Mobile Suit Gundam - General Discussion

[ZoqFotPik]

I guess it's that I feel from a narrative standpoint they could have used any other space station. It just seems kind of dumb to me that they end up exactly where it started.

[lathspel]

The final location is the Magellanica, but it wasn't guaranteed to be docked at Industrial 7, was it?  I feel like that part was coincidence, or fate.  

If Minaeva is trying to cold shoulder Benager to keep him safe, she should realize he's not the kind of guy it will work on.  

[Lantern7]

Tried watching the last two episodes on DVR. Fell asleep on both of them. It might be an issue about me, but I'm just not into this anime, even if Batou and Franky pop up.

[lathspel]

This show tends to tell rather than show people's motivations, echo makes it a nodder for me.  Someone commented that they didn't spend a lot of effort translating it from the book, and I think that shows through   

(Shippuden is another show that causes this for me, but I'm hopelessly behind and have no idea if it's good right now or not. )

[Lantern7]

I like Shippuden. I'd say that giant robots don't do it for me, but I grew up on Transformers. Maybe it's the melodrama that causes me to fade. Then again, even with the buttload of characters, I didn't have that problem with Iron-Blooded Orphans.

[Sandman87]

I like me some giant robots (or non-giant ones, for that matter), including Gundam, but this installment isn't doing it for me. At best, it's been moderately engaging.

[Terrafamilia]

I still need a scorecard to keep track of who everybody is and what their affiliations are. But I'm not so invested that I'll make the effort to get that scorecard.

[lathspel]

I didn't understand the Nahel Argama / Zeon team up, so I guess I'm not surprised it fell apart.

Agreed that, while IBO was sometimes a bit "Drill that will pierce the heavens!", I still found it more memorable and the characters more interesting.  

[lathspel]

I liked the final opening title we got this week.  Very nice!

[ZoqFotPik]

Tidbit of trivia, the English VA of Riddhe is married to the English VA of Marida.

[lathspel]

I'm gradually liking this show more as it winds to a close, but I'm loving the opening and closing music. 

[Sandman87]

Jeez producers, I was kidding when I speculated that the big reveal would be like the end of "One Tin Soldier." You know your anime is scraping the bottom of the barrel when it looks like a Sonny & Cher song.

[ZoqFotPik]

So Banagher is going to sacrifice himself absorbing the missile or whatever they are firing at Industrial 7, Audrey will make a speech that will resolve everything, and peace will reign until the next time.

Anyone know what will be taking this show's spot?

Edited June 5, 2017 by ZoqFotPik

[Terrafamilia]

So Full Frontal tries to get Banagher to give up by saying in the far, far, future at the end of time all his hopes and dreams won't amount to a hill of beans. Banagher should have pointed out the same could be said of Full Frontal's big plans. But Banagher isn't clever enough for that and besides, Full Frontal is visited by the spirits of a couple of people who I might be bothered to recognize if I was at all familiar with any other Universal Century Gundam series (I'm assuming one of them was this Char fellow) and goes off into the light with them. Whuuh?!?

[Sandman87]

Don't worry Terrafamilia, I don't know who they were either, even though I am familiar with it.

"Give up Banagher, because the eventual heat death of the universe!" is not a convincing argument. It's just sophomoric nihilism.

It's official: Full Frontal has the most ridiculous mecha to be found in any show outside of Gurren Lagann. Cut off one arm and two shall take its place ("Hail Hydra!"), destroy a weapon, and there's another weapon hiding behind it, piss him off and he'll make parts of your mecha explode for no adequately explained reason. I half expected it to split up into multiple smaller mobile suits, all under his control.

Bright Noah demonstrates once again how to make the best response to a bad situation. He's the fount of all common sense in the UC franchise.

[ZoqFotPik]

So I was close. Banagher got pulled back by Audrey. What the hell was with the two recaps? That and the extended ending credits shaved about 10 minutes off of this show. Also, "If you haven't seen the other series, don't worry you can still enjoy it.", I'm not so sure about that. Banagher's friends are concerned about finishing high school even though their entire class died at the start of all of this. So "Lupin III" will be taking this show's place. I'll be back for IBO season 2. 

[Sandman87]

I guess their school doesn't have the "you automatically get a passing grade for the semester if your friends die" rule.

So the magical document, which was never mentioned an any other UC series, is revealed, and Nobody ever fought any more wars over the rights of space-noids. And if you believe that, I've got an orbital colony to sell you.

Damn, I hope Unicorn isn't considered canonical.

[Lantern7]

There's another season of IBO? I can live with that. Basically, the less heavy thinking I need to do with giant robots fighting each other, the more I'm likely to enjoy it. Probably explains why my fave incarnation is Mobile Fighter G-Gundam.

I will not miss this series. If I were a fan, I'd consider commissioning a sketch of Samantha Bee dressed as Full Frontal. But no, I will not. Soooooo bored. I'd sooner want the logistics to how Fujiko could fit a spring-loaded boxing glove in her underwear than try to grasp the political ramifications of this series.

[BBHN]

I agree about Zeta Gundam. Probably one of the best Gundam series ever.

War in the Pocket was also really, really good too.

[ZoqFotPik]

On 6/17/2017 at 0:11 PM, Lantern7 said:

There's another season of IBO? I can live with that. Basically, the less heavy thinking I need to do with giant robots fighting each other, the more I'm likely to enjoy it.11

Yes. It has already aired in Japan.

[BBHN]

Quote

Too bad Bright Noah isn't around to slap annoying teenagers around when they need it, but maybe the current captain will act as his stand-in when the need arises

You don't truly become a man until you have been Bright-slapped.

[Sandman87]

Luckily he did show up. Unluckily there was no slapping, :(  

[Lantern7]

Get ready to raise your flag. Again. Seriously not getting how there can be a second season, since roughly 95 percent of the cast are either dead or broken beyond repair.

[Sandman87]

Maybe they'll show some of the broken characters getting fixed.

[lathspel]

So glad this show is coming back.  Hands down it's my favorite Gundam series - although opening with Raise Your Flag doesn't hurt 

[Sandman87]

New season. Tekkadan is in the big leagues now and is starting to have some of the problems associated with that, including being a bad example that led to the worldwide normalization of the use of child soldiers. Oops! And the Earth is more chaotic than ever before. Double oops!

It's apparently been a while since the end of the first season, but Mika still has his right arm in a sling much of the time and his right eye still looks subtly different from the left, except when he's piloting Barbatos. Then his eye and arm seem to work normally. I guess the control system must have caused a permanent change to his brain.

Orga has dreams of the organization "going completely legit" someday, but I remember how that worked out in the Godfather III so I'm not gonna hold my breath on that.

Cordelia has a minor disagreement with the guy who arranged for her to speak at the big conference in last season's finale. He responds by siccing some mercenaries with mobile suits on Tekkadan, which gives us a bit of action at the end of the episode.

[lathspel]

Atra’s car has license plate: ATR-something.

[Sandman87]

Watching that part of the episode again: The license plate is ATR-016.

Nice of Biscuit's sisters to tie different knots in the ridiculously large bows that they wear with their uniforms. Makes it possible to tell them apart. I notice that the other students don't have the bows.

[Sandman87]

Well, an entire episode of Gundam battle. I approve.

Mikazuki better watch it with the complaining about having cold food delivered during his pit stops. He might end up wearing his food instead.

[ZoqFotPik]

So I just caught up with this season. The Masked Guy is What's His Name, McGillis's friend and brother-in-law he betrayed at the end of last season, right?

[Sandman87]

Not sure who the guy in the mask is. I assume you mean the guy with the full helmet, as opposed to McGillis, who wears a mask sometimes.

A traitor in the Tekkadan ranks, and it's not the fat balding Hitler-looking guy either! Guess he doesn't buy into the whole "we're all brothers" philosophy.

This episode and the previous one both reminded me  of Legend of the Galactic Heroes (excellent show BTW, all five gazillion episodes of it). There's a general "us and them", but each side has factions within it maneuvering for advantage, and there are genuinely likable-but-flawed characters all around with an occasional total jerk. Plus the Gjallarhorn uniforms resemble the Empire's uniforms.

[ZoqFotPik]

Yeah, Full helmet guy that is working for the Anti-Fareed faction of Gjallarhorn. He's totally Gaelio. I forgot how common masked characters are in Gundam.

Edit: Just so I'm 100% clear, that's not a spoiler or anything, I'm just guessing.

Edited November 15, 2017 by ZoqFotPik

[ZoqFotPik]

So Takaki and Aston, one of them is not coming home. I'm thinking Aston dies because I think all of the scenes showing Takaki's sister were laying it on a little too thick.

[Sandman87]

Love the way that Mikazuki's advice for the guy who really, really wants to be a Gundam pilot boils down to "Train, exercise, eat sleep." Because that's pretty much all that he does in his spare time.

[lathspel]

I just noticed that Deputy Boss Eugene is wearing his normal pressure undershirt plus jacket, but he’s added an Orga-style loose tie.  

I’m not enjoying the plot of the Iron Kids played just for politics, although maybe that’s been the series all along?   I guess I’m just ready for them to turn the corner and start fighting back. 

Edited November 22, 2017 by lathspel

[lathspel]

Catching up after a couple weeks.  Glad to see smarter heads show up to bail out the Earth Branch of Tekkaden  

I have to admit to having something in my eye at the end of that last ep with Takaki and Fuka.  

[Sandman87]

Tekkadan's Earth Branch grows up quick. Everyone figures out that they're being gaslighted by the mercenary dude and the Tekkadan traitor, but not before Aston gets killed protecting Takaki from McGillis during the unnecessary fighting. Interestingly, Takaki doesn't seem to blame McGillis, or at least not yet.

[Terrafamilia]

What was Mikazuki eating at the end? It looked like a stick of butter. :-)

[ZoqFotPik]

Some kind of protein ration bar. I'm fairly certain he and the others have been shown eating them before.

[Lantern7]

"Wait, so I could be Sovereign of Mars. That's Mars, a planet so messed up that I had to lead an army of plucky young people off of it to get any standing in life. Mikazuki, what do you think?""Still emotionally dead inside." "That's what I thought."

On December 10, 2017 at 6:56 PM, Terrafamilia said:

What was Mikazuki eating at the end? It looked like a stick of butter. :-)

Something to keep his soul from living? Or probably a future protein bar.

Got this in my email: Otaku USA praises IBO as one of the best Gundam series ever. While I take my time watching it on the DVR, I'm inclined to agree. I feel more invested than the most of the other entries.

[lathspel]

When they showed the King’s Throne Gundam frame, all I could see was the Gundam Unicorn.

I feel like this whole ep was about organizational power relationships, but I swear I still can’t really predict who’s going to mess with whom.  (Except for leopard fur collar guy, he’s definitely trouble.)

[Sandman87]

The factional infighting within Gjallarhorn unleashes this show's equivalent of an eldrich abomination; a Mobile Armor. Nice job breaking it there, "Defenders of the Earth."

The Armor is tough, controls a pack of lesser robots, and is self-repairing. Luckily, it still needs supplies like fuel, so it's not completely without weaknesses. Unluckily, Dreadlock Guy screws up the ambush that Tekkadan was planning, and the Armor heads for all their friends at the agricultural area instead.

[lathspel]

When the Mobile Armor woke up, hopefully I can be forgiven for thinking “now this season’s really begun”.

Losing 1/4 of the population is somewhat equivalent to the Black Death in 1300s Europe - enough to cause incredible human and economic disruption.  I guess they didn’t call them the Calamity Wars for nothing.  

[lathspel]

Still waiting for the kids to use the “Unicorn” Shidan they keep showing in the background, but I guess the combo of rail gun Flauros plus red-eye Barbatos will have to do for now.

[Sandman87]

Mikazuki cranks Barbatos up to eleven to defeat the mobile armor, and the results are predictable: He loses the ability to more the rest of the right side of his body. Every time he pushes it, he's going to lose more and more of himself. I expect that eventually he'll effectively be Barbatos, because he won't be able to function at all on his own.

Meanwhile, Orga gets a stern warning from the old man, and Atra begs Kudelia to have Mikazuki's baby.

[Sandman87]

Boy, Iok is a piece of work, ain't he? Attacking an enemy who tries to surrender, having his forces fire on retreating ships full of non-combatants, and then cowering behind his command chair when Naze makes a dying ramming attack. And that's on top of his general idiocy so far. All he needs now is a black top hat and a mustache to twirl evilly while he ties girls to the railroad tracks.

[Sandman87]

If you thought the show was dark before, this episode was positively Stygian. McMurdo holds a memorial for Naze, where Jasely insults both Naze and Tekkadan repeatedly to try to provoke them. Lafter makes some tentative first steps to a relationship with Akihiro and then promptly gets assassinated by one of Jasely's thugs. Orga decides enough is enough, and he's going to hit back hard, regardless of the consequences.

[Lantern7]

You gotta love when the assholes come out of the woodwork, reminding Tekkadan that they were worthless once. And that’s before they gun down Lafter. Even Mikazuki wants payback, asking Orga how far to go. Remember, “Mika” is emotionally stunted, so that’s basically him getting pissed like the others.

”Iok”? Is that how to spell that name? Homeboy is clearly the hero in his mind. I don’t think “evil” so much as “severely deluded.”

Edited February 22, 2018 by Lantern7

[Sandman87]

"Severely deluded" usually eventually ends up being "severely dead" in a Gundam show. The franchise isn't very forgiving to people with mental issues. Anyone in the UC shows who pilots a Psycho Gundam, for instance.

[Lantern7]

Saw this on the Toonami Tumblr. Kinda reminded me of Angry Bear.