Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Unicorn Power
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8464 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Full Frontal describes himself from the outset as a willing "vessel" for the will of his people, which is why, in their name, he's looking to make his plan of the Co-Prosperity Sphere work for the space colonists, which would, at least he hopes, establish an autonomy that the Earth Federation couldn't sneeze at. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that he's incredibly cutthroat about the whole thing, he's essentially correct, if only in the broad strokes, and Banagher and Audrey have to admit this to a degree.
I felt that the problem with Banagher was that at times it seemed like he was kind of sleep-walking through some of the events, being tossed around so more dynamic characters could gravitate towards him and he could interact with and react to them and their motivations. As somebody else mentioned here, it's not until well into the run of the OVA that he seems to have a motivation that isn't just wanting to be needed by Audrey (which I don't think was a sexual thing, by the way: he just wants to be needed, which is I think where the character of Riddhe heads in some dark ways). Sometimes it just seems like he's a "kite in a hurricane" and he doesn't really assert his personality well enough. I'd say, like with some of Tomino's own UC entries, the scenarios and ideas always seem to trump the characters and execution themselves, but Unicorn isn't shallow at all, just suffering from some lopsidedness (and neither are most of Tomino's entries). As for The Origin, I don't know how I feel about Zeon Zum Daikun being a raving lunatic, because his ideas were always put in the light of righteousness, simply hoping for a better space-based humanity, and having his ideas warped by the wicked Zabis. The first episode clearly shows that the Zabis are shrewd and devilish opportunists, but it doesn't even seem like they murdered Daikun at all, they just took advantage of his keeling over, and an angry Casval took Jimba Ral's own lunacy to heart. Not that I'm going to weep knowing that Degwin, Gihren, and Kycilia all meet with ignoble, violent ends during the war, but things are much more complicated than they were painted as in the original series. I guess that's a good thing, though. The real problem with Gundam Unicorn, and with the Gundam franchise in general these days, is the price. And while I'm glad to have all seven volumes of Gundam Unicorn on Blu-Ray, it makes me a little embarrassed and sad that I spent 50-70 bucks each on every volume of the show, whose running time usually didn't go over an hour. This is what they're doing with The Origin, too, but at least you can rent it on Daisuki. I have to learn to face that maybe being a Gundam fan is too expensive a hobby now, because it's not like you're going to see Unicorn collected anytime soon for a lower price. Bandai/Sunrise are insanely greedy and unless you're willing to pay through the nose for good-looking Blu-Rays, I imagine most of TRSI's Gundam rescues will be DVD-only. |
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BrandonL337
 Posts: 88 |
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It's definitely a risk, but potentially a profitable one. as, from what I understand, Turn-A has a kind of "holy grail" effect going for it in the western fandom due to it being requested to be released for so long, followed by Bandai America shutting it's doors just as it was about to come out. It's does surprise me a little bit that this is the first gundam that rightstuf's putting out, but that may be to inspire confidence that the rest of the franchise that didn't get released by bandai america will eventually come out. Personally, outside of those factors I think Wing, or 08th MS team would be a better first release. Wing, because of it's nostalgia value(and that the anime legends sets are $100+ at this point) and 08th MS tean because it is so, so damn good, and an excellent introduction to Gundam in general and UC in particular. Also it's short, so it would likely be cheaper, making it an even better intro. |
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DmonHiro
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I don't really get why TurnA is the black sheep. It was arguably the most obscenely over-powered Gundam ever. The things the TurnA and TurnX can do are preposterous. Even without the Moonlight Butterfly, TurnA is a beast.
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Zetabag
 Posts: 205 |
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Well the mecha designs for Turn A Gundam are....unorthodox to put it mildly. |
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Dfens
Posts: 459 |
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For me Unicorn had so much potential but by the end of episode 4 it started to go down hill. Banagher was always wishey washey and when he decides to take on Loni he chickens out in the end and Riddie has to do the deed.
While from reading about what's in the book which to me sounds a hella of a lot better Loni is piloting the mobile armor with her Dad who is the one out of control. So Loni creates a chance for Banagher to destory the mobile armor along with her in it, sacrificing herself to stop the rampage and he mans up and does it even though he so desperately wanted to save her. Episode 6 seemed like the ultimate cliff hanger to set up for the final battle, but instead we get the same newtype over the top ghost BS as we have seen many times over. If this mirrored the novels then I could give them a little slack but still after all the time invested in the show I was hoping for a little better final closing episode. And even though I'm glad I didn't buy the series on Blu-Ray after that last episode that turned me so off, I can't anyways since the dam Blu-Rays are out of print. Oh you can buy the DVD's at a lower price point but one thing they got right with this series it looks gorgeous and was meant to be owned Blu-Ray. I've been a Gundam fan since I was in Highschool and a buddy introduced me to the franchise this was right before Wing hit Toonami. Ans since then I sampled and seen just about almost every spin off of the franchise has had to offer. And it will never be the power house hit Sunrise wants it to be. Unicorn and maybe Origin are a step in the right direction for super fans but other than getting some of the older titles back in print Gundam has lost it's luster and I don't think they will ever get it back to the level when Wing was gate way drug that got people into Gundam. |
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DmonHiro
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Fair enough, but very shallow. TurnA can wipe the floor with any other main Gundam from any other Gundam show, and probably with only 20% power. How do you block a beam right in your cockpit? |
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the-antihero
 Posts: 726 |
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Still waiting for AGE to get a dub.
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Angel'sArcanum
 Posts: 303 Location: Toronto, Ontario |
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I don't think power levels are really relevant to why someone would choose to watch a particular Gundam series or not, especially given the nature of the series being predominantly about the themes and political intrigue. I'll admit I had trepidation about looking into Turn A from a visual standpoint mostly, but there was just a lot of weird stuff throwing me off. The lead Gundam with a mustache? The main character a crossdressing dark-skinned boy with bleach white hair? Definitely not things that appeal to me there, but I've heard it's one of the best entries of the franchise, and with it being the RightStuf/Sunrise collab's first Gundam series release after a few years along with being a new Gundam over here and having a huge Gundam itch as of late, I really want to snatch it up. On another note, I hope they'll try to get a dub made for ZZ to at least have dubs for the core UC trilogy shows out there, and we don't seem to have much info on a release date, so here's hoping it happens, but with Nozomi/RS, I'd say the odds are quite slim in this day and age. Sorry if my articulation is poor rn, hope these make some degree of sense. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2404 |
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You go super saiyan. And on that point, I'd say Domon in God > Turn-A at full power. Shonen power beats everything. Or you just turn the Turn-A off with your newtype powered Unicorn with a wave of your hand Matrix style. Anyway, I'm not sure what your point is. You're shocked people don't like Turn-A more because it is to strong? That doesn't really make sense. If you're talking about the series, how strong the main gundam is doesn't determine how good the series is (for the record, I do like Turn-A). If you are talking about the gundam itself, I would argue that the main selling points are aesthetics and the pilot. |
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Zetabag
Posts: 205 |
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From what I recall most of those ghost moments were in the novel, with the exception of thespoiler[ ghosts of Char and Lalah visiting Full Frontal]
Well imo that has less to do with the quality of recent series and more to do with the fact that Gundam Wing came out at the right time.
No more shallow than judging a Gundam based on strength. Personally, I generally don't care about whether or not Gundam "x" can beat up Gundam "y". |
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WeskerGriff
 Posts: 89 |
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As a loyal Gundam fan for many years, I was beyond excited when Gundam Unicorn was getting released. Finally we were getting a high quality UC entry into the series that takes place only a few years after CCA. Pretty much a sequel to the best Gundam movie in the franchise. Growing up watching UC Gundam, I can't even convey how exciting this was.
Now what a lot of people forget is that when Unicorn was being released it was a dual release. You had the pricy but beautiful Blu Rays for $60 bucks for only one episode or you had the DVD with not one, but TWO episodes for only $25. So both type of fans (the causal and hardcore), could support and buy the release. The problem was Bandai Ent. went under and fans who were already invested into the series, had to go to only Blu Rays now. The Blu Rays sold well and since a lot of DVD fans were already four episodes deep in the series, the only way to finish was with the Blu Rays (this was before it was announced that Right Stuf would pick it up, that news didn't break till after Episode 6, which was like one and half years later). And let's now forget (which many people do) is that MS Igloo was released here in NA by Bandai Visual and it was two releases with only three episodes each on standard DVDs for $45-50 bucks. A very highly priced product at the time with the DVD boom. And those releases were highly sought after by Gundam fans. I remember going to Otakon and scrambling to find the Bandai dealers in the Dealer's Room and being told by their reps that "if I find those DVDs pick them up now because we aren't going to be re-pressing them". Bandai Visual went under before Bandai Ent so that release went OOP like lighting but all the units sold out quickly on Bandai's web-store at the time, and Right Stuf. So Bandai had a general idea that pricy Gundam titles did have a market in NA, because the fanbase was there, and those releases were supported, even though when they were being released the company was already on life support. As for the actual show Gundam Unicorn. I thought it was a good series that could have been great. The ending was HIGHLY disappointing, however it was still a good show with solid animation, music, mech designs, characters, and it paid a lot of nice nods to fans of the original series. My favorite episode in the series is actually Episode 6. I thought that episode was perfect. It lays out FF's plan (which is actually a great plan and one that I was hoping would work, but fans of the series already knew the ending so to speak since we have F91). I never understood or "got" why fans here were obsessed with the thinking that FF could be Char or was Char. Char was dead and his fate was sealed in CCA. Anyone who watched any of the previous series and listen to what Big T said knew this. I think people wanted FF to be Char, and were illogical about it. I knew all along FF wasn't Char, what I wanted to know badly was who made FF and why. This is never explained and completely glossed over. Obviously the Sleeves didn't have the resources to make someone like Frontal, so that plot hole and how that isn't even touched on in the final episode was the most disappointing thing for me. They had A LOT of potential with that final episode, but fell into the trap of using re-used Gundam tropes. I'm willing to give Unicorn some slack however because like I mentioned previously, fans of the franchise already knew the outcome and the ending was because of Gundam F91. We already knew that Zeon rejoined the Federation, and we already knew Frontal failed. So the Unicorn staff were kind of pinned into a corner there, since they couldn't recon the official canon of F91. Ultimately as well, this makes the ending a tad bit more disappointing because we know that Mineva and Banagher don't help much in the end with all their "possibilities" since the Crossbone Vanguard pop up and cause havoc and with the Federation's idiocy and corruption how they fall into being a relic and useless. I know it sounds like I might be bashing the show, but in the end, I did enjoy it and I did appreciate the effort and nods they put in the shows. Several of the episodes were fantastic, it just stunk that the worse episodes was the last one. As for Gundam fans in NA. The biggest problem has and will always be the fans themselves. I've been into Gundam since I was a little kid, and I've seen so many arguments, flame wars, and general nastiness between fans here and it's sickening. There is WAY too much division in the fandom and not enough unity. You are either a UC fan or a AU fan, you are either a Zeon fan or a Federation fan, you are either a Tomino fan or not. It's annoying and people are always throwing rocks at each other instead of accepting different opinions. Go on Youtube videos and see the arguments, or look right here and see a couple people throwing mud. In my opinion, that has been the singles biggest problem with Gundam fandom in NA. Also it wasn't mention in the article, but if you really care about supporting Gundam in NA (the actual physical releases of Gundam here in the states) then you will support the Turn A Gundam release with Right Stuf. You can get 25 episodes for less than $35 bucks. A very inexpensive entry into the wallets, so I don't want to hear the excuses. Put your money were you're mouth is and support it. Because if this fails, what other American company is going to take a flyer on Gundam?? [Also sorry for the LONG post, had a lot of thoughts going through my mind and wanted to share them, thanks for reading if you read the whole thing!!  ]
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3984 |
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Would love that, though the odds may not be great due to age like Turn A, but hopefully Turn A sells well enough (I'm buying it! Been looking forward to seeing it since many say it's so good  ) that maybe they'll consider it, I'd love to see NYAV who's done such a great job on the OVA dubs with Unicorn and what I've heard from the first ep of Origin, get the chance to do some full Gundam TV series going forward, even if it's just new ones going forward.
I've always wanted Gundam X to get a dub myself, another unlikely one
While the three TV series projects since Gundam 00 (which I loved), in Build Fighters and the heavily mixed receptions of Age and Reconguista aren't ideal choices for a concerted re-launch I'd really like it if Reconguista and for those who liked it Age as new "main" Gundam series included dubs as if those comes out I'd buy those two shows to support them and might probably consider buying Build Fighters for the action. As one of my favorite franchises, I just hope that if/when the next big (presumably AU?) 50-ep "event" teen to young adult aimed Gundam series comes that they'll try to get the momentum atleast somewhat restarted here by dubbing it. Last edited by DangerMouse on Mon Apr 06, 2015 12:24 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Cptn_Taylor
Posts: 925 |
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People are always complaining about the toy-etic aspects of Gundams. With Turn A, the moustached Gundam passes in the background compared to the story. Isn't that what every Gundam fan desires ? For the story to take precedence over the toys ? The story in Turn A is the best of the UC timeline and one of the best of the entire metafranchise. |
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levonr
 Posts: 813 |
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That horrible Animax company dubbed it for Asian TV. I don't think AGE will ever get a proper dub, it might never even get a sub only release. It has horrible ratings & reviews. If it ever happens it will probably be one of the last RightStuf would release(thankfully). |
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Lynx Amali
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Eh. I think they should use Ocean for TV runs and respective films/OVAs but use NYAV Post as the original OVA/film dub set. As much as I'm upset they didn't bother getting McNeil back for Kai's cameo in Unicorn, I'm amazed with the quality of the final product. It was great hearing Staley again, who I hadn't heard since Seabook (F91) and Rei (Yukikaze.) If ZZ gets a dub (and I hope it does, just to get the core three dubbed), I hope they use the DWG cast. Kelly Sheridan and Andrew Francis do such a great as Roux and Judau respectively I'd find it really hard to recast them. That's my personal opinion anyway. I would however be 120% okay with NYAV doing AWX though. Last edited by Lynx Amali on Sun Apr 05, 2015 11:37 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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