Yeah Banagher's just kinda there to start. I mean that's basically the point, but it doesn't change the fact that he has no real perosnal stake or opinion on matters for the first part. He's, quite literally, along for the ride.

Are you wathing the OVA(good) or RE:0096(bad)?

Watched the first 3 episodes to Unicorn today and OMGTHEYWERESOAWESOME!!!!!

The BD version as I finally got Volumes 5-7 for their retail price. I refuse to watch the TV version after hearing about the joke it is.

I also watched the first episiode to IBO today. So far, I liked what I saw even though I have no idea what is going on at all. I can't tell who the main character is supposed to be, if the spoiled rich brat is going to be important, if the guy JYB is going to make it past the second episode, and what anyone is even doing. So, like every Gundam series ever for their first episode.

Ah yes, good.

It has taken me 6 years to finally watch all of Gundam Unicorn after watching the very first episode when it first came out, but you know what? The wait was well worth it. Watching it now after having watched the series before it in (almost) chronological order made the thing feel not only special, but very satisfying. The fourth episode is by far the weakest of the lot, which is thankfully subsided by the incredible batch of episodes that follow it. I think Episode 6 may be my favorite of the bunch. Nevertheless, the seventh episode was an excellent way to send the series that also made sense. Obviously, we know nothing changes thanks to the events of F91 and Victory, but it still brings such a gratifying end to the entire Federation/Zeon war and does it without getting convoluted. Another great thing aspect is how the writers behind this series found a way to explain the ending of CCA in a manner that fits with the rest of the events that occured in the series prior to it. The only negatives outside of the fourth episode really come down to it holding the standard Gundam tropes like characters raising the red flags that lead to their deaths, people having some sudden love in a woman they just met and need her for total support, etc. Regardless, this is hands down my third favorite Gundam series out there right now. Oh, and Bright has grown into a fine character throughout the 17 years of battle. This is hands down one of the best conclusions to ever grace the Gundam franchise.

BTW, the dub is down right excellent despite how bland the English voice was for Bright. Of course, I'm not sure if there is really anyone out there that could match up to his original Japanese voice.

Considering Bright's original VA passed away about a year after the Zeta New Translation movies came out, his Japanese voice in Unicorn is not his original voice. But dam it sounds so close.

Hence why I said original voice (Suzuoki). A shame to because the guy they replaced Tenshinhan with in Dragon Ball Kai is vastly inferior too.

For some reason I'm in the mood to watch Gundam SEED again...might give the HD Remastered a try.

They cut out A LOT of the clip shows in that yes?

From my understanding, they only cut the series down to 48 episodes for SEED and Destiny is still 50 episodes.

Oh yeah, I decided to preorder Thunderbolts from Rightstuf after seeing all of the goodies it comes with.

EDIT: So we decided to hold off on watching X a little bit longer and started AGE tonight. We watched the first 10 episodes and I have to say, this show is so damn BORING!! I just don't give a damn about any of the characters and the villians have done absolutely nothing. Of course, we don't even know who the villains really are so far, making them generic and bland. One of the best things about Gundam is that both the good guys and bad guys are supposed to have their lines blurred where neither group is totally evil, but neither is truly good. Here, everything is good or bad, there is no inbetween. Woolfe is annoying. Flint is boring. Emily serves no purpose other than to be the girl that loves him, but we don't know what drives her to him, why she loves him even though he pretty much blows her off, etc. The Gundam is uninteresting too. Fortunately, episode 10 was easily the best episode of the series thus far, so maybe things are about to take off. For now though, I am left underwhelmed and feel this makes Destiny look spectacular.

Well we decided to just finish the Flit arc since it was only 5 episodes more and in the end, it sucked. I just didn't care about anything that happened. Hell, I couldn't even care less about Yurin because the show did nothing to make me want to believe her and Flit had any sort of relationship whatsoever. If she is supposd to be this series' version of Lalah Sune, they failed to make any sort of impact with it. The reveal of the UE were as well was pretty dumb and once again, I didn't give a crap about it. I feel like this series is just going through the motions to get through the generations of characters without actually developing anyone whatsoever. I hope the rest of the series is not like this.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this, but damn, no wonder Tomino was pissed off at Sunrise. The animation here is as trite as the story itself. It looks like every other anime ever made. There is nothing Gundam feeling about it. If you were to show me a picture of the cast without me having any knowledge of what the show is, I would swear it was a Yu-Gi-Oh! series or something because it is just so one dimensional looking. Also, there is no way in hell Flit is 14 years old. I could believe he is 12, but not 14. No way in hell is that little brat 14!!

Overall, the first arc is done with, thank the gods for that. Let's hope the characters in the next arc are actually likable and are fully developed and the reasons actually come out of just being your standard Saturday morning cartoon ones.

EDIT: Inbetween press conferences today we watched the next 6 episodes, which kicked off the Asemu arc and I just don't see how this arc is an improvement. I still don't give one flying **** about any of the characters. Hell, episode 18 seems to start like 6 months after the previous episode and then I'm supposed to feel like the friendship between Asemu and Zeheartless was broken? Because I don't. And then Zeheart goes and becomes a wannabe Char? WTF? There is still no character development whatsoever and things are just happening because they need to happen. Also, how the hell did the little brat from the first arc survive? He was in the damn explosion front and center!! I don't know if I can continue watching this. This show is not only the worst Gundam series I have ever seen, but it is one fo the worst anime series I have ever seen.

And the AGE old decent into mediocrity continues. I'm not even sure where to start. Well first with the Asemu arc since I finished that earlier today. It sucked. It was a giant pile of ****. There were so many half baked ideas that could have gone somewhere if they actually felt like developing anyone, or anything for that matter. Zeheart is supposed to be our way of humanizing the Vagan right? Because he did nothing to make them seem human. Plus, these guys just outright killed people in the last arc for petty reasons. They got abandoned by their cohorts. Boohoowahwahwah "No one wants to play with me on the playground." Seriously, these guys have the mentality of first graders. Then we have a character that was blantantly blown up in the first arc, Desil, who some how survives, and he just wants to blow more **** up. Why? What for? That makes no sense. The Magicians 8 sounded like they could be an interesting group, so of course why bother spending any time developing them? Oh, and why the hell do their mechs look like they cross bred dinosaurs with Tekkaman Evil?

Then we have the good guys. Flit has been turned into a total jackass. I wish he would have died because the dude is one of the most unlikable little shits to ever grace a Gundam series. He treats his own son like dirt and doesn't give a damn about anything but his own selfish desires. We get another worthless female cast that do nothing but be there to pop out a child. Seriously, the women in this series are flatter than a Japanese woman's chest. :lol They have no personality and make Frau Bow look like a goddess. Then we have the old captain dude who shows up and dies all in the same episode by some random character who is then killed off 3 seconds later, making him completely pointless. Yes, I know it is the boy from the first arc, but he was never seen before that moment and never seen again. RANDOM!!! And how the hell did Flit find out the minister was dealing with Vagans at the end of the arc? We saw NOTHING leading up to this discovery. We didn't even know he was even investigating it. Finally, there is Asemu, who seems to have a little bit of development, but then the writers got scared and decided to leave it half cocked. There is one scene where he is training to be a better pilot at another dude's factory and then the show cuts to the next scene which has him and Woolf in their mobile suits about to fight in a space battle. WHAT THE HELL????!!!! That final scene of Asemu's wedding was also there and gone if you blinked. NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE.

And that is supposed to be the good arc of the show? Are you people on crack? :inquisiti

So I watched the firt 4 episodes to the Kio arc, which is all I could stomach on tonight. First off, the first episode repeats the EXACT SAME PLOT AS THE LAST TWO FIRST EPISODES!! Peace, Vagan attack, boy gets Gundam, boy pilots Gundam. DID WE NEED THIS AGAIN?!!! Then we have a female character introduced in the third episode who has to have the cliche of having a sick sister, so what does she do? Become a spy for the villains. OH FOR FUCK SAKE!!!!!!! Hasn't this plot been done to death in everything else? And of course the only way to redeem herself is by sacrificing herself for the hero. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

Yeah, that is where I quit for the night. Only 17 god awful episodes to go and I'm going to try to get this crap done before Denver Comic Con on Friday.

Yeah GUndam Age is kind of a mess, but if nothing else it has some really great MS designs. Specifically the stuff on the Vagan side and the suits that came in the later generations are all pretty great looking.

I think they bit off more than they could chew with the whole three protagonists thing and it probably would've worked out better had it just been all about Flint and watching him progress to old age.

What they should have done was commit to a 2-3 year long series and had 40-50 episodes on each generation.

Kio is probably my least favrioute protagonist in any Gundam series...freaking Kira Yamato wannabe.

I keep hearing this, I don't know if I'll agree, since I haven't seen the show, but if I do man that sucks, I really like pacifist characters and the age-3 is my favorite of the main gundams from the series.

Also I'm really hyped for all the age high grade kit reissues going down in August since I really do dig those designs.

I don't know how making it even longer would make Age less shitty.

Because it would have actual character development, plot development, things would be well written.

Seed disagrees with you.

Yeah, but the sad part is how the AGE 3 is quickly tossed aside and forgotten about.

Well I spent another day watching another batch of episodes and well, I didn't hate everything this time. I watched 33-44 today. I actually liked the episodes when Kio was on Mars and made friends with the siblings. It was very nice and something I never expected out of this show. Also Girard Spriggan was hands down the best character of the entire show so far. I can't believe they actually spent time to develop her as a character. That was awesome and I wish the show had more moments like this. In fact, I can't hate Kio as I think he is the best of the trio. His ideals are dumbfounded, but at least he isn't the douchebag "Kill'em all!!" that Flit has become or the "I'm going to play keep away by being a Space Pirate" that Asemu is. I like what he was trying to do during the battle on the moon. I also like the Gundam Age-FX, but then, I'm a sucker for any machine that has funnels. Oh, and the music has been pretty damn good these last few episodes.

Unfortunately, that is where all of the positives end. The plot has gotten down right stupid and is still poorly paced. Like okay, as I said, I liked the sibling stuff, but what the hell? The sister has 3 months to live when Kio meets her, but he manages to get her medicine that is supposed to extend her life. Was that a lie? Because she was dead like three days later. WTF? Did Elzecant lie and have Kio give her poison? That makes no sense to me. Also, Elzecant tells Kio that he always gave people the chance to survive. Um, was he not paying attention to anything that has been going on these last 40 something years? The Vagans were out right blowing people up. This just seems like some halfbaked way of trying to humanize them into being the Gundam antagonists. Oh and then like the next episode he reveals his assnine plan which makes even less sense. This is soon followed by him giving Zeheart his crown and Zeheart for some reason agrees to continue the plan. WHAT THE HELL??!! That goes completely against everything that Zeheart has stood for!!!

Well, only five episodes to go, which I will finish tomorrow.

Which one? Because the first SEED did have development and good writing. You just need to watch the show in chunks rather than once a week to see it. It's still not a great show, but it is an entertaining one.

Destiny is a mess, but the whole production was just a rushed mess to begin with. Not to mention there were too many personal feelings with the staff being involved where they had no business being.

Take a shot every time they bring up her name that episode.

Wow, just wow. I'm impressed. That was like the best way you could end Gundam Age. Never saw that type of ending coming. Not all at. No seriously, that was an awesome ending. Can't you tell excited I am? Because I'm very excited that I am now done with this giant **** turd of a series.

I just... I just can't fathom what the hell was happening in the writers room when they made these last batch of episodes. Were they even trying? Did they just stop caring? Of course, I guess that would require them caring in the first place. Zeheart completely writes off who he has been for the last several episodes just because and then he is killed of just so easily. There wasn't any sort of satisfaction in his death at all. Of course, it didn't matter because our heroes then have to deal with some random evil clone that just comes out of nowhere and we are supposed to care, why? BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!! Shido comes back and can now fuse with machines and fuses with the clone's mobile suit to create the... weakest, most unfulfilling final boss mobile suit ever. The thing was so weak it was destroyed off-screen. Speaking of the Shido, why are we just hearing about the EXA-DB now? Shouldn't this have been something that was talked about back in like episode 10? It's only like the most important device to ever exist according to Zeheart and Asemu. This really felt tacked on as if they wanted to capture something of Unicorn in their show since they were ripping off every Gundam series in existence at the time.

Oh, and Flit, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! The dude had a stick shoved up his ass for 40 years and in the last second he just decides to put his hate aside? That makes no sense and doesn't even fit with the way he was written at all. Then again, it's not like the writers need a reason to alter someone's personality since they did a complete 180 on Asemu during the show just because they had nothing better for him to do. And that ending, what the hell was that? It felt like the epilogues were tacked on at the last moment just to give the show some sort of closure.

Overall, Gundam Age is by far the worst Gundam series ever spawned. In fact, it is Gundam in name only as it is a travesty of the entire franchise. Add on top it being one of the worst anime series I have ever had to sit through, and I've sat through some mighty deep shit (Weib Kreuz and Kimera, for example). There were some good ideas thrown in here with the different generations, but the writers had no idea how to execute it. The pacing was all over the place and was ultimately a mess. This is a show that Sunrise should have commmited to being a 100-150 episode series so we could have had 40-50 episodes spent on each generation with proper development and pacing. As is, there was not a single character that was likable, no one was worth even wanting to try and like, the female characters are the worst this franchise has ever had, and the plot, if you can call it that, is so cliche and boring. The Vagan were generic villains that suddenly the writers tried to make human in the last bit of the show and they failed miserably because everything was on a Saturday morning cartoon level. Or, they should have just kept Flit the main character from start to finish and just had him age as the show progressed without having a conveniently placed baby maker in the way. It doesn't help that this show also features the worst character designs of any Gundam series. Maybe they should have let a real animation studio handle this show instead of the childish nonsense that is brough to us by the people behind video games such as Youkai Watch and Professor Layton. Level 5, stick to video games because you don't know jack about anime. In the end, it doesn't matter, this mockery of a Gundam series is one I will never waste my time on again and Rightstuf shoudn't even waste the time or money to bring this one out to the US unless they are looking to take a major loss. Good riddance Gundam Age!! May you rot in hell!!

So I watched the first disc to Gundam X today. The show has already had a better story arc in just five episodes than Age had in its entire run. So far I'm enjoying it, but I hate Garrod's voice. He is so damn annoying and does not sound likea 15 year old. I do hope Tiffa gains a personality though because so far she is more robotic than R Dorothy Wainright. Those two aside, I really do like the crew of the Freedom, especially the captain dude.

Animation is all right though, but I think that has to do with the DVD. I don't know what went wrong during the transferring process, but the DVDs came out in the last month and look like they came out at the same time as Wing. There are areas where the picture is very dark and faded looking. It's kind of ugly. The music isn't anything to write home about either.

Nevertheless, these five episodes flew by really quickly and I look forward to see where this show goes.

http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Magical...n_Blaster_Mari

I...I...I... what?

We watched the second disc to X tonight and they were an okay set of episodes. The new girl villain isn't really anything special and Garrod is starting to get on my nerves. He is like they took the worst aspects of Amuro and cranked up them to 10. On the other hand, the two mercs are starting to grow on me. At the same time though, the Frost Brothers kind of suck as far as villains go. I hope we get a real villain throughout the show. I really dig the new mobile suit with the Funnels that showed up at the end of the tenth episode that is piloted by that girl (well, I think they called the pilot a he, but the character looks and sounds like a girl). I'm interested in seeing more, but honestly, I can see why this show struggled in ratings, especially with having three Gundam series prior to it. It is better than Wing though, so I will give it that. Oh, and I forgot to mention this the other day, but this series has by far the worst ending Gundam song ever.

More BF kits:

http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/u...6/hj160801.jpg

Another Bearguy
a 00 Quanta variant
A new BWS pack for the Lightning Gundam

Judging by the colors I'm guessing that Quanta is Shia's and this pretty much confirms Yuma's re-using the Lightning.

The new Lightning pack reminds me a lot of the AGE 2 Double Blade:

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20121228083333

We watched the third disc tonight to X and those were all a bunch of really well done episodes. The first four were a little slow moving, but well done. I liked the return of a Cyber Newtype and how this little arc played out. Plus, Garrod actually stopped being a whiny bitch for a change, which was nice. The last episode on the disc is probably my favorite so far of the show because it developed the other two Gundam pilots. Not only that, but that episode had way more character development in its 22 minute run time than any character in both Age and Wing had in their entirety. :eek::haha:

On the other hand, man, the animation in this show is so lazy and lacking. Everything looks so damn flat with very little in the way of detail.

EDIT: Watched the fourth disc today and these episodes were decent. Not as good as the ones on the last disc, but serviceable. It's nice that Tiffa might actually get a personality from this point forward becasue so far she has been the worst charcter in the entire show. The episodes with the dolphins were weird, really weird. All I kept waiting to see was some huge dolphin revolt. The next two with the Newtype girl were enjoyable though. I keep forgetting to mention this but there is one aspect of the show I really do not like and that is the Master of Exposition. Does he really need to tell us every little detail that is happening on screen at all times? I don't mind exposition, but only when it makes sense. This is overkill.

http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/u...16/06/WU02.jpg

Lightning Gundam BWS mk3:
http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/u...16/06/WU03.jpg

00Qan[T] kai:
http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/u...16/06/WU07.jpg

Beargguy P:
http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/u...16/06/WU05.jpg

Gyancelot:
http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/u...16/06/WU09.jpg

ZZII:
http://www.taghobby.com/wp-content/u...16/06/WU11.jpg

I require the Gyancelot so very much.

What's with the really anime-looking Zeta Gundam?

Anyway, we watched disc 5 of X this morning and this was full of another really good batch of episodes. We got some really great development between Ennil and Toniya, which makes me sad they can't be bothered to develop Tiffa or the lady in the business suit in this manner. Episode 20 is right up there with episode 15 of the series. The remainder of the disc was enjoyable but it seems like we just got an upgrade for the X and now we have the Double X already? Garrod has grown up quite a bit, which is nice to see. Oh, but the blatant exposition continues to be annoying and pointless. Anyway, only 15 episode to go!!

Makes me wonder what happened to Lightning Zeta Gundam

Oh yeah, we also watched the second and third episodes to IBO today. That is a strange Gundam design. Shouldn't it be called Gundam Anorexia? :D Nothing too much to say about them other than they were good. The pilot kid is freaking cold blooded too. He just outright killed the guy before he could finish talking.

Give me this as an RD and I'll be happy.

More then likely it was just a display piece never meant for serious competition in the first place.

The sleek designs are the best part of IBO. And there's an actual in universe reason for them being so skinny, because really the frames are so strong and powerful the armour is almost unecessary aside from covering some of the smaller joints, but mostly it's used to house weapons or boosters, or just aesthetics. So some of them, mostly Barbatos, end up lightly armoured just out of necessity. (Also Barbatos is currently incomplete since its been gathering dust for 300 years)

Barbatos is still incomplete even after the "Unlimited budget" that engineer from Teiwaz had when they got the Barbatos?

No, but it is still incomplete as of episode three, which is what Dr. Kain said he was up to. So to him Barbatos still has no shoulders and the lopsided arms.

X's sixth disc was Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh sorry, I feel asleep there. Yes, the sixth disc was nothing more than a snooze fest. Oh my god these episodes dragged on forever! FOR-EV-ER!! The first episode wasn't too bad, but then the stuff in that Asian nation just kept on going. Plus, the Shuffle Alliance dudes that the Frost Brothers kept sending out had absolutely no development and they really were there just to die. It's like the writers have run out of ideas to have mobile suit battles, so now they are just throwing in random characters that are there solely to die just to keep the battles going. The animation also seems to have taken a dip in quality (not that there was any to begin with) during these episodes too. I do like how the Airmaster went from a Starscream to a Thundercracker though and I'm curious to see the upgrade the Leopard is going to be getting, but this show is starting to lose me. I think I'm also tired of watching them travel across the Earth because there is nothing interesting going on as far as cities and landmarks are concerned. It's all rocks and dirt. Even Turn A, which had a much more interesting environment, got tiresome after 30 episodes. As for the characters themselves, Tiffa and Sara are still the most one dimensional people in the main group. Even the damn President had more development in his four episodes than either of them.

Have you heard this English cover of one of the Gundam SEED opening/ending? It's fantastic, very well sung.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6lsNTRQptM

We spent the night running through the last two discs and they were... well honestly, I'm not sure how to feel about them. They were rushed, enjoyable, and yet, full of utter bullshit. Clearly they were told the show was getting canned during these episodes because the stuff that dealt with the Satellite people was utterly pointless. In fact, this whole little bit on outer space was done in like 3 episodes, making it all pointless to have even happened. Also, the big war between the two factions just kind of started without any real build up and then the whole thing with DOME just comes out of the blue. Hell, it made no sense to have one minute Tiffa and Garrod making out and then 3 seconds later she is in a coma. That was paced extremely poorly. Also the whole conversation with DOME in the final episode was full of nonsensible bullshit. He gave absolutely no answers that held any meaning and it sounds like the writers just tried to make up random crap to make it sound like it was sophisticated. Instead it came out half assed and dumb.

In the end, it is a middle of the road Gundam show. It's better than Wing, Reconguista of G, probably better than G, and sure as hell superior to that basement bargain bin booltlegged bull called AGE, but it still has its fair share of problems. It was a very disjointed series because there were several episodes that were great followed up by mediocre at best ones. Then another batch of well done episodes, tained but another set of terrible ones. The entire war at the end felt forced and the Frost Brothers were average villains. They got better as the show progressed, but they had very little in the way of development. I don't mind having villains who are evil for the sake of it, but it would have been nice to have had a backstory about how they joined up with the UNE in the first place. Were they part of the war from 15 years prior? Not to mention it seems pretty childish that their motivation all relied on them being passed up by a computer program. I did like Roabea and Witz, but it seemed like most of their character growth ended early on and they were pretty much just there because the writers had nothing better to do with them. Tiffa and Sara were the worst characters of the show and served no purpose other than to be there for the men they loved. Garrod did grow on me though while the best character in the show is easily Jamil. He had a lot of great moments and lived up to being a father-esque figure like Quattro and Bright. There are a lot of similarties that Turn A seemed to have from this, but that show did the post-apocalyptic world in a far more interesting manner with more fleshed out villains and scenarios.

As I said before, the animation was pretty subpar and it never really got better. In fact, it seemed like a lot of the fight scenes in the second half became more stillshots and a reuse of footage, especially those revolving about the Double X. The gundams were cool, but the Leopard's upgraded form barely did anything different from the original form. Oh, and the G Falcon seemed rather meaningless after three episodes. The music was hit or miss. The opening themes though rocked while the ending themes were way too sappy and whiney. I'm glad to have finally seen X after all of these years, but it is one of those series I may never rewatch unless I suddenly get in this mood where I need to see every Gundam show like I have right now.

Well, until Rightstuf releases Victory, this is the last "new" Gundam show for me. I still have SEED and Destiny to (re)watch, so I'm going to try to look at them with fresh eyes as I did with Wing earlier this year, but we'll see what happens. Before then, I need to drink some Blood and Wine. :-)