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The Gundam 00 Special Edition movies 2 and 3 are pretty good. As someone who enjoyed s1 more than s2, SE does a great job of truncating s2 into two 100 minute films, cutting a lot of the filler and excessive number of Innovators and makes the whole thing overall a bit more cohesive.
Sadly SE1, though great for watching some action scenes, cuts a lot of the smaller character moments , particularly Saji and Louise and their families' stories, as it's trying to fit 25 episodes into a single movie instead of two.
We don't get to see any of Kinue's investigations, nor spend time with Louise's mother, both of which add to the tragedy which comes later. While that moment remains in the film, it loses a lot of pact from having barely spent time with these people.
I loved their storyline because it reflected the lives of two people essentially so far removed from the central conflict and yet through tragic happenstance became embroiled in it nonetheless. You need that romcom dynamic of theirs to start with, otherwise there's no contrast.
Similarly, some of the big deaths don't get time to breathe, and I think especially that one big death towards the end loses something by not going almost immediately into the ED song Friends by Stephanie.
So for me, the ideal watch order is Season 1 in full, Special Edition films 2 and 3, and then A Wakening of The Trailblazer.
#anime#gundam 00#mobile suit gundam#films#gundam 00 special edition#gundam oo#thoughts#saji crossroad#kinue crossroad#louise halevy
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Gwitch and Minimum Viable Queerness
Trusting companies to make queer art is always asking for heart break even when it really and deeply seems like they made some queer art. However, despite my love for Gundam: The Witch From Mercury it must be said there is plenty of issues with the show that pointed towards the direction they have gone now that we've entered the post release era.
In the magazine Gundam Ace they edited our a writer stating that Sulleta and Mio were married. They apologized for that statement ever making it in to begin with on Twitter the X gonna give to you dot bomb with this.
This obviously lead to tons of angry fans and queer folks but it wasn't like this came out of nowhere. Despite some people saying it's just "western brained losers" or something that thought there was queer bait in the Witch From Mercury there is something that queer people forget which is that most straight cis people literally have no brain cells. They espically have an inability to see sapphic relationships as real or valid.
Gundam The Witch From Mercury was explicit, more explicit than a lot of media but they intentionally excluded the three universal signifiers of romantic or sexual love from the show despite it being centered for all 24 episodes around the Sulmio engagement. These three signifiers are an "I love you" "I Love You too", a kiss, or fucking. Gundam is a toy commercial for kids so while sex is probably not on the table it isn't actually even off the table for Gundam given the series history has had off scene sex and bad stuff too like adult women trying to seduce like a 10 year old boy. So like these shows aren't afraid to do some shit. Many say that Gundam doesn't do kisses that is a lie, Z, 00, Seed, and Iron Blooded Orphans's all have done kisses. I love yous also happen across the series, the end of G Gundam has a special love attack that blows up the last boss.
This is all to say Gundam: The Witch From Mercury activated a strategy corporate media called minimum viable queerness. In order to get the gay dollar, to seem progressive, whatever it may be a company will do as little gay as they can get away with to get the gays actively invested in their art. Ultimately, their aim is to have it be blaringly obvious to queer folks but invisible to the hets. The show also did the minimum viable amount of women making sure the men had utterly meaningless fights near the end just for women to be on screen less. These fights involve men who are not either of the main two girls getting mad at each other for some kind of connection or action towards one of the girls. These take up a significant amount of the second seasons run time not to mention one of these men got a full episode devoted to him. Meanwhile the main couple of the show was away from each other for the vast majority of episodes, almost never in the same room and almost exclusively on somewhat bad terms.
In the show Sulleta is the main character but in season one she is mostly piloting against men with one fight against a pair of girls near the end. Chuchu is given sidekick pilot status and lives to the end but she doesn't get her own highlighted battle ever unlike a side side character in Guel's brother who gets a major fight against his brother weighted against the fate of quite zero and Sulleta and Ariel fighting. Which comes after Guel fought Shadiq for no reason which came after Guel fighting Sulleta again for Ariel which came after Guel trying to survive in a mech when he was stuck on earth earlier. Guel was in a mech 1 more time than Sulleta was in season 2. The two other witch girls die in their first and second time respectively of being in a gundam in season 2 and the second of the pair gets maybe a word in with our main character her whole existence and never talks to our secondary main character at all. The action is still in large part being given to men even in the woman centric series.
And in this "queer centered" story we see very explicit delectations of feelings from Guel, Shadiq, Petra and Lauda which are all heterosexual ontop of all the adult characters being hetero, implied hetero E5 with Nora dying for considering being with a man and E5 sexually harassing Sulleta. The series overwhelming overcompensates for it's queerness by aggressively pushing straightness and in particular having other main characters want our lesbians heterosexually.
This does not mean that the writers or animations didn't want to be more explicit or that they did a bad job. they did a great job but we cannot know what is Namco Bandai and what is Sunrise. We just can't but it seems given recent statements that likely Bandai was very hands on in controlling the show. Not to mention giving it's first woman lead series a much shorter run time than most other Gundam series got and intentionally closing it off from an easy sequel series despite it being the most profitable series ever for them.
It appears to me as if Namco Bandai's intention was to convert a bunch of lesbians into gundam fan and throw mild gay bait at us to keep us coming now that we converted, far less explicit than Sulleta and Mio but attempting to ride it out in good faith and have us enjoy the men shows that appealed to boys to not break their delusion that they are making a boys toy for boys. Feeding us right into more Gundam Seed is like trying to choke out any potential life and I think we're gonna see a decline in Gundam sales following Gwitch representing the betrayal of these sapphic fans but more so simply the lack of interest in the bar being lowered.
As fans of Gwitch we need to demand better, it does work, we've seen companies fix statements about Sailor Uranus and Neptune before and other similar instances. We can also make them see if they want to reach the high highs again we need the great shit we get in Gwitch but then even more that the minimum we'll let them get away with is far more than the last time.
If you enjoyed this post consider throwing me some money on Patreon to help me make actually queer art without corporations controlling my voice. I'm hoping to write a bit more about minimum viable queerness in the future but I wanted to really just talk about this while I was mad about it and get it up there. Anyway, back to the writing mines with me, hope you have a great day and go out there and be gay.
#miorine rembran#suletta mercury#sulemio#Gwitch#G witch#gundam the witch from mercury#Gundam#Queerness#Lesbians#Queer Theory#Gwitch Spoilers
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Gundam Unicorn OVA 1: Day of the Unicorn
I enjoyed this quite a lot.
Banagher is a responsible father. Stick a "baby on board" decal on the back of his work mech.
I think it's probably pretty rare for fans who don't know Japanese to read the Unicorn novels before watching the anime. They weren't even fully translated until well after the anime finished airing. Even nowadays, when we have the full fan TL available, I doubt many people decide "Yes, I will read an edited machine translation of ten light novels, even though I know the series has been adapted into seven anime episodes of movie length and quality and I have never watched them". It was novel-only character information that first caught my interest, though, so I get to do it the unusual way.
Will this make a difference in my perception of the anime? Who knows. I don't actually know much about what fan reception was like back in 2010-2014, in either the west or Japan.
Thoughts below.
I'll start with complaints first, since I have only one:
👎 Removed all textual and visual indication of Banagher being multiracial / Syam being Middle Eastern.
Why did they do this. I was genuinely surprised and disappointed to see this from Gundam, since the franchise has a history of diverse casts all the way back to 1979. Gundam 00 would have finished airing just a year before this came out, and that had two brown-skinned Middle Eastern protagonists. Did they hit a quota or something?
Things I really liked:
👍 Everything is beautiful.
It's so pretty. The way characters and expressions are drawn is pretty. The mechs are pretty. The death lasers and the resulting explosions are pretty.
The backgrounds! Ship interiors, industrial sites, the signs and posters in the city. It's all gorgeous.
👍 Robot Status: Wow, Cool
I looove the design of the cockpits and UI. I'd already seen the same setup used in Hathaway's Flash, but it’s not any less impressive here. It's so cool. It's SO cool. I love watching the little markers for the funnels pop up.
The mixing of 3D and 2D for complex scenes is pretty seamless, except for the bit at the very end where the Unicorn transforms. My suspension of disbelief can easily survive a few seconds of recognizable CGI.
God, the robots are cool. I love seeing the Kshatriya in motion.
👍Great use of one of my favourite little Gundam things: characters moving around in zero / reduced gravity.
There are some real weird shots in this one.
I love specialized architecture and infrastructure for low gravity environments! I love characters who are accustomed to living in space being strangely indifferent to the concept of up and down! I love deliberately confusing or unsettling camera angles! Raaaaah!!!
👍👍👍👍👍 MUSIC
It's good music.
The part of the score where the violins start going sour while Cardeas threatens Banagher, until it's just an ugly atonal mess? Love that.
I like that spooky echo sound they use sometimes-- I'm genuinely not sure whether it's built into the music tracks or an added sound effect? I interpreted it at first as an indication of Newtype Shenanigans, but it also seemed to show up in other moments that were dramatic or had a lot of deaths. Though I suppose a lot of people dying is something newtypes would pick up, so maybe it still is meant to represent that. I don't know. The sound is cool.
Some miscellaneous commentary, mostly but not exclusively about comparisons the novels:
Things move more quickly in the OVA than the novels, and the audience knows less about the characters. This is an inherent difference of medium and format. We spend less time inside the characters' heads, and this can give a very different first impression-- particularly of Banagher as the protagonist.
My impression of OVA Banagher is that he's a daydreamer, longing for something he can't place. Novel Banagher can also be described this way, but at least to me he felt more worn down and resigned in his detachment. The anime version has more of a wistful, almost romantic vibe. Maybe it's just those big ol' eyes.
Once he's seen the Unicorn, OVA Banagher has some kind of switch flip in his brain. From that point on, as soon as he gets an impulse, he is GOING. We aren't privy to any of his internal deliberation, just the snap decisions as they happen. He seems a lot more confident without his internal thoughts narrating everything, but also less socially aware.
Here's an actual change for you: in the OVA, Banagher actively volunteers to help Audrey get to the colony builder when she starts to leave. In the novel, she directly asks for his help-- and he says no!
He felt a pull to help when he saw she was in danger, but after they crashed he could hear police sirens. He didn't want to get in any more trouble after his little stunt, so she called him spineless and ran off. He has a whole little arc where he tries to just go back to school like nothing happened until Marida shows up and literally twists his arm. The guilt of ratting Audrey out is the push that makes him change his mind and go after her.
Some of the scenes this change skips were cute, but getting more of Banagher hanging out with Mineva when they aren't being actively chased is nice. It's also just a smartly economical use of time. I do think the change makes Banagher feel meaningfully different, though.
I was fond of him being a little more conflicted and moody, but there's also something really funny about a guy who so single-mindedly barrels into situations. He really does seem supernaturally compelled.
Just a laser guided missile of a boy. Hyperfocus: maximum.
Knowing a bit less about characters like Audrey and Marida works very well. We know about as much as Banagher.
Audrey is obviously someone important, but they don't even say the word "princess" until the VERY end-- like four minutes left on the runtime. They never drop her real name. We get all that through narration long before this in the novels (as well as a lot more direct discussion of the Sleeves and Zeon in general).
We get ZERO interiority or backstory for Riddhe in this first one. His first introduction is saving Audrey and Banagher's friends. They pointedly show you his little airplane charm with a special sound effect for like, two seconds maybe, so quickly you can barely process what it is. Very interesting.
We also know less about Banagher's mom… not necessarily a LOT less, but enough to feel like she's being kept a mystery.
Trust the process, Banagher.
This whole scene-- especially the face journey Banagher goes through-- is lovely.
Marida's civilian disguise is better in this version. Like, in-universe, I mean. She's serious and imposing at a glance in this coat look, which is important when we don't get to see her terrorize and physically overpower Banagher. Probably the right choice to redesign the look, but I did like the novel's gag of her being dressed like sharp-dressed secretary except conspicuously wearing sports shoes so she can still run and fight.
Very fun framing here of Cardeas' dramatic lore dump about newtypes, where it's being told over cool mech combat for the audience, but then they cut back to Zinnerman, who is already sick to bastard death of this guy. Stop expositing, old man, I'm here for a business transaction.
I always love when characters see a Gundam and just say "Gundam". It's good every time.
Gundam.
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of course, how could i have been so foolish......... actually we've discussed at length what media floyd would've been in, what about clay? have you given it some thought?
i think hes into quintessential "nerd shit", especially stuff that was popular in the 90s-early 00s originating from japan (or the troll equivalent of japan. if there is a troll korea there can be troll japan!).
ive talked before about my reasoning for him being into gundam (expensive, time consuming, a lot of people find it "boring" but he likes a lot of stuff people find "boring", and he likes the cool fuckoff big robots)
he has every pokemon memorised but only to ruby & sapphire, and he can recite them by pokedex order, but he would not like the cartoons. im not sure hed even care that much about the pokemon story, i think hes all in on minmaxing and wants a team full of legendaries. hes definitely hacked his ds before, maybe also his gameboy if that was possible. he probably fell for someone at school saying their uncle worked at nintendo (before he was taken out of school to focus on the band, ofc 🙏) (edit: ik i said he wouldnt be a pokemon kid hed be a yugioh kid, in the context of the ask it was talking about the cartoons. he likes the yugioh cartoons)
friend said about him being into movies like godzilla but i dont think thatd be his thing, although maybe hed be interested just bc he thinks the special effects are impressive even if he doesnt care about the story. he doesnt like the destruction bc destruction is cool, he likes it bc he likes thinking about what the BTS was like
#ask#fudging the dates a bit bc i think the last tr0llst1c3 happened in 2002 but the ds came out in 2004#gonna have to ask you to let this happen and see the vision here
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watched the first gundam 00 special edition compilation thing aka G00SE and wow theres apparently some new scenes in this? But it's hard to see them when so much has been cut. Like damn they super condensed this thing, do not watch gundam 00 in this format if it's your first time.
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Now that I have finished MS Gundam Seed/Stargazer/Destiny (I've decided to put a pin in tackling MS Seed/Destiny Special Edition for the time being) I've started tackling MS Gundam 00 and something I find interesting is just like in G-witch Gundam mobile suits are a relatively new thing and I can't help but wonder how common of a theme is that in the MS franchise as a whole?
Oh yeah, Gundams being some brand new, super revolutionary weapon is a VERY common trope across the franchise. It really all goes back to the og series with Amuro's RX-78 'Gundam' which was specifically built as this brand-new type of mobile suit with cutting edge technology meant to help the Federation turn the tide of the war. And many Gundam shows since have followed this mold.
Though that's not to say EVERY Gundam show follows this trend. G-Gundam and Gundam X are two of the more notable exceptions. With the former, the 'Gundam Fight' that the show is based around has been going on for several decades already. And the latter show is set in a post-apocalypse where there are quite a few old Gundams from the last war floating around.
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My Crunchyroll haul this time!
A town where you live and Gundam 00 Special Edition were my bargain bin blind box items (since A town where you live is Blu-ray, I'm assuming it was the $10 one and Gundam was the $5 since it's on DVD)
#fungi are friends not food#i don't know if I'll like a town where you live. it's romance. but! it kinda seems like it'll have an obsessive vibe so I'll give it a try#k has an art book!
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#Mito Yamane, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Special Edition HD Remaster, Gurren Lagann the Movie –Childhood's End-, Kyamera o Motta Otoko-tachi Kantou Daishinsai o Toru, Is This Heaven?, Japanese Film Trailers
Happy Weekend This is the second of a two-part trailer post. You can find the first part here. Since I am waking up regularly at somewhere between 01:50 and 03:00, I’m watching a lot of films. Mostly American fare. Some examples include, The Ice Storm, Ghost World, Before Sunrise, and Return of the Living Dead. In terms of this blog, I published preview articles for the Venice International Film…
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#Mito Yamane#Gurren Lagann the Movie –Childhood&039;s End-#Is This Heaven?#Japanese Film Trailers.#Kyamera o Motta Otoko-tachi Kantou Daishinsai o Toru#Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Special Edition HD Remaster
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Apparently, the first 00 compilation movie inserted an horrifying new piece of animation, similar to the Ps2 adaptation’s, in which whilst Lockon was not killed by the GN Arms’ explosion, he died of space decompression; his face is exposed to the open space, baring a disturbing grimace. However, I really like the way the shot blurs, as though seen through tears. It’s an excellent transition to return to the Ptolemaios.
#Gundam#Gundam 00#Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Special Edition 1: Celestial Being#Lockon Stratos#Neil Dylandy#Anime#gif#spoilers
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It's crazy to me how much (in my opinion) condensing Gundam 00 into two 100 minute movies improves what was, to my mind, a lesser season in comparison to the first. It cuts a lot of the dross and while Marina Ismail is still present and an important character, we don't check in on her repeatedly to see her wringing her hands over war constantly. It generally makes for a pacier experience while managing to keep the majority of pertinent plot points. Some are lost certainly, like Billy and Sumeragi living together before she returns to the Ptolemy, but generally it abridged well.
By comparison season 1 is slaughtered by being edited into a single 100 minute film. All nuance is lost, we don't have any attachment to supporting characters like Louise and Saji and don't see quite how callous Team Trinity are without the context leading up to the wedding crashing. We also spend far less time with the other three factions which means we don't get to see that there are heroes on all sides with each side having people who want to do go but the nature of the military industrial complex prevents them from doing so.
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The special 10th anniversary blue ray edition of Gundam 00 complete series arrived today. Both seasons, the movie, the 3 OVAs, an art book, and WAY more. So happy!
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#tag rambling#so like#while looking thru blogs for posts abt another thing (tbna to be specific) i came across someone#with a gundam 00 icon and username#and that led me to realize that the g00 fandom is still surviving in a corner of this webbed site#and that makes me just ... so happy#seeing people posting new content and bringing back amazing older content ...#it's so fun ww#but it also hurts a little bc all my g00 memories are tied up with my ex-best friend#my life is so different now than it was then ... and not in a good way#but anyway enough being maudlin#the point is i'm happy people are still into g00 and that some people are even still watching it for the first time#the series definitely has some questionable aspects of course but it's still just very special to me#oh man i didn't even watch it yet this year ... i usually do a rewatch every two years lol#still time i guess#last time i also took a bunch of caps that i was going to use for edits to post here at some point but i never got around to it#oh and recently i had to download everything from my old photobucket acct so it wouldn't get deleted or smth#and i had this huge folder of g00 fanart and official art#maybe i should post some of the official stuff ... /thinking emoji#i won't post the fanart bc i don't feel comf doing that without artist permission#and i saved all of it like over a decade ago so who knows where those artists even are anymore#i do also however have scans of one of the official side manga (my fave one) ... i translated and typeset it myself back in the day#i might post that ... someday#lol#anyway this is a lot of rambling but i'm in my emotions this morning#if anyone is actually reading this ... hi. watch gundam 00
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