Mobile Suit: Gundam AGE has been unpopular with Gundam franchise fan ever since its annoucement. Now that it has been aired for 5 episodes, it appears that that its unpopularity is proving itself with Gunplas not selling out well.
どーすんのよこれ！？日野さん！
(What to do with this?! Hino-san (director of Gundam AGE)!)
ガンダムAGEプラモ見切り処分
Gundam Age [plastic models] throwaway sale
HG Gafran is going for 777 Yen (retail price is 1200 Yen exlcuding tax)
Both pictures appears to be taken from the same hobby shop.
299 Yen for a model kit is quite something, though it does not imply which ones are getting such "discounts" ^^; For a Gundam TV series that is now airing and its merchandise to fall in prices drastically like so, this is pretty shocking even for a series that is unpopular. I remember Gundam SEED Frame Astray was doing pretty bad too as I have managed to buy HG 1/144 Leon's Arms Astray PMC Custom for 500 Yen only in Akihabara (HG 1/144 Alec's Kerberos BuCUE Hound was selling for the same price too), but that was for a manga side story. Later that summer Ngee Khiong also blogged about other SEED Destiny Gunpla in some shops were going from 500 Yen upwards too.
On the other hand, the view rate in Japan is not doing spectacular either, with an overall rate hitting 2.5% for all ages by episode 3. Ironically despite the series' main audience is targeted to be children, there are very few children who are actually watching it, in fact even fewer than adults. Apart from Gundam SEED, SEED Destiny, and 00 statistics available for comparison above AGE, the other two series being compared at the bottom are Kamen Rider Fourze and Danbouru Senki, of which both are airing at the moment and have children view rate in two-digit percentage.
Most people I know who are watching Gundam AGE are just watching it to see how bad it can really get. I am watching it because it's a Gundam series. While initial observations show that overall reception is leaning on the negative, it's perhaps still a bit too early to start judging it (which is a tempting thing to do). I originally put some thoughts in this post, but after a bit of retrospective look I decided to take them back. Who knows, this series might get epic later on? Well I will leave them as it is here.
Well, at least Yurin is a character many viewers have taking a liking of, and some even calling her Yamada due to her similar appearance to the said character in Working!!. At least there are some gems that makes people to look forward to the future episodes ^^
Sources:
2channel
via オタク.com & 大斗ポスト
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Wow, this is interesting.
ReplyDeleteI know that I myself is not interested with Gundam AGE itself to the point of actually not watching it beyond the first episode. But to think things were actually this bad.
Hopefully this can actually make Bandai and Level-5 to make some changes (though probably only starting on the AGE-2 stories thereon, since it seems that they've already went pretty far with the promotional picture on magazines).
Age's rating went back up to the 4s for episodes four and five.
ReplyDeleteFor me, currently I'm aiming for the Gafran kit =D
ReplyDeleteThen again, judging a series just from, what three or four episodes is kind of... premature... I'd say judge it after ten or so episodes for a more conclusive data. Then again, it might of the news of Gundam The Origin that is going to be out...
The show seems interesting to me. I'll continue to watch it, but I think that it is too early to judge a series base on five episode.
ReplyDeleteHater gonna hate I guess.
I'm watching gundam AGE purely because it's a mecha show. I have sat through far worse (so far) simply for that reason so Gundam AGE is far from a wreck.
ReplyDeleteBut on the "strength" of the first few episodes (i'm a little behind), I'd say that Gundam AGE is having a hard time stamping an identity for itself and also deciding who its target audience is. The pace of the overall plot is very slow, with large amounts of time where nothing really happens. That's fine if they're trying to go for the more adult viewers (teens and above) as they have the patience to see if there's a reward at the end of the waiting but for younger viewers, they don't have the attention span for something like that. That's why many shows aimed for children usually have a 1 episode arc where everything happens in 25 minutes. There may be links to later or earlier episodes but most things are wrapped up in 1 episode to keep the kids attention!
On the other side of the fence, the series is lacking the depth to keep older viewers engaged. Lots of questions to be asked but no real attempt from the show to explain any of it.
One real bugbear for me was how the gundam in ep1 was able to survive an attack from the UE while other MS were blown away with a single blast. In previous shows, some throwaway technology was used to explain why the gundam, as a unit, is superior to all others. 0079 had beam weapons and the learning computer, SEED had phase shift armour and 00 had GN particles. In AGE, we're just told to accept it. All the stuff so far has been on the AGE system which allows the unit to adapt to changing situations but that doesn't explain the baseline superiority or why the gundam can take a few shots while other MS can't even take 1!
They need to decide on a direction for the show and the audience. Then they can start working out the kinks. At the moment, the show feels a little over the place.
@ hiroy_raind:
ReplyDeleteMaybe this series will get better later on?
I think it's mainly with the sales of merchandise that are not doing so fab right now. I'm still not sure how long this series will air for, but given that this series will cover 3 generations of protagonists and Gundams I'd think this is going to be a long one. Maybe there will be a lot of potential to expand, but we'll have to see how it goes as the story unfolds.
@ Anonymous:
I've just checked and you're indeed right about it; view rates have increased to 4.1% & 4.8% for episode 4 and 5 respectively. Thanks for the heads up!
@ bd77:
The Gafran kit seems to have some original elements in its design. Looking forward to see your post on it!
Are you following the series? I agree that it is still a bit too early to judge things downright; after some thoughts I have decided to take back some of what I've said in the post, but I will remain optimisitically cautious on this series.
From mere observation it's a bit shocking to see how shops are doing throwaway sales with the Gunpla though. Just saw another photo seeing HG Gundam AGE-1 Normal is going for 500 Yen only. While this may be temporary only, it does not leave a good initial impression of this series :\ We shall see whether AGE will get better along the way. I will continue watching this nonetheless. Haven't seen a particular Gunpla kit that I really want at the moment, but this may also change once more are announced in the future :o
@ Tom:
Gundam AGE is not so bad to watch with an open mind. It's indeed a bit too early to judge the series with it having just started, but it also irks me how many bad points people are trying to find in places I dwell these days... :\
@ gundamjehutykai:
What you have said about AGE struggling to identify its target audience seems to coincide with a statement on the director Hino Akihiro not admitting that this series is for children (despite the character designs). This reminds me of Victory Gundam, which was originally intended for children but became complex and also had one of the highest death tolls for named characters in the Gundam franchise.
The slow start reminds me a bit of Gundam SEED and first season of Gundam 00; both were not very driving much in the beginning. It looks like that AGE may be trying to appeal to both children and older audience in different aspects, with some topics that children may not fully understand being mentioned but some other aspects not being fully addressed at the same time. Despite that Gundams are usually regarded to belong to "real robot" genre, there are times I feel that it is a fancy illusion of the "super robot" genre, of which this is how Gundam came about in the first place, with more info to fill back the holes afterwards.
I've caught up to all the latest one I think. It's somewhat interesting, but it's similar to everything like it before with too much fantastical element in it. Something unrealistic. Especially that AGE system where it makes weapons on the fly. WTF!? Mere seconds to make something so high tech?? Even if it is high end tech, it's hard to believe that's possible. There are other things that I just can't pass as believable that I don't remember right now. Maybe I just have a low expectation out of it that I can't make anything believable. Yet, I'm still watching >.>
ReplyDeleteI think this was the first Gundam series where I don't like the main Gundam, but like the grunt unit, Genoace. I think I'm just waiting to see more of Genoace in action ^^;
I can see why it's not doing so well. Considering Gundam is usually marketed to an audience consisting of males in their teens and older, it's hard to expect younger generations to appreciate it. On the flip side, altering it to appeal to a younger generation has alienated the traditional audience.
ReplyDelete@ Lightning Sabre:
ReplyDeleteGundam AGE does seem to go back to something more of a super robot settings compared to most other Gundam series. The AGE system does seem hard to believe without much explanations behind them along with some of the technological aspects, and at some other places they seem to want viewers to just accept things as they are without having to explain.
As a fan of grunt units in general, I too have more interest towards them over the Gundam presented in this series so far ^^; I have my eyes on the Shaldoll and the G-Exes, even though they look like something more from Full Metal Panic than something from Gundam (well, both are from the same mecha designer in this case so I'm not surprised). The second generation of grunt units after Genoace look not bad though (I think it's called Adel). :o
@ Nopy:
It was ironic that while this new series seems to target younger viewers rather than the long-time fans, the intended audience make up very little of the statistics for the first few episodes so far, but I am not sure the statistics as for now.
Maybe what's happening now will change later. Though right now this is the Gundam series with the most polar views I have observed from viewers as for now.
Actually, I kinda like this series even though it looks like it is targeted for kids. Was thinking of getting all the released HG plastic kits in one go.
ReplyDelete@ samejima:
ReplyDeleteI think this series is ok if one watches with an open mind and is not picky or critical on the details. I haven't found a particular kit that I really want yet, but I continue to keep an eye on it; maybe I'll have something I really do like later on.
Just finished episode 28, Still bored out of my mind. I'm just watching it until it ends. So a New Gundam series can start, hopefully. I have never watched a Gundam series that I had no interest at all in any or the mobile suits. I can enjoy almost anything, but I find Gundam Age, just plain boring.
ReplyDeleteSo far, the first part is ugly, and the 2nd part is, um... 50-50, if I say so myself. So we long time Gundam fans from Indonesia has high hopes for the third part. If Level 5 and Sunrise couldn't create some sort of twist or a surprise, just never make an installment from the alternate universe. Back to the UC. The only thing's good from AGE are the mecha designs. It's kinda realistic for the G-Exes and the other mass produced Federation suits. As for the others, it's kinda weird, especially the grunts. Although Zeydra aren't so bad... So, that's it. AGE is rather boring and they should make a twist or, they should stop making an alternate universe story.
ReplyDelete