| I'm referring specifically to early UC Gundam, 0079, Zeta, ZZ, CCA. I know for me it was a mix of not liking older animation and some honestly unfounded preconceptions about mecha being impenetrable to non-fans. Why haven't you seen it? If you have seen Gundam, feel free to discuss why you think so many anime fans nowadays won't watch it and whether you think their reasoning is valid. |
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| I plan on watching it at one point, but I think why I and other people have trouble doing so is a mix of some people not liking older animation, and how daunting it is with how big the show is. I don't care about the fact that it has older animation, I still like older shows, but it is very intimidating to start, especially for those of us that want to watch all seasons at some point, not just the classic seasons. It feels like a large commitment, making it harder to actually start |
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| Mecha has always been bad. There hasnt been a single example of the genre that i see and dont roll my eyes away from it. Also i dont like robot suits. The og Gundam is pg 13 and im kinda itching for something more mature instead of that. |
| I never lie on the internet. What's the point of it... the chinese noodles ad is an anime and avatar isn't! triggered Check out my taste and my profile. |
CordobezEverdeen said: lmao believeing in mal age ratingsMecha has always been bad. There hasnt been a single example of the genre that i see and dont roll my eyes away from it. Also i dont like robot suits. The og Gundam is pg 13 and im kinda itching for something more mature instead of that. fact is the original gundam was an all ages show and also a breddy good series about war Despite it having certain adult content hidden, it's actually an enjoyable watch for everyone, and it can be described as a light hearted series despite it having so much military content. The ending is considered bittersweet and mind-blowing by the critics and most of the fanbase . |
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| I'm eventually going to watch these series, starting by the very first one... just not right now. Although the amount of entries is scary XD. I think many refuse to watch it because they think old mecha is just giant robots lasering each other and that's dumb stuff for kids.... and eeeeeverything changed once NGE "deconstructed" the genre.... |
| Still need to watch more, but recently there was a sale on RightStufAnime for Gundam DVDs where I could get 5 sets for $50, and used that to buy the movie trilogy, 08th MS Team, War in the Pocket, and all of Turn A. Only watched the movie trilogy before getting distracted because I was in the middle of other really long stuff I wanted to finish, but now that I'm wrapping that up, as soon as I watch a few shorter shows I've wanted to get to, I plan to do a more complete Gundam dive. As for why I hadn't watched before that, just always had something else I wanted to watch that was more easily accessible. |
| You have shit taste, and then I have taste so shit it makes your taste look good |
| I'd like to watch it, but i haven't because, honestly, at this point, it's a very inaccessible and intimidating franchise for newcomers. |
Whgedia said: Have you watched TTGL or Code Geass? What? I was so looking forward to watching Code Geass! You single handledly destroyed my expectations for the show :c Also i would rather get a trojan virus or be asfixiated to death by the breasts of a 14 y/o girl named Yoko than unironically watch TTGL. That sounds interesting. Altough the ammount of episodes is rather troublesome. edit: I tought it was 143 episodes for some reason. I might give the show a shot. |
CordobezEverdeenApr 28, 2019 1:54 PM
| I never lie on the internet. What's the point of it... the chinese noodles ad is an anime and avatar isn't! triggered Check out my taste and my profile. |
| Here's some anime math: Mecha + Cel Animation + 312123 Seasons and 123123441 Episodes = No way in hell I'm gonna watch it |
| I've watched most of the Gundam stuff. My guesses about why people don't try it is: 1 - It's mecha, just that fact makes it unpopular in the west... 2 - It's old, just that fact makes it unpopular with the casuals, kids and the weebs. 3 - It's long, just that fact makes it unpopular with "normies otakus". What is a normie otaku? An otaku that wants to be popular in the anime community and just try alll the seasonal shows and some short very popular old ones. The longest show that they've watched is FMA. |
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DaCraziGuy said: I've watched most of the Gundam stuff. My guesses about why people don't try it is: 1 - It's mecha, just that fact makes it unpopular in the west... 2 - It's old, just that fact makes it unpopular with the casuals, kids and the weebs. 3 - It's long, just that fact makes it unpopular with "normies otakus". Lol, all of these proved almost at the same time by the user right before you XD |
| I've seen it but I would say the most obvious deterrent is the length. Even when dealing with modern anime 50 episodes is quite a bit of commitment to a series. So if you had in any other preconceived notions or preferences when dealing with older series or even just the mecha genre that's just asking for too much commitment for something that may not interest somebody in the slightest. |
CordobezEverdeen said: Whgedia said: Have you watched TTGL or Code Geass? What? I was so looking forward to watching Code Geass! You single handledly destroyed my expectations for the show :c Also i would rather get a trojan virus or be asfixiated to death by the breasts of a 14 y/o girl named Yoko than unironically watch TTGL. I think he invoked Code Geass because of it's similarity in popularity to ttgl rather than genre-wise. They're opposite spectrums of mecha. HeadlessHorseman said: I've watched Gundam and if I were to assume based on the responses you often see in the forums, the reason a lot of people don't watch is probably because of the older animation, some misguided notion of the mecha genre, or the length. A lot of people seem to think mecha is nothing but giant robots fighting, and series like NGE or Code Geass are exceptions that focus more on the characters or story. This isn't even close to being true though; most of the mecha series I've seen are more about the characters/story/themes, rather than the robot battles. Sure, there are some mecha that are about robots fighting, but thinking that all of them are this way is just close-minded, especially if you're a person who tries to insist that mecha is bad, yet hasn't seen more than two or three mecha series at most, or, if you're trying to make yourself a laughingstock when you say mecha is bad, none at all. I've seen it said that mecha is a good vehicle for storytelling because older directors would use it as a door opener rather than the end all be all that's assumed. Yeah there's the arbitrary idea that deep mecha and "I don't like mecha but I like" anime are super inherently different when this tends to not be the case. Granted I'm rather new to the genre only starting Gundam last year but this is the feeling I've gotten so far. |
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Arkab said: LOL, I didn't saw that comment. I swear! hahahah.DaCraziGuy said: I've watched most of the Gundam stuff. My guesses about why people don't try it is: 1 - It's mecha, just that fact makes it unpopular in the west... 2 - It's old, just that fact makes it unpopular with the casuals, kids and the weebs. 3 - It's long, just that fact makes it unpopular with "normies otakus". Lol, all of these proved almost at the same time by the user right before you XD I have to say tho, I didn't expected to hit all the keys with one person hahaha |
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| I have no objection to mecha (Voltron was the second anime series I ever watched, after all, and that's not even counting the Power Rangers' Megazord), but I haven't gotten into Gundam because it's just never quite found itself on my radar yet. Mecha by itself doesn't excite me either, though, so that's why I haven't gravitated to it, even though I've watched other series that feature mecha (e.g. Eureka Seven, Lagrange, Cross Ange). At some point, I put Gundam 00 on my PTW. I think I watched one ep of it. I still do plan on watching that. There was also a recent advertisement for a Gundam movie to be shown in U.S. theaters. I saw the trailer when I watched A Silent Voice. I forget the name of said Gundam movie though. |
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
| cuz it's "mecha" that moves like humans, fight like humans, use powers like humans, but they are mecha(?). in the end, they are everything, except mecha. this is why I don't watch it, and dislike the most of the mecha anime. |
 "というわけで。待望の、体 操 服！ でっあ～る。祭りであれば、余も着飾ってはいられぬと用意したが……うむ！ 心身ともに軽くなったようだ。どうだ？ 似合っているであろう、マスター？" - Random Quote From Internet by Saber Nero |
| I've seen the UC stuff but most anime fans have a strong aversion against anything pre-2000, nevermind 1979 and also against mecha (at least on MAL) and anything longer than 2-cour so those are the three biggest reasons not many people watch it these days. It's just a combination of all the things the community avoids for the most part. There's nothing 'right' about that 'reasoning', it's just people having these - imo - not particularly rational and informed biases and it is what it is. They'll happily watch 2-cour shows that get 3 or 4 sequels and then lament that there isn't more of it, but god forbid they should consider starting a 50 episode show, that's too much commitment. They won't even know the difference between super robot and real robot mecha, but think they know exactly what every mecha show ever created is all about. But I have to say that the original Gundam really does look dated and I don't say that about a lot of oldies, a lot of them actually have very solid animation despite what prejudiced modern anime fans might say, but OG Gundam is not one of them. The follow-up Zeta is already much better in terms of animation, but the OG came out right before animation quality really started to take off in the golden age of the 80s so it can be hard to watch especially if it's one of your first oldies. I wasn't sure I was gonna continue the franchise after I watched the Original and it was a few years until I decided to give Zeta try and ended up really getting hooked. The OG alone did not get the job done. The biggest shame about it is that I actually think some of the UC side story OVAs are fantastic and can be enjoyed as standalone shows but because they belong to this big franchise not many people watch them unless they're already into Gundam. War in the Pocket is one of my alltime favorites, just a great and bittersweet war story, and 8th MS Team is not far behind it and it also has very good visuals like a lot of the OVAs of that time. And Unicorn is just the ultimate payoff for watching all of UC, a wonderful and impactful conclusion with fantastic writing, characters and animation. Oh and Thunderbolt is awesome as well, probably the most intense and atmospheric Gundam I've seen and the OST is just great. My favorite TV Gundam by far is actually the recent-ish IBO. That show just blew me away and I consider the ending to be one of the best endings in anime. Most others have been in the 6-8 range for me. I'm someone who doesn't think mecha as a concept is very interesting and actually most of the mecha fights kinda bore me unless it's a more realistic kind of ground warfare approach like in 8th MS Team where they function more as mobile tanks and having to deal with territory instead of just pewpewing each other in empty space, so I can somewhat relate to people being prejudiced against the genre. But I also love war stories, drama and politics in a story and Gundam has to offer a lot in those areas even for people who aren't drawn in by the mecha aspect. So I do believe that people who also like these things could actually end up loving Gundam even if they dislike mecha since that's what happened to me. Unfortunately most people will never find out because going out of their comfort zone is not something anime fans are known for. They tend to stick to their guns. That being said the UC timeline has a lot of issues as well and isn't my favorite part of Gundam, aside from the OVAs. I love a lot of things about it, especially the epic scale and how it shows the developments of a society and cast over many years, but I'm not sure OG Gundam, Zeta, ZZ and CCA would be my first recs to people wanting to get into Gundam. You need a certain kind of tolerance for Tomino's brand of questionable character writing, otherwise it's probably easy to start disliking it and then judging the whole franchise based on Tomino's writing even when - imo - all the best Gundams are not by Tomino. He just came up with the first one(s). So there's nothing wrong with testing the air with some of the AU Gundams first, or ideally with some of the best OVAs of the franchise. I still have a bunch of them to watch myself and it's been a while since I watched my last one, but I try to watch about one per year, two if there is a new one coming up. Some of them don't interest me that much, especially Wing and Seed, but I definitely still want to watch 00 and Turn A and some of the more recent OVAs I have yet to watch, mainly Origin (want to read the manga first). Not sure about Age yet, but I think those are the only ones left. But I'm not in a rush since it's definitely gonna be a sad moment when my Gundam journey of almost 10 years will end. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
Jrod42 said: As someone who isn't familiar with most of Gundam, I remember asking whether it was okay to start with 00 and getting the answer that it is indeed okay.Honestly, I just have no idea where to start. Very complicated and just so many shows. I want to see it some day, but it’ll have to wait until I can try to navigate it. For now, I’m watching Gintama. |
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
| Because there are still lots of other shows I haven't seen, simple as that... |
changelog said: 1. Even though I want to watch it, time is of the essence. 2. The franchise watch order is too complicated for me to get my head around. It actually isn't very complicated. There's only the OG, Zeta, ZZ, CCA and Unicorn which should be watched in that order because they are directly and chronologically related. That's the Universal Century timeline (UC). Everything else is either a side story that also works as a standalone or alternate universe series that only really have themes in common but no direct relation to each other so they can be watched in any order and you can skip the ones that aren't appealing to you. Or they're so far in the future of UC that they are functionally standalone titles, like Victory. You can even skip the UC timeline if you really want to and just watch one or two of the AUs. The various entries can also vary highly in terms of how they feel and their subgenres. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
Thread moved from Anime Discussion |
Take care of yourself |
| I admit that the animation of the first series is nothing to write about but the plot just blew me away. Also the UC is quite huge and it needs time and dedication. I can see why it can put some people off. I'm pretty much in love with the franchise, i even bought some gunpla and the manga Gundam The Origin from the vertical that costed me quite a fortune. |
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| Can anyone familiar with Gundam please advise on the matter of starting one's Gundam experience with Gundam 00, for the benefit of me and @Jrod42? @TheJaceX if it helps any I (for some reason) have Cybuster on my PTW. (Actually the reason is because I was very impressed by the music.) |
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
GlennMagusHarvey said: Can anyone familiar with Gundam please advise on the matter of starting one's Gundam experience with Gundam 00, for the benefit of me and @Jrod42? @TheJaceX if it helps any I (for some reason) have Cybuster on my PTW. (Actually the reason is because I was very impressed by the music.) and @Jrod42 feel free to start with Gundam 00 it is a standalone gundam Show in an alternate Universe basically there is one UC Timeline (Universal Century) These are the Gundam Shows that take place within one Universe/Timeline and then there is a bunch of standalone shows that are closed within themselves in alternate universies they are just "Gundam" in Name, but you could think of them as separate Mecha Anime So Gundam 00 is its own Show, Standalone, feel free to watch it. this is the UC Timeline : As far as order the UC timeline consists of (chronological oder): Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (will spoil things for Mobile Suit Gundam though) Mobile Suit Gundam (-- = These take place somewhere else during the same time as the series above) --Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team --Mobile Suit Gundam IGLOO --Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Mobile Suit Gundam Narative (NT) Mobile Suit Gundam F91 Mobile Suit Victory Gundam Gundam: Reconquista in G These are Standalone: Gundam 00 Gundam Seed Gundam Wing Gundam Turn A After War Gundam X Gundam Iron Blood Orphans other ~ the standalone Shows can all be watched by themselves without watching any other Gundam 00 is also pretty entertaining, i enjoyed it, dont feel reluctant to get into it because you havent watched any Gundam, gotta start somewhere. Personally i started with Iron Blood Orphans, and im not done with Gundam by a long shot >:) this should clear up everything about how gundam works |
DenkiDestroy99XApr 28, 2019 3:34 PM
| I watched like ~10 eps of this (Mobile Suit Gundam), but it had too many robots punching other robots and too little politics. It felt like the anime just kept throwing random enemies or trouble at the MCs to keep the intensity up, so the story progression didn't feel organic. It started to feel exhausting to watch after a while. If it was up to me, every space series would be LOGH lol. |
Whgedia said: Also why the hate towards TTGL? I saw your list, you give to JOJO a 10/10, if you like jojo you should like TTGL. I tought that my comment about the breasts of the underage girl was enough to summarize my hatred for the show... It's made by Gainax and Hirouyuki Imaishi (kill la kill) so if i like it there must be something seriously wrong with me. |
| I never lie on the internet. What's the point of it... the chinese noodles ad is an anime and avatar isn't! triggered Check out my taste and my profile. |
| I had initially avoided mecha for years, due to Gundam Wing, which I saw back in the late 90s being somewhat mediocre, and seeing Gundam SEED on TV when it first came out was so ugly that I wanted to throw Javex in my eyes, and that turned me off from mecha. I saw Robotech on TV around 2007, and I enjoyed that quite a bit, but I was still not willing to give other mecha a chance, especially Gundam, due to what I had seen at that point not being my cup of tea. I saw Gunbuster a few years back, and I didn't like that either. But last year, I finally decided to give the original 1979 Gundam series a chance, and I was hooked right from the first episode. After that, I watched "War in the Pocket," "Stardust Memory," "Zeta," "ZZ" and finally Char's Counterattack. I am now a Gundam fan, and I'll be watching more of the franchise in the near future, along with other mecha Anime. Speaking of mecha Anime, I recently finished watching "iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia," and it was awesome. It's really underrated. |
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Whgedia said: I still don´t get it. I assume you didn´t even watch the first episode. If you want you can watch 8 episodes and gouge your eyes out afterwards. It's simple. I dont like sex in anime. The only place i like sex its when sex is the primary focus. |
| I never lie on the internet. What's the point of it... the chinese noodles ad is an anime and avatar isn't! triggered Check out my taste and my profile. |
| @Daphi - ah so there's a main timeline and then there are separate AUs of which 00 is one. What makes 00 a Gundam show, then, aside from the name? Like, is it mainline Gundam characters in an AU, or mainline Gundam mechs in an AU, or a side story based on minor characters, or just a completely separate story that nevertheless replicates the same style? |
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
GlennMagusHarvey said: @Daphi - ah so there's a main timeline and then there are separate AUs of which 00 is one. What makes 00 a Gundam show, then, aside from the name? Like, is it mainline Gundam characters in an AU, or mainline Gundam mechs in an AU, or a side story based on minor characters, or just a completely separate story that nevertheless replicates the same style? the last one, completely different story different characters, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that links these gundam shows together(maybe i missed something? who knows) screenwriter,storyboard/producer, the gundams used, story, characters , its just the name "Gundam" they could have called it Mecha Warriors 00 or Power Rangers in Robot Uniform 00 wouldn't have made a difference im joking but you get the idea if you asked me why its called Gundam id probably answer for Marketing Purposes the word "gundam" after all sells better than "mecha" or whatever, its an iconic symbol |
DenkiDestroy99XApr 28, 2019 6:19 PM
GlennMagusHarvey said: @Daphi - ah so there's a main timeline and then there are separate AUs of which 00 is one. What makes 00 a Gundam show, then, aside from the name? Like, is it mainline Gundam characters in an AU, or mainline Gundam mechs in an AU, or a side story based on minor characters, or just a completely separate story that nevertheless replicates the same style? Well first of all there's a mech called a "Gundam" Memes aside it's mostly a branding thing but there's also a lot of expectations to come with a Gundam show. There will be mechs called "Gundams" that look like the original Gundam. Usually it'll have villainous mechs with one eye, a masked villain, a little companion robot called Haro, a political focus, anti-war messages. Not every series checks every box but most series share enough of these traits that they're recognizable as the same series even if they're actually unconnected. |
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TheJaceX said: Ah, so sorta like Final Fantasy.GlennMagusHarvey said: @Daphi - ah so there's a main timeline and then there are separate AUs of which 00 is one. What makes 00 a Gundam show, then, aside from the name? Like, is it mainline Gundam characters in an AU, or mainline Gundam mechs in an AU, or a side story based on minor characters, or just a completely separate story that nevertheless replicates the same style? Well first of all there's a mech called a "Gundam" Memes aside it's mostly a branding thing but there's also a lot of expectations to come with a Gundam show. There will be mechs called "Gundams" that look like the original Gundam. Usually it'll have villainous mechs with one eye, a masked villain, a little companion robot called Haro, a political focus, anti-war messages. Not every series checks every box but most series share enough of these traits that they're recognizable as the same series even if they're actually unconnected. |
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
TheJaceX said: GlennMagusHarvey said: @Daphi - ah so there's a main timeline and then there are separate AUs of which 00 is one. What makes 00 a Gundam show, then, aside from the name? Like, is it mainline Gundam characters in an AU, or mainline Gundam mechs in an AU, or a side story based on minor characters, or just a completely separate story that nevertheless replicates the same style? Well first of all there's a mech called a "Gundam" Memes aside it's mostly a branding thing but there's also a lot of expectations to come with a Gundam show. There will be mechs called "Gundams" that look like the original Gundam. Usually it'll have villainous mechs with one eye, a masked villain, a little companion robot called Haro, a political focus, anti-war messages. Not every series checks every box but most series share enough of these traits that they're recognizable as the same series even if they're actually unconnected. good point, they do have similar styles i should have mentioned that at least some of them //gundam seed for example follows a similar story line to the original gundam //@GlennMagusHarvey you will understand once you've seen a couple of shows |
GlennMagusHarvey said: Ah, so sorta like Final Fantasy. Absolutely, at least as far as AUs go. Also btw @Jrod42 Turn A has the Final Fantasy IX effect of while technically being standalone, it's a celebration of the series to come before it so general recommendation is to watch it after at least the old UC shows and maybe after Wing, X, and G. Technically it's on the timeline after Victory Gundam and before Reconguista in G but the connections are really small and therefore it can be treated as a standalone series. |
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| If you don't know Gundam IDK even why you live. QUICK DIE |
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EVEN MUSEUMS LOVE GUNDAM |
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