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Gundam Unicorn Episode 4
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This episode was amazing, discuss.
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I thought it was OK.
Too much "War solves nothing" morality diatribing from Banagher. I guess that should be expected from a Universal Century main character, but I would have expected him to become numb to that stuff by this point in the story. I have to believe that they skipped out on a lot of stuff from the novels, crazy behemoth funnel chick just had too little development.
I look forward to the next episode though, and the explanation behind that black Gundam. -
>>I have to believe that they skipped out on a lot of stuff from the novels, crazy behemoth funnel chick just had too little development.
Yeah, in the novels she was actually one of a family of Islamic militants (in the novel her father was still alive, and she had several brothers) The novels also spent much more time in Dakar, ect. In the anime they retooled her into more of a Lalah Sune type character who briefly meets Banagher and has a kind of newtype connection, but I did think she had some memorable scenes. You still get a sense of her conviction when she's whispering "sieg zeon" and destroying the city.
I liked the episode a lot, after being slightly disappointed by the third. It felt like the most emotionally charged yet, and I really dug the quieter moments like the Diner scene (that old guy was amazing), and Banagher and Zimmerman walking through the desert. It does take a turn for the melodramatic with Banagher's preaching about war, but I guess the fact that he was giving Zeonic ideology a literal kick in the balls at the time made it ok for me. -
I enjoyed it, but had to watch the English dub as I could only find it on Xbox Live movie streaming. Why has the internet failed me?
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Cause PSN is ass.
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I watched it four times before my zune rental period ran up. Unicorn is the only show I can do shit like that with. I've seen the first episode like 11 times already.
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I mostly watch the mech battles because of the incredible music and animation. The story, while interesting, definitely plays second fiddle.
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I hear that a lot, but as UC Gundam goes I think Unicorn is by far one of the best written. I'm sure Tominos lack of involvement helps in that regard
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It's well-written on average, however it's let down in places by irritating characters ( headed up by the main character! ) and odd leaps in the plot, such as Riddhe's sudden love for Mineva. That's without even mentioning the naive pacifism bullshit that pervades Gundam shows, with Banagher really piling that on this episode through some pretty awful dialogue that distracted from the otherwise awesome stuff happening during the latter half.
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I don't slight anyone for finding the pacifism annoying, that's an unnecessary element of Gundam which has been pervasive in the franchise ever since the 90's, even in stuff like 08TH MS TEAM. I don't find Banagher irritating, I actually really liked his argument with Zimmerman. When the show gets a little too anti-american and "hail nippon" Banagher is usually there to keep things level, but I do find his refusal to fight at times tiresome. The dub of episode 4 accentuates this fact, in the sub it was a lot clearer that he did want to fight the Shamblo.
I didn't find Riddhe's proposal to Mineva to be bad writing, but it was given a lot less time to breath than it needed due to time constraints. While he clearly has strong feelings for Mineva, his speech to her at the beginning of Ep 4 had more to do with preventing her from being used as a bartering chip by the Vists, than an outright admittance of love. Still, I can't help but think how much better fleshed out things would be if they had more episodes, or at least longer episodes. The whole Mineva earth arc was a lot longer in the novels and involved Riddhe and Mineva going to a Marcenas Ball, ect. The writer, Harutoshi Fukui, even commented on the fact that "everybody's worried about us not being able to conclude the story in six episodes", but said that he'd came up with an "idea" to wrap the story up quicker. Hopefully that turns out well, but with as successful as this show is, couldn't they extend it by a couple of episodes?
Having said all that, other than 0080 it seems like no Gundam is truly able to avoid some of these annoying tropes, but I think Unicorn tackles them admirably. I'd say its shaping up to be right behind the original movie trilogy and 0080 as my favourite Gundam work. -
I'll admit that my perception of the argument between Banagher and Zimmerman was tainted by having watched the English dub, which made it insufferably clumsy. Watching the sub was a lot more bearable.
I had heard that the manga elaborated on the Riddhe-Mineva arc to a much greater extent. The anime's treatment of it is terrible though, Riddhe is hugging her and in tears as he proposes, despite the fact that he's had barely any time at all with Mineva so far in the anime. They probably would have been better off having him propose and explain that it would be for her protection and without him confessing his love or being overly close. The whole scene was just jarring and didn't fit well at all, there's no reason why they couldn't have spent more time making it plausible. -
It is funny that every romance in Gundam lasts about two minutes. It goes right back to MSG; with Lalah and Amuro making a connection after talking for five minutes, and then you have Four and Kamille falling in love after an evening, Shiro and Aina spending one night together. I think the worst case of this was Reccoa who defects to the other side after meeting Sirroco ONCE. It is clumsy, usually because its a set-up for some kind of tragedy, but I guess I'm a little desensitised to it.
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In some ways I suppose they have no choice; no-one is watching Gundam for the romance, it's the giant robots that people want to see. Still, I'd rather they just left it out entirely than trying to shoe-horn it in.
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While it wasn't fleshed out all too well in the anime, the case for Riddhe feeling anything is not as weak as you're assuming. Yeah, it does seem to come out of nowhere, but they have had quite a bit of dialogue in episode 2, and they did fly together alone to Earth for an extended period of time. Given Riddhe's age, and the story that his father tells of him joining the military it's not too far fetched that he'd develop something for her.
Even then, I also got the sense that his father was manipulating him, and rather convinced him that he felt something for her in order to keep her in his grasp so that she wouldn't go to the Moon people. -
I think there's just a regular Gundam Unicorn thread somewhere, but I don't feel like finding it.
Episode 6 came out today/yesterday and it was great. Action, plot, characters, everything is just near perfect. Episode 5 was equally awesome. Adding another episode just made the series reach its full potential and they should be kicking themselves for not doing it between episode 3 and 4. However, the glaring thing that happens in most of the Gundams that I've watched happened again. In that the protagonist's ideals and goals just don't make much sense. In this episode Full Frontal lays out his plans & reasonings and to me they make the most sense. The protagonist's views are that if any solution has the possibility of creating war at any point in the future then it's not a real solution. -
I thought Lalah was more about how fucking inexperienced with women/naive in general Amuro is and about how Char is totally taking advantage of her.
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karaokeninja said:
I thought Lalah was more about how fucking inexperienced with women/naive in general Amuro is and about how Char is totally taking advantage of her.
No, I don't think so. Lalah exists to basically exemplify the newtype ideal; that once in space humanity can understand one another without pre-conception. Despite being on opposite sides, and despite barely knowing each other, Amuro and Lalah are able to fully connect in the midst of battle, suggesting that maybe humanity really is awakening into newtypes... 12 odd sequels later and this is still not the case.
And yeah, episode 6 was really great. Full Frontals plan did come across as surprisingly sane for a Char character, huh. -
I need to stay away from this thread till I see this episode, by probably tomorrow.
Yea, Amuro/Lalah had more of a connection than she and Char did, kinda like how a nerd and a cheerleader would have and the jock boyfriend comes in to eff that up. So I would assume if she didn't die by his hands, she would probably be the damsel in distress that he would have to save. -
Ok... i just saw the episode... and... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.
How do they expect me to wait till next spring, gah.
I was afraid it would end on a battle between... i cant do spoiler tag.
