Fall Anime 2011: Gundam Age (Not Quite Gundam)

Posted by Neko Kyou in Thoughts on November 23rd, 2011

I started watching Gundam AGE knowing full well that it’s going to be much more “cartoonish” compared to Gundam SEED, Unicorn and 00. But I was not all that much prepared for what felt like a serious, more life-sized version of SD Gundam.

So the designs so far hasn’t shown anything that great, with the exception of the UE Mobile Suits, which I thought was pretty cool. The first episode of AGE is pretty much the standard fare of most major Gundam series.

Sunrise has gone a bit nuts with the story mechanics by pulling out the ridiculous AGE system. While Gundam has never exactly been “logical”, it has always been somewhat theoretically possible. But now it has gone more towards the pretty much impossible evolution theory as Gurren Lagann, Vandread and Eureka 7.

The AGE system will not only take enemy data to create new equipments, it will do so within seconds. Plus, it will give the new equipment a name to boot!

What’s really interesting about Gundam AGE is how no one still have any clue who the enemy is, even after 14 years of fighting against them. At some point it would seem like the enemy mobile suits are automated without any pilot, but at the same time, it has also taken actions to suggests that there is someone in the cockpit.

Maybe they’re trying to appeal to the younger kids with its new design while at the same time giving old fans some kicks by bringing back the the weird deformity, weird angles and (at times) a story progression that doesn’t really make any sense – like how everyone seems to be fine with sending a little boy out to fight an enemy the army can’t handle without much resistance.

Since we know that Gundam AGE will span across 3 generations, it would be fun to see who Flit, the current main character, will end up with to produce the next generation pilot! ^^;

I actually do look forward to more Gundam AGE to see where Sunrise will take this. The direction AGE is taking is definitely something that we haven’t really seen before in the past and I feel that if we just let loose a little Gundam AGE might actually end up to be really good. Fingers crossed!

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