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This Week in Anime - Get G-Recked


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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:01 am Reply with quote
Tomino does have a weird style, but he's also directed more of my favorite anime than anyone else.
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leonard.lim.944023



Joined: 19 Mar 2015
Posts: 47
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:22 am Reply with quote
G-reco is so weird that its officially non canon to UC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufCK5-TSM3A&t=135s
https://www.lisani.jp/gundam40th/
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Nate148



Joined: 24 May 2012
Posts: 466
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:36 am Reply with quote
uh no it still is but is a AU because the timeline name has changed same as Turn A
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Fluwm



Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 881
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:39 am Reply with quote
As much as i love Victory and Turn A, where Tomino has the time to really flesh out all of his weirdness, there's a certain charm to Reconquista and F91 where you only get these brief, curtailed windows into his imagined worlds. There's nothing else even remotely like it.
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Karasu-Lacryma



Joined: 20 Feb 2015
Posts: 113
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:47 am Reply with quote
It's probably my fault for never finishing Unicorn, but I felt almost as pleasantly lost with the Hathaway movie. There's something great about series/movies like this one or Mekacity Actors or Kyousogriga where an enjoyable, incomprehensible something is going on, until the ending half-clarifies things.
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Brainchild129



Joined: 09 Aug 2011
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 10:18 am Reply with quote
And remember, this is the revised version! One that's not only been (slightly) condensed (and I do mean slightly - these 2 movies only cover 10 episodes or so), but had small scenes and lines added to make it certain plot threads easier to understand!

Learning that really makes me dread what watching the TV version of G-Reco. It must be chaos. These movies alone felt baffling enough.

Also, Bellri might be the dumbest Gundam boy? I mean, there have been other Gundam leads who were not deep thinkers, but Bellri is very much a "head empty, no thoughts" kind of boy, no matter how many times people in the show/movies say he's a grade-skipper. Just blithely lets himself be shanghaied because Aida is pretty and because he's basically got nothing better to do. At least his mom seems to give a bit of a damn about him, which is better than average for parents in a Gundam show.

That being said, it might truly be one of the prettiest Gundam series ever made. It's not just Kenichi Yoshida's character designs, but the backgrounds, the colors, the mobile suit designs (I think most of them are neat in an off-beat kind of way), even the CG. If only that beauty was used in effort for a better story...
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 10:26 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Yeah, that feels like something left behind in the TV version of G-Reco. That whole sub-plot is just forgotten and Bell just... decides to fully ally himself with the space pirates.


It wasn't really in the TV version either. Bell mentions he's staying as a spy for the Capital Army, but then never actually does anything about it.

I have a pretty strong dislike of G-Reco. It's a huge mess for many of the reasons you noted.
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1804
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 11:29 am Reply with quote
Karasu-Lacryma wrote:
It's probably my fault for never finishing Unicorn, but I felt almost as pleasantly lost with the Hathaway movie. There's something great about series/movies like this one or Mekacity Actors or Kyousogriga where an enjoyable, incomprehensible something is going on, until the ending half-clarifies things.


.While Tomino wrote the Hathaway novels, he didn't direct the first movie, implying he is kinda angry at the handling. Unicorn, on the other hand, was made by different people.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:15 pm Reply with quote
Brainchild129 wrote:
And remember, this is the revised version! One that's not only been (slightly) condensed (and I do mean slightly - these 2 movies only cover 10 episodes or so), but had small scenes and lines added to make it certain plot threads easier to understand!

Learning that really makes me dread what watching the TV version of G-Reco. It must be chaos. These movies alone felt baffling enough.

Haven't watched the movie so I can't comment on the change but yes, the TV series is just non sense atop non sense. People can call it Tomino style all they want, but its just bad screen writing plain and simple. It would be no worse if character were consistent, events made sense and plot point actually explained. It a shame cause some of the mech design are really nice (although they front loaded the worse design).

I just hope the movie mean we'll finally get the G-reco ver. ka.
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DaResidentDouche



Joined: 06 Aug 2021
Posts: 30
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:23 pm Reply with quote
Oh man, I remember when I like initially just watched the first two or so episodes and just kinda fell-off it. Partly it was also because at that time I was busy with work. And boy does that show from the get go needs you to pay attention.

Sometime later I did eventually watch it again after it finished airing. It's a bit different from the other Gundam series especially in terms of the way it's directed and especially the way the transitions occur between the scenes or even the dialogues themselves.

These transitions just feel so disoriented. It's like a small part or the bridge that connects between A and B was cut-off or shortened intentionally. This sort of actually kinda reminded me a bit of Rin no Tsubasa. Although, in that case i guess it maybe due to me not knowing much of Aura Battler Dunbine and it's world.

The other interesting thing about the series and this was also discussed/talked about online back when it aired was the lack of a sort of overall bird's eye view of the story or the narration. This isn't necessarily unique to it but's it's still an interesting decision to make and see it utilized here almost fully. Especially in this day and age where most people want something more that is quicker/easier to digest.

Even though this decision to inhibit the viewers for a bird's eye view of the story/narration goes in a retrograde flow to the usual story telling/narration process, it does make the story a bit more grounded and real. In our real world we usually almost never know the whole picture completely no matter how much we think that we do know.

Overall, I liked the series. It's a bit unrefined and more heterodoxy than Tomino's other work but that's the reason I like his stuff. It's those cheeky little quirks that make all the difference.
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Crpt774



Joined: 05 May 2019
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:06 pm Reply with quote
Feel I should mention on the Kuntala thing, Tomino did mention on his book on the series that that isnt literally eating, but more like the way the people who work multiple jobs to get by are getting 'eaten' by both their superiors and the world around them.

A tweet from someone involved in the project mentioned that the I think 4th movie is 50% plus new.

Movies went up due to the US online gundam expo that's been on recently

To the people above, sorry I'm on mobile so can't really quote

For HF you need CCA, for CCA you need at minimum 0079 (though Z and ZZ do help). No need for corn, and only really a tiny reference to the scope of UC next 100 at all.

And Tomino isn't exactly against the HF movies being made, he just doesn't care, and recently claimed that he forgot what happened in the books anyway. Theres a reason the word gundam is never really used in Greco.

Also, Bellri's logic for going to collect Aida?
Space pirates attack a city shortly after we capture a space pirate. Wonder what they want.

Greco is very much a series best binge watched with something to takes notes with on hand. It gives lots of data about the setting, and if you forget some of it you are going to end up confused in big multifaction battles later on
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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1168
PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 7:40 pm Reply with quote
The Movies make even more changes than is obvious at first glance, so quite a lot of effort has been made to make this the definitive version. Changes focus on making Bellri and Aida's emotions more obvious in particular.

That said, "G-Reco is still G-Reco", so I don't know if this will convert people who already made up their minds on this. But, I think the movies do great work of making everything as palatable as possible without taking the "G-Reco" out of it, so I hope people will give them a try. Very happy they're streaming right now, even if it's probably just for a little while.

(For the record, "I am a genius!" is actually cut from the movie - sorry everyone, it's just "Oh no!", from now on)
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Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
Posts: 1098
PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 3:30 am Reply with quote
As I said before I run extremely hot and cold on Tomino. When he is good, the idiosyncrasies in his vision make his anime deeply genuine and unique. But when he is bad, his work then is underwhelming at best and infuriating and regressive at it's very worst.

G-Reco fell into the underwhelming pile back when I watched in 2014-15. A convoluted mess that took "show, don't tell" to absurd limits and just feels like a whole lot of nothing when finished. My feelings towards it were not helped by a fanbase that kept telling you "that you just don't get it" if you had even the mildest complaint.

But you know, watching these two recap movies out of morbid curiosity actually raised my opinions on the series and what it is trying to do. It's still a mess at this point but it's a innovative and intriguing mess back with genuine relevant and valid environmental and political concerns. And it at least still tries to love humanity in spite of it's foolishness which puts it above the likes of Zeta and Victory for me. I'm honestly wishing Tomino luck in remaking Gundam Reconguista in G into a better version and hoping that it gets more second opinions and revaluations.

Quote:

The original Mobile Suit Gundam was all about how the oligarchy of the world would never accept or recognize colonial independence without a ton of war and bloodshed to convince them.

You left out the very important detail that said colonial independence movements in UC Gundam tend to be deeply fascist, actively genocidal and just really want to become the new hegemonic power. Zeon is not leftist.


Last edited by Zeino on Wed Sep 01, 2021 6:24 am; edited 3 times in total
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subparot



Joined: 01 Sep 2021
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 3:50 am Reply with quote
Somehow, they miss out a scenes that explain Bellri motivation near the end of the first movie....
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subparot



Joined: 01 Sep 2021
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:08 am Reply with quote
leonard.lim.944023 wrote:
G-reco is so weird that its officially non canon to UC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufCK5-TSM3A&t=135s
https://www.lisani.jp/gundam40th/


Isn't this information has been known for several years now?
Even before the T.V series originally aired, they've made it quite clear by then that every series that has it's own century but follow some kind of timeline from the series prior are already "non-cannon" (same way as Gundam X and Turn A.) So I actually don't know why you'd have to kept bringing this up.
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