WHAT I THINK OF THE AGE SERIES SO FAR

    I'm back fellas! And sorry as I haven't been updating the blog regularly. Been travelling for work, got my fingers injured, and too much news in my home country Singapore has been happening lately. First there was that underaged hooker sex scandal, then the sex scandal of two civil service honchos, and now some financial scandal involving our biggest church. It's a heyday for the national media! It got so distracting I almost forgot about gunpla. ALMOST. lol.

    So let's get back on track shall we? I'll start with a short review of the Age anime series since I've laid off that for a while. Overall, I'd say that the Age series has lost some of its steam for me. I'm not sure why I'm losing interest, but I'll still watch it till the end since there's no other ongoing Gundam series out there, and hopefully they have something epic at the finale.


Let's break it down into this -

THE GOOD STUFF:

-Heavy Age 3 wears (Fortress/ Orbital)

    Bigger is not always better but in this case, it kinda is. After the eccentricity of Spallow and Titus, at least we're back on track with more mecha-looking designs for the Age 3 Fortress and Orbital versions. I still feel they are a tad over-simplified, but that's the line art of a cartoon for you. Thinking of the MG treatment for these kits is rather mouth-watering.....Imagine all the mods you can do with them. Yum.

-A human face to the Vagans 

    Kio being Kio, a youngster who has yet to realise his full potential, the Age 3 is disappointingly captured in battle and our hero becomes a prisoner of war. It's refreshing to see a human side of the Vagans, where Kio finally meets Lord Ezelcant. I like that they bother to spin an entirely different world and society from Earth. For too long the Vagans were just strange-looking suits and creepy X-Rounders. I don't really care much for the mushy stuff between Kio and Lu, but I guess all protagonists need a little love for motivation lol.

-Badass space pirates

    A pirate MS in the style of medieval sea-faring pirates like Crossbones or the Dark Hound never really appealed to me, but I like the concept of the Bisidians and Super Pilot Asemu as head. It'll be interesting to see if Asemu lives long enough to reunite with Flit, or will he die in action defending Kio from the Vagan-Gundam. Which brings me to my next section - .....


THE SO-SO STUFF:

-Vagan's fashion sense

    I don't know about you but the dress code of Vagan high command like Ezelcant and his ilk all look like they stepped out from some Middle Eastern circus. I get the M.E. references - it's Mars, desert planet, so naturally, we wanna liken their society and fashion to the Arabs. But we are in the future after all....And just what the hell is hulk of a man, Zanald Beihart wearing on his head?!? But if you think he's ridiculous, check out his suit...

-Horrid Gorilla MS

    I've given up on the MS designs for the Vagans. It just seems like Sunrise told its designers to go apeshit on them, never mind what fans think. And speaking of Ape, that's exactly what they did with the Zamdrag, the hideous Gorilla suit. It would be interesting to see if they ever bother to give this MS the MG treatment though. It's so bloody strange I might just decide to pick it up lol. Alternatively, if they never, there's always Zoids....

-New gundam

    I can't pass full verdict on this one yet until the next episode where we see more of it in action though. But it didn't really turn me on - This suit just looks like a lazy hybrid between a Gundam and a Vagan design, painted in Gundam hero colours. The only other eccentric Gundam suit that I can liken it to would be the infamous Turn A.

-Loopholes:

    Not to get too picky here, but as an adult watching the series, I can't help but wonder about certain loopholes that the writers don't seem to bother tying up, maybe cos this series is targeted at kids, perhaps...Firstly - is it just me or does anyone notice the age discrepancy between Ezelcant and Flit? The former has been around since Flit was a fresh-faced green-haired anti-hero in the Age 1, is supposed to be sick from Mars Rays, but by Kio's generation, still looks only roughly the age of Grandpa Flit now, or even younger. This dude should be ANCIENT man! Secondly - while kudos are due for the human side of the Vagan society, obviously not much further thought has been given to its specifics. Ezelcant's army seems more like a dictatorship than a benevolent rule intent on bringing Eden back to its people. Compare the advances of the Vagan army to that of normal Vagan society - their military is so much more advanced than Earth's, but their people live like our century's version of the Middle East. And also this thing about 'Mars Rays'....are they all dying from it? What about Zeheart? What about X Rounders? How come citizens seem so frail but the military looks good? If they are on meds like Ezelcant said, which don't cure but merely prolong, then why can't the military share it with the rest of the population? Some deeper stuff just doesn't gel, but obviously, if they had wanted you to think deep, they wouldn't have came up with Unicorn rite? LOL.