction within the Capital Territory) they are ensuring that technology don't get too out of hand and humanity won't destroy the Earth like they did in the past.

But there's also warmongers within the Capital Territory, like Kunpa, the guy who just started the Capital Army, who are taking advantage of the situation and trying to build a new military for some to-be-revealed reason. It's more than just gas prices.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

I agree that Aida shouldn't be a ball of angst, but I still believe something, even something as small as a slight frown or contained rage at Bellri. It's fine if she wants to put it past her, but I want to see her actually do it. It's a minor point for me now, considering she seems to be grieving in private. But there is still that oddness.

I'm really not liking Bellri, but neither do I hate him. His smart question dodgery was what clinched it for me. I have close family who are like that. They seem all smiles and passivity. But it's a mask. They're thinking and calculating while they smile.

Honestly, I'm going to reiterate what I said earlier: Point of View. Earlier Tomino shows delve into at least the MC's psyche. We know what they're thinking and what they're likely to do next even before they do sometimes. I don't recall even once getting a true internal dialogue from Bellri. Save the very first instance he meets Aida. After that he's been a mask to the viewer, and Tomino is in the process of unwrapping him.

There's a very accurate current world analogy I'd use, but it's sort of political. Even so, just imagine, say, that there's a war going on right now that while mildly worrisome, hasn't affected me directly. The news of violence is some vague, far, far away thing. But there is still talk about potential harm done nearby. Then out of the blue a military branch appears in my town that violates the laws and moral code I've always followed. Would I start decrying them as some kind of insidious EVIL? Well, I'd be very concerned, and would ask questions. And if I started seeing tank divisions and advanced weaponry moving about, I'd be even more concerned, but not anywhere near the threaten or shoot stage.

Bellri and everyone else react similarly to the Capital Army. It just pops up. These new guys calling themselves military personnel start unloading or moving these new Catsiths about, and talk about a war between Ameria and Gondwon that could threaten the tower. So they're going to defend it! Presumably...

Since an army is apparently a taboo in Capital Tower, the characters start asking how the heck these guys were organized or allowed to be created. Bellri learns his mother, the high official he trusts most, had no more prior knowledge of Capital Army than he, a lowly cadet did. The army is a direct contradiction of doctrine he's believed in without cause for doubting all his life. He's bound to want to know what's going on.

Then he meets Aida, who is totally different from what he expected of a pirate. She's not sorry for stealing batteries, and makes him think about what it might be like to live in a world where you might have Photon batteries withheld from you by the Tower. Obviously Aida believes in her cause. A contradiction to what the higher ups probably always said about them vicious space pirates.

By episode 3, Bellri was probably very confused, and suspicious after talking with his mom. Something stinks in the Tower of the Capital. So he goes and lets Aida hijack the G-Self, allowing her to take him directly to the people he's curious about, and may have answers: the space pirates! He dodges questions to avoid spilling info like a good soldier, while gathering his own answers by observation. When the Catsith attack, he states he wants to know more about the CA. Possibly hinting that he might not want to go back, given that the CA might just perform a takeover.

Possibilities, and we still don't know what his internal thoughts are. Hopefully we will soon.

As for the strange speech patterns...no comment. I'm not really seeing it. Though I admit they're not as focused as they could be.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Destiny_Gundam wrote:Just to make sure I got this, the Capital Tower people are the 'bad guys' because gas prices are too high?
We don't really know if they're the "bad guys", but we do know they have an absolute monopoly on energy which they enforce for ideological/pseudo-religious, and other countries don't like it (implied because they feel it impedes their development and curtails their independence). Saying that it's because "gas prices are too high" mistakes a political issue for an economic one. We also can tell that this political tension is beginning to heat into conflict, and the Research Division of the Capital is either earnestly building a Capital Army for the sake of defence, or is using the convenience of these heating tensions to push an agenda. Of course, the fact that no one else knew an army was being built, amongst a bunch of other different hints (Bellri's mother making that comment about the Director of Research using her son's kidnapping) implies the latter. We for a fact know that the Research Division is the arm of the Capital that seems to conduct international relations (episode 2), and it's also implied the Research Division knows things that everyone else in the Capital does not, which may be because they do not disclose all their findings and activities. Now however, we find out that this agenda may not have to do with the other countries, but with something else, which Ameria seems to be aware of too. Given that we've just found out both Ameria and the Capital were essentially fighting for possession of one myseterious G-Self, that seemed to have appeared from space, and the fact that Ameria wants to capture the Capital Tower for their own space operations, it's implied that both countries could be worried about something else coming from space. So yeah, it's not necessary that the Capital is "the bad guy". The director of the Research Division seems to have the makings of a pull strings from the shadows villain, but maybe he's just a well meaning but secretive good guy. Or maybe not. There's still a whole lot we don't know about the primary conflicts of the show, but it's very apparent to me at least that they are building towards it.
Amion wrote:I agree that Aida shouldn't be a ball of angst, but I still believe something, even something as small as a slight frown or contained rage at Bellri. It's fine if she wants to put it past her, but I want to see her actually do it. It's a minor point for me now, considering she seems to be grieving in private. But there is still that oddness.

I'm really not liking Bellri, but neither do I hate him. His smart question dodgery was what clinched it for me. I have close family who are like that. They seem all smiles and passivity. But it's a mask. They're thinking and calculating while they smile.

Honestly, I'm going to reiterate what I said earlier: Point of View. Earlier Tomino shows delve into at least the MC's psyche. We know what they're thinking and what they're likely to do next even before they do sometimes. I don't recall even once getting a true internal dialogue from Bellri. Save the very first instance he meets Aida. After that he's been a mask to the viewer, and Tomino is in the process of unwrapping him.

There's a very accurate current world analogy I'd use, but it's sort of political. Even so, just imagine, say, that there's a war going on right now that while mildly worrisome, hasn't affected me directly. The news of violence is some vague, far, far away thing. But there is still talk about potential harm done nearby. Then out of the blue a military branch appears in my town that violates the laws and moral code I've always followed. Would I start decrying them as some kind of insidious EVIL? Well, I'd be very concerned, and would ask questions. And if I started seeing tank divisions and advanced weaponry moving about, I'd be even more concerned, but not anywhere near the threaten or shoot stage.

Bellri and everyone else react similarly to the Capital Army. It just pops up. These new guys calling themselves military personnel start unloading or moving these new Catsiths about, and talk about a war between Ameria and Gondwon that could threaten the tower. So they're going to defend it! Presumably...

Since an army is apparently a taboo in Capital Tower, the characters start asking how the heck these guys were organized or allowed to be created. Bellri learns his mother, the high official he trusts most, had no more prior knowledge of Capital Army than he, a lowly cadet did. The army is a direct contradiction of doctrine he's believed in without cause for doubting all his life. He's bound to want to know what's going on.

Then he meets Aida, who is totally different from what he expected of a pirate. She's not sorry for stealing batteries, and makes him think about what it might be like to live in a world where you might have Photon batteries withheld from you by the Tower. Obviously Aida believes in her cause. A contradiction to what the higher ups probably always said about them vicious space pirates.

By episode 3, Bellri was probably very confused, and suspicious after talking with his mom. Something stinks in the Tower of the Capital. So he goes and lets Aida hijack the G-Self, allowing her to take him directly to the people he's curious about, and may have answers: the space pirates! He dodges questions to avoid spilling info like a good soldier, while gathering his own answers by observation. When the Catsith attack, he states he wants to know more about the CA. Possibly hinting that he might not want to go back, given that the CA might just perform a takeover.

Possibilities, and we still don't know what his internal thoughts are. Hopefully we will soon.

As for the strange speech patterns...no comment. I'm not really seeing it. Though I admit they're not as focused as they could be.
I didn't really piece together Bellri's internal motivations nearly as well as you did :P. I just figured that it would become more apparent as the series went on. Thanks for sharing.

As for Aida, I think her on and off reactions to Cahill's death helps characterize her. On one hand she's motivated by higher causes and broader goals, wants to move on, clearly wants to be a person that treats everyone well, and doesn't seem prone to being hateful. On the other hand, she's grieving, and a natural impulse is to hate the guy who took someone important from you. It's that internal tension that drives her behavior. Every time she's started openly grieving it's at some moment that Cahill does have some connection to. Her argument with Bellri about energy politics is tied to what Cahill's motivations were, and so when she thinks about that and Cahill springs to mind of course she's going to steer the conversation that way. When she arrives back at the Megafauna, the pain of loss probably strikes her again, because she's back in a familiar and comfortable environment, and it must strike her hard that this time Cahill isn't there with her. Finally, I think the complication that she's probably aware of Bellri's attraction to him (people being attracted to her seems like a common thing that she probably grew up with), and may in fact be slightly drawn to him, adds to her internal tensions. At the very least, she seems to appreciate Bellri as a person (much less what he did to her beloved Cahill though) and doesn't seem to hate him (not everyone wants to hate the person that took someone they loved away). I didn't think the ballet dance was a very unnatural thing to do if you wanted to flirt a little, and if you wanted to show know that you're going to be okay. Some people just have sparks of whimsy about them, but she could have been whimsical intentionally to communicate ease and comfort. At the end of the day I haven't found Aida's behavior strange at all. She fits into my experiences with people who have had to grieve while still trying to live their lives or have had lost ones far in the past but once in a while stumble onto a thought about them. In real life not everyone sinks into a depressive, angry, hateful and/or otherwise negative state.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

I think part of the reason Aida is not as spiteful toward Bellri is that she understands he was defending himself and her when he shot Cahill I mean when he first did of course she is going to be freaking out someone she deeply cared for died right before her eyes but then after thinking she probably accepted the circumstances and does not blame Bell for it in the slightest or at least can accept that under tension there was very little else he could do it's a very mature and reasonable standpoint
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

It's possible (likely, even) that this is one of those shows that gets better the more times you watch it. As we've seen, there's a lot to unpack, and it can leave viewers cold - including me, and I really WANT to like this show. I also want it to be successful. I happen to agree completely with Tomino that Gundam needs to move beyond itself, and his scenario and characters for G-Reco are a brilliant reinvention of Gundam as a concept, still fitting into the broader scope of the franchise while given us the most radically different setting and cast since G Gundam and Turn-A.

But while it's great that Tomino wants G-Reco to be the model for "Gundam: The Next Generation" (so to speak), he isn't writing it like that. It's not an especially accessible show. People have brought up the "I don't care if you like my show" quote to explain this away, but that's missing the point of that quote; Tomino was saying that he wants future generations to take to this show like the last one took to MSG and so he doesn't care if the current set of fans (who have such a rigid idea of what "Gundam" is supposed to be) embrace it, not that he doesn't want anybody to like it, period. Problem is, a show that purposely gives viewers a sense of alienation and distance from the culture of its cast and setting - no matter how well done it is - isn't the best way to capture the hearts and minds of the general public.

Of course, as predicted by Tomino, it's not even reliably capturing the hearts and minds of Gundam fans, with many shrugging and switching back over to Build Fighters. And while I think BF is plenty fun and cute and whatnot, it's not GUNDAM, to me - it fits into neither the insular fan/media concept nor the broader scope of things. It's not a character-driven mecha show about the relationship between humanity, technology, and conflict. I'm also wary of the implications of its runaway success; it's basically the same genre as Yu-Gi-Oh (though much better executed), existing mostly to push merchandise, and Gundam doesn't need to become any more merchandise-driven than it already it. G-Reco has the potential to actually move things forward if only it would tell its story in an even slightly more conventional way; Build Fighters can only serve to reinforce the existing state of things, both in terms of storytelling ("LOOK! IT'S THIS THING AND THIS MECH AND THIS CHARACTER YOU REMEMBER!") and in Bandai's marketing focus. And that makes me sad.

I'm still enjoying G-Reco; my opinion is far more latenlazy and darkhunger than Destiny_Gundam, and I look forward to it every week. But I'm starting to feel like it probably have all the impact of Turn-A at best, and will ultimately make the franchise even more resistant to storytelling that breaks new ground at worst.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Next week we will see the strange but intriguing Elf-Bell. And is turn out, it has two versions: Elf-Bell and Elf-Bellek(?)

Sleek machines. But I am waiting the Jahannam and Hecate more.

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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Kratos wrote:It's possible (likely, even) that this is one of those shows that gets better the more times you watch it. As we've seen, there's a lot to unpack, and it can leave viewers cold - including me, and I really WANT to like this show. I also want it to be successful. I happen to agree completely with Tomino that Gundam needs to move beyond itself, and his scenario and characters for G-Reco are a brilliant reinvention of Gundam as a concept, still fitting into the broader scope of the franchise while given us the most radically different setting and cast since G Gundam and Turn-A.

But while it's great that Tomino wants G-Reco to be the model for "Gundam: The Next Generation" (so to speak), he isn't writing it like that. It's not an especially accessible show. People have brought up the "I don't care if you like my show" quote to explain this away, but that's missing the point of that quote; Tomino was saying that he wants future generations to take to this show like the last one took to MSG and so he doesn't care if the current set of fans (who have such a rigid idea of what "Gundam" is supposed to be) embrace it, not that he doesn't want anybody to like it, period. Problem is, a show that purposely gives viewers a sense of alienation and distance from the culture of its cast and setting - no matter how well done it is - isn't the best way to capture the hearts and minds of the general public.

Of course, as predicted by Tomino, it's not even reliably capturing the hearts and minds of Gundam fans, with many shrugging and switching back over to Build Fighters. And while I think BF is plenty fun and cute and whatnot, it's not GUNDAM, to me - it fits into neither the insular fan/media concept nor the broader scope of things. It's not a character-driven mecha show about the relationship between humanity, technology, and conflict. I'm also wary of the implications of its runaway success; it's basically the same genre as Yu-Gi-Oh (though much better executed), existing mostly to push merchandise, and Gundam doesn't need to become any more merchandise-driven than it already it. G-Reco has the potential to actually move things forward if only it would tell its story in an even slightly more conventional way; Build Fighters can only serve to reinforce the existing state of things, both in terms of storytelling ("LOOK! IT'S THIS THING AND THIS MECH AND THIS CHARACTER YOU REMEMBER!") and in Bandai's marketing focus. And that makes me sad.

I'm still enjoying G-Reco; my opinion is far more latenlazy and darkhunger than Destiny_Gundam, and I look forward to it every week. But I'm starting to feel like it probably have all the impact of Turn-A at best, and will ultimately make the franchise even more resistant to storytelling that breaks new ground at worst.
Welp, Tomino tends to take the approach of making viewers change their own standards or thinking rather than compromise the story telling form to get them on board. It doesn't always work well from an accessibility standpoint, since not every audience is ameliorative to a creator that demands from them as much as they demand from the creator. My guess is that the series will just be inaccessible for a lot of people because they're looking for very specific things when they pick up a series that isn't "let's think hard".
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Guys, I think at this point, veteran gundam fans should stop complaining about Tomino's way of doing and just enjoy the flow. The man is a cult-product maker, not fans-pleaser. That's how he started a rich universe of giant robots fighting each others with beam sabers in space colonies and still able to call it "real robots"
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Mythgarr wrote:Guys, I think at this point, veteran gundam fans should stop complaining about Tomino's way of doing and just enjoy the flow. The man is a cult-product maker, not fans-pleaser. That's how he started a rich universe of giant robots fighting each others with beam sabers in space colonies and still able to call it "real robots"
Here here! I'll stop playing Tomino apologist.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Mythgarr wrote:Guys, I think at this point, veteran gundam fans should stop complaining about Tomino's way of doing and just enjoy the flow. The man is a cult-product maker, not fans-pleaser. That's how he started a rich universe of giant robots fighting each others with beam sabers in space colonies and still able to call it "real robots"
But a flaw is still a flaw. Tomino doesn't get a pass on that just because of who he is.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Destiny_Gundam wrote:But a flaw is still a flaw. Tomino doesn't get a pass on that just because of who he is.
When it comes to writing, what is and isn't considered a flaw can be subjective. I think in this case the reason we're having this discussion is because some people (me included) don't agree with you about whether there's a flaw. But to each his/her own :)
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Well I think when only a small fraction of your target audience can fully grasp what you're aiming for, we can objectively call that problematic.

While most of the main points aren't that hard to pick out, the finer details are lost in the verbal diarrhea constantly spewing out characters' mouths. The world isn't square? WTF is that supposed to mean?
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

That "verbal diarrhea" contains most of the plot and characterization, and has only struck me as being especially odd on a handful of occasions - and even then, it's almost never that hard to figure out what the show is doing with it. In terms of that specfic example, Aida meant the angle of Bellri's attack, as he came at her in a way that showed he wasn't thinking in terms of space combat when he planned it. It's a weird line, but it's not incomprehensible, and anyways it's not a plot-vital exclamation; I feel like getting hung up on minor weird things that the characters say and do (see Aida's twirling) is kinda missing the forest for the trees, though admittedly that's easier to do with a subtitled show as talk-y as G-Reco (and especially when those subtitles are prepared with zero localization and as literally as possible).

Do we know what the Japanese fandom's reaction to this show has been? I wonder if the dialog is written in such a way that's easier to follow when you don't need to rely on subs and can pick up on linguistic cues more naturally.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

Kratos wrote: Do we know what the Japanese fandom's reaction to this show has been? I wonder if the dialog is written in such a way that's easier to follow when you don't need to rely on subs and can pick up on linguistic cues more naturally.
The Japanese are equally perplexed by some of the lines, as they always have been by Tomino's writing. However, it certainly helps that they don't have to deal with subs and meanings being lost due to translations.
Destiny_Gundam wrote:Well I think when only a small fraction of your target audience can fully grasp what you're aiming for, we can objectively call that problematic.
Only a problem if you're a Sunrise producer and actually cares about accessibility of the show. But then again they ok'd this and are airing this after midnight so perhaps they are fully aware of the show's niche appeal. And for people who are fans of Tomino's works (the real target audience regardless of what Tomino says) his writing style is more of a positive than a negative. So once again, subjective.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

I'm watching Reco and Turn A at the same time. It's just reminding me that 15 years ago Tomino could give us a whimsical, far future Gundam show that was actually easy to grasp. There are eccentricities in Turn A but Reco...given what is popular with the audience Tomino is aiming for in Japan, I have to wonder if it even registers with them.
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Re: The Official Gundam Reconguista Anime Thread Mk II

HellCat wrote:There are eccentricities in Turn A but Reco...given what is popular with the audience Tomino is aiming for in Japan, I have to wonder if it even registers with them.
It doesn't. This show is popular with the 30-40+ crowd based on some pre-air surveys, which is consistent with the type of audience Gundam Unicorn got (which was significant), and so far, it seems the Blu-Ray pre-orders appear to be good. So there IS an audience for this, but it's certainly not the teens and tweens audience that Tomino thinks he is getting. But Tomino is almost always wrong about the type of audience his stuff resonates with anyway (ie making Brain Powered for the Evangelion crowd didn't fly well), so I wouldn't take his words too literally.

And as for Turn A, I really, really think people are giving it far too much credit as far as being easier to understand than G-Reco. It really isn't. Characters still took some time to figure out, the narrative wasn't immediately clear either. Alot of things also appeared nonsensical until the show had time to develop (such as how Dianna irresponsibility swapped roles with Kihel of seemingly no reason, but which you eventually sort out why based on what you learn of her personality and history). The story and personalities really unravel over the course of many episodes, which G-Reco doesn't have the luxury of having so far.

I think the bottom line is, nostalgia always makes things seem better than they actually were.
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