Gundam Age Original Plan?

[Mafty]

According to a few sources (That claim to link to a Newtype article) Gundam Age was originally supposed to be aired over a year and a half. At approximately 78 episodes that would have been the longest single Gundam series, and probably longer than most other Real Robot genre series(Only Dougram at 75 episodes comes close. Do you guys think this would have helped the series at all? I know that the character issues wouldn't have improved with more episodes, but the story structure might have. As it stands Age didn't even wind up with 50 episodes, and at times the story speeds things up in order to fit in decades of story into three weeks less a year real time. I know there are problems with Age beyond its length , but does anybody think the original plan would have worked better? More than that has anyone else heard of this before? For those interested the article cited is the Nov 2012 Newtype article with info on Memory of Eden ( I don't have it, and I'm unsure if they translated it to English).

[Kuruni]

What I heard is that it was originally just games but then they turned it into dual projects with anime working alongside the games.

[yazi88]

So much so being just games that the games completely spoiled the anime ending before it actually aired. Not that it really mattered much given how problematic the plot became at that point. Memory of Eden was pretty much a lower budget compilation for one last hurrah to market out the last big effort for Gundam Age. Even then, it was some OVAs rather than a couple of movie compilations that have been the norm for all AU Gundam since Turn A.

[Mafty]

Being a video game originally actually makes a lot of sense.(SPOILERS) as Chris noted in the review of the last episode the last threat is more of a final boss than a character. Which is a shame really as many video games can still have very long in depth plots, FWIW I still think AGE is action packed and entertaining in that way, but I agree the story and characters have some issues. As to Memory of Eden being a low budgeted OVA it sort of seems as though AGE had less of a budget than many other Gundam shows; as the show kind of resembled a Visual Novel at times, though that might still tie into it's video game origins.

[False Prophet]

Gundam AGE the game is a big shame, really. I feel like the combat and customization are much more fun than Level 5's other mecha series, Danball Senki. However, the game story is worse than what Danball Senki has, and so the anime adaptation suffered.

[Amion]

Oh how much potential the series' concept had. But Gundam AGE's writers were just NOT up to the task at all to build the world around it.

More episodes would have helped though, assuming the writers could be even mildly competent. It was just too harsh a storyline for a kid's story. Which is the irony of all ironies, given MSG and its history. They should have run with a more mature setup from the start and gone with the Build Fighters idea for the kid's show afterword, (which of course was not at all even logical, given the whole POINT of AGE apparently was to present a kid's story. Again, irony of ironies given what franchise it's part of. Tomino would cry tears of time over it, if he cared).

Guess some good things ultimately came of its failure, mainly Build Fighters and now Build Divers, but AGE seems to be largely forgotten even on places like fanfiction.net. It just wasn't hated enough like Destiny for people to try delving into its world-building potential.

The problem with that was the lack of character popularity. 78 episodes might have actually assisted greatly in this. The writers would have obtained more time to grow and develop the side cast and mainstays. Flit still has a consistently decent arc of story throughout. Getting more of that might have gone a long way in making AGE more memorable or ostensibly better, though it could just as well have been remembered for being boring and uninspired. Which, sadly, it largely is outside some of its more unique or interesting concepts.

I mean, they didn't even add some of the more cool Vegan mobile suit designs and almost nothing from the Earth Federation side of things, save a couple variants. That was just atrocious and insulting from a mechanical standpoint. Let's not discuss its chauvinistic treatment of the female characters. Let's not. And that likely wasn't to be fixed by more episodes, but possibly made worse, were that possible.

[yazi88]

I don't know about Build Divers. It was not really well liked at all and it was painfully dull and mediocre. And it makes sense given it has some of the same main writers as AGE.

Build Fighters success has nothing to do with Age's failure since they have very little in common outside of being Gundam. Its like comparing Wing to G Gundam. It doesn't make any sense outside of one show being right before the other.

[Kuruni]

Build Fighters success has nothing to do with Age's failure

Well, Age failed so hard that many of us expected almost nothing from the next series and would be fine as long as it doesn't suck. Build Fighters is great series, but there're people who just can't get into it because it's toy series, not mecha series. Imagine it was aired after 00 Season 1, the resentment might be far greater.

[yazi88]

People obviously don't pay any attention to what the franchise actually is then. For one thing, it was already a existing concept albeit a obscure manga, but it also came about YEARS earlier with GUNPLA BUILDERS which most people enjoyed overall.

Plus, its a SPIN-OFF series, no different from how SD Gundam has been for decades in manga, anime and games.

So the whole thing of airing after 00 season 1 is moot at that point.

Gundam fans will always complain about a series, regardless of it being good or not because of the nature of the internet and social media. Even worse if its right before it actually airs.

They can just ignore and find something else to watch in a franchise going on for 40+ years.

[Kuruni]

Personally, I completely agree that the concept is no stranger to Gundam franchise.

...seriously, right now I wish the next non-Build Gundam series would be fusion of Gundam and Braves.

[Amion]

People obviously don't pay any attention to what the franchise actually is then. For one thing, it was already a existing concept albeit a obscure manga, but it also came about YEARS earlier with GUNPLA BUILDERS which most people enjoyed overall.

Plus, its a SPIN-OFF series, no different from how SD Gundam has been for decades in manga, anime and games.

So the whole thing of airing after 00 season 1 is moot at that point.

Gundam fans will always complain about a series, regardless of it being good or not because of the nature of the internet and social media. Even worse if its right before it actually airs.

They can just ignore and find something else to watch in a franchise going on for 40+ years.

No, you're not understanding. AGE was meant for children but was a serious mecha series with death and carnage and other concepts that didn't end up grabbing that younger audience's attention. It's failure helped move the model-kit pushers in the marketing direction of directly displaying the bottom line up front as the main attraction, Build Fighters, which is why it focused on actually building gunpla and the importance of it compared to the digital Build Divers.

And I should clarify in my post that my real compliment was for Build Divers: ReRise. That series was great compared to what we've been getting. I enjoyed it FAR more than IBO.

[yazi88]

There is nothing indicating that Age forced the marketing of product to Build Fighters. Once again, that concept already existed with plamoshiro manga and Gunpla Builder which was in production and came out around the time Age was airing. Gunpla Builders was likely already green-lit in production and was a completely separate project.

I don't really think Age really aimed for a younger audience that much, especially given a lot of recycled UC tropes in it. Some of the marketing and character designs probably did to an extent, but the plot itself did not especially it being pretty lazy and bad rather than actually aimed at kids. And you can't say that the age of the protagonists was part of that cause Uso was really young in Victory Gundam and Judau was a little older in ZZ.

[Kuruni]

Some of the marketing and character designs probably did to an extent, but the plot itself did not especially it being pretty lazy and bad rather than actually aimed at kids.

I say the Salam-Euba arc from Gen1 is actually aimed for older fans as fanservice of sort (although I think it's completely miss the target). Their conflict is more or less watered-down Zaku and GINN fighting each other.

[yazi88]

I dunno, a lot of the Kio arc was a painful recycle of MSG, from the 3 triple desert battle to the knock-off Jaburo battle that even included a time bomb.

Salam-Euba arc was also quite moronic in that there was no good reason why the 2 sides were even fighting each other especially with crappy weapons. They just do some damage in the surrounding area and go nowhere in the end, much less actually killing each other cause of the pathetic weapons. The only thing to really come out of it was reinforcements for the final battle of Arc 1. They don't even factor in the 2nd arc, although the surviving leader makes a cameo in the side story manga Memory of Sid.

[Kuruni]

The only thing to really come out of it was reinforcements for the final battle of Arc 1..

And Desperado's meme status XD . I'm agree otherwise (which is why I think it miss the target). My impression is that they want to invoke the feeling of how two previous enemy grunts (Zaku and GINN) have to join force in order to fight current one (Gafran). But they fail.

[SonicSP]

According to a few sources (That claim to link to a Newtype article) Gundam Age was originally supposed to be aired over a year and a half. At approximately 78 episodes that would have been the longest single Gundam series, and probably longer than most other Real Robot genre series(Only Dougram at 75 episodes comes close. Do you guys think this would have helped the series at all? I know that the character issues wouldn't have improved with more episodes, but the story structure might have. As it stands Age didn't even wind up with 50 episodes, and at times the story speeds things up in order to fit in decades of story into three weeks less a year real time. I know there are problems with Age beyond its length , but does anybody think the original plan would have worked better? More than that has anyone else heard of this before? For those interested the article cited is the Nov 2012 Newtype article with info on Memory of Eden ( I don't have it, and I'm unsure if they translated it to English).

It was an interview with the producer I believe.

I suspect Gen 2 was cut out the most given how it was the shortest arc by a long shot and weirdly had only one Wear. And some arcs in Gen 3+ (like that woman who felt/got betrayed or whatever) clearly were supposed to be longer arcs.

I think more episodes would have helped the series (due to it being three generations concept) but I don't think it would have based on their original plan. I don't think the overall story was changed much, just that some were compressed. Gen 1 length and concept was fine but Gen 2 had a lot of potential in expanding Asemu and Flit's relationship.

Personally I suspect/am of the opinion that unless Gen 3 and 3+ were radically changed it would not be that much better. I just find Kio really really annoying. Thinking back on AGE, really Gen 3 is where most of my problems with it lies. Not a big fan of Asemu just abandoning his wife and kid either, even if it was for a good reason.

I also feel that Desil should have been made the Asuno multi generational thorn enemy would have been better than Zeheart since he was there in Gen 1.

That said, the mecha lineage lore on AGE is pretty good despite being light on the actual tech details. I also enjoyed certain parts of show quite a lot as well as quite a number of the battles. The mecha designed are pretty great as well, especially on the EF side. I don't like the Vagan designs as much, but there's a certain alien-menance style to them that I appreciate.