A community for any and all things relating to Mobile Suit Gundam.
Yeah it was good! My wife watched it with me, she hadn’t watched any Gundam prior and I’ve only gotten into the franchise in the last few months.
I really like all the gribbly bits on the mechs in this new art style. I am not sure how to do spoiler tags so I’ll just avoid talking about the plot a bit.
Spoiler syntax:
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Like so:
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Glad you enjoyed! I'm hoping this gets an accessible simulcast release. I'm sick of juggling streaming services (and have zero interest in taking up sailing as a hobby... been there, done that, burned out by 25 years of IT work).
Thanks for sharing the syntax.
And I agree about the streaming/sailing. I find anymore I’m too tired to sail. If something isn’t on a service I have I just don’t watch it. I’ve never been dinged for password sharing so currently I only pay for one service but share around and have 6.
Just saw this tonight. I'm just going to use one big spoiler block because it's late and I have no idea where my brain is going to go lol.
I don't know what I was expecting
But HOLY SHIT this was not it. I saw the spoilers about how Char gets the Gundam etc, and that Challia was getting a lot of merch. But I was not expecting full remakes of 0079 music/effects (done to perfection) and a shot for shot remake of the opening scene. All while my nephew was flipping out next to me, "You're not supposed to be here!!!" under his breath as Char took the scouting mission in a different direction.
The interplay between Char and Challia gave me chills. Any fans of the novel out there? You know what's up. GodDAMN it's nice to see some of that made canon after all this time, even in an(other) alternate timeline.
The cameos were pure fanservice and just further solidified that they were digging in deep to hook us UC fans. The iconic lines in different contexts. Familiar scenarios turned on end. Very, very effective. I did not want the prologue to end. Show me the whole OYW with a confident and competent Dren shouting orders from the bridge of the Sodon while Char plays double agent, dammit. Gah.
The switch to the modern art style was jarring even though it was expected. I'm not really a fan of the character designs still, but I'm sure it will grow on me eventually. It's just... everyone looks like a kid. Like the whole Sodon bridge crew. Even goateed Challia. The mech designs I'm reserving judgement on. Except the police Zakus. They can go piss up a rope. And the Red Gundam with the Elmeth bits is undeniably badass. GUNDAM HAMMER!
Not impressed with Shuji so far. Too tropey. But there's plenty of time to give him depth. Machu hits a lot of the Gundam protagonist tropes as well but she brings a different flavor at least. Nyaan was just kinda there. Her story has definitely been show, don't tell thus far. There's real potential here.
spoiler Speculation - meta discussion/spoilers outside of just GQX (0079, Blue Destiny, CCA, Narrative) The big mystery is obviously the nature of space magic/newtypery in this iteration. Char "saw time" much like Lalah just before her death. But she was also resonating with Amuro when that happened. As far as we know, nobody else but Char was there when the Red Gundam started going on the blink. But it sure sounded like Lalah was present. The sound effects were intentional, regardless if it was foreshadowing or just a swerve. I thought we were going to see Axis Shock 14 years early. Instead the Red Gundam pulled off a Macross fold and disappeared. And in present day, the Gundam is back but Char is not.
Do we have a Marion Welch/Rita Bernal situation with the Gundam? Was Lalah somehow bound to the psycommu system when it was installed? Did Char join her? Somehow Sayla ended up a pilot even with the events that got her wrapped up in the war erased from history. Does that mean that an (un?)awakened Amuro is out there somewhere?
My gears are definitely turning. :::
:::
tl;dr This belongs on all longtime Gundam fans' watchlist.
I knew @MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net would not disappoint with opening up discussion and speculation.
Spoiler comments
I definitely need to see it again to pick up on the Lalah sound effects. I had to look up Marion Welch/Rita Bernal, I would love it if they went that direction.
Apologies for not clearly marking non-GQX spoilers. I've gone back and edited that in.
0079 GQX
Might be easier to pick up MSG from episode 34(?) or 39. IIRC Amuro describes the sound as "singing." I'm guessing that's what Machu meant by "kira-kira." It's definitely not Mr. Yamato. I refuse to entertain the thought.
entertains the tho- STOP IT! 😤
Pinned as the official discussion thread for now. Congrats to those of you that had a chance to see it in theaters. I will have to wait until the spring season when it airs.
Thank you! Very excited for the series release and to hear your thoughts. Hoping everyone is incredibly considerate about spoilers, avoid creating spoiler posts and use the spoiler formatting in the comments here!
Background:
I'm still fairly new to Gundam, loved WFM, 08 MS Team and 0079 (although it took me a year of on and off watching). I'm also a big fan of Anno, especially EVA and Shin Godzilla. So I was already pumped for GQuuuuuuX. Having seen the movie last night and having some time to reflect, I wanted to share some of my thoughts.
Story
Beginning appears to be 3-4 episodes of the series condensed into an hour and a half. The first part feels like a prologue/episode 0, and it retells the One Year War in an alternate version of the Universal Century timeline. I got chills watching Char steal the RX-78-2 and seeing so many familiar aspects of 0079 on the big screen (White Base/Guncannon/Challia Bull). I'll touch on music and character design later, but they managed to capture the magic of 0079.
The film then takes a sharp turn to the modern day and we meet our protagonists. Due to the nature of the film being an edit of multiple episodes, the story and pacing felt a little off, but this was to be expected, and I'm sure this will improve in the series. The atmosphere and dialogue were engaging and we get a lot of subtle nods to the original show that really surprised me. The Pomeranian's & Amate's family need a little fleshing out, and I do wish they'd spent more time on Nyaan and Shuji during the movie, but again I'm sure this will improve.
Overall I'm happy with the direction they are taking with the Clan Battles and the mystery surrounding the Red Gundam and Char's disappearance. The brief cameo of Sayla/Artesia was awesome and I hope we see more flashbacks to what happened between the past and present day in the show.
It would be difficult to recommend the movie/show to non Gundam (or UC) fans, due to all the fan service and callbacks. I'd suggest watching one of the movies or other timelines first. My wife who isn't a fan, but loves me and sacrifices her time to listening to me harp on about Gundam, had a great time, even if she didn't understand it lol!
Character/Mech design
The art style at the start feels like it fits right into UC0079 and has that Origins feel and look to it. When we get to modern time, the style switches pretty drastically, thanks to the work of Take who is best known for Pokemon. Although a little jarring at first, I really grew to love it, especially for the Pomeranian's.
As a EVA fan, I'm probably a little biased on the mech designs, I think they look great. The speed and movements looked phenomenal and the Gunpla or stills we saw before this came out don't do them any justice. I totally get why people are complaining, change is hard, but I'm always open to something new!
Music/Sound
Holy shit, the music is banging! It's got an old PSX era DNB vibe and really fits the pace of what you are seeing. I fell in love with "The Girl on a Space colony" when I saw the first teaser and I've been listening to Plazma almost daily since we saw the movie trailer. I highly recommend you listen to the score by Yoshimasa Terui & Masayuki Hasuo.
What really stood out to me, was the use of original soundtrack from 0079 and how the sound effects took me back to a happy place. It really fills you with nostalgia and didn't feel jarring at all.
Final thoughts
I am very excited for the show to drop and I suspect it'll take over as my new favorite Gundam series (sorry 08th MS Team). But the condensed format definitely hurt it a little and I wish they'd spent a little more time on Amate, Nyaan and Shuji. I understand why the focus was on Char, seeing as it really feeds the rest of the plot. Also the chemistry between Char and Bull was kinda hot 🥵
Thank you for attending my Ted Talk, I don't write things like this often, so apologies in advance for the questionable writing. I'm excited to hear everyone's thoughts and remember, a lot of people won't have access to Beginning right now and have to wait until April, so be courteous and don't spoil it for others.