Is anybody into the Gundam infinite figures? I tried to PO Char's Zaku off Amazon and I got a region block, I was able to order the Exia just fine.
Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway Wins Jury Selection Award at the 25th Japan Media Arts Festival Held by the Japanese Government's Ministry of Cultural Affairs! | GUNDAM.INFO HT won the Jury Selected Awards
Given SEED borrowed most of it's story beats from Universal Century I'd say it's less like Unicorn borrows from SEED and more like history repeating itself.
Sunrise thinks Unicorn can revived the UC series (which it did) just like how Seed revived the entire Gundam Franchise.
Saw it on Netflix a few weeks ago. Gotta say, it was one boring ass movie. Seemed like almost an hour before any mobile suits did any action. The Gundam used near the end seem very impractical with all those flaps. And LOL at the terrorists' plan to get everyone to leave the planet or they'll kill a bunch of officials. Would ANYONE really say "Well I don't want an official to die, guess I'll go live in space"? Hell no. I'd be: sucks for them but I'm staying right here.
If you only watch Gundam for robot fights and not the larger themes, then yeah, it's probably not for you. But no worries, they got you covered with all that Build Fighters garbage.
Just because of its lighter presentation doesn't mean that Build Fighters and its successors are devoid of meaning and value. They actually have a lot of great and inspirational things to say on the subject of sportsmanship and fandoms and passion and all the disparate and conflicting elements that all put together make Gundam great. They're actually wonderfully refreshing takes on the kids' tournament fighting genre, with all the rousing sports-anime drama, but without the hilariously over-the-top villainy that makes those anime genres so hard to take seriously. It winds up making the messaging seem that much more earnest and heartfelt, at least, if you can mentally put aside the merchandise-shilling aspect of it all. And from the pure entertainment side of things, at least the first two series are absolutely worth watching if only for containing that absolute greatest soundtracks the franchise has to offer. Such sadness that Yuki Hisashi got poached off the Gundam team to do My Hero Academia, because even though Divers and Re:Rise have great dramatic build, they're just not the same without his next-level compositions to push them over the top.
See, I'll be here in defense of Re:RISE. I find the music in Re:RISE does its job well enough, but I do love how the second opening of "HATENA" was perfectly synced in such a way that the tempo and build-up perfectly match with the sequences in Episode 22 when Hiroto and Kazami deal the final blow to the Gundam Seltsam and saves Masaki just in time. The way how the whole opening was integrated was incredibly badass, and it also helps that everything about the whole episode felt so earned. The way the BUILD DiVERS who started out as complete strangers who barely tolerated each other finally got to work together as a team by bringing in their A-game to rescue Masaki, the way Kazami slowly transforms from an incompetent joke of a character into the genuinely selfless hero he always wants to be, the way Hiroto could relate to Cuadorn's plight and plea him not to do something he'll regret because he has gone through something similar in his life and doesn't want to see history repeats itself... all of it is the result of a long journey of well-done character development with these guys. This was the episode where we got to see them after all their growth, and everything about how the BUILD DiVERS got their victory actually feel earned in such a way that I don't think even the first Build Fighters manages to do; Hiroto and his new comrades know what is at stakes and bring out their absolute A-Game to fight Alus as they know if they failed, a good innocent teenager and more Eldorans will die. The character growth of Kazami was something I especially love - this is a character who started out as nothing but an annoying and unlikable anime trope, and I won't deny that I absolutely hated Kazami at first; but his character journey who slowly grows into a genuinely heroic character who is thoughtful, caring, and willing to push himself beyond limits to defend his new friends for the greater good is incredibly compelling and wasn't something I expected in a Build anime in the best way possible. Heck, we don't see that much development in most main Gundam series with some secondary characters. I do love the flashy action sequences in the first BF, but I also find how Re:RISE is able to integrate great character growths and plot progression into its action sequences to be incredibly satisfying and quite ambitious; Which I do give credit for.
Hatena itself is an amazing theme (and also a pretty classic example of dark/heavy lyrics set to a high energy song), that perfectly ties into Re:Rise's themes. Hearing the full song with the translated lyrics actually almost made me want to cry. But the OSTs for Divers and Re:Rise were nothing to celebrate compared to the sheer brilliance of the Build Fighters OSTs. Fight themes were passable (and it was a total fist-pumping moment when the Divers fight theme finally sees a reprise in Re:Rise), but everything else was utterly forgettable and generic. Unlike Yuki Hisashi's OSTs where each and every piece was memorable, and crested and swelled perfectly to the on-screen choreography (which seems to be his specialty, coming from a place of personal experience, as he apparently used to be a rhythm gymnast, and would compose his own backing tracks on the side to accompany his performances).
Eh, fair enough. While I won't say that both Divers and Re:RISE have bad OST tracks per se, I can see why you think they should work a bit harder on developing scoring themes for each character or location for those shows. While none of the OST tracks in Divers and Re:RISE were bad per se and they do sound good on their own merit, they don't stand out and can be quite forgettable. It's kinda the same argument people had regarding some of the earlier MCU films, and how they have pretty forgettable soundtracks that are just kinda there and lacks in musical continuity outside of the main Avengers theme; From that standpoint, I can't say I disagree.
I enjoyed Re-Rise also, and I hated Build Divers. Watching the episodes where the first season cast appears and spoke I would shout at the screen, "SHUT UP REEK-U, nobody likes you!!!" It took the virtual world trope to a new level and actually made the stakes feel real. When the characters realize they're not just playing a game, then it made the stakes all *too* real. The characters were more grounded, despite the fantastical parts like Parv being rich and May being an El-Diver, but they still had their own burdens like Hiroto and even Kazami, and carried that personal weight into the series. They were a flawed bunch of loners, losers, and aimless until they became a team through trial and failure. Compare that to "Divers" where Reek-u and friends never lost, while background characters like Rommel and the 7th Panzer Division alluded to their own emotional traumas in the real world, and hence was the root of their dependency on the virtual world. ... we need a stand alone series dedicated to Rommel and his alterego Captain Zeon. It made a big change to the "Build" era's use of "Custom" Gunpla in the most original way. Core Gundam being the standout of course, as a standalone design in a universe of retools that were undeservedly overpowered (looking at you 00 Diver/Sky) and incoherently clunky and incosistent because of the differences between the TV series' mechanical designer and models based on other artists' work (Jegan Blast Master). It was like the Mega Man of Gundam with a solid concept reminscent of the SD-To-Real Type but more ergonomic and proportional. Then you had excellent retoolings like the Justice Knight and its Aegis Knight replacement that was in its own way (and because Bandai hasn't made an HGCE Aegis yet), a completely original idea of its own. I actually like ReRise's soundtrack almost as much as both Build Fighters, but the first Build Divers OST is forgettable and its OP/ED songs weren't any bettter. ReRise doesn't have the same feel as Fighters' (original and Try) OSTs, but it has its own tones that work for it. The quirky like "G-Tuber," tracks written specifically for an Isekai adventure in its Eldora themes, and some emotional beats that stick with you like "Hiroto's Past" and "Hero on the Brink." Sure they don't have the same gravitas as "Speed Star," "Gundam Build Fighters," or the always on infinite playback "Meijin, Six Times the Passion of the Ordinary Flamenco." As for its OPs/EDs, I liked both Rerise and Hatena and Twinkle was far superior to "Magic Time." Seriously, whoever's idea to use that in a Gundam series, even if it's lighthearted fluff like ReRise, needs a LoLTomino to their record collection. "Can't you see, Can't you see, Can't you see baby..." sounds too much like "Yeah juicy..."
I also really have to say that I missed the hype freight trains that were the Back-On openings to the Build Fighters series (plus Edge of Life's "Fly Away". Unfortunately, that one got a bit misused as an insert song). Although that energy wouldn't have matched with the more laid-back atmosphere cultivated by the Divers series. The first series theme songs there were utterly forgettable. But I wouldn't give up the emotional core of "Hatena" for the world. "Rerise" didn't really catch me until its reprise for the epilogue, which is where its feel-good energy finally clicked, and now hearing it taps into my nostalgia centre something fierce. After seeing it, I never really got the hate for the first Divers series. Yeah, it didn't have the same drive as the tournament-fighting series, but it had a good-natured charm to it. While it could seem exceptionally dumb at times, it was smart in its stupidity, and practically every time my brain questioned the story's goings on, the writing would actively address and lampshade the more incredulous elements. But did you just call Re:Rise "lighthearted fluff"? The series where youths rely on the escapism of a videogame world as therapy for their feelings of loss, grief, guilt, and inadequacy, with real emotional trauma on the line? That shit was deceptively dark.
When you put it that way, I guess I unintentionally did. I had already mentioned before that characters of the series are broken, scarred characters who really come together and learn to work past their issues for a greater purpose.. when it all comes down to the escapism of the "Build" genre, it still counts as some kind of lighthearted fluff by comparison to the rest of the Gundam franchise except for G-Reco. Yet, I did tear up a few times during ReRise.
S'all good. As I said, the series' framing is very deceptive. It does blunt the pain when the series can be capped off with the goofy insanity of Battlelogue. But then that was the series' theme after all, in "rising" against the pain to finally find emotional healing.
Phrased that way, that's similar energy to Code Geass' "R2": Resurrect and Rebuild, which calls to mind similar "oof" levels.
