The Official Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans Anime Thread Mk II

[zetatype]

One thing I have to complaint about the show is, are we getting the second coming of Jes... I mean, Kira? Does Mika is going to be all encompassing all winning pilot? It's going to be boring for sure.

Its possible, but at the moment he is still a long way from being as OP as Kira with the Freedom or Strike Freedom.

[lingabao]

Though it's starting to get a *bit* heavy-handed, I do appreciate the explicit attention to the use of child soldiers. (Almost) every previous series uses child protagonists in a completely matter-of-fact way.

I'll be curious to see if they tie this theme with the McGillis/Almiria relationship. Hopefully it's not just a gimmick, and the series will have something serious to say about children being put in various adult situations.

[monster]

The main problem with Kira isn't that he always won, it's how he always won. He'd just show up, fire off some aim hack beam spam and be done with it. There's no skill involved with that.

Mika always wins, but it's because he's just that good.

There is plenty of skill involved in shooting others while not getting shot himself, especially when his mobile suit offers no protection against beam weapons. And Kira also makes good use of beam sabers.

As for IBO, there is no doubt that Mikazuki is good, but he too has help in the form of that interface.

[Destiny_Gundam]

That interface simply lets Mika control the suit like his own body. It's still his skills being used. Kira just sat there and let his OS auto lock on for him. Notice how when he gets put in the Strike Rouge he gets his ass handed to him pretty easily.

[monster]

That interface simply lets Mika control the suit like his own body.

There's nothing simple about it. Like UC's psycommu, that's a level of control that other pilots do not have with their own machines.

It's still his skills being used.

Just as it is still other pilots' skills being used to control their own mobile suits in a less hands-on manner, unless you want to discount the skill of all pilots that do not make use of a direct interface with their machines.

Kira just sat there and let his OS auto lock on for him. Notice how when he gets put in the Strike Rouge he gets his ass handed to him pretty easily.

That loss has nothing to do with the Strike Rouge's inability to auto-lock as Kira was still hitting his targets.

[Destiny_Gundam]

The point is that take Kira out of his OP suits and he's a decent pilot at best. In no way could you say the Barbatos is overpowered. It's only as deadly as it is because Mika is controlling it.

[monster]

The point is that take Kira out of his OP suits and he's a decent pilot at best. In no way could you say the Barbatos is overpowered. It's only as deadly as it is because Mika is controlling it.

I don't think we have enough information for you to make that point. We don't know how other pilots would do with either the Freedom or the Barbatos and we don't know how Mikazuki would do with whatever IBO's version of the Strike Rouge could be in a similar situation. Within its own context, the Barbatos is way more capable than the Strike Rouge was by the time Kira was piloting it.

Either way, it's still incorrect to say that Kira wasn't using skills while piloting the (Strike) Freedom.

[Zeonista]

zetatype: I do think that the Masahiro death scene this episode was the actual finale to that sub-plot. Masahiro's Man Rodi being crushed into the asteroid and his mortal wound was the first part, then his death after being reconciled with Akihiro was the end of it. People don't always die very swiftly from mortal wounds, so I could see the dramatic break and then coming back to it.

I can readily believe in the Post-Calamity era that none of the orphans have heard of a funeral, attended one, or even been told that there is a way of saying farewell to one's honored dead besides tossing the bodies away. It's that sort of crapsack world in places, and at a certain level human life is very cheap. Remember the in-story term human debris, that doesn't get repeated for nothing. Human debris doesn't get a funeral, it (ever it, no subjective pronoun) gets thrown away in death as in life.

The "that kiss" scene was very cute in a seishun mode for them. The general fan consensus in many places is that Mika went into that scene intending to steal a kiss. He got away with it...for now. I do think McGIllis is sincerely kind to Almiria, who is his best friend's kid sister and something of the same to him. (Almiria is still too young to qualify as anything else.) It's sort of a "pet the dog" moment for him but that is the sort of thing we need to see if the story is going to make us accept McGillis as an antagonist who is not as cut-throat greedy and ambitious as the others. See Nobliss as a convenient example there.

Destiny_Gundam: given that Kira is usually a gunner while Mikazuki is a melee brawler, maybe you should compare him to Athrun Zala instead? Athrun usually got the short-range Gundams, right? The comparison of SEED versus IBO is still valid though because Kira, Athrun, and Mikazuki owe no little amount of their prowess to artificial enhancement augmenting their piloting skill & talent.

lingabao: Yes, the idea of orphan soldiers and children growing up sooner than our own time is a front-and-center theme. It is much more pragmatically presented than the past Gundam series, baring the first original series. Usually the young pilot is needed because he is the only one who can pilot the Gundam, has an affinity to it, or has earned his spot through some capability in an emergency. Then somehow the agency using him as a pilot does not promptly replace him with an older pilot at the first opportunity! Amuro Ray and Mikazuki are both agents of circumstance, but Amuro was much freer in his choice than Mika-kun.

IBO has a dreadful in-story pragmatism regarding the use of people-usually young people-who have no connection to help them in life. Tekkadan is made up of boys that are not child soldiers by accident or necessity. They were chosen to become expendable soldiers by dint of the fact they had nowhere else to go and were cheaper to utilize than adult soldiers. Likewise they would usually be less inclined to do something about mistreatment because they don't have much of a sense of self. And then the surviving exploited children grow into adults who see the situation as normal, and likely become exploiters in turn. And it's not just Tekkadan either, as Atra's story and the Brewers show it is par for the course. If that sort of attitude makes you feel sick at heart and wanting it to stop, then IBO has done its job. The cycle of exploitation needs to stop, it must stop, and thus Kudelia-hime is on her way to Earth.

Now 00 tried something of the same kind for Setsuna and Allellujah, but ultimately the series story offered them up as the sort of random & isolated atrocity that Celestial Being was supposed to be stopping through their mission goal. In IBO the situation is more the norm than the exception, and there is no hiding or whitewashing of the circumstances. Ali Al-Sarchez would be very successful in the Post-Calamity era, and that about says it all.

[Amion]

Ali would be the head of a massive pirate group instead of the pig man from Brewers and show those idiots how a real operation is handled. He'd also have given Micka a run for his money.

*Shivers* Zeonista. Why did you have to give us the dreadful image of Ali living in the Post Calamity era? Now I won't be able to unthink it.

[Xenosynth]

To be honest, I think the more frightening thing is that it IS a universe where people like Ali exist. And, going off how much the Brewers have, how human debris are treated, evil people like Ali not only exist, but can THRIVE very easily in the world.

[Zeonista]

One of the background themes present in IBO is similar to Gundam X, AGE, and G-Reco. Notably, that a modern technological socially progressive society can not only come to a screeching halt in forward development, but also bounce backwards down the slope of societal evolution. IBO is a futuristic society with spaceships, humans living on a terraformed Mars, Mobile Suits, lots of cool stuff. But it also has legal slavery or the next thing to it, aristocratic oligarchy instead of popular democracy, all the civil rights a citizen can afford to pay for, and four big power blocs on Earth who are determined to wring Mars like a washrag in order to support their own schemes. If history is to be read as the Whig principle of an ever-progressive progression towards liberal democracy with a regulated but otherwise free economy, then the Post-Calamity Era is a new dark age.

I am looking forward to seeing what can be done about it. I am certain that Kudelia and McGillis are headed in-story towards a meeting and a potential solution that might not make all the problems go away, but at least ameliorate the situation and create positive change. Both of them are social & political elites who have seen at first hand the many ills plaguing society at large, and who both understand the human cost inherent in maintaining the status quo. Of course, that word change will bring all the reactionaries, intermediaries, and manipulative scumbags who keep the world as it is for the benefit of themselves from out of the woodwork to oppose the young reformers. So any assumptions those already in power are willing to give Kudelia & McGillis a chance, or concur with any solution the two of them could envision and/or create, should be given some likely qualifying limitations.

[Destiny_Gundam]

Well in other news, it's Comiket time and you can gauge the popularity of a series/character by the number of doujinshi they get.

There's quite a bit of IBO stuff on sale, and most of it features Kudellia (with maybe Fumitan or Atra thrown in with her). There are also a few Turbine centric books as well.

Looks like the series is pretty well received, but then again Gundam titles (more modern ones, anyways) usually have a healthy sized amount of fan works.

[balofo]

There will be no ep 14 this Sunday, resumes on 1/10

http://g-tekketsu.com/nenga/img02.png

[YokozunaBulldozer]

There will be no ep 14 this Sunday, resumes on 1/10

http://g-tekketsu.com/nenga/img02.png

I bet the new opening theme by Blue Encount is going to appear around this time.
I heard one of their previous work titled Halo and I like it.

[JDogindy]

Dude, one-liner is only kick ass when there's something actually cool about it. What you're doing is just an annoying complain.

Look I understand if you don't like it and you have right for that opinion, but keep complaining like this isn't much better than random spam message. It won't convince anyone to agree with you unless they're already share the same opinion.

I get your frustration because you feel like all he's doing is wasting space and complaining. But, I agree with him; Iron Blooded Orphans sucks, as far as I'm concerned. Didn't like it from the beginning, gave up, tried again, and gave up for good around Episode 8. Unfortunately, whenever you possess an unpopular opinion, you can't really articulate it well because you'll just get post after post on the Internet telling you you are an idiot for not liking something that people are gushing over, or, God forbid, show appreciation for something you are told to hate, like Reconguista in G. And, yes, G-Reco is one of my favorite Gundam installments.

To me, IBO is a pointless bloodbath with little character development. Whether or not it's because it's all flying over me, or that I don't like the concepts of child soldiers or harems or any of that stuff, I haven't really articulated it. But I can safely say it's one of my personal least favorite Gundam installments ever.

And I'm not gonna dismiss people who do like it because that's not the right thing to do, but I have an opinion, and I kinda want to express it.

[Zeonista]

There will be no ep 14 this Sunday, resumes on 1/10

http://g-tekketsu.com/nenga/img02.png

Happy New Year!!

[Amion]

Not happy New Year. I don't get to celebrate it with an assassination attempt.

[Deathzealot]

And the New Year is tonight. Why the heck are they putting it off for a week, AFTER the holiday?

[battletech]

And the New Year is tonight. Why the heck are they putting it off for a week, AFTER the holiday?

In Japan it's more like New Years Days. It can be as long as three or seven days.

[Deathzealot]

Hmmm... Really? Didn't know that.