Wasn't sure if we had any Gundam fans here, but Gundam 00 just aired on Saturday, and has a few fansubs already. This is the first Gundam series to air in full high definition, and the release groups are making really great use of the H264 codec. The first episode was pretty good, and seems to reflect a few current events, but leaves room for a lot to build from. The series looks very promising.

Is anyone else excited about this at all? I just think it's neat to know that you are watching a series as it's coming out, especially one as high-profile as Gundam.

/nerd

Can't be worse than Destiny, can it?

Maybe I'll watch it when there's a few more episodes aired so that we'll know if its a trainwreck or not.

Lets hope not. Destiny was bad! The overall plot was good and finished the Seed series well, but the execution, subplots, and characters were such a wreck.

I had actually never watched any Gundam before this one (aside from clips here and there), but still it felt like I had seen it all before. Mecha is sure one consistent genre... Anyway, it looked pretty good and interesting, worth watching, especially with no Code Geass second season airing yet.

Hehe, at least there were no Gundam clichés off the bat. (Gundam heist, colony drop, etc.) Have yet to decide what the characters are like in this series. So far it seems they are emotionless, like in Gundam Wing, but I have a feeling that they will start having some second thoughts as the situation unfolds.

The only good Gundam was Wing, and even that played off of way too many mech trites. I can't imagine this being any better.

I'm only seen Gundam Wing and Mobile Suit Gundam.

You forgot the animation.



A lot of people keep seeing Wing characteristics in this, I don't really see it.

Enemy machines don't explode from near misses.
Enemy pilots appear competent.
The vulnerabilities of the Gundams have yet to be seen, but given Exia and it's experienced pilot, were given trouble by THREE grunt machines, I'm guessing they aren't going to be invulnerable, at least not in the same sense that Wing was...especially considering that beam weapons appear to be comparable to UC beam weapons in that they go through all armor like a hot knife through butter.

Heh. My unfamiliarity with the Gundam legacy surely shows because I was thinking, when watching the episode, that the Gundams were really overpowerful compared to the regular industrial mechas. Yet you are saying they were weaker than Gundams usually.

Yeah, forgot about the animation.

Really, the only characteristics of Wing I see in this are the pilot's attitudes. The, let's-just-get-****-done attitude. It's better than the whiny ***** that Shin was, going back to Destiny. I think it's good that they aren't as invincible as they were in Wing. This forces them to use some strategy and will lead to some sweet battles.

Depends on the series. We're referring to Wing, which is part of the After Colony timeline/universe, in which they were pretty much invincible regular weapons due to the rare "Gundanium alloy" that made up their armor.

In series such as Seed, from the Cosmic Era timeline/universe, the mobile suits could sustain damage from any weapon. While the Gundam mobile suits are still far more advanced than the infantry-level suits, the pilots still had to be aware of every enemy.

I can't remember what it's like in other Gundam timelines.

In Wing/AC the Gundams were nigh invulnerable to anything and everything. The battles were still able to hold your attention though.

In First/UC the Gundams were only somewhat invulnerable to ballistic weapons up to a certain caliber. Beam weapons were one shot kills. They were somewhat vulnerable to heat based melee weapons as well. The battles were like WW2 dogfights or a ground battle with giant armored infantry. Also, the latter half of UC had MS with paper thin armor and were vulnerable to most everything but had obscene acceleration, maneuverability, and offensive capabilities.

In SEED/GSD/CE the Gundams were invulnerable to all ballistic weapons but were as vulnerable to beam weapons as UC Gundams. They made up for this weakness by having Gundams that could wipe out every enemy in 50km with a single attack without actually moving thus making them basically invulnerable. The battles were just boring beam spam fests courtesty of Kira Yamato's l337 hax0r Coordinator skillz and the Freedom/SFreedom Gundam.

That's funny. In Seed, it's the dramatic teenager vs. dramatic teenager fight scenes that are really freakin' cool. Other than that, you're right.

Well, the first half of Seed was just fine. I liked it. But after that they should have just left Kira's charred corpse in the Strike's melted cockpit, burned any piece of paper referencing and/or relating to a "Clyne Faction", which would include the Eternal and it's Freedom and Justic Gundams.

That would have probably saved the entire CEverse from it has become.