Chris Campbell wrote:
At 04:48 PM 6/20/2007, Dr. Core wrote:
Alfred Urrutia wrote:
radical faction of a country wouldn't have enough weapons to sustain a
TV show's worth of battles. Unless I'm missing something.
You are not. You've just walked down the same path I have. Gundam
has no reason to exist in 21st Century anime. Unless it becomes a
parody or nostalgic indulgence, like Transformer, Power Ranger and
Keroro.
It didn't have a reason to exist in late 20th century anime, either,
except as pure entertainment. That motive is as valid now as it was then.
As my experience helping market Gundam model kits here in the
Philippines show, Gundam isn't targeted at the critical or the hardcore
fans: it's targeted at the general viewer/consumer. Yes, Gundam is
ridiculous - but then, so is most of anime, if you really come down to
brass tacks (except for stuff like Grave of the Fireflies, or perhaps
intentionally ridiculous stuff like Keroro, in which case the point is
moot). One could argue that Gundam tried to sidestep or minimize this by
having a cohesive, relevant storyline - but that was Tomino, and as has
been proven by later anime in the Gundam metaseries, even his ideas
became codified into a template for making an identifiable Gundam story
- but not necessarily a relevant one.
If anything, Gundam cartoons primarily exist, from how I see it, as one
of the most brilliant and entertaining marketing tools I've ever
watched. I know that they exist to sell essentially sell toys and model
kits (the latter of whch I have a lot of), and at the same time, I am
entertained by watching the shows. It has become very successful, in
that sense. Now, considering the age of the franchise, it's inevitable
that they come out with a rehash or a "fashionable" change. That's a
given, if you want your show (and franchising, and merchandising) to
keep on going - hence the stylistic changes in the UC shows as time went
on, and the major changes in the non-HGUC shows, such as G, Wing/EW,
Seed/Destiny. These things are not basically aimed at us, who grew up
with the UC. That's aimed at different generations entirely. Whatever
sensibilities they carry aren't for us.
The amazing thing is how the UC manages to capture the market once they
outgrow the introduction into the fandom - this, I think is where the
relevance as a plus to the entertainment comes in - where an enduring
story that's not just entertainment pulls in those who get a bit older,
but still like Gundam. I think, perhaps, that the shows like 0080, 0083
and 08thMS cater to this crowd - ostensibly our crowd. but how many
times do they come out with such? just enough to keep us, the older
crowd going.
I've been really entertained as to how we've managed to go from Gundam
to Iraq and the real world of weapons prototyping, but it really feels
like we've not only beaten the horse dead, we've started killing the
whole ranch. And we're waiting for the foals to be born, and beat on
them too.
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