While a part of me admires the craft behind it, I can’t deny that I kind of hate this show. The sheer crassness of it stacks up with the most cynical anime productions of all-time. That would be bad enough if the talent behind it weren’t as legendary as they are. There isn’t a moment so far that isn’t expertly calculated with the bottom line in mind. I hate that it’s going to work, too, though the people involved are too smart to go to the trouble if they weren’t pretty sure it was.
What’s happened here, as far as I can tell, is that Anno, Tsurumaki and co. did a shot for shot remake of the 1979 premiere of Kidou Senshi Gundam. Same sound effects, BGM, everything. With some tweaks to sell the current mecha designs, of course, and to set up a new timeline. And a new seiyuu for Char, which is interesting. Clearly this is an overture to win over the hardcore Gundam fans who might not be that thrilled to see their franchise being used as a straight-up pretext to peddle yuri bait (again).
What’s really ballsy, though, is that they flipped the order from the theatrical release – in which the events of this episode came before the events of the TV premiere. That’s the level of calculation going on here – in the theatre version, we need to hook in the Gundam fans before we flip the yuri switch. In the TV version, we need to capture the yuri fans before we make the unavoidable overtures to the actual franchise. As I said, part of me admires it for its sheer audaciousness – and shamelessness – and the skill with which it’s being brought off.
What a thing, seriously. When I think of where we are with the likes of Anno, Tsurumaki, and Watanabe Shinichirou it makes me glad that anime’s past is the past. I’m glad it exists – no one loves FLCL and Eva more than I do – but I’m also glad these aren’t the people setting the agenda for anime now (just exploiting it). Either way – they’re disinterested in being more than self-plagiarists or fashion chasers or unable to break out of their own gravitational field – they’re creatively irrelevant. It just makes Miyazaki Hayao that much more admirable for being a stubborn old fuck who pursues what he wants to, irrespective of what’s expected of him or the impact on the bottom line.
Raikou
April 17, 2025 at 5:42 pmI wonder what’s Tomino’s opinion on this..
Gundam the Origin OVA movie explore Char’s past, but this is clearly an alternative take on the original with yuribait, which makes me wonder can’t you make an original Gundam storyline anymore? Or are you just want to please both ways (yurifans and old gundam fans)? Bandai really doesn’t want to take risks huh.
Gundam and Old Gainax is my dream collab, and I was expecting Gundam X Khara to get pretty close to that, but seems like this is another Witch from Mercury, a safe take of Gundam franchise for new audiences.
sonicsenryaku
April 18, 2025 at 1:09 amThe vibes I was getting for why the premiere switch happened was that it just made more sense from a broadcasting perspective to do it this way. As a theatrical treat, it follows that you’d want to reward all 10 gundam fans showing up to the screening with the alternate retelling of the one-year war right away, as it sets the stage for everything that’s gonna follow. Broadcasting-wise, newer fans of Gundam would be SOOOOOOOO lost having been shown episode 2 as the premiere to the point of alienation, so it’s more functional to give them a scenario they can connect to first, then rewind back to the past. All of that is to say that this broadcast decision feels more like a compromise to better get audiences onboard with the series’ vision than it does some corporatized scheme (although I won’t write off that possibility completely).
At the end of the day, this show is a fan letter from nerds of the franchise who are finally getting their chance to put their -isms into its legacy: the PV’s had already made it clear where the series would be going, so people who went into this, whether theatrical first or broadcast, knew what they were getting themselves into. It didn’t come off to me as some flaccid product being made just to fill a bottom line by pulling off calculated manipulation tactic, but one with the goal of flexing production talent and the storytelling quirks of its designers. Apparently Anno really wanted to handle episode 2 because it was his chance to a walk a mile in the footprints of Gundam history and essentially write his own fanfic of the one-year war, hence the choices made in said episode.
So far, I’m not completely blown away by this project, but I am interested in seeing how it develops given the pedigree of the crew on deck. Again, Gquacks feels like a project made by fans of gundam who are in it to have their own brand of fun with its lore and tropes; and since I quite like these guys and understand what their creative intent seems to be, I’m down to watch them chill and make garage anime together; there’s value in that, even if it may not end up a profound work.
Seems these days Anno, Tsuramki, and Enokido are more interested in working on things they can genuinely have fun expressing themselves through rather than pursuing art for just the sake of profundity, which makes sense to me if you’ve been following these guys and their development over the years. Specifically Anno, I think a guy like him is just done with obsessing over his legacy or hanging on the approval of his idolized mentors; it was just too depressing for him: he’s finally found the self-actualization necessary to live his life the way he finds most comfortable artistically, whether or not that means he’ll make something as profound as Eva, or Kare Kano, or Love & Pop, or even Gunbuster ever again.
I think being able to reach that point in your life is a healthy thing, so as long as you maintain at least some meaningful semblance of integrity for who you are as an artist. Suffering under the expectations of people who expect you to follow the legacy of a great work with one that upholds the quality of your past catalogue or surpasses it almost never benefits the creator: at some point, a personal choice is made to slow down and work on passion projects removed from the shackles of needing to be recognized as “the next masterpiece from X person” or sell the fuck out, pretending you’ve changed artistic approaches when you’re actually just pandering to the demographic that yields the most money (don’t do this, folks). I personally don’t think Anno and crew have quite gotten to this point yet; although who knows, maybe Gbacku may serve as the trumpets signaling that downfall; I’m willing to take this journey and discover the truth
Then you have someone like Miyazaki, who doesn’t know anything else but a life of trying to surpass himself, as he can never truly be satisfied with his output :D; men like him will live and die by their herculean standards of what it means to produce art; and while I’m able to stand in awe at the sheer willpower it takes to try reinventing one’s self creatively, never settling for anything less, I don’t know how practical that is long-term or if it can ever be true happiness.
For Miyazaki, I imagine fulfillment is perpetually fleeting, as right after he creates, he thinks he needs to do better or else he’s failing himself; what an internal struggle to be forever locked in. Few auteurs are ever able to stave this off, and when they do, a large part of it has to do with tempering their output and only releasing art infrequently. …………..Anyway, I’ll be following Gquackity quack to see where it goes
Jen
April 18, 2025 at 11:20 amNever seen a gundam show officially, quite some years ago I mistakenly thought full metal panic was, but a friend took me to the theatres to see this one. I don’t think it’s as cynical as you’re making it out to be, but I’ll follow along still. As a newbie there are so many terms I’m unfamiliar with such as spacenoids, the importance of Char, etc. but I’m not entirely bought in as I still don’t know what to make of it this far in. I am happy to meet the last seeming main stay character, Shuji, and see where it goes beyond the three episodes.
Personally I didn’t think much of the reordering. There’s some cut stuff from the movie that wasn’t shown in episode 2 that I suspect will be shown much later as the series progresses.
Kurik
April 19, 2025 at 5:19 amNot the gundam i was hoping for and not a big fan of all the cgi and way too much detail on the gundams…..Story hasn’t pulled me in so far but its a new ‘serious’ gundam so will watch for a while longer…fingers crossed it improves.