Forum - View topicGundam Unicorn (UC)
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7983 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I don't think this has a thread yet for whatever reason. I couldn't find one in the Index anyway.
Gundam Unicorn Personally, after following it since it first came out to now, years later having just finished it last week with the 7th BD, I have to say I was pretty impressed and it was well worth the wait. It's a really solid show overall in my opinion with a great and highly entertaining story that put me on the edge of my seat, a good well-developed cast, and plenty of good action. On top of that the animation is gorgeous and it has fantastic music. So what are your thoughts on the OVA? |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13229 |
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I actually marathoned the whole thing last week. While it certainly looked pretty, everything else... It wasn't until later that I realised what the problem was: I didn't enjoy it. It wasn't terrible or anything. It was easy enough to follow since it was just your typical rehashed UC themes and at no point did I think "man this is awful." But there were times when I was fighting to stay awake. I can only think of two parts that really grabbed me: that Stark Jegan in episode one, and the Byarlant Custom. It wasn't completely souless, though, so it's easily placed above Zeta in my personal rankings.
Banagher was pretty meh as a protagonist. Not much about him stands out next to past Gundam leads, except maybe how often he gets captured. The story hinges on the importance of Laplace's Box and it's potential to change the Universal Century... But the impact of that is lost because we know from F91 and Victory that nothing ever changed. So instead we just get another "let's fight Zeon remnants again!" story. Aside from that, it had the usual light novel adaptation problems. Lack of narration removes a lot of the internal development so characters' actions and motivation seemingly come out of nowhere at times. I pre-ordered the Blu Rays as they came out and did sink quite a bit of money into it (volume 7 alone cost me $90 after shipping and taxes). I'm not regretting it or anything, but after all that I can really only say... meh. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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I don't think I could justify buying a "meh" anime even if I had a burning hole in my wallet, I digress, Unicorn is a love letter to most of the major UC events that occur before Unicorn's timeline for good or ill. |
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Vaisaga
Posts: 13229 |
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Well, that "meh" is given in hindsight after rewatching the series as a whole. When it came to each individual piece, there was more enthusiasm.
Now that you bring that up, I felt it weird that the La+ program's tour of UC history only involved 2 places before spoiler[pointing them back to where they started.] And for some reason Frontal mentioned they needed to go to that shoal zone, but he should know because of that psycho monitor thing that it was spoiler[at the colony.] |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3889 |
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I thoroughly enjoyed Gundam UC and found it well worth sitting through the long wait.
The only part of the story that really bothered me was spoiler[Riddhe's mental breakdown and sudden, unjustified animosity toward Banagher over pretty much being rejected by Mineva] |
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Kruszer
Posts: 7983 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Yeah, if this show has a flaw that would be it. I also thought the fact that spoiler[Laplace's Box was just a monument was pretty lame.] Although, spoiler[it does drive home the futility of war when all those people in the series died to try to cover up one monument with a single amendment the Federation was trying to cover up.] This reminds me though that I need to get around to watching the rest of Victory Gundam though which I stalled out on a long time ago. You must not have a surround sound system if you were nodding off watching this though. The sound mix on these BDs is amazing and there are lots of good booms and rumbles and swelling epic music to wake you up. 
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I loved it. It's really the best thing to come out of the franchise since Turn A Gundam ended. Actually, it's probably the one genuinely, solidly good thing to come out of the franchise since then.
My own thoughts on the conclusion, as I put on my blog:
It's true that, given F91 and Victory Gundam, that clearly the situation with the colonists didn't radically change from the Leplace's Box revelation, but we don't really know what happened in between this event and F91, and F91 was incomplete to begin with. spoiler[It's possible that the increase in colonies by the time of the Ronah family's rise was to satiate both the population increase and the demands of the Spacenoids to live more comfortably after the truth was made public about the UC charter. It also might be a reason why Cosmo Babylonia was inspired. Late UC actually tends to view the Earth Federation as largely irrelevant. The planet was pretty easy pickings for the Zanscare Empire.] Last edited by penguintruth on Tue Jun 17, 2014 7:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Vaisaga
Posts: 13229 |
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I do have a surround sound system, though I keep it at a reasonable volume out of respect for the other people in the house. Still, I've been known to nod off in loud environments. |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1242 |
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I watched it as it came out, and then rewatched it all just before the last volume came out.
I really, really enjoyed it except for the final volume. I was ready to accept this as part of the official future history from here on out, but in the space of 90 minutes it managed to knock itself down to "expensive fanfic AFAIC." I didn't mind the revelation about Laplace's Box too much. I had actually thought for some time that Fukui was writing himself into a corner with that, and promising something he couldn't possibly deliver, but this was better than what I was afraid we'd get, so from that standpoint, I was satisfied. While I have some reservations about something like that existing without anybody else knowing about it, I think there may be an answer -- albeit one that can easily be obscured by the heavyhanded writing. Which brings me to the next thing: I do not recommend making a drinking game out of "But even so..." "A prayer" or "the God in us called possibility." Running those lines into the ground the way they did was pretty horrible writing, I thought, and as I mentioned above, obscures the meaning of an important point. If Laplace's box is "a prayer" what exactly is that supposed to mean? I think it probably means that spoiler[the new article was added to the Federation charter at the last minute before the big ceremony, where it was to be unveiled, but then everyone who knew about it died in the bombing. It was a "prayer" because Newtypes didn't yet exist, and the delegates were (irresponsibly) adding an idealistic "what if" clause (that they knew they'd never have to deal with any fallout from anyway).] Which is not exactly a prayer, so repeatedly calling it that just confuses things. They should have repeated that line a few times less and laid out more clearly what had happened. One thing I did not like but was not surprised by was spoiler[the death of Merida. I knew they'd do it, but it would've been so nice to have let one of the Ples have a happy ending, especially after the horrors this one had gone through early on. I was rather foolishly rooting for her to make it.] That one's just personal preference, though. The real nail in the coffin for me was all the spoiler[Newtype MAGIC!! at the end. Look, you can get away with something like that in the finale of Char's Counterattack -- a one-time, genuinely amazing miracle, that came at a huge cost to those who brought it about. But now suddenly, the miracle can be produced on demand? Banagher hadn't earned that. And the other guy certainly hadn't earned it. I'd been enjoying myself in a world of fairly hard SF for hours, and then suddenly there didn't seem to be any rules anymore. Need to reproduce the Axis Shock? No prob. We'll just whip out one of those right out to stop the (surprisingly small) colony laser. Even if there's some kind of in-story explanation I missed, it still fails as drama. It's overdone. It's too much.] Worst of all, none of that nonsense was necessary to finish the story. Overall, disappointed all the more because of how much I was enjoying it up till then. |
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FenixFiesta
Posts: 2581 |
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Because "Newtype Magic" has been done SEVERAL times throughout the UCverse, Psycommu weapons pretty much work only because of "Newtype Magic", Lalah Sune turned into a psycho energy swan due to "newtype magic", Kamille Bidan summoned the souls of the dead to perform a coux de grace on Sirocco. The Unicorn unit itself is the culmination of research through decades of in universe research made to amplify Newtype powers. It is like a Storm Trooper trying to deny that the Force doesn't exist in the Star Wars verse after watching Darth Vader psychically choke someone through the monitor on another Star Destroyer. |
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Vaisaga
Posts: 13229 |
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I think Laplace's Box should have turned out to be something horrific so they would decide to destroy it/keep it secret. Then the timeline would have been preserved and we can be satisfied knowing they'd saved the Earth Sphere from something bad.
As for it being a prayer, it's because spoiler[the government was hoping such evolved humans would show up one day.] Though I have to wonder how Syam managed to blackmail the Federation with it when it only became a problem later on when spoiler[Zeonism happened.] Frankly I'm more interested in the bit that says spoiler[the Federation would prepare for an alien attack.] I'd say I'd rather see that, but 00 already did it amazingly. NewType magic wise, I'm okay with spoiler[the psychofield blocking the shot from Gryps II (it was also kinda neat to know that was still around). We already saw psychoframe resonance push back Axis and that was only with two psychoframe lined cockpits and a T. Here we had 2 mobile suits completely made out of psychoframe so of course the effect is going to be greater.] spoiler[Time travel] and spoiler[Banagher merging with the Unicorn] was stupid, though. The latter being particularly out of left field and eventually pointless. spoiler[Marida's] death was also super stupid. |
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SynergyMan
Posts: 99 |
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Awesome OVA. I like how it was almost simultaneously recorded in English and Japanese. I believe no other anime is like that. No anime has two co-original versions. Didn't like how the Italian edition removed the English version, but that's another thing. The visuals are movie level, with lush, mouth watering backgrounds and scenery. The CG is almost on par with American CG, it's that good. The design is realistic for all but Audrey and Banagher, but they still stand out with their eyes. The animation is fluid, action packed and dynamic. Not one frame is wasted. The story is Tomino like, though the writing is better and it feels more grand in scope. The music is excellent and is variable, with Mobile Suit having this Spanish, Arab feel to it, with a triumphant orchestra. Sawano outdid himself here. Acting wise, both versions are amazing, with Keith Silverstein doing the impossible and MATCHING Shuichi Ikeda in effectiveness in regards to Full Frontal. Both versions are critically acclaimed in Japan, going by Amazon comments. Just search 英語 for more in Amazon.
I like what the Japanese did. In Japan, they kept Ikeda as Full Frontal is spoiler[supposed to be a clone of Char, with his memories from the Sazabi's Psycoframe.] Ikeda shows that spoiler[he is Char mentally.] In America, Char has had 3 different actors, though none as known as Michael Kopsa. His performance as Char has garnered wide praise by Americans alike, considered to be the best Char in English and best outside Ikeda. Because Ocean was not involved, they got Silverstein instead. Silverstein shows spoiler[this guy is his own being, who is separate anf distinct from Char]. He mixes Ikeda's and Kopsa's Char to create his Full Frontal and for that, I commend Japan. Usually, Japan sucks when it comes to English productions, though this is one exception. |
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Vaisaga
Posts: 13229 |
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Kurokami was the first to do that. Space Dandy does it too. |
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penguintruth
Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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spoiler[Nobody time traveled. They were just given visions of the past. They didn't actually go there.
FFS, have none of you even watched UC era Gundam before? Newtype visions are a staple. I bet you think the "T"-shaped Psycoframe sample in CCA was also "magic".] |
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Vaisaga
Posts: 13229 |
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spoiler[They saw the future too, remember? The way it was shot gave the impression the suits themselves were going through time, rather than the usual naked space visions.
The trip apparently caused the Neo Zeong to crumble away too. If that's not what caused it, the final battle is even more of a let down.] Also, it might as well be magic. The same goes for all the other UC series. Do you really think it's possible for good intentions to move an asteroid? I don't care what BS science doo-hicky you say caused it, you gotta make sure your suspension of disbelief is at full force. |
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