 |
 |
 |
I know I’ve been running a fever and all, but I didn’t expect to hallucinate that it was 1977.
While my cold seems to be in retreat, it’s Midnight and I’m utterly exhausted from tour-guiding my sisters, with more posts to go, so just a brief first impression sampling today. And we start with Gundam G no Reconguista, which is certainly one of the stranger first episodes I’ve seen in a while. Tomino-sensei certainly forewarned that this was going to be a retro take on the Gundam franchise, but even so I was pretty taken aback by just how retro it was.
I’m not expert enough to swim in the deep waters of franchise canon and where Reconguista fits, so I won’t even try. I will say that the first ep absolutely transported me to early morning watching Japanese imports like Starblazers (Yamato 2199) while eating Golden Grahams, in ways both good and bad. I absolutely love Yoshida Kenichi’s character designs – as always – and the retro look of the series and music is no surprise. But it almost looks as if Sunrise and Tomino have taken the playbook from 30 years ago animation-wise, so authentically old – and sometimes clunky – does Reconguista look.
Content-wise this premiere was decent – I rather liked the cheeky male lead Bellri (played by Mark Ishii in his debut role), who’s decisive and clever without being either too obnoxious or boringly perfect. I’m not too sure about the space pirate played by Shimamura Yuu or the alien “Raraiya Monday” (Fukui Yukari) whose dialogue in the premiere is limited to “G!”, but at least they’re not a bunch of cheerleaders who worship Bellri, flash their panties and talk about finding husbands (not all retro things are good things). There’s some potential for a fun throwback here and anything with a screen full of Yoshida-designed faces is worth a long look, but I’m nowhere near ready to commit to Reconqguista yet.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Maverick05
October 3, 2014 at 5:44 pmHope you get well soon.
I am glad I wasn`t the only one that got the original Gundam vibe while watching this. Episode 2 was released also yesterday, and it was a bit better (except pirate girl). BTW Conquista is suppose to be post-UC or 200 years into the future of original Gundam eventhough models looks more like Turn-A with a feeling of Seed.
Roger
October 4, 2014 at 2:05 amActually, it isn't just 200 years. From what i have read, it is supposed to be 1000 years after UC (Turn A, on the other hand, is supposed to be 3000 years after UC). what I am curious here is what happened to all the space colonies. There doesn't seem to be a mention of them (yet?) here.
I also dig the retro vibe. Rather fitting since it fits in nicely with the fact that G-Reco is in line with the original timeline.
Antony Shepherd
October 3, 2014 at 6:30 pmI've got no nostalgia for Gundam, having only seen bits and bobs here and there over the years (like Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network years ago), but even then I started watching this and it just felt so old-fashioned!
Might give it a go.
gigaknight21
October 3, 2014 at 8:18 pmI did pick up an oddly sexist vibe…
I don't think I've heard a female character have to shout "Girl Power!" to do something a guy just did a second ago in a while. Very 80s indeed.
gigaknight21
October 3, 2014 at 8:20 pm(That's in episode 2 though…spoiler?)
Kairi
October 3, 2014 at 10:37 pmYeah, I wasn't overly fond of the cheerleaders. Especially Noredo. I like their designs but I'm hardly really liking the people behind them. I like Bellri though.
maverickmann84
October 4, 2014 at 2:11 amWait watching Starblazers as a kid? Aren't you too young for that? I thought that aired in the late 70s early 80s?
Roger
October 4, 2014 at 2:55 amReruns. They were doing reruns well into the 90's
admin
October 4, 2014 at 8:37 amYup, they sure were. And maybe longer, unless I'm misremembering.
thedarktower
October 4, 2014 at 11:23 amI know lots of people were really expecting this new Gundam.
TBH, I am not that familiar in the franchise as well, yet, from my understating I could still watch it so…why not?
the premiere definitely reminiscent a nostalgic feeling of past Gundam and is a good thing 'cause this is one of the reasons Gundam G aired. however, I couldn't shake the feeling that after all these years, instead of improving and submit a fine-product, namely new anime mixed with nostalgia, it might gives quite the opposite impression. why is that? well, because the way Gundam G started just felt…idiotic? true, character design along with Sunrise's art and animation gives the series the good looking shape. but the whole beginning with characters and their behavior was way worse than just "flat".
luckily, Bellri fits for the role of the MC perfectly and the 2nd half of episode #1 bring us a good Gundam-fight. this continue to episode #2 when Bellri is on the screen fighting and quickly enough other characters like Aida and Luin become interesting.
I still had that "absurd" feeling-like in episode #2, especially in the beginning, but little by little I could feel things start to sit better.
all in all, Gundam G had a decent start. I believe it has all the tools to be a good mecha anime, but there is still a lot of work to do. I hope they can handle the annoying characters way better and progress the interesting characters along with the story (that has developed some early buds in the 2nd episode). and of course I expect to see even better mecha battles later.
Megaroad1
October 6, 2014 at 8:16 amI feel like Tomino just went and said "the last 30 years of anime are crap. I'll show these young uns how to do it" Sometimes it's good, sometimes unintentionally funny, sometimes faceplam worthy. I love it.
Jetdrag
October 20, 2014 at 10:42 pmI love it, can't wait for more.