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Yo! So I finally finished Victory Gundam and I definitely think it's a show with some glaring flaws, but one that I really enjoyed despite them. I'm also pretty conflicted on some of the recurring motifs. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the show to maybe bring some perspective on it.

I'll start with things that I wasn't really on board with. The elephant in the room would be where studio intervention rears its head. I'm aware that Bandai took control at Sunrise, much to Tomino's distaste, and of the many requests they have been quoted, that do negatively affect the series. The first 4 episodes being told out of order, kinda uselessly, just so that Uso could pilot Victory Gundam in episode 1 is notably a strange start that I didn't really mention before.
Lots of the mech designs, like the bikes requested by Bandai, were just fucking weird and I did get the sense of Tomino somewhat lashing out and going into this "sell toys" direction out of frustration that many have mentioned. The man must've been burned out on top of everything, and it's sad to see his harsh takes on this show, but I think I get it. They threw me off a bit, to be sure, but the show has some really great mech designs as well and my head canon about the state of technology in this point of the timeline (that I talked about the last time I commented to you about Victory) still made these designs more acceptable to me, even if only a little. The V2 is really fucking cool, and I'm a fan of the art design as a whole (like the characters, settings, and many mech designs seen in the later half), so I don't mean to short sell that aspect of the show, but it's worthy of mention that there are oddities.

I also really took issue with the way the show was handling character deaths for about the first half. Again, I've seen the complaint thrown around a lot and I can't deny that I also felt some of those early shrike team deaths were super predictable and not very impactful. Very much in that running joke way where a character only starts getting developed in the episode they're going to die in, these characters were not worth getting attached to. I guess it's a way to just generally communicate that the steaks are high and people can die before we even realize, but too many of these didn't land in the way they were done.
That said, I think this issue totally resolves itself as the series goes on, just by nature of us getting to be around these characters for many more episodes. Pretty much from the point the team first enters space, every character was someone I could get behind and understand the pain of the cast when they are killed. I think this complaint, kinda similarly to the toy-designs complaint, is valid bu also maybe over-stated and pretty much stops being a problem at a certain point in this series for me (with the exception of the biker couple's death, they were just lame as hell to me).

I guess another character death I really wasn't feeling was Lupe Cineau, who I'm sure throws most people off when first watching. Uso has a flashback of that tub scene when she dies and it just felt so strange to me. Was that meant to be sentimental? Speaking of that scene, I guess it's probably the even bigger elephant in the room. What the fuck was that episode? How exactly was that meant to be torture? Was she actually trying to drown him? Was she trying to rape him? It felt so clearly fanservice-y to me and was so off-putting for this show. I'm pretty sure Lupe was meant to be a PDF file, right? It's strange lol, not sure if I'm missing something here but some of her lines are just downright horrendous. "I'd like to ask that you... now sleep quietly in my breasts." ...huh?

And I guess this leads to one of the more confusing aspects for me, which is the heavy emphasis on women in the show, and the sometimes confusing use of that motif. There are aspects that land well for me. Gundam largely dealt with the theme of children shouldering the conflicts of previous generations. I think a point is being made to include women in this idea as well. Women and children are often seen as the innocent lives of historically male-dominated wars. I liked the idea of Queen Maria wanting to change the world from a paternal to maternal based ideology, and really liked how we've seen her be made into just a figurehead of the male-dominant Zanscare Empire. This seems like the clear continuation of Newtypes being exploited as weapons rather than being allowed their pure purpose.
The way I interpret this part of the show is that Maria was wrong both in her approach (allowing herself to be manipulated and used by Zanscare) but also in that her motivation was not as pure as it seemed. I think her feelings came more from wanting control in that Maternal position, which is why her prayers in the Angel Halo caused people to revert to docile mental infants. This could be a subconscious impurity (maybe stemming from Maria's experiences of being controlled by others) that she failed to recognize in herself. Shakti, on the other hand, is younger and has not been tainted by her experiences in this way. She truly cares for others and purely wants peace. This is why her prayers actually work in the Angel Halo.
I feel like I'm most of the way there in terms of that messaging, but there's a point in that final stretch of the story where it felt like every other line was directly referencing women. Stuff like "How could you, a woman, betray me?" and "This pilot, it can't be, a woman?!" and "you've taken to another women in front of me, Uso!". I really wasn't into this style of inorganic writing and it got to be really tiring to try and consider how each of these lines and characters were meant to fit into what the show was actually trying to say about women. I don't think it's a "men bad" show as many have interpreted. I've also seen it accused of being sexist for basically portraying the women characters in either a good, motherly, care-taker role, or batshit insane. I'm not really sure what I make of that yet, and I guess that's another way that I feel I haven't fully grasped this theme. I'm really curious on your take for this.
If anything, I really don't think it's something Tomino made out of "hate for women cause he was going through a divorce." or "had a love quarrel with some VA who married someone else". I've found nothing supporting this and only see people regurgitating this dumb take online based on nothing. I seriously don't get this, it's dumb.

To get more into the positives, the cast is phenomenal. Uso really is a standout protagonist in Gundam. His ideologies were always really well conveyed, the perspective of him as a very capable pilot and soldier, but also a 13 year old kid was always engaging and consistently well handled. He's got a really likeable and admirable personality as I said before. Shakti, who I see a lot of people complain about, was another character I loved. I can't get behind disliking her character because she makes "bad decisions" if those decisions feel valid from the perspective of her character. She's 11 years old and going through a lot, but despite it, is making her best effort to help with what she thinks she can do. Don't get me wrong, I don't like media that use "kid is dumb" as a plot device for creating danger, but this never felt that way to me. Shakti is naive, but also pure-hearted and manages to hold onto that purity and genuine love through all her experiences. As I said before, this is what makes her the correct candidate for properly using the Angel Halo for good. Not to control people, but make them feel genuine love. Marbet had some great progression as a character, I really enjoyed seeing her become more and more of a mother figure for Uso, all while holding her own as a soldier. Odelo was a great fucking character, loved him so much, can't believe they did him like that. That shit hurt. Honestly the whole crew was a joy and I genuinely feel like they're my favorite Gundam main cast so far.
The villains also felt really well done most times. Fuala great all throughout the first bit and bringing her back as a kind of cyber newtype was really cool. I'm not sure I understood the bells though, there was this whole thing where Fuala's bells were the bad ones that I guess made Karlman cry and then the Angel Halo had different bells that were good, happy bells. Why were they both bells? I don't think I got this bit.
Tassilo was pretty cool, I liked how he turned on Zanscare but was similarly called out for having impure motives. I think that's why Maria decided to not side with him when she did, which turned out to be true, since he seemed to be mainly acting out of the interest of saving his own life. I cannot for the life of me understand why he shot Maria when he had her as a hostage against Uso. It seemed like he had clear leverage and then just kills her and gets himself killed in response.
Chronicle was pretty cool in that he seemed to be constantly trying to prove himself within Zanscare since he was the Queen's brother. I think he was maybe underused a bit. He seemed to allude to his own agenda at some parts but I didn't feel it was too fleshed out. Moreover, I'm pretty sure it was strongly implied that he was being used by Katejina, the best villain by far.
I see Katejina as an actual sociopath, and really loved that. It's left unclear if the mind altering shit Zanscare was using played a part in her arc, but I prefer that they left that unconfirmed. To me she represented someone who was totally incapable of understanding others or of love by the end of the show, and I think this is who Tomino is most critical of in Victory. She claims that she is in love with Chronicle, but it's shown in this toxic manipulative nature when the layers are stripped back. She's so incapable of understanding Uso, that she genuinely thinks he will be unable to fight if he's distracted by girls in skimpy bikinis, which Uso just sees (very reasonably) as insulting. This scene was SO strange and is often hated on a lot, but I kinda like what it says about Katejina that this was feasible to her. How lowly she thinks of Uso. On the other hand, how the female pilots where convinced to actually try this out, I have absolutely no idea...
Anyways by the end, seeing her alone, blind and directionless was such a hard-hitting cap off. And Shakti crying to herself for her, damn that ending was fucking great. If anything, I just wish we got more from her perspective. We didn't see her often enough and I think it could have been really interesting, probably even more so than some of the small arcs chosen instead (like biker couple).

The music was fantastic and made for so many insane scenes. I had hairs standing on their ends during the whole battle where Uso ends up having to manually firing the red death beam, Junko's death in that same scene. That shit was so good. Uso meeting the Tiger of Space from the Zanscare and then having to fight him was fucking great as well. When he meets the family of a pilot he killed, just so many STANDOUT moments.

So overall, I don't think the script is air-tight. There were lots of moments where the dialogue was just kinda bad, and certain small plot points felt messy or just strangely handled. I wrote down a lot of examples, but have written a lot here already lmao. I'm also just not completely sold on it's matriarchy/patriarchy messaging, but feel like it could just be something I haven't totally parsed yet. But even still, the majority of my experience watching Victory was great and I feel like it may honestly be my favorite Gundam entry so far. Again, would love to get your thoughts on this one, it's a very interesting entry with a lot going on lol. I'll be watching Turn A next, and I'm looking forward to it.

That's awesome to hear!

I'm okay, I've been keeping quite busy. I watched an anime over the summer called Girls Band Cry that I really loved.

I saw someone on your page talking about Gundam Seed also. Haha I just found pencil boards and stuff for SEED Destiny last night. It's very flawed but very fun stuff lots of emotional drama and moral quandaries. I don't know if you'd enjoy it but if you watch it please let me know your thoughts.

Yeah the Kawamoto Gundams will surely not disappoint with their visuals. If there's one thing they absolutely nail, it's that. Stardust in particular looks pretty insanely impressive and has some very memorable gundam designs.

And yeah I 100% agree about the combining mechs in Victory working better here. From what I'm gathering, Victory seems to have largely regressed in Gundam tech. We are far from the behemoths of anything seen from late Zeta to F91, and I'm pretty sure it's intentional. The Victory model is often referred to as this relic model from the old days that the resistance discovered. I think it's fitting for the transportation aspect but also fitting to have a model with clear limitations, just from a "balancing" standpoint. I can't imagine feeling all that invested in their fight if they discovered tech of the fuckin Nu Gundam or F91 model and went up against the BEPSA's rinky dink Akira bikes and helicopters using any of those. This makes it feel less free, like the Gundam can turn the tides, but it still presents some challenges for them. I'm sure that could've been achieved without any use of combing mechs, tbf, but I'm not too mad at the direction overall.

Another little thing I forgot to mention, which has occurred in quite a few Tomino projects so far, is some really bad lines of dialogue. Like the characters will sometimes just say the funniest, most detailed, unsubtle exposition lines in the middle of a battle or something. Always find it funny, but it doesn't put me off too much for the most part.

Anyways, very much enjoying Victory and looking forward to seeing where it goes. Always fun to discuss my Gundam takes with you. I hope your car doesn't explode lol.

Late birthday wishes, apologies for missing it!

No worries on the reply, hope the uni and work stuff has been going alright! Funnily enough I've had kinda the inverse experience lately and found more time than usual to watch stuff haha. I've gotten through a bunch of Gundam stuff even since finishing CCA. I've seen 0083 and 08th MS team as well as 0080 War in Pocket. Also got around to Gundam F91. I created an interest slack on my profile if you want to see how I'm currently ranking what I've watched, or alternatively if you looked up "Gundam" in my anime list I have a right up for each thing I score, but to give you the abridged on those:

0083: Visually gorgeous beyond belief, fucking lame ass story and characters. Nothing REMOTELY close to how good the characters were in previous entries.

08th MS team: Wanted it to be my favourite thing ever. I really loved the look of a more military-esque Gundam team, Kawamoto designs are absolutely killer, but unfortunately it once again falls flat story wise. This one at least had more moments convincing me there was real potential but overall just way too inconsistent.

0080 WiP: Really fucking great! Definitely covers the usual themes in it's own distinct way. I was worried about following such a young lead character cause I very often find kid characters annoying but it really worked for what it was going for. The mech fights and animation direction are stellar here as well. Kawamoto is credited as Animation Director, which was cool to see. Karuhiko designs were quite nice as well. I think WiP has a kind of slow start but by the end I was totally sold on it.

F91: Fucking sucked. I barely got through it. Rehash of ideas done with infinitely less interesting characters, an EXTREMELY corny and lame villain, and downright broken pacing. I'd heard about it being cut from it's own series down to a single film and I guess maybe that could've saved the dogshit pace a bit, but I honestly find so many elements of this film completely uninteresting. I really don't think I would want to see a full series version of it. Fun first 20 minutes though.

I also tried reading the Char's Deleted Affair manga because I'm a big fan of Haman and Axis but felt they were completely wasted on ZZ. Unfortunately, CDA is probably worse than ZZ. To me, it felt like an incredibly boring Char fanfiction manga. Had to just drop it, I couldn't be bothered. This really just made me more frustrated that Haman was only ever good in Zeta and that the events between Zeta and CCA were not explored well here either. That clip from the video game is interesting, but yeah hilarious that it would be there of all places.

Honestly the more I think about ZZ, the more I dislike it lmao. I think I'm also in a minority here where most people say it picks up in the second half. I felt that way at first, but honestly at this point, I'd say the second half is where the show gets even worse.
The biggest issue I'd point to in the first half is that the tone starts to run its course and I was dreading a full 47 episodes of it. Honestly, if the story just went somewhere faster, but largely, this was a no stakes comedy spin off for 15 episodes, I wouldn't be that mad at it. Yes it would still be baffling as a follow up, but that really starts to bug me more in the second half where it becomes clear this is trying very hard to be an ACTUAL sequel to Zeta.
All these attempted "serious" plot points with these dogshit characters were so crazy to me. Judau's motivation was "my sister's been kidnapped" for, I think the ENTIRE second half. It's so uninteresting. All the run-ins he would have with Haman that consistently resulted in NOTHING happening. Haman was so unthreatening as a villain by the finale, which is such a shame, cause again, I loved Haman in Zeta a lot. I am the Haman simp Mashymre.
I kinda see what you mean with the Puru dynamic but I unfortunately cannot relate to that lol. I just hated her. The whole instant Imouto archetype was not it. Chara Soon's voice might be an acquired taste but I can respect it haha.

And yes, I'm currently on Victory! Honestly I only noticed after already starting that people don't seem to like it much but I really don't get why. To me, it's been really fucking solid so far. The characters are really great, Uso in particular is very fun to follow as a lead. I like that he comes off very admirable and capable in-spite of his age. It's also interesting in that it's set up with a bunch of characters that already know each other and have pre-existing motivations and relationships. I'm starting to hear more mention of Uso's parents now and it was jarring at first to hear them brought up by Shakti out of nowhere, but is actually fitting with them already having had this goal since before the Camion arrived. The only real thing I'd say I'm not into with Victory is the mechs.
It's more a personal preference, but I'm not into the combining Gundam types. I didn't like them in ZZ and was glad that CCA stepped away from that direction. It always just feels like a dumb added challenge to sortie with one part of the mech and have to try to dock afterwards. Like, who designed this?? I think there is maybe a world building element at play with how Victory seems to have taken a step back in technological advancement. Some mechs are shown using propellers. My current head canon revolves around this and is softening the gripe I have. I'm not far enough in the show to know if it will really make a point of this aspect yet.
The character designs are awesome and the show has a great color palette. It may not always look flashy, production wise, but I think it's a really pretty show if we're going off of art design. Enjoying it a lot so far!

Yo, just finished ZZ and CCA so I thought I'd give you some of my thoughts. ZZ in particular is pretty tough to wrap my head around.

It is a baffling change of direction from Zeta and I can see why it's so devisive. I was actually not too opposed to what it was going for in the first few episodes. The comedy wasn't completely terrible and the characters, like Judau, were kind of a breath of fresh air, but it unfortunately started getting old very quick and roughly 20 episodes of this was pretty much exhausting to get through. It was interesting to me to see certain ideas played off so comedically, almost as if the show was parodying ideas from the first 2 seasons. When Chara Soon was introduced, I immediately interpreted her as being there to make fun of Cyber Newtypes from Zeta, which was super fucking baffling, but I did find that funny for little while. Again though, this goofy ass tone overstayed its welcome by a lot.

The weirdest thing about this direction is that lots of these characters stick around during the show's second half and are even major players in the more dramatic plot points. Mashymre, the fucking team rocket, Haman Karn simp (based) bozzo is back and is this badass Newtype powerhouse, which was kinda cool but I can't help but be baffled. Like, this guy as a joke character hasn't been erased from my memory, I can hardly take him seriously when I see him. The same could be said with Chara, she's still around and is relapsing into the "I have big tits and shove people into them" gag character by the end of the series, and to me, seeing her is like watching a parody, except now the show is actively trying to replicate Zeta Gundam's drama and Chara is just here throwing it all off. The worst example of this is definitely Glemy Toto. This guy's whole thing at first was being a Roux Louka simp (not as based) but the show eventually makes a huge, threatening villain out of him. This sounds fine on paper, but it's INSANE to see arcs where he's basically totally relapsed and is fighting with this random artist dude over her, like, 30 episodes in. It feels like the show is never able to fully break itself away from that sloppy first half and often even plays back into it for whole arcs, like the Hong Kong Harem arc. That one was rough. What sucks about this is that there are times when the show really finds it footing and plays those heavy plot points just as great as 0079 or Zeta did. The colony drop arc was a serious highlight and the final battle was good too.

There were always a handful of things putting me off throughout the show. Puru's introduction was nightmarish, I complained about Four and Rosammy, but I had no clue it gets to be this cringe inducing. They eventually made something a bit more salvageable out of her character but she was mostly the worst. Moon Moon arc and its characters were fucking lame. Beecha and Mondo were kind of insufferable for way too long and in ways I didn't even comprehend. I was super put off by how strangely normal Puru 2 seems to be for everyone, except maybe Judau. Like characters would literally be seeing Puru 2 for the first time, knowing Puru is dead and have no reaction. Felt like the writers forgot somehow. Leina surviving is... fine? But how the fuck did Sayla save her in that situation? Kinda felt like an ass pull and the way they revealed it at first was so nonchalant that it literally went over my head. And WHY did they do my GOAT Bright like this with a fucking "teased affair" subplot of all things. I was fucking LIVID, let my fucking boy go home to his family, who is this actual nothing character they got him with in this show, very happy she fucking died and ate shit. I think they tried to give her some character growth at some point, don't care. Fuck her.

To name off some positives, I liked how the gundam team eventually evolved into a solid squad that I felt I could really root for. Bright (aside from them hoeing him with Emaly's inclusion) shows a lot of growth as a captain and he's still underappreciated as fuck. Although I'm kinda disappointed that Haman was used up for ZZ, she is a highlight of the show for me. Finally I really liked Kamille's inclusion in the show. It was tasteful, Fa is a fucking real one, and the post credit scene showing them running on the beach was just lovely. Very happy they got their ending together.

So ZZ was overall, kind of a fuckin mess but it had it's moments and largely picked up later on. Best thing about it is that it made me appreciate Zeta more haha. CCA on the other hand was fucking great. From a production standpoint, it was drop dead gorgeous. The designs are all fantastic and I loved the return to 0079 form with the more grounded militaristic look for the ships and mobile suits. ZZ had some cool mechs but I think it was starting to go pretty far with the transforming, high concept suits. Sazabi and Nu Gundam are both awesome. I thought the conceit of this film was great. It was a strong thesis for everything these characters have represented, namely Char and Amuro's clashing ideologies. It was fascinating to see Char evolve into someone almost comparable to Haman. The inclusion of Hathaway, Quess and Gyunei was definitely another instance of Gundam reusing ideas in a somewhat repetitive way, but this time it seemed more purposeful with them acting as a direct parallel to Amuro, Lalah and Char. Maybe just a tad on-the-nose for that, but I think worked well regardless. It's a really bold move for the final story to be so tragic in how the characters are stuck in this same cycle of conflict, and yet despite taking that into quite a bleak direction, the film is adamant on being hopeful of the future. No matter how long it may take and how bad it may get, humans can someday learn to understand each other, this was at least to me, the ultimate point Tomino was trying to communicate, and it resonated with me. The whole final battle and ending was extremely well done, amazing sendoff for the UC timeline.

Of course, this particular plot does come off a bit jarring from where we left off in Zeta. Char went from fighting alongside AEUG to wanting to destroy earth and that is something the movie just immediately throws onto you in like, the first 5 minutes or so. Beltorchika was just completely replaced, which I can't say didn't throw me off. I read up on why this happened, and I get it, but I don't entirely jive with it. Chan is nice though and I probably enjoy her more than Beltorchika. In an ideal world I just wish we had a third Gundam season that bridged this gap a little better. It makes me more frustrated that Haman's whole plot would be wasted on ZZ when I would have loved to see her face off against Char in a conflict where by the end, even Char is affected by her influence and the seeds for CCA are more firmly planted. In the meantime, we could be exploring the situation with earth and easily be able to introduce new characters like Chan. It's a bit of a shame and definitely makes ZZ not being all that great sting a bit more. But regardless, I really enjoyed this film, it's the most I've enjoyed Gundam so far, except maybe the origin manga, which I'd have to revisit.

I'm looking to get into the Gundam entries related to UC while I'm fresh off of getting through the whole main arc. Things like 0080 WIP, 0083 Stardust Memory, maybe Gundam Unicorn, and definitely 08th MS Team (which I'm particularly intrigued by, the art direction looks super up my alley). Looking forward to seeing more shows, Victory Gundam, G Reco and Turn A are pretty high on my radar. I do plan to eventually check out Tomino's other non gundam works. Very curious to finally watch Ideon. Been super fun watching these so far!

Happy birthday man!

Yo, happy birthday! Best wishes, as always.

SEED was revamping for modern audiences a lot of what was already in 0079 so it’s easy to say that watching the original Gundam first was good for historical purposes but not really required to enjoy it, Sunrise didn’t account older fans in the broadcast methinks. Although, having seen every major entry before SEED makes the few original bits spark even more because when it wants to do good by its casts and themes it can work, I might have sounded too scathing in my previous comment but I do genuinely think it’s a good and entertaining show.

Geneshaft as well was very interesting because I have a fondness for the mid-tier anime of yore that nowadays wouldn’t get either the chance to air or decent funding. Akane has been already screwed over enough by the industry so I am glad to see that he was able to produce something according to his vision. As Nyron says in his review it’s not groundbreaking and doesn’t need to be, Geneshaft follows multiple perspectives on one central idea and it’s good at what it does. Score and production are the cherries on top, the early 00s late 90s vibes are impeccable.

It's called Deep Clear, but be careful reading the synopsis cause it's technically a Kodocha Spoiler... If that matters?

Cool, well I'll check them out sooner or later. I enjoyed the show quite a lot, it had a great infectious energy, fun characters, looked beautiful and clearly had a lot of effort put into the world-building and the background of the story, it just struggled to convey everything within its runtime. My hope for the movies is that they refocus the story on the core components and marshal the material into something more coherent without losing the Tomino flavor to the writing, but it's funny because a big part of what defines that Tomino flavor is how confounding the characters and plot direction can be, as was also the case in stuff like Zeta, CCA or even Hathaway. If anything, what made the show so unpopular was that it was like Tomino overdose, he just wasn't holding back at all and the mainstream audience were completely unprepared for it.

Yeah that was the one. There's been a few times where it's dealt with surprisingly complex and dark subject matter. I've been watching it almost every week for some months now and it's honestly been a highlight of the week. I found out there's a manga sequel and read the description, it's just so much...

I watched Gunslinger Girl as a teenager when it was on a channel called Tech TV but I haven't seen it in a long time.

Ookouchi does odd jobs anywhere at this point, he did start under Tomino at Sunrise but after scoring big with Code Geass he has worked a lot with I.G. Fukuda on the other hand isn’t doing much these days but I wouldn’t hold my breath for an original work between the two of them, if anything because I don’t think Fukuda is capable of a single original thought of his own. Cross Ange is peak degeneracy and a lot of fun but the production itself was a shitshow and does ride on the success of Gundam Seed considering he only really created these two series in the past 20 years.

Which I can understand because, to answer your question on Seed, the series was such a massive hit that it blueprinted many Sunrise shows in years to come. People say Code Geass was trying to rip off on Death Note, it wasn’t, it was 100% capitalizing on Seed success, which itself was a redo on the og 0079. It’s not a bad show by any mean, if you watch the original broadcast you can see the cracks (I forgot how many recap episodes it has) and Seed Destiny is even way, way worse on this. Both series have their genuine great moments which are unfortunately very sparse and you can feel the toll the production had on the staff during the worst stretches. The writing is uneven as well, Kira Yamato, as grandiose as his name sound, is a down-to-earth protagonist and a good modern take on Amuro’s struggle of a civilian becoming an instrument of murder, although his arc is lighter on politics and more focused on his spiritual growth and fight for inner peace in the midst of the carnage (he kind of resembles Renton on this I guess?). The rest of the cast is a mixed bag, Cagalli, Athrun and Flay all have great arcs and some touching moments while Lacus and the bad guys mostly just feel “there” because you need a princess and someone to shoot at, the conflict is really the weakest aspect of the series as well as their take on the newtypes, Seed fucks up the newtype in the worst possible way. Regardless it is an enjoyable series, it is very much more digestible and free from the complications of previous Gundam series, which might be why many don’t like it but I think for 50 episodes it is very well paced and entertaining. The issue I think is that by being uncomplicated it loses a lot of the original charm, there is no Char Aznable running around doing his shenanigans, no Shining God Finger, no Kamille and the neurodivergent subtext, no Victory or Turn A and the class conflict as a consequence of centuries of economic struggle, no… whatever the fuck was going on in Gundam Wing, it still rocked, and it certainly never looks or sound as heavy as War in the Pocket, Stardust Memory or F91. It feels maybe like the first morning cartoon Gundam to me.
And with Seed Destiny it was also, before Eureka Seven and Gundam Age, the last mecha series to run yearly for 50 episodes with no break (recaps aside), which I guess it was an achievement on itself and kind of nostalgic now. Grendizer for sure won’t last 70, 50 or even 24 episodes in my opinion, I’m going to bet on the rumors saying it’s 13 and I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they manage more.

Thanks for the friend request!

Yeah I have no idea how the affinity thing works but it seems to be pretty accurate. I see you were impressed with the G-Reco movies, would you say they're a significantly different experience to the show? They're in my backlog but I've been putting them off on the assumption that they aren't much more than a recut.

The series was announced and funded by Manga Productions, a Saudi company, (here you can see their CEO with Ookouchi, Sadamoto, Fukuda and Nagai) but to what extent they were involved with the production and how the staff was planning the series to go, I have no idea. Sunrise I think was out of the picture entirely, historically any anime adaptation has been always handled by Toei, which I would guess lost the rights leaving Nagai and Dynamic Planning to search for animators elsewhere. I also don’t know how interested any of the bigger names were in working on this because, aside from the general feeling, from the characters to the directing, being way more akin to Gundam Seed than any other Fukuda projects, the series lacks any identity. I am not a Nagai purist, I like his works fine, so any interesting change would be welcome (Devilman Crybaby gave a fresh look to Nagai’s style while being very faithfully to his narrative), and as you noticed some of the entertaining weird stuff was retained for the villains, but aside from that it just feels very “safe”, which is the one single thing Nagai never was.