Mobile Suit Gundam

[ceallach]

Any other Gunotas out there?

Classic Gundam, current Gundam, Gundam in between.

I've been really enjoying Unicorn, the wait between episodes is fucking horrific though. It's worth it however, it's the best work since 08th MS Team.

Also airing currently is MS Gundam AGE, which is....something. Having a hard time getting into it.

[stelok]

Yeah, I watched a couple of Gundam series.
I never watched the original Gundam series yet, but I did see Z Gundam, ZZ Gundam and Char's Counterattack

[C. Earl]

08th MS Squad, 0083 Stardust Memory, G Gundam, Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed, and Gundam 00 were my favorite shows.

Dang near got every Gundam action figure that was released in the US between 2000-2004 as well as a handful of imported MSIA figures from the more recent shows.

[The Red Deluge]

Big Gundam fan here! Original, Zeta, ZZ, Wing (kind of), and then 00.

Cosmic era... eh. I'm of the majority's opinion that Seed was decent-to-good and Destiny kinda ruined things.

Absolute favourite series is Zeta though, just got everything right. Big fan of Char's Counterattack too.

Haven't tried AGE 5+ yet.

[zomg]

I've seen all of them, Turn A is my favourite one.

[Hiromi]

Been following it for over a decade at this point, seen everything UC, skipped 00 and will be skipping AGE as well, though Unicorn has been fun to watch.

[ceallach]

00 isn't terrible and AGE has its moments, I'm particularly interested in this new "dark, mature" AGE project tat has been bandied about.

Unicorn has been absolutely fantastic, episode 4 has so much MS porn in it(Efreet! Juagg!), but dammit, it'll be May before the next episode.

[Hiromi]

I'll get around to watching 00 someday, though from what I hear season 2 was a terrible let down(SEED Destiny style). AGE will not be watched by my eyes, period. Though if they go through with that project you mentioned(and I've heard rumors of it as well) I might give that a whirl.

[ceallach]

00's quality drops dramatically in its back half and the movie is just boring, providing no really satisfactory conclusion.

[Hazard]

While I wouldn't compare the second 00 season to Destiny, it was a drop in quality, which is a damn shame given what they had to play with. The animation is very good though.

The movie... it would have been better if it hadn't been Gundam. That type of plot (and enemy) just doesn't work with Gundam.

[Jacksane19]

I loved Gundam Wing, and 08th MS Team was good. I watched Mobile Suit Gundam but found it less enjoyable, and once G Gundam aired in the U.S. I basically stopped watching/reading Gundam in favor of other series. Now that it's been brought up, I might have to check out Unicorn to see if I can get interested in it again.

[ChrisIII]

Used to be a big fan and model collector, but haven't really been keeping up with it these days.


In particular I remember when Gundam was on the cusp of 'crossover' popularity in the early 2000s, thanks primarily to Gundam Wing being released on Cartoon Network and american stores apart from specialty shops started releasing the models, games and toys. However the bubble burst when CN attempted to air the original-which had extremely dated animation (it came out in the late 70s, after all) and was more of a depressing war story than Wing-and some of the other shows and videos, and the popularity of the series waned in the USA. Sure, there's still the DVDs being released (Although some series have yet to be released) and a few video games here and there (Mainly the Dynasty Warriors stuff) but Gundam's USA heyday is over.


In Japan it's doing well as always, it seems though. That statue and everything :)

[C. Earl]

Gundam was as mainstream in the U.S. as any show like that could get during the early 2000s--you could find Gundam toys in nearly every department store, including your local corner Walgreens store--during that time.

But on TV, Gundam was hit and miss. Many of the people who loved Gundam Wing and made that series a ratings hit weren't interested in shows that didn't feature those five particular flyboys, IMO, leaving them to the mercy of only dedicated Gundam viewers and mecha fans in general. IIRC, G Gundam and SD Gundam Force did pretty good, but no Gundam series really did anywhere near as well on Cartoon Network as Gundam Wing (although it wasn't for lack of trying on CN's part, given how many Gundam shows and specials they did air).

Gundam Seed was the franchise's last shot for success on the channel and it just didn't happen. It was eventually banished to CN's "stealth slot" to die a slow, unpromoted death at 4 am CST on Saturday mornings.

I think the demise of Gundam on U.S. television was a contributing factor to Bandai's decision to no longer push Gundam in the U.S. retail market.

[ChrisIII]

Speaking of that, it looks like Turn A Gundam just got shelved and Bandai is out of the DVD market. Which could mean we'll eventually see it on streaming services as they're refocusing on licensing stuff to digital distribution.

[C. Earl]

You may actually start seeing other companies like FUNimation or Sentai Filmworks licensing Bandai shows--like Gundam--for DVD/BR release in North America, IMO. IIRC, Bandai Entertainment was originally set up to be a North America licensing company but wound up releasing stuff themselves.

New Gundam shows like Unicorn will continue to be handled by Bandai Visual Japan, though.