Mailbag 70: Retirement Age

Posted May 6, 2008

The Mailbag hobbles its way into old age and apple sauce with this latest installement, covering questions from all sorts of series.

UltimaGod asks:
1. Why won't SRW Original Generations come to North America?

2. Can you get SRW DVDs in North America?

3. Is Code Geass R2 the last of Code Geass?

4. Is there going to be another Gundam after 00?

Chris responds:
1. There's no concrete reason why OGs isn't available here. While Atlus is known for releasing all sorts of niche titles, be they quirky RPGs or moe girl fighting games, SRW is almost a niche within a niche. I don't know how well the two OG games on GBA sold for them, but I'm sure they'll be looking at the sales of that, as well as the DVD sales for the anime in deciding whether or not to bring it. And let's face it, as time goes on, the PS2's lifespan is getting shorter. Now that AAA titles like Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4 are coming out for the PS3, the PS2 is starting to fade away. Sure, there's still stuff like Persona 4 coming out for the PS2, but it won't be too long before the PS2 gets reduced to a kiddie game dumping ground as all consoles do when they die.

2. Yes, you can get the SRW OG OVA, as well as the Divine Wars TV series. Unfortunately, you won't find them in any brick-and-mortar store, so you're limited to ordering them online from either Bandai Visual or The Right Stuf.

3. It's hard to say, but given how popular Code Geass is in Japan, I'm sure they don't want it to die right now. As we're seeing with the second season, it's a great showcase mecha series for them to have on air when there isn't a Gundam series on. Given the amount of world building they've done for Geass, it's certainly possible they could continue it, with or without characters like Lelouch Lamperouge.

4. If there's one thing I can say with near absolute certainty, it's that short of Bandai going bankrupt, there will always be another Gundam series. Gundam has been around long enough to achieve that permanent fixture similar to franchises like Star Wars or Star Trek, so I don't think it's ever going to go away.


Kavik Ryx asks:
1. So far I've seen pretty much all of Gundam, no matter whether I liked them or not. While I have been able to find the merits in all of the OVA's series and original movies, is there any reason whatsoever to watch SD Gundam Force, even if just to actually know how bad everyone says it is?

2. While on the subject of SD Gundam, I've seen the first two OVAs and loved them and I was wondering if the other versions of it are worth viewing?

3. After seeing VOTOMS: Roots of Ambition and the first two episodes of the recent prequel, I was wondering if Colonel Pailsen is in the series as well, or is he an OVA exclusive?

4. For Macross Frontier, now that the first episode has come out as its regular version I was wondering, is it a better idea to watch the 25th anniversary version, the more recent one, or both?

Chris responds:
1. I wasn't really into SD Gundam Force when it first began airing, but it starts to improve a bit during the later half of its first season. I haven't seen season 2, which is finally getting a US release, but I've heard people say it's a lot better, so you'll have to see for yourself.

2. So far, I'd say all of the classic SD Gundam series are worth watching. Some of the Sengokuden style ones don't place as much focus on parody and comedy like the earlier ones, but they're still worth seeing anyway just because they're weird.

3. Pailsen is indeed an OVA exclusive character, so you won't see him in the TV series. Aside from Pailsen Files and Roots of Ambition, he appears in The Last Red Shoulder, an OVA set between the Uoodo and Kummen arcs of the TV series. Since all the OVAs were produced after the TV series aired, you won't hear mention of him in the series either.

4. You definitely have to at least watch the broadcast version, since some new elements in the concert scene play into stuff later on. I'd recommend watching both. Either way, the Yakku Deculture Edition will combine both versions when it's released on DVD and Blu-ray.


Maximal Elder asks:
1.  I was recently looking at the profiles for ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam and ZGMF-X19A 8 Justice Gundam and I noticed something interesting. The Strike Freedom appears to have the same type of holes/ports on its legs and feet that the 8 Justice has for its knee-mounted beam blades. Could it be that the Strike Freedom also has knee-mounted beam blades and it was just missed in the profile?

2. The profile for the Strike Freedom says that it was stolen from ZAFT by supporters of Lacus Clyne before it was completed. Any chance we might see pics of the way the Strike Freedom might have looked if it wasn't stolen? Like maybe a Strike Freedom Full Spec type, kind of like how the Raider Full Spec was designed first, but the Raider Gundam was build first before the Full Spec type.

3. I've asked this before, but I don't think I made it clear enough the first time. I asked if you know if the MBF-P04 Gundam Astray Green Frame had its own unique equipment. What I meant was is that even though its clearly the basic design much like the Gold, Red and Blue Frames were before their pilots started modifying them. But even then they each had their own unique equipment, like how the Gold Frame had both Earth Forces and Orb hand plugs so it could use hand weapons from both groups. The Red Frame could emit beam energy from its hand plugs as a last ditch weapon and had an OS for Naturals to use. The Blue Frame had multiple hard points all over the body for mounting more equipment and weapons, like the scale system and missile launchers and programming to use those weapons. Each one has its own gimmick even before their pilots got their hands on them, so I'm wondering what the Green Frame's gimmick is?  Or even if it was made at the same time as the other 3 or later on?

4. What do you think happened to the original Duel Gundam and Buster Gundam? At the end of SEED it shows that the Buster was damaged and heading back to the Archangel with the help of the Duel when Yzak uses one of the Buster's beam launchers to destroy the Raider Gundam. The Last time we see them, at least in the TV series, is on the Archangel.  The Duel had minor damage and the Buster was missing its head and arms, but otherwise they could have been repaired. I would imagine that the Archangel crew would have insisted on keeping the Buster and Duel, since they were basically stolen property to begin with, when Yzak and Dearka went back to ZAFT. But we don't see the Duel and Buster again after that. I would hope that maybe they were still on the Archangel years later in SEED DESTINY, but we don't. And we definitely don't see Yzak and Dearka use them in DESTINY either. And we know that the Archangel never went back to the Earth Forces, so they don't have them (though they already had duplicates of all 5 prototypes that would be upgraded to Blue Duel and Verde Buster). So I'm just wondering what you think happened to them?

5. In SEED FRAME ASTRAYS you list GAT-X105E Strike E as a MS used by Serpent Tail. In STARGAZER the Strike E is abandoned in orbit of Venus. Did someone actually go all the way to Venus to recover it or is this another duplicate that someone stole from the Earth Forces?

Chris responds:
1. There's nothing in the specs that indicates that Strike Freedom has that weapon. Just because you see an open port or a certain design element on two suits, it doesn't mean they both have the same armaments.

2. I highly doubt that. The story about the Strike Freedom being stolen by Clyne supporters near the end of the first war is the second model kit retcon for the Strike Freedom's backstory. Given how many ZAFT people secretly support Lacus and probably worked on the Strike Freedom, I think it's safe to say that it's current appearance is probably very similar to what it would have looked like had ZAFT completed it themselves.

3. My answer on that is still the same - I don't really care much for what I've seen so far about FRAME ASTRAYS, so I'm not in any hurry right now to read up on what the Green Frame's gimmicks are. I've got other things to do that take priority.

4. Does it really matter what happened to the Duel and Buster? Even by the end of SEED, they were becoming obsolete when compared to newer Gundams. And in DESTINY, the Strike Gundam is clearly obsolete when compared to the ZAKU. There's really no need for them to have been kept or upgraded, and I don't see their fate as being any big deal. A lot of people mistakenly assumed when the show began that the suits were handed back to the Earth Alliance as part of the Junius Treaty, but that assumption was completely false.

5. No, the Strike E that shows up in FRAME ASTRAYS is not the Sven unit abandoned near Venus. It's certainly not that special enough of a suit to warrant sending a team out to retrieve it.


Commissar Bright Noa asks:
Is there any real reason (in universe) as to why there are so many limited production MS in the Gryps Conflict?

Chris responds:
If anything, I'd say it's because the Titans are pretty sloppy and disorganized. As the beginning of the series, they're still just getting their forces off the ground, so they have to constantly force EFF personnel to help them or promote them into the Titans. I think they probably just didn't determine what exact role they wanted their mobile suits to serve, so they had all sorts of experiments underway, be they general production units like the Barzam, or weird experimental things like the Byalant.


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