Reynolds, Jason M. wrote:
I am not asking as the typical geeky "Is Star Trek better than Star Wars" or
"Who would win in a fight between an Ewok and a Tribble" kind of way.
Wow 32 posts in 16 hrs (night time in US no less). Has the thread NOT
turned into STvSW for you? Reading the last couple posts, I don't
know...
Do you want an answer in context or out of context? In context, I buy
every model for 0079 because I love the show. And recent HGUC and MG
engineering, boxart and promo are practically fan service for people
like me. Best example is the 3 brats for MG Acguy.
Out of context, meaning judging purely on mecha design criteria, and
ignore all emotional attachment to the story, character and memorable
fight scenes: ALL Gundam mecha designs are anachronistic at best. I
liked Mk.II and Alex for some minor updates on the original. I liked
V Gundam because it's a transformer/combiner that doesn't suck and
somewhat similar to the original Gundam (but emotional attachment
again :P) I liked a lot of the weirdo bad guys, but mostly because of
their "shock" value (best example is Baund Doc).
Out of context, Gundam designs belongs in late 70s to early 80s.
Macross designs (both Valks and bad guys) were a true step forward,
but their time is passed also.
Now I believe not only form and function is connected, but scale and
form is also connected. I mean if a mecha is human scale, than there
is some advantage to have a human form. But if a mecha is much larger
or smaller than human scale, taking human form makes no sense. Giant
humanoids belong in fairy tales and Ultraman not in serious sci-fi.
One school of anime that understand this point is BGC and
GITS/Appleseed. Especially in GITS, you have mechas of a wide scale
range, both the very small and very large are non-human in form. And
as you get closer to human scale, you get more human-like form. But
at say 2.5m, you already get some very non-human features: neckless
(actually headless) and extra arms.
Out of context, all the latest Gundam designs, from V, 0083, W, Turn-A
to Seed give me the same self-loathing indulgence as Power Ranger and
Pokemon.
--
Dr. Core
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