Success of Gundam Unicorn Cancels Failure of Gundam AGE

by dtshyk
Apr 13, 2012 11:51 PM | 140 Comments

According to Nikkei MJ, the rating of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE has been hovering around the 2% level. Although the main target of the TV series is preteen boys, the rating among the kids sometimes goes down to zero. Bandai has been aware of the unpopularity of Gundam AGE among kids and have tried to identify the reason by conducting a questionnaire. What they found from the survey was that kids today are unfamiliar with wars and space colonies. To draw the attentions of those kids, Bandai featured scenes at school in Asem's Arc, but their attempt failed to obtain the expected result.

Despite the failure of Gundam AGE, Ueno Kazunori, the President of Bandai Namco HD, has been keeping his composure with the business. At the beginning of this year, Ueno encouraged the disheartened staff of Gundam AGE by saying, "Don't be in panic." The reason for his calmness is the favorable status of the whole Gundam sales, which has grown by 18% year-on-year. The increase is mainly attributed to the success of Gundam Unicorn. Bandai Namco HD will expand the business by coordinating the subsidiary companies taking advantage of the popularity of Gundam Unicorn among fans in their 30-40s.

According to Nijigen Shinbun, a film project of Gundam AGE has been surfaced. The authenticity of the report is uncertain.

Sources: Nikkei MJ, Jpanimate, Cyzo, Nijigen Shinbun

20 of 140 Comments Recent Comments

I like all Gundam Series the only gundam anything I didn't like at all was the Live action movie G Savior ....Talking about Recycled animation what about Gundam wing....With the same group of Leos or Aries blowing up every other episode

Nov 20, 2012 4:10 PM by Dredhawk

FatCobra said:
Seed was nothing but recycled animation. It was shit

Yep. And also the ending...

Nov 20, 2012 3:48 PM by Volkeman

In regards to the 00 ending of the movie, don't get me wrong I thought it sucked dinosaur balls. But, I do suggest to read the mangas version of the end. Much better. At least it didn't leave as bad of an aftertaste. If you don't feel like reading it:

Nov 20, 2012 3:46 PM by Volkeman

Seed was nothing but recycled animation. It was shit

Oct 22, 2012 8:36 PM by FatCobra

i'm not a seed fan but
Seed IS better than AGE
it was more enjoyable and had less problems

AGE and Destiny are equal tho
both are average, full of bullshit, crappy script writing, just blind development
but honeslty, AGE was good until the Kio arc begun, it was the most retarded and stupid arc in all Gundam.

Oct 22, 2012 5:00 AM by ZeraX

Those who think Seed is the same with Destiny are just retards.

Seed had fine character development, especially Kira. He did well in Seed but I won't say the same in Destiny. To me Seed and Destiny is 2 different matters.

Anyway, haters gonna hate. Well, they can't just admit that Age is worse than Seed after all. They decide to hate it to the end of their life and I won't need to waste my time to change their opinion.

Oct 22, 2012 2:11 AM by kducpham

Haters gonna hate. At least Age isn't as bad as that rubbish called Seed.

Oct 8, 2012 3:28 AM by byoushin

EspadaCero said:
this is just my guess but maybe it failed because little kids thought it sucked even though it was designed for them i bet if they would have gone with a bit more mature design it would have done good

...Did you even watch it?

Sep 28, 2012 7:44 PM by SageShinigami

It's official, folks. Gundam AGE is totally hit & miss. And I was right.

Sep 28, 2012 7:15 PM by JafriZin

this is just my guess but maybe it failed because little kids thought it sucked even though it was designed for them i bet if they would have gone with a bit more mature design it would have done good

Sep 27, 2012 10:27 AM by EspadaCero

Great, it just left us wondering what happened to the other characters (Even other vagan enemies which it was alive & left unanswered) left. This could be an another Gundam 00 movie-style ending soon.

Aug 27, 2012 6:39 AM by JafriZin

Arcling said:
http://www.desmondchieng.com/gundam-age-to-end-at-49-episodes-on-september-23/

So it's going to end soon. Only 4 episodes to cram all remaining plot. Not much time, so they might be rushed. I wonder if this was planned from the beginning or it had something to do with income below expectations.

I never thought I would say that about a Gundam series, but I'm glad to see this end at last.

Aug 26, 2012 1:11 PM by Saber

http://www.desmondchieng.com/gundam-age-to-end-at-49-episodes-on-september-23/

So it's going to end soon. Only 4 episodes to cram all remaining plot. Not much time, so they might be rushed. I wonder if this was planned from the beginning or it had something to do with income below expectations.

Aug 26, 2012 9:55 AM by Arcling

Roloko said:
00 movie was a let down especially the new characters. -___-

Totally agreed.

Because I thought that there's some characters 'back to the dead' but apparently it's a different character with same looks. #SMH

Jul 30, 2012 7:01 AM by JafriZin

JeffreyZin said:

ZeraX said:
Seed was ok, destiny could be better but it's average too, 00 was kickass, its movie sucks
AGE is just average to me, and as we are in Kio's arc i'm not seeing anything new or special or this series does is taking previous ideas and using them here, it became heavily cliche.

I agreed from what you said about 00 Movie. it makes me regret to watch that stupid movie (I hate it when those fantards disagreed about it) especially the ending itself.

As for AGE, I never thought that it's sorta hit & miss.

00 movie was a let down especially the new characters. -___-

Jul 29, 2012 6:25 AM by Roloko

Jul 28, 2012 9:55 PM by JafriZin

It's too late to reply but...

as i someone who watched every single gundam work (every TV series, movie, ova, etc...)

i have to say that AGE is really an average gundam series, it's no where to be like those previously works

even SEED is better imo, tho i'm not a seed fan, nor UC fan
i'm just a HUGE FAN of anything Gundam

loved UC works all of them, loved G Gundam and X, Wing was great somehow, Turn A was awesome
Seed was ok, destiny could be better but it's average too, 00 was kickass, its movie sucks
AGE is just average to me, and as we are in Kio's arc i'm not seeing anything new or special or this series does is taking previous ideas and using them here, it became heavily cliche.

Jul 21, 2012 5:13 PM by ZeraX

Roloko said:

pika2000 said:

In the end, I see AGE just as another attempt to copy UC (AGE1 = Original Gundam, AGE2 = Zeta, AGE3 = ZZ) on the toy side. Story seems secondary to the need to push toys quickly.

Gundam has always been one big toy commercial since the Original 0079. Just the other Gundams sold well when it came to the home video releases compared to others.

Turn A, Gundam X, and AGE sold terribly which lead to X being canceled early. AGE is great, but from what I heard about A and X they sound like they were great Gundams too just underrated and unappreciated.

I've yet to watch Turn A, since it's pretty hard to find any sources on them, but I have seen Gundam X. I liked it, and it could have became something more towards the end if it had extended to 49 episodes instead of ending it at 39. It sucked that the airing times kept getting pushed around to an unpopular slot of its time...

AGE isn't as great as the older Gundam series, but it's still holding out with its interesting plot with rather intriguing characters who do stupid things. lol

JeffreyZin said:
I've been thinking about this all of the time when I'm reading the news of it.

THIS is the reason why I've been taking Gundam shows very seriously after Gundam 00 which it was my first gundam that I ever watched. I mean I remember when some battle scenes copying from 00.

That isn't a very good thing to base everything around one series. If you've watched the legacy of the UC timeline, you'd see more about what AGE is actually copying from.

Jul 10, 2012 9:00 PM by GigaSPX

Roloko said:

Gundam has always been one big toy commercial since the Original 0079. Just the other Gundams sold well when it came to the home video releases compared to others.

Turn A, Gundam X, and AGE sold terribly which lead to X being canceled early. AGE is great, but from what I heard about A and X they sound like they were great Gundams too just underrated and unappreciated.

Selling toys is one thing, but if the story suffers, it's not good. Compared to OO, or even SEED, AGE just feels like a mess.

Jul 9, 2012 2:49 AM by pika2000

I've been thinking about this all of the time when I'm reading the news of it.

THIS is the reason why I've been taking Gundam shows very seriously after Gundam 00 which it was my first gundam that I ever watched. I mean I remember when they copying some battle scenes from 00 in most of episodes.

Jul 8, 2012 8:45 PM by JafriZin

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