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This is not a personal want, I like the old animation, it's a need. Australia is now playing catch up to the US due to low sales of Seed and Wing, probably because people want UC, it's commonly said on the boards. We are getting 0083 and 0080 by 2010, we have started our OO releases. When asked about the original being released, the following was stated by staff.

'The Bandai releases in the US were dubbed only. No subtitled source exists for the original series. As such, it's hard for us to justify releasing it. Plus the show is extremely dated.'

While I disagree with the comment that it's dated, it's not, and this company releases 80's nostalgia cartoons like Transformers, He-Man and MASK, hell, they released 60's Astro Boy, it's more fuel for the 'Original Language track us unusable' excuse that Bandai has been dishing out. Madman is a very reputable company in Australia and our prime Distributor for anime and foriegn film.

While I am aware that in 07 a japanese release was issued, I will question, what was the condition of the audio? I know there is the common thought that the 'Quality is crap' excuse is to stop imports, but I am hard pressed to find a review of it.

This leads me to the thought, sense Bandai didn't use the original audio in any form besides the OPEDs for the first 3 volumes, and other companies are not willing to release it, is there any truth to the audio excuse, the movie version's audio was rubbish if I recall. This said, there are chinese bootlegs with the original audio and dub running around, but those could be of dubious quality, being bootlegs and all.

Also, the original Gundam is very popular in it's home country from what I've gathered, this leads me to the topic title, if there is all this controversy over the quality of the series, does it need to be remade?

No it doesn't need to be remade. It already was in a haphazzard way (from what most UC fans say) in SEED. If anything it needs a re-release on DVD in a boxset form where they re-polish the audio and visuals a bit but that's it. The show is a classic, a icon and one of the biggest milestones in anime history. It does not need a re-make

Bandai won't release it again because they do not see a market for it, anime as a whole is very niche market and with a older title like that that caters to old anime fans or Gundam fans (which is not a big base of anime fans in America and elsewhere like it is in Japan) they probably don't see it as advantageous to re-release it again on a boxset but to me that's a load of bullshit. It is something that needs to be done.

Overall, things in the entertainment media whether be Hollywood movies, anime, etc do not need to be remade when the original is something that is seen as a classic in it's medium. They can easily polish the audio these days with mixing, it's not in as bad of shape as they make it seem, they just don't see a market for it, like they don't with other classics like Lupin III

Which I disagree with. If anything, Seed is 'The Fox and the Hound' with a family friendly ending and the setting of the original Gundam.

Idealisticaly, I'll agree with you, the animation has this lovely feel to it, like quite alot of pre2000 cartoons and the voice cast, in both english and japanese, suits the feel.

Q: I believe my question speaks for many Gundam fans in the United States. We understand the reason that we did not get the Japanese language version of the first Gundam TV series was because it was not available in Japan. But if it did become available in Japan in the near future, would you leave the audio recordings as they originally were, or would you do another special edition re-recording, as you did with the movie trilogy recently?

YT: The sound quality of the recordings that remain from First Gundam is quite poor at this time. Because of this, there was no other way but to re-record the First Gundam movies, including the addition of new music. So there would be no possibility of having the original soundtrack released in the United States. I agree with Bandai's decision that they had to re-record the soundtrack, and I also understand that there are a lot of fans that are disappointed with this. But there's really no other option, and I'm very sorry about it. [in english] Sorry!
http://www.animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=40&page=1
Tomino agrees with Bandai's decision. I seached again for reviews of the 07 issue of the original gundam, nothing. But saying that, there is also a BluRay Movie set with the original mono. Mmm.

100K in one country in one month is enough to sneeze at? What's Bandai on? Are the movies that much more profitable?
I have no idea what the problem with the west and the original Gundam is, nor do I get their love affair with the two Geurilla series, W and OO. I do agree with you, it needs to be reissued again. But something has hit me though, other than Eva, which was a loooong time ago now, has there been any big Mecha anime in the west? But with this, I have a hobbyshop close to me and outside of SEED and OO, you are hard pressed to find a not-MSG/Zeta kit, but Australia being part of asia 'n all.


I think the 06 version of The Omen proves your point exactly. Nothing wrong with it, just totaly unneeded as the original exists and is a classic film. I don't mean to to be rude, but do you have proof that the original audio isn't as bad as they say other than the obvious BluRay films?

Classics is an interesting subject, if it's been screened in the country, it may get a release, ie 66 Jungle Emperor Leo 'Kimba the White Lion', 60's and 80's Mighty Atom 'Astro Boy', Speed Racer, ect.

I haven't seen SEED but my assessment is just a general thought out sentiment by those who are UC Gundam fans that SEED is over hyped, and over popularized. It's not my thoughts as for now, I'm neutral on that issue but just saying that many fans of Gundam do say it gets unneeded attention because it's newer than the first one

All in all, UC Gundam is not well recieved here in the west. Just a fact. The more action based, over the top shows of G, Wing, 00 and SEED are the most liked by the American anime fan base. Which is ironic because most Gundam fans from America or Japan will say SEED Destiny is easily one of the top 3 worst Gundams yet the market is saturated, SATURATED, with their dvds and boxsets.

Also, Code Geass and Gurran Lagann have proved to be big hits here in the states as well when it comes to mecha anime. Robotech is probably another

From the Japanese audio I have heard on online sites or downloaded from the original series, it's not in bad shape. And if it truly is seen as poor quality, the mixing and sound treatment process these days is several leaps and bounds ahead of 1979 and they can easily touch it up and fix any issues they see with it. Even if it can't be fixed, having the original audio would just be an added plus, having Japanese audio there is the target and if they can make that happen with the rather excellent English dub on there as well, it'd be a worthwhile buy for any Gundam fan

Overall I do feel more UC Gundam should be released and recognized. Zeta and MSG catch a big shaft when it comes to marketing and promotion. They focus on the shows that did extremely well on Toonami and that was Wing and G and the newer releases. I don't think a modern set will be out anytime soon because like I said, they really do not see MSG as a profitable boxset release. Little UC Gundam interest here equates to that. The market for anime is already so small and fledgling, it would take a spark of interest in such older anime for it to even happen again

I really don't know anything about audio, but there's a fansub version of 0079 Gundam floating around, with (what I guess is) the original Japanese audio, and it sounds fine. You can understand what they're saying, and nothing is messed up.

But I would kind of like to see 0079 Gundam remade, but probably not the entire series. A trilogy of movies would be nice, with updated animation. Just to let more people know about the original Gundam, since it is often ignored. Of course, it's not ignored by the Japanese fans, so they'd probably see no reason to do it. Still, I'm tired of everyone I know loving SEED and Wing and not even knowing who Amuro and Char really are.

But it doesn't need it. Classic films such as Casablanca and Citizen Kane retain their greatness even though they are older, not as great audio and film quality and are in black and white. It doesn't need an updated look. If anything, the mindset of people needs to be changed because their thinking is obviously obscured if they discount and can't find pleasure older quality animation and etc. Challenge people's mindset and not the work. It's not always the work that needs changing but I guess changing the ways people think is just too radical of an idea

Why not just play Giren's Greed or the PS2 games? You can watch the series with updated animation if you do that.

Because they don't have PAL versions? And this isn't a problem with the animation at heart, it's a problem with the liscencing and the stupid reasons why it's not getting it.

I don't believe that the original needs to be remade, but I do think that they should at least release the original over here for those who would like to watch it without having to pirate the series.

you can just import them and get a converter

I would love to see a remake of the original series. MSG is one of my favorite anime series, a classic, but why can't it be remade with newer animation? Were not talking about changing the stories, or the fight scenes, just a little update with how it looks. But i wouldnt want them to use the same animation they used for SEED or 00. Their "new" animation style. I'd want them to either do it in complete 3D, like the IGLOO's, or use the same animation as Turn A, which was the last series with hand painted cells. It looked beautiful.

But about the audio thing, if Bandai doesn't want to rerelease/remake the series with the original audio, then there's going to be some problems. Bright Noah's voice actor died a little while ago. And i can't see them getting a replacement for him. But im sure if they touch up the original audio, it would sound fine.

Just forget it, cell-animation is hardly if ever used anymore. They just won't do that. About CGI, while it looked beautifully in MS IGLOO 2, it sucked in MS IGLOO 1. Producing a whole 43-episode series in CGI would be too expensive anyway. Digital animation would be the best option, but I do think newfags should watch the old series instead of whining about the animation.

I guess the could use Heero Yuy's seiyuu for Bright, since Hikaru Midorikawa is also taking over Hirotaka Suzuoki's role of Tenshinhan in Dragon Ball Kai.

I saw that the original character designer for the orignal Gundam series, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko did the Gundam Unicorn OVA character designs with an updated animation style, so if a Gundam 0079 re-make was done, they'd keep him as the character designer. Also the original seiyuu for Sayla(You Inoue) passed away years ago, so it would also be hard to replace her as well. It would be nice if Bandai could re-release the original series containing the original Japanese audio, restore the picture quality in HD, give the audio a 5.1 boost, and relaese it on DVD and Blu-ray. I'd be satisfied if Bandai could at least do that.

There's a question that has been bugging me. Last year Zeonic-Corps completed releasing the re-mastered 0079 series (which they did an amazing job of). I'm wondering why the original series doesn't have a blu-ray release (or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough) while both Zeta and ZZ got the BD treatment.

Again though, this begs the question, why does the animation need an update? You're not going to go back and add color to Citizen Kane just because black and white is not the norm.

^ True. But i don't see why it would be bad if they just updated the animation. As i said before, MSG is one of my favorites, probably the best Gundam series of all time, except for maybe Zeta. But the thing that makes MSG so good isn't the animation, it's the story, and the concept; the idea. That being said, wouldn't the series just be better with updated animation? And I'm not saying the animation is bad. I, for one, actually like the animation. But you can't deny that MSG would be EVEN better with updated animation. Because i can't see how it would make it worse. Look at Unicorn for instance. Unicorn is beautiful. Now imagine MSG reanimated the same way they did Unicorn. It would completely blow people's minds.

Unicorn is overproduced if you ask me

How can it be overproduced? A great budget is the least they can have considering the time it takes to release each episode.

It can be overproduced by looking too flashy and clean cut which it is. Just like a movie or song can look and sound too slick, so can a piece of animation. That episode had no grit what so ever.

I'm afraid grit is something from the nineties and earlier. I pity it too.

I don't think Unicorn needed it though.