MelodiousFunk
@MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
- Comment on Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet 12 hours ago:
Ignorance is bliss, fo sho.
- Comment on [News] Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- Remains At Top of Japanese Weekend Box Office 2 days ago:
Duck walked across the keyboard.
- Comment on [Meta] Possumpat.io is planning to shut down, where should this community go? 4 days ago:
Previous discussion: slrpnk.net/post/16128827
Result: !gundam@ani.social
Thanks as always for the meta oversight 👊
- Submitted 6 days ago to gundam@possumpat.io | 0 comments
- Comment on Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury -- Dare I say... not "woke" enough!? 6 days ago:
Prospera
The picnic ending really felt tacked on. I mean, yeah, it’s great that she saw the error of her ways and was forgiven etc. Good vibes, feel-good ending, yadda yadda. That and Sunrise really REALLY hedging bets on SuleMio. They spent the whole series developing a complex same-sex relationship and then chickened out on “did they actually get married.” I’m half-remembering conflicting tweets from official sources, along with considerations taken for the time slot it was airing (they had already taken flak for the violent end of cour 1). Sigh. The second half Gendo swerve was pretty well done, I thought. Her motivations were hidden from the beginning. We only got bits and pieces. As it was airing, there was a LOT of speculation about whether Suletta and Eri were the same person. The show specifically left dates out of most of the show, and when… sigh I’m horrible with names, begins with a B, the older researcher from the prologue lab/company (again, I’m awful with names). When she dropped the “revenge from 21 years ago” line, shit blew up. “Maybe Eri was in stasis.” “Is Suletta made of Gund prosthetics?” But Eri being either dead or in the Aerial (Eri-Lfrith) was something a lot of people didn’t want to believe. It all seems obvious in hindsight but this was a huge point of contention. They left ALL of the breadcrumbs out in plain sight, but they left the viewer to connect the dots (or not). And every time a dot was explicitly connected, another was revealed. I think the back half suffered from pacing and productional indecision. We needed more time to flesh out the story. Instead we got periods of drag followed by boom boom boom reveals. Prospera went from: - obvious revenge arc - revenge using her daughter as a pawn - revenge using her brainwashed daughter as a disposable pawn - uhhhh why is she working with Delling - SHE KILLED HOW MANY CLONES FOR REVENGE?!?!? - pawn disposed of - she didn’t actually kill any of them, but the only way to keep them alive was to embed them in Gund - ready for instrumentality to let her daughters live freely (and honestly, fuck all them corpo motherfuckers but that’s a lot of innocent people) - newly self-actualized pawn saves the day with the power of love and giant robots The outline is solid, and the first cour was nearly flawless. Then the pacing fell apart and this was one of the many victims.
Iron Blooded Orphans spoilers seriously do not click if you haven't seen it
As much as the ending of WfM felt unresolved with the status quo basically unchanged, it doesn’t hold a candle to IBO’s stomach-churning denouement. Technically, I guess it’s a “happy” ending. Things improved for some of the marginalized groups, the power structure got reformed, and the war ended. But holy fuck the price paid. And the chosen elite got to re-solidify power anyway. It all feels WRONG. But it’s a fairly accurate portrayal of how things work out IRL. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. ::: spoiler opinionated statements Julia was an uninteresting character not worthy of the epilogue spotlight. I ride with Ride.
:::
Apologies if I’m not particularly coherent. I am passionate but it is late and I’m sick.
- Comment on Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury -- Dare I say... not "woke" enough!? 6 days ago:
That kit is the pinnacle of Bandai engineering… for now. They’re eventually going to top it because that’s what they do. It’s really amazing how much they’ve innovated over the years.
- Comment on Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury -- Dare I say... not "woke" enough!? 6 days ago:
On one hand, it’s a very affordable hobby. $20-30 for a well made kit is an absolute steal in the modeling realm, and puts most actions figures in that price range to shame.
On the other, it’s a very expensive hobby… there’s just… so… much. If you’re someone who leans towards completionnaire’s disease, consider this your warning lol.
But it really does bring another lever of appreciation and immersion to the shows. The newer kits especially let you inspect all the little details that just flash by on the screen. Gunpla is a big part of why Gundam both took off and persisted this long. It’s not required, but it adds so much.
- Comment on Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury -- Dare I say... not "woke" enough!? 6 days ago:
I’m going to try and talk around spoilers, but if anyone hasn’t seen it and is interested, just watch. It’s relatively short and well worth it.
I’m going to echo just about everyone else and say the pacing bombed out in the second half. Some sub arcs seemed to drag along. As the end got closer and so many threads were still dangling, I thought for sure it was going to get another season. And deserved one, because the setting and characters were exquisitely crafted. But then everything happened all at once and we got a pretty little bow to try and hide those loose ends.
I really enjoyed Prospera as a character. And reviled her as a person while still retaining some forms of empathy. That’s a pretty big win IMO.
Agreed that they dropped the ball on the meta theming. On one hand, it’s a Gundam staple to “save the world” while not much materially changes. On the other, it’s very much relevant to the present day, and unsatisfying to leave things mostly as they were.
The mech designs were hit and miss for me. Which should not come as a surprise, since they hired different mechanical designers for each of the corpos. I really appreciate this kind of attention to detail.
Speaking of details, they are everywhere, and they build on one another. Things like using cinematography to mirror an earlier scene, then later doing the same but with a different perspective to highlight the changes in the characters. The symbolism is rampant, some obvious, some subtle. This wasn’t a Tomino story, but it builds on one of his tenets: show, don’t tell. Environmental storytelling. I have a friend that really only engages with Gundam as “second screen” material while she’s doing something else. Unsurprisingly, she’s ambivalent about most of it and actively hostile towards WfM.
Overall I loved the idea, got very immersed in the setting and characters, and was a little disappointed when the pacing fell off. Still an easy recommend.
Btw, @wjs018@ani.social was kind enough to open up !gundam@ani.social for us. And (will edit in the proper user) volunteered to mod. So feel free to hop on over there and join us! 👊
- Comment on I wish I were a bird. 1 week ago:
Rita Bernal intensifies
- Comment on Anyone here play UC Engage? 1 week ago:
I probably would, but I found out the hard way that I’m the target demographic for gacha traps. So I gotta keep my distance, sorry.
Side note, @wjs018@ani.social was kind enough to open up !gundam@ani.social since possumpatio is slated to go dark soon. Feel free to hop on over 👊
- Submitted 1 week ago to gundam@possumpat.io | 0 comments
- Comment on GKIDS Licenses "Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-" To Premiere in North American Theaters February 28th 1 week ago:
Thank you!
- Comment on 'An Era Has Ended': Original High School DxD Magazine Ceases Publication After Nearly 40 Years 2 weeks ago:
Thank you for braving CBR so that others don’t have to. 🫡
- Comment on Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (OVA) - What do you think of this one? 2 weeks ago:
@Endmaker@ani.social made some great points. This is one of the reasons I recommend watching in production order: to get that base of knowledge, tropes, tone, etc. before going back and getting the little bits of flavoring shows like 0080 provide.
to address your notes
Al is a kid, yes. He’s also a brat that is kind of used to doing what he wants. He’s selfish and lacks the larger perspective granted by experience. Lots of kids think they’re invincible until they learn otherwise. I don’t particularly like Al, but I do think he’s one of the more realistically portrayed children in the entire franchise. His classmates, though one-note and tropey, are up there too. As much as Al is a naive kid, Bernie is also just a kid. Older, yes. But he still felt the need to boast to an 11-year old. He’s an immature rookie put into an impossible position, made worse by his own insecurity. He’s played like a fiddle by his own side, and torn between playing the good soldier and not wanting to endanger Al. By the time he needs to be The Savior, Al’s childish optimism had won him over. At least externally. Part of him knew it was hopeless, but he acted anyway. And managed to put up a pretty good fight all things considered. Chris was more of a secondary character, akin to Bernie’s Cyclops teammates rather than a lead. This is a subversion of the trope of Gundam pilot = main character. She had just enough screentime to twist the knife of the tragic story arc. Would I have liked to see more? Definitely. But ultimately it’s not her story. It’s Al’s story. Bratty, spoiled little Al. The One Year War spawned countless tragedies, great and small. This was just one of them. Compounding that, Al would be recruitment age once Zeta happens. If he had managed to recover from PTSD by then, it very well might have sent him spiraling. It’s tragedy on every level.
There are also a few meta things going on. One, this is the first (animated?) story told primarily from the Zeon side. Today, not very remarkable. But in context of the day, it was a big shift.
I’m going to try and keep this light on actual spoilers for after 0080 but it’s hard to discuss otherwise:
This is a throwaway line in the show but the Alex
Was supposed to go to Amuro. Being a retcon, obviously he didn’t get it. But had the Cyclops team not been so dogged in their pursuit, the possibility exists that it might have been delivered before the end of the war. At that point, Amuro’s skills were off the charts, and he was casually picking off Doms and Gelgoogs like they were nothing despite having outgrown the RX-78’s abilities. He even had Char dead to rights, foiled only by the Zeong’s cockpit being in the head. Take a step back and imagine what Amuro could have achieved with the Alex. Or let Kakarot197 do it for you, if that’s your thing. Talk about changing the course of history.
And then there's the small matter of the Federation
Testing deployment of newtype machines. This is A Big Deal given later events.
Again, it all hits harder with context.
I’m not going to disagree about the soundtrack, just note that it’s relatively easy to place Gundam shows in a timeline based on the music. Usually it’s mostly the OP/ED, but 0080 embraced the aesthetic and ran with it. For a smaller story amongst grand narratives, it succeeded in changing the tone. It didn’t hold up particularly well, but as a product of its time it is what it is.
I’m glad you enjoyed it though. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on future shows!
- Comment on What do you consider the saddest anime? 2 weeks ago:
I couldn’t finish that one. Still have the box set. But it was just too much.
- Comment on Getting up to speed with Gundam 2 weeks ago:
Like many in the west, my first exposure was to Gundam Wing on Toonami, and while I remember thinking the character and mech designs were cool, it never really clicked for me. I never watched it from the beginning, however, so I don’t think I can fairly judge it.
Wing was also my gateway. A friend of mine got me watching on VHS during downtime at work (man I’m old), but the official releases were taking forever to come out. So I tried tracking down Toonami reruns, and the damn thing never had a consistent time slot by then lol. So things felt very disjointed. It was only on rewatch when I got the DVDs that I realized that disjointed feel was due to the plot. 😂 I still enjoy it but it’s definitely a brain-off show.
Glad you enjoyed! If the end felt like things could have been fleshed out better, it’s because they were supposed to be. The show was slated to be outright cancelled, but they negotiated to at least allow the it to end properly. The end result is about 10 eps of planned content had to be cut.
The movie versions do some massaging to work in the newtype concept earlier, as well as improve the overall pacing. A lot of series ended up getting the compilation movie treatment, but 0079 is the only one to do it right IMO. They are worth watching on their own, and Ai Senshi is a fucking banger.
The Zeta movies in particular I do not recommend as a shortcut for the series. Main reason being the ending was completely changed, which makes the start of ZZ problematic if not impossible. The cuts between 80s and 2000s animation are also jarring. If you want the overall notes, they’re there. But the series does a far better job of telling the story.
0080 and 08th Team are fine next steps. They touch on thematics brought up in Zeta a bit, but that’s all. They’re self-contained and worth watching.
The only feature film I can recommend at the moment is Cucuruz Doan’s Island. Just roll with the Origin continuity differences (Sleggar had already joined the crew on Earth, for example) and it’s basically an extended episode of 0079 with modern production. I think there’s a good chance it’s exactly what you’re looking for.
WfM is its own thing and can be enjoyed at your convenience. Hell, you can probably binge it between episodes of GQuuuuuuX if you wanted lol.
and even the soundtrack (there are a few Gundam OST cues that I wouldn’t be surprised were used as placeholders or references during Eva’s production) .
I’m almost positive I read/watched that MSG and Eva shared some sound staff, and could have sworn that Anno himself was involved somehow. But I cannot find a source, and searches are naturally putting GQX front and center thanks to the Khara connection. So grain of salt all of that, and if I come across the source (because it’s now bugging me lol) I’ll share it.
Enjoy!
- Comment on Getting up to speed with Gundam 2 weeks ago:
It’s definitely watchable without prior knowledge. Some friends of mine got into it blind. But you get soooo much more out of it if you have that solid Gundam base. It really is a love letter.
- Comment on Getting up to speed with Gundam 2 weeks ago:
I think if you watch the first episode you’ll have a pretty good idea if it’s for you.
I had the opposite experience. I watched the first ~5 eps and had to put it down. Was not digging the format. I eventually picked it back up and it finally grabbed me. Years later, I had to convince my spouse to sit through the beginning too lol. But by the end she was loving it.
- Comment on Getting up to speed with Gundam 2 weeks ago:
About here is where the modern era of Gundam starts. Release dates are all over the place, so production order becomes secondary to interest level in my opinion. It begins with a new AU, so let’s wrap those up before getting back to UC.
AU
Gundam Seed is probably the most successful of the Gundam AUs. There’s two full series (Seed and Seed Destiny), a handful of OVAs, a feature film (Seed Freedom), and an upcoming project with not much known aside from being a prequel to Freedom. Heavily inspired by UC, but it does its own thing. Has its fair share of fans and detractors. Gundam 00 is often described as a reboot of the Wing concept: a team of stylish specialist Gundams trying to change the world. There’s a full series (two seasons) and a feature film, A Wakening of the Trailblazer. Gundam Age is a full series that I started watching but it didn’t grab me. I’ll get around to it eventually. Reconguista in G is a short(?) series (26 eps) that I haven’t watched yet. It got some flak from what I remember, and was redone as 5 compilation movies which were better received. Iron Blooded Orphans is a full series (two seasons) that centers around a private military corporation taken over by its members, kinda forming a co-op. Leans heavily into the dystopia aesthetic and gets very dark. Liked it, but it would be hard to watch again. Theres some gut-wrenching stuff that goes down. There’s another upcoming series adapted from a game that got cancelled. The Build series is both odd and charming. It’s set in our universe, where Gundam is a franchise with fans etc. But it’s near-future, and the gimmick is that you can scan your Gunpla and fight is a VR setting. Tournaments, intrigue, cameos, the whole nine yards. It’s both a celebration of the franchise and a blatant commercial for model kits. Build Fighters especially is a joy to watch. There are four series and a handful of OVAs. The Witch From Mercury is the newest AU. It caused an internet shitstorm because a vocal minority of gatekeepers were upset about one or more of the following: female protagonists; school setting (to start); wOkE; WHERE MUH WAR CRIMEZ!; normies in my space eeeeeew. Fuck em. Excellent characterization, great mech designs, slow burn plot that really ramps up the stakes. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I have my criticisms.
UC gets kind of funky from here since there’s a lot of retcon and parallel continuity.
UC
Igloo is divisive. It’s 6 episodes of mid-2000s CGI and it shows. Uncanny valley everywhere. But the staging and characters save it IMO. Set during OYW, it follows a Zeon test team of pilots and engineers as they run various pieces of equipment through the paces. Igloo 2 switches to the Federation, but keeps the theme of being plot-adjacent going. At this point IRL, Gundam had been away from OYW for a long time, and I found the return to a familiar setting from a different point of view refreshing. Unicorn is a return to core UC, picking up a few years after CCA and weaving in notes from ZZ. There’s a TV cut (RE:0096), but the OVA presentation is stronger IMO. It’s among the best that Gundam has to offer. The sequel feature film, Narrative, is less so. In true Gundam movie fashion, it would have worked better as an OVA or short series. Gundam: The Origin is an adaptation of the flashback sequences from the manga of the same name, which itself is a retelling of the original series. It mostly follows Char and Sayla from childhood up until just before the beginning of First Gundam. There are enough continuity differences from the original series to set it apart as its own thing. But IMO, the spirit is there, and that’s what counts. There is also a feature film in the Origin timeline, Cucuruz Doan’s Island. This is an adaptation of “missing episode” that was struck from the original run at the creator’s insistence, as it suffered from poor animation and production. This is another love letter to the franchise (and excuse to make a ton of model kits, naturally). Thunderbolt is a two movie adaptation of the manga of the same name, set in a parallel UC in the OYW. It’s brutal, but so slick. The manga is still going strong, but I’ve heard nothing about continuing the animation, which is a bummer. Hathaway is a 3-movie adaptation of the Hathaway’s Flash novels. Only the first movie has been released so far. If I am remembering correctly, the novels are the sequel to Beltorchka’s Children, the novel series that CCA was based on. But there are key differences between BC and CCA, and I believe the Hathaway movies use the CCA version of events. It’s all kind of a mess. Requiem for Vengeance is yet another parallel UC (probably), set on Earth during OYW. Plenty of uncanny valley CG (like Igloo) and told from the Zeon perspective (like Igloo). I thought it was pretty well done. It’s just baffling that they made it look so good… and then dropped the ball on the human animations. Finally, Silver Phantom is a VR “movie” set around the time of Unicorn. No idea how canon any of it will be, or if it’ll get any sort of release that doesn’t require strapping Facebook to my noggin.
There’s also a bunch of one-off animations from various sources. Oh, and SD Gundam. So much SD Gundam.
Please, don’t let this be overwhelming lol. There’s 45 years of Gundam. Nobody has to go through all of it. I still haven’t and I’m what you might call obsessed. Just enjoy the journey! I’ll be happy to answer any questions to the best of my knowledge.
- Comment on Getting up to speed with Gundam 2 weeks ago:
Buddy I Gundam so much I’m pretty sure I have a problem 😂
- Comment on Getting up to speed with Gundam 2 weeks ago:
First of all, welcome! Second, you have activated my special interest, so I’ll put the tl;dr at the top:
Generally, I recommend to watch in release order the first time through. Try to get through the core UC (First/Zeta/ZZ/Char’s Counterattack) before tackling alternate universes. It sets up the backdrop from which everything else is built off of. Not required, just recommended by a fanboy.
In more detail:
How much did you enjoy 0079/First Gundam? If it was better than “eh,” I highly suggest following up with Zeta Gundam. If you have your doubts, feel free to jump down to Alternate Universes.
The core of Universal Century is First Gundam, Zeta, Double Zeta, and Char’s Counterattack (feature film). I recommend watching these before delving into any OVAs. Zeta is the sequel to 1st, ZZ is the direct sequel to Z, and CCA is the end of the arc. All of the UC stuff that came after is either far future, or retconned.
ZZ is contentious because it’s a huge tonal shift from Z despite it picking up hours after Z ends. It also suffers from (reportedly) having some characters in the back half switched around due to CCA getting the green light for production. Some say skip it. I think it’s worth sitting through the first 12ish episodes to get to the meat. YMMV.
Sticking with production order, next up are UC OVAs 0080 and 0083, along with F91 (feature film). 0083 in particular I very much suggest waiting until at least you’ve seen Z. It’s its own contained story, but there’s little bits at the end that lose a lot of impact if you haven’t seen Z for context.
F91 was originally supposed to be a series that instead got adapted into a movie. It shows. It sits in an odd spot, jumping forward in time a bit with not much recognizable from earlier UC. It spawned the very popular (but thus far unadapted) Crossbone manga, and a prequel manga (F90). If you’re only watching, this can be safely skipped if you want.
Next comes Gundam Victory, another large jump forward in time where not much is recognizable. V is… rough. In more ways than one. It’s not bad, but it is brutal. Not required viewing IMO.
The first Alternate Universes are up next, but since we are still talking UC, it’s not a bad time to watch 08th MS Team. It puts us back in the One Year War, primarily in Southeast Asia. It’s a fan favorite for multiple reasons.
And I’ll put it here just to say I mentioned it: there’s a live action movie called G-Saviour. It’s bad, very bad. I’ve seen cosplayers with better uniforms. Far future UC once again, might as well be its own thing. Completely optional.
Alternate Universes:
As a way to try and jump start the flagging Gundam franchise, Sunrise came up with three AU scenarios and aired them back to back: G Gundam, Gundam Wing, and Gundam X. Wing also has an associated OVA/movie (depending on the cut) called Endless Waltz. Short form:
G is 1v1 fighting anime, but with robots.
Wing is angsty teen team Gundam.
X is kind of like a post-apocalyptic UC where instead of one colony dropping, they made it rain.
They all have more pluses than minuses IMO. Easy recommends that can be watched any time.
Capping off this era is Turn A Gundam. It’s beautiful. Hard recommend, but it’s better when you have a few other series under your belt.
My legs are asleep. Will continue later. 😅
- Comment on What do you consider the saddest anime? 2 weeks ago:
It really is in a class all its own. I don’t think I could ever watch it again.
- Comment on Studio Mappa's Anime About Making Anime Is a Surprisingly Refreshing Isekai 3 weeks ago:
I consider Otaku no Video a classic. Genshiken was thoroughly enjoyable. And I thought Eizouken was nice enough for what it was.
Different strokes etc.
- Comment on What is this, a crossover episode? 3 weeks ago:
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to animemes@ani.social | 9 comments
- Comment on Murphy's law 3 weeks ago:
Only
threefourninesixteen(?) ways to find out. - Comment on Mario Kate update 3 weeks ago:
There’s two types of bikes in 8: standard and crotch rocket (for lack of a better term). They even have different icons when picking your kart. The drift mechanics are reversed on the crotch rockets. As far as I know this is intentional. Those feel backwards to me — if the standard karts feel backwards to you, I totally get it. It’s like being forced to use non/inverted camera controls, whichever is opposite to your preference.
- Comment on Mario Kate update 3 weeks ago:
I’ve found it very hard to go back to the older MK games after playing 8. Everything just feels right.
- Comment on They just don't write good fantasy like this anymore. 3 weeks ago:
tips cap Much obliged!
- Comment on They just don't write good fantasy like this anymore. 3 weeks ago:
Wait… is this a real physical book? I’ve had this picture for awhile but I thought it was one of those “your childhood ruined” type deals:
