Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Flaser on December 15, 2005, 05:18:59 pm
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Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - Heir to the Stars
(http://www.geocities.com/flaser_01/snapshot20051216020542.jpg)
For the last 2 years Yoshiyuki Tomino - creator of Mobile Suit Gundam series along with the real-mecha genre that spurred the only franchise to contend with Star Trek's vastness - working non-stop to bring his second most acclaimed series onto the silver screen. He was making a movie out of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
Given the magic he's done with the original series - which elevated Gundam to righfully claim its place in anime history - a simple compilation wouldn't do. Tomino is once again doing his two-pass-magic, and often achieving it by being brutal with his own franchise, waving the drama in a no-nonsense fashion; giving us heroes and villians with a believable human flare, that's o so lacking in the Holywood movie going experience.
Zeta is often claimed to be the best gundam 'show' to date - a claim I will neither support or disdain - with its dark and mature drama.
The story takes place roughly 10 years after the original series. With the 1 year over, the Earth Federation slumped further and further into corruption once again neglecting the spacenoids and handling the planet as their personal resort.
Spacenoids, the dwellers of the Sides - huge O'Neil type space habitats in orbit around Earth' Lagrange points - and over 80% of the human population, were naturally enraged as the very same arrogant proxy governing allowed the Principalty of Zeon to rise up in arms for independence....
....and together with the Federation's own millitary machine the two power in UC. 0079 created a war that killed half of humanity and left scars in entire generations.
In response, the upcoming 'peacekeeping special force' of Federation - the Titans, created in UC. 0083's Zeon paranoia when the Delaz fleet the last hostile Zeon remnant dropped a colony on Northern America - brutally cracked down on the 30-Bunch protesters - their methods and doctrine echo the worst of the last war.
From this desperation the AEUG rebellion was born, often drawing their ranks from the dishearted officers of the Federation, fed up with the atrocities comitted by the Titans, they set out to right the echoes of the One Year War.
The stage is set, so in UC. 0087 the gates of hell once again open and unleash war on humanity. The story begins.
However sust as with the original series, the show was plagued by cameo 'suit of the week' appearances, prolonged battles with no sensible outcome, along with over the top disciplinary violence and selfish rebellion of the immature protagonist.
Granted most of those themes were the very point in the new wardrama, their overhanded execution actually made the audiacne dejected and the whole ordeal felt bland and stale.
However it seems Yoshiyuki Tomino, is among the few directors who are willing to admit their mistakes, and instead moping over them has the courage to move on and learn from them.
Tell him what's wrong with the first draft, and he's bound to get it right by the second.
He's done it with his original Movie Trilogy, and he's done it with the first Movie made from Zeta.
While original Gundam movies were quite rough around the edges broth in imagery and its unrefined cut, they made history and told and everlasting story of horrors of war.
Simply put this movie is the best damn thing he's ever made
Since the original series is almost 20 years old, and frankly quite dated, a lot of new footage was made that make up a good portion of the movie.
The transition is often startling as the qulity jump is fenomenal; but even more suprising is how well the old footage lives up to the new. It's not as flashy, but it never the less works and its well made. This makes the new movie something of a mixed experience, but just as with many new things, it just takes getting used to.
Some may downplay the film for its brutal buthery of the original material - long sections were cut up or brutally reduced to the bare bones - but the end result clearly justifies the approach.
Unlike the original first Gundam Movie, the pacing is fast and lively througout the film, the plot is cleared up and the characters are still given enough screen time to flesh them out with the fast pace showing us an evident development.
The soundtrack is a mixed bag of old nostalgy thematic Zeta tunes that bring back the moments and traditions of the old show estabilishing the Star Wars-eque themes for key elemets with a handful helping of modern fully orchestrated flowing melody that do a better job of flowing with the film.
I should probably give some bottomline, or pass final judement on the film. However just as with the Original Movie Trilogy, the film tells a vast epic and can't be likened to the compactness of Star Wars or single piece features.
Therefore I will withold the final word until we see where the rest of the trilogy heads...
....and wheter the whole will remain that good, this is a masterpiece.
If I have to point out something bad, it's that the pacing is very fast and a casual audiance may be left behind - though there's plenty drama and action to keep you on the edge. Also mecha geeks will be disapointed as very little screentime and fanboyish awe is given to the mobile suits themselves.
They are weapons of war and nothing more - which I find a very good thing, as it makes us focus on the core element in Gundam that's so overlooked in the mecha franchise:
A good story of growing up, of doing the right thing, of being human.
(http://www.geocities.com/flaser_01/snapshot20051216020444.jpg)
(http://www.geocities.com/flaser_01/snapshot20051216020633.jpg)
PS.:
An interview can seen with Tomino here:
http://animejapan.cplaza.ne.jp/b-ch/kimo/meta/kimo11org_license_500k.asx
Official Site:
http://www.gundamofficial.com/worlds/uc/zeta/
Outdated data on animenewsnetwork:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3899
A fresh brochure:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808724621/info
101 Gundam mecha-geekery:
http://www.mahq.net
Magic word: tvnihon
EDIT: added some screenshots
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:bump:
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I hate the art. I got burned out on Gundam after Wing.
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I've never watched much gundam except for SEED, which I think is awesome. Now that I think about it, it's on tonight, w00t!
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'Wing was 6 portions bishonen posing as badass, 2 potions decent animation but recycled a million times, 1 potion support characters with weird characters and no whatsoever development, 1 portion mecha fagotry.' - it was the worst Gundam show ever.
Gundam is about dated 70' animation that's bland but other than that extremely good (Amuro's rifle bravado with the Gundam hasn't been duplicated / lived up to ever since), and an actual story not just mechs kicking ass.
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Zeta, unfortunately, is the UC show that bears the most resemblence to Wing
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The only Gundam I've ever liked was 8th MS Team...everything else just seemed too hokey.
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i never liked most anime mecha, the physics just want to make me scream.
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Zeta is good stuff. Overhyped, but good. I'll be looking to fetch a torrent of this soon and pass my own judgement. Common complaint I hear of though is that the new animation, which is stunningly beautiful, puts the original 20-year-old animation to absolute shame, and as such, the contrast between the two sets is jarring. It would have been better if they had reanimated all the footage.
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The only Gundam I've ever liked was 8th MS Team...everything else just seemed too hokey.
Smart man. 08th MS had some nice touches in the physics department that make it vastly superior (IMO) to just about any of the other shows.
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The movie is laying there on my place/hd waiting to be watched. Maybe on this weekend. Many people have praised it so it can't be that bad, at least the series was good.
Edit: Oh yea and Turnsky...
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/gortef/1134990569800.gif)
:p
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before i got sick of anime, i watched the whole wing series. i was curious what other series there were.
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before i got sick of anime, i watched the whole wing series. i was curious what other series there were.
I will get a lot of flame for this, but a lot of anime is crap or one big cliche...that's why although I'm some sort of collector, I'm so picky about the titles I watch.
I recommend the following titles, that should be in any anthology of worthwile anime:
Akira
Berserk
Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place
Cowboy Bebop
Galaxy Express 999
Ghost in the Shell
Grave of the Fireflies
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Serial Experiments Lain
Wings of Honneamise
Some of these may not stand on their own compared to the other titles on raw content or style (while others are included for that sheer reason), but for the fact that they have made history, did something remarkably new that created an entire new branch of filmmaking.
These are the kind of the titles that carry a puch, that you can show to your parents, profs with courage; for this films are anything but kiddy. They're the testament that anime's just as relevant and multifaceted medium as any other written, spoken or filmed media.
Here is a lot longer list I originally wanted to post, all of them are good titles of several different genres; your milage may vary though and you may not like some of the genres at all:
3x3 Eyes*****
AD Police Files ****
Akira******
Area 88 OVA****
Ayashi no Ceres (warning - shojo anime)****
Berserk*****
Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place****
Blue Submarine no.6****
Bubblegum Crisis OVA***
Cowboy Bebop*****
Escaflowne****
FLCL****
Galaxy Express 999*****
Gasaraki****
Ghost in the Shell*****
Grave of the Fireflies*****
Gunbuster****
Gun Smith Cats***
Hack.Sign****
Haibane Renmei****
Hoshi no Koe****
Infinite Ryvius****
Irresponsible Captain Tayler, The****
Key, The Metal Idol****
Oh! My Godess****
Nausicaa and the Walley of the Wind****
Neon Genesis Evangelion *****
Ninja Scroll***
Noir***
Macross (the original series)****
Milenium Actress****
Patlabor****
Record of Lodoss War OVA****
Samurai X****
Serial Experiments Lain*****
Slayers***
Trigun****
Wings of Honneamise*****
X - The Movie***
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i ment in the gundam line
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i ment in the gundam line
Well, that's easy enough.
Universal Century Timeline:
Mobile Suit Gundam (TV series and 3-volume compilation movie)
08th MS Team (OVA and compilation movie)
0080: War in the Pocket (OVA)
0083: Stardust Memory/Last Blitz of Zeon (OVA and compilation movie)
Z Gundam (TV series, now being made as a 3-volume compilation movie)
ZZ Gundam (TV series)
Char's Counter-Attack (Movie)
Gundam F91 (Movie)
V Gundam (TV series)
Future Century Timeline:
G Gundam (TV series)
After Colony Timeline:
Gundam Wing (TV series)
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (OVA and compilation movie)
After War Timeline:
Gundam X (TV series)
Correct Century Timeline:
Turn-A Gundam (TV series and 2-volume compilation movie)
Cosmic Era Timeline:
Gundam SEED (TV series and 3-volume compilation movie, with additional mini-OVA "conclusion")
Gundam SEED Destiny (TV series, likely to become a 3-volume compilation movie with another OVA conclusion)
My personal favorites are:
MSG Movies
08th MS Team OVA
0080
0083 OVA
Turn-A Gundam TV series
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Sorry to go off topic, but I highly recomend Rurouni Kenshin (the TV series) and Samuri X (OVA movies about said series) for a great historical fiction anime. As for any Kenshin fans already out there, read Broken Pieces by Linay. Its an emotional journey that you owe to yourself. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/736414/1/ :yes: :yes:
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damn there are alot of those.
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The movie is laying there on my place/hd waiting to be watched. Maybe on this weekend. Many people have praised it so it can't be that bad, at least the series was good.
Edit: Oh yea and Turnsky...
(http://koti.mbnet.fi/gortef/1134990569800.gif)
:p
oh cool, catgirl holocaust! ;)
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:lol:
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damn there are alot of those.
Course there are. Mobile Suit Gundam is THE number one mecha franchise in Japan, and arguably, the most successful anime franchise. It's been around since 1979, and has only *recently* begun to show signs of slowing down to an overuse of the "Earth Vs. Space" formula that these sagas tend to revolve around (SEED Destiny, I'm looking at you!).
If you're into the giant robot thing, I can recommend some other stellar sagas to you as well.
Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (God oh God, do NOT confuse this with the abomination that is Robotech.)
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Big-O
VOTOMS
Aura Battle Dunbine
There's plenty more where that came from, but these are the ones that stand out the most to me.
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Robotech (God oh God, do NOT confuse this with the abomination that is Macross.)
Fixed it for you. :p
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:bump:
Anyone watched it yet?