Gundam Reconguista in G |OT| Return of the 80s, All Hail the King
- Thread starter yami4ct
- Start date
Gundam Reconguista in G Episodes 1 to 2
I feel like the OP of this show couldn't be more perfect. I mean, from a direction standpoint, it's not very good. Everything about it is eighties as hell, from the freeze-frame title drop at its' beginning, and all the static cuts, really stilted character introductions, and pretty rough transitions (not to mention it seems to be composed almost entirely of reused footage). And yet it's all set to a catchy, modern J-pop theme by Garnidelia where my mind was telling me there had to be trumpets or something. The anachronism is palpable, and I think that it says far more about the show than it probably intended to. It's something that crawled out from a portal to thirty years ago and repackaged itself in modern production and glitz like it tried to flee the time police by flaying and wearing Eureka 7's skin.
But hey, it's a pretty skin. I wouldn't blame it. Yoshida's character designs are predictably pretty great, anyways, and the character animation itself is really solid as well. Eye-searing CG aside, it's a very attractive show. The bright colour design and soft lines makes for a very inviting aesthetic, and the action animation is pretty good, in spite of the dated choreography.
Everything outside this show's visuals just feels exceptionally dated. It's clear in so many of the cuts, techniques (my particular favourite being a screen transition that apparently borrowed from Powerpoint's zoom animation), and general choices of direction just how out of time this show is. The storyboarding and editing itself is messy (rife with some odd, sometimes even jarring breaks) and the writing is pretty all over the place. The show doesn't make any real effort to ease you into things besides a reintroduction to the Minovsky particle and a few peripheral factoids on how certain things function. Factoids that are... ultimately irrelevant to anything that happens afterwards.
Of course, the big issue is that there's pretty much no context for anything as a result. There's nothing to ground yourself on because the show doesn't really want to explain itself or the reasons you should care about certain things. In particular, the state of affairs, the culture, and the politics. It's throwing a bunch of Capital Letter Words at you about Ameria or the Capital Guard or the Izanellian Continent. What is the 'Capital' that these people are guarding? I guess Amerians are the Zeon of this show? Why is the Pope here and what does he do? And are women like, not allowed to be mobile suit pilots? Because there was a pretty clear delineation between males who were pilots and girls who were... cheerleaders. The show is making an assumption that I have a reason to care about any of these things when it's made no effort to make me.
I think my favourite (with a fat asterisk) moment, in this regard, was a moment when Bellri, the main character is just about to explain something about Earth and why it's doing something in particular, is a totally abrupt cut to like two seconds of a mobile suit battle before it cuts back (equally abruptly) to him finishing his explanation, where the character he's telling it to then slaps him presumably for daring to try and contextualize anything about anyone's motivations.
There's showing and telling, this show does neither to a satisfactory degree. Even assuming that this show deigns to explain itself later on, it does not retroactively make up for the audience's time it already wasted with things it presumably knew made no sense.
Not to mention the pretty terrible treatment of most of the female characters thus far. Monday is about as mentally and emotionally mature as a four year old, and has roughly as much agency, Red Cheerleader Girl (on top of having kind of a dumb design) is possibly a sociopath because I can't rationalize any other reason for her
. Aida herself seems like an... okay character, except for the part where she's apparently at the center of a misfortune vortex where everything seems to go wrong for everyone around her.
Also, the Reglid Century version of the Haro (the Harobe, apparently) is a horrific abomination of nature.
Eugh.
I give it two out of five slaps to the face. Will keep watching to fill in the space between the real Gundam show of the season.
I feel like the OP of this show couldn't be more perfect. I mean, from a direction standpoint, it's not very good. Everything about it is eighties as hell, from the freeze-frame title drop at its' beginning, and all the static cuts, really stilted character introductions, and pretty rough transitions (not to mention it seems to be composed almost entirely of reused footage). And yet it's all set to a catchy, modern J-pop theme by Garnidelia where my mind was telling me there had to be trumpets or something. The anachronism is palpable, and I think that it says far more about the show than it probably intended to. It's something that crawled out from a portal to thirty years ago and repackaged itself in modern production and glitz like it tried to flee the time police by flaying and wearing Eureka 7's skin.
But hey, it's a pretty skin. I wouldn't blame it. Yoshida's character designs are predictably pretty great, anyways, and the character animation itself is really solid as well. Eye-searing CG aside, it's a very attractive show. The bright colour design and soft lines makes for a very inviting aesthetic, and the action animation is pretty good, in spite of the dated choreography.
Everything outside this show's visuals just feels exceptionally dated. It's clear in so many of the cuts, techniques (my particular favourite being a screen transition that apparently borrowed from Powerpoint's zoom animation), and general choices of direction just how out of time this show is. The storyboarding and editing itself is messy (rife with some odd, sometimes even jarring breaks) and the writing is pretty all over the place. The show doesn't make any real effort to ease you into things besides a reintroduction to the Minovsky particle and a few peripheral factoids on how certain things function. Factoids that are... ultimately irrelevant to anything that happens afterwards.
Of course, the big issue is that there's pretty much no context for anything as a result. There's nothing to ground yourself on because the show doesn't really want to explain itself or the reasons you should care about certain things. In particular, the state of affairs, the culture, and the politics. It's throwing a bunch of Capital Letter Words at you about Ameria or the Capital Guard or the Izanellian Continent. What is the 'Capital' that these people are guarding? I guess Amerians are the Zeon of this show? Why is the Pope here and what does he do? And are women like, not allowed to be mobile suit pilots? Because there was a pretty clear delineation between males who were pilots and girls who were... cheerleaders. The show is making an assumption that I have a reason to care about any of these things when it's made no effort to make me.
I think my favourite (with a fat asterisk) moment, in this regard, was a moment when Bellri, the main character is just about to explain something about Earth and why it's doing something in particular, is a totally abrupt cut to like two seconds of a mobile suit battle before it cuts back (equally abruptly) to him finishing his explanation, where the character he's telling it to then slaps him presumably for daring to try and contextualize anything about anyone's motivations.
There's showing and telling, this show does neither to a satisfactory degree. Even assuming that this show deigns to explain itself later on, it does not retroactively make up for the audience's time it already wasted with things it presumably knew made no sense.
Not to mention the pretty terrible treatment of most of the female characters thus far. Monday is about as mentally and emotionally mature as a four year old, and has roughly as much agency, Red Cheerleader Girl (on top of having kind of a dumb design) is possibly a sociopath because I can't rationalize any other reason for her
shooting Aida who was teetering off a tower with her slingshot that by her own admission, could have killed her
Is that Captain guy dying (in what was an absurdly out of nowhere and forced series of events) like... Aida's fault or something? I feel like it was supposed to be, but everything about that scene is ridiculously unclear. And... am I supposed to be sympathetic towards Aida, who just got someone clearly important to her killed in front of her for what seems like no reason, or thinking poorly of her for... being ungrateful like all the other characters seem to be treating her.
Also, the Reglid Century version of the Haro (the Harobe, apparently) is a horrific abomination of nature.
Eugh.
I give it two out of five slaps to the face. Will keep watching to fill in the space between the real Gundam show of the season.
I laughed really, really hard when this happened. I was like "So Tomino is just blatantly choosing not to answer questions the audience would like to know?"
This is a normal day in Tomino's directing life. Misdirection and unusual flow.
It was so blatant I can only assume it's going to be a giant twist later on and he just couldn't come up with a way to hide the twist.
I was certain I was being trolled. I'm not sure if the knowledge that the show is totally cogent about the fact it's explained nothing of itself or its' setting and is simply choosing not to do anything about it made it better or actually just made it worse.
kiunchbb
www.dictionary.com
Just finish both episode, yep this is gundam show alright. The happy tone of the show remind me of ZZ, hopefully it will end the same. Anyone know how many episodes they are releasing? I wouldn't be surprise if it is another 50 episodes season.
So many unexplained plot and backstory, they intentionally skip most of those stuffs and dive right into action. I guess this is how they plan to trick the kids into watching a show about war and politic.
So many unexplained plot and backstory, they intentionally skip most of those stuffs and dive right into action. I guess this is how they plan to trick the kids into watching a show about war and politic.
Ain't it great?
kuroneko0509
Member
It should be 25 iinm, unless they're having one or two season break to push another ~25 episodes.
BeatResetsTheWorld
Banned
Some of you are acting like you've never seen a TV series that doesn't explain everything in the first ep before. You'd have a point if we were nearing the end but FFS, complaining about mysteries is completely asinine this early on. The main characters haven't even all been named yet! And we know only 2 mobile suit model names
24-25 right now. It could get signed to a second season or something, but I don't think I'd expect it. Given that's the case, Tomino's going to have to turn his "shit got crazy" schedule up to a much faster speed to fit it all in. Limiting this show to 1/2 the length of the normal Gundam series is going to be a good thing overall. At least, I hope.
There's a difference between 'doesn't explain everything' and 'explains practically nothing'.
And I don't think asking for the amount of context that the show assumes you but doesn't give counts as a 'mystery'. No, I don't think that the answer to what the Capital is (or who the hell the Pope is, or literally anything about the state of the world) so that we may have some degree of context to know why we should give a fuck about whatever they're doing, is going to be some sort of major revelation that needs to be shrouded for the best effect. It's a baseline from which we can attach meaning to the Capital Letter Words that the show throws in your face, and it's a baseline that the show actively does not. It is something that clearly everyone in the show knows, but the audience doesn't because Tomino, in a best case scenario, just wants to fuck with people.
I can accept when a show doesn't explain itself when it uses other forms of language to communicate ideas, or it's inherently more surreal or abstract in nature. There are occasions where I can accept and feel that the show has told me all I need to know. G Reco has not done this, because it's neither subtle enough to say what it needs to say without direct exposition, intelligent enough to frame things in a way that keeps the audience from asking questions, or abstract enough to excuse narrative inconsistency. It runs ahead, leaves you to figure out how to catch up, and leaves oil slicks in its' wake as you try to.
A lot of people were speculating that the civilization in G-Reco would be the one that got Moonlight Butterfly'd
Gundam Reconguista in G- [1-2]
Well so far he seems right on the money. If I ever have kids, I'll try to get their opinion as well.
There are definitely heavy elements from the 1980s such as the camerawork, blatant sexism, physical abuse, artificial grain usage to simulate cel work, and the soundtrack. In some ways the show so far reminds me of a shitty version of Turn-A. And I didn't even like Turn-A that much.
So going in, I had a fairly good idea that the writing was going to be abysmal and I was correct. What is shocking for me though, is that there is one category worse than the writing, the editing. There are scenes that just jump with no reason or flow and so just create this mishmash of things happening without any sort of proper buildup. This is especially the case in the 2nd episode where there are numerous examples of 'jumps'. One scene near the end was supposed to be dramatic but due to the editing just comes off as stupid and confusing. There is just no direction at all in any of this.
So going back to the writing, why should I give a fuck about any of these characters? There's been little to no characterization on anybody's part. One of the girls seemingly has brain damage. The main character hates piracy I think. Don't ask me why. He hates pirates so much that he tries to
. If the Capital is supposed to be this dictatorial force, why is their military so incompetent? They don't have an elite response team or even semi-decent guards? How can some random space pirates just come in and
? There's some stuff in the first episode that made me go huh, like the cheerleaders being on that 'train'.
The storyboarding of the action sequences are weird in that there are definitely some good cuts in there but the camera is just too damn close to the mechs at times, which makes it hard to tell what is happening. Much of it though, there just isn't that much animation. The whole show just doesn't have much animation going on and so many scenes just feel really stilted.
The show is a mess.
Tomino said:
Well so far he seems right on the money. If I ever have kids, I'll try to get their opinion as well.
This is a literal explanation in the show. No, there are no more lines to this scene. I am dead serious.
There are definitely heavy elements from the 1980s such as the camerawork, blatant sexism, physical abuse, artificial grain usage to simulate cel work, and the soundtrack. In some ways the show so far reminds me of a shitty version of Turn-A. And I didn't even like Turn-A that much.
So going in, I had a fairly good idea that the writing was going to be abysmal and I was correct. What is shocking for me though, is that there is one category worse than the writing, the editing. There are scenes that just jump with no reason or flow and so just create this mishmash of things happening without any sort of proper buildup. This is especially the case in the 2nd episode where there are numerous examples of 'jumps'. One scene near the end was supposed to be dramatic but due to the editing just comes off as stupid and confusing. There is just no direction at all in any of this.
So going back to the writing, why should I give a fuck about any of these characters? There's been little to no characterization on anybody's part. One of the girls seemingly has brain damage. The main character hates piracy I think. Don't ask me why. He hates pirates so much that he tries to
rescue the pirate prisoner
ruin a VIP party
There's so much garbage in both episodes that don't serve a function in either the narrative or characters. A perfect example is the MC running into that wall in the building. What the fuck? He finds her in less than a minute afterwards. Why does that scene exist? Was it supposed to be funny?
The storyboarding of the action sequences are weird in that there are definitely some good cuts in there but the camera is just too damn close to the mechs at times, which makes it hard to tell what is happening. Much of it though, there just isn't that much animation. The whole show just doesn't have much animation going on and so many scenes just feel really stilted.
The show is a mess.
I would love to see Awakened Turn A in anime form and not game form one of these days.
Rawr Its Ry
Member
Currently watching Ep 1...this shit is like Victory Gundam so far, i'm somewhat confused lol. The art style is dope as fuck though, this feels very Tomino like...which is cool.
BUT...
I DONT WANT HAROBEE, I WANT NORMAL HARO ;___;
BUT...
I DONT WANT HAROBEE, I WANT NORMAL HARO ;___;
I hope the show ends with just enough to make it obvious that it is intended as a Turn-A prequel but with enough inconsistencies and holes that it doesn't really match up with Turn-A at all. That would be such a Tomino thing to do. He just doesn't give a fuck.
I hope it ends up retconning Turn A out of existence! THAT would be such a Tomino thing to do.
Oh man, the last few episodes should totally build up to "Operation Moonlight", only for the finale to be the main characters abandoning the mission and eloping instead. And the final scene will be something like "what happened to the mission?" "oh we didn't feel like it!" and then the bride throws the bouquet. ~fin~
RyougaSaotome
Member
What a wacky first few episodes. It feels a whole lot like Turn-A, which is a-ok with me considering I think that's his best Gundam series by far, issues and all.
A total blast.
A total blast.
distantmantra
Member
Is everyone European and/or in Japan now?
Goddamn region lock.
Goddamn region lock.
Australians are getting it too, I believe.
God dang Sunrise/Bandai for overcharging for the North American region
Can you imagine? A Gundam series where Tomino isn't allowed to meander for 5 episodes in a desert?
Now you'll just get 2 1/2 episodes of desert wandering! That's just a little more than what Unicorn had.
As long as Bellri has the same brand of chicken soup that BananaG had when he was there with George Zimmerman.
Will we get some "deep" philosophical discussion about the state of the human condition while our characters stare at the stars?
I actually liked that scene quite a bit, even as overbearing as it was.
Not like that would be difficult.
For what it's worth, I consider Gundam SEED season 1 as the best Gundam series,
followed by Gundams Unicorn and Wing.
The older ones just bored me to tears. Their soundtracks were also unremarkable.
I actually kinda liked that scene, too. And the ones involving Zinerman and Marida. The funny thing is I wanna say that with a small amount more of restraint UC would've been perfect for me, but after reading Megalosoro's posts about how the book is I say the show exercised considerable restraint, really.
The mech collection in the ED is so frigging boss.
Love the SEED Meteor Unit/00 GN-Arms notes that the design has. Love mobile suits that connect into mobile armor units.
TheVampire
Banned
I thought this sucked and the animation is crappy.
Ok guys, now that the first episode aired, I guess we need to discuss a spoiler policy, particularly in regards to new kits. Here's what I'm proposing. Discussion of suits based on model kit/magazine scans is fair game unless they have an obviously huge plot spoiler in them. Any discussion of actual info, like from some sort of episode description, has to be spoilered.
Alternate policy, all future content has to be spoiler tagged.
I'll leave it up to what you guys would like the most.
Alternate policy, all future content has to be spoiler tagged.
I'll leave it up to what you guys would like the most.
*thumbs up*
Episode 1-2
Long and short, I absolutely loved this show, but I'm square in the sights of who this show is targeting so I can't say I come at this from an unbiased position. Turn A vibes all over it. That's not to say they're isn't a ton of problems with the show, there are, so I guess I might a well get those out of the way first.
First problem, the editing is god awful. No sense of scene flow, hard cuts all over, really strange shot placement. Just a mess. Dialogue is typical Tomino, which is to say, its really bad. The treatment of women is still pretty offensive. I'm hoping it doesn't get worse with Aida seemingly set to prominent role, but I'm not holding my breath. No where is this more apparent than with Raraiya. Going into the show, I thought she was going to be more of an Eureka character. Mysterious girl with a connection to the main mech. What she is is so much worse and less interesting. She'll probably get better, but as long as she's like this she's pretty much insufferable. As for feeling lost in the first two episodes, it wasn't too bad for me. I feel like a lot of that is due to the fact that I read some plot summaries that introduced the world the show takes place in. That info the show itself should give off, so I'm not saying it's a forgivable flaw, but it wasn't a problem for me.
Onto what I really like about the show. I'm loving G-Reco's world so far. The mix of a glamorous overworked with hints of a dark, exploitative underbelly is just the type of setting Tomino can really shine with. One of the other things I like is how different Bellri is from your typical Gundam protagonist. I love that he doesn't agonize over the fact that combat is happening and is willing to jump in because its the right thing to do. I see a lot of potential in watching him change as the darker sides of the RC start to become apparent. Should be a fun story line.
The main thing that really, really got me is the animation and the technical design. It's just a gorgeous show to look at. The mechanical design is awesome in a way that I really expect from UC shows. All the little details of how these machines and the world operate feel thought out and make sense. Little things like the way Bellri swipes camera views around his cockpit screen, how the Fed grunt suits have remote camera eyes, and how the Crowns are wired guided mobile suit transports really makes the world feel like a real evolution of the UC timeline. Other things like the way the spacesuits have belt loops to tuck the gloves into so they don't fly off when not in use is another little thing that really made the world believable to me.
One of the things I noticed most is how the color palette of the show really seems to reflect the image we're supposed to get of the Reguild Century. The name and what we've seen so far are really amplified by the bright colors. It feels like this is supposed to be a real golden era for the Gundam world. Everything is so bright and clean. Technology is so advanced and the world feels filled with optimism. This is then wonderfully contrasted with the very existence of the Space Pirates, who's very existence suggest that the higher ups in the Royal Government are putting on the "golden era" image of the RC as a front to perhaps control the populous. It's a story custom built for Tomino and I can't wait to see if he can pull it off the way I think he can.
I'll end by saying, damn if the ED isn't the most Tomino thing ever. Really reflective of the old Gundam themes. Repetitious, uses the show name and has a catchy tune. Terrible in the best way. I love it.
Long and short, I absolutely loved this show, but I'm square in the sights of who this show is targeting so I can't say I come at this from an unbiased position. Turn A vibes all over it. That's not to say they're isn't a ton of problems with the show, there are, so I guess I might a well get those out of the way first.
First problem, the editing is god awful. No sense of scene flow, hard cuts all over, really strange shot placement. Just a mess. Dialogue is typical Tomino, which is to say, its really bad. The treatment of women is still pretty offensive. I'm hoping it doesn't get worse with Aida seemingly set to prominent role, but I'm not holding my breath. No where is this more apparent than with Raraiya. Going into the show, I thought she was going to be more of an Eureka character. Mysterious girl with a connection to the main mech. What she is is so much worse and less interesting. She'll probably get better, but as long as she's like this she's pretty much insufferable. As for feeling lost in the first two episodes, it wasn't too bad for me. I feel like a lot of that is due to the fact that I read some plot summaries that introduced the world the show takes place in. That info the show itself should give off, so I'm not saying it's a forgivable flaw, but it wasn't a problem for me.
Onto what I really like about the show. I'm loving G-Reco's world so far. The mix of a glamorous overworked with hints of a dark, exploitative underbelly is just the type of setting Tomino can really shine with. One of the other things I like is how different Bellri is from your typical Gundam protagonist. I love that he doesn't agonize over the fact that combat is happening and is willing to jump in because its the right thing to do. I see a lot of potential in watching him change as the darker sides of the RC start to become apparent. Should be a fun story line.
The main thing that really, really got me is the animation and the technical design. It's just a gorgeous show to look at. The mechanical design is awesome in a way that I really expect from UC shows. All the little details of how these machines and the world operate feel thought out and make sense. Little things like the way Bellri swipes camera views around his cockpit screen, how the Fed grunt suits have remote camera eyes, and how the Crowns are wired guided mobile suit transports really makes the world feel like a real evolution of the UC timeline. Other things like the way the spacesuits have belt loops to tuck the gloves into so they don't fly off when not in use is another little thing that really made the world believable to me.
One of the things I noticed most is how the color palette of the show really seems to reflect the image we're supposed to get of the Reguild Century. The name and what we've seen so far are really amplified by the bright colors. It feels like this is supposed to be a real golden era for the Gundam world. Everything is so bright and clean. Technology is so advanced and the world feels filled with optimism. This is then wonderfully contrasted with the very existence of the Space Pirates, who's very existence suggest that the higher ups in the Royal Government are putting on the "golden era" image of the RC as a front to perhaps control the populous. It's a story custom built for Tomino and I can't wait to see if he can pull it off the way I think he can.
I'll end by saying, damn if the ED isn't the most Tomino thing ever. Really reflective of the old Gundam themes. Repetitious, uses the show name and has a catchy tune. Terrible in the best way. I love it.