I am a shallow man when it comes to Gundam. I can try to analyze the show deeply, but my first reaction to Gundam is to take it for face value: the mechs, Bandai’s not-so-subliminal message compelling us to buy their gunpla. In the following hours, people will blog about Gundam 00 S2 episode 9, ranting about the proliferation of one-man-army permits, CB Gundam weaksaucery (It takes 4 Meisters to beat Ali out! How much do they suck?), Wang looking like a man more and more each passing ep, Gra- I mean Bushido being weeaboo, and other things, like how the show fails to depict A-LAWS as ruthless and evil because they present characters whom we should care about more than the rest of the CB crew, Marie included.
It is true! I am out of relevant 00 pics! *gasp*
But the first thing that sparked my mind was the appearance of The O-style sabers c/o Gundam Seravee. Being the mechatard that I am, I was awed beyond words, until Ali’s suit retaliated with FOOT SABERS. I came. Fast forward to the Ptolemy ordeal. My reaction went as follows:
- “OH GOD WHY ARE THERE 6 TRILOBITES, SO MANY”
- “Mmm, Ptolemy can Trans-Am”
- “GADESSA’S CANNON HAS TOO MUCH HIGH POWER MAN”
- “Delicious warship is delicious”
- “Where is 00? Oh there it is. Okay, it’s ‘sniping the target’. WUT BRIDGE SHOT”
As you see, all of these thoughts are mecha-related. I have a tendency to focus on the mechs of a Gundam show first before anything else. It’s how I operate. It’s just me. And I feel quite bad about it. Once, ghostlightning made a post about KyoAni and Sunrise being hated, and included some plamoo vids with the intention of making people play a game of “identify the mobile suit”. And I took it all in, hook, line and sinker. I guess it’s not at all bad because according to the good blogger himself, my kind of comment was the one he intended to elicit from people, but what had happened was that everyone was talking about the nature of [irrational] studio hate. I got the point right, but it says something about me when everyone didn’t, while instead they took on a more scholarly path than my comment.
Looking back, I think I’m seeing it clearly now. I’ve already forgotten much of Gundam Wing’s shaky plot, but I still remember stupid sexy Tallgeese and how it once fought the power Gundams with a fabulous Roman crest and a round shield. Or Stardust Memory, and the vernier porn. Maybe after all my fanboy pride, I’m just a victim of Bandai’s commercialization, thrall to flashy colors and nifty mech gimmicks.
But is it that bad? Am I fooling myself, trying to examine the plot and themes of Gundam shows in a vain attempt to look smart, when all I need is PEW PEW to make my day? Am I dreaming a sad dream in which I should be woken from? Is there a Red Pill for this state I am in? I’m not sure yet. I’d like you to tell me, too.
Continuing World 
Seems like 08th MS is the only Gundam I’ve seen that could warrant any analysis.
Analyzing 00, IMHO, would only produce little pits that cover up its supposed plot holes – it wouldn’t really give you anything substantial, anything you could apply to other anime (unless you’re talking about tvtrope style formulas, so in that sense it could be pretty rich in the stuff).
Why fix something that isn’t broken?
I likeem big shiny robots, just like you. I also frequently underestimate the Gundam shows because I hear a lot of people overhype them – which triggers the hate, and we’re caught in a cyclone of noise.
But yeah, I’m a lot like you. I argue long and hard against bits and funnels (HATE them), and Newtype powers (HATE them), and for towers of epic love like Psyco-Gundam (LOVE), and the Big-ZAM (BIG LOVE).
We’ll be doing retardedly mecha posts in the near future, and I’ll make sure you’re part of it. Watch out!
@ lelangir
Interestingly, I have an opposite opinion. I watched 08th, liked it, but feel like there’s not much to talk about it beyond the action and Shiro’s plot armor. However, I try my best to deconstruct 00 because I want to be able to qualify it as better than Seed or Wing for an AU show, because I will lose my self-respect if I couldn’t. As for TV Tropes, not a bad site overall, but I think they’re too overboard with stuff.
@ Blind man
I feel like I’m going to run out of raving words for the shows that I love, I guess.
@ ghostlightning
You are my mortal enemy! I dislike huge MS/MA and love funnels to death. The Qubeley is my favorite Zeta suit too.
Looking forward to your post.
Well, suck it. Funnels are great as themselves; TOO FUCKING GREAT. Tomino fails because funnels are, if you think about it, AN INSURMOUNTABLE ADVANTAGE against any opponent. All the pilot needs to do is to surround a target at a reasonable distance then spam it to oblivion.
INSTEAD, THEY ATTACK ONE BY FUCKING ONE.
THEY ONLY SERVE TO DEMONSTRATE AMURO’S OWN NEWTYPE HAXX BY LETTING HIM
SHOOT THEM ONE AT A TIME, SMALL TARGETS WITH HIGH MANEUVERABILITY
FIRING BACK AT A MUCH BIGGER TARGET.
Where was the mobile suit with the big gun? Why isn’t it firing at Amuro? Why is it letting the bits get picked off?
THIS IS MASSIVE, INDEFENSIBLE FAIL.
This is why I hate funnels and bits, not because they’re not awesome. It’s because the Gundam anime fails to use them realistically, and just used them to showcase lame-ass Newtype abilities as science fiction.
THERE. SUCK ON THAT. GUNDAMFAG!
btw, Mechafetish will start it off, then you’ll see how the post works and let me know if you want in.
You just picked out the worst example for a funnel user. Amuro maybe an excellent Newtype but his funnel skills just suck. Try Haman instead.
You should also consider how goddamn hard is it to control funnels in the first place! Think about the concentration a person would need to move even one of them with his mind, and imagine the mental stress needed to position everything at once to get a clear shot. Anyone could aim with a big gun and shoot, but for funnels, just plain moving them (and trying not to get them blown up by other Newtypes) is fuckhard.
And Tomino, in his wisdom, kept the funnels from being too much overpowered, as opposed to silly Fukuda who turned Kira into Gundam’s number one beamspammer. Newtype abilities were made for trippy astral sex, not for moving staplers around!
Enjoy your big guns, and your I-Field that can’t even last 20 minutes. I’d rather be doing pinpoint shots with my remote weapons.
Anyways, you should probably check out the Mobile Suit Gundam novels by Tomino, as he portrays Newtypes in a mature manner grounded in proper scifi.
I’ll ask Mechafetish about it.
But I was referring to Amuro fighting against funnels. Funnels are too powerful. The very idea alone is broken. Nerfing it in Zeta/00 isn’t helping – because all it’s showing is that the franchise is whoring for cool tech (not necessarily a bad thing, but I WOULD RATHER SEE AWESOME EXECUTION THAN MERE LOOKSEE I HAVE FENNELS).
I’d probably accept how 00 nerfed Throne Zwei’s fangs, by making Gundams very resistant to beam weaponry in the first place. However, how the hell are these things being controlled? AI?
>>Newtype abilities were made for trippy astral sex, not for moving staplers around!
If only this were true!
And if you do prefer fighting a remote battle via pinpoint fenneling, boring gundam fight is boring. SHAINING FINGAAA > fennels any day.
Hmm. I suppose I fall more-or-less into schneider’s camp: I’m indifferent to funnels (it depends how they’re used) but I’m no fan of giant Mobile Armours. Mobile Armours were a key marker of 0083‘s decreschendo from WOW to *yawn* for me.
is that Tiffa Adill (Gundam X) in the pic? hehe.
::shock::
😀
@rollchan
kawaii schoolgirl haircut, pale lavander long-sleeves, yes, it’s her! LOL i love her. when are they gonna show the gma7 gundam shows again. ive seen dbz, recca, yyh for the 456th time, no thanks to gma…
@the blogger(sorry i dunno what to call ya!)
, i believe that its ok to ogle at a gundam anime because of the mech. thats what i do. wheter its good or bad depends on how it benefits ya. if the show wasnt pretty much focused on mecha-nut fanservice half the time, then it would have had the title “Code G, setsuna of the Celestial Being”. besides, if the mechs weren’t nice to look at in action or just simply at a hangar, bandai wouldnt sell gundams at a high price… the anime is a capitalizing tactic as well, you know, so its ok to feel as if sunrise is producing gundam shows so that youll be hypnotized into buying bandai’s model kits…
dont ya notice that model kit prices go up when the anime it came from is all the talk, and go down when the said anime becomes obscure? its because i think anime sthrengtens sales. its all about the money… so yeah, the gundam shows, at some points has that “Go buy a gunpla of the mobile suits shown in this episode!” written all over their faces.
sorry if i acted as if i know everything and you didnt know jack… if you think i was insulting your brain, im not. really!
@ SRWfreak
No, not at all. It’s okay.
@SRWfreak
I miss the good ol days of ’98 when I watched GWing for the very first time, also my 1st gundam, evah.
yeah, they just keep on replaying animes that were absolutely a bang at first, but is now boring. Animax also does it. reruns! XD
@rollchan
so true so true, though i didnt get what gundam wing was all about back then, just loved it because of the JUST COMMUNICATION opening! and as a kid, i foolishly thought it went like: “Gundam wing, communikeisioon, how many, to the lenai kala!” LOL
@schneider
so, that’s blogger-san’s name around here, ok, ill call ya schnider. btw, you said sumthng about doing office work in your Dai-guard column, how old are you, sir? btw, when you guys mentioned funnels, are they those ‘fin funnels’ or ‘bits’ old skool MS use?