Kidou Senshi Gundam AGE

Since completing the series, I feel I should update this review.

Well, this will be my first ever review for a series.. reasons for me actually taking the time to write one, is because I believe this is a very underrated series as it's part of the Gundam franchise.. I'll break it down.

Story: 10

The story progress was brilliance at it's best. The show progresses throughout 100 years, and moves through three generations.. I felt this was a very interesting concept that could be explored in other Gundam series in the future. There was a lot of accusations towards this series about being a children's version ... of a Gundam series.. This is inaccurate, as throughout the entire series it is very serious in the way it approaches the dialogue and story..

Art: 10

Why? because it was different then what I normally see and now in the end, it's unique.. People complain that the art is childish. the Gundam wasn't designed well,etc.. if you pay attention it develops into a very well designed Gundam; following the series as both the story and the characters evolve.

Sound: 9

The sound design is amazing, but out of the OP or ED I have grown increasingly fond of 'My World' by SPYAIR.. the song has such a great meaning behind it, which is a perfect fit for the arc, and after this series I have become a great fan of their music and I recommend anyone who enjoys the ED to check out the rest of their music line up.

Enjoyment: 10

I greatly enjoy this series, because I've grown to love each of the characters.. As you move through each arc you clamor to find out what happens to each of the side characters, the previous main characters, etc.. overall the show just engulfs you until the very end.. It proves that if you stick with it, it can stand with even the best of the franchise.

Overall: 10

This series has been a complete joy to watch and I wish it would of went farther into the storyline, definitely worth the watch.. if your hanging on the fence to watch or not watch, this is no SD Gundam.. and for that I am thankful.. To me this ranks with Gundam Wing and Gundam 00 , which are among my favorite series.. Go watch this already.. quoted from a comment on GA.com episode 20.. "People hated AGE, but it just keeps getting better and better.."

I was quite reluctant to write a review on this, but after seeing this anime getting so much hate which it truly doesn't deserve, at least not until someone has seen at least first few episodes of an anime which is expected to have a 4Q run (50-ish episodes), I decided to write a review on much hated Gundam AGE to share my takes on it.

What the synopsis tells is, the story begins with the death of Flit Asuno's mother. Flit's mother, and probably his entire family became a victim of an attack by Unidentified Enemy, or UE as they are referred to in short. ... Flit, a genius, carrying the bloodline of Asuno family, often regarded as the geniuses who have been the creators of previous models of Gundam, creates the Gundam AGE and develops its AGE System to protect everyone from further attacks from UE.

Lame the whole story synopsis sounds I know, and I was myself reluctant to watch this anime after seeing Gundam 00 franchise ending up being a complete trainwreck with 'aliens' in the movie 'A wakening of the Trailblazer' courtesy of Director Mizushima. ALIENS! is a NO NO for Gundam. Dare I say, we have Macross for that. So I was expecting pretty much similar failure of 'Aliens in Gundam' which never would work out. But after seeing the first three episodes, I can humbly say, it would have been a mistake to not have followed this series. Because so far, it has had a very steady but nicely paced development of a story that is expected to improve much more from here on out!

So here are my few takes.

Flit is our 14 year old protagonist, although looks more like a 10 year old. Yeah, he is a couple of years younger than Setsuna F. Seiei and Kira Yamato, which is a BIG MINUS(!) for most of us. I seriously don't know why though.

FIGHTING against ALIENS? Did they ever once show that the opponents are aliens? If you have asked me, they look more like mobile suits in Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari. And there is no way to tell they are 'alines'. At least they gave hints that those could be piloted by men's worst enemy. If you are smart enough, you might as well assume the rest. It's alright for Flit though, as long as he keeps thinking he is fighting aliens. No level headed 14 year old would keep his cool aiming his DODS Beam Rifle and destroying mobile suits being piloted by a species you would rather not aim at.

As many have stated already in their hatred, this is a matter of fact, a Wonderful KID'S ANIME(!), I will assume it is to be one, since it just showed nothing more than a little girl holding a teddy on one hand and her mother on the other and crying her eyes out seeing the place she was born being destroyed right before her, a helpless young boy unable to save his mother as she dies right in front of him, an entire space colony being destroyed with countless lives lost and lots of blood.

The characters are matured, despite some of them just being kids. Fourteen year old Flit is actually more matured than Setsuna and Kira ever became in their twenties. Emily is your 'simple' girl as many gundams had in their run, but unlike most of those, she seems to be the main heroine of the anime. Although Yurin, a mysterious girl, have grabbed my attention the most so far. The rest of the side characters so far have an air around them, which makes them not just another side character, two of them who stood out are Aynor Grudech and Aloi Miles. However, the character designs follow the old Gundam, and Gundam Zeta franchise, which might not be taken lightly by some fans, who actually loved the more matured and detailed character designs in newer gundams like Gundam SEED and Gundam 00. Don't get me wrong, since I am one of them too.

The background details and the background music in Gundam AGE are nothing short of brilliant. I am really impressed with the level of animation quality they have put in an anime that is expected to run a whole year! The OP by Galileo Galilei is good, but the ED by Kuribayashi Minami is one of the best of all the OPEDs of anime airing at this moment of time.

The only thing probably I am really trying to overlook is the Gundam model itself, which is not as detailed as the gundams we have seen over the last decade or so. I cannot agree more with those who think the Gundam AGE design is mediocre and lacks originality, because I thought the same way too. But what gives? I already think the anime has huge potential and could be one of the better shows this season, or might even become one of the best shows in the whole calender year. You just never know. Into episode three, and it has shown much more promise than Gundam 00 managed in its entire first half of season one. There you go. I have just said it. I hope you didn't judge Kemono no Souja Erin by its cover, and I will request you not to do so for Gundam AGE too! We are definitely going to see a few time-skips!

I'm kind of a minimal Gundam fan. I was raised by badly-dubbed Malay episodes of G Gundam and Gundam Wing, and i've seen the first two episodes of Gundam SEED and i kind of enjoyed it.

When i heard about people raging over Gundam AGE, i said to myself "Hm, stupid weeaboos not being raised by Doraemon, Astro Boy and Ninja Boy". From the character design i can basically tell that it's not only for kids, but it's also for parents or those raised by traditional kids anime from the 80's and early 90's. And i understand that. This is not for the 00/SEED fan. And ... it pretty much says that in the artwork.

But seeing the first two episodes, i said to myself "Hey, this is not bad. Not a great start like 00 but still decent". It's okay.

The story is pretty much a rip-off of Nadesico where some kid named Flit Asuno (played by Toyonaga Toshiyuki from DRRR!!) lost his mom but got this AGE system which enables him to pilot Gundams. He has a cute female childhood friend named Emily and works with an Agasa lookalike scientist in the development of a new Gundam.

In this story the space colonies are under attack by unknown Alien-looking mechs called GAFRANs. The fact that they look different that the usual Gundam enemies makes me want to believe that the story is pretty much a rip-off of Nadesico. Dead parents, supernatural technology, space colonies and alien enemy mechs without an early backstory makes this story sound like Nadesico, and to me that's kind of a low point.

The characters are okay. Flit is a type of guy who wants to pilot a Gundam, since they look cool in oil paintings. Alot of them look very old-school, especially one military guy named Aynor who looks like he just came from a 1980's mecha anime-themed Japanese barbershop. And Haro's back. Hooray.

I'm really loving the art. It looks well-made and very polished. So far they are using the budget well and it's use of simplicity to create a very child-like character design is one thing i applaud Sunrise for. I love it when anime companies that do really big projects does an anime that is based on childlike art (like IG's Usagi Drop and Gainax's P&S), and Gundam AGE is one of them.

The sound is nothing to be judged. I'll wait for the next few episodes before making a judgement out of it. So far, Toyonaga makes an okay Flit and i love the AnoHana OP from galileo Galilei, and having them do the OP for AGE is pretty cool.

So far, it's an okay show. It has a chance to get better after the next few episodes provided Sunrise won't fuck this up in SEED Destiny levels. I'll keep my eyes on this.

Latest TV Series of the Gundam Franchise (2011-12)
Advance Generation
Review from my POV (w/personal biases after watching whole run)
Lite Spoiler Warning

Pros:
+ The concept of a "50 episode run, going thru 3 generations of a central conflict with protagonists that relate to each other" sounds pretty FN dope and it works....... some of the time. (like a compact 0079, Zeta, ZZ run)
+ The Viewer should should like they were given positive dividends when continuing from Gen 1 thru Gen 2
EX: Gen 1 Flit was aiight, BUT Gen 2 Flit was pretty Badass. He develops a cold hatred towards the enemy after what we've seen him go thru ... in Gen 1. and that's cool
+ The 2nd Generation as a whole was really enjoyable to watch
+ AGE-1 Spallow

Cons:
- Antagonist has no face in the 1st Gen
- Little to no creativity for mobile suit design
- Took awhile for me to get into the pokemon-esque character design.

3rd GEN Cons (yes, it's so bad, it gets its own section)
- Pretty much after the halfway point of the 3rd Gen is utter bullshit. Lemme explain
- The 3rd Gen hero Kio Asuno switches up his view after experiencing something tragic, making his choices completely illogical and down right dumb. It also changes his combat style, which is also bullshit.
- Character development is pretty much shot.
- The're trying to force emotion by constantly having a death occur constantly
- Char clone. and a bad one
- Flit Asuno in the last moment becomes IMO the worst protagonist in the Gundam franchise.

Final Note/Impression:
A cool concept that's completely defiled by the 3rd act of this TV Series. My feels about Flit Asuno are similar to a playthrough of Mass Effect 3: I work so hard for a satisfying conclusion, only to realize that what i wanted will never be presented in front of me.

*Due to the nature of the plot of this show, this review contains slight spoilers*

There's much to say about Gundam AGE--from the time it was first unveiled, the fanbase went crazy in anger thinking it was going to be some childish take on the franchise, things like how the Gundam wasn't even going to be piloted but controlled from afar by the AGE device, that they were going to remove any grimdark from the show, and so on. In any case, AGE is a significant departure in look from the grittyness of the previous Gundam, Gundam 00--00 had darker, mature-ish character and mecha designs, and ... AGE has a look more associated with children's anime (no surprise then that this show's writer and character designer also worked on projects like Inazuma Eleven). Despite all this, the show isn't really "childish" in any sense, and ends up being a typical Gundam show--or a sad attempt at being one.

Yes, Gundam AGE is no doubt the worst Gundam out there. Okay, I haven't seen fan disfavourite SEED Destiny outside of the first few episodes, but it'll have to be pretty bad to beat what writer Akihiro Hino and director Susumu Yamaguchi have presented us with here. They've presented us with a show that could have been a very solid show but instead refuses every attempt at being good.

Basically, Gundam AGE is a "multigenerational Gundam", which focuses on protagonist Flit Asuno, his son, and his grandson, all of which pilot three generations of the titular Gundam AGE. From that summary alone, I'd expect a very interesting plot involving intense familial themes, some romance, and perhaps some grand villainous threat that threatens the Asuno clan and their friends and their society over the decades. Instead this is merely a setup for infinite amounts of squandered opportunities at interesting plot threads. Take the expected romantic themes--relationships are reduced to little more than a casual mention at best, with pathetic attempts at creating love triangles that the concept art for the later characters made painfully obvious which girl "won", seeing how each son resembles their mother. "Won" belongs in quotes because little to no characterisation is given to any of the girls and love interests besides perhaps Yurin, who is a carbon copy of Lalah Sune from the original 0079 Gundam. Speaking of Yurin, we also get a scene so bizarre early on that it seems like a parody of the battle involving Lalah, Amuro, and Char from the original Gundam, involving a psychotic little kid as Char. Oh, that scene is also completely serious and sets up one of the major story threads, something so bad it puts all the borrowing of the original MSG plot Gundam SEED did to shame.

That's only a taste of the plot you'll find in this show. Gundam AGE effectively has three story arcs separated by timeskips, centering around Flit in the first, his son Asem in the second, and his grandson Kio in the third. It wouldn't be a stretch to say the first is "based on" Mobile Suit Gundam, the second on Zeta Gundam, and the third on ZZ Gundam. The first arc is pretty much junk--a shadowy faction with strange mobile suits are blowing up colonies, but it mostly ends up being a mixture of filler and dumb ripoffs of the original Gundam. The rest is better though, if only because it gets to answer the question of what Gundam protagonists and their comrades are doing decades after the events of their show, and Gundam AGE delivers for the second arc, which ends up being the only salvageable part of the show in the end. Here we see Flit's friend Woolf as a grizzled badass, Flit himself playing a role equivalent to the villainous Titans of Zeta Gundam, and that's sadly about it, because while the second arc presents an interesting story, it squanders its true potential by wasting about a third of its space with rather pointless high school filler arc that does little but set up the character of Gundam AGE's Char clone Zeheart. The arc also unceremoniously wastes an interesting plot point by killing off one of the most interesting characters of the first generation for no reason only a few minutes after he's reintroduced for the second arc. But at least we have a solid plot--angry humans on Mars want to take back the Earth, and start a total war with the Earth Sphere humans, which amounts to typical Gundam stuff. Oh, and look for a ripoff of one of the ending scenes of Gundam Wing (or Char's Counterattack, which Gundam Wing borrowed from) because Gundam AGE can't resist stealing famous Gundam scenes for its own use (although I admit this scene is pretty cool).

The third arc and the finale are what ends up utterly killing the show. Everything comes together to produce a flat nothing, with a corny plot development leading to protagonist Kio Asuno turning into perhaps the whiniest Gundam protagonist ever. This plot development involving him going to the home colony of the Mars humans ends up being horribly, horribly done, even though the writers no doubt intended it to be one of the tearjerking moments of the show. This also shows Gundam AGE's love for killing off characters in dramatic death scenes when they barely have been given any character development. Not that that stops them from giving a full episode devoted to a minor character introduced only the previous episode which goes into detail about her life, only for her to be killed off at the end of it. Nice misplaced priorities there, eh?

The ending is as bad as you'd expect by this point. The main villain reveals his plans, which are so utterly, utterly stupid they don't make logical sense even by Gundam villain standards. The Char clone of the show--who like most Char clones, comes across as fairly sympathetic for most of the show--chooses to go along with such idiocy and redoubles his efforts. And for the finale, expect a complete anticlimax--some people die in pointless ways, and the final episode is solely about a fight against a character who makes his first appearance in that same episode and has almost no personality. Wonderful.

Discounting the horribly wasted plot, Gundam AGE isn't all bad. While the artstyle and fight scenes are nowhere near the visceral glory of Gundam 00, for what it's worth everything is smoothly animated and sufficient. The character designs aren't that bad once you get used to them--it could be Hisashi "sameface" Hirai of Gundam SEED after all! The mecha designs are also pretty great, although the majority of the enemy mobile suits look like they'd better fit in a non-Gundam mecha anime, what with the draconic design of many of them. And compared to other Gundam shows (looking at you, SEED), AGE limits the number of Gundams floating around--there's a grand total of four Gundams (plus "backpacks") in the show. Three are the protagonist Gundams, each with nice allusions to the original RX-78 Gundam, the Zeta Gundam, and the ZZ Gundam respectively. The fourth is the Gundam of one of the villains, featuring a wonderfully alien design.

The soundtrack for Gundam AGE is incredible, with some nice modern elements pervading it. It certainly continues the trend of the newer Gundams (Turn A and onward) having awesome soundtracks that REALLY stand out unlike the still-good but less unique soundtracks of the older Gundams. The opening and closing songs are mixed bunch, the first two openers being cheesy, harmless J-pop, the third being a nice upbeat J-rock song, the final being a stellar J-pop song. Endings are less unique, with only the first--an electronic J-pop ballad--being memorable. As for the voice-acting, there's nothing negative I can say--Kazuhiko Inoue does a great job as the coldhearted older Flit, Hiroshi Kamiya does the villainous Zeheart well, and Daisuke Ono as Woolf makes the most out of the character. Prolific seiyuu Takehito Koyasu (who's done several other noteworthy Gundam roles in his time) shows up here as well.

But that's merely the makings of a potentially great show. In the end, the writers chose to squander every bit of potential for this show, instead creating this trainwreck in its place. Gundam AGE had the chance to be one of the franchise's most memorable shows, but instead it's something to be looked down on, and will be remembered as one of the worst moments for Gundam. Avoid this, and avoid this well.

Gundam Age is an attempt to attract a new, younger audience by re-packaging the core Gundam lore that has been established over the years into story arcs that follows three generations of Gundam pilots. While the premise is cool, the majority of its flaws comes from having to tell all three arcs within a 49-episode constraint.

Because there are so many characters in so little time, they are given few opportunities to develop. When a loved one is killed by malice and drives the hero to be consumed by revenge, it's very hard to fully buy into such extreme motivations even in the face of overwhelming ... commons sense without willfully suspend one's own disbelief. Side characters come and go seemingly for the sole purpose of reproducing, and antagonists exist as plot devices to force dramatic situations. While I'm not opposed to wanting to attract a new audience, there is a contradiction in telling a story about the complex emotional and moral landscape of war to a younger crowd by simplifying it. Which is a shame, because the main characters are actually interesting and full of potential.

In terms of visuals, I was initially caught off-guard by the disparity between character design and mech design. This is due to how Gundam series work: the mechs are always designed with the same look (brand consistency), but each series' characters are drawn with different styles by different creatives. For someone to watch Gundam series in succession, it takes a few episodes to adjust. As for animation, it's noticeably less detailed and with fewer frames than 00 / Seed, although there are some bright spots in key battles.

I'm a not fan of combat sequences determined by plot armor, and Gundam has always been notorious for that; a major antagonist pilots the most advanced Gundam would easily destroy the heroes in one scene but is defeated in the next by the same said hero without actually illustrating how, which renders of the tech advancement that matters so much in the storyline into window dressing... or an excuse to promo a new toy. I wish, at some point, there would be a Gundam series that shows combat which better illustrates the relative performance between Mech A and Mech B, and then how each pilot uses them to determine the outcome. But I suppose that would not be in the best interest of a series that is dependent on continuously rebooting itself: setting too high of a standard makes the next reboot even harder.

In the meantime, I suppose GA is worth a look for those who don't want to invest much time into the Gundam franchise, as it's meant to be an updated and condensed collection of past Gundam themes and mech designs. But for those who have watched enough Gundam series, it feels like a medley.

The overly used anime formula:

little boy piloting super space fighting crazy machine.....

then there is that annoying character that follows the protagonist around thinking he/she can be of help.

then of course the mysterious character that knows "stuff" and is some kind of psychic....she shows some love interest in the protagonist

later in the series they'll probably be a love triangle

... the bad guys are gonna appear

the bad guys will decimate the protagonist

but wait the secret wepon which will probably be a gundam upgrade and then suddenly the protagonis will be over powerful, yell and cry a few times and end up wining in the end.

but thats not all

they'll probably release a movie which will have a horrible ending and the developers of the show will say that the ending had a different meaning blah blah blah

basically just watch the first 3-4 episodes and you'll see this is one of those new age anime that are bland and over used plot styles and charcters that annoy the shit out of me personal...

how does a 14 year old kid get funding for a advanced mech design and where did he get all that knowledge of gundams when I get a b- in calculus?

also in japan do they have 14 year old's in the military?

If you've seen after war gundam x its basically the same bullshit except this ones in HD so its better looking bullshit.

the gundam looks like basically like every other gundam so nothing special about it except the age system which is some giant egg that when activated will make a weapon for the gundam that will counter the enemies weapons...wow

basically im predicting every fight in the anime is gonna go like this:

the opponent turns out to be really strong
protagonist in gundam fights him,
get his ass handed to him
then says something like "we have enough data!!!"
then they turn on the age system
kill enemy with OP gun that he gets from the age system
celebration
fin

just a lot of pretty lights, no tactical fighting, yawn.

(SPOILERS AHEAD) I'm a fan of gundam so when I heard about gundam age the first thing I did was read the reviews, there was a lot of bad reviews out there about gundam age so when I sat down to watch it for myself I was a bit wary, I was however pleasantly surprised at how wrong some of the reviews were, many people wrote age off for having aliens, known as the U.E or from episode 16 onward Vagan, for those who first saw them and stopped watching you are wrong, the U.E are actually humans who were abandoned on the surface of ... mars and are attempting to gain control of Earth. Unlike the other gundam series I've seen so far age seems to be running three protagonists, starting with flit asuno aged 14 at the time of his fights in the gundam, it then moves on after 15 episodes to his son Asemu, aged 17 and flit is now a federation forces commander aged somewhere around 40. If I am correct I believe that the next protagonist will be Asemu's son Kio as the is the only asuno pilot yet without a voice actor is Kio. There are many people who refused to watch this anime due to the more childish art form, I like many others preferred the art from gundam seed which also received many bad reviews, do not be put off by age's art, the story is gripping and full of twists, all in all I believe that gundam age is a great anime.

Another Gundam series to add to my collection : )

Story
Gundam AGE is similar to the UC series if anyone has seen it. AGE 1- The Asuno family is famous for its Gundam. Flit's mother is killed during an attack on a colony. The one's responsible are the UE (GAFRANs) an alien race. He vows to build a Gundam that will save everyone. ( Savior Gundam) In A.G. 114, Flit completes the Gundam AGE and counterattacks against GAFRANs. One day, the UE once again attacks his new home and he must pilot the Gundam he built to defeat the UE. Now he goes to ... war with the UE. One of the many perks of this series is that Filt's Gundam can get new upgrades from the AGE's System--- Which collects battle data of the enemy and builds new weapons/parts that add to the his Gundam. Whether it be power or speed.
AGE 2-- 40 years later( AGE--140) we have a new main characters- Asem Asuno- the son of Flit Asuno- who now pilots the Gundam to fight the UE. He too will follow his father footsteps. As seen in the opening, Asem gets a new upgrade which is awesome!!! Oh yeah this arc we get a Char like character : )

Sound
Gundam series has the best op/ed ever.

Art/character-- Gundam series has the best art ever-- even the Gundams and Mobile suits.

Enjoyment
Canit wait to see more episodes

Without doubt one of the worst anime to air in 2011-2012 is the latest Gundam AGE. This is the first time we see such an attempt by Sunrise and it's really bad. I can go as far as to call it a disgrace to the entire Gundam franchise, an anime aimed at 5-10 year olds with mecha and ship designs stolen from SEED and 00. Truly a failure and i sincerely hope we never get to see something like this air ever again.

All the rumours you've heard about AGE in its early days:

- Aliens
- Pokemon style evolution
- Baby show

this anime took a massive dump on them and the only ones who believe them are losers who were quick to judge it and haven't gone beyond the first 2 or 3 episodes. The last few episode takes a 'Zeta-ish' turn so to speak where it gets dark and occasionally violent and a handful of characters die.

Gundam AGE does nothing out of the ordinary for Gundam. It may not be a dense political drama like Wing, Turn A and 00, but it's a fun action anime like the ... SEED series and that's why it's a winner.

The story as everyone knows is a 3-generation story that takes place within the 100 year time span. Each generation arc has its own protagonist with his son picking up where the former left off.

The character designs wasn't a big deal as for me but I agree it CAN, but RARELY, get overly kiddy, but for the most part, I think it worked just fine. Much better than Gundam 00's annoying genderly ambiguous male characters who can pass off as women.

Overall, this was brilliant and I've seen EVERY Gundam series to date (except G and SD Gundam). So don't you dare say that I'm not a true Gundam fan.

despite the risk of sounding uninformed and stupid i just had to say something about gundam Age.

no i'm not sombody that is pissed that the animation looks like it took a step or 10 back from gundam 00, or that it looks like a megaman parody etc. i'm just going to watch it and judge later. the story starts out fairly simple, dude's mother killed by unknown enemy that look like dragons, he builds gundams to kill enemy.

the series is divided into 3 parts each with its own protagonists btw but i dont know the name so yeah.

the animation is frankly nothing big, no realism ... like seed, or virtual like 00, just....basic japanese animation. in fact it reminds me of that robot boy with rockets out of his feet, cant remember the name.

voice actors, again nothing big.

characters..... just one episode so far, but pretty one dimensional, you have the heroine *so far* that follows the hero like a lost puppy and doesnt really play a role but knowing Gundam and their fondness for weird twists, i expect she'll become badass somewhere along the line lol. heo...also pretty one dimensional, his sole purpose for existing is to kill dragons.

oh and is it just me or is the whole episode feel like something out of a fairy tale? you know, magic warrior likeness painted in a picture that is family heriloom, gigantic enemies that look like dragons and act like them too, the goal of the boy is to bring that knight back to life and kickass. familliar fairy tale?

Gundam AGE is arguably the most hated anime in recent memory. Sadly most of the reasons aren't valid. Some say its too childish (Yet watch shows with children in them, even the gundams with children piloting), some say it's art is disgusting (Yet watched Higuarashi), and some haven't taken the time to even watch it. Here's an unbiased and unwarranted hate-free review:

Story -
The story is very unique, as it spans 3 generations of characters in the same family, a first for a Gundam series, and rarely done in ANY anime. This brings a certain level of connection to a war, and extra connection to ... characters. However, there isn't simply enough time to flesh out each individual story arc; without each other to lean on, they would be virtually unwatchable. A 3 Season series would probably have worked best, as each arc is only 15 or so episodes. One thing to say is that the story feels like an RPG playing out right before your eyes, and rightfully so, as the story was written by the talented game company Level 5, who made classics such as Dragon Quest VIII and Rouge Galaxy.

Art-
The Art is good, but not great. Its typical Gundam art; not groundbreaking but highly animated and explosive. Aimed at kids it isn't, there's things here that you'd see in your typical Gundam series. The Gundam models look crisp, and have some original concepts, but alot of similarities to other Gundams from the series. Was it a homage? Or did they run out of ideas? You be the judge.

Sound-
Other than the explosions, there isn't anything to talk about. The voice acting is standard fare, as well as the music.

Character-
The great thing about this anime is that there are so many characters, you'll fall in love with one of them. The best feeling in the world is moving to the next story arc/generation and seeing a character front he previous one make a return, or even upgrade from supporting to main. However, just like the story, there isn't enough time to flesh everyone out; most characters have a single storyline (avenge death, here to kill and destroy, i'm the captain, etc.). There are a few characters you'll fall in love with, but while some stay around for almost the entire series, sadly some of them only appear for a few episodes before leaving for whatever reason.

The main characters are without a doubt the best part of the show. What I love is that none of them, while being in the same bloodline, are clones of each other. They each have their own issues, hopes and fears, and to see them react to each other, especially near the end, makes up for the lack of character development anywhere else.

Enjoyment-
You would think that with such average scores of the other categories I wouldn't have enjoyed the series, but you're oh so wrong. As awkward as the stories and characters are, it was actually one of the more enjoyable anime to watch. You had to see what happened next; granted, you won't find anything shocking here, but it was always interesting to see what character would be relevant in the next episode, especially near the end when characters would pop in/out and mains would conflict. ITS GUNDAM FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Who doesn't enjoy giant robots beating the crap out of each other?!

Overall-
Definitely give it a chance. Some will like it. Some will call it completely underrated. Some will say it's trash. But it's def. a new experience for Gundam fans and a good anime to tide you over between your next big watch.

At first, this series is intended for children under the age of 13 years. But my guess was wrong. In fact, this series actually not much different from the others: dark, gloomy, and accompanied by ideological and political conflict.

The first time anyway, I assume that this Gundam series have failed in pleasing the fans. But that series is able to attract many new viewers that most of them are fans of Inazuma Eleven (due to the fact similar character designs. Imagine if Mamoru Endo or Tenma Matsukaze a MS pilot). Then described also that the Gundam series is as a savior. In fact, most fans ... know that Gundam is nothing but a war machine like an ordinary fighting vehicles in real life.

Whatever the picture, no matter whether it's as a war machine, as a means to stop the war, even as a savior, it remains one: Gundam.

Overall, despite failing to please the the fans, but this one is mandatory Gundam series to watch.

Review about flit asuno :

i think Flit Asuno is a failure project as one of the main protagonist, first i thougt he is really a good guy, promising hero that can bring peace among human, but i was wrong, he is the worst hero i ever seen in gundam universe.

1. that time when he heard about the failed mars colonization case, he should had search for the background story about the case, and tells the world about the truth behind, but did not care at all and keeps fighting like he is right about everything. This prove he actually consume by hatred and become blood ... thirsty.
2. he call himself hero? He knows vagan once innocent people too, and are human. But he still take them on as an alien and wants to kill them all. This kind of attitude isn a hero. Create a deadly weapon like we saw on episode 27? That was just like in GundamSeedSestiny antagonist ideas.

My point is, that overpowered Flit isnt fit to be a good guy, already consumed by hatred, and he failed there be no peace, even if he killed all of the vagan, the rest of the population still blinded by the earth governments about the truth of failed mars colonization case. Which mean there be no justice, as for Flit? he'll become Fake hero, just a hero to himself and his minions, and sadly those rest of blinded population on earth too.

*to Grodek, that was a good death. I won't review this bad support character a lot, he created he's own death by created vengeance on a innocent child. "Good guy wont create another vengeance as he know it hurts a lot". Grodek was a bad guy.

The reasons im still watching this because im really interested about vagan's side story, and to know what fate will they face ahead. They are human too.

I have mixed feelings about Gundam AGE. I want to see it succeed, but I feel its currently failing to live up to not only many fans expectations for a Gundam show. And also apparently failing to meet the stated goal of bringing in younger viewers as an entry-level Gundam series. As an example: Kamen Rider (another well-known childrens franchise) has 4x the ratings in a similar timeslot.

Animation:
Being a Gundam series, Sunrise has spared no expense on the budget. Reports put it at double the budget of the average show. Taking place in zero-gravity quite often, the characters smoothly float around in a realistic manner. ... The mobile suits and ships in the combat scenes look very nice, although the shader they use on the Diva makes it look rather cartoony. The scenery inside the colonies can also be quite good at times. Unfortunately due to the rather simple character and art designs, all that money only really shines during the fighting scenes, and not in the character interaction scenes.

Story:
Since the show is targeting a younger audience, but they still want to entice the older fans to watch it, the writing can be a bit haphazard at times. There are times where the characters pull off genuinely ingenuitive tactics to outsmart the enemy. Many times though, they seem to do frustratingly stupid things that cause a scene to be drawn out unrealistically. The small scale of many of the conflicts also leave one wondering how this is considered a world-enveloping battle with the UE. IMHO they could have done a better job of providing a story that was easy for younger viewers to follow, while still providing battles that involved smart combat decisions.

My biggest gripe related to story and writing I would have to say is the AGE System. Some of the equipment it comes up with really shouldn't be effective at all and is rather silly. And the Deus Ex Machina factor of it always coming up with exactly what the MC needs to bail him out of danger becomes trite very quickly. This can really dampen the emotional draw of the battles at times.

Characters:
Keeping in mind the young age of Flit to start the series, I thought he acted appropriately most of the time. My only major quibble was, as I said above, some of the writing for his battles was really stupid and could make one "facepalm."

I liked most of the supporting adults in the cast as well. Grodek is a really awesome captain, and Millais is a competent junior officer. Granpda is rather ridiculous looking, like he's straight out of a 70s anime, but I give it a pass because of the target audience.

I thought Asemu was a great character when first introduced, but the more I see of him, the less I like him. While Flit uses skill and practice, Asemu is more like a mix of early-Kamille from Zeta Gundam, and the whiny outbursts of Shinn -- complete with the lack of skill and crutching on superior equipment that Shinn did. The dynamic between him and Zeheart also seems much more "DEEP" than being actually nuanced.

Both of the female lead characters introduced so far, as is typical of non-UC Gundam stories it seems, are rather useless tag-along type characters that are IMHO overshadowed by far better written female secondary characters. They don't bring anything worthwhile to moving the story along, they don't have any real skills, and they generally lack any sort of character development. They're basically just the de-facto baby-maker to "pop out" the next generation of pilot in the story.

In conclusion:
Sunrise tapped popular childrens' entertainment company Level5 to write the scenario and create character designs for Gundam Age. Unfortunately their expertise doesn't appear to be translating very well into the Gundam universe. If you are an older Gundam fan, don't expect a lot of intelligent combat. There IS some, but it's few and far between. But if you aren't too picky, the current offering isn't nearly as terrible as say, Seed Destiny. A lot of the supporting cast are really great to watch.

As for kids -- it's an okay show, but the slow pacing and uneven storytelling doesn't hold the viewers attention as well as it could.

Another alternate continuity title within the Gundam franchise, Gundam AGE focuses on a century-long war that the Earth Federation has with a mysterious enemy that takes place through the span of three generations in its focus on three members of the Asuno family that engage the enemy threat in their Gundam mecha. As more about the true nature of this unknown enemy comes to light and each Asuno member bares witness to the hardships of this war, each one develops a differing mentality with how to handle the unknown enemy threat and this drives their developments for later episodes of the series.

Gundam AGE is a ... bit tricky to properly judge since each generation arc within the series has it varying levels of quality in terms of plot. The Flit arc is the most watered down of the arcs as it takes on a black-and-white moral compass with portraying the enemy threat as irredeemably evil, relies heavily on plot formulas typical of Gundam and sci-fi titles and sticks with simple character types throughout its run. The Asemu arc offers the best quality of the series as it is a little more complex with the conflicts faced by Asemu as he struggles with the pressures put on him to follow in his father's footsteps and is conflicted with how to handle things when learning that a close friend of his is part of the enemy force. The later two arcs with Kio are where the series quality nosedives when attempts to make the enemy force sympathetic are poorly implemented, the rationales of some of the characters don't make much sense, Kio being a worst character than Gundam SEED's Kira in being a pacifist fighter and the sudden introduction of new enemy threats just for the sake of creating enemy threats to drag the plot out.

The generation gimmick actually works against Gundam AGE since the pacing of each arc is rather rushed to 11-15 episodes a piece, limiting how much depth the series can provide to its world and characters. To a great extent, the series just rehashes character types, plot elements and characteristics of its mecha and technologies from prior Gundam titles, waters the typical themes of the franchise down and expects viewers of the series to accept what they are watching. The issues between Asemu and Zeheart were pretty much the saving grace of AGE for me as the execution of other plot developments and character issues within the series are either rehashed from prior Gundam titles, too shallow to really care for or were flawed as such where I found myself questioning what the writers of AGE were thinking when they put together this series, especially with their efforts at trying to make the enemy threat more sympathetic compared to their depiction in the Flit arc.

Visually, Gundam AGE is rather average in terms of quality. While sporting a good deal of visual detail and vivid color, character and scenery designs are a bit on the plain side. Federation mecha designs are pretty much typical of what has been depicted for past Gundam titles, though the mecha utilized by the enemy forces sport unique designs as they take on a variety of forms from the Gafran units introduced in the Flit arc to the gorilla-like Xambrag piloted by Zanald Beihart in the later Kio arcs. The animation has its moments of decent choreography with action scenes thanks to the unique designs of many of the enemy units, though the majority still resort to whatever's been done with prior Gundam titles and shortcuts are noticeable in more complicated battle scenes such as fights between large factions of Federation and enemy forces.

Overall, Gundam AGE is one of the more weaker entries of the Gundam franchise as its efforts with the "generation arc" gimmick lead it to rehash story, character and world elements from past Gundam titles in a mostly generic, rushed and (later on) sloppily implemented mess. The Asemu and Zeheart rivalry redeems the series to a degree for me, but it is still not enough to save AGE from being nothing more than a mediocre series. Unless you're a diehard Gundam fan, I would skip this title.

This review will contain very little spoilers, only spoilers involved will remark on character lineage [Father-Son-Grandfather] and Character names.

The people who say that Gundam Age is for children, actually--I wonder if they even watched the show. Gundam Age is a tribute to the Universal Centry's triple threat Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam with Gundam AGE-1 we see the similarities between RX-78-2; with later advancements we see similarities between the gundams. There are some who say that AGE ripped off of SEED but when they say that they don't seem to have seen 00 Gundam, nor have they seen Zeta Gundam or ... ZZ Gundam. Because the forms of the mechs were more characteristic of Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam than of 00 (despite the UE's forms).

Overall, this is a great Slice-of-life mecha anime that explores the idea of a protagonist being overwhelmed with anger, and revenge. And what happens when that is seen first and foremost. I put this one off for a while, but now I wonder why. This is a very good calling back to the old UC series' and it puts a new spin on it. If you want an idea of what it's like. Imagine Amuro being a father, and he sends his kid to war, and then his kid has a kid--and so on. Imagine the lineage you're leaving behind. This show is a growth of all three characters, Flit, Asemu and Kio.

The way the show ends? You'll have to see. Some people are disappointed, but I am not. The character development in the third arc really made it a necessity. Some say that after Arc 2, you will get bored. But really--Arc 3 is where the major character changes are made. It is really worth it for Gundam fans, and for non Gundam fans, this is a good one to start with.

Cons: There ARE some episodes that leave ideas floating, and there are some things that don't make sense. More "PIS" (plot induced stupidity) stuff but overall, the anime is good. I loved the story, and the characters the most.

What did this show do the best? Flit and his whole story throughout the three arcs, showed the advancement of story without seeming like it NEEDED to go on--it just seemed to flow. It didn't seem like a forced story.

[2nd Edit] MS Gundam AGE is a mixed bag that you should see if you like the Gundam franchise. It does some things that no other Gundam did so far (I know, I`ve watched them all), so it has some extremely original content. It is interesting in its own way, with a particular charm of its own. More bellow.

Story: You probably guessed by looking at its promotional poster that Gundam AGE is a shonen Gundam. Thus, beware for classical Japanese teen drama, classical "moral questions" that are always the same and, of course, some of the "killing is wrong, we all should live in harmony" ... stuff. Hence, the overall political plot is lame. HOWEVER, the storytelling aspects are where Gundam AGE shines the best. It shines on the aspect that no other Gundam did in one series so far: you will follow the characters throughout generations. Yes, it does not stop on the kids in the cover, it goes on and on as they grow into adults. This baffled me so much because I was not expecting anything like that. This is important for you to know because otherwise, you might think that it is just some classical shonen anime. I only persisted because I am a die-hard Gundam fan. However, the moment that I saw that Gundam AGE was about generations, this show gained a different meaning. Gundam AGE is divided into 3 arcs, in which the second one is the darkest of them all. Gundam AGE attempts to kinda rewrite the UC in some other way. So think that from 1-15 ep you are watching Shonen MS Gundam, from 16 to 28 you are watching Shonen Zeta Gundam (dark as Zeta, in its way), and from 29-50 you are watching a mix of Shonen Unicorn + Char`s Counterattack + Zeta. You know something I think its funny? Iron-Blooded Orphans is considered the Gundam with the highest body count, in terms of named characters. Well, shonen Gundam AGE comes very close! I fully support the writer's choice to create a whole generation odyssey, instead of a single story with the same characters.

Art & Sound: The art is OK, better than Gundam SEED, worse than Gundam 00. It's somewhere in between. Sometimes the characters design are extremely lame, being far from what the franchise usually do. They are frequently out of proportion, with tiny lets, large arms. But these are the exception, not the rule. The sound is cool. The openings are fine. If I am not mistaken, the composer is the same as Gundam SEED, which is awesome.

Characters: Ah! here is where Gundam AGE shines. First, remember that this is a shonen anime, it is not dark and mature as Iron-Blooded Orphans, or Zeta Gundam. But in its own rules and world, the characters in Gundam AGE have great development. For you to have an idea, you will follow Flit Asuno (the main protagonist) from 13 years old until 64 years old. You will also follow the other two protagonists, Asumo Asuno (his son) and Kio Asuno (his grandson), as Gundam pilots as well, and this is awesome. They have great character development in the entire series, and here is where I was caught off-guard. I wasn't expecting everything they become. I can`t say without spoiling, so I just know that it is pretty good. Other secondary characters like Woolf Enacle and Ainoa Grodek are extremely likable as well. As always, you will have some irritating characters but they are not invasive like in other shows of the series. My only complaint here is the Char clone of Gundam AGE, he is probably one of the worse Chars clones in the entire Gundamverse, maybe being a little better than Full Frontal. The only problem is the lame romance subplot. All Gundam has a romantic subplot and the one in Gundam AGE is one of the lamest.

Mechas: They have a strong influence from several Gundam series, especially 00. Gundam AGE 1 looks like a deluxe edition of RX-78-2. AGE 2 strongly resembles Exia and 00 Raser, and AGE 3 looks like a mix between Full Armor ZZ Gundam and Virtue from 00. It also has the "modular" nature of RX-78-2 and Impulse (from Destiny), with similar launching apparatus in mid-battle. The Gundam Legilis is beautiful and was heavily inspired by Wing Gundam Zero. I also enjoy the AGE System, the star of the show, that is basically a giant weapon-building 3D printer. The AGE system is such a good idea that it changes the whole flow of Gundam AGE. Awesome. The only thing I don`t like in terms of mecha in this show is the Vegan MS (the NPCs that are always blown-up), they have a reptilian aspect that looks ridiculous. Aside from that, all Gundams look awesome.

Overall, this is a great series. Keep in mind its shonen origins but I can assure you that this series becomes something very enjoyable that you will have a good time seen it. All I can say is that Flit and Asumo characters will surprise you.

This is my first review for an anime, though this is not my first Gundam series and it will not be my last. Hopefully some will find this useful.

I've been an avid watcher of both mecha animes and the Gundam series itself. I was initially discouraged, from both word of mouth and initial reviews, to do my best and avoid this series entirely. Eventually, I decided to see for myself just how this new series stacks up to the competition.

No synopsis, lets go right in to the nitty-gritty.

Story: 6

The story and idea itself isn't bad. Rather it was quite novel idea that Bandai came ... up with. A Gundam series spanning three generations. Sounds great on paper, but somewhere along the way things just went awry.

Lets start with the first thing: UE or the Vagan. The premise of Flit and co. fighting against what can be perceived as aliens doesn't work. The majority of the reasons given are somewhere alone the lines of "the scenario doesn't work because it's a Gundam series". A better way of looking at this is that the scenario itself is poorly executed. Recognize that unknown enemy doesn't necessarily have to translate to aliens. A rogue group of emotionless humans who cause destruction through advanced technology and never leave behind witnesses or evidence can also be shaped to fit the mold of an unknown enemy. If anything, what is just described above fits similarly to what the Vagan are. Through rumors and stories it is understandable how that will eventually become what the characters believe are aliens. But to have even the Earth Federation believe that the Vagan are aliens themselves? That really stretches suspension of disbelief. Even though it is revealed that the top brass knows who and what the Vagans are and with all the foreshadowing, to present such this scenario to the viewers for a little over 15 episodes is a bit too much and can fails to hook on to viewers given the silliness of the situation.

The second thing is the pacing and premises of the three generations/arcs are suspect. In regards to Flit's arc, I can count 5-6 episodes where it was spent on non-important issues. The Fardain arc, though interesting, does little to nothing in terms of driving the plot or setting up character development. Sure the death of Boyage has an impact on the development of Flit but that happens several episodes down the road and could have been setup without wasting 3-4 episodes on Fardain. Time spent on Euba and Zalam, that were basically never mentioned again, could have been used to develop characters like Woolf or Largan or setup other plot points. Though Asemu's arc was interesting the weird pacing of the arc lessen the impact it could've had on the audience. It is hard to believe that Asemu comes to a sudden realization of his fatal flaw near the last 2 episodes of his arc and only after Woolf dies. Not only does it make light of everything else that happens to Asemu as a result of his jealousy (including his near death experience), it may slight viewers by making Woolf's death as a quick fix to wrap up a plot point. Out of all three arcs, Kio's arc is perhaps the most boring and does nothing to add to the story. Project Eden's true intentions and EXA-DB are revealed, but they add little to help wrap up the story.

Overall the story is extremely mediocre and could have been made to be a lot better.

Art: 7

The art designs of the characters and mobile suits really brings back nostalgic memories. Though some complain that they look childish, the art designs feel as though it has gone back to the roots for a more MSG type look. With that said, some of the mobile suit designs could be better. This is especially true of the Vagan mobile suits. Most of them looking like flying lizards. It also seems as though the art department got lazy and didn't feel like making more mobile suits for the Earth Federation. Come on, Genoaces for all three arcs?

Sound: 7

The musical compositions are solid. They are not anything amazing like the Unicorn or MS IGLOO but they get the job done.

Characters: 5

When it is easier to empathize with a minor character that gets kill off in two episodes than it for a major character than there is a major problem in the works. The character development for some of the characters are just outright bad.

Two of the more egregious examples are Zeheart and Kio. For a fair part of the anime, the viewers see Zeheart as a person who struggles between fulfilling Ezelcant's Project Eden and his wishes to lead a normal human life. Though Zeheart seems as though he is willing to go through with fulfilling Project Eden, one can see that he has difficulty ridding the obstacles to the plan namely Asemu and Gundam. Not only that, Zeheart has streak of being a stern but caring commander. Which is why when he blindly submits to Ezelcant after becoming the leader of the Vagan and killing off his subordinates in order to achieve his plan, it ruins his character. This isn't to say that it wasn't a valid way of developing his character but it is a bad way. It contradicts and ruins everything that makes Zeheart who he is up until that point. Even something like Zeheart altering Ezelcant's plan after finding out the truth behind Project Eden would make more sense.


As for Kio, he never really got character development to begin with. He reaches that phase of naiveté where he "wants to protect everyone" and "stop the fighting". This is fair considering he was exposed to the more humane side of the Vagan but he never grows out of that phase. He desperately tries to stop the fighting for the better part of the last arc and doesn't stop after seeing that his attempts are fruitless and the deaths of his fellow soldiers. Kio almost becomes this wishy-washy Kira clone who constantly spews about peace, but never actually does enough to amount to anything.

Compare Kio to Uso from Mobile Suit Victory Gundam. Much like Kio, Uso is constantly bombarded with the realities of war and seen deaths of those close to him. There is a small time frame in which he comes to the same conclusions as Kio, but after seeing that the only way to stop the fighting is to fight and forcibly end the war, Uso's character develops. Uso values peace but understands that he has to fight for it and rather than enforcing his views on everyone he uses it as a rallying call to motivate himself. This example could have been a direction in which Kio could have been developed except it never happened.

These two are only the more prominent examples but there are other gripes to be had. One can make an argument that Emily was a poorly done version of a concerned friend - almost bordering on possessive and obsessive. Yurin is the star-crossed lover of Flit who is so one dimensional it seems as though she was only added in as a love interest and to fan Flit's hatred of the Vagan.

Some interesting characters seemingly fall off near the end as it seem that the directing and writing team struggled to make a consistent character and resolve plot points. It was interesting (at least in the Gundam franchise) to see a character so driven by revenge and hatred and have it affect every decision he ever makes. And yet he softens up at the end just to tie up the plot. Again this makes for extremely bad character development.

All of these characters could have been used to make the anime slightly better had they been better developed.

Overall Impression: 6

Was it bad as everyone made it out to be? Not exactly. Were there parts that really annoyed the hell out of me and made me feel like dropping this anime all together? You betcha. As a Gundam fan I wasn't as disappointed as I was with the fanfic plot that is Gundam Seed Destiny. But that's not really saying much. There was an opportunity that the Gundam franchise and Sunrise could have capitalize but due to shoddy directing and writing a lot of it went to waste.

For the average watcher, they may get some mild enjoyment out of this. Even then it may feel taxing and boring at times. It stands as a mediocre Gundam series and will always be remembered as a mediocre Gundam series.