Qukey

Osamu Tezuka's inspiration is still unbeatable. It is hard not to mention him in any thread about anime creator or director. Other than Tezuka, Yoshiyuki Tomino is another of my favorite. Over 30 years in the industry, he can still bring in new ideas. He is willing to spend time making good mecha stories instead of just toy commercials.

Not really know too much about Harlock but Galaxy Express 999 and Space Cruiser Yamato are both my favorites. Once I am done with Die Legende Der Sternhelden (Legend of the Galatic Heroes), Harlock is my next step.

Monster is surely something to check out. The story is not something most people expect in manga/anime. If Monster can help to open the market, I am more than happy. Monster is classified as manga for young adult in Japan, not something for kids. It has a story to tell with themes to explore and for the audiences to think. The story unfolds with a lot of suspense and horror. My set of Monster manga has been the most popular among my friends. Even some of my older friends, at their 40s and 50s, enjoy this story.

It maybe helpful to let us know which Gundams are you talking about? Some brief history of Gundam in general: Mobile Suit Gundam(1979) is the first anime uses robots in war. Before MSG, all robot shows involved robots fighting against some bad guys in black and white settings. MSG revolutionized robot animes but putting robot in a realistic background of war between different idealogies. The show failed on the first run but became highly successful on reruns. Due to overpopulation and pollution, people migated into the Space and lived in man-made land known as Space colonies. Years after, the people in some space colonies demanded independent from the Earth Federation Government, who ruled both Space and Earth. After the assissination of the famous Space leader Zeon Zum Deikun, the people in Space colonies became aggressive with their military force. In the years UC0079, 79 years after the first migration, full scale war broke out and killed over half of human in the world in the first week of the war, known as the One Week War. The war lasted for one year and the story of MSG was about the crew of Whitebase during the war, also known as the One Year War. With the advanced mobile suit Gundam, Guntank and GunCannon on board, the Whitebase became the center of the battlefield for suvival. The above is only a very brief introduction of Mobile Suit Gundam, the beginning of Gundam. After the success of Mobile Suit Gundam, sequels and other stories are made for the franchise with hundreds of video games, manga, model lines, novels..... Order of major Gundam stories of Univeral Century(UC) timeline: UC 0079 Mobile Suit Gundam (1979, 43 episodes or 3 movies) UC 0079 Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team (1996, 12 eps OVA) UC 0080 Mobile Suit Gundam: War in the pocket (1989, 6 eps OVA) UC 0083 Mobile Suit Gundam: Stardust Memories (1992, 13 eps OVA) UC 0087 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985, 50 eps) UC 0088 Mobile Suit Gundam Double Zeta (1986, 47 eps) UC 0093 Mobile Suit Char's Counter Attack (1988, movie) UC 0105 Mobile Suit Gundam Hassaway's Flash (novel) UC 0123 Mobile Suit Gundam Formula 91 (1991, movie) UC 0133 Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam (manga, 6 vols) UC 0153 Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993, 51 eps) Other than the UC timeline, there are alternative universes timeline which have nothing to do with UC timeline or each other: (Future Century) FC 60 Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994, 49 eps) (After Colony) AC 195 New Mobile Chronicle Gundam Wing (1995, 49 eps) (After Colony) AC 196 New Mobile Chronicle Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (1998, 3 eps OVA or 1 movie) (After War) AW 0015 Mobile New Era Gundam X (1996, 39 eps) (Correct Century) CC 2345 Turn A Gundam (1999, 51 eps) (Cosmic Era) CE 71 Mobile Suit Gundam Seed (2002, 51 eps) (Cosmic Era) CE 721 Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny (2004,ongoing) Only these Gundams are avaliable in the US on TV: Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 0083 08th MS Team Char's Counterattack G Gundam Gundam Wing & Endless Waltz Gundam Seed

I think the quality of Gundam Seed Destiny is not lower than Gundam Seed, but it has less surprise and excitment for many Gundam Seed fans. For many Gundam Seed fans, it is one of the few Gundam shows they have watched. So, the series brings something new in their enjoyment; even most of Gundam Seed is taken from older Gundam stories. However, when watching Gundam Seed Destiny, they would find it as less enjoyable because the two shows are too similar. Many of the successful "new" ideas from Gundam Seed are reused in Destiny because it is a proven forumla. Unfortunately, if fans are looking for something new, they are going to be disappointed by Destiny. This is also true for the fans of older Gundam. When watching Gundam Seed, they feel that the story is way too predictable since it follows the Gundam formula. About recap....Seed is guilty for bringing in too many recap scenes and it looks like that Destiny is going to do the exact same thing or more. In the history of Gundam, these latest additions have the most recap episodes and scenes. I don't think we really need to constantly remind of something happpens 2 episodes ago. In the 43 episode long MSG, there is no recap episodes. It is true in the 50 episode Zeta as well. The most recap in UC is Victory Gundam with 2 episodes for a 51 episode long series, which is still half of the amount in Gundam Seed. Also, recap scenes are not used on every single episode. So, I really doubt how long the actual scripts are for each episode of Gundam Seed and Seed Destiny. The recap is going out of control. Maybe they don't have a big enough budget for the shows, so they have to reuse so many scenes.

OK, more spoiler..... [COLOR=White]At the end of one year, Seishiro decided he did not like Subaru enough and he is going to kill Subaru. Hokuto knew who Seishiro is all along and she wanted to save Subaru. She went to the Sakura tree to look for Seishiro, so she can be killed for Subaru. The full detail of her death was not reveal until volumn 16 of X. This was left open in Tokyo Babylon manga. From X, before she died, Hokuto used her very limited magic power to cast her final wish: if Seishiro killed Subaru in the same way, the attack would in turn kill the attacker. The was what happen in X. Hokuto died protecting her brother. [/COLOR] However, did Seishiro really want to kill Subaru? It is for the reader to draw the conclusion. I don't think Clamp will ever let us know clearly. I love to discuss this piece of work. Tokyo Babylon is so well written.

Tokyo Babylon is an earlier work by Clamp. It is created before X. The manga has 7 volumes in total with a continue storyline between Subaru and Seishiro in the background. There are 2 original stories animated. These 2 stories are not from the manga. [COLOR=White]In the second episode of the of the OVA, the one with the train killer, there is a short scene about two people talking under a sakura tree in the very beginning. The child wearing white was Subaru and the young man wearing black wais Seishiro. They met for the first time under the tree. Subaru was 9 years old and he just started his training. That day, he was waiting for his grandmother, the last leader of his family. Unfortunately, he ran into Seishiro at work, who just killed a child. Seishiro was surprise by the child and he made a bet with him. Seishiro would spend one year with Subaru. If he liked Subaru after one year, he would let Subaru live. If he did not find any interested in Subaru, he will kill the boy. Later, Seishiro worked as vet near Subaru's home and they became friends, all understand Seishiro's control. By the end of one year, Seishiro decided that he ..... [/COLOR] Enough spoiler. Anyway, Sumeragi and Sakurazukamori are the most powerful Omnyojis. Due to the difference in their power, they can only be enemies. If anyone want the rest of the story, just let me know and I can post more information. Tokyo Babylon is one of my favorite work from Clamp along with RG Veda.

As an adult, I can recommand some shows I enjoy: Twelve Kingdows: It is the anime based on a part of a larger set of novels by Fuyumi Ono. It starts as a high school girl named Yoko teleported to another world and trying to to find her way home. She soon realizes suviving is not easy but she has to try. The 45 episodes covers 7 volumes of the novels. It includes 6 of the 12 kingdoms. There are more novels published which are not made into anime at this moment. This story does not involve romance like may other story with the same kind of setting. Instead, it is a political drama in some sense. It follows the adventure of Yoko when her travels through the world to understand this strange place and its culture. Not all characters in 12 Kingdoms are good looking but they have depth. Black Jack: A masterpiece by the great Osamu Tezuka. The ova, tv series and 2 movies cover some of the stories from the 30 volumn manga. The anime style is very different from the more recent designs but the stories are as interesting as the newer works, if not more interesting. Black Jack is an expensive surgeons who does not have a license. He can cure almost any illness or injury but the price is high. The stories involve his thinking and the people he cures. Tokyo Godfather: The movie is about a baby and 3 homeless people on Christmas night. It explores their loneliness and their feeling about their lifes. The story concentrates on the relationship between people who need help. There are a lot of miracles in the story to bring hope to the hopeless. Rahxephon: There are so many people saying how much Rahxephon is "similar" to EVA, but Rahxephon tells a very different story. Rahxephon is a romantic drama with mecha. Like many good mecha stories, such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam and Aura Battler Dunbine, Rahxephon has great character development and an understandable story. The story is about 17 years old Ayato Kamina who has hidden power within him. With the help of others, he has to realize the truth about the outside world and find the person he loves.

[quote name='Konami']As for the different SD Gundams... I've only seen a few of the "real ones"... those are quite funny actually. Not so much a series. I was thinking of them but then it was pretty much established here SD Gundam is meaning Superior Defender.[/quote] Actually, I made a mistake. There should be 3 different SD Gundams: Super Deformed, Super Deformed Gaiden and Superior Defender. The SD Gaiden, a 4 episode mini-series, does not involve any plot from the any Gundam timeline. [QUOTE]Oldschool fans disliking Gundam Seed? Well I've seen this a lot, but it's usually because they dislike Seed being simular to MGS.. I don't think it's a very good reason. I've known a lot of UC fans to say SEED is better than Zeta, quite a few. In a lot of semi-official rankings, seed is the #1 best Mecha anime EVER. Honesly; I don't really understand at all how SEED can be THAT good.[/QUOTE] I mean older Gundam fans, not just any old school fan, can dislike Gundam Seed because they are not the target audiences. Gundam Seed is made to attract new fans into the franchise, which means it is made for people who has never seen Gundam before. The topics in Gundam Seeds has been done in older Gundams before and older fans may dislike redundancy. The general dislike of the newly made SD Gundam is caused by the same reason: wrong audiences are attracted. The viewer voted ranking can be used as a general guideline but not facts. The result heavily depends on what is on the TV at the moment. When Gundam Wing was on TV, it dominated all post. It is the same as any other Gundam or any other popular anime. The latest will always be more popular at the moment. It will be very interesting to see if Gundam Seed is still seen as an epic after 25 years. Mobile Suit Gundam has already done that and Zeta is not forgotten after 20 years. Only time can tell if Gundam Seed is as good as Mobile Suit Gundam. Personally, I don't like Gundam Seed at all because it does not bring any new idea into the history but many cool looking toys. I just don't think a director should change the storyline simply to encourage model sale. Maybe people really see Gundam as nothing more than a toy commercial, how sad. Well, anyway, this thread is not to discuss if Gundam Seed is good. Sorry for off-topic.

I try not to limit to certain kind of plotline and genre. I watch everything from Excel Saga to Legend of Galatic Hero. When there is a well-written plot and some interesting characters, I can enjoy it. I start as a sci-fi/mecha fan and I am glad I try different genre. If not, I don't think I would get to know great stories such as 12 Kingdoms and Monster.

[QUOTE]As for worst, I'll give SD Gundam a break (yeh it's the worst) And take some time to pick on Gundam 0080: Stardust memories... The most annoying main character ever and some of the least context for plot. Not to mention it's an OAV that seems to think it's a anime series. 4 episodes are spent with Kou just sulking. Some good action at the end; but that can hardly make up for it.[/QUOTE] Just want to commet about SD being the worst. Again, there are 2 SD Gundams, the Super Deformed (old) and the Superior Defender (new). The old ones are very entertaining in making fun of UC Gundam. It is hardly bad. The new one is targetting 5 years old and many people don't like it because they are not the target audiences. It is the same that older Gundam fans dislike Gundam Wing or Gundam Seed because these shows are not made for them. A side note: Gundam 0080 is War in the Pocket and Stardust Memories is 0083. Sorry for being picky for honest typo. :animeswea

I love these four Gundam stories equally: Mobiile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Victory Gundam and Turn A Gundam. There are so much to talk about on these four stories and I am only picking one element from each to cut it short. Character Development in Mobile Suit Gundam Mobile Suit Gundam is the first Gundam created. It has started the subgenre known as "Real robot". MSG contains a realistic background without alien invasion. It tells the story of conflicts between human. The plot is innovating and the character development is inspiring. Take Amuro Rei, the main character, as an example. Amuro is not a likeable person. He is a whiny nerd lives in his little sand castle. He does not care about anyone else except himself. He is simply immature and annoying. That gives Amuro good character development. With a highly likeable main character like Kira (Gundam Seed), character development is not so important since he is liked by the watchers anyway. On the other hand, Amuro has to "earn" respect. He is not the "hero" type and the purpose of character development is to make him a believeable one. Amuro may not be the most popular character, but anyone who like Mobile Suit Gundam would respect him. Plot Development in Zeta Gundam Zeta has the most complicate plot in all Gundam. The story follows Kamille Biden, the 16 years old main character, as he fights for AEUG against Titan. The plot of Zeta contains twist after twist with conflicts from all angles. Multiple parties fight agaist each other without the definition of black and white. The watchers watch the plot unfold with Kamille in an unstoppable rate. Old events, current affairs and future predictions all blend in one large pot waiting to be sort out. With AEUG against Titan against Earth Federation against Jupiter Empire against Neo Zeon, Zeta surely has enough events filling all 50 episodes with excitment. Tone in Victory Gundam Victory has the darkest tone in all Gundam, darker than Zeta and Seed combine. However, Victory also has more funny moments than any other Gundam except ZZ. The swtich of the tones makes the story perfect. Unlike Zeta, which general has a very dark tone, Victory has lighten up here and there. It does not mean the story is light-hearted but it relaxes the stress through the events. These lighter moments also remind the watchers that the people doing the killing are children and they can be silly sometime. My favorite scene of the show is when the 13 years old main character Usso Ebbing plays ball with his friend and his haro before the last bloody battle. This scene may look odd but it does a great job telling about thier childhood. They are children and they should be playing, not killing. Theme in Turn A Gundam Turn A is unique in Gundam history in its setting. It does not follow the traditional "Earth vs Colony" formula but starts something new. However, Turn A is as much as a Gundam story as any formula followers. Gundam is about war, not peace and Turn A is about war. The different ideals and ideas crushing and the war starts. Both sides are unwilling to fight but some are willing to take advantages. Travelling with the main character and his friends from both sides, the watchers see how they understand each other as human, not people from Earth or people from moon. Only the understanding can prevent war. My favorite does not limit to these four but these are the top picks from me.

Something I heard a long time ago.... "The mechas are what get us in Gundam but the characters make us stay" This is so true. Most of us watching Gundam because we want to see the mechas. Then, many of us find the characters interesting and willing to stay with the shows for them. The character is the heart of Gundam. Gundam features believeable characters with emotion we can related to. These characters are ordinary people, like us, who are forced into uncontrollable situation. Like us, they have to face choices as well as consequences; even a strong newtype like Amuro has to pay with his life.

The X TV series is very well made, much better than the movie. I still like the manga more than any animated version because of the artwork and the amount of time spent on character development. The manga is truly well structured with a lot about the characters. Hopefully, we will have the ending of the manga soon. For anyone who like X, I highly recommand read the manga of Tokyo Babylon. I think the dark atomsphere is captured perfectly in the story. However, even it is advertised as the prequel of X, it has nothing to do with it other than sharing some characters.

GX is good but I don't think it is the best in my opinion. Well, it is an opinion. Anyway, GX is my top 5 Gundam with Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta, Victory and Turn A. The characters in GX are very very well written. Like UC, GW is character oriented. It has the best character development in AU Gundam, with the exception of Turn A. It is really fulfilling to watch a 15 years old boy growing up to a man because of the change of environment. Garroad is definitely one of my favorite main characters in Gundam, along Camille(Zeta), Judau(ZZ), Usso(Victory) and Loran(Turn A). It is also good to see the development outside the main character on the secondary characters. Episode 15 is my favorite episode of all AU. The story is hard to follow and understand if the audiences are not familiar with the concept of newtype. The plot may look loose but it is tightly grued by the idea of finding newtype. It reflects Jamil's life nicely as he is trying to find meaning in life.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dagger IX1 [/i] [B]Anyway, I have a question for all of you mecha buffs out there. I've only seen a few episodes of the older Gundam series, and I don't really understand their appeal. I don't even like GW all that much--certain aspects of the show bored me half to death. So, tell me what's so amazing about the other Gundams, because I refuse to believe that people watch would watch a series solely for the sake of seeing giant robots duke it out.~Dagger~ [/B][/QUOTE] The most appealing element in Gundam is its realistic look into our world. There is no aliens in any Gundam story, just wars between human. There is no super weapons send from God, but just weapons created by human to destroy human. It is the underlying stories about people fighting people which attract the fans. The outcome of the war is not always "good guy win and bad guys lose". There is indeed no "good" or "bad" in battlefields, but just suviving. Take 0080:War in the Pocket as an example. It is at the end of the One Year War and Zeon is losing. Throughout Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeon is the antagonist but in 0080, we see a very positive side of the enemy. A fair look into Zeon is there for the watchers to judge who is right and who is wrong. At the end, there is no right or wrong, only sadness and death. That is the truth of our life. In most Gundams, especially the Tomino Gundams, the characters are very colorful. They may not have the coolest looks or the prettiest faces, but they can display real emotion, like us. Take Amuro Ray, the main character of Mobile Suit Gundam as an example: Amuro may be whinning, but he has the reasons to. He is sent to the battlefield, facing death without any training to protect some strangers. He feels fear, angry and sad about his situation but he cannot do anything about it because he has nowhere else to go. All he can do is stay and fight, not for himself, but others. With the death of Lalah, Amuro loses hope within him as he can no longer see the light of the future. He cannot have a normal relationship or just friendship with anyone because he chooses to hide himself. His pain finally explose in the last convensation he shares with Char in Char's Counterattack. It takes Amuro 14 years to face himself. It is so true that the mechas attract peple to the franchise, it is the characters and stories to make the fans stay. Without the excellent characters and interesting stories, Gundam cannot last long in history. The characters in Gundams are not super heroes handing out justice to the bad guys (I think GW and Seed break the rule). Back to the topic: I prefer some of the older mecha then those, works like Aura Battler Dubine and Macross over these newer shows. I do agree that Raxaphon is very interesting. It feels like Brain Powerd, not EVA, but with a very different story.

There is still no release date on Zeta, yet. Maybe Seed will come first because of the finanical advantage but Zeta is getting a boxset release! It is well worth the money and time.

OK, it has been too long for the answer. Maybe we should just drop this question. Anyway, the answer is Amuro. NT-1 Alex is built for Amuro to use in the battle of A Baoa Qu. However, he never get the machine as it is destroyed by Bernie in Side 6. Try this question: What is the SD stand for in SD Gundam Force?

Amuro's Gundam is RX-78-2 Gundam. Who is supposed to pilot Alex RX-78NT1?

Look at the series Knight of Zodiac, which is the American edited version of the classic Saint Seiya. The show is made around the same time as Zeta Gundam, actually, one year after Zeta in 1986. The show has to be edit heavily and we still hear people complain about the remastered animation as the style is different from late 90s to earlier 00s. The editing angers the older fans but it is the animation drives the newer targetted fans away. This will be what happen to Zeta if it is show on TV because Zeta is not what many people recognize as Gundam since it is not Wing or Seed. At the end, if it is on TV, we will be flood with opinions like the Mobile Suit Gundam has. We will hear endless complain of the old animation and the "uninteresting" characters. We will hear mindless comparisons between Camille and Heero or Zeta to Wing Zero. I really don't want to see that.

Zeta is too old for American TV. The rating of MSG really discorages Zeta for getting on TV, anyway. Also, Zeta is the sequel of MSG and many people have not watch MSG at all and Zeta is just another old story, uninteresting story to them. Seed has the perfect graphic for the American market where look is more important than content. Too bad that Zeta will be buried even the story and characters are far better than Gundam Seed's. It is just the way things go.

Wing is made in 1995, which is 9 years ago. Why bother to repeat a 9 years old show when a newer show is going to show on CN? BTW, when Seed comes on TV, I am sure many of the Wing fans will become Seed fans and start praising Seed like Wing. PS. Zeta has 50 episodes.

[QUOTE]And, in the anime, was anyone else annoyed by Orcot's persistant claims that D was selling drugs?[/QUOTE] I am not annoyed. By the 4 volume, it is obvious Leon is only using the excuse to visit the pet shop.:smirk:

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by StrikeGundam [/i] Wufei obviously did suffer from his defeat, because of his reaction at the end of the episode.[/QUOTE] What is his price for defeat? Does he has to loose an arm or a leg? [QUOTE] The obvious response would be Quatre, but that?s an easy answer. Instead I'll use Heero as an example. [spoiler]When Heero accidentally destroyed the pacifists of the Alliance, he did feel remorse over his mistake. Also in Endless Waltz, in a flashback, Heero again displayed his capacity to show remorse when he destroyed an Alliance base and accidentally killed a young girl and her puppy. [/spoiler] [/QUOTE] Fifteen episodes later, he is killing the nameless soldiers again without any problem. [spoiler]Do the killing of the little girl and her puppy demaged him at all?[/spoiler] Does that leave a mental scar on him? I am sure it does but when can we see the effect in the show? It is never stated in GW, instead, been imagined by fans. [QUOTE] I'm not sure if you meant the Alliance when you said OZ or not. If so, than I agree with you, at least for that part, only because you have to remember that the target demographic for Gundam Wing was teenagers. It makes little sense to make them look like idiots on a regular basis. [/QUOTE] Almost all Gundams are targetting teenagers but many other Gundams have very reasonable and intelligent adults, too. Take MSG as an example. The main character is a 15 years old boy and that is the same age as the target audiences. Doesn't MSG has more than a few intelligent and gentle adult characters, such as Maltida, Woody, Ramba Ral, Slegger and Cameron Bloom. [QUOTE] Also, Gundam was always a vessel used to convey a message. It is debatable what that message was, but the characters were made larger than life in every series, whether you noticed it or not, so that the viewer could easily focus in on whatever they wanted to, and then make there own assumptions. Just because it is more obvious to you doesn't mean that the entire series isn't worth viewing. [/QUOTE] Larger than life??? I could not disagree more. Take Bernie from 0080 War in the pocket as an example: [spoiler]Bernie is killed at the end but his death does not change the outcome of the war. All it can do is educated one single child about the true meaning of war. Larger than life? I don't think so.[/spoiler] Or MSG as an example: [spoiler]Does Amuro single-handly win the OYW for EF? No, he only plays a very small part in the battle. After that, he is house arrest for 7 years until he escapes. Can him single-handly change the future of mankind? Maybe, but not until he has to push Axis away with his and Char's lives. However, human do not immediately change and Amuro's death only play a tiny role in human evolution.[/spoiler] How about Camille from Zeta as an example for not larger than life: [spoiler]Can Camille change human forever? No. Can Camille guide human into the next evolution? No. He is only a human who wants to see the change but he alone cannot archieve it. He can only do so much and he can be burned up in atmosphere.[/spoiler]

The animated version takes 4 stories from the manga and each story is 25 minutes long. The stories animated are Daughter, Delicious, Despire and Dual. Like many manga turns anime, there is not a lot of character development in it comparing to the manga. My favorite is definitely the last chapter when we finally know what is in Count D's suitcase.