Empty robots - has Gundam reached the end of its road?

[Njr Scrawl]

Do you think the Gundam story well has run dry after Destiny?

After the UC, Wing & Seed + offbeat series, is there anything else original left to do?

Do you think Gundam in all forms should be retired honourably now (apart from movies/compilations), or kept going as the archetype mecha series no matter what?

[Lego]

Hmm, interesting topic. I personally loved Wing, as it helped me get into "mainstream" anime if you will. That and having Two Mix do the music, I really enjoyed it. As for the other Gundams, I really only liked 08th MS team, Zeta, and 0083. I'm interested in Gundam V, but I haven't really seen anything about it.

Gundam is still a popular franchise. The characters from Seed and Destiny rank in the top 3 when Newtype or Animage does a character poll for the year or month. Gundam models and merchandise sell well. There are endless ammounts of Gundam Seed doujin, and so on. The only thing that kind of rubs me the wrong way though is when a series changes its plot or episodes to market something. I remember during Seed or Destiny's run, there was a quote from the producer(think so) that they went back and featured this one Gundam more so it could sell more models.

I think Gundam is still popular after Seed and Destiny. After all Gundam is Gundam. But to some fans(like myself), I didn't find Gundam Seed and Wing to interesting. I would kill to have a UC timeline like the old days with Zeon and everyone heh.

[golthin]

[ QUOTE ]
Wrath of the Njr said:
Do you think the Gundam story well has run dry after Destiny?

After the UC, Wing & Seed + offbeat series, is there anything else original left to do?

Do you think Gundam in all forms should be retired honourably now (apart from movies/compilations), or kept going as the archetype mecha series no matter what?

[/ QUOTE ]
they need to combine Gundam with My otome! I know that my Otome had many Gundam characteristics, but I mean a real combination or a crossover [img]/images/graemlins/happy.gif[/img]. Gundams fighting Otomes. [img]/images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif[/img]

[Drakonis]

As long as they can still write a good story and continue to design some wickedly awesome mecha there will always be Gundam. Seed managed to recapture the epic feel of the original UC storyline for me. Obviously the talent needed to keep the franchise strong isn't waning. They've already proved innumerous times that retreading the same plotlines and ideas never gets stale so long as there's interesting new twists involved. All that combined with the musical talent, jpop artists, and unbelievably articulate toys. A guaranteed formula for success.

Not that it really matters anyway. Seed Destiny won't be done releasing here until 2008. And I haven't seen any of the stuff not released here yet, namely ZZ, Turn A and X. Either way, i'm set for the next ten years if they keep up this snails pace, heh.

[Fencedude]

Oh, there's plenty left that can be done with Gundam, the question is, is Sunrise and Bandai willing to divert from the formula to do so...

[Nakuru Akizuki]

I'd like to see a Gundam series taken seriously by Sunrise. The problem with that is that Gundam tends to be the epitome of making a show to sell toys, so there's no way we'd realistically see a Gundam series with a good meaty story (though Gundam Wing and Gundam Seed, to a lesser extent, made a good show of it), directed and written by people who aren't morons (can you imagine Goro Taniguchi doing Gundam? [img]/images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif[/img]), animated by Sunrise's A-team instead of the oddly deficient computer-shortcut-happy B-team, and written to be something that isn't merely a bunch of teenagers running blindly through a rehash of old ideas and elements (which isn't inherently bad, but it wears on you after a while; I guess they can't really help it, though, since people react badly to change). I think it's why I liked Zone of the Enders so much; it was like Gundam, but different in enough ways to make it extremely enjoyable. [img]/images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif[/img] It didn't really attempt to tackle any grand themes, but to be fair, none of Tomino's Gundam series ever did a very good job of that either since, despite his best intentions, he's just not a very good writer or director. [img]/images/graemlins/sweat000.gif[/img]

[NeoEra]

[ QUOTE ]
Wrath of the Njr said:
Do you think the Gundam story well has run dry after Destiny?

After the UC, Wing & Seed + offbeat series, is there anything else original left to do?

Do you think Gundam in all forms should be retired honourably now (apart from movies/compilations), or kept going as the archetype mecha series no matter what?

[/ QUOTE ]

Bandai & Sunrise don't have the incentive to retire Gundam or even do something all that different with it. Whenever they try to put a strong original spin on it, even if a small group of hardcore fans eventually turns out to like what was done, Gundam doesn't rake in as much.

Accepting that reality, there's still a million different ways to tell a story about giant robots used for warfare. For past examples, see 0080 or 08th MS Team. They take place during the One Year War, which is revisited all the time, but they have plots less cliched than some of the alternate universe entries. Take some familiar Gundam trappings and put something together that isn't about a kid learning to be the pilot of a giant robot and going through the trials & tribulations of battle with a ship and its crew. I think any fan with half an imagination could put together a premise that would fit the bill.

There's a largely unexplored middle ground between doing something so different that it'd alienate the fanbase and doing something so formulaic, there's no point in watching it because you've seen it all before.

[Mazinkaizer]

While it seems that the new trend for Gundam shows would be AU like Seed, and Destiny. I surly would love few more UC Gundam shows especially Cross Bone !! [img]/images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif[/img]

Another Compilation for ZZ or so wouldn't be a bad idea as well as long as they are handeld they way the Zeta ones were handeld or better (excluding the major seiyuu changes).

[Njr Scrawl]

Only UC story left to tell is what happened to Char between ZG ep.50 & the Counter Attack movie, where he has turned from being a level headed tactician & soldier into a charismatic but screwloose loli-loving disciple of his father. CCA is the most disappointing UC story of all - also Quess & Hathaway are worse than Sarah & Katz in ZG.

Char is not in ZZ's story at all, unless<span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>he's lost his memory, that blond artist in the desert arc looks a lot like him, &amp; packs a mean punch</span>. Layla says Char's not been detected by other Newtypes anywhere.

[Leon_Belmont]

Eh, I think the art direction and action in SEED and DESTINY are good enough to keep anyone interested, they just need some better writers. It's been getting progressively worse.