Mobile Suit Gundam

[ShiroiHikari]

Oh god, don't pay money for Awakening of the Failblazer. Seriously, don't. Download it or something instead. It's terribad.

[Rocketshipper]

animeondvd recently gave a release date for a "MGS Unicorn part 1" release. I assume it will be the first 3 OVA episodes packaged together. I'm glad I saw it before I ended up ordering the individual releases.

[ShiroiHikari]

Excellent! *air guitar*

Seriously, I hope that's true.

[Roy Mustang]

animeondvd recently gave a release date for a "MGS Unicorn part 1" release. I assume it will be the first 3 OVA episodes packaged together. I'm glad I saw it before I ended up ordering the individual releases.

Is it a R1 one release. So far, they keep saying it is a R2 release, but then one posted that it will have the sub and dub, which would make it a R1 release.

[ShiroiHikari]

Well, on Blu-ray, North America and Japan are in the same region anyway, are they not?

[Roy Mustang]

Well, on Blu-ray, North America and Japan are in the same region anyway, are they not?

The release for now as part one is for DVD only and not Blu Ray. So far, it is only saying that the DVD is Region 2.

But I'm going to look more into this.


Edit: Found it, dvd is a region 1 release or a world wide release, not sure. But it is a region one dvd. The Retail Price will $29.98 and it will contain episodes 1 and 2 only with special features, Episode Recap, Promotional Videos, TV Commercials, Character Highlights, MS Highlights. Spoken Languages: English, Japanese, English subtitles, Spanish subtitles.


Date Available - Jun 7 2011

[blkmage]

I wouldn't be too surprised if an eventual Japanese BD collection included an English dub. Last I heard, the Japanese Lucky Star BD box included the English dub, which defies all sense, since I don't think the Japanese are really excited for one nor would any English fans that would go through the trouble of importing a Japanese Region A BD set typically be the kind of fan that enjoys English dubs, but hey, if they already have one produced, why not?

[ShiroiHikari]

I think I'm gonna hold out for a complete Blu-ray boxset or something.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Edit: Found it, dvd is a region 1 release or a world wide release, not sure. But it is a region one dvd.

Date Available - Jun 7 2011

!!!!!

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Word to ya moms:

According to Bandai, a [color="Red"][SIZE="3"]new Gundam series [/SIZE][/color]will be announced at a press conference to be held on June 13th at 1:30pm JST. The conference will be streamed live on Bandai Channel Live (http://live.b-ch.com/).

Source: Gundam.info

BTW, why has no one posted here in three months? For shame...

[blkmage]

Clearly, we're all waiting for UC episode 4 in October wwwwwww

[ShiroiHikari]

I still haven't even been able to watch UC episode 3 :< And I haven't been watching any other Gundamu lately.

New Gundam series? I hope it's Crossbone.

[blkmage]

How about G-Saviour anime

[Agloval]

How about a SD Gundam SEED Destiny/G-Saviour crossover?

[TheSubtleDoctor]

How about a SD Gundam SEED Destiny/G-Saviour crossover?

As long as it somehow involves the resurrection of both Katz and Quess, then I'm totally up for it.

[Agloval]

Quess

Actually, I would laugh heartily if they were going to follow Unicorn with an adaption of Hathaway's Flash. Not that that's going to happen.

Oh, and I will be roundly annoyed if it's Frozen Teardrop. The thought that Mars is at least a fairly underutilised place in the franchise will be the only consolation.

[blkmage]

tbh, I'm putting my money on a new AU series

[ShiroiHikari]

If it's Frozen Teardrop I will shed some teardrops of my own.

[blkmage]

Okay, I just googled Frozen Teardrop and LOLOLOLOL

[Agloval]

A tip-off from /m/ the other day pointed out the existence of a Gundam manga called Gihren Ansatsu Keikaku, some of which has been translated. I haven't read very much of it yet but it appears to be about a detective trying to track down a conspiracy to kill Gihren Zabi in the last days of the Principality.

It's certainly an interesting enough idea. In the couple of chapters I read there was also an endearingly blunt moment, when the investigator loaded up some leaked documents on his tablet computer and they were titled 'VALKYRIE', in big Gothic letters.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Gundam 0083: War in the Pocket

This was a really well-done OVA. All the surface level-stuff, art animation music, was fine. Likable characters, good storytelling. 0080 might actually be a good place for nonfans to dip their toe in.

Chiefly, I came away with two overriding thoughts:

Boy that was really affecting. The way that Al was forced to come to realizations about things, losing his innocence in a certain respect, was emotionally rough at times. For various reasons, he has to keep his newfound perspective a secret from his friends. There are a couple of scenes in which the "old Al" would have laughed that the "new Al" actually wants to cry but forces himself to laugh. You can see and hear that his already-wounded heart is being crushed, but he forces laughter nonetheless. Very powerful scenes. The climactic battle was also particularly poignant. It's sort of amazing how Gundam continually wrestles an emotional reaction out of me. I'm not sure the brand gets enough credit for that.

Was that actually a Gundam show? As I mentioned above, I feel like 0080 might be a good sample for Gundam or mecha neophytes. This is because a remarkably small amount of time is spent on scenes involving the robots. There is only one action set piece involving more than a couple of robots, and the scale is comparatively small for a Gundam show. There aren't gratuitous scenes of robots annihilating hordes of grunts. Essentially, 0080 is a story about these three characters and how their lives intertwine and change because of the One Year War. It isn't really about the robots...but it still feels like Gundam (maybe this indicates that Gundam isn't about the robots?).

The above got me thinking: When you have an established franchise, how far outside of its parameters can a creator reasonably take a new entry in the show while still retaining the established name? Another way of putting it: how un-Gundam/Macross/etc. like can someone make a show and still legitimately retain the Gundam/Macross/etc. name? Before viewing 0080 I would've said that such shows should stick close to the established formulas of their franchise, but now I'm not as sure.

I digress, though. I totally recommend 0080 for mecha fans, non-mecha fans and, of course, Gundam fans (who have probably already seen it).

[ShiroiHikari]

UC Gundam is definitely not just about the robots.

War in the Pocket is excellent and it was the first UC Gundam I ever saw. The first time around I didn't really "get" it, but I watched it again after seeing more UC stuff, and I enjoyed it a lot more.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

tbh, I'm putting my money on a new AU series

As someone who hasn't quite made the jump into Gundam yet, wouldn't it make sense for them to do more UC stuff given how much money Unicorn is making, especially after the relatively unsuccessful 00?

[MasterDias]

As someone who hasn't quite made the jump into Gundam yet, wouldn't it make sense for them to do more UC stuff given how much money Unicorn is making, especially after the relatively unsuccessful 00?

The opposite actually. Since they are in the middle of doing Unicorn, they probably won't want to do another UC series currently. And UC tends to be more popular with the veteran/older Gundam fans than the newer anime fans that eat up Seed and 00 anyway.

Also, 00 wasn't unsuccessful. It is one of the most popular AU series. The DVDs sold quite well.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Huh, I'd heard that 00 was unsuccessful for a Gundam series, hence my usage of 'relatively'.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Also, 00 wasn't unsuccessful. It is one of the most popular AU series. The DVDs sold quite well.

I, like Hatter, was informed that, due to the sheer !@#$% that was Seed Destiny, the ratings for 00 never reached the heights of those achieved during the heyday of Gundam Seed, let alone other popular Gundam series. I could be wrong, so set me straight if so. I was unaware (but am unsurprised) that the DVDs did good business.

[blkmage]

Oh, let's be clear, the people who hate SEED are the UC crowd. Beyond that, SEED did incredibly well and SEED Destiny did much better than SEED did. In fact, I suspect that SEED and Destiny might be the best selling TV Gundams. They're certainly on top TV series overall from the last decade. 00 may have done poorly relative to SEED, but that's in the sense that they would've had to settle for making cigars out of rolled $50 bills instead of $100s.

[MasterDias]

I, like Hatter, was informed that, due to the sheer !@#$% that was Seed Destiny, the ratings for 00 never reached the heights of those achieved during the heyday of Gundam Seed, let alone other popular Gundam series. I could be wrong, so set me straight if so. I was unaware (but am unsurprised) that the DVDs did good business.

Well, no, but that's like thinking Bleach isn't successful because One Piece sells more manga volumes. Seed Destiny had insane sales, and is one of the best selling anime series ever. Nothing can stop that juggernaut. Not even an infamously massive trainwreck of a plot.

Anyway, I can't speak for Sunrise, so I have no idea what their expectations were. But I personally can't consider it unsuccessful. It was doing quite a bit better than some, if not all, of the pre-Seed AU Gundams. Poor, poor, X and Turn A.

[Agloval]

ANN's reporting that the new Gundam will be called Gundam AGE and will involve people inheriting the Gundam. And it's being developed by Level 5, who are according to Wikipedia primarily a games developer.

Dunno if that's accurate, but if it is it certainly sounds like a departure.

[Xeno]

Poor, poor, X and Turn A.

Two words: "tasteful breds"

As far as a new Gundam series goes, I'm kind of a mixed bag. I'm mostly a UC fan, though I did enjoy G-Gundam (easily one of my favorite anime series), Wing, and SEED (which is basically MSG MkII). I think I watched an episode and a half of 00, but stopped because: 1. I was in my "I don't watch anime anymore" phase (and am just now coming out of that), and 2. the IRC channel I attend is full of Gundam fans that all weren't entirely sold on it.

So we'll see I guess.