ninjewtsu posted:

the short bit where darryl's prosthetic arm fails him while he's fighting is a pretty good wrap up to where his story arc ends up taking him.

Improbable Lobster posted:

Arcsquad12 posted:

Unicorn ends on another cliffhanger and a message that gets undercut by the existence of everything in the late UC. It might be the end of the Zeon/Federation conflicts (except for the Oldsmobile Army and other NZ uprisings), but the Earth Sphere is still hosed, robbing the Unicorn ending of its value.

ImpAtom posted:

There is no point in Unicorn where anyone says or even implies that everything is solved forever. In fact it literally does the opposite and is all about generic belief that someday things will change.

Arcsquad12 posted:

You know, you bring this up every time one of us discusses Unicorn's ending. Can I ask how you personally felt about its conclusion?

ImpAtom posted:

I thought it was honestly pretty generic and average.I think it had some strong visual work which helped sell scenes which otherwise amounted to the traditional cynicism vs optimism fight. It isn't my favorite Gundam ending but I also don't think it's a particularly bad one, just a generic and unambitious one.

ImpAtom posted:

I thought it was honestly pretty generic and average.I think it had some strong visual work which helped sell scenes which otherwise amounted to the traditional cynicism vs optimism fight. It isn't my favorite Gundam ending but I also don't think it's a particularly bad one, just a generic and unambitious one.

The "Good" Gundam endings to me would be 0080, G, Original and maybe Zeta. Every other one I feel kind of fumbles a bit much and I'd probably go back and forth on Zeta.

Snooze Cruise posted:

Turn A's ending is incredible and made me experience multiple emotions. There isn't a character i wasn't happy to see there at the end just living life.

Zeta ends good too, but gave me one emotion, a hollow despair.

a kitten posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF_xpEkg0uA

Now, if you'll excuse me

Monaghan posted:

Man I really like Zeta's ending. It just ends on this completely somber note that you don't see much on anime nowadays. Kamille goes all out an his mind is destroyed as a result. I'm sorta curious as to what your problem with it is.

Edit- maybe I'm biased because I love the soundtrack they use on the last episode and it screws my perception.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNYPryOqyGo

a kitten posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF_xpEkg0uA

Now, if you'll excuse me

TTBF posted:

I love the first opening to Turn A too much to have ever given Century Color a real chance. They never should have switched to a second opening.

Raxivace posted:

I think Turn-A is a kind of an average show all around that's really only saved by having a very unique setting for a Gundam series. I do like it though.

chiasaur11 posted:

I'm curious why you think that. I figure Turn A does a lot of stuff better than the average. Putting aside the designs (not everyone likes the Sid Mead style... and I just realized that the guy who digs up mobile suits is named Sid Munzer, which doesn't quite feel like a coincidence.) the music and animation style tend towards the gorgeous. The cast is large and dynamic, with everyone developing across the series, even more minor comedy characters like Bruno and Jakop, and the plot goes in directions Gundam almost never does.

Something that stood out as a highlight to me, though, was how everything happened because of the characters. Everyone had their own, distinct motives, from Loran's attempts to make everyone shut up, sit down, and get along to Guin's more cynical power plays to Michael Gern's basic "drat MOONIES GET OFF MY LAWN!". Whenever things fell apart, it was because someone, acting in accordance with their existing characterization, made a move that (apparently) advanced their immediate motive at the expense of someone else's long term goals. You could map out everyone's thought processes in scenes, and tell where they were going from that, not standard plot beats.

I mean, there was a whole subplot about the struggles of a guy trying to run a bakery in a warzone. You don't get that often. Civilians are supposed to only briefly show up to highlight the tragedy of war or the justice of the heroes's cause. They don't have to worry about bills. Only, well, Keith did. Because Turn A is more interested in showing people than going for the obvious plots.

Sharkopath posted:

That's Memoery of Military Boots, it borrows the tune from the main theme of Patton.

Raxivace posted:

FWIW when I say I think Turn A is an average show, I would also consider a large chunk of the other Gundam series to be below average works. Most of what you're describing in your post is stuff I would simply expect a long form narrative to do, in all honesty. To some extent I would expect recurring characters to develop and/or complexities to be revealed about them, I would expect characters to act consistently, I would expect the characters' actions and the impact they have on others (Or lack thereof) to be relevant to the story being told etc. I'd say finding Turn A being notable for doing this is more of a condemnation of other Gundam series for struggling with this (Such as 0083 just to throw out an example) more than anything.

Keith's bakery is another thing I'd only call uncommon for Gundam, but outside of it not so much. That same type of character (People trying to etch out a living doing a job in violent times) is practically a stock archetype in westerns for example- it's just done with bartenders and brothel workers instead of bakers. Even Westworld on HBO pokes fun at this sort of archetype.

As far as the music goes, most of it just didn't leave much of an impact on me, outside of "Moon" which I mentioned earlier. The Syd Mead designs I actually really like. The show is well animated, but I would ask how much of that is just praise for the budget being put into it. I won't repeat myself too much but I've just never found Tomino's work as a director to be especially strong, though I think he's a bit better here with how he uses moon imagery...then again, the way he uses it is done in exactly the same way it was used in Gundam X, so perhaps he doesn't deserve special praise for that. I doubt my own doubt though, since Turn A is specifically about past conflicts repeating themselves again so I guess it at least fits thematically.

This is all a long winded way of saying that while I don't think Turn A has the critical flaws of other Gundam shows necessarily, I don't find most of the highs it gets praised for by fans to be especially high or notable either.