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Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Who the GQuuuuuuX is That?
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2553 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Gotta take a moment to mention this video that points out how good a job MyGO serves as an entry point, while also throwing an occasional bone to longtime BanG Dream fans: https://youtu.be/RDguvD296XA
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Jisu
Posts: 41 |
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Fully agreed on the Bandori point. I wouldn't recommend skipping It's MyGO!!!!! to get straight to Ave Mujica, but you can easily skip to It's MyGO!!!!! without sitting through the rest. AveMyGO (as it's known by fans) is in conversation with vanilla Bandori, but the tone is immediately different from it, as well as between It's MyGO!!!!! and Ave Mujica. You know the pink house vs goth house meme? During the run of the former, OG Bandori was compared to the pink house and It's MyGO!!!!! was the goth house, but as soon as Ave Mujica aired, It's MyGO!!!!! was the pink house in comparison to it.
If you didn't sit through five years of mobile game events (as of It's MyGO!!!!!'s airing; it's eight now), three seasons of anime, two non-canon chibi spinoff anime, a manga, two movies, and an OVA, all you're really missing are "oh, this is framed in reference to this moment" and "oh hey, I recognize those characters who got brought up in a background conversation". You get more out of AveMyGO by knowing vanilla Bandori, but you don't need to. But if you skipped all of It's MyGO!!!!! to go to Ave Mujica, you'll be wondering who these people are. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2561 Location: Online Terminal |
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I think an adjacent thing that provides context to this specific discussion: the MCU is 17 years old and has probably has felt like "homework" to many for the past 6-12 years, and other media franchises have leaned into shared continuity as well. If people get turned off to something because it feels like you have to watch something else, that's probably a big reason why.
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Radrappy
Posts: 105 |
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whoa whoa whoa Gatekeepers 21 is NOT better than the original Gatekeepers and it's ludicrous to suggest this
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Lemurians
Posts: 4 |
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My main issue watching GCuuuuuuX as a newbie isn't all the references and pre-existing characters and their dynamics flying over my head (although I do often feel lost, especially lacking context for what Zeon rule versus Federation rule looks like), it's that it feels like all of that stuff is forcing what I thought would be the "main" story of Machu, Nyaan, and Shuji to take a backseat, to the point where we're almost to the end of the series and I don't think we've done much of anything meaningful with these characters.
Machu still just seems like a sheltered a girl with a nice life rebelling at... something, because her mom works late. Shuji is still a complete nothing whose main contribution has been translating what a Gundam is "telling" him. Nyaan is finally getting some nice stuff as of the most recent episode, but it feels like it's coming too late. Feels like a two-cour show crammed into a one-cour runtime. It's half-assing two stories rather than whole-assing one. |
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FishLion
 Crazy Fangirl Posts: 861 |
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I'd buy that, when they were just occasional action romps they were quite enjoyable and I even loved the build up to Avengers 1 and watching it, but as time went on there was just so much to try and keep up with. By the time End Game came out I was still catching my favorite heros but had no desire to watch everything in the MCU and though I enjoyed End Game I still never made time to watch Infinity War. After that I started ignoring the MCU entirely and only watching movies about my favorite characters . I think many people feel that way and that's why each part has it's merits Luckily my favorite heroes have movies that stand well on their own so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything, but after nearly two decades of MCU movies I have no interest in the greater franchise except where it is used to enhance what I'm watching. Like I have little knowledge about X-Men or the movie series, but the way they took stuff from Logan and combined it with the Deadpool series lore in Deadpool vs. Wolverine was phenomenal. So on the one hand they will probably keep attracting fans of those characters because if you like the character the movies often stand on their own, on the other hand unless you are a diehard Marvel lover you are probably a little sick hearing about the MCU and all the connections you have to look out for and would rather just show up when your favorites get a appearance. |
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RedComet91
 Posts: 51 Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico |
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When it comes to Gundam jumping on points, I've always vouched for 0080.
It's short so it doesn't require much commitment, the story is pretty self-contained, the animation still holds up well by modern standards and it's also absolutely amazing. IMO it's the perfect way for newcomers to dip their feet into UC Gundam. |
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Daidan12
Posts: 170 |
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For me it's 00. It gives you absolute everything including spoiler[aliens]. You can't atleast find one element in common with every Gundam. 0080 gets richer with knowledge of the OYW, so I wouldn't recommend it as newbie friendly and I think the finale is one of the more shocking ones on the franchise alongside spoiler[Zeta, CCA and IBO] |
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MFrontier
Posts: 20045 |
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I'm probably not the person to be asking this since I've watched pretty much every Gundam show. I agree in the barest terms that the core story works decently enough as a standalone but I feel like a lot of concepts (like Newtypes and such) and the full scope of characters is only realized with familiarity with the original Gundam timeline. And the creators basically seem to be prioritizing for those that have seen it.
I think it's a mix of feeling confined within a space colony and a desire to feel freedom on Earth where she can swim like jellyfish...and that her mom doesn't understand that and they can't connect for various reasons. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 19143 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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While I'm not a complete Gundam newbie, I might as well be based on how this series is playing out, which is why I still agree with this take. And all of the back references and lore feel like they're getting denser as the series progresses, which is exacerbating this problem.
Also agreed. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 4398 |
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Strongly agree. I don't remember it being bad, but I didn't care for what it did to the original series.
Agreed. 0080 is great and definitely works as a stand alone title imo. I think 0083 and 08th MS team also work as fairly stand alone titles without requiring watching any other UC material, from what I remember at least... But 0080 is probably the strongest for a taste of UC Gundam. |
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Stelman257
Posts: 370 |
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I'm a big Gundam veteran and the exact target audience of GQuuuuuuX, and I jumped off the show early just because I watched The Beginning, and then found out it was only going to be 12 episodes, so I decided I would just watch it all in one hit at the end. I'd already seen a quarter of the show, and given the pacing and way things were being handled, I wanted to just wait until it was over to see how it all came together. Witch From Mercury really disappointed me in its second half, and that was largely due to not having enough episodes to develop its world or tell its story properly.
I do know plenty of Gundam fans and relative newbies who are watching and vibing with GQuuuuuuX though so I think I generally agree with the idea of the discussion here. But I do sympathize with newbies who think all the constant callbacks and recurring characters have left the actual new characters that were supposed to be the focus feeling undercooked. Gundam veterans couldn't care less that they're undercooked, they're getting what they want anyway after all, though the episode count probably does leave much to be desired sadly. As for Gundam or UC entry points, I totally agree with 0080 War in the Pocket. Fantastic little show just on its own and one of my top favourites even after having watched the entire franchise. It also helps you just sort of get an idea of what the world is in general, so you have some flexibility of where you go from there. |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1753 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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I've only ever seen five episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and this was after the two series Toonami aired (Unicorn RE:0096 and The Origin: Advent of the Red Comet) that had 0079 as a pre-requisite. The latter worked well without it, though the former was so full of character cameos that it impacted my enjoyment quite a bit. Not too sure how GQuuuuuux fares in comparison, but I imagine the alternate history angle would make it easier.
But if we're talking shows with surprise prerequisites, no Gundam in the world could take the cake currently in possession of Mezzo DSA, whose fifth episode committed every cardinal sin one can make in terms of accessibility to those of us who hadn't seen Mezzo Forte beforehand. (In my case, it was because I was too young for hentai at the time.) Not only did they acknowledge the events of the OVA as canon, but they flashed back to scenes from Forte regularly, cel animation and all, and to top it all off, threw in a nonsensical twist relating to a posthumous character exclusive to that prequel. It was a very disorienting experience, to say the least. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2712 |
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Honestly, I barely remember some of the Zeon guys since they didn't have too much impact in their series until I see them in their signature designs. The only thing I found annoying was how the second episode was solely devoted to Char when we still know nothing about Machu
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faboo95
 Posts: 106 |
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Same. It's been over a decade since I've seen the older series so it is hard to remember everything. I think I've caught most of the callbacks or references, but then I see someone like Gates Capa who I've completely forgotten about. Heck, I didn't even realize Challia was in the first Gundam series as the pilot of the Braw Bro until about a week before the show started to air, and I even watched the film in theaters prior to that! In terms of newcomers getting into the show, I think it does the bare minimum in giving just enough information for them to enjoy the show as a standalone experience. But you definitely get more out of the show if you have prior knowledge of previous series. Man, I had a huge grin when they started to play some Zeta music when that "air conditioner" was transforming! |
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