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This post is kind of a disjointed fit of rage, so please excuse me.

It’s not so much that I’m mad at Gundam 00. I’m not one to get mad at TV shows, that’s a silly thing to do. I am however mad at people watching and liking it. This, again, is something very silly. I usually don’t get mad about things like this, but Gundam 00 is kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back. In that, it was the breaking point on a build up of rage I have towards modern anime fans for having shitty taste in general.

Gundam 00 on its own isn’t that offensive. I mean, it’s just your normal boring anime, one of many that clogs Japanese airwaves these days. I think what pushes it to moderate hate level is the clear fujoshi pandering and the absolutely horrible opening and ending numbers. What causes me to explode into FITS OF RAGE is when I read gay fanboying like this (yes, I did just call DarkMirage out. Your blog FUCKING SUCKS, by the way.) The first thing that crosses my mind is, “have these kids even seen the original Gundam?” I was one of the many kids who was first introduced to Gundam through Gundam Wing on the Cartoon Network, back in 2000 (though before then, a friend of mine had a Gundam shirt which I found very cool.) Back in those days, I thought Wing was alright, simply because it was something I just had never seen before (incidentally, ever wonder where the “heero” part of my screenname comes from?) It was probably my first robot anime, actually. However, deep down I desperately wanted to see the original. When Cartoon Network announced that they were going to air the original, I was fucking ecstatic. I tuned it right as it came on, and I’m pretty sure I was thoroughly blown away. I didn’t fully understand its true awesomeness then, but I knew it was far better than the trash I had been fed earlier (though I will admit, Wing gets good points as a comedy.)

While I was eating up good ol’ UC Gundam on the CN, a bunch of other kids weren’t watching it. Thusly, the show gets canceled, and I am left in despair. Basically, what I’m trying to get at is, why do people settle for less? Anyone with half a brain can tell that Gundam 00 is written for idiots. Why watch that when you could watch the original three movies, Zeta Gundam, and the various UC OVAs? While those all vary in quality, they are all WORLDS better than any Alternate Universe Gundam (not counting G-Gundam, since G-Gundam is AWESOME.) I guess the answer to that question is that people actually like it. This confuses me to no end. I mean, I can understand liking the Seed series as a sexy comedy, but actually taking it seriously? Give me a break.

What’s more distressing is how now-a-days I feel a lot fans simply have no grounding in anime. How many newer fans have actually sat down to watch classics like Lupin III, Ashita no Joe, Space Battleship Yamato, Cutie Honey, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, and of course, First Gundam (comedy Fist of the North Star option). I can’t say I’ve watched all of these, but by just watching of a few of those listed there, I’ve gained great insight into more modern shows and their influences. So, naturally, it bothers me when I see your average Joe anime blogger fanboying about your typical horrible anime, clearly displaying a lack of knowledge or perspective.

You know, I don’t even know where I was going with this. Actually, I’m just really mad. This is the first FIT OF RAGE I’ve had in a while. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go watch Kaiji or something…

Original Post

Sunrise has finally done it. As of right now, I will not watch any new Gundam show ever again. It’s not so much that Gundam 00 is totally fucking horrible (though there is that, too) but the franchise has strayed so far from what made it good. Everything from the terrible opening and ending tracks to the sickening male character designs just makes me want to puke. It also doesn’t help that it only took 2 episodes for the story to just get fucking boring and bogged down with line upon line of horrid dialogue. So yeah, goodbye Gundam. It’s been fun, but now it’s done. I’ll just stick to old UC series from now on.

This show got boring fast. At least with Seed/Destiny they had that whole corny soap opera feel that made them fun to watch. This just feels like Wing with worse music and even gayer character designs. I really just wanna drop this right now, but my inner Gundam fan says to stick out for another 45 weeks…

First episode of Gundam 00 aired, and it’s not totally horrible! Aside from the openings and endings that make my ears bleed, the actual episode was alright. The design work, character and mecha-wise is still terrible, but I guess it’s what kids like these days. I’d prefer it if it was a bunch of hardened old dudes fighting, but whatever. I did very much like the tone of the opening scene, even if it was a totally laughable commentary on the political climate of today.

The story is as retarded as I thought it would be, though.

But it seems like the characters think that as well, so maybe it won’t be filled with all those oh-so-hilarious Seed-styled contridictions.

…except it wasn’t that epic?

Like every anime fan should once in his lifetime, I sat down and watched the highly influential Space Battleship Yamato. However, I came out rather underwhelmed. For a show that’s been remembered throughout the years as a classic, I expected a bit more. On the whole, the entire production seemed fairly amateur. I’m not talking about animation or audio quality– just the basics like storytelling and character development. It’s all very simple, and that isn’t especially a good thing.

Yamato is old though. Like a friend of mine said yesterday, Yamato is just Yamato. In the same way Pacman is Pacman. You can’t rate Yamato by today’s standards, as things were simply different back then. Obviously animation wasn’t that great, but the medium of Japanese animation was still coming into itself as a means of storytelling. People probably just started with what’s a easy, and monster of the week is pretty damn easy! Yamato wasn’t meant to have the kind of constant “to be continued” found in most anime, it’s just a simple TV show.

What I do find funny is how taken I am with the original Gundam. From roughly the same era, and suffering from the problems, the Gundam TV series is one of my favourites. I think it’s probably because you can tie random events together better in a war setting (as they change the course of war) but Yamato is random events happening along a journey, and everything gets fixed in the next episode.

I am dowloading the movies now, and plan to watch series 2, but all for educational value. I learned a lot through Yamato, surprisingly enough. If I happen to find it really good then I guess that’s a plus.

I will try my best not to sound like an elitist piece of shit here. This is serious! Also, this entry will have spoilers for various Gundam series.

I’d like to think I’m different than most UC fans who simply hate stuff that’s not UC because it’s not UC. Contrary to popular belief, I am a bit of Seed fan (was real Seed obsessed just two years ago) but Seed lacks something the originals had, and that’s soul.

I’m partly borrowing Patrick Macias’ words here. The generation of creators that made works such as Mobile Suit Gundam are people who lived through their country being bombed and occupied as children. They more or less lived through war, and the resulting feelings and images clearly resonate in their works. In Gundam’s opening narration, we are treated to images such as a hole being blown through a colony, a fallen battle ship in flames, and the entire city of Sydney being brought to ruin by a giant colony. This may seem the stuff of fiction to us almost 30 years later, but these images were very much a reality to the creators. Gundam is a show about war, but it doesn’t glorify war. It’s an anti-war show, but it doesn’t out right tell you “war is bad.” Rather, it lets the viewer come to his own conclusion about the events unfolding on screen.

Over the years the anti-war message has stayed consistent, but it’s become diluted. The new generation of creators simply can’t grasp the kinds of things the creators of the past experienced. Hence, the result usually feels like a copy of a copy. Looking at things in a very objective manner, First Gundam and Seed are probably on the same level. However, Seed lacks that kind of hard real world experience present in the older Gundam works. The sacrifices made by Ryu Jose and Sleggar Law were most probably realities to Tomino. However, the writers behind Seed totally miss the point of Mwu’s epic sacrifice in the end of Seed, and bring him back in Destiny with just a few scratches and a case of amnesia.

So, in the end I suppose it comes down what kinds of messages and themes you associate with. I’m sure Seed has some underlying themes that I don’t especially get that appeal to newer fans, but I find the messages in the original to be a lot more striking to me. Maybe I’m just old fashioned. I dunno.

Also, as an aside: while Gundam is a good example of a work of fiction influenced by real world experience, Space Battleship Yamato is probably the best I’ve seen with regards to that. I mean fuck, it’s about resurrecting the sunken Yamato to save Earth from nuclear radiation, which is a result of horrible bombings from an alien world.

I forgot I had a blog to write this stuff in for a moment. So as not upset my IRC comrades any further I’ll keep all my Gundam 00 bashing to this blog. Anyway, on to why this will be the worst Gundam series ever.

• It’s the newest one, and they’re only getting worse. Well, I suppose nothing can top Wing in terms of pure suckage though.
• Too many pretty boys. Though I heard some kind rumor that this person can do girls, too. But there’s already like 5 billion sexy men in the promo vid, and I’ve become uninterested already.
• The mecha designs look retarded.
• The story is retarded. “An organisation formed to stop war”? Give me a fucking break. Just sounds like retarded Seed contradictions. But it worked in Seed since Kira is a smug piece of shit, and is actually Light Yagami. Also Seed has Andrew Waltfeld, who can save any disaster. Fuck, how do you think I finished Destiny? Why do you think I’m buying it now? For the fucking coffee, that’s why!
• It’s directed by the retard who did that dumb shounen show that’s by Bones.
• Wow I’ve used the word retard and retarded a lot already.

C’mon guys… just for me… get Tomino and Yaz back together… let them make one last UC epic to end them all. That’s all I ask. Just one more thing that’ll take us back to the days when Gundam was for true men and not pansy teenagers. Let’s see a show about hellish war, not fucking j-rock stars in space.

Anyway, time for bed… or time to watch the Layzner op for the 100th time…

Talking of Youtube, Koike68’s account was suspended. This leaves me quite sad as all those great MADs that I had on my favourites are now gone. Burn in hell Youtube!

When I heard the name Mobile Suit Gundam 00 I immediately assumed it’d be some awesome, super cool prequel to the original, manly and epic Kidou Senshi Gandamu. Wow, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I mean, I knew we’d have the Loveless person on character design, so the pretty boys aren’t too much of a surprise. It’s the story summary that really puts me off. It basically sounds like the same kind of crap that’s been plaguing Gundam for the past 10 years. I mean, I like the anti-war message but by Seed they’re shoving down your fucking throat in the most pussy way ever. I may enjoy this on the same level I enjoy Seed, but I doubt it’ll provide the kind of manly epicness that the original shows had. Sigh.

Original Post

Now I know what Patrick was referencing here. More on this later. First I need to talk about some comics.

(more…)

Because I just watched the original Gundam movie trilogy for the first time. What took me so long?

More on this in a rant that should happen soonish? At least some time today, anyway.

YOUR MOVIES ARE TOO DAMN FAST. I mean seriously, take some time to flesh out the plot you know? I know these are compilation movies here, but please for the love of Haruhi a movie isn’t a bunch of battle sequence strung together by watered down plot elements from an already fast paced FIFTY EPISODE series.

Edit

What the fuck was with that happy ending? KAMILE SHOULD BE DESTROYED! TOTALLY AND UTTERLY DESTROYED. Also, what’s with killing off Char? IS SOMEONE TRYING TO SUGGEST CHAR’S COUNTERATTACK NEVER HAPPENED?

Original Post

Nayuki fanart added and ero Meer (NSFW) fanart added. Eventually this site will get a redesign and an ero-only section only will be made. When I have time.