Thanks to the folks at Zeonic|Scanlations, I finally got my hands on all 43 episodes of the original Gundam series! The 30-year-old series may not look as pretty as any modern anime, but the digitally remastered R2 DVD stands up so beautifully that it's hardly noticeable. (Bandai, when are you going to release the R1 DVD?!?!)
I watched the first episode last year, but that was all I could get. I was quite moved at that time, and the feeling only intensified today as I watched the first ten episodes.
When I was watching, I couldn't help but mentally compare it with Gundam SEED, which self-proclaimed to be the First Gundam of the 21st century and paid homage to the original series in numerous scenes. While I do quite like SEED, I did find it leaning a bit heavily on the notion of heroism, intentionally or not. The First Gundam, on the other hand, is rather down to earth with the characters and the background settings.
For SEED, in a lot of cases, I paid attention to certain characters because of their seiyuu first and then later extended to the actual characters. For a series featuring so many big name seiyuu, this can be both a good and a bad thing for me. If you take out the seiyuu factor, at the end, only Athrun and Fllay made a strong impression for me character-wise. I kind of lost interest in Kira in the later half after he made peace with everything and became all mighty and invincible. XD
For the First, since I only know three seiyuu out of the whole cast, I was able to fully concentrate on the characters without prejudice. There's surely a lot more development to come seeing I'm only at the tenth episode, but the potentials are already evident. I really like Mirai and think she and Bright would make a great pair. Amuro does whine as rumoured, but he's growing at a steady pace. The scene where Fraw expresses her will to pilot Gundam reminded of a similar scene from SEED, except Fraw and Fllay have very different motives for doing so... Char is certainly quite the charismatic, at the same time being calculating. Klueze (or whatever the official spelling of his name is) isn't as appealing despite his scheming tactics and dark background. The only person capable of measuring up to Char would be Lacus, but let's not divulge to the conspiracy theory here. XD
Anyhow, the 1st Gundam marathon shall continue. I don't think I'll be able to finish the series this long weekend, but definitely within the week. Then I'll be able to finally watch my Zeta Gundam DVDs... -__-
Actually, I set a goal for myself just right this moment: finish all the Gundam anime (minus the SD ones) to date before my birthday this year!
The Quest:
機動戦士ガンダム
機動戦士ガンダムI
機動戦士ガンダムII 哀・戦士編
機動戦士ガンダムIII めぐりあい宇宙編
機動戦士Ζガンダム
機動戦士Ζガンダム 星を継ぐ者
機動戦士ΖガンダムII 恋人たち
機動戦士ΖガンダムIII 星の鼓動は愛
機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ
機動戦士ガンダム0083 STARDUST MEMORY
機動戦士ガンダム0083 ジオンの残光
機動戦士ガンダムF91
機動戦士Vガンダム
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 ミラーズ・リポート
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -1年戦争秘録-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -黙示録0079-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO2 重力戦線
機動新世紀ガンダムX
∀ガンダム
機動戦士ガンダム00
機動戦士ガンダム00 S2
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