As expected, this is a kid’s show, so it’s not your typical Gundam. This means that it’s straightforward and the plot is predictable. “The UE will never attack our colony!” “Yes they will!” Boom. The little kid being smarter than all the adults is kind of annoying as well.
But still, this kind of thing is nice once in a while. The animation is great, and the characters are adorable. Emily is too cute. Even the old engineer is cute.
Despite being a kid’s show, it manages to bring back the love for the older Gundams. I liked how the boy kicked around Haro like a soccer ball. And the Gundams are objects of legend in this timeline. In this way it’s a bit reminiscent of Turn A Gundam. Turn A also took the Gundam universe and created something new out of it, and ended up being my favorite show in the series. Hopefully Gundam AGE will follow in its footsteps, as Gundam for a younger audience.
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On its own, I think AGE is showing signs of being the perfect entry-level series for younger viewers, as it doesn’t carry the same baggage that the other AUs ( nevermind the UC series!) have. Composition-wise though, it’s very obvious that this is a kid’s show (the VERY bright color palette does not help), and it’s tempting to watch it in the MST3k spirit, but I think watching it straight is advisable as well.
So, show us where you want to go, AGE.
I’m looking forward to seeing where this will go as well. I actually like the bright color palette. Usagi Drop is another series which did great with the colors. Darker colors are nice too, but it isn’t as vivid and easy on the eyes.
It bugged me that people kept talking about Flit like he was the second coming, and I hope that doesn’t keep up throughout the show. I’m a little worried that the show is going to try too hard to be a modern version of the first Gundam, since as much as that could be a nice show I hope that the series will be able to find its own identity and not just ape the past.
That said, I thought this was a solid first episode. Flit’s a likable enough chap when he isn’t being praised by everyone, and I liked that he pretty much ended his first fight with the UE by stabbing the hell out of it with his beam shiv. I’m pretty impressed with how genre savvy the UE themselves were. Camping at entrances for deploying mobile suits and retreating to bombard colonies from orbit to avoid strong on the ground? Those are winning tactics. The show could certainly go either way from here but I’m pretty positive about this one.
I don’t see this as going in exactly the same direction as the original series. It has many of the same elements (kid genius finds and starts piloting the Gundam) but there’s one major difference: everyone talks about Flit like he’s the second coming (which is annoying), but, as you mentioned, he still comes across as a good kid. Amuro looked like an asshole from the get-go.
And yeah, it’s a kids show, but it does appear to have some tactics for the older audience and not be simple beam and missile spam.
This is just stupid. The whole damn reason why they made it into a kiddy show was because they realized they arn’t making enough money. They realized they can steal some audience from pokemon and get more cash. After watching the first episode, I felt I was betrayed. It doesn’t have the feel of the gundam series.