The Weekly Stuff #386 – Mobile Suit Gundam AGE Arcs 1 and 2 Review & Discussion

<p>Today’s main topic is another <i>Weekly Suit Gundam </i>extravaganza, but before that, we also give first impressions on <i>The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD </i>for Nintendo Switch, react to Valve’s announcement of the Steam Deck portable PC gaming console, and talk about Jonathan’s nostalgic binge of American TV classic <i>ER, </i>and the wonderful, helicopter-related absurdities of the network TV dramas of yore. But then it’s time for <i>Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, </i>Sunrise’s 2011 collaboration with video game giant Level-5, whose lead creative Akihiro Hino conceived of and wrote this child-friendly Gundam series that spans 3 protagonists over 3 successive generations in a century-long space conflict. <i>AGE </i>did poorly upon its initial airing in Japan, and has suffered a quiet and often negative reputation in years since. But we don’t think that reputation is deserved – through its first two arcs, at least, <i>AGE </i>is an imperfect but extremely compelling show, with a really cool central narrative conceit, great characters, and some really interesting ideas that take Gundam to places it had never been before. At the very least, it’s a show worth giving a serious shot, and in this first part, covering Arcs 1 & 2 and episodes 1 through 28, we aim to do just that. </p><p><strong>Time Chart:</strong></p><p>Intro & Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:37:40</p><p>News: 0:37:40 – 1:01:09</p><p><i>Gundam AGE: </i>1:01:09 – 4:00:12</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQBqje0qmCVn0WkCXJzckaA"><strong>Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://anchor.fm/weeklysuitgundam"><strong>Subscribe to the WEEKLY SUIT GUNDAM Podcast!</strong></a></p><p><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wgtc-radio-we-got-this-covered/id535584943"><strong>Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in Apple Podcasts!</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/JonathanLack"><strong>Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!</strong></a></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/SeanTheChapman"><strong>Follow Sean Chapman