Future of Gundam

[kalvasflam]

The problem with the Turn A design is a lot of people don't bother to see it in action. They see an image and just jump to the conclusion that it's ugly or whatever and don't bother being opened minded enough to give it a chance. Once you've seen it in action, every forum I've gone to people have said they were wrong about their first opinion and seeing the Turn A in action changed their opinion and it's look didn't bother them anymore.

It's kinda sad really that people just look at the design and automaticly write the show off as a result. It does make me wonder just how big the ratio is between those that actually care about the stories in Gundam compared to those that only care about the mechs and the action and don't really give a damn about the story or characters.

312180[/snapback]

They really could do a lot to marry Turn A stroy line with mech design from CE universe. CE has a few good designs, but the story has gone from mediocre to downright horrible.

[Druna Skass]

Hmm, if X is becomming more popular, then I'm hoping they re-do some of the kits. Wouldn't mind an HG 1/144 Gundam X Divider or XX.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Very interesting discussion guys. I agree with Effect on the "do they watch it for mechs or story" comment. I watch Gundam for it's compelling characters and plotline, as well as it's commentary on war and such. Which was why I didn't care for G, it was mostly just a fighting show, though I probably missed some of it's good points in the little I saw.

I do meet a lot of people who seem to think it's all action, and won't give it a chance. One guy's convinced that they're all the same, so I do disagree with him a lot.

I haven't seen Turn A outside of one episode. Maybe once I clear some disc space, I'll check it out. I'm so behind. Any fansub group recommendations?

Maybe I'll check X out too. After I rewatch 0083 now that I have the tapes of it.

I really like F91, so I'd love a Crossbone anime.

[Lightning]

I could get flamed for this one, but I'd like to see the design of the Gundam Heavyarms make a comeback, that was one of the cooler gundams for me, even if it was in the wrong series....

I'd like to see another series along the 08th's lines too.

[phuqueue]

I haven't seen Turn A outside of one episode. Maybe once I clear some disc space, I'll check it out. I'm so behind. Any fansub group recommendations?

There's really only two groups doing it. Anime-Gundam does good work, but they're very slow because they're basically down to one guy who does almost everything. They're about to release only the 19th episode, while Hero-Legends is almost finished with the show (recently released episode 47). I haven't seen HL's Turn A, but their Gundam X, which I wanted to replace my old fansubs, wasn't too impressive. The quality of the encoding sucked and I don't think they translated it themselves. It looked like they just lifted the subs from older fansubs and put them on an HK rip. AG actually translates it themselves, and their encodes are well done from R2 DVD rips. If I were you, I'd get everything AG has released so far, but after that, you'll have to settle for HL for the rest of the show (unless you're incredibly patient). Maybe HL has gotten remarkably better since they released X, though.

I could get flamed for this one, but I'd like to see the design of the Gundam Heavyarms make a comeback, that was one of the cooler gundams for me, even if it was in the wrong series....

I always thought that Heavyarms was kind of bland, personally. I've heard people call the Gundams in Wing the sports cars of the Gundam franchise, but I think Trowa was just driving a Ford Escort. All the other Gundam designs in Wing stick out in some way, but I feel like Heavyarms is pretty forgettable.

[Magnus]

Could it be due to people looking for other Gundam fixes due to not being satisfied with SEED Destiny? Maybe I think.

I don't know about that. From everything i've seen, Seed Destiny is ragingly popular. How many other series do you know that have 3+ fansub groups devoted to it? And everytime I go to download a new ep the seeds and leeches number in the very high hundreds. I think it's also doing very well in Japan, although i'm not entirely sure.

I love the Turn A universe, I love the story, the characters and everything. I watched it once, and am now rewatching it, so i've seen the Turn A Gundam in action quite a bit. But even then, its design still bugs me. I can't stop thinking how much cooler it would be to have a more classic Gundam design in the Turn A setting. If you want to see what I mean, take the Turn A MSIA and replace its head with the RX-78-2 v.2 head. Just that change alone improves the MS fourfold.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

There's really only two groups doing it.  Anime-Gundam does good work, but they're very slow because they're basically down to one guy who does almost everything.  They're about to release only the 19th episode, while Hero-Legends is almost finished with the show (recently released episode 47).  I haven't seen HL's Turn A, but their Gundam X, which I wanted to replace my old fansubs, wasn't too impressive.  The quality of the encoding sucked and I don't think they translated it themselves.  It looked like they just lifted the subs from older fansubs and put them on an HK rip.  AG actually translates it themselves, and their encodes are well done from R2 DVD rips.  If I were you, I'd get everything AG has released so far, but after that, you'll have to settle for HL for the rest of the show (unless you're incredibly patient).  Maybe HL has gotten remarkably better since they released X, though.

Kind of like ASS and ILA huh? The HK fansubbers. I've seen AG Freedoms's work on 0079, seemed pretty good. Thanks for the pointers.

[Panon]

Except it's not, unless you're one of those mindless "it's all ripped from the UC!!" zealots.

How do you figure it's not?

Because you just did nothing but describe plot elements (plot elements that incidently the majority of the time only carried superficial similarities to similar events in the original Gundam) and nothing about the actual universe itself.

I haven't seen Turn A outside of one episode. Maybe once I clear some disc space, I'll check it out. I'm so behind. Any fansub group recommendations?

There's really only two groups doing it. Anime-Gundam does good work, but they're very slow because they're basically down to one guy who does almost everything. They're about to release only the 19th episode, while Hero-Legends is almost finished with the show (recently released episode 47). I haven't seen HL's Turn A, but their Gundam X, which I wanted to replace my old fansubs, wasn't too impressive. The quality of the encoding sucked and I don't think they translated it themselves. It looked like they just lifted the subs from older fansubs and put them on an HK rip.

Hero Legends work on Turn-A is completely unlike what they did with Gundam X, which was basically just a side project for them while they were stalled on their main projects. They were ripped from HK dvds, weren't encoded well, only had HK subs with corrections made and were all pushed out very quickly.

Their Turn-A releases however are their own translation, and are done from the R2 dvds.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Except it's not, unless you're one of those mindless "it's all ripped from the UC!!" zealots.

How do you figure it's not?

Because you just did nothing but describe plot elements (plot elements that incidently the majority of the time only carried superficial similarities to similar events in the original Gundam) and nothing about the actual universe itself.

Plot elements yes. Superficial no. There's nothing wrong with SEED borrowing from other shows, as long as there's it's own spin on things. Flat out ignoring the similarities just because it's Cosmic Era and not Universal Century is just plain childish. The universe is largely carried along by the plot. Hence, the plot is basically the universe. It's the fabric of the story. It's a universe where normal people fight extrodinary people because they are different. They do it with giant mecha called gundams. The set up is similar, the progression is similar. Next I suppose you'll say Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has nothing in common with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. After all, the music's changed, and some new elements are added. They're completely different, right?

So SEED is a retelling of the One Year War. Big deal. Get over it. It doesn't change what it is.

You complain about mindless UC Zealots. How are you any different if you refuse to acknowledge an opinion backed up with decent reasoning?

Edited July 20, 2005 by Mercurial Morpheus

[Magnus]

Hero Legends is good - the AG Turn A sub is probably slightly better in terms of translating quality, but HL is very close, and has double AG when it comes to the amount of eps released.

[Skippy438]

I'd like to see an AU universe that is super realistic, well, realistic in the realm that it could still include giant robots. Overpopulation on Earth leads to the development of space colonies, which were constructed using mobile suits as construction vehicles. Since immigrants to the colonies come primarily from the most overpopulated areas, there's much more cultural diversity, and maybe even racial tension within the colonies themselves. Violence breaks out within the colonies as tensions rise over national control (I'm tired of Earth in Gundam always being united), who's controlling what? How can many nations control the same territory? Violence escalates, and peacekeeping forces move in and take control. Violence between factions within the colonies shifts to violence against the peacekeepers as a colonial independence movement gains momentum. Some members of the movement (terrorsits? freedom fighters?) use the construction suits in attacks against the peacekeepers, and thus you have the begining of a series. Maybe the actual series takes place years later, maybe it starts from the beginning, I don't know. But no super powered anything, no beam weapons, maybe not any melee weapons. Any thoughts? I think this borrows enough from established "Gundamdom" but is different enough to be interesting.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

That actually soulds kind of interesting. Though there should be homemade melee weapons. Basically, it would be Labor Crime.

Why do I suddenly see Gundam/Patlabor crossover fanfics?

Still, the racial strife and such would be interesting. Lots of groundwork for desperation and so on.

[Effect]

You need to be very carefull if you do a racial strife situation though. You run the risk of offending and alienating the actual fanbase or good parts of it if it isn't done with a LOT of care in a VERY serious and logicial manner. You can't go half-ass on that.

While in Japan it might not be a big deal but the second it goes to other parts of the world, it's going to be under at a lot of eyes. You are going to have to make the story as gray as possible, NO one group is going(or should be) painted as "evil". There needs to be good and bad(in equal measure or more good) in each group in the conflict. In fact more of misunderstands might really be the way to go, that way the viewer has a very, very clear picture of what is going on and can easily see how things get out of hand and why things turned out the way they did.

It would be a really touchy situation. A story like that would have to be given to someone that would give their all to it. Someone like Fukuda for example would just end up insulting and alienating several groups quite easily. Just look at how he has presented the Earth Alliance so far SEED Destiny. You can not just give one point of view in this. THey'd have to be very picky about who writes and directs a series like this.

It would be so much work and trouble I think it might not even be worth doing even though I think it could end up being something great. Yet at the same time it would end uup being horrible. I don't really see a middle ground on this due to the subject matter it would be covering.

[mikeszekely]

To an extent, I think racism in Gundam has been dealt with, the same way that X-Men dealt with it... by creating a new race. UC Gundam touched on it briefly with the Newtypes, and SEED really showed the way that Kira was alienated for being a Coordinator.

[Druna Skass]

It would be a really touchy situation. A story like that would have to be given to someone that would give their all to it. Someone like Fukuda for example would just end up insulting and alienating several groups quite easily. Just look at how he has presented the Earth Alliance so far SEED Destiny. You can not just give one point of view in this. THey'd have to be very picky about who writes and directs a series like this.

To an extent, I think racism in Gundam has been dealt with, the same way that X-Men dealt with it... by creating a new race. UC Gundam touched on it briefly with the Newtypes, and SEED really showed the way that Kira was alienated for being a Coordinator.

And right now the rumors are saying that the Destiny Plan has something to do with making everyone Naturals or something. So not only has this idiot made the Naturals look evil, but now he's making the Coordinators out to be something wrong as well if the rumors are correct.

[Fort Max]

Hmm, if X is becomming more popular, then I'm hoping they re-do some of the kits. Wouldn't mind an HG 1/144 Gundam X Divider or XX.

312268[/snapback]

They allready did, some months ago in fact. Check out HLJ.

[Black Valkyrie]

If GX and Turn A become more popular I hope Bandai start making more kit and figures from them : MG, EMSIA and FIX.

[Anubis]

Interestingly enough we have this news comes from Gunota

The Next Gundam series?

Posted at Useless Plamoya-san's Diary, the next Gundam series following DESTINY is planned for Oct 2006. However, the next series will not be SEED series. The blog states the staff will be made up so it will completely go away from SEED. The same post mentions Zeta and SEED will be the bulk of future model kit releases until this new series airs.

While information posted at Useless Plamoya-san's Diary have been reliable in the past, take this news with some grain of salt.

Looks like they might be wrapping up CE with Destiny for now after all and go to something else.

I wouldn't mind some more material for the CE era, at least in movie or ova form later though.

Edited July 25, 2005 by Anubis

[azrael]

At least we know it will be Zeta and SEED models for the next year. The question now is, will this new gundam be a UC-story or a UC-ish AU story.

[Effect]

Finally, it's about time we had a series not like SEED Destiny. Bandai did say they were going to do a UC-like series for the older fans. AU or not, if it has a competent political setup, some real world physics and elements like the UC had(time to travel between areas, death of grunts even matter, etc), whatever sides are smart and the entire situation is gray with no natural vs. coordinators or no EA or ZAFT country style setup then things should be interesting.

Personally after some thought I'd love to see a colony vs. colony type of situation. Let Earth be peaceful for a change, after some war. Have it as a more Titan vs. AEUG situation where it's all space based and both sides try to gain support from the Earth or something of that natural. Leave the Earth alone for once I say or at least don't try to make it's government or political make up similar to the real world. I hated that about SEED and SEED Destiny but the make up wasn't bad in the UC.

I wonder though, if they'll try to break the mold again the way Tominio did with Turn A Gundam. Now that would be great if they tried something new but tried to keep a realistc type or 'real robot' feel to the show in some manner.

Edited July 25, 2005 by Effect

[Magnus]

Nah, I don't think it's gonna be a UC series. God I hope not at least. Even the most rabid and die-hard UC fan has to admit to the fact that the UC has a TON of baggage and backstory - too much I would argue for new fans to be attracted to it, which spells death for a franchise.

Seriously, even I get intimidated by all the backstory, and i've actually seen it. Any new fans would be thrown off immediately. It isn't good business sense.

For those of you who think that the next mainstream series will be hardcore UC, I really think you have to prepare to have your expectations dashed. Side-stories, an OAV or one-shot maybe, but Zeta Part 3? No chance.

[kalvasflam]

I'm just wondering if it's too much to ask for a gundam series that is focused on a good old fashion war without all the BS that comes up about super weapons, ultra fantastic plans, and all that.

Kind of like WW II without the genocidal maniacs running around the world. Actually, that makes it more like WWI or Napoleanic era warfare. I'd also like to see some military realism. i.e. you don't need to introduce a new super weapon every five to ten episodes, but use military strategy and tactics to win battles.

I know, I'm asking for too much.

[Ali Sama]

make f91 the way it was meant to be

[Black Valkyrie]

IMO :

UC : Crossbone Gundam (Gundam F91 sequel) or AU : UC type/style series.

[JELEINEN]

That "For the Barrel" re-imagining of the original series that ran in Newtype for a while looked interesting. Basically, try to turn Gundam into hard SF. I'd like to see something like that animated.

[mikeszekely]

IMO : 

UC :  Crossbone Gundam (Gundam F91 sequel)  or AU :  UC type/style series.

314041[/snapback]

Seconding the Crossbone Gundam motion. But, I suppose that (as well as Sentinel, Hathaway's Flash, or F-90/Silhouette Forumula) would work better as OVAs.

As much as I love UC Gundam, Magnus is right. Another UC TV series isn't likely to work, unless they can create a series that can really stand on its own without newbies having to watch everything else first.

[Black Valkyrie]

IMO :  

UC :  Crossbone Gundam (Gundam F91 sequel)  or AU :  UC type/style series.

314041[/snapback]

Seconding the Crossbone Gundam motion. But, I suppose that (as well as Sentinel, Hathaway's Flash, or F-90/Silhouette Forumula) would work better as OVAs.

As much as I love UC Gundam, Magnus is right. Another UC TV series isn't likely to work, unless they can create a series that can really stand on its own without newbies having to watch everything else first.

314205[/snapback]

I ment that Crossbone Gundam as an OVA not a series if its going to happen.

[zeo-mare]

i to want to see the crossbone gundam get a OVA, i noticed this design has become popular over the years i wish they would also make a MG kit of it. Hathaways Flash, F-90 and Sentinel would also be very worthy

chris

[GRAND CANNON]

The next, next Gundam series?

That's right folks. From the summer issue of Katsuji Club magazine, Harutoshi Fukui, author of Lorelei, Boukoku no Aegis, and Turn A Gundam novels, is currently working on a Gundam story which will later be serialized in Gundam Ace. In the interview, he was quoted, "Hopefully it can be animated for the 30th Anniversary in 2009."

Hmmmm......so 2006 and then 2009. Guess I should be patient, huh?

[Loner]

Sorry to ressurect an old thread, but seeing as how GSD is over and there will be a new series eventually(Seed based or not) this topic should be ressurected. I feel that they should make a new series(Not connected with the CE universe), but Sunrise gets the writers of Exo-Squad to do it.

[Effect]

After reading my post here, I'd still be up for a colony vs. colony type of situation with leaving the Earth alone and peaceful with either side trying to gain the Earth's support.

[Druna Skass]

I'd actualy like to see something back in the After Colony time line. Something several centuries after Endless Waltz where a war is about to break out between Earth and Mars. Or Martian space colonies are fighting against Mars and trying to convince Earth to help them. Though I suppose this could also work in the Cosmic Era, since Lowe said there were people already on Mars.

Edited October 3, 2005 by Druna Skass

[grss1982]

That wouldn't be a bad idea. A group going off to explore space, a good mix of both naturals and coordinators with two main characters being from each group. No war but exploration.

I know people don't like the idea of aliens in Gundam but I really think it's about time to be honest, at least on a small degree. A change is needed and this would be an interesting change for Gunda. You can still have the same elements all the other Gundam shows have had but it would finally be about the human characters working together for a common goal. Still have the angst, uncertainty, the arguements but in the end they dont' fight among each other but try to protect each other from another threat.

Though what I'd really like to see is the mobile suits tuned down though. Gundams can still be interestin gbut all these weapons aren't needed. Sick witht he beam saber and rifle or some other type of gun. Make interesting battles, not spam battles or exploding mobile suits. A more adventure themed show like Gundam X would be great I feel.

312050[/snapback]

Maybe it is really time for aliens in gundam, since macross zero has gone from humans vs. aliens to the gundam formula of humans v. humans, even if macross zero is a prequel to the humans v. aliens war.

If they were going to introduce alien enemies in gundam, i was wondering if they're gonna be humanoid aliens as tall as mobile suits ala U.N. Spacy doctrine that the variable valks were needed to fight giants.

I can just imagine it now giant aliens in their own zentraedi-like power armor get pwned by anti-ship or plain vanilla sowrds/sabbers of the various mobile suits or worse DRAGOONS. Even worse huge cannons/blaster/guns of the buster gundam variety.

[Fort Max]

I desire either a Sentinel anime, an Astray anime, a Turn A sequel/prequel (something, anything of that quality) or failing all of that sometrhing completely new.

I'd be happy with another round of Seed so long as they can pick up the pieces and make the whole series as good as the closing eps of Seed/Opening eps of Destiny.

[Anubis]

Cosmic Era still has the potential to be great, it just needs a competent writing staff.

I'd like to see either that or a new serious UC show or OVA. Sentinel does sound more deserving of being animated the more I read about it.

I also would like to see a UC OVA from the Zeon perspective this time. I really liked first ep. of MS Igloo. There's a lot they could do from the Zeon side.

Having Destiny switch perspective to Zaft instead of EA was a great idea at first before they ruined it by shifting the main focus again back to the Archangel crew.