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REVIEW: Mobile Suit Gundam Part II Blu-Ray


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Levonr



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 807
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:15 am Reply with quote
For a show that was canceled I really liked the ending itself. However if it was longer I think we'd get more development of characters like Lalah who I always wished had more screen time.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 863
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:41 am Reply with quote
I enjoyed the second half quite a bit.The plot much smoother and it had less "had to give them something to do" fights. Has it's issues like adding characters who don't really add that much to the story and are quickly disposed of(Lalah or Slegger). Along with Tomino's hilarious attempts at trying to write a romance between two characters. Got some great moments,like the oh so memorable spoiler[Char headshot].
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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:56 am Reply with quote
This is something Gundam does well that it can't seem to do later on in modern stories. The Gundam was just one machine, and often outdated. Zeta Gundam starts off with the Gundam being a thinly armored training unit which has consequences for the mecha and its pilot, unlike in Aldnoah Zero where they made claims about the mecha's performance but made the training unit there into a God-mecha.

Think about the Star Wars movies, too. In the original prequel Darth vader was just one dude. He came up a lot, but was essentially a cog in the machine. The prequels people hate revolved around the premise that Vader was central and his arrival was the ultimate event for the franchise. Even the new movie seems to hinge on the Vader legacy. The new movie can still be totally great, but hanging on Vader's legacy to be the plot focus again and again can limit potential.

I hope future Gundam shows can return to having a war story that happens to have a Gundam in it, rather than a Gundam that happens to have a War Story pieced together around it.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 12:02 pm Reply with quote
Quote:

I hope future Gundam shows can return to having a war story that happens to have a Gundam in it, rather than a Gundam that happens to have a War Story pieced together around it.

You might enjoy Iron Blooded Orphans then.
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HdE



Joined: 17 Nov 2015
Posts: 50
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 12:11 pm Reply with quote
Hi all! My first post on the forums proper - good to be here!

Just wanted to chip in and say that I'm kind of pleased the review acknowledged the (lack of) quality of the show's animation. I love Gundam as a franchise, but I've never been able to accet the rose tinted view some folks seem to have when it comes to this original series.

My take on it is that the show itself is certainly still great watch. But the visuals and the soundtrack (for me, at least) really hurt it in places.

Really hoping the Sunrise partnership with RightStuf! and, in the UK, Anime Limited is a success. But for this one, I see no reason to trade up from my Bandai DVD sets.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 12:21 pm Reply with quote
I won't be starting a revolution by suggesting that getting cancelled was good for Gundam, and not only because it may have rescued the ending from trademark Tomino obtuseness; if it hurt the production quality it may have improved the storytelling. Having watched several more ~50-episode series directed by Tomino I have to accuse him of too often allowing things to get sluggish and if the adversity of cancellation forced him to kick things into gear it easily may have improved the final product.
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 12:35 pm Reply with quote
I've read the official 52 episode plan for Mobile Suit Gundam and I think it benefited from being cut short. There were some interesting concepts in that plan, like Bright falling for a traitor and being forced to kill her, or Amuro being the one to personally kill Gihren Zabi. But I think the way it was truncated worked (and the movies worked even better with the way the story was pared down there). And while the production values for the series are spartan at best, the plot and characters are unforgettable. Interactions and dialogue can be clunky, but I enjoy how the various subplots and themes solidified, especially the Zabis' bad karma catching up with them and Amuro coming to terms with what he should be doing in the war.

Last edited by penguintruth on Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:25 pm; edited 2 times in total
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 12:56 pm Reply with quote
FenixFiesta wrote:
Quote:

I hope future Gundam shows can return to having a war story that happens to have a Gundam in it, rather than a Gundam that happens to have a War Story pieced together around it.

You might enjoy Iron Blooded Orphans then.


I think it'll eventually get there, but for now there's no war to speak of, so that might not really work.

But yeah I definitely agree and I would love to have more mech show where the main character are using normal mech (or maybe slithly better than average). The problem, and all gundam suffer from this, is that when they do this they make the main character special instead, either magic power like gundam or like ADZ make everyone else completely useless and only the main character able to do anything.
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Tylerr



Joined: 13 Nov 2010
Posts: 475
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:03 pm Reply with quote
i didn't know this was canceled.

though it was probably because of those freaking little kids.
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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 6:10 pm Reply with quote
I thought the animation looked good from what I glimpsed (mostly second movie in trilogy), but damn, it sounds like they were really rushing things towards the end. I posted it in the Part I forum, but I did my own parody of the opening that sounds like it has better animation than what it says here.

@Tylerr

Unfortunately this Gundam series was not popular when it first aired. Originally it was going to be 50 episodes but dropped to 43.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 7:14 pm Reply with quote
Sailor Sedna wrote:
I thought the animation looked good from what I glimpsed (mostly second movie in trilogy)...

The movie trilogy has an increasing amount of new footage as it goes along, some of it very nice. The TV series at its best doesn't look near as good.
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the-antihero



Joined: 17 Aug 2010
Posts: 726
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 7:43 pm Reply with quote
Personally, I'd give this series no more than a B.
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Levonr



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 807
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:23 pm Reply with quote
Tylerr wrote:

though it was probably because of those freaking little kids.


My guess is most who tuned in were Super Robot viewers expecting another good vs evil over the top action show and were perhaps turned off by what was something very different from what they were used to. Took some time for something different to find an audience.

Fronzel wrote:

The movie trilogy has an increasing amount of new footage as it goes along, some of it very nice. The TV series at its best doesn't look near as good.


anime#154

"While the first movie uses existing footage from the series, the second movie has at least 30% of new animation while the third movie consists of nearly 70% all-original footage."
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:01 pm Reply with quote
Levonr wrote:
Fronzel wrote:

The movie trilogy has an increasing amount of new footage as it goes along, some of it very nice. The TV series at its best doesn't look near as good.


anime#154

"While the first movie uses existing footage from the series, the second movie has at least 30% of new animation while the third movie consists of nearly 70% all-original footage."

I'm not following what point you're trying to make here.
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Sailor Sedna





PostPosted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 10:28 pm Reply with quote
@Fronzel

Interesting; the movies must have had a slightly bigger budget.
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