Anime News: The next Gundam series, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE!

When you hear the word Gundam, does your face light up with glee, excitement? Mine certainly does, especially with news about the twelfth installment of the long-running franchise, Gundam AGE.

So before we get into what the Gundam fans are thinking, let’s quickly find out what the new storyline entails.

The new story starts off in 101 A.G. where humanity has moved from Earth and now resides in space colonies (guess what happens next to the colony). The united Earth Federation suffers their first attack where the space colony Angel is destroyed at the hands of unknown enemies, called ‘U.E.’ (which stands of unknown enemy, who are aliens, naturally). This tragic event, ‘the day the angel fell’, marks the beginning of the war.

The storyline spans 3 generations and begins in 108 A.G. where Frit Asuno’s mother is killed in one of these attacks on the space colony Ovan where he witnesses her death at the age of 7. He finds the ‘AGE Device’ in his mother’s belongings where the blueprint of the Gundam is found.

He spends the next few years studying engineers in the Nora space colony designing the AGE-1 Gundam. What happens next? The Nora space colony is under attack from the Unknown Enemy. The Earth Federation has a handful of victories under their belt against U.E., will the Gundam be the answer to their prayers?

So far so good, it sounds like Sunrise have tried to make this into an epic storyline which expands over a 100 years (homage to 1 year war from the first Gundam series?) spanning 3 generations (Flit Asuno, Asemu Asuno and Kio Asuno), it is a refreshing take on the new series.

How this will be achieved still remains cloudy. All three leading characters look the same age in official released pictures, so its unclear if there will be different seasons where it begins with grandfather, father followed by the son’s era or time jump between the 3. But a clue is given in the sense that the AGE Gundam will evolve over time, and there will be 2 further Gundams AGE-2 and AGE-3. Maybe there will be no ‘Lost’ like time jumps into the past and future and it will be one continuous series, but it would be interesting to see Sunrise try and achieve this concept. The Gundams also have 2 armor options, the heavy armor ‘Titus’ or the light and speedy ‘Sparrow’.

Do you remember in Gundam 00, Celestial Beings amazing supercomputer Veda? This new series features something similar to Veda, the AGE Device and in particular, the AGE System. The AGE system is used for piloting the Gundam which learns from the world around it, evolving as it takes in knowledge (Doomsday anyone?). The AGE Device is the controller.

But then they release a few pictures from the series and a trailer. This was not well received amongst the Gundam community and caused an uproar, especially amongst the mature fans. The animations and character design looks suitable for an 8 year old child, while here I was expecting animation to be the next level up from Gundam 00, as 00 was from Seed and Destiny. It almost seems that this series IS aimed at a younger audience, to captivate them like the first ever series of Gundam, all the way back in 1979! You may be thinking why, but what if I told you how much merchandise Bandai is releasing, in terms of action figures, games etc. Yes, it’s aimed at a younger generation to sell products, nurture a new generation of Gundam fans, to buy the toys and ensure the longevity of the series and the financial and economic stability of the company. I say it’s a smart idea, but on a personal level, I will miss the mature Gundam Seed/Destiny/00 storylines and animation.

Aside from the animation, the storyline is enough to make this series compelling and may not be, as I was initially thinking, the death of Gundam. Featuring series trademark plotlines and civilian casualties and epic space battles, there’s still plenty to keep you engrossed in the tried and tested Gundam formula.

While we all wait for this series to be released in October 2011 with bated breath, it maybe a sub-par series in the franchise, but wait 10 episodes before judgment and we may all be surprised. Who knows, this may be one of the best in the series, and if not, we still have the Gundam Seed movie to look forward to (and the next series of Gundam). Don’t be too disheartened Gundam Fans, every series can’t possibly hit the mark like Kira Yamato :).

Anime Review: Great Teacher Onizuka!

Hello

In my next few blogs I will aim to go by genre and talk about an anime I particularly enjoyed watching. Hopefully some of you guys will have seen it but if not, try and check it out to see if it’s your cup of tea. If it is, let me know what you liked or didn’t like about it. If you have another favourite in this genre, please let us know by writing in the comments section. After all, we want to expand our anime horizons right J.

Genre: Comedy                       

Anime: Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)

Episodes: 43

This week I thought I’d start off with a good comedy anime and one of my favourites to date, GTO!!

Ok, so those of you who haven’t heard of GTO, it’s about a teacher called Eikichi Onizuka, who is basically an ex-biker and gang leader.

One day, Onizuka decides to become the greatest teacher (for the wrong reasons of course). He lands a job at a prestigious private school with the help of the headmaster but gets the short straw. He is assigned the delinquent problem class that basically made all their previous teachers quit (mysterious death, nervous breakdown and joining a cult. loool). He needs to earn the respect of the students, but how do you do that when these kids are some of the brightest masterminds in Japan? Not only that, he is tasked to earn the trust of his fellow colleagues.

Viewers realise early on that Onizuka has a problem with the system of traditional education. He uses his own special brand of philosophy and less than conventional methods, to ultimately, get through to his kids one student at a time by helping them to overcome their problems.

His sole interest seems to be the female students, and he certainly does not hide it well. However, you soon realise that he is a Karate champ bad-ass with plenty of toood (attitude), while also being a social inept loser, with good honest intentions, to give his students a better educational experience than he had.

GTO is one of the most absolutely hilarious animes around; it will have you laughing with tears streaming down your eyes. The series addresses serious social issues with some of the real life problems his students have, which I’m sure a lot of viewers can relate to, but it does so with raunchy humour. Once you get past the sexual themes, Onizuka’s skirt-chasing and pretty much the torturing of his students, you realise that Onizuka is actually a modern day knight, albeit in tarnished armour.

Those of you who are interested in the voice acting will be glad to know that it is indeed, amazing. Onizukas voice, played by Takagi Wataru, is a genius simply put. The dramatic scenes to bass-ass to moron idiotic mode and hysteria mode are done to perfection. The English dub on the other hand is just ok. This series, like ALL anime, has to be enjoyed in Japanese (with subs).

Overall, this is a wonderful series that takes real life and puts its own spin on it by making it quite original and damn funny! This is definitely aimed at the older 17+ male viewers but if you watch it with an open mind, anybody who likes mature themes with good humor will find this very enjoyable and sad to see it end.

Its Anime time!!

Hi Folks,
One of the main reasons i wanted to start blogging was to find out what kinda of anime people are interested in. Granted its an acquired taste but  foreign cinema such as anime has spoken to me in many ways. but before we get too deep into the mushy gushy stuff, i'd like to know what everyone is interested in. lets start with the simple questions, whats the favorite anime? :)
(my first blog ever, yaaaay)