Mailbag 12: Shiroi Yatsu

Mailbag 12: Shiroi Yatsu

Posted March 24, 2006

More Mailbag, more questions.

Idabosoldier asks:
1. Do you think there is still time for the C.E. series to be more fleshed as the Universal Century?

2. How do you think Mobile Suit Gundam's ending would've been affected if it had not been cancelled?

3. What do you think translates into a popular anime?

4. I looked into one of the website's news posts and it stated that you were going to review Space Runaway Ideon. What are your expectations coming into the series?

Chris responds:
1. I think the C.E. universe has potential, but it really needs to clean up its act. Manga side stories like ASTRAY are good stuff, but DESTINY was a major disappointment. As long as C.E. stays focused only on characters like Kira and Athrun, I don't think it'll go anywhere.

2. If you search online, Gundam expert Mark Simmons translated a summary of the 52 episode version of the series. Frankly, it sounds inferior to the canceled version. The 52 episode version had several major differences - including Amuro not killing Lalah and the Gundam getting destroyed not by the Zeong, but by the Gigan. Strangely, I think the cancellation forced the staff to condense the story and make it better, which doesn't usually happen.

3. I don't understand this question.

4. I don't have any expectation because I'm not reviewing Ideon. The series will be reviewed by Brian Shea, who previously covered L.Gaim and Dunbine.

StrikeFreedom99 asks:

1. What happened to the V2 Gundam and the ZZ Gundam disappear off to at the end of their respective shows?
2. Are Victory Hexa units modular in design? Or are they in one piece?
3. Are there any performance differences between the basic Vayeate/Mercurius and the Shuivan?

Chris responds:
1. The V2 Gundam can be seen on Earth in the final shot of Victory Gundam - it's just sitting in the forest. As for the ZZ Gundam, it was trashed. In the unofficial Victory Side Story manga, a mangled ZZ returns under the guise of the trash suit Gump.

2. Victory Hexa units are modular just like the regular Victory. The only difference between them is that part of the head gets replaced with the Hexa rabbit ear equipment.

3. Not much is revealed about the Shuivan units that appear in G-UNIT, so I can't tell you much right now.

Lt. Leon Murphy asks:

When do you think Victory Gundam's coming out in the US?

Chris responds:
Victory Gundam seems pretty popular around here today. Given that Gundam releases in the US have slowed to a crawl, it's hard to say. The last things we got were F91 and Zeta in 2004. I don't know what Bandai has planned, but I would expect to see ZZ out first before Victory.

Blue55 asks:
1. Is there a good place to get semi-real world data on Mobile Suit Gundam, colony size, Axis...etc?

2. What became of remains of Axis after the second Neon Zeon conflict?

3.Is there any plans in the future to create more UC Gundam series, OVA, or remakes like they did with Zeta Gundam in Japan/USA?

Chris responds:
1. You might want to try sites like Mobile Suit Gundam: High Frontier and Ultimate Mark.

2. I don't know think the issue ever comes up again, but I would hope the Earth Federation was smart enough to destroy it or at least move it very far from the Earth.

3. There will always be some kind of Gundam somewhere. Right now, the Zeta movies just wrapped up, MS IGLOO is still in production, and SEED STARGAZER is on tap. As for "remakes", I don't expect anything aside from the DESTINY Special Edition compilations. It may not be this year, but I don't doubt that we'll see another Gundam TV series in the near future.

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