Gundam AGE review

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE finally finished its run recently at 49 episodes. It has a unique storyline, which spans through three generations over 100 years.

So, what do I think of it after one year?

Well…meh. So many great ideas, but completely wasted.

BIG STOMPING ROBOTS!!

Story/Characters (Major spoilers ahead)

The basic storyline is that the Earth Federation is at war with the UE (Unknown Enemy, seriously? Couldn’t find a better name?), who were at first thought to be aliens or something.

And…surprise!! They are not aliens, but rather humans who were abandoned after the Mars Colonization project ran into too much trouble, so now the Vagans (as they call themselves) want revenge on the federation and take back Earth as their Eden.

Now, truthfully, the progression of the storyline is alright, that is to say that they didn’t really do anything really creative with the story. Most of the faults of the story come from the character portrayal themselves.

Though one thing does bug me is the fact that it took them about…37 episodes to humanize the UE. OH, COME ON REALLY??

Up to that point, we really do not have much of a reason to support the Vagan: they indiscriminately attack civilians; merciless and heartless characters fill their ranks (though they have some heartbreaking characters moments, it was too little, too late); even their mobile suits spell villain/evil all over.

Look at that soulless evil stare.

Hell, up to that point, we weren’t even sure if they even HAD civilians within their ranks, they could have been a completely militarized society for all we know.

It does not help that most of the sympathetic characters that die tear-jerking deaths are usually on the Federation’s side which only serves to demonize the Vagans. By the time we are shown the truly horrendous plight that the Vagans go through, it was too late and comes off as very heavy handed and forced.

So it just gives us the impression that the Federation are always the good guys no mater what.

Another horrendous episode is Episode 42, where we are introduced to Girard Spriggan (or however you spell it), a soldier who defected to the Vagans from the Federation, which provided a valid reason actually. The episode shows why she defected and joined the enemy and….

Yes, that's a girl.

What was the fucking point of it?

At least her mobile suit looks pretty awesome.

It’s not like she joined the main cast, she dies in the very next episode anyways. Nor would it have made sense to make join the main cast, when you only have 7 episodes left to the series.

So why was she there? Was it to show that the Federation was not that clean and shiny? That is pointless because by that point, we knew that the Federation was not exactly innocent since the First generation arc anyways. They did abandon the entire Mars colony to die after all.

Was it to help emphasize how stupid Zeheart was? He knew that there was a chance Girard might go out of control, and he still let her out to battle in a powerful mobile suit. Goddam idiot.

But just to make things fair, I'll bring a psycho, IE you, in case
I am in any danger of accidentally defeating him.

After she died, she was forgotten, and all that talk about her lover died because of the Federation and covered up amounts to nothing. No one was held responsible, and everyone moved on like normal.

Well, that was a waste of time.

So, storyline was so-so, what about the characters?

Before Gundam AGE was officially shown, I was intrigued by the fact that the story was going to cover three generations: from Flit Asuno to his son, Asemu Asuno, then to Flit’s grandson, Kio Asuno. But, I was also sceptical, how would they manage to flesh out the characters at all? Because remember, not only do they have to characterize the main characters without being carbon copies of each other, they ALSO have to do the same to the supporting cast as well.

After watching about halfway through, I realised how they dealt with the problem of characterization.

They didn’t bother with it. Or rather they did a terrible job of it.

What we basically have is an almost complete lack of character development for anyone except for the three protagonists, which is saying something, because they only get about a dozen episodes each to develop before getting into the final arc.

Worse still, is the way Gundam AGE treat their female characters, which is to say that they get nothing at all, or if you’re lucky enough to be the love interest of any of the Asunos, you either die for the purpose of plot advancement or get shallow development. What abysmal treatment…

Take for example, in the first generation, Flit’s love interest is Emily, and she does jackshit the whole time. She’s just holding on to Haro, wishing that Flit would not involve himself in the war and leave with her to settle in another colony, away from the war. THAT is literally her basic characterization, and pretty much all she does the whole time we see her.

The other love interest, Yurin, was basically set up so that she will die sacrificing herself heroically for Flit. Okay, granted that she was designed to tug at the viewer’s heartstrings in mind, which also sets up Flit’s bitter and vengeful-driven nature in his later life.

But she is adorable. LOOK AT THAT.

But, still you have to wonder that Yurin, who has half the screentime (or less) of Emily, gets better received than Emily, your characterization is pretty screwed up.

Hell, we don’t know anything about Unoa Asuno, who is Flit’s daughter. All we know is that she’s a medic and part of the Asuno family and….that’s about it.

I had to Google "Flit's daughter" to find out her name, she was THAT plot-insignificant

Ugh…

The protagonists fare slightly better. Slightly.

Out of the three though, Flit is probably the most fleshed out, but only because he was there from episode one. He goes from naïve and idealistic kid (who also happens to be the architect of a mass murder military weapon), to becoming a bitter and vengeful driven anti-hero, to finally fulfilling his role of a true hero.

It does not help that his whole life pretty much consists of people he knows dead at the hands of the Vagan, one way or the other.

Hard not to feel for him in this scene. Look at young Flit's face.

Personally, I found his role as an anti-hero very interesting to watch, due to the fact that for once, we can really see the effects a really prolonged war has on a character (as compared to the usual couple of years in the previous Gundam series). But his change from anti-hero to hero happens too quickly. It would have been more effective, in my opinion, if he was allowed to see the plight of the Vagan civilians and have a gradual change of heart. But, still, if anything, Flit Asuno was an interesting character to watch.

Asemu from the second generation onwards starts off idolizing his father and wants to live up to his name. He becomes best friends with Zeheart Galette who turns out to be a Vagan spy. So the two end up fighting against each other on opposite sides of the war.

CHAR CLONE ALERT

Asemu’s character revolves around his inferiority complex against his father and Zeheart. It does not help that he is not an X-rounder (this series’ version of Newtype pilots) thus making him a less effective pilot. At first.

Under the tutelage of Commander Woolf, Asemu learns to be himself (finally) and be a badass. He also gets a wicked sick pirate-themed Gundam in Kio's arc.

SUPA PIRATE PAILOTTTOOOO~~!!

However, this is a love-or-hate arc, as his attitude can get a bit annoying at times as he seems to be only concerned with topping his father and Zeheart, it takes the death of his mentor, Woolf to finally bring him around. That happens in the last two episodes of his arc, and then it moves to his son’s arc.

Um, yea. Great pacing guys.

I feel this arc is rather weak, the only noteworthy thing is that it shows Zeheart who remains the villain for the rest of the series (although he is not a great antagonist), and it shows Flit Asuno’s change into a man driven to exterminate all of the Vagans.

The third arc is Kio Asuno and…well, frankly, he is the least likeable in my opinion. I mean, there’s nothing really wrong with him: he’s a very kindhearted kid, but unrealistically idealistic, sometimes bordering on what-the-hell idiocy. Granted, he’s a kid, but still…

Grandpa Flit: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...!

Some moments of idiocy includes: Grandpa Flit comes to save his ass so that they can’t capture Kio’s Gundam AGE-3, Flit distracts them and stays to fight (in an ancient Gundam AGE-1 which makes it pretty damn awesome!), Kio ignores orders to return, goes back and gets himself captured, rendering Flit’s efforts moot and almost getting him killed.

Another one was during his capture, the Vagans’ leader Lord Ezelcant wants to investigate the hardware of the Gundam AGE-3, obviously so that they can reverse-engineer the powerful technology behind it, but it’s protected by failsafe mechanisms. Only Kio can override it.

What does Kio do? Kio gives his override in exchange for some medicine in order to extend his love interest, Lu Anon's life by a few days. It was kind of him, but it was FUCKING STUPID. What did he think the Vagans were going to do with the Gundam’s technology??

Ok, she is REAAALLLLYYYYYY adorable though.

Sure enough, the Vagans make their own Gundam, Gundam Legilis, which beats the total snot out of the Gundam AGE-3.

Crotch shot!

Furthermore, Kio does not actually show his great piloting skills, the most powerful Gundam in the series is handed to him on a silver platter, because he is an Asuno, not because he is an incredible pilot. Granted, he has extremely powerful X-Rounder abilities, but his piloting skills are not that great. Hell, some of the side characters are much more badass NORMAL pilots, who for all intents and purposes, completely overshadow and outskill Kio, such as Seric Abbis and Obright, who took down much more powerful mobile suits in their own mass produced, albeit customized, mobile suits.

Obright: Remi, I'm finally going to see you again...
Manly-fucking-tears were shed.

It does not help that Kio basically goes around telling people to stop fighting, IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKING BATTLE. For some unfathomable reason, he only does this to the Vagan pilots, and disables their mobile suits. Nevermind the fact that the Vagan pilots are beating the crap out of your own forces.

This gives the illusion that Kio cares more about the Vagan casualties than his own Federation team. What the hell is up with that?

At least Kira Yamato was fair to both sides; he disabled mobile suits from both sides to stop them from killing each other.

The final arc consists of 10 episodes of all three generations working together to stop the war, and you know what? It sucks. It really does, I honestly did not feel anything for the finale. It was so lacklustre and uninspired that I wonder if the writer team only had the triple generation gimmick in mind and just got stuck there.

Just throw everything we got and shoot them all to hell.

Zeheart is a piss poor main villain who dies in the second last episode, his motivations basically goes along the line of “I must fulfil the dream of Ezelcant-sama, for the sake of the Vagans because I have no idea what the fuck to do without any orders.” Ok, fine, he’s a soldier who unfortunately does not or is unable to think long term plans for the sake of the Vagans. I can sort of accept that.

But Lord Ezelcant’s plan is…sheer what-the-fuck-ness.

He has a hot wife, you know why?
Corkscrew hair is a sign of a large manhood.

So his main plan of capturing Earth for the Vagans is false. Okay, that was unexpectedly fresh actually. What is his real plan? He wants to create a race of peaceful humans (okay), by killing off people with warlike/aggressive tendencies (wait, what?) by starting a war with the Federation (WHAT). I don’t know about you but won’t the survivors of the war be even more aggressive??

Survival of the fittest? Ever heard of that??

Well fuck.

I would like to put in some noteworthy supporting casts, but frankly, there are just way too many supporting casts and almost all of them are not even worth the time spent to write them down. They’re just very poorly represented.

So, exactly what is wrong with Gundam AGE? I personally believe that the three-generation gimmick is just badly implemented. Each of the generation has its shining moments, but 49 episodes is just not enough, if each arc had 26 episodes, then it would be enough to flesh out everyone and give them a chance to shine. 

But as it is, with all that cramped into such a small time frame, everything is a compressed, convoluted mess.

The short time frame also knocks the pacing out cold. Things simply move too fast, yet they still pointlessly dedicate precious amounts of time to characters that does not add jackshit to the storyline like Girard Spriggan, those two dumbass factions in Fardain colony, the Magicians Eight and the Phantom Three.

Yea, seriously.

Bizarrely, characters that should be integral to the plot seem to come and go, and their absence sometimes is completely ignored: Emily has nothing to add beyond Flit’s arc; Romary has none either after Asemu’s arc; Wendy adds NOTHING, she’s only implied to be Kio’s love interest, but nothing more and she has the least screentime out of all of them; Millais Alloy, the captain of the Diva battleship (a plot-centric battleship), disappears completely in Kio’s act onwards but no one says a damn thing; Largan Drace, a pilot from Flit’s arc completely disappears by Asemu’s arc; Asemu’s fellow rookie teammates in his arc mysteriously disappears without a word.

Graphics

For the most part, the graphics are fine. Or at least it averages out to fine.

I love the design of the girls, which is ironic considering how they treat them storyline-wise.

However, the character design can be erm, weird at times. How the hell does Dique Gunhale’s design (and by extension, his grandson Wootbit Gunhale) fit in with the rest of the world??

Seriously, how?

At least Dique's daughter, Arisa Gunhale is pretty hot.

It’s ridiculously jarring.

Some people were a bit critical of the hairstyles that were shown in the series, but personally, I’m okay with it. After all, you can’t have them in real life, so where else can you have them?

It's a hedgehog mullet with a fringe, with a ponytail...thingie.

The mobile suit designs were quite nice too.

Gundam AGE-1 is an obvious shout out to the RX-78, and I really liked the alternate modes that they featured in the story, with the special Titus and Spallow modes. It made a return in the last arc as a heavily armored badass form known as AGE-1 Glanza. Looks a bit like the Armored Mk-II in the UC timeline.

Looks pretty badass actually.

Gundam AGE-2 is a shoutout to Zeta Gundam, with a fighter craft mode. It was later upgraded to the Gundam AGE-2 Double Bullet with shoulder mounted cannons. When Asemu became Captain Ash of the Bisidian Pirates, he got a version of the Gundam AGE-2 painted in PIRATE colors, with a grappling hook, a chest mounted floodlight, a skull head crest and an eye patch!! This is my favourite design thus far. It’s freaking awesome.

LOOK AT THAT!!!

Gundam AGE-3 is by far my 2^nd favourite design, piloted by Kio, most likely inspired by the ZZ Gundam. It’s a giant mobile suit formed by the Core Fighter and the G-Ceptor, a transformable unit that becomes the Gundam’s legs and arms. Like the AGE-1, this allows the mobile suit to be able to change forms. It had two other forms: Fortress which turned the mobile suit into a hovering weapon of mass destruction, armed with four powerful beam cannons which can wipe out anything in its path; and the Orbital mode, which turns the humongous AGE-3 into a speedy, space unit with tracking beam weaponry.

That beam rifle can punch through several mobile suits and keep going.

Finally we got the Gundam AGE-FX, to replace the heavily damaged AGE-3 for Kio. For me though, the AGE-FX’s design does not capture my imagination. It’s not very inspiring for some reason, not in the way the other End-of-the-series-Gundam does like the Wing Zero, Freedom, or 00-Raiser. Still, at least it’s better than Strike Freedom.

Fabulous!

The Mobile suit designs for the Vagans are better though, with interesting dragon designs, which is a departure from a lot of other series. The Vagan Gundam Legilis is well, a mixed bag,

The Federation mobile suits are fine as well, nothing too interesting, with the exception of Woolf’s white custom mobile suit, which looks pretty damn awesome.

One thing that does bug me though, is that the way the mobile suits move during the final arc: they seem to be getting flashier and more ridiculous, why would the Gundam AGE-FX moves its hands to use the funnels?? Why would the Fawn Farsia, piloted by Fram, need to swing its sceptre around to direct the energy whip or its flower shaped funnels?? Why does it need a sceptre in the first place??

Flower Powaaahhhh

Ugh.

Music

The music for Mobile Suit Gundam AGE is pretty good actually, only the first opening does not appeal to me. In fact, I feel that with each new opening song, it actually gets better.

It helps that the openings are beautifully animated with pretty awesome action scenes thrown in and good timing thrown in to the beat of the music. Special mention goes towards the 4^th opening, it’s a very addictive opening to watch.

(Artist – Name of Song)

Openings

• Asu E (To Tomorrow) – Galileo Galilei
• sharp# - Negoto
• Real – Vivid (this one is my favorite)
• Aurora – Aoi Eir

Ending

• Kimi no Naka No Eiyu (Hero in You) – Minami Kuribayashi
• My World – SPYAIR
• White Justice – Faylan
• Forget-me-not ~Wasurenagusa~ - FLOWER

Insert

• Memorial Days – KOKIA
• Kimi to Boku wa Soko ni Ita – AiRi

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, what can I say about Mobile Suit Gundam AGE? Frankly, it’s a disappointment.

It starts off slow in Flit’s arc, goes through some meaningless bullshit, then has a few great moments and fizzles out. Repeat for next few arcs.

Perhaps the story can be fixed in SRW? Though how it will fit in is another issue.

The thing is, if somehow the final arc to bring all three main characters together in some epic fashion, it could still be a great anime. Somehow, the final arc just kinda went the meh way, and is extremely unsatisfying. After almost 100 years of war, everything is all sunshines and rainbow with one battle?

Nuh uh.

I’m sorry but Mobile Suit Gundam AGE just does not cut it for me. It’s just plain unsatisfactory.

Plenty of great ideas, but all wasted.

Big whoop, Flit was dipped in gold.