Don’t let the kiddy looks fool you: Gundam AGE is the most mature TV Gundam show since Turn A. Not that that’s saying much, when the competition consists of Gundam SEED and Gundam 00.
Gundam AGE was a good show, but it had the potential to be great. It failed due to a single reason: Kio. Up until Kio’s arc (really, the fourth arc) everything was great. Flit and Asemu were fantastic characters. But Kio is Gundam AGE’s version of Setsuna F. Seiei. He decides he isn’t going to fight, and is going to end the war by fighting. But he wont’ kill anyone, of course!
This presents a tremendous moral cop-out for Gundam AGE, which had until this point confronted the evils of war head on. But now, Kio, due to his enormous power, can fight without actually killing anyone. A just war. But only because he has such tremendous power.
Kio’s refusal to fight is not brave, noble or courageous. It is simply a refusal to take responsibility for his own actions. As he fights without killing people, it allows his allies to fight more effectively, killing more of their enemies. As Kio refuses to fight, it leads to his allies’ deaths. Kio’s “principled” stand is simply the temper tantrum of a child. And an extremely frustrating tantrum it is.
But aside from that, Gundam AGE was a great show and I highly recommend it. Oh, and my only other complaint is that all my shipping was horribly frustrated. 🙁
- Storytelling – A – Tells an epic story spanning a hundred years and tells it well.
- Voice – C – The style is more childish than the contents.
- Characters – B – Flit and Asemu – A, Kio – D
- Attention Grab – B – It’s a long show, and the pacing is fittingly a bit slow. But it doesn’t get boring.
- Production – B – Looks fine.
- Overall – B-
Recommendations – Turn A Gundam, Gundam Unicorn, Zeta Gundam
AGE has a great story! Even though some of the “arcs” got a bit dull like Kio’s dad but that arc had Kana Hanazawa in a Gundam role! That was odd for me, but I think it could have been a 25 episode series instead of 50+ because that final arc dragged on FOREVER and the ending? Totally face palm ending for me T___T
Now we have to wait and see what is next for Gundam besides more Unicorn xD
I agree, 25 episodes would have been better, or least 39. They could easily have cut the final two arcs to a third of their length, and the first arc by half.
More Unicorn is good enough for me at the moment. 🙂 I really hope they do another Gundam along the lines of Turn A, that was awesome. Or at least let’s pretend Wing, Seed and 00 never existed and do something along the lines of Zeta.