Gundam

[Kaleion]

So I just finished watching Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans and Operation Thunderbolt and I must say that I really enjoyed both, the gritty world, the surprisingly well-written stories, the moral ambiguity of it all, and well in the case of Iron Blooded Orphans since it was so long it had some pretty well realized and well written characters, not all of them were great but most of them were pretty well developed and likeable, I loved how sad and futile Tekkadan's struggle was and well I found it pretty enjoyable overall, I won't lie I did cry at some parts but yeah it was waaaaaaaaay better than I expected.

As for Thunderbolt, it was brief and to the point, again a very gritty morally ambiguous setting but just focusing on a single battle and it's soldiers rather than the big picture, which is really not of any consequence, also I really liked the music it was fantastic and again a very well written story, the characters were strong enough considering it's only 4 episodes long, clocking at around an hour and 15 minutes, again very good, overall I enjoyed Iron Blooded Orphans more but since Thunderbolt is so brief I would recommend it over it.

Anyway so my questions are.

What do you people think about Gundam?

If you are fans, considering how massive and varied the franchise is what other Gundam media should I watch?

Or maybe, are Iron Blooded Orphans and Thunderbolt an anomaly and is the franchise is actually pretty bad?

And I guess what's your favourite Gundam?
(Gonna be honest, the robots are cool and all but they aren't at all the reason why I enjoyed those shows, I actually don't care about the robots in the slightest and don't have a favourite because of that)


Finally, I'm a pretty big tabletop RPG fan, if I wanted a Gundam like setting what would be an RPG that you would recommend if you know any?

 

[bluegate]

The only Gundam series I ever watched was Gundam Wing 15 or so years ago when it aired on some television network over here.

I liked the robot fights in it, but the story seemed to take a bit of a dive near the middle as there were certain characters that dragged it down for me *cough* Peacecraft family *cough*.

In general I like the idea of Gundam, but I never bothered to watch any show outside of the one that happened to air on tv. Come to think of it, I occasionally listen to a few Gundam songs on YouTube.

A link to an automatic YouTube playlist, up to and including Last Impression, can't vouch for the rest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr9kO9Jlx7c&list=RDjr9kO9Jlx7c&index=1

 

[Houseman]

I'm only familiar with Gundam Wing and G-Gundam. G-Gundam was pretty cool, because it's just a big battle tournament without things like politics, war, death, to get in the way of robots punching each-other.

I have a Gundam fighting game on PS1, one of the Gundam Battle Assaults. It was pretty cool. The guys took visual damage when they got hurt enough.

 

[Samtemdo8]

I adore the Orchestral Score of Gundam Seed, eat your heart out John Williams:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ihPGketlQA&list=PLZ-UX2ux7q9ETty2hET3AU-7Eh6EwRBFP[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8aH_TcIZ5Y&list=PLZ-UX2ux7q9ETty2hET3AU-7Eh6EwRBFP&index=11[/youtube]

 

[Kaleion]

The only Gundam series I ever watched was Gundam Wing 15 or so years ago when it aired on some television network over here.

I liked the robot fights in it, but the story seemed to take a bit of a dive near the middle as there were certain characters that dragged it down for me *cough* Peacecraft family *cough*.

In general I like the idea of Gundam, but I never bothered to watch any show outside of the one that happened to air on tv. Come to think of it, I occasionally listen to a few Gundam songs on YouTube.

A link to an automatic YouTube playlist, up to and including Last Impression, can't vouch for the rest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr9kO9Jlx7c&list=RDjr9kO9Jlx7c&index=1

Well if you like the idea of Gundam and you haven't given it a go in a while I would highly recommend checking out Operation Thunderbolt, because it's good, has great music and it's also very short, only 4 episodes long of roughly 20 minutes each, so it's not like a huge commitment.

If you do feel like giving a chance to something longer Iron Blooded Orphans is really good but since that is 50 episodes long it is actually a very big time commitment, overall the plot is really interesting and delves quite a bit into space politics without making it boring, since the story is primarily about the child soldier mercenary group Tekkadan and most of them have no idea how politics work.

Both of them also have very good action but Thunderbolt is better animated.

I'm only familiar with Gundam Wing and G-Gundam. G-Gundam was pretty cool, because it's just a big battle tournament without things like politics, war, death, to get in the way of robots punching each-other.

I have a Gundam fighting game on PS1, one of the Gundam Battle Assaults. It was pretty cool. The guys took visual damage when they got hurt enough.

Never played a Gundam game but I did enjoy Zone of the Enders, so maybe I should check some of them out.

I adore the Orchestral Score of Gundam Seed, eat your heart out John Williams:

Yeah, those are pretty good, shame the consensus is that it's not very well written since I'm looking for well written stories, sadly the score for Iron Blooded Orphans isn't as good as that but if you like Jazz & Lounge Thunderbolt's score is pretty great.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrLvoyFpLGc&index=1&list=PL8DS_G5PRB2Vd8LtP-hzT-B2WNgLe6-JZ[/youtube]

 

[gaijinkaiju]

I've only seen some episodes of Gundam 00. I remeber thinking it was alright ubt i haven't yet finfished it so i couldn't tell you if its good or not. I've been meaning to watch iron-blooded orphans but like alot of anime, i just haven't got round to it yet.
I'm more a fan of the gunpla kits and the mech desgins than the actual shows, and the gundam warriors games which are just great fun imo.
As for favourites, they would be; Shin musha MK1 & MK2. Not sure where they're from, but they're based off samurai armour and look great; Unicorn Gundam; and Nu Gundam

 

[Arnox]

I've only seen some episodes of Gundam 00. I remeber thinking it was alright ubt i haven't yet finfished it so i couldn't tell you if its good or not. I've been meaning to watch iron-blooded orphans but like alot of anime, i just haven't got round to it yet.
I'm more a fan of the gunpla kits and the mech desgins than the actual shows, and the gundam warriors games which are just great fun imo.
As for favourites, they would be; Shin musha MK1 & MK2. Not sure where they're from, but they're based off samurai armour and look great; Unicorn Gundam; and Nu Gundam

Hello! Welcome to Sanctuary BTW.

 

[Kaleion]

I've only seen some episodes of Gundam 00. I remeber thinking it was alright ubt i haven't yet finfished it so i couldn't tell you if its good or not. I've been meaning to watch iron-blooded orphans but like alot of anime, i just haven't got round to it yet.
I'm more a fan of the gunpla kits and the mech desgins than the actual shows, and the gundam warriors games which are just great fun imo.
As for favourites, they would be; Shin musha MK1 & MK2. Not sure where they're from, but they're based off samurai armour and look great; Unicorn Gundam; and Nu Gundam

I actually saw Gundam 00 in full after making that post and it was OK, to be honest I enjoyed Iron Blooded Orphans way more and have stopped watching Gundam for the moment, I will most likely resume it eventually but not right now.