While a part of me admires the craft behind it, I can\u2019t deny that I kind of hate this show. The sheer crassness of it stacks up with the most cynical anime productions of all-time. That would be bad enough if the talent behind it weren\u2019t as legendary as they are. There isn\u2019t a moment so far that isn\u2019t expertly calculated with the bottom line in mind. I hate that it\u2019s going to work, too, though the people involved are too smart to go to the trouble if they weren\u2019t pretty sure it was.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s happened here, as far as I can tell, is that Anno, Tsurumaki and co. did a shot for shot remake of the 1979 premiere of Kidou Senshi Gundam<\/em>. Same sound effects, BGM, everything. With some tweaks to sell the current mecha designs, of course, and to set up a new timeline. And a new seiyuu for Char<\/a>, which is interesting. Clearly this is an overture to win over the hardcore Gundam<\/em> fans who might not be that thrilled to see their franchise being used as a straight-up pretext to peddle yuri bait (again).<\/p>\n What\u2019s really ballsy, though, is that they flipped the order from the theatrical release \u2013 in which the events of this episode came before<\/em> the events of the TV premiere. That\u2019s the level of calculation going on here \u2013 in the theatre version, we need to hook in the Gundam<\/em> fans before we flip the yuri switch. In the TV version, we need to capture the yuri fans before we make the unavoidable overtures to the actual franchise. As I said, part of me admires it for its sheer audaciousness \u2013 and shamelessness \u2013 and the skill with which it\u2019s being brought off.<\/p>\n What a thing, seriously. When I think of where we are with the likes of Anno, Tsurumaki, and Watanabe Shinichirou it makes me glad that anime\u2019s past is the past. I\u2019m glad it exists \u2013 no one loves FLCL<\/em> and Eva<\/em> more than I do \u2013 but I\u2019m also glad these aren\u2019t the people setting the agenda for anime now (just exploiting it). Either way \u2013 they\u2019re disinterested in being more than self-plagiarists or fashion chasers or unable to break out of their own gravitational field \u2013 they\u2019re creatively irrelevant. It just makes Miyazaki Hayao that much more admirable for being a stubborn old fuck who pursues what he wants to, irrespective of what\u2019s expected of him or the impact on the bottom line.<\/p>\n
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