First impression – Gundam AGE
Why are you kids so happy! THIS IS GUNDAM!!!!
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Gundam! I’ve been a little curious about AGE since I saw news of its reveal a few months ago. Jrow, launching! |
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Fufufufu, welcome Gundam fans! I know there are a few lurkers out there that love these long running mecha series; you know who you are! Anyway I know most people have complained about these terrible character designs, but if you love your Gundam, you should at least try this first episode, even if you spend the whole time laughing at Flint and the others. Well time for everyone to hop into their super robots hopefully you enjoy this review, while I tag with Jrow.Plot follows Flint, a young boy, who survives an attack by the evil UE. Before his mother dies she gives him the key to a weapon that he builds later on called Gundam. We jump a few years into the present with a normal day for Flint as he heads to school after hearing reports of some UE activity in the area. After class the UE arrive suddenly and begin to attack the colony, leaving Flint to pilot the Gundam and defend his friends as they retreat for the final assault. |
Flint- “Oh boy! Free barbarque! Oh wait…..damn.”
We begin the fantastic episode with a short flashback from our main hero Flint. His past shows us his mother slowly dying after an attack by the UE. Though, before she bites the dust, his mother gives him a small device that he will need in the future. After that flashback, we see Flint rushing to school with his friend Emily and that damn haro ball is back. Of course it wouldn’t be an actual Gundam series without a haro ball to annoy us but Flint did manage to kick one so HIGH FIVE BRO! We all want to do that so badly. Before Flint arrives at school, he runs into Emily’s grandpa Vargas who is currently testing one of the Gundam’s arms on some bright ass yellow machine. NOT COOL, OLD MAN! Stealing is wrong, but I do like the look of Vargas, who looks like Dr. Light from Megaman…
Whoa! Giant dead space themed Gundam!? Awesome.
Flint- “Take that you damn annoying ball!” Emily- “D’awwwww, he loves to be abused.”
Emily- “No fair, old man, I wanted to steal the Gundam first!”
Once Flint arrives in his class, he tries to warn the teacher about a possible UE attack that he heard on the news. Psssh Flint, kids your age do not watch the damn news; they watch cartoons and play video games! Well the teacher naturally doesn’t listen and just ignores his crazy ideas; however, the colony gets attacked by UE in the area. So who is the crazy one now, teacher? Flint runs off with Emily towards the school to borrow his Gundam. I know it’s shocking that Flint didn’t have to steal a Gundam; for once the main character actually owns a Gundam.
Emily-“You got a catchphrase yet?” Flint-“Something about a hand burning? Still needs work.”
Evil dude- “I hear they have the best cookies here, let’s steal them!”
Emily- “SIT! BAD BOY! Now ROLL OVER…. Please?” Flint- “We’re screwed, yo! RUN!!!”
While Flint powers up the machine, he arrives outside to stare in horror over the destruction left by the UE, but he really has no time to sit and watch as he gets attacked by a few of the UE dragon-looking mecha. Flint rushes at them with NO WEAPONS! What are you thinking, kid?! Well he uses one of his small beam sabers and actually defeats one of the mobile suits. I think it looked more like Flint shivved the suit right in the chest! Wow this kid is kind of hardcore. Flint turns to fight the other suit but it shoots some red beam scanning his Gundam and retreats from the battle. Before anyone can actually celebrate their victory against the UE, the colony is attacked once again, leaving Flint to think over his next brilliant move.
When you turn on the AGE system, it plays this kickass beat.
Flint- “DUDE, NOT COOL! I JUST GOT THIS GUNDAM PAINTED!”
Gundam prison where enemies get shived in the chest, Flint you so gangster.
They went all out this year on the fireworks, oh wait that is not normal right?
Extra Gun-DAMN
Painting reminds me of this song!
Vargas- “This does not look right at all….” Flint-“Back off old dude, unless you want to die….”
Red guy- “LOOK I CAN DO IT TOO! OH GOD, MY LEG IS ON FIRE!!”
Captain-“Ohh this new Gundam series looks fantastic on my big ass monitor.”
End Thoughts:
Well that wasn’t so bad! I can say I actually managed to enjoy those funky character designs, although the hair still looks a little crazy! Though Shiki will still go down in anime history for having the best oddball hairstyles. The best designed character?! Emily Armond! D’awww that design is really cute and I love her moe voice, I wonder if she will pilot anything in this series; it would be the closest thing to a K-On girl piloting a Gundam or giant robot. The worst designed character, probably is that fat elf looking kid named Dike Ganheiru. Seriously, he looks like a kibler elf especially with his hat. Now the actual design for the Gundam wasn’t so bad, the opening video showed off a few of the random armor upgrades. I loved the red boxing suit, that style brings me back to good old G Gundam designs.
I can’t mention the opening video without talking about that song To Tomorrow by Galileo Galilei, which most of us heard from Anohana. I seriously played that song over and over again; I think it has me addicted. One thing Sunrise does quite well through the many years of Gundam are their opening and ending videos; they pick some great songs. Not to mention all of the BGM music during Flint’s scene while he powered up the AGE for the first time was really fantastic. That ending song and video were nice as well; it sort of gives us a preview of Emily and Flint’s new clothes and I have to say this again Emily WHY ARE YOU SO CUTEEEEE? I liked her new red outfit.
Now for the action, which felt sort of lame to me. I shouldn’t be too shocked because I wasn’t really expecting Flint to be some badass fighter right away. Still I was happy he didn’t cry like a baby for a few hours after killing that UE machine! Unlike past Gundam pilots most needed some serious hugs and love after every dramatic battle. I have a feeling in the back of my mind that the UE are actually aliens or evil space robots! I think that one machine actually scanned Flint’s machine with that red beam, anyone that watches sci-fi TV shows or anime should be able to pick up on that. So what did you think of Gundam AGE? Are you going to follow it to the end or throw it in your DO NOT WANT folder??
Reflecting back on this episode, I came in thinking that Age would play 3rd banana to the ongoing Unicorn and the soon-coming Origin. I would have predicted that I’d watch an episode and see some stuff without it leaving a lasting impression on me. After seeing episode 1, not only am I impressed with AGE’s story potential, it’s gonna easily be my favorite Sunrise show of the Fall season and I’m really hopeful that I can compare this to MSG (Mobile Suit Gundam) by series’ end.
MSG became my favorite a couple years ago in part to its lead character, Amuro Ray. In AGE, Flit has kind of a similar vibe to him and I like how they progress Flit’s character into being the eventual pilot of Gundam by making it a path pre-determined by his parents. Guys like Setsuna, Heero and Kira can have their cool moments, but those guys feel as robotic as the Gundams they piloted. That’s one thing about Amuro I liked so much was that human quality, and it’s something I’m seeing in Flit at this very early stage. I also like his girlfriend Emily and I’m hopeful that her strong inclusion to the ending theme animation is a hint of her being a strong part of Flit’s character development; poor main love interests in Gundam get pushed to the side so much…
As for production, it was pretty sound throughout the episode. Gundam is never without a good musical score, so thumbs up there. Visuals have a style that may initially look a little different and more youthful than a 00 (something more akin to Pokemon), but by about the second scene I got use to it; and of course Gundam looked cool. The opening and ending themes are pretty good (considering Galileo Galilei does a song unlike most Gundam OP themes). While we won’t be continuing blogging this here at Metanorn, I’d like to give a shoutout to my buddy and past MetaVerse guest Amuro who will be keeping up with it over at Anivision. He’s very knowledgeable on Gundam and its many series and universes and will surely have great insight on the series.
Preview
A history of moe girls in mobile suits!?
Next week, Flint takes the Gundam out for his first combat mission! Stay tuned for more action!
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 107 comments
The UE are most likely human cause everyone thinks they are aliens in the show itself.
I’m watching this for these guys. They are smart enough to use tactics like retreating to attack the Colony from the outside instead of dying pointlessly trying to fight the Gundam.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah I am thinking that too! They probably are human but they are being sneaky about it.
Ohhh nice! Yeah I am curious to see what the UE plan on doing, I still think they scanned the AGE to get some data on it or something like that.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
There’s two serious possibilities for the UE’s true identity, neither of which I think is alien in nature.
1)The UE MS we have seen so far are drones.
or
2)They are piloted by humans.
Either way, there us most likely human involvement here. The real question is WHERE are these humans from? We know from the first episode already that there had been a history of warfare in the past, and that the AGE-1 isn’t even the first Gundam. At this point, we haven’t heard a lot about the situation on the Earth, but even more out there would be if the UE were actually people that had left the Earth Sphere a long time ago for exploration, and have now returned with crazy advanced technology. I guess you might consider them a kind of alien.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah I can see one being really true! They did seem like they had one mission to arrive and find the AGE, still that scanning laser before then ran away makes that possible.
two could work! They are just hiding them for now. Yeah there is that too we don’t know much about earth right now and how many years the UE have been fighting us.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
Ha, you guys got to it before me. I got a bit too screenshot happy. I’m almost done with my post, so look forward to that on Anivision. I will say I liked the first episode, and I am looking forward to more.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Awww missed our chance to do a triple tag! We would love to have you join us one day on a future post Amuro xD yeah I can’t wait to see more of this series.
POWUH: iLurker with 7 comments
I don’t know if I was the only one who noticed this but Sunrise reused a lot of background designs from some of their other animes, like the wide-pan outside and inside view of the colony which look a lot like those from Sora o Kakeru Shoujo (if anyone still remember that series). Not that I blame them… it must take one brilliant mind to come up with all this amazing fantasy scenery
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
No no no. The colony design you’re talking about is the O’neil cylinder, which is an actual proposed design, and its use in anime dates all the way back to the original Gundam series in 1979. The only thing in common here is the shape of the colony. The actual footage was unique to AGE, and not reused from The Girl Who Leaped Through Space.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ohhhh thanks for the info there Amuro, yeah I have seen that design through lots of gundam series guess you could say that might be a gundam trademark? ;D
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 338 comments
The main kid has a really sexy voice actor. Plus I missed Haro, thou as far as which series is the most tragic I think 00 still wins. Those pilots are going to be f****ed up for life! Gundam Seed had the best yaoi (Sorry boys) XD and was the most fun. Gundan Wing wins for best plot and awesomenesss supreme! I’m kinda excited for Gundam Age, I miss my mecha show! Love it!
Gundam Age actually impressed me more then I thought it would. Gundam Wing was my intro to the Gundam franchise so I have high standards. Even if I was to put it into a DO NOT WANT folder I can’t, its Gundam you just watch it regardless.
Totally agree with you Jrow. Does everyone remember Setsuna’s ‘I am Gundam’? Let’s not get started on Heero Yuy. However, I see a little of Kira in Flint. In the sense that he’s all happy go lucky and then he did that crazy stabbing and we saw him remorseful. I don’t think Gundam Age is going to be kind to his personality.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
*walks in panting, clothes torn* The spam monster was a mean one today. I had to pull this out of its belly twice.
“NO! Bad spam monster!”
There might be some Kira there. Not Seed Destiny, but mainly Seed when he wasn’t being so smug.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 338 comments
*dies laughing* My hero again! You should change your name from Fresh Meat to Spam Killer. This is kinda ridiculous, but I appreciate your blood and sweat. *still laughing*
Ugh don’t get me started on SEED Destiny. However, I applauded Shin for taking down Athrun. Not often we see the main cast get cut down. I look forward to what AGE has to offer *jumps over to Anivision*
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahaha I guess I can see a bit of Kira in there somewhere, I just love the fact that Flint built his own gundam! Course he had help but still that is super rare in any Gundam series. In Wing they had mechanics, Seed they always got repaired and Kira just wrote up the OS for his because of his SUPER BRAIN OF DOOM.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
(Ack, missed a key, I really need a preview post (or delete) feature >< please delete the above post)
Do not want.
I really, really tried to like it. But this vile taste in the back of my throat kept rearing its ugly head.
I felt like I was watching a kids show.I’m watching a kids show and it was really noticeable. I get the same feeling when I watch pokemon (brain cells slowly dieing).Bring back my bishounen Gundam ^^ (I’m one of the few that really enjoyed Gundam Seed and Destiny). I heart Kira and Lacus. ^^
Actually of all the fall shows I’ve watched so far, I was the most disappointed with this one… maybe because I was in denial that it wouldn’t be aimed at 10 year olds even though graphically it looked like it was.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I got you! <3
True you are right on that point AGE is trying to bring in the new crowd of kids into the Gundam love! For a few bloggers out there AGE might be the best starter gundam for new fans. And yes the character designs really push that fact even more getting compared to Pokemon/digimon and other "kid" styled shows.
Well personally I love seeing Gundam trying something new for a change, usually they copy/copy/copy everything.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 338 comments
;_; I think my comment gotten eaten somewhere along the line.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Jrow the amazing saved you again! Wooooooo!! 😀
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 79 comments
Pretty solid first episode, I thought. This is clearly a Gundam series for a younger audience, but I’m alright with this since it looks like they’re still going to focus on war and the heavy subjects that the franchise is known for. I liked the action that we got in this episode, especially with the AGE stabbing the hell out of that UE. Pretty impressed by how little the UE are fighting fair at all, too. My favorite part of the episode was probably that UE camping out by the hangar to shoot at the mech as it was launching, pretty smart strategy for the grunts to employ.
That said, I do have some worries about the show so far. It looks like the show owes a lot to the original MSG, and while I like that I do hope that the show comes into its own and gets its own identity in time. As for Flit, while it’s nice to see a likable, well adjusted Gundam protagonist, all of the praise he gets makes him seem a bit Gary Stuish and I hope that isn’t a recurring thing. But hey, I expect things to be a bit slow for a while, so I’ll give this one a good chance. Though if it does get bad enough for me to drop, I’m going to cry the tears of time.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah aiming right for the younger crowd of mecha fans out there, it seems they are doing a good job so far. Now to see how far things get and yes war and heavy themes are a huge part of any Gundam series. Yeah I was happy that Flint fought back and wasn’t to afraid sure he was a bit shocked but that works for me I don’t expect him to be a master pilot yet.
Yeah things will probably be so slow at the start for anyone wanting a crazy Gundam show full of amazing fighting, we will have to sit back and wait for a while on that. I will find it hard to drop I usually love Gundam, hell I sat through Seed/Destiny/00 and those were kind of fun well not so much Destiny…but close enough.
POWUH: iLurker with 8 comments
I could natter on about all the things I liked about this Gundam outing and where I think it’s going but let’s cut straight to what’s important, Emily = totally adorable loli Sayla Mass.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
Agreed! Emily is like what you’d get if you combined Fraw Bow and Sayla Mass, and subtracted 2 years give or take. I just love the focus she and Flit get during the ending theme.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Oh yes ahahah Emily is very cute indeed! Damn it AGE will bring out all the lolicons now lol xDDD
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 68 comments
Aaw Emily is so CUTE! X) more point to the series thanks to her.
I have to say I´m one of the Gundam Newbies that watched this episode only to give it a try. I liked, very much, even if I have had some problems to watch other Gundam series, mostly because I have no idea in with order I should watch them, I never know what is the first one or so..
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yessssss soooo cute indeed! This is going to turn guys into lolicons…geee thanks AGE T___T
Very cool you might not get to much enjoyment out of it for the first time but AGE seems very friendly for new fans! And yes there are sooooooo many series out there.
Thankfully most of them don’t connect so you could almost try whatever you like, but I know some like to start from the first series.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 68 comments
But back to the point, I´m gonna watch this! Even if the title of the second episode reminds me of Heroic Age and that means instant cry! ;////////////; Age, I miss it so much-!
Waiting for the next episode of this~
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Lol I never finished Heroic age I only saw like 10 episodes or so ahahah but sounds great! Yes watch more AGE.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 71 comments
I can see the potential in this series but two things are killing me right now, one of them is the fact that the mech design/action is kinda lame; they just don’t scream ZOMGUNDAM! in your face. The other issue is the fact that the main character is like, what? 8-9 years old, and most of us (I guess abroad viewers, and previous Gundam fans) have at least reached puberty. So, it’s kinda annoying watching a kid with a
relatively deepolder sounding voice… ok, it’s not annoying as Goku with Japanese voice acting, but my point is that the character seems irrelevant, even out of place because he’s so young :/sorry about that, D: had a little rant there… Good job with the review guys! I hope metanorn will continue to open it’s umbrella to more mechas! ^_^
and i’ll stick around to see where this series leads us.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
True the mecha designs are a bit weak on the enemies and the AGE looks decent, I really want to see the action! We didn’t get anything impressive from this lame first episode guess we will wait for a while on that. Flint is about 14 or so right now and really is still a noob pilot, but damn I like that he actually built his gundam vs “finding” one laying around.
As for voice work, it will grow on me slowly but I usually have no issues on voices long as Flint isn’t squeeky sounding I can live with it.
No worries! Rants are fine <3 and thank you Metanorn needs more giant robots muhahahahah.
Yes! Do continue to watch!
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
[…] “After seeing episode 1, not only am I impressed with AGE’s story potential, it’s gonna easily be my favorite Sunrise show of the Fall season and I’m really hopeful that I can compare this to MSG (Mobile Suit Gundam) by series’ end.” – Metanorn […]