Criticism Against Gundam AGE Shocks the Script Writer

by dtshyk
Jun 13, 2011 10:18 AM | 149 Comments

Hino Akihiro, the president of game maker Level 5 and the scenario writer of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, posted in his twitter that he was surprised to meet severe criticism against Gundam AGE. He said "We didn't make a perfunctory approach to understand the concept of Gundam. We are producing Gundam AGE in a different way from any other Gundam series. Our policy for the new gundam will be explained in the anime." The mecha designer Ebikawa Kanetake ("Full Metal Panic!", "Mobile Suit Gundam 00", "Gundam AGE") encouraged Hino that they have also received fierce disapproval from the fans when they announced Gundam 00.

Source: Hino's twitter
Related topic: New Anime Gundam AGE To Start This Autumn

20 of 149 Comments Recent Comments

An_anon said:

jmal said:

An_anon said:

ipeka said:
What makes gundam age fails so bad is not because it is not 'dark' enough where enough people die.

Do you even watch the show?
It has more death than a ton of other Gundam shows.

He said a lack of deaths is not the problem, i.e. there are enough deaths. (I admit I had to read it twice to straighten it out myself.)

Ah, shit, thanks for pointing that out, but you're right. Dude needs to work on his English.

Ohhh, that was horribly written , sry bout that , i'll re-edit it soon .

and yes, ,number of deaths is enough in gundam age , but side-characters' development in gundam age is highly ignored , hence the fail.

May 14, 2012 2:13 AM by ipeka

jmal said:

An_anon said:

ipeka said:
What makes gundam age fails so bad is not because it is not 'dark' enough where enough people die.

Do you even watch the show?
It has more death than a ton of other Gundam shows.

He said a lack of deaths is not the problem, i.e. there are enough deaths. (I admit I had to read it twice to straighten it out myself.)

Ah, shit, thanks for pointing that out, but you're right. Dude needs to work on his English.

May 13, 2012 1:04 PM by An_anon

An_anon said:

ipeka said:
What makes gundam age fails so bad is not because it is not 'dark' enough where enough people die.

Do you even watch the show?

It has more death than a ton of other Gundam shows. I don't see why you view the amount of death to be something that a show needs to have anyway, but AGE has had several major characters die already.

Probably not or they dropped it early before the first character death which was like episode 2.

Lets see the number of people die in Gen 1 is 7 in 15 episodes. Gen 2 had I don't remember, but over 10 known characters with names in like what 8 episodes or however many there was. Gen 3 has had none yet since it just started.

So yeah.

May 13, 2012 11:15 AM by Roloko

ipeka said:
What makes gundam age fails so bad is not because it is not 'dark' enough where enough people die.

May 13, 2012 11:04 AM by An_anon

Lack of deaths or not being dark enough isn't the reason why gundam age fails horribly.
It didn't fulfill the basic fundamental that makes every gundam series proper ; the idea of 2 sides of faction warring each other and the people mix in it. That means ; viewers should be able to sympathize towards both sides .

I view gundam age as rather weak character and story , i do understand the vagans as the victims, but without proper settings to humanized the vagans , until now it is still hard to sympathize with them.
What is even worse, i actually root the earth federation more than the vagans ?!??! I mean c'mon , if you like the earth federation in gundam , the antagonist's side is totally under portrayed.

What about zehearth u said? No, he is a bad portrayal of antagonist .Disillusioned by the leaders of vagan's dream to make a heaven on earth for the vagan , this guy is just pathetic, what about his own path ? his own resolve ? ain't got nothing.

edit: some editing here & there.

May 13, 2012 9:53 AM by ipeka

OMG! A KID PILOTING A GUNDAM!

Youre the worst sort of Gundam Fan who probably only knows 00.
And cmon, episode 14? Watch Asemus Arc, its much more nicer done.

And yeah, in terms of dark:

Asemu arc was better than Flit arc but still nothing much to expect. The characters deaths is damned boring because we hardly know anything about them, we can't sympathy for their fate, that's why it's so lame to begin with.

Vagan side invade the Earth and outnumbered the Defensive force, what a brilliant plot. For nearly 30 years, the Earth force let a bunch of Colonist piss on their face. Look at Zeon, the conflict ended after 1 years because they are terribly outnumbered. Ok, this is the so-called "plot" I'll let it slide.

You are pro-AGE to begin with though :) In term of dark, they should have exploit how bad Vagan have endure, how many people died back there. Just show their struggle, that'll be fine. They can exploit more about Woolf past and his connection, etc. But other than "3 generations" the rest is just blank paper. Boring like hell.

May 10, 2012 11:59 AM by kducpham

superhours said:
Personally, Gundam AGE kind of ruins the whole "original" series. First, what happened to the dark theme of hatred and what not? I know it's "dark", but what happened to the epic grief of people dying and seeing the characters bail their eyes out seeing their close ones killed. I only watched episode 1-14, and it's gotten quite boring. Comparing this to all the other series, I would consider this the most boring of them all. Secondly, what's with the art/characters? The Gundams themselves are fine with me, but really? A kid piloting a mobile suit? I know they're trying to appeal to kids, but at least keep the teenage/adult people as the main characters/pilots. Personally this Gundam series does not appeal to me.

OMG! A KID PILOTING A GUNDAM!

Youre the worst sort of Gundam Fan who probably only knows 00.
And cmon, episode 14? Watch Asemus Arc, its much more nicer done.

And yeah, in terms of dark:

SPOILERS AHEAD!

May 7, 2012 4:26 AM by Alreuth

Personally, Gundam AGE kind of ruins the whole "original" series. First, what happened to the dark theme of hatred and what not? I know it's "dark", but what happened to the epic grief of people dying and seeing the characters bail their eyes out seeing their close ones killed. I only watched episode 1-14, and it's gotten quite boring. Comparing this to all the other series, I would consider this the most boring of them all. Secondly, what's with the art/characters? The Gundams themselves are fine with me, but really? A kid piloting a mobile suit? I know they're trying to appeal to kids, but at least keep the teenage/adult people as the main characters/pilots. Personally this Gundam series does not appeal to me.

May 6, 2012 2:49 PM by superhours

As far as I can see, even the Game system like Gunpla Builder with AGE concept has been forwarded from the beginning. However, they can't cancelled them all, it's already in motion and cannot be stop. Now, they have to reap what they sow.

Too bad, it's not as just planned. So, next time they should invest they money wiser, the lesson should be learned the hard way.

Apr 30, 2012 12:08 AM by kducpham

the saddest thing is that ; they try to milk this fail of an anime through gunpla models. Have u seen the number of HG-models sold from age1-now ? Jesus, it's like they are spamming gundam age in my face.

Apr 29, 2012 2:54 PM by ipeka

jmal said:

You really don't understand, then, that's clear. A TV series will never have a ¥/minute budget approaching that of a Ghibli film. The comparison is completely absurd.

I totally understand it well. It's not just about money, it's about how actually you can do with that kind of budget. Miyazaki philosopher is to create quality animation and it's supposed to be the standard for animation students/apprentices. Same thing you get from your animation school. If they can't make quality product, they shouldn't get the job, just leave it to the better studio. I said that I can tolerate for their lack of qualities, but there are many other similar TV series can do better than this. Try to compare Fate Zero then. Wait, it's same studio for Gundam Seed. The epic final battle did blow.

It's all about how you want to get the job done. It's possible to enhance the quality as long as they have the determination. And I hate people who used excuse for poor results.

Apr 29, 2012 10:41 AM by kducpham

punkster90 said:

You forgot the pacing. Seriously, The whole 2nd arc finale seems like it was just made up the night before.

I mentioned about the first part. They try to skip many "explanations" and rush the story to fit the schedule. If only they developed the story properly. However, I need to explain it better. I also feel that the pace is too quick. But blame their "genius idea" of zipping 3 generations into 1 season. However, I feel that the studio is not good enough to handle the project.

Apr 29, 2012 10:30 AM by kducpham

jmal said:

kducpham said:
According to Hayao Mizayaki standard

Because comparing a 50 episode TV show that explicitly targeted younger audiences to a high budget theatrical release from the most well known director and animation studio in Japan makes any sense at all.

What the?

For a student of film you seem to have serious misconceptions about all this.

He's well know for his strict animation quality. But bringing out budget problem as an excuse is cheesy you know. When making a TV serie, is it not the quality is your priority ? If they can't maintain the quality, it's because they are not good enough.

Apr 29, 2012 10:17 AM by kducpham

kducpham said:
I agree that the story is so bad that I want to cry each episode. It offended my intelligent. It's not because I'm a fan of old school gundam, I speak as a scrip writing student. This kind of story won't even score B at the end.

First, they spin off so many "key element". They didn't explain how bad the Mars settlers was. They didn't explain where their resources and technologies come from. They didn't even show the development of the Vagant hostilities. Bam... just a random event and they can all blame the Earth to abandon them to their fate. That's totally bullshit and lack of creativity.

Second, the animation quality is bad, lack of detail and have too many "wasting pose". They are too lazy to draw extra movement frames to made the show more flowing. If this is poor funded, I can understand. But, this is a big company project, it's a disappointing truly.

Finally, they left all the side character look like shits. They are lack of depth and hardly have a story to tell. The character development is also very very bad. I can't even imagine that this kind of story is even make it to the market. Code Geass is famous for the character depth because each of them has something to tell and secret. These elements drive people to the movie to find out. It's also help to cover the plot and twisted it when needed. In AGE, it's like a blank page. If any said that AGE is not really bad, they didn't take it properly.

I didn't touch the character design at this point, because it's not accurate to blame on it. But I can't deny the fact that, the design won't fit in with this story.

You forgot the pacing. Seriously, The whole 2nd arc finale seems like it was just made up the night before.

Apr 27, 2012 4:26 PM by thegooseman

jmal said:

kducpham said:
Second, the animation quality is bad

There are many legitimate gripes to be had against AGE, writing most of all, but at least in the battles, AGE is far from badly animated. Stylistically it doesn't work for a lot of people, but that's different.

According to Hayao Mizayaki standard, AGE animation is pretty bad. Not as bad as Seed Destiny but if you track each frames during the battle you'll see how badly they draw the details. They did try to cover it by let the side characters, grunt in "Stand and Die" mode. While look at Unicorn you can see how badly a grunt soldier struggle to survive. They didn't need flashy effects, just show the actions "properly". Even though this is common problem for weekly TV series but, they can do better than this.

Not only that, they forgot some small detail such as "pressure loss" when shooting from inside a space factory. Around season 1 when an UE MS shoot through the wall and fly through it to space. It can be spotted very easy. If someone just take it too easy, they won't see these "errors". And Mizayaki will kick these guys out of his company if he's in charge.

Apr 26, 2012 10:23 AM by kducpham

I agree that the story is so bad that I want to cry each episode. It offended my intelligent. It's not because I'm a fan of old school gundam, I speak as a scrip writing student. This kind of story won't even score B at the end.

First, they spin off so many "key element". They didn't explain how bad the Mars settlers was. They didn't explain where their resources and technologies come from. They didn't even show the development of the Vagant hostilities. Bam... just a random event and they can all blame the Earth to abandon them to their fate. That's totally bullshit and lack of creativity.

Second, the animation quality is bad, lack of detail and have too many "wasting pose". They are too lazy to draw extra movement frames to made the show more flowing. If this is poor funded, I can understand. But, this is a big company project, it's a disappointing truly.

Finally, they left all the side character look like shits. They are lack of depth and hardly have a story to tell. The character development is also very very bad. I can't even imagine that this kind of story is even make it to the market. Code Geass is famous for the character depth because each of them has something to tell and secret. These elements drive people to the movie to find out. It's also help to cover the plot and twisted it when needed. In AGE, it's like a blank page. If any said that AGE is not really bad, they didn't take it properly.

I didn't touch the character design at this point, because it's not accurate to blame on it. But I can't deny the fact that, the design won't fit in with this story.

Apr 26, 2012 1:08 AM by kducpham

metaphysicx92 said:

AGE is focused mostly on new viewers, likely school kids.

They could have done a lot more for the concept of AGE...

Apr 22, 2012 9:26 PM by raidenwarrior

It's being criticized, because it's just not very good. Even with targeting mostly children, the writing is insulting even to the intelligence level of kids. And the overarching plot so far makes no sense.

The way they wrote out Yurin in the first arc was stupid. He had lasers mounted all over the Tidus-variant and barely used them. He only gives an upgraded rifle to Woolf and leaves the others SOL. 27 years passes between Age1/2 and apparently nothing happens. They don't build any more Diva-class ships, despite seeing just how effective it is with the main cannon. Also takes them apparently 27 years to upgrade the grunt units for the Feds. Magically can't replicate the AGE system in 27 years, despite Flit being the one to design and build it in like 7. And don't get me started on how insipidly bad the Age2 female lead is...

Most stupid to the plot is how Vagan was apparently ready to start their invasion at the end of Age1, then magically they sit on their butts for 27 years before mounting an attack?

Face it. The plot is bad, the main protags are unlikable, and many of the characters are poorly written. (And they killed off probably the most popular character in the show lol...)

And it shows. BRD sales in Japan are well under break-even point for the budget the show has. (About 3500 for Vol1) The TV ratings numbers are about 1/3 what 00 was getting, and the age breakdowns put it as having more adult viewers than children viewers. Many of the model kits are receiving steep discounts in Japan. The MAL ratings are sitting at 5.5...

Mar 26, 2012 8:12 AM by aereus

metaphysicx92 said:

AGE is focused mostly on new viewers, likely school kids.

Except generation 1 was so uneven and bad at times I doubt many of younglings are still watching. Even though gen 2 is considerably better overall. For this generation traditional mecha isn't as appealing. Now it needs bishounens, flashy moves and complicated-as-hell plot. Gundam Age doesn't have that.

Mar 25, 2012 10:38 PM by kashim

AGE is focused mostly on new viewers, likely school kids.

Mar 24, 2012 10:18 PM by 420Physicx

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