Forum - View topicINTEREST: U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar Gets Her Gundam (Fanart)
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kae kurono
 Posts: 102 |
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Damn straight you said it best. Gundam doesn't appeal to me because of robot toys or "cool military aesthetic fights" otherwise i wouldn't be a fan and i doubt the series wouldn't have lasted for over 40 years. No for me it's the complex, nuanced & gray storytelling of politics & wars, The complex & psychologically nuanced cast of characters. Yeah you get the point. But don't get me wrong i've come to like the robots & cool fights as well as a bonus but that's not the main appeal for gundam or mechh anime in general for me. |
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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Also the Titans are going to come from inside the Earth Federation Force too, another good reason to defund them. Could of prevented the whole of the plot of Zeta if they defunded the Earth Federation after the first show. |
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-SP-
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But a lot of celebrities have photoshoped Anime characters into their pictures, but never got posted? There is a lot of Anime style fan art of celebrities that ANN never posted either. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5329 |
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Barciad
 Posts: 130 Location: St Andrews |
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Gundam was the first anime I ever watched, and it's fair to say that I've watched a lot of it. From what I saw, it was about as 'anti-war' as any TV series that I've seen. Albeit to varying degrees of effectiveness. Tight, nasty, and remorseless at one end. Embarrassingly mawkish at the other.
For example, 'Iron Blooded Orphans' started brilliantly. But sadly lost its way massively during the third arc. Not sure why 'Thunderbolt' needed a second season, since the first one said all that needed saying. As for 'Origins', a masterclass in how (Parts 1 and 3) and how not to (2 and 4) do structure and pacing. But, if the series as a whole was saying anything. It is the corrosive effects that conflict has on the human soul. It is not easy to commit and to witness the unthinkable whilst remaining who you are. All that being said, nothing beats 'The 8th MS Team'. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4848 |
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You could apply the charge or hypocrisy to most anime shows in general. Most anime shows and fantasy and sci-fi in general have an anti war message but resolve conflicts through fighting. A story about war would be pretty boring without any conflict in it and it’s fiction.
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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I still liked Origin better than IBO though. |
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TexZero
Posts: 583 |
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I'd say the Tequila Gundam but i'm pretty sure being drunk with power is a prerequisite for being a politician. So instead i'll give them what they need which is the Ball since they all seem to be lacking them. |
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Rentwo
 Posts: 184 |
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War is hell is a much more accurate depiction for Gundam than "war is bad". Not that either are amazingly complex statements or anything. You can admit that going to war isn't fun for anyone, but it's an inevitable reality that can't be stopped. Series that show how war affects civilians, soldiers, nations, and the world as a whole. But like Amuro once said, it's a necessary thing in the end that can't be avoided. "It took both Char and myself seven years to finally understand, and even I still have trouble understanding why I must fight. Fighting is meaningless in itself, but humanity has protected its history through continuous fighting. Without it, mankind would become extinct." But much like Godzilla, any message the original series and creator may have had in mind originally has pretty much been sidelined in future iterations after they found out how much money those franchises print. Especially in the side spin offs like G Gundam and Build Fighters which pretty much do nothing but show cool robots fighting for sport and sell Gunpla. Saying Gundam is actually against war doesn't really change what the show is at its core or what it profits of of or uses as entertainment. Although I guess the lesson here is if you make military weapons cool enough, even the staunchest pacifist can enjoy them. |
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TexZero
Posts: 583 |
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Only 2 of the titles in the gundam franchise really deviate the war is hell message. SD and Build. Even G gundam admits war is hell and that's the entire point of the Tournament they hold on Earth (or more accurately what's remaining of it). If you missed that little footnote of G okay, but to claim it was made solely to sell kits is as much a lie as the point your trying to argue against. Even saying this however while the 0079 may have been a War is hell story most modern Gundam have moved past this to analyzing many sources of conflict that result in war. War is just a setpiece for the real messages of unity, understanding and acceptance of people or ideals that we may not share. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 4848 |
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It's fine to be critical of the double standards of capitalist marketing but it seems hyperbolic to argue Gundam is profiting off of war or military machines when it's a cartoon show with fictional giant robots. Transformers is even more of a blatant toy commercial than Gundam and it also has an anti war message but people don't take the toy marketing side of Transformers as seriously as people criticizing Gundam do.
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2424 Location: Germany |
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Forgot how racist US Twitter is. This site having a meltdown over harmless fan art ain´t great either. Tomino HATES the military in quite an outspoken way. Literally the point of The Wings of Rean to name a more modern work. Also recently re-proven here: animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2020-08-19/gundam-tomino-yasuhiko-comments-on-war-themes-in-girls-and-panzer-kancolle/.163050
So does most of Gundam. Good Gundam is for pacifists. The rest can go watch dreck like the SEED shows. The prefect Gundam for politicians: [url]https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/FA-78_Full_Armor_Gundam_(Thunderbolt_Ver.)[/url] The All Shields one from Thunderbolt. I wonder how Hathaway's Flash will be received outside of Japan. The protagonist is a terrorist for one and the basic story applies to our world now more than it did in 1989/90. Tomino was again ahead of the curve. Kinda weird that am somewhat looking forward to them doing books I have no passion for. |
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gloverrandal
Posts: 406 Location: Oita |
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This discussion only started because someone pointed out it was a bit weird a politician known for their beliefs on military and gun control would endorse a fan-art of her posing with a military weapon and people coming in to downplay it. Now, it's entirely possible the representative doesn't know what a Gundam is and thinks its just a living robot character like the Transformers are, but aside from that there's not really any way to argue a Gundam isn't a military weapon used for war. It's would be no different than posing with a tank or an assault rifle, where as at least Optimus Prime is a sentient machine who turns into a truck and isn't inherently a weapon designed for war.
Please don't try to gatekeep Gundam by saying only the 'good' series count. Gundam SEED is one of the most popular anime series of all time, not just one of the most popular Gundam series. That's a very peculiar show to try to No True Scotsmans the franchise over. Gundam is more than just Tomino and his views. Each series is different and helmed by different people, with only Sunrise as the common thread between them all. If the man hates Girls Und Panzer for the way it portrays the military as fun, then like a lot of the comments in that article's thread points out, that's pretty hypocritical given some of the works the man himself has made. Just like when he criticized series like Evangelion and Attack on Titan for being too depressing and violent while he's made some very depressing and violence series himself like Ideon. |
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tojikomori
 Posts: 71 Location: Minnesota |
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The gulf between Gundam and reality is big enough that I'm finding all this a bit absurd. We're talking about a life-size replica of a vehicle that's only recognizable from toys and cartoons. It has no resemblance to any real-world battle equipment. The Disneyland castle is a more realistic and recognizable portrayal of real-world military technology.
But even if we imagine this were something a little more realistic – a committed gun control advocate posing with a Star Wars blaster or with Gintama's Patriot – what exactly do you imagine you would've caught them out on? Do you imagine that everyone who cosplays with a weapon craves the violence of that character's fictional world? Do you imagine that people who dress up in hockey masks on halloween are actually serial killers at heart? We're anime fans. It's hardly news to us that what people find entertaining doesn't necessarily match up with how they think the world should work or with how people should behave. |
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