| Episode 1; The Savior, Gundam | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 9 2011, 02:53 PM (253 Views) | |
| HomelessOne | Oct 9 2011, 02:53 PM Post #1 |
Veda Terminal
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It was a perfectly fine introductory episode in my opinion. I think it is a better example of how to do a first episode than 00, introducing the principle concepts and characters without turning into a confusing infodump. I think we all remember how bad 00 was with Talking Heads exposition, so hopefully AGE continues to avoid this. The Gafran completely stole the show I think, but there was plenty of interest in the rest of the episode. I particularly like the air of complacency and denial among Nora's populace, and Flit surprisingly offering the Gundam to a trained military pilot. The Genoace's performance was kind of depressing, but it was hard to expect much better from it. Not impressed with the true nature of the multi-language simulcast, but that's Sunrise's loss I suppose. |
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| Hobbes | Oct 9 2011, 06:54 PM Post #2 |
Stuffed Tiger / Philosopher
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I always get all gooey and excited when a new Gundam show comes out, so I was smiling like a doofus with this one. It was straightforward and to the point, which I really appreciated. Flit is very understandably driven by his quest, but he isn't unreasonable, which is quite nice. Offering the Gundam to Largan first, even if he didn't take it, was definitely a mature move. It's also interesting to see just how far back Flit's family has been creating Gundams and Mobile Suits. I'd love to know more about their history sometime. The Gafran is glorious, too. I find it wonderfully imposing and odd all at the same time, and I love that palm-based saber. Emily is also very adorable.  And I love the OST! The main theme gives off a grand sense of hope to me, and the OP and ED are delightfully catchy. I agree that the introductory episode was handled in a better way than 00's first episode was, too. In that case, it felt like we needed a few episodes to really grasp what was going on, to say nothing of all that "people finishing another persons sentence from miles away" stuff. In comparison, AGE benefits from having a smaller cast and simple story concept, and it feels like it has a stronger focus as a result. Sometimes simple is better, who knew? Regarding the "simulcast", it was an strange experience, that's for sure. I wasn't at all expecting to find what felt like a variety show on the livestream rather than the show. I was displeased to see the English subbed version of the show being locked to South Asia, but the mere existence of actual streaming English subs means it will be that much easier for fan groups to pull from them, which will both help get the show out at a faster rate, and will keep the translation accurate. I'm thankful for that, at least. |
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| HomelessOne | Oct 9 2011, 07:38 PM Post #3 |
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Veda Terminal
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Official subs are a Godsend when it comes to figuring out how to spell some of these damn names. One thing I wasn't really thrilled about was how the Gundam shrugged off a sustained beam cannon blast at point-blank range. But, given what we already know, I don't think the AGE-1 will have things going so smoothly for very long. |
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| Hobbes | Oct 9 2011, 08:30 PM Post #4 |
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Stuffed Tiger / Philosopher
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That's a good point- for a moment, I thought the Gafran had blasted the AGE-1 with a Dom-esque scattering beam gun style weapon, for all the reaction the AGE-1 gave. At the very least, it's nice that the Gafran handled a close range clash so intelligently. Its first reaction was to blast the Gundam right in the face. |
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| EXE | Oct 9 2011, 09:14 PM Post #5 |
Heroic Peon
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I'll dig in and write my thoughts about episode 1, there were things I liked and things I didn't. Let's get to the bad news first. The character designs are incredibly ill-suited to a Gundam series. This is perhaps the most overt complaint that can be made about the show and I don't see the need to point it out again, so there we have it. Flit is a very odd character. If he's a super-genius mobile suit designer, why is he even in school? Shouldn't he be working full-time for the military considering how inept their current weaponry is relative to the UE's? I like how he tried to hand off AGE to Largan, as he's an orphaned rich kid who has probably never been in so much as a shoving match before. Once he did get into the Gundam, I think they mishandled the entire first battle. The writing sacrificed any confusion or fear from Flit at being in a battle for the first time in his life, just so they could establish that he was the hero from the get-go. He's just a kid who is finally confronting the enemy who killed his mother, there was an unsettling lack of emotion in the fight. A 10 second long scene after the fact doesn't have the same effect. Maybe they didn't want to fall into the longstanding Gundam trope where the protagonist is blinded by revenge, but I think they missed an important opportunity to develop Flit's character. Instead, we got him starting off as a competent pilot in episode 1 instead of him getting there by episode 4 or 5. The only other complaint I have is with the strength of AGE's defense. It's something that goes hand in hand with Gundam, but if armor that strong is available, why not at least equip your Genoace's with shields made of the material? Shrugging off that beam cannon at point blank to stab the Gafran was ridiculous. Now for what I did like. The UE is the most interesting aspect of the series to me right now. I wasn't sold on them going into it, but the mystery behind them has me eager to see more. The mecha designs are pretty awesome. Everything is simple, yet retains a unique personality on screen. The Genoace is simple and loveable, but clearly ineffective, the Gafran menacing, yet intelligent. AGE itself is perhaps the weakest design presented so far, but that's probably due to it sticking mostly to the standard Gundam design to remain iconic. Other than the odd wing, it's not bad looking, but I'm not as big a fan of it as the 00 designs. All-in-all, not a bad start for the series. It wasn't perfect, but what was presented has me interested in watching more, which is exactly what it was supposed to do. |
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| HomelessOne | Oct 9 2011, 09:51 PM Post #6 |
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Veda Terminal
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I think the manga adaptation arguably did a better job of getting into Flit's head as he boards the Gundam, although it hinged on Largan actually getting killed rather than just knocked out of the fight: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6372/page031.jpg http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/7301/page032.jpg Sort of a shame that the line didn't even remotely make it into the anime. |
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| raxtenko | Oct 9 2011, 11:03 PM Post #7 |
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I rather liked this first episode. A few thoughts I had while watching: Why does the Gundam have spoiler. Can't stop seeing a metroid eating Frito's head. I liked the genoace's little stormtrooper rifle, too abd they didn't hijack the lightsabre sounds for the beam sabers. Oh well. I'm not really sure what to think of Frito as a character. He just seems to have it all together a little too much. Ah well, they have a few more episodes to nail him down into something that's good at least. Also, brown haired bridge bunny who's name I don't know. Rawr. |
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| Hobbes | Oct 10 2011, 09:03 PM Post #8 |
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Stuffed Tiger / Philosopher
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Since you brought the topic up, I'll chime in on this point. When the designs were first unveiled, I'll admit to being pretty off put. But as I've seen different angles on the characters as well as actually seeing them in motion, they've really grown on me- sorta the same way Okawara mecha designs usually do (for me, anyway). I don't mind them at all anymore, and I even welcome the change from the MUST BE BISHONEN stuff we've had to put up with since the Gundam franchise returned at the start of this century. That being said, I am of course stating my own opinion on the character designs, and not trying to belittle yours. I can see how you and others might not like them.
Well, beside the fact that he's still just a kid and it was likely a requirement of some kind (lots of folks on Nora had no problem letting their kids live in denial of the UE threat, it seems), you have to wonder how much faith the Federation had in him, too. After the end of his first fight with the UE, Bruiser seemed just as pleased as Flit did to finally have a way to fight back against the UE, something which I would figure would have been a foregone conclusion. This is not to say they would just shine on some rich kid because he had the money, though. But I just don't think the pressure was on, in spite of how badly they were getting stomped. I agree that the moment deserved a little bit more weight (especially considering his youth), but couldn't it be argued that Flit knows the battle against the UE is nowhere near finished following this one fight? His goal of fighting back has only just been revealed to be, well, actually feasible. This is also something he's been preparing for for most of his life. If I may compare Flit here to say, (don't laugh) Batman; look at Bruce's first forays into his lifes goal in Batman Begins or even Mask of the Phantasm. We never see him freaking out over his first night on the streets, just sorting out what he needs to do to improve himself now that he knows he can actually get things done. There's also the lack of punch of not fighting the actual Gafran that killed his mother- he's just fighting one of possibly hundreds, rather than a distinct model. I could see him reacting wildly if he was facing his own UE Joe Chill or something.
Looking over the episode again, after Flit tanks the first few Gafran shots after stepping of the hangar, his first words are: "Wow, it withstood that?" Coupled with the aforementioned moment with Bruiser that occurs in the aftermath of the fight, the Feddies might not have even known if the material used on the Gundam would even work. With the AGE-1 and the Diva on the run for the next few episodes, they won't know to use the Gundam's material everywhere possible for a while, either (if they even can). |
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| EXE | Oct 11 2011, 01:39 AM Post #9 |
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Heroic Peon
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The difference between Owakara and this is a bit different. The big issue with Owakara designs is that he is terrible at drawing and makes everything too fat, which is inevitably cleaned up in animation. The characters in AGE look exactly as they were portrayed, which is overtly child-like. Even the adults carry gigantic heads with tiny bodies and it breaks the immersion when there are explosions and death about. It's just my personal preference speaking here.
They gave him authority of some sort, especially over the Gundam, so I would say they were banking on the Gundam's success. There's really not much point in distracting Flit from that with meaningless schoolwork that he's already absent from most of the time, from the sounds of it. It seems to just be a device to give him friends his age that will inevitably serve as a source of drama later on.
The comparison between Flit and Batman is a fair one to make, the difference is that while Flit sat around designing a weapon, Bruce turned himself into one. Flit's not going to develop that same level of mental discipline while designing the Gundam in relative comfort and security. What they were going for was to establish Flit as the pilot of the Gundam early on, so it would stick through the first part of the series. I'm okay with that, but I think he should have been less effective in his first outing, under a ton of stress and going into a completely alien situation.
They had to have done testing on it prior to the construction of the Gundam to even consider using it in the first place. Maybe it exceeded their expectations, but it was still going to be clearly better than what they were using. So the question becomes whether or not it can be produced at the level they can reasonably use it on other things, and the answer in Gundam is usually no. Still, I would have liked to have seen some level of better protection for the Genoaces who are supposed to protect it, even if it would have weakened the impact of AGE's introduction. They chose to go for the dramatic route of the Genoace being completely useless so the Gundam would appear that much more powerful in comparison, which is something I'm never a fan of. |
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| Juno | Oct 15 2011, 09:10 PM Post #10 |
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In my opinion: -Due to the amount of anime series I've watched up to this point, the change in character design did not really phase me at all from the get-go. I'm guessing the hatred for the design are most likely due to the viewer's lack of exposure to other anime series that follow such style. -The storytelling is a bit fast-paced, but it's understandable since they'll be introducing 3 generations, so I guess they'd have to compress the dialogue/storytelling a bit. I just hope this simplicity in story doesn't end up becoming all convoluted like Destiny. -Besides Flit and Emily, it would've been nice if they focused the 1st episode on introducing the other characters, such as the ship crew, and maybe some scenes of Flit working on the AGE-1(that aren't still-image flashbacks). -All in all, I think it was pretty damn good! Surpassed my expectations a bit. The character and MS movements were pretty well animated, and really adds a bit of life to their dialogue. The Gafran pretty much stole the show when they arrived. I've read some complaints regarding the sound effects they used on the UE, but I think they work just fine. The sounds used really gives off that weird/alien vibe to it, which helps emphasize their mystery. And that news report in the beginning kinda hints that the officials are hiding something. -I think this is the first Gundam series with a "feel-good" type music as an intro, which I'm already hooked on. I fell in love with the band Galileo Galilei after hearing their OP for the anime series Ano-Hana(which is also a pretty touching series). -Overall the series seems pretty promising! I can't wait to see more of it, especially their model kit releases. And I hear a lot of ignorant complaints regarding character and MS design similarities, or what some referred to as a "rip-off", among these deprived group: 00-Fanclub. That group makes the 00 fan-base look really bad, especially with the way they obsessively praise the 00-Qan[T] like some sort of god. :/ =JuNo= |
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| VF-15B Banshee | Nov 8 2011, 01:57 AM Post #11 |
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At last the new Gundam series, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE has debuted! There’s just one problem. The video stream with English subtitles is only available to south Asia! Why do I get the feeling that Sunrise was watching all the [CENSORED] comments from the [CENSORED] fanboys on YouTube and decided that Americans don’t get to watch it? Fortunately if one pokes around the internetz enough these days you can [CENSORED]. Anyway, I thought this was a very good first episode. It definitely is aimed at a younger audience I think, but it holds up and is definitely Gundam to the core. I liked the main character Flit, he definitely gets a pass on the accidental civilian pilot trope. Can’t say I’m fond of his character design though. Emily might have a little bit of Fraw Bow syndrome; we’ll have to see. Most of the other characters seem interesting, especially the pilot for the Genoace mobile suit. Largan I think it was? We’ll have to see the next few episodes for me to really get a handle on the rest of the cast. There were a couple of stand out scenes in this episode that I liked. The first was the scene where Flit’s mother dies in the first attack by AGE’s Unknown Enemy. Very Batman-esque. She gives him the AGE Device, which is certainly not the cell phone those damn fanboys were complaining about. I also like the scene in the classroom where Flit tries to explain about how it’s just so logical that the space colony they’re on, Nora, will be attacked by the UE next and how the teacher doesn’t want to hear it. Seems little Flit may be a child-genius but he doesn’t understand how a lot of people’s heads work. Seems like he might be a bit of an outcast at school too, as Emily and this kid named Dique seem to be his only friends. I also like how Flit isn’t obsessed with the Gundam to the point of being stupid. There’s a flashback scene to his home on the space colony Orvan where Flit is being shown a painting of a Gundam (one that looks a lot like the classic RX-78-2) and is told that the Asuno family have been involved with the legendary Gundams for years. But when the time comes that the UE invades the colony, Flit initially wants the trained military pilot Largan to fly the Gundam before he tries piloting it himself. Lastly, while the Gundam AGE-1’s debut fight is kinda similar to stuff we’ve seen in First Gundam and SEED, what makes the fight stand out is the way that Flit quite literally shanks one of the UE Gafran MS. It’s actually kinda hilarious. The other two Gafrans blow up their injured comrade and then retreat. I guess this is why the UE are still unknown if they won’t let their tech fall into enemy hands. What else? I can’t say that I cared much for the opening song of this series. It’s not that it’s a bad song, I just don’t think it fits a Gundam series, even one that’s aimed at a younger audience. But since this is a Gundam series, we’ll have at least two to three opening and closing themes in total, so we’ll see. I also think that this series might be pulling a Gundam X. What I mean is, Gundam X was depicted as sort of an alternate history of the Universal Century. I think they might be going with that here with all the talk of the Earth Federation, O’Neill Space Colony cylinders and stories about legendary Gundams from the past. We’ll have to see. I’m still not cool on the design of the Gundam AGE-1. I think I could safely say that this is the first Gundam series I’ve seen where I like the grunt and enemy suits more than the Gundam. Hopefully the AGE-2 and -3 will look cooler. All in all, I’m liking what I’m seeing so far. I give this episode *** out of five stars. Chris Guanche of MAHQ.net has his review posted here if you want to check it out. I’m sure they’ll also be discussing AGE on their Gundamn!@MAHQ podcast. |
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| SonicSP | Nov 8 2011, 02:17 AM Post #12 |
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*holds HG 00 Qan(T) to his chest* My new religion........is found! Hail Qan(T)!!!! Well, I have not read the comments but I guess if it's like that it might give 00 fans a bit of bad name. I might go and join them if they hold any prayers to praise Qan(T) though. I have too much admiration for 00 Lead Mechs..........>____> Edited by SonicSP, Nov 8 2011, 02:18 AM.
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| Anonguy | Nov 10 2011, 06:42 PM Post #13 |
Just an abomination of SCIENCE enjoying my tea
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So, I slowpoked this for a while, before taking the plunge and giving it a watch. Overall, not bad for a first ep. Character death in the first minute is pretty hardcore, but I suppose it's a better framing device than a five episode montage of Flit being so uguu~ kawaii as a kid and how his Mom is like double Jesus and shit and how we don't understand how much we lost with her dying. I was amused by the kids in Flit's class going all, "Oh look, this shit again" when he brought up the UE. As Gundam protags go, Flit isn't the worst (looking at you Camille), but he isn't instant hate generation, so I'm cool with him and his "but mommy diiiiiiiiiiied" thing. Least he gives a shit about it and has a reason to be an obsessive revenge driven freak. The UE are like ultra-pimp. If there's one thing I like in mecha design, it's being cool as fuck while still being scary. Giving them an inhuman edge and movement really sets it apart from other Gundam shows, so tops for that. All in all, a very good episode. Tops for that Sunrise. |
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