60%

Despite its innovative continuity, Gundam AGE lacks the polish and quality that made its predecessors great. G-AGE is transgenerational, and we see the evolutions of not only the Gundam but the whole Hundred Year War and some key families in it as they take their part in the war and then pass the torch on to the next generation.

I had high expectations after the likes of Gundam SEED and 00, and certainly I enjoyed following the story from generation to generation, but as of episode 20 (which is as far as I got before throwing up my hands in disgust), the whole thing feels like a clumsy swing; tried too hard, missed, and landed off-balance.

For instance, there’s only so much logical faults a thoughtful viewer can tolerate. I understand right away that the first arc at least was geared towards a very young audience; the characters are immature, the results of one’s efforts are beyond credible, and there’s an abundance of stupidity on all sides. It’s like the events and conclusions were just thrown together without much thought put into anything other than continuing it all in the second generation.

The second generation is a bit better. The characters are older, 17+ rather than 14-15, but they still don’t make much more sense. It reminds me of Gundam SEED but without the poetic beauty and intellect. At least Kira and Asrun made sense in their decisions and battles. Zeheart and Asemu are just plain dumb.

I also agree with my fellow reviewer that all their stories seem too short and shallow. I get that there’s a lot of story to go around and lots of characters over the generations, but really, there’s so little depth here, it’s very difficult to feel for any of the characters. At all.

Still, the robots and animation are what you’d expect from a Gundam series. I’m not sure it’s the best I’ve ever seen, but it’s good enough to save face. The music is a deadfall letdown though. Especially after the likes of G-SEED.

I watched it because it’s a Gundam series, but I’ve had about all I can take. I can’t watch any more of this. At least not for a long while yet.

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