Gundam Unicorn Sneak Preview Impressions (Generic Post Idea With Unexpected Results?)

5 months I’ve waited and it’s almost here.  Bandai must have known the wait has been a killer for some because a couple days ago they ended up releasing a 7-8 minute preview of the first OVA over the Bandai Channel which eventually made its way to youtube in the clip I’ll be posting below.  First though I want to say what a nice little gift this was as a prelude to Alexandre Bilodeau bringing home the first Canadian gold medal on home soil.  This has been a week of ups and downs for me, but boy did it end great.  Anyhow the embed:

The rest of the article contains spoilers and impressions so this is your chance to look away if you don’t want to watch the preview above.

Gundam Tribute (First You Modernize The Mecha And Then You Modernize The Music)

Modernization of Gundam…..I talked a bit about the idea yesterday in the comment section for ghostlightnings article on Gundam 00′s final battle and how I thought the show might be an attempt to update Gundam for the 21st century paradigm we live in now.  Gundam Tribute I think has much the same idea in mind, only now it is about the Gundam sound rather than the core concept itself.

First off I bet some are asking “what is Gundam Tribute exactly”?  Well simply put it’s a collaboration between Sunrise/Bandai and Lantis and some of todays most popular music artists and idols in Japan to cover some of the classic Gundam songs and make an album out of it.  This is of course part of the 30th anniversary celebration for the franchise, but as I mentioned to the ghost yesterday I think it’s also a further example of Bandai’s current strategy of branching out and trying to bring new fans into the fold.  How exactly does this work with the music?  Well when you have the likes of Jam Project, CooRie and Little Non the latter two of whom are popular in the moe and eroge branches lending their status to Gundam songs (and vice versa) it may just help to bring the fans of their music into a greater awareness of Gundam and may even legitimize it for them as well.  Idol status goes a long way in Japan and while Gundam is an established tradition it’s not popular with all.  Gundam Wing branched out to female viewers and Gundam Seed branched out to a younger generation, but I think Bandai is always looking for new opportunities, and that’s an interesting thing.  I guess we’ll see what’s what, but for now I’m kind of eager to do some cross comparisons of the song covers on this album with their originals and to go over what they did with the pieces and what I as long time Gundam fan liked and disliked about these updates.

This article is going to be a little youtube video heavy so just bear in mind when you load the rest that it might take a little bit longer than normal.

Let’s Just Get This Year Over With Already (Cause 2010 Is Going To Rock)

Gundam Unicorn 3rd Trailer (But Wait There’s More)

I’m away only a day and suddenly the last pieces start to fall into place for 2010.  At this point I’m not sure what else I can expect from what looks to be an awesome upcoming year that I think will more than make up for the lack of mecha I’ve had to suffer through in the latter half of 2009.  With the recent announcement of a new Code Geass project (Trooooolllllllllllllllllls!  Come out to plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!)from Sunrise this now brings the number of new mecha series from Sunrise alone up to 5 with Unicorn, Votoms, Geass and the Gundam 00 and Seed (hrmmm) movies.  What a busy year and it hasn’t even started.  All that needs to happen is for ghosty to get his new Macross year and I will be ready to prematurely (gasp!) declare 2010 the best year of the century so far.  Here’s a list of some other things I’m still looking forward too:

-Final Fantasy XIII

-Eden of The East Movies

-The rest of V Season 1

- Bioshock 2

Looks like I’ll probably be returning to this blogging business full force next year.  I’m wondering if I’m even going to have any time to rest at all.  In any case time to brush up on my writing and blogging techniques because I almost forget how WordPress even works now.

Gundam Unicorn Long PV Released (I’ve Got You Covered)

It turns out the rumours were true and that there was indeed a new PV for Gundam Unicorn released on the Japanese PSN today.  Somebody was kind enough to upload it to youtube in HD and so here it is:

I wonder if when the time comes I’m going to be the only one following this

Cast In The Name of God, Gundam F91 Ye Guilty (Now Apologize To John Williams Already)

Normally I have nothing but good things to say about the Gundam franchise, be it about it’s music, it’s mecha, it’s animation or it’s vision of the future, but today I’m going to hit it up a bit about something I’ve always found extremely irksome about one of it’s entries…namely Gundam F91.  This might actually be something that most people aren’t aware of or perhaps not, but the nerve it has in labelling it’s music as an Original Soundtrack when it’s clearly not visited me again last night while I was playing a G Generation game with my friend.  

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait (March Mecha Madness For 2010?)

All good things come to an end

The latter half of 2009 has left me mecha starved with only a couple of titles (Basquash which was a huge disappointment and the awesome but alone Shin Mazinger), but 2010 is already looking up with the announcement of a new Votoms OVA (that makes 2 very recently with Pailsen Files in 2007) to finish off the story once and for all right around the same time as Gundam Unicorn is set to debut.  The way things are going it’s looking like 2010 is already going to be more active than 2009 as far as my blogging is concerned.  

The 08th MS Team Should Not Hold Gundam Back (A Few Reason Why People Need To Stop Asking For More Of It)

It’s Time To Let It Go People

After reading the latest demand for more 08th MS Team on Animesuki today, I figured I might as well just finally say it.  The answer to the question why they don’t make more 08th MS Team, and a further look at how their have in fact been tons of real robot grunt warfare type stories since 08th MS Team with of course some opinion added into the mix.  And yes this well feature some of my particular brand of angry and I’ll mention why a little in the actual text.

Gundam Antagonists And Sexual Deviancy (Do They Go Hand In Hand?)

The top right corner features the image in question that has sparked some pretty interesting discussion

A lot of people have expressed surprise and even shock at this picture of Alejandro and Ribbons hugging that has been inserted into the special edition volumes of Gundam 00 and with it a new layer on top of an implied gay relationship between the two main series villains.  It sort of doesn’t come as a surprise given how they talked to each other, but then while discussing this idea with a friend I started to think more about it and realized that maybe, just maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise in general.  As I looked back on the history of Gundam Villains I’ve started to notice in them what appeared to be at least one or more tendency’s towards a sexually deviant fetish or impulse, along with a tendency towards the sociopathy that most Gundam villains have been known to suffer from to a degree.  Consider the following that I came up with and maybe have a thought about it yourself and whether it is just sheer coincidence, me thinking to hard about it, or a clear and consistant pattern in building the personality of a Gundam Villains:

Note that this article will be posted on both Animehistory and We Remember Love

I Think I’ve Finally Found My Dream Wedding Scenario

I’ve punted around a lot of crazy ideas for what kind of wedding I would like to have in my time, but I think this lucky bride and groom have already had the best wedding that could ever be possible:

Not exactly a traditional Japanese wedding is it?

The couple naming their daughter Sayla kind of reminds me of all of those old school Star Wars fans naming their kids Luke, Leia and Obi-Wan around the time The Phantom Menace came out.  Holy cultural icon Gundam!

More Big News Everyone (The Horn Blowing Continues)

And we get a trailer

Wow the show is brand new and yet is already making me feel nostalgic.  I’m really liking how the character designs look when animated too.  Simply amazing so far.