I've seen some people act like this series is confusing or overly convoluted, but at the core it's just your usual "young man stumbles into an insurgency"-story (Captain Harlock, Dune, Star Wars, the Galaxy Express movies, etc) with more factions than usual.I was able to understand pretty much all of the motives/alliances/etc. just by paying attention, and even then it's more focused on the journeys of the people on the frontlines.It's not about the geopolitical maneuvrings so much as it is Tomino doing a story about young people discovering the truth about their world.The only part I didn't care for was the 5th movie, where the drama, wonder and slapstick that defined the series take a back seat in favor of the action scenes and the most sickly-sweet positive ending you can have in this sort of story (within reason).I haven't seen the TV show, but considering that it has the same total runtime as the movies (more or less) it'd be really messed up if it turned out that the last film's editors tore out huge chunks of the show's final stretch.
While I'm at it - would you say Gundam does things better than other mecha/space opera properties, or does its success mostly come down to more "primal" factors? (merchandise sales, wide appeal, long-term cultural inertia, etc.) 0079 was great and I like 00 S1, Hathaway and F91 well enough; but when there's stuff like Macross, Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, late Mazinger Z and all the Leiji Matsumoto adaptations I don't feel like I've been missing out on some essential juggernaut of sci-fi anime - especially when a lot of the themes and subject matter it's known for were already touched upon in Yamato and Harlock.>the last major battle of Yamato ends with the protagonist reflecting over the destruction he caused to the alien homeworld>the Earth Federation in Harlock is decadent as sin (to the point where it causes the death of our teenage POV character's mother), but Harlock and his crew still have a degree of faith in humanity and its future>the Mazone want to retake Earth from the human race (that they themselves created by seeding the earth), but there's a breakaway faction who just want to live in peace on some planet - and promptly got nuked for treason>The earth commander tasked with hunting down Harlock violently refuses to join the Mazone, and eventually allies himself with the space pirates>The Mazone queen uses civilian fleets as cover during the final battle, and Harlock's doctor ends up helping one of these ships with childbirth0079 wasn't a singular achievement so much as it was the natural endpoint of everything going on.As someone who likes goofy stuff like Tenamonya Voyagers, Dirty Pair and Starzinger I'll probably be the guy who watches ZZ (more likely Dragonar) before I ever touch Zeta or the UC OVAs.Sticking to earthnoid vs spacenoid conflicts and never travelling past the moon isn't a dealbreaker, though it's still kind of a lame limitation for a space opera franchise.Pic dubiously related.
Bump.I don't want to screw myself out of a thread by posting it at the wrong time.
>>22634913>just by paying attentionSee, a lot of people don't do this and Tomino's shows tend to be pretty dense and not re-iterate things as much as the average, so they miss things, assume there wasn't anything, then complain. That said, part of the stated purpose of the movies was to make things more understandable compared to the show.>>22634915>I'll probably be the guy who watches ZZ before I ever touch ZetaThis would be foolish.
>>22634913The discourse around G-Reco when it released will always remain one of the most embarrassing "mask-off" moments for the so called "anime community."Good post overall, OP. I agree with most of your points, although, like >>22635025 said, it'd be foolish to not go by production order with Gundam. Still, it's ultimately up to you.
>>22634913It's shit but it's not any different from other Tominoslop. He's been making incompetent garbage for 50 years.
The confusion was because of the TV show being so dense and fast-paced. Of course the movies made more sense.
>>22634915If it's Tomino Gundam, it's his raw abilities as a director - the time he spent grinding as a storyboard artist on every 3rd anime from the 70s, and the degree to which he has far more nuanced and believable characters than other anime sci fi - he just has an eye for the messy nature of human psychology. If we are talking Gundam as a franchise then its probably Sunrise and Bandai using the inertia of the original wave of enthusiasm for Gundam that brought the otaku audience into maturity and finding a way to make Gundam works for specific audiences, like the UC OVAs for the WW2 Zeon aesthetic fetishist or Wing for fujoshi.
>>22635159It is both those things, but really not to a problematic degree as long as you're not halfassing it. This isn't Wings of Rean we're talking about.
>Everyone: is fighting like retards>Megafauna: Why is everyone fighting like retards. Let's go find out. It's not really that complicated.
>>22634913Dictator hands typed this thread.
>>22635133I'm more interested in checking out Dunbine + and Gainer. One is a fantasy mecha, the other looks to have a style and atmosphere very similar to G-Reco.>>22635159Mind doing a rundown on what was added/removed?>>22635171Tomino's a solid director, but I find it funny how people act like he's the only man in anime who knows how to make characters act irrationally/have ulterior motives/etc. I'm just saying it sounds absurdly myopic.0079 and Xabungle's fights definitely have a sense of inventiveness and spontaneity you don't see AS often in other anime though (certainly in terms of TV shows).>>22635147Zambot 3 was pretty chintzy compared to the other '70s anime (it's clear that most of Sunrise's good animators were busy with outsourcing) and most of the good stuff happens in the latter half (i.e the occasional Kanada-style animation, the diplomat episode, the evacuations, the human bombs, the climax), but his other works seem reasonable enough.I'll also mention that his episode of Yamato (#4, Central Anime put lots of fun notes in the end credits) was one of the less impressive episodes. The one with the giant magnet and the tentacles was pretty good though, almost movie-grade.
>>22635269>but I find it funny how people act like he's the only man in anime who knows how to make characters act irrationally/have ulterior motives/etc.He isn't the only one who does that, but what he manages to do goes a lot deeper than that. Like look at Reccoa, Reccoa was coping with her sexual assault at Jaburo, as indicated in episode 12 with her conversation with Kamille when he rescues her and Kai. This took her from seeing herself as a gender neutral soldier to seeing herself as a "woman", it was a rude awakening. To cope with being a woman she comes up with traditional benevolent sexism for women and romantic coddling from men as something to champion. Scirroco offers her satisfaction of her needs "as a woman", Char's own words are "There is no gender in the military". Char kisses her even, they are borderline in a relationship at that point, the issue is how he is treating her in that context. People act like she's just an irrational women following her emotions and betraying because she couldn't get with Char, but Tomino really highlights some nuanced psychology in the weird way some people end up coping with trauma. That's an example of where the difference lies.
>>22635159> the TV show being so dense and fast-pacedIt really isn't imo, the first half at is fine. Once they get into space and they barely take any time to really stay in one location and develop it is when the show starts to get messy, but even then it's not that hard to parse. The films were a lot better at presenting that stuff.My real gripe with the show was how unlikable the characters are. And not unlikable in the sense that they make you angry or annoy you, but they just come off too stereotypical and flat.They feel less like humans and more like cartoony caricatures. There's nothing to latch onto for most of them.Klim is the opportunistic schemer, Bellri is genki, Raraiya is the brain damaged moeblob and when she regains her memory becomes the generic resistance fighter girl.Mask and Aida are fantastic though and easily the most compelling characters in the show, one of them really should've been the MC.
>>22635269I know you meant it in good faith but the last guy you responded to is a spammer known as Zetarager. Just ignore him.>>22635025I think alot if it was left too up in the air.
>>22635365 (me)To clarify on what I said, I think the series does offer more than enough for the viewer to parse thru but that a bit too much is left out to where I think the show does lack some of the emotional impact it should have. Still a top 10 gundam series for me (and it's not at number 10.)
>>22635362The whole point is that they act in those stereotypical ways because they're putting on a show -- they aren't really that way.
>>22634913The image in op looks like bellri is about to take a mega dump and is happy about it. That sums up g reco honestly.....
>>22635159That sounds fair enough.>>22635362I didn't mind the flat characters too much, but I can see the writers getting more mileage out of them if there were less factions to deal with or they had 10-12 more episodes of legroom. Raraiya's total personality shift when her retardism wears off was pretty funny though. She even pawns off the beloved goldfish to her friends.As for the TV vs Movie thing I'd expect the former to be better about exploring the towns and space colonies, though it's not like the movies rushed that stuff.>>22635374If you're referring to the space royalty and (to some extent) the Pope I can definitely see where you're coming from. Maybe Steer too, but I'd just chalk up the english commands to her being a foreigner.
>>22634913>at the core it's just your usual "young man stumbles into an insurgency"-storyThat's all fine, until the characters start talking.
>>22634913>a story about young people discovering the truth about their worldIt's amazing how people still manage to miss this even though it's beaten into their head like every 5 minutes.
>>22635159The threads on /m/ during airing were honestly pretty fun. Lots of anons talking about things and pointing them out. Alongside shitposting obviously but it was mostly a well worth it series of threads to help anons keep up during airing.
>>22635269>Tomino's a solid director, but I find it funny how people act like he's the only man in anime who knows how to make characters act irrationally/have ulterior motives/etc.>I'm just saying it sounds absurdly myopic.I think it's just anons grasping for a way to vocalize the very real uniqueness of Tomino's direction and writing that they find hard to put into words.I've been trying to find the way to put it properly for years now, since G Reco was airing itself. Mostly it feels like he likes to avoid common types of dramatic scenes. Or that is, the sense of a character's progression is left vague and open ended. In G Reco itself, you're probably going to be caught off guard when Raraiya stops being retarded. There's no dramatic, climactic moment where it happens, no conflict involved in it happening or explicit focus on the fall out. At some point you just realize she's no longer being all literally brain damaged genki and is now kind of a dick. Or how Bellri eventually gets over his crush on Aida. He's clearly struggling with it once the Star Wars reveal drops, but eventually it just stops being as present in his character moments. Again, no grand, cinematic scenes.In other Tomino shows, there's often examples of character hypocrisy or double think that goes uncalled out but is so obvious in how they think and speak you're clearly meant to understand they're doing this. Stuff like that, there's a certain peculiarity of how characters develop and how conflicts hash out.Also, lots of people stumbling, hitting their heads, or slipping. Just out of nowhere prat falls in the middle of otherwise straight forward scenes.
>>22635969Tomino doesn't really seem to have the characters explain shit to the audience. So that's why it may seem like conversations and events are moving in all sorts of directions. In most other shows when a character explains something to another character they're really explaining to the audience.
G reco is in the AU Category.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISR63YFqc10&lc=UgyPv1BL9GKh8ZzTNCh4AaABAg.A3_3DVQYRAqA3cb8pNGqKy
>>22635972>Tomino doesn't really seem to have the characters explain shit to the audienceAnd when he does it is largely just the character's opinion, see Scirocco outing Jamitov as a secret contollist to Jerid and Mouar.
>>22634913People who are confused don't pay attention.Even an ADHD idiot like me could understand Greco by fully focusing on it.Tomino usually just don't take people like idiots like most anime does. and hell Greco was done first for teenagers too.Also La Gu did nothing wrong
>>22639791I love this scene because it utterly destroys contolism as an ideology.
>>22634913>Tomino doing a story about young people discovering the truth about their world.What I like about it is he didn't just go for discover different points of view and respect them. Bellri and Aida learn that pretty much all these countries are hyped up on their own militarism and ancient views of each other. Their own not being immune to this. Many of their fundamental beliefs were not natural or logical but the propaganda of where they're from. Sometimes this is done with clear intent and other times countries get to navel gazing. Even the Venus Globe who are shown to be this advanced fine society are clearly facing a huge crisis under the surface. You have to truly experience the world if you want to cut through, and from their change it how you see fit. Could easily just go for well all opinions are valid. Instead Tomino goes hey you're young try and find a solution. And while it is one where hopefully people work together more openly there is still work to be done.
>>22634913The only anime where the pink haired girl is one of the best girls. And it's a real hard won fight too because Aida is in the running.
>>22639739So is Turn A, and G-Reco happens after that, so it makes sense.Where's F91 though?
>>22640053WRONG. Reco is before Turn A
>>22640186 Doesn’t matter there both AU.
>>22640186>every G-Reco thread is a stealth chronology thread
>>22640221>>22640053>>22640186G Reco and Turn A take place at the same time but in separate timelines. Same overall message, similar circumstances, sone vaguely similar technology but ultimately different universes.
>>22640186Tomino has only made progress forward in the UC timeline, he has never gone backwards. G Reco takes place after Turn A.
>>22640299Except they are alternate UC like zeta movies, origin, and allegedly Thunderbolt due to inconsistency like Turn a using G, Wing, and X clips and Jaburo appearing Greco despite being nuked to nothingness.
>>22635147>slop>incompetent Zetarager, you're a half beaten irrelevant corpse. Sit down & shut the fuck up.
Can't you guys accept that Tomino is just a bad director?Every show except Zeta he did was a flop and only remembered because it also was toy commercial
>>22639739>>22640053>>22640186>>22640214>>22640221>>22640268>>22640299>>22640432>ruins the thread with marvelshit timeline autism/v/tourist purge when? It's all so tiresome.
>>22640449Xabungle is fantastic
>>22640449>Zetarager still misuses buzzwords his delusional & retarded mind doesn't understand imao.
>>22640449Can't you accept that your wrong & just a terribly bad shit poster?
>>22640808He WOULD if you retards would stop replying to him!
>>22634913>I haven't seen the TV show,Well there you go. Watching the TV show from a week to week basis was just annoying. An episode would begin with characters in different locations, in different groups than you saw them last episode- sometimes with the people they were just shooting beams at. I dropped it while it was airing, and went back to it for a binge and found it easier to follow, but still pretty annoying. Impossible to watch? Of course not, but at the very least it's the hardest Gundam title to follow. I haven't watched the movies yet.
Does your nee-san spoil you?
>>22634915>I'll probably be the guy who watches ZZ (more likely Dragonar) before I ever touch ZetaZZ is as direct of a sequel to Zeta as you can get, it literally picks up straight from Zeta's ending and concludes all its lingering plot threads. People who skip ZZ are dumb but skipping Zeta makes even less sense.
>>22641444Manny would look better if her hair was shorter
>>22644647Manny cutting her hair was a war crime
>>22644647>>22644702I usually prefer bobcuts but this is one of my few exceptions. She looked so cute with long hair.
>>22635374I know what you mean, but even what's under there isn't that compelling.Bellri I think was the most wasted potential, because there's a lot they could've explored with the premise of a Genki kid raised in a theocracy who goes on adventures to uncover the truths of his world, but the show doesn't dig into that much at all. He just comes off very flat. His relationships to people and how he acts barely change or get explored and it feels boring to watch because of that.Aida and Mask are a bit more dynamic which made them more entertaining to me.
>>22640449That you, Shinta?
>>22634913Watching the show while it aired drained any desire to watch anything related to G-Reco ever after.I was coming from just watching brain powered so you could imagine my reaction, Tomino can be a great director and scriptwriter but G-Reco for me more often that not felt like senile delirium fueled rants with no one around to hold him back. I am still mad that the islands/sea arc its just an blatant excuse to sell gunpla addons.
>>22648339Why don't you go back to something more your speed, like Aldnoah.Zero Season 2.
To this day, no mech has a better name than ELF BULLOCK
>>22640186G-Reco is literally the recycled Turn A sequel.
>>22652020And? It didn’t stay that way. Anon are you retarded?
Tomino was right.
give me an excuse to post this wonderful scene
>>22653019the grain filter was such a successful aesthetic touch
banani
>>22648339>>22650078This kind of talk brings so much memories.
>>22644702Does this look like a war criminal to you?
>>22641444Bell's like an adorable puppy and Aida is best nee-san I wish they'd had more cute big sister-little brother moments like that.
>>22655628yes
