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I'm the same way, I was are of the general premise of Hathaway's Flash but I didn't know any of the fine details or the plot twist. I guess it's not too surprising the movie had all the characters figure out early on that twist since it's a very old spoiler.
General impressions of the movie
I was a little concerned that this would be multiple movies vice one but I have to say I loved the pacing in this movie. No moment felt wasted and it had the right mix of long shots and fast moving scenes.
Great sound design, I especially liked the music near the end that had a bladerunner esque theme to it. Could have done without an insert song in the beginning though.
Animation was very fluid, loved the opening sequence on the space shuttle reentry.
Since Hathaways's Flash is meant to be more about the characters and the political intrigue I'm glad they took the Godzilla approach with mobile suits. It's a nice sense of immersion when you see people on the ground fleeing a mobile suit conflict and we only catch glimpses of the MS since the characters on the ground have terrible visibility with the conflict raging. Really enjoyed that section.
Seeing the beam scatter melting bollards and fire hydrants is a simple scene that does a good job of reinforcing Gundam's "War is terrible for civilians" theme.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/07/02 18:36:48
You know I never would have thought of that. I recall Andalucia being a location / autonomy but never would have guessed it's a weird surname. Gundam always has weird and unusual names, perhaps Bask Om should really be Basque Om?
Interesting info on the Japanese sailors taking their country as a surname. Perhaps in the universal century as the world united into the Federation people began adopting surnames towards their region or nationality as a sign of remembrance or identity.
The original Gundam which kicked off the real robot genre still had a lot of Super Robot trappings so we have the classic protagonist's father built the robot. Amuro also would look through his father's computer and pull up information.
For Kamille he would compete in design and even piloting competitions for the little mobile workers they had. There was also the hang-glider competition they had going on.
For Banagher I'd say it was just a case of the Unicorn not really needing a pilot, it's relatively ineffective (scoring a kill because of the absurd power of the beam magnum) until the NT-D kicks on.
The RX78-2 combines several massive technological revolutions.
The first is they miniaturized a battleship beam cannon to be used by a mobile suit. This is the Beam Rifle that shocks everyone who encounters it in the first few episodes. Previously Zeon had a supreme edge by developing MS but now their enemy, the Federation, has not only completely a Mobile Suit but they managed to arm it with a miniature battleship beam cannon and a generator to support it as well.
The second major technological revolution is what's called Luna Titanium which comes up a lot in the TV show and I believe it also gets mentioned in the compilation movies. Luna Titanium is a special type of Titanium that can only be made in space and thus is super expensive. Luna Titanium is also useful in technology development of their mobile suits fusion reactors, I'd have to dig up a few sources for more info on that.
It is usually described as stronger, lighter or both when compared to regular titanium / titanium ceramic composites. Most importantly is its durability. The material is incredibly resilient to ballistic weapons so the Zaku machine gun literally causes no visible damage even at point blank range. Luna Titanium is near-impervious to machine guns although one of the most recent PG manuals mentions that the armor will fail eventually due to sustained fire.
Luna-Titanium is so incredible that it is renamed to Gundarium after the war in honor of the Gundam. It starts getting rolled out onto other Mobile Suits, along with some variants like the lightweight Gundarium Gamma during the events of Zeta Gundam. However, during that point beam weapons become common-place so the material is not as impressive as it was during the one year war (OYW).
Oh yeah the compilation movies have to cut a lot by they do their best retaining the core concepts and do a good job with the show don't tell as you mention.
Minovsky particles are a very fun piece that makes the whole setting work. How do you justify using up-close and personal warfare with giant robots? Well, you make a particle that interferes with radar, communication, and tends to destroy non-shielded electronics making guided missiles and long range sensors almost impossible. Minovksy particles themselves are based off of Muons with some added twists to make the universe work.
Elemental wrote: On a tangent, I'm seriously surprised nobody tried to license a wargame version of Gundam yet. It should be perfect--small skirmishes that can happen in a wide variety of environments, with colorful mecha designs, and lots of named characters who can personalise a force.
Hey that's a fun tangent. There were a few Gundam simulation games released in Japan in the 1980s made by the same companies who made WW2 tabletop games. You can read more about it here:
Gundam has always been a passion of mine so I put together a free set of wargame rules for Mechs. The rules are here, and there are also some pre-generated profiles for Gundam units located there as well. The roster is small at the moment but new units are being added each week. If you end up giving it a try I'd love to hear any feedback you have in this thread over here.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/07/06 21:43:06
Eilif wrote: I've come across some random Gundam figure parts in a toy lot I picked up for my son. If I posted them here do you think you all could help identify them?
If you post them here I'm sure we'll be able to identify them.
For those of you who have never heard of Super Robot Wars (SRW) it is a SRPG similar to Fire Emblem that puts multiple Mecha Anime series together into one game and tries to blend in the core themes of their stories into a shared universe. For example the last one I played had Gundam joining forces with Voltron to defeat the bad guys from the Tekkaman Blade universe. While Hathaway's Flash isn't going to be in this release it does include several UC Gundam series including the original, Zeta Gundam, Char's Counterattack and Victory Gundam.
Since there are so many series smashed together bringing it stateside was always thought to be impossible due to licensing issues. I plan on picking it up and I'm hopeful they will continue releasing more of them. For anyone considering jumping into the series the games are pretty fun and not too hard, if you're a Fire Emblem veteran you shouldn't run into any issues.
It doesn't help that Char's Counter Attack was adapted from the High-Streamer novel but essentially cuts out the beginning and any background parts and immediately plunges you into the conflict without any exposition as to why Char and Amuro are bitter enemies once again.
Beltorchika's Children, the manga retelling, helps a little bit with that.
Easy E wrote: I see. Well, I do not have access to all of those so.......
If you don't want to rely on streaming Right Stuff Anime currently holds the US license for Gundam, the Zeta Gundam bluray is currently half off. It's a phenomenal show picking up about 8 years after the original Gundam. In terms of universe building it's the most important series right after the original MSG.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/07/20 14:53:28
Hard to say since Unicorn OVA has a different ending than Unicorn Novel. Unicorn OVA has the time-travel shenanigans with the Neo Zeong although Sunrise has waffled a bit on whether or not it was really time travel or just a Newtype hallucination. It's implied that after that scene Char's Soul also transcends to be with Lalah and Amuro.
Then you've got Hathaway's flash where we see a spectral image of Amuro speaking to Hathways. It's ambiguous as to whether that was actually a Newtype ghost moment or just Hathaway's recurring PTSD moments.
While the Xamel looks a little out of place compared to other MS I love the role it fulfills. Strapping a giant artillery gun onto a Dom-esque hovering body is a really fun idea.
I'm surprised it didn't turn up for the Assault in Torrington in 0096, but I guess that would be rubbing salt into an old wound
I was referring to another Xamel unit, there was more than 1 produced and I think I recall seeing one in one of the manga side stories, perhaps LWC or Gundam Senki.
MS Era by Izubuchi right? I've seen a few images floating around, they look really nice.
Easy E wrote: Slowly watching Iron Blooded Orphans which I am guessing is either out of cannon, or 300 years after the One Year War or something.
I am enjoying it a lot. The basic plot and story line would make for a really great RPG game.
In Gundam you have Universal Century (UC) and then you have Alternate Universes (AU) which star Gundams but with a completely different setting, this allows other creators to have a Gundam story with a completely different tone and premise. IBO is the most recent AU series and it's got a great setting. Here's a quick list of other AU series.
AU Series
G Gundam
Gundam Wing
Gundam X
Turn-A Gundam
Gundam Seed
Gundam 00
Gundam IBO
(Note: Gundam X is a What if? style UC story, Turn-A Gundam is also UC but takes place about 7000 years after the UC calender is dropped as I recall)
Wing was the first series to come to the U.S. and has a large fanbase, Seed is an Alternate Universe that matches up fairly closely with the original Gundam's plot but with several twists and far more character drama, Gundam 00 has a similar formula to Gundam Wing involving overpowered Gundams descending to Earth. Let me know if you'd like any more information or recommendation.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: For those of us with no real knowledge of Gundam, can anyone recommend a movie or short series as a good primer, so we can see if it tickles our pickles?
Echoing what the others said, 08th MS Team is a great intro for Gundam if you prefer the focus on Mecha warfare, it's a bit grittier than the other series and is a blast to watch for how short it is. 0080 is another terrific entry point, it focuses more on the human element than the Mecha fighting and is one of the best series to capture that lightning in a bottle Gundam pioneered with "war is hell". Fair warning, the story is a tragedy.
BlackoCatto wrote: I wouldn't say Amuro is much a philosopher at all for awhile. Most of OG Gundam is him essentially having PTSD before realizing "Wow...I'm really good at killing people.
Meanwhile Kamille is a very.... special child. He is less philosophy and more so someone else's philosophy on him.
True, but later in life he gets a lot more introspective. In Tomino's Zeta novel Amuro becomes a bit more of a philosopher. Here's an excerpt when talking about Newtypes.
Spoiler:
A Newtype... That was not the same thing as having ESP. Borrowing the words of a pilot named Amuro Ray who apparently awakened as a Newtype, "Newtypes are people capable of mutual understanding with no misconceptions." According to Amuro, they did this without ESP or the use of telepathy.
"Maybe you could call it enlightenment, although I don't think it has anything to do with the enlightenment they talk about in eastern religions. I don't have any personal experience with religious teachings or enlightenment, so I can't compare or critique them. But to me, it doesn't mean just partial understanding of another person. I'd call it total understanding. That person's beliefs, their history, what they intend to do next... you understand all of those things as they take on a comprehensive shape.
"Clairvoyance? It's not that either. If that was it, you could see everything about another person. In that case, I'd be disturbed to see it. It's better to say you can see the actions that the other person intends to perform. So if they're an enemy, I can see this enemy's intention to kill me through the pattern of their actions. That's what it's like... Of course, these appear in different particular ways. Think of this as a general description... That's all I can tell you."
The longer quote has him pontificating on religions and enlightenment.
