The Official Gundam Narrative Anime Thread Mk I

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Amion
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Re: The Official Gundam Narrative Anime Thread Mk I

And that now makes Angel Halo all that much more terrifying a creation. Forget giant space lasers. Time manipulation all the way.

The future that is the bizarre Reguild Century of G-Reconguista now makes worlds more sense than it used to make.
They don't know the power of a balanced vision.
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yazi88
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Re: The Official Gundam Narrative Anime Thread Mk I

Reguild Century is just Tomino making up nonsense more than anything else. This is the same Tomino that once said that G-reco takes place 500 years AFTER Turn A in a interview...

Angel Halo is physic waves messing with people's minds by using newtypes as batteries. As for Narrative, I'm going to see it when it premieres on the 19th in theatres. I'm still standing by my point that this time travel thing is taken too literally until I've seen how it is presented on screen... I still think its newtype waves pushing things apart like how Amuro did with Axis in CCA.
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Deathzealot
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Re: The Official Gundam Narrative Anime Thread Mk I

Well it looks like Fathom Events is going to be showing a Dubbed version of Narrative at limited theaters across the country on the 19th. I know what I am going to be doing that night.
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Deathzealot
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Re: The Official Gundam Narrative Anime Thread Mk I

Well. I just got back from watching Gundam Narrative and I must say it is far better then I thought it would. I shall put down my thoughts on it bellow and I am going to try to spoiler tag everything that would spoil the movie for those who don't want to be spoiled. Other stuff I won't be put in Spoiler Tags for it is pretty much common knowledge by now or related to Unicorn.

First of all. Besides a couple mentions early in the movie there is no time travel involved at all! And even then that was in relation to the incident at the end of Unicorn where the Unicorn disables the mobile suit forces of the General Revil. Also, it wasn't explained as time travel but converting parts to before they were assembled or something like that.

Something I want to point out before I get to the spoilers. I noticed that the main ship of the movie, the Clop Class Cruiser Damascus, looks like a regular Clop but has some notable changes. Including a larger hangar door, maybe a larger hangar as well since it could carry the six Jesta machines plus the Narrative, and having what looks to be some sort of Gravity Deck. The underside cooling fins are also smaller then what we have seen on the other Clops. Also, the underside of the forward hull is quite different looking with the central hull being a bit wider. Thanks to this I believe this ship is a sort-of step to the development of the Reinforce due to this.

Now Warning Some Major Spoilers Ahead. If you don't want to be spoiled don't open the Spoiler Boxes.
Spoiler
The Overall Theme of the movie was about Newtypes, but it focused more on how Newtypes could use the power of those who died to do things. Using what they called the "soul" of someone, but in reality some sort of power left behind by the death of a human being. Didn't really understand totally. But a couple characters point out, *cough* Michelle *cough* that capturing the Phenix would allow them to get the power to conquer death or something like that. They also very briefly touch upon the power of a Newtype and that they sort-of pass on their powers to others which is what happens between the three Miracle Children. Rita is the only real Newtype of three but was able to pass on her powers to both Michelle and Jona who were a bit enhanced by the Titan's Newtype Research were still regular humans. Michelle even admits this late in the movie. Though I am not too sure about Jona being a normal human since he was able to use Pyscho Fields at the end of the movie. Rita may have still been passing her powers onto Jona there but I wonder. Anyways that is enough about the Theme of the movie.
Spoiler
The movie mainly focuses on the three main characters, the so-called Miracle Children: Jona Basta, Michelle Luio, and Rita Bernal. The other characters are still interesting, especially Michelle's aide Brick Teclato and the leader of the Shezarr Team Lieutenant Commander Iago Haakana. The former having his own mini-story arc about why he is so loyal to Michelle, and the latter having either witnessed the Axis Shock personally in some way or had been one of the pilots "helping" Amuro in pushing Axis back. The rest of the Shezarr Team really didn't get the much screen time at all during the movie besides sharing with the rest of the team. Something I only noticed during the end of the movie.The surprise though is that none of them die in the movie. Commander Haakana almost got himself killed but managed to get out of it in the end. Meanwhile, outside of Zoltan, the Zeon characters aren't really all that interesting. Outside of them being Republic of Zeon personnel and not Zeon renmants anyways. Zoltan appears to be the only one who had been a member of the Neo-Zeon in some way. For a one-shot movie villian he was quite interesting. Bloodthirsty, but interesting. His final plan at the end is quite different from the usual dropping a rock or colony onto the planet. Similar but different. Okay, enough about the characters moving on to the meat of the movie in my opinion.
Spoiler
One of the things about the movie I am both kind pleased with and kind disappointed in is the Battles. Don't get me wrong some of the battles we see were quite awesome. The four Luio Company Dijehs verses the Federation Unit escorting Martha somewhere comes to mind mainly. Then there is the mid-movie battle which is a three-way between the Federation, the Phenix, and the Republic of Zeon/Sleeves Remnant. The last battle of the movie, however, wasn't as good in my opinion. It was mainly Newtype Magic doing stuff including have the Second Neo-Zeong able to somehow throw a super-large canister of Helium-Three at a Federation Fleet and then without firing a single shot at it able to make it explode which shocks everyone. Since unless you actually shoot at a canister of helium-three it won't explode or something like that. Also Jona's Narrative Gundam doesn't do a whole lot physically in this battle besides some minor Newtype stuff. It was flashy and everything but was kind of like seeing Micheal Bay movie explosions. Was kind of expecting more than just some more Newtype Magic. Shrug. Also, I was kind of expecting a couple more battles then just the four we got but yeah it is a movie after all. That should be it about this topic moving on.
Spoiler
I already mentioned my thoughts on the Damascus but I want to point out besides moving around we really don't get see it in action properly. It doesn't even get to launch any mobile suits at all during the entire movie. It launched a Type 89 Sled but that is it. We also get to see a new Garencieres Class being used by the Mineva Faction to carry Banagher's Silver Bullet the only difference being a slightly different color. Also speaking of the Mineva Faction I love the new look Takuya has in his one scene he has in the movie. The main Zeon ship in this, the Gulltopper, is a regular Chivvay Class but it looks quite awesome. I cannot wait till we get some colored lineart for it. We have black & white lineart with MAHQ but I want some nice colored art for it. Along with the other new ships of the movie. Finally, we get to see the destruction of the General Revil which explains why we never really see or get mentioned later on like in F91. This gives a very nice way of preventing a retcon or something like that saying it was still around just not around the Frontier Side. Since if there are still Salamis Kai Class ships well into Victory Gundam I wouldn't be surprised if the General Revil would still have been around during that time. Therefore, seeing it destroyed here makes a lot of sense in my mind. I confess I kind of cheered a bit when I saw it destroyed since it was kind of a bad guy during Unicorn after all.
Spoiler
Okay time for the main event of a Gundam show. The mobile suits. I have to say I loved seeing the Dijeh modernly animated. It looks quite awesome. It was one of the few Zeta era machines we didn't get an update for in Unicorn. Speaking of redone Zeta machines we got to see the Pyscho Gundam, via a news report in one of the flashbacks, looking quite awesome with some redone animation. We also get see a brief shot of the Battle of Dakar with redone shots which include an Asshimar. The six Jestas of the Shezar Team looks quite good and each one is different from the others. While the repainted Silver Bullet Banagher pilots very briefly in the movie looks a wee bit sinister with its own dark paintjob. That's something else we really don't pyshically see Banagher at all during the movie, we just him suited up in a RoZ Styled Normal Suit with his visor darkened in the few scenes we see him in. Only during the last shots of the movie as the credits start rolling due we see him remove his helmet. Finally, we get to the Narrative Gundam, the secondary Gundam of the movie, I like that it can change its parts out. A few of the characters even call it a scarecrow. What surprised though with the Narrative is that.... ummmm.... alright second spoiler time. Don't open this box unless you really, really, want to be spoiled on one of the major plot twists of the movie....
Spoiler
Okay Still Here.... the Narrative has a NT-D System which really fucked a some things up during the Mid-Movie Battle
. Okay. Another thing with the Narrative outside of it almost catching the Phenix during its first battle and getting trashed by the Sinanju Stein Unit 2 during the second battle it really doesn't do anything during the movie. The real star of the movie is actually the Phenix itself that while does a whole lot of Newtype Magic since it doesn't apparently have any weapons outside of its Armed Armor things on its back which are used in a defensive way. What really makes it shine in my opinion is how emotive in its body it can get during a battle. It acted shocked when Jona talked to it at the end of the first battle and some other stuff. It also gets the most awesome entrance award for the entire movie when it arrived during the skirmish between the Federation Shezarr Unit and Zoltan's Unit. It looked freaking awesome!
Spoiler
Okay. For an hour and a half movie, it was quite a fun romp through the end of the first century of the UC Calendar. It serves as a great way to close some lingering plot threads from Unicorn. I do wish it was made into a full-on OVA like Unicorn with maybe three to four episodes but it worked with that it had. It told the story it needed to be told. However, I have one major thing I was kind negative about and that is the darn flashbacks. A third of the movie is basically made up of flashbacks. First to the beginning of 0079 with the Colony Drop on Sydney and the three main characters managing to save a town of people from dying in the drop. Then a series of flashbacks to when our three heroes were being tested by the Titans Newtype Labs during the later end of the Gryps War. This is the major reason why I wanted this to be a small OVA with three to four hour-long episodes. That way we could have properly explored this in a similar way to how Origin did. Other scenes were one of the main characters not flashing back in time but imagining themselves in their younger bodies for some reason or another, eh Newtype Magic. That said, I loved the music of the movie especially the main theme, narrative and the English Dub was pretty great. Then again I am not the best person to get a reading on that, but for me it sounded great. I also liked the Fathom Events usual pre-Movie Behind the Scenes take. First we got a bit about the Director and the Mechanical Designer of the movie explaining to the audience about Gundam in general and the history behind it. It wasn't that long. Thank god. But it was quite interesting and I am sure some of the guys in the theater who weren't that big of Gundam fans liked it. Then after that we got a small bit from the English Voice Director explaining how difficult an English Dub can be before we get to the VAs for the three main characters explaining a bit about their characters. I loved one bit where the VA of Jona one Griffin Puattu mentioned that during one scene of the movie where Jona is having the heavy Psycho Suit being taken off he went into the booth wearing several layers to get a feel for what it may have felt like for Jona in that scene. Now that is how you really Voice Act! Shakeshead. Anyways. After that we got into the movie itself. Then after the credits where done we got the Hathaway Flash Trailer again, though I think this is first time we got a sort-of release date for it. Winter 2019. That was it. Like I said an interesting movie and was far better then I thought it would be going in.
So that is my lengthy take on what I thought about the Narrative movie. OH. Almost forgot. One Last bit. Something I only realized after the end of the movie. The NT in the Movie's title is not shorthand for Narrative, it could be, but I think it is really shorthand for Newtype since it kind of closes the book on the Newtype story seen through Unicorn and its side-stories. Also was quite impressed we got some similar dirty politics/backroom deals to what we got in Unicorn. Granted we kind-of knew that going in but still was quite an interesting bit.

Thanks for reading. If I spoiled something for you I'm sorry but I did try to warn you.

EDIT: Also I noticed Mark Simmons name on the ending credits. Did Mark actually get invovled somehow in the movie? I know he has in the past but I thought he didn't do that anymore.
nacho-wan
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Re: The Official Gundam Narrative Anime Thread Mk I

Guys check out this interview with the people behind NT https://.wordpress.com/2019/02/22/gundam-nt-behind-the-scenes-with-director-yoshizawa-shunichi-producer-ogata-naohiro/

I think it gives a very interesting insight into where is Gundam heading, they are sure taking a more creative approach than the pragmatic route Disney is taking for Star Wars
Aun cuando mil millones de personas acepten una idea absurda, sigue siendo absurda.
Although a thousand million people accept an absurd idea, it still is an absurd idea
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Amion
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Re: The Official Gundam Narrative Anime Thread Mk I

Anything is more creative than what Disney is doing. And it isn't like Gundam hasn't been doing this since... technically Zeta...
They don't know the power of a balanced vision.
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