Gundam Show Thread - MSG thru Witch from Mercury

[F-ZeroOne]

VFTF-1, I thought I'd reply here to your comments about Tomino you made in the figures thread as it seems more on-topic here. One of the best comments I've read about Tomino is that he is awesome at creating worlds but somewhat less so at sustaining a narrative. It might be the J.K. Rowling problem - when you created your nations most famous popular culture product, there isn't an editor on the planet thats going to say "Uh, actually, maybe you want to trim a couple hundred pages here?"...

Its also worth bearing in mind that the way in which we watch older anime shows is not the way Japanese audiences watched those shows when originally broadcast; Ideons battles get repetitive watched in four episode blocks (as I tend to do) but might have been less so for little Anno [1] who excitedly rushed home from class to see Cosmo afro-kickin' butt each week.

Its your opinion, of course, and if you don't like him thats fine. I think going by your posts you admire his creations but not the way in which he uses them, in the same way that lots of people want to be a Jedi but want a word with George Lucas about Jar-Jar Binks...

[1] No, I didn't choose that name by accident...

Edited October 16, 2009 by F-ZeroOne

[VFTF1]

Well, it's way too early for me to definitively not like Tomino - I mean, I've only seen ONE series by him from start to finish - namely MSG. Ideon I just saw the compilation movie and Be Invoked, but not the series. Turn-A I'm just reaching the half way point. There is plenty of stuff this guy did and it wouldn't be right for me to establish an opinion based on such a scant offering...

Also, didn't he do Zambot 3? I watched only the first couple of episodes but I absolutely loved it.

Anyways - my comments should be taken as no more than thoughts-in-progress as I make my way through Tomino.

Pete

[F-ZeroOne]

Okay, sorry, I'm a bit tired at the moment and I'm probably not even sure what I'm thinking entirely... Yes, Tomino did Zambot 3. Where he first displayed his caring nature towards children...

[VFTF1]

I continue to watch Turn-A-Gundam and...oh...ohh ...ooohhhh how painful. The plot is just non-existent at this point. I watched episodes 21 and 22 and I really don't remember what they were about or why or... whatever...

All the main characters seem to be operating in a void and their reasons for doing things change with no explanation given. The Moonrace has superior technology - but they don't know how to farm or produce food or trade for food so more people defect to the milita who has food? Weak. So weak. Those two "comedy characters" just put me to sleep. Mainly because other than looking funny - they're not funny.

Diana-as-Sochie...what is she doing? I understand the whole "getting to know Earth life" - but has she basically just left her position as Queen? Was her plan to just switch places with Kiel and never worry about her duties ever again? I don't get it...

Harry must bring her back...oh...but he can't bring her back.

Poe disobeys orders again - or at least acts on her own - but nobody is ever disciplined.

And I just don't understand anything anymore. I have no clue what's going on or why. I totally don't get it. I'm lost.

I'm so lost, I can't even properly criticize Turn-A-Gundam anymore...

I think I like Tomino better when he's just having everybody killed. It's still boring, but at least there is artistic merit to it. Turn-A-Gundam is transforming into Transformers or your general run of the mill kid's show - where the status quo always returns at the end of the episode. No matter what zanny twists and turns occur -everything is back to where it was before hand.

Boooring.

None of the battles are decisive. Nobody ever dies. All the mecha do is stand around shooting at eachother.

MSG at least had melee attacks mixed in with attacks with different weapons and lots of interesting strategic turns (like Amuro deciding to make the attack on the moon from the side where the sun was shining to hide their approach with Riu or the silence/sound of breathing in oxygen tubes when the Zaku team lands on the colony to spy)...

I dunno... There is just no advance whatsoever in the plot and the situations that we see don't merit it. There's nothing compelling here.

Oh - and why did Diana suddenly stop being a nurse and start roasting chesnuts in a sexy blue dress?

I understand wanting to try different things, but then they could just avoid giving the impression that she's becoming a nurse... she just checked it out...

I dunno...

Lost. Lost. Totally lost.

Bad batch of episodes one after the other.

Things need to pick up.

Pete

[F-ZeroOne]

Er... for Tomino, no-one dying is actually massively revolutionary story-telling, right?

[nugundamII]

I have seen parts of ideon and Turn A and i agree with Pete

They are goofy

The only redeeming quality of Turn A is that the Gundam of the said name is so cool looking and the fact it was designed by the guy who designed the world for blade runner.

BTW did he design the X gundam ?? Cause that one is cool too

Who designed Ideon

[F-ZeroOne]

Do you mean the Turn-X Gundam or the Gundam-X. There is a difference... If its the former, I believe he did, and that originally it was actually intended to be the Turn-A design...

[MacrossCN]

Gundam UC, EP.01 「ユニコーンの日」, 2010.2.20~~~~~~

2010年2月20日～3月5日までの2週間、全国5都市の映画館でプレミアレビューとして発売1ヶ月前に第1話「ユニコーンの日」が上映されるそうです

[lechuck]

Technically this doesn't classify as a Gundam show, but I think this prelude to

Mobile Suit Gundam Battlefield Record U.C. 0081 game is quite good and I wanted to share. Enjoy.

[wolfx]

Technically this doesn't classify as a Gundam show, but I think this prelude to

Mobile Suit Gundam Battlefield Record U.C. 0081 game is quite good and I wanted to share. Enjoy.

I assume this is from the same game?

[protostar8]

Question (SPOILERS)

Did Amuro really die at the end of CCA? I now the novel supposedly has them KIA, but with the Gundam Universe being the way it is, a KIA isn't KIA unless you have a dead body to go along with it. So have they ever been shown or had "cameo" type appearances in stuff after the CCA timeline?

[Gubaba]

Question (SPOILERS)

Did Amuro really die at the end of CCA? I now the novel supposedly has them KIA, but with the Gundam Universe being the way it is, a KIA isn't KIA unless you have a dead body to go along with it. So have they ever been shown or had "cameo" type appearances in stuff after the CCA timeline?

Amuro's brain makes a reappearance is Crossbone Gundam Skull Heart (UC 0133). Other than that, no.

[protostar8]

Amuro's brain makes a reappearance is Crossbone Gundam Skull Heart (UC 0133). Other than that, no.

Okay. Thanks!

[lechuck]

I assume this is from the same game?

Yup, that's the game.

Amuro's brain makes a reappearance is Crossbone Gundam Skull Heart (UC 0133). Other than that, no.

Until you mentioned Amuro's brain, I always assumed that Amuro and Char either survived both physically and mentally intact

or disappeared and sort of ascended to a higher level of Newtype-ism.

I have always preferred the former and the brain thing makes that more of a concrete fact.

Anyway I love CCA except for the ambiguous ending, should have been a conclusive and positive ending for Amuro.

[VFTF1]

Wait.

I watched Char's Counter Attack...

and I DIDN'T notice that Amuro dies??

Maybe this is when I really did fall asleep...

But all I remember is all the Zeons and Gins trying to stop the asteroid and then some christmas lights came on and the end credits rolled.

How could I have missed Amuro dying?

Pete

[lechuck]

Well that's the problem with CCA, the ending leaves you guessing.

If we ignore the brain thing for a moment, then the movie leaves no conclusive clues as to whether Amuro lives or dies.

[VFTF1]

But where is the suggestion that Amuro dies?

I mean - I didn't even see it hinted that Amuro might die?

Pete

[protostar8]

But where is the suggestion that Amuro dies?

I mean - I didn't even see it hinted that Amuro might die?

Pete

I read that in the book, it says they are KIA. That's just what someone posted somewhere, I've never read the book myself. That's why I was curious if he really did die. The movie is ambiguous b/c all you see is Amuro shoving Char's escape pod into the asteroid in a big light show.

[VFTF1]

Yeah...I don't even remember the shove...I do remember the escape pod...and something..I seriously was by that point in the movie dosing off. In fact, I need to erase that movie from my hard drive. It's just taking up space. I dunno...or maybe I should watch it again to see if I like it?

Nu Gundam is pretty cool. Rz-Gz is also neeto. I like the mecha in the show, that's for sure... and I guess Char's plan is interesting... hmm...

But...hmm... I dunno... there's just something wrong with it...

Maybe I'm having a bad day.

Pete

[protostar8]

Yeah...I don't even remember the shove...I do remember the escape pod...and something..I seriously was by that point in the movie dosing off. In fact, I need to erase that movie from my hard drive. It's just taking up space. I dunno...or maybe I should watch it again to see if I like it?

Nu Gundam is pretty cool. Rz-Gz is also neeto. I like the mecha in the show, that's for sure... and I guess Char's plan is interesting... hmm...

But...hmm... I dunno... there's just something wrong with it...

Maybe I'm having a bad day.

Pete

Sorry, just did some more research and it's Beltorchika's Children in which Amuro dies. But apparently, that's a retelling of Char's Counterattack, so I guess Amuro isn't dead???? I don't know at this point. I'm more confused then before I asked???

[Awacs]

My reading of the ending of "Char's Counterattack" was that Amuro and Char both physically die, but their conciousness' may survive in some form. That is if Amuro's vision of Lalah Sune earlier in the film was in fact a vision and not simply an imagining of his tired brain...... But the film itself seems deliberately vague about whether or not they survive. I prefer to conclude that they did die, mostly because I think it makes a satistfying ending for Amuro to sacrifice himself to bring an end to Char's plans whilst saving the Earth in the process. He wants the peace, and in the end he is prepared to sacrifice himself for it - showing the empathy that Char demonstrates that he signally lacks (despite claiming as an important distinction that makes Newtypes like himself better).

I've been watching what little UC Gundam is available in Britain recently. It is little enough - just the original series compilation movies, Afterglow of Zeon, Char's Counterattack and F-91. I did rather enjoy the movie edit of the original Mobile Suit Gundam - the first film felt like it meandered a bit, and just sort of stopped rather than reaching a neat break point, but I felt that the second two worked better. I think that I like the setting, and some of the story elements more than I like the story per se though. I like the relationship between Amuro and Ramba Ral, Ral goes a long way to humanising the Zeon - who would otherwise be a little too much one-dimensional "Evil Space Facists". Amuro's reunion with his mother is a moment that struck me as well - when she is bewailing what the war has done to her son it is hard for me not to see her point (but at the same time I can see the sense in Amuro's actions too). I did like the fact that the movies, whilst very much saying that war is not a good thing, were a little equivocal about it. It felt like there was a bit of nuance to the idea that whilst war is not good, it is sometimes necessary.

From the MSG movies I headed to "Afterglow of Zeon". Hmmmm. Some things can be successfully condensed down to the length of a couple of hours, and some it would appear cannot. I think this is one of the latter. It felt like they had kept as much of they could of the mecha battles, at the cost of jetissoning anything that might have defined the characters and created any sense of identification with them. I didn't find that I really cared what happened to any of the cast, which made it a chore to get through. There were also a few sequences that became complete non-sequiters, stripped of any context and just left me scratching my head wondering how they were originally intended to work.

"Char's Counterattack" I didn't mind - it felt like a decent final battle between Amuro and Char, with high stakes to add that extra sense of finality to it. I did like the fact that Char came across as somewhat of a hypocrite - telling Amuro that Oldtypes lacked empathy which is why they did bad things and should be wiped out so that Newtypes would replace them. Yes, good way to demonstrate that empathy there Char. As I had done with "Afterglow of Zeon" I didn't actually watch it all the way through in a sitting mind you. With both I split the running time roughtly in half and called it a day at what felt like a suitable break point. (Mostly due to my own schedule than anything else). What I'm not so fond of is the fact that the plot is "powered by stupidity" in places - the Federation government selling a large asteroid to a group of people with a history of dropping large objects on the Earth is bad enough, but to then allow them to change its orbit so that it moves closer to the planet borders on criminal negligence. Mind you, at least Amuro and Bright do actually comment on how stupid that decision is - so it is supposed to be a bad idea within the frame of the fiction as well.

"Gundam F-91"... well, I am probably in the rarity in that I actually quite like it. More for what it could have been than what it is mind you. It certainly shows that this is what could be salvaged from an aborted television series. It is incredibly choppy in terms of structure and has to make enormous off-screen narrative leaps. Viewed objectively I don't think it is a very good movie at all, but I think that there is the skeleton of a perfectly good television series poking through in places. There are some ideas in there that I think I would like to have seen played out over slightly longer - notably "the seduction of Cessily Fairchild", her apparent growing attraction to the perfidious aristocratic nonsense of the Crossbone Vanguard would have made for an interesting bit of character development if it had more room to breathe I think. As a film I think F-91 is a terrible mess, but I think it would have made a fair remake of "Mobile Suit Gundam" if it had actually been completed.

All told, I think I like some of the ideas floating around in UC Gundam more than I like it on a story level (if that makes any sense to anyone), and I certainly quite like the setting. I'm not sure any of it is more than a "watched once, reasonably enjoyed it" - not something I am likely to go back to I don't think. But that alone puts it a step above the AU stuff I have seen. I only made it through two episodes of Gundam Wing, and I think I saw two and a half episodes of SEED before bundling the disc back to the rental service with great despatch, so UC Gundam certainly has something going for it if it kept me sufficiently interested to watch it all once.

(And I must confess - I'm not a huge fan of the aethetics of the Mobile Suits. I don't mind them but they don't really catch a hold of my imagination. I do like a lot of the spacecraft designs though - for some reason White Base, the Zeon and Federation cruisers and the visuals of the colony cylinders are actually things I remember more than most of the MS designs for some reason).

Karl

[Gubaba]

Until you mentioned Amuro's brain, I always assumed that Amuro and Char either survived both physically and mentally intact

or disappeared and sort of ascended to a higher level of Newtype-ism.

I have always preferred the former and the brain thing makes that more of a concrete fact.

Anyway I love CCA except for the ambiguous ending, should have been a conclusive and positive ending for Amuro.

It's been a looooong while since I read "Skull Heart" (a translated version of it is available on the internets, thoough), so I don't remember if they cloned Amuro's brain, or just created it in a lab or what...anyway, my earlier post may have been a bit misleading. It's not the actual brain that was sitting in Amuro's skull throughout the earlier stories...it's a clone or a replica or something like that.

Sorry, just did some more research and it's Beltorchika's Children in which Amuro dies. But apparently, that's a retelling of Char's Counterattack, so I guess Amuro isn't dead???? I don't know at this point. I'm more confused then before I asked???

It's tough to use the novels to prove or disprove anything in the animation, considering that Amuro and Hayato both die at the end of the original MSG novel trilogy. And, to make it even more confusing, there are TWO novelizations (both by Tomino) of CCA: Hi-Streamer (a trilogy) and Beltorchika's Children (a single volume). I've heard that Char and Amuro both die in Beltorchika's Children...I don't know about Hi-Streamer, though.

My feeling about the movie (and this is only MY feeling), is that they either both lived, or both died. I can't believe that one of them survived and the other didn't. And since it doesn't look like Char's going to be going anywhere by the end of the movie, I assume he didn't. So then Amuro must be dead, too.

Edited November 4, 2009 by Gubaba

[F-ZeroOne]

Yeah...I don't even remember the shove...I do remember the escape pod...and something..I seriously was by that point in the movie dosing off. In fact, I need to erase that movie from my hard drive. It's just taking up space. I dunno...or maybe I should watch it again to see if I like it?

Pete

Its already been pointed out, but Gundam novels might not be the best place to rely on for evidence about what happened; Tomino kills off Amuro Ray in the first Gundam novels after all!

Personally, I've always felt that the clue is simply in the director. He wasn't at the time exactly known for being sentimental about characters. The other story I've read (again, without being able to say how true it is) is that Tomino really wanted Char and Amuro to die but Bandai forced him to make the deaths more ambiguous.

Edited November 4, 2009 by F-ZeroOne

[VFTF1]

I like the relationship between Amuro and Ramba Ral, Ral goes a long way to humanising the Zeon - who would otherwise be a little too much one-dimensional "Evil Space Facists".

I haven't seen the movie compilations, but I have watched the MSG series - and a lot more of that goes on in the series. In fact, it's one of the strongest things that the MSG series has going for it. There are plenty of good Zeon soldiers helping civilians, and getting hammered by the Federation while trying to save children. Then, later in the series, there's a whole sub-plot with a Zeon spy that Kai falls in love with - this is probably the high point of the series for me because Kai, who is just a coward forced to pilot a mobile suite and fight a war he'd rather not fight, sees a kinsman in the girl - who is just a coward who wants to feed her younger siblings and will spy for Zeon to get money for them but would rather not. Both of them hate the reality they are in and find kindered spirits in one another and the tragic ending of the relationship really made me very sad.

But it also makes Kai my favorite Gundam character.

Pete

[mpchi]

I haven't seen the movie compilations, but I have watched the MSG series - and a lot more of that goes on in the series. In fact, it's one of the strongest things that the MSG series has going for it. There are plenty of good Zeon soldiers helping civilians, and getting hammered by the Federation while trying to save children. Then, later in the series, there's a whole sub-plot with a Zeon spy that Kai falls in love with - this is probably the high point of the series for me because Kai, who is just a coward forced to pilot a mobile suite and fight a war he'd rather not fight, sees a kinsman in the girl - who is just a coward who wants to feed her younger siblings and will spy for Zeon to get money for them but would rather not. Both of them hate the reality they are in and find kindered spirits in one another and the tragic ending of the relationship really made me very sad.

But it also makes Kai my favorite Gundam character.

Pete

Yeah, that part was a great sub-plot. Its stuff like that that made the first Gundam show very human. Its also in the movie compilation. I find a similar thing going in the 0080 series as well. These are elements that made some of the earlier Gundam shows great. Just good human drama in interesting situations complimented with cool mechas.

[transfan52]

I continue to watch Turn-A-Gundam and...oh...ohh ...ooohhhh how painful. The plot is just non-existent at this point. I watched episodes 21 and 22 and I really don't remember what they were about or why or... whatever...

All the main characters seem to be operating in a void and their reasons for doing things change with no explanation given. The Moonrace has superior technology - but they don't know how to farm or produce food or trade for food so more people defect to the milita who has food? Weak. So weak. Those two "comedy characters" just put me to sleep. Mainly because other than looking funny - they're not funny.

Diana-as-Sochie...what is she doing? I understand the whole "getting to know Earth life" - but has she basically just left her position as Queen? Was her plan to just switch places with Kiel and never worry about her duties ever again? I don't get it...

Harry must bring her back...oh...but he can't bring her back.

Poe disobeys orders again - or at least acts on her own - but nobody is ever disciplined.

And I just don't understand anything anymore. I have no clue what's going on or why. I totally don't get it. I'm lost.

I'm so lost, I can't even properly criticize Turn-A-Gundam anymore...

I think I like Tomino better when he's just having everybody killed. It's still boring, but at least there is artistic merit to it. Turn-A-Gundam is transforming into Transformers or your general run of the mill kid's show - where the status quo always returns at the end of the episode. No matter what zanny twists and turns occur -everything is back to where it was before hand.

Boooring.

None of the battles are decisive. Nobody ever dies. All the mecha do is stand around shooting at eachother.

MSG at least had melee attacks mixed in with attacks with different weapons and lots of interesting strategic turns (like Amuro deciding to make the attack on the moon from the side where the sun was shining to hide their approach with Riu or the silence/sound of breathing in oxygen tubes when the Zaku team lands on the colony to spy)...

I dunno... There is just no advance whatsoever in the plot and the situations that we see don't merit it. There's nothing compelling here.

Oh - and why did Diana suddenly stop being a nurse and start roasting chesnuts in a sexy blue dress?

I understand wanting to try different things, but then they could just avoid giving the impression that she's becoming a nurse... she just checked it out...

I dunno...

Lost. Lost. Totally lost.

Bad batch of episodes one after the other.

Things need to pick up.

Pete

I totally understand what you're saying... I just can't stand turn-A... The mecha designs are great and different but the plot is poor and almost nonexistent... I have seen all the other gundam shows produced by tomino except for V gundam. At first I really enjoyed the series in the UC timeline.... But by the time I finished watching every UC series he was involved in I just got sick of the same old routine and stopped watching gundam for a very long time until recently...

0079 was exciting and original, zeta was depressing but the battles were awesome, ZZ was kinda boring and I couldn't take it seriously... CCA was a good end to the original U.C time line and I was happy with the outcome. However that's when my interest in the series started to wane... I couldn't stand V gundam simply because it follows the same pattern as zeta gundam and is not very original at all.

The only modern incarnations of the series that I did enjoy were mostly the side stories like 0080, 0083 and the 08th ms team. But those adaptations were not made by tomino... Maybe that's why I liked them so much because they were different and showed a different side of the OYW and post OYW conflict.

IMO tomino is long out of ideas for the gundam series and has moved on to persue different ventures that allow more creativity. He contributed enough and should have stopped by the early 90's IMO.

[F-ZeroOne]

I was browsing TV Tropes yesterday and came across an interesting little tid-bit that explains one of the more bizarre plot points of Turn-A Gundam; apparently the reason for Loran making good use of the more feminine side of his nature during the series is that Tomino originally wanted a female lead character, but the money men wouldn't let him. This might also explain the relatively strong female roles elsewhere in the show.

Which once again goes to prove that if you're going to pick a fight with Yoshiyuki Tomino, get used to regretting it later.

[Awacs]

I haven't seen the movie compilations, but I have watched the MSG series - and a lot more of that goes on in the series. In fact, it's one of the strongest things that the MSG series has going for it. There are plenty of good Zeon soldiers helping civilians, and getting hammered by the Federation while trying to save children.

I do think that one of the strengths of UC Gundam seems to be the sense that a lot of the folk on both sides in any given war are basically good people just doing their jobs, another proportion are basically people who have been led astray and only a few are outright and irredemably evil. It makes things much more interesting to have that ambiguity (and it makes it a bit more poignant to root for the heroes knowing that a lot of the cannon fodder they are cutting down are just folk who happen to be on the "wrong" side, not necessarily villians).

Then, later in the series, there's a whole sub-plot with a Zeon spy that Kai falls in love with - this is probably the high point of the series for me because Kai, who is just a coward forced to pilot a mobile suite and fight a war he'd rather not fight, sees a kinsman in the girl - who is just a coward who wants to feed her younger siblings and will spy for Zeon to get money for them but would rather not. Both of them hate the reality they are in and find kindered spirits in one another and the tragic ending of the relationship really made me very sad.

But it also makes Kai my favorite Gundam character.

Pete

That is a nice little subplot. It comes across as a bit rushed in the compilation movie, but I get the sense it was originally spread over several episodes so seen week on week I think it would have worked a bit better. It didn't quite make Kai my favourite character but it did give me a bit of an identification with him. I think that I probably share more with Kai than I do with Amuro or Char. (One of the thing I am finding with the UC material is I do find there are more characters I find myself liking than there were in Wing or SEED. Which is probably why I can watch the UC shows but gave up with the latter.)

It is just a shame that there has been so little UC Gundam released over here, it disappeared in a tide of Gundam SEED, which was everywhere for about a yeat and then vanished into obscurity.

That's the problem with these new-fangled things - no staying power :-)

Karl

[VFTF1]

I was browsing TV Tropes yesterday and came across an interesting little tid-bit that explains one of the more bizarre plot points of Turn-A Gundam; apparently the reason for Loran making good use of the more feminine side of his nature during the series is that Tomino originally wanted a female lead character, but the money men wouldn't let him. This might also explain the relatively strong female roles elsewhere in the show

Not saying it's not true - but it sounds wierd because...they wouldn't let him make the main character a girl...but they let him make the main character a cross-dresser?

Pete

who is unable to bring himself to watch any more Turn-A-Gundam for fear of melting what little remains of his brain

[GRAND CANNON]

CG動畫 Ring of Gundam ???

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/iam-cybergundam/article?mid=36106

Anyone have any info about this? Will it be another Gundam Evolve type or OVA ?

[azrael]

CG動畫 Ring of Gundam ???

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/iam-cybergundam/article?mid=36106

Anyone have any info about this? Will it be another Gundam Evolve type or OVA ?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-...undam-previewed

[GRAND CANNON]

Thanks!

Will now eagerly await release info!!

[areaseven]

R.I.P. Daisuke Gouri (1952-2010)

Voice actor Daisuke Gouri was found dead on January 17 as a result of a suicide. In the Gundam universe, he did the voices of Dozle Zabi in the original series and Bask Om in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. He also did numerous voices in anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Trigun and Cowboy Bebop. In the video game world, he did the voices of Heihachi in Tekken and Bass in Dead or Alive

[hulagu]

I totally understand what you're saying... I just can't stand turn-A... The mecha designs are great and different but the plot is poor and almost nonexistent... I have seen all the other gundam shows produced by tomino except for V gundam. At first I really enjoyed the series in the UC timeline.... But by the time I finished watching every UC series he was involved in I just got sick of the same old routine and stopped watching gundam for a very long time until recently...

YMMV. Turn A has some of the best writing and direction in the Gundam series IMO. It just diverges far from the standard Gundam plot formula.

My feeling about the movie (and this is only MY feeling), is that they either both lived, or both died. I can't believe that one of them survived and the other didn't. And since it doesn't look like Char's going to be going anywhere by the end of the movie, I assume he didn't. So then Amuro must be dead, too.

Didn't we have a shot of Amuro's cockpit exploding when his Gundam overloaded, and Nanai breaking down when she feels Char fading away with her NT powers?

Then we get the three glowing balls of light chasing each other around Earth orbit in the credits, which I assume is symbolic of the Lalah/Char/Amuro triangle continuing into the hereafter.

So, yeah, they're dead.

Edited January 19, 2010 by hulagu

[CrusherJ]

Haven't seen any posts about this yet, but the Blu-ray of Gundam UC Vol. 1 is up for pre order on Amazon and will be exclusive to the site for the first two months of its release.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-...-to-get-streams