Postby blkmage » Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:59 pm
So guys, the first episode is out on Japanese PSN and it's been fansubbed. I just watched it. Yeah, I know, I'm a bad person; we'll deal with that later.
First of all, I think this is one of the best first episodes of anything I've ever seen. I mean, I've gone into a lot of Gundam shows, but this one destroyed my expectations. It was absolutely jaw-dropping.
Pre-requisite knowledge: at least for the first episode, I was fine. I'm about a quarter of the way through Zeta Gundam and have some cursory knowledge of what goes on after. Since this is the introductory episode, there's a ton of setup. Most of the references are just in passing (this war, that war, this incident, this Char guy, etc.).
Art and animation is absolutely stunning. Oh my goodness is it beautiful. I don't know how they did it, but it seems like a ridiculous improvement over Gundam 00. They are freaking magicians. And it's not just the Unicorn Gundam that looks great, freaking plain old GMs also look amazing in combat.
The soundtrack. This is the best soundtrack in a Gundam series. That is all.
Characters. The main character is probably the most normal in a Gundam that I can remember. Less prone to tears than Kira Yamato and less whiny than almost everyone else, while having emotion (unlike Setsuna F. Seiei and Heero Yuy). And the character designs are back to classic Gundam-ish with a tinge of modern design. Voices are surefine too.
Anyway, I am pretty sure that I haven't gotten across how impressed I was with this episode. So I will say this: maybe $35 isn't so unreasonable after all. I'm going to have to watch a few more, but if the next few are anything like the first, this is definitely on my to-buy queue, even if I don't own a Blu-ray player. That is how impressed I was.
Also, the next release is in Fall 2010. It's going to be an excruciating wait, that's for sure.