Mobile Suit Gundam AGE/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Sure, Yark Dole might have been a man who had zero regret over killing off colonies. But one can't help but feel sorry for his son Arabel as he is mourning over his father's body, especially since the previous episode showed him being a loving parent to his son.
  • Americans Hate Tingle: In a recent Fuji TV special, Asemu Asuno surpassed popular characters such as Madoka Kaname to finish fourth on a list of the Top 5 Up-and-Coming Heroes/Heroines in anime in general. Western and Filipino AGE fans, on the other hand, loathe Asemu for being unhealthily obsessed with surpassing his father and for having a personality that's not unlike Kou Uraki.
    • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Asemu avenges Woolf's death by showing no mercy to Desil and finally embracing his mentor's advice on becoming a Super Pilot instead of living up to his father. The reactions from the foreign fan base were obvious.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Minami Kuribayashi doing the ED? OK...We'll settle for that!
    • Episode 11 was the long awaited reunion between Flit and Yurin.
    • Third Generation OP. Two words: Pirate Gundam.
      • And Episode 34 reveals that its pilot is none other than Asemu! His popularity among the fans seems to have skyrocketed thanks to this.
    • Algreus reporting to Flit in Episode 33 about how the AGE-1 is being loaded into the Diva. We might be able to see Flit fight again!
  • Anticlimax Boss: For all the Defurse looked intimidatingly like a Big Zam Expy, Flit kills it rather easily. It didn't even seem to be armed any better than the standard UE Mobile Suit.
    • To be fair, the weaponry it did have did some decent damage to the Gundam AGE-1 Normal, making it at least as strong as the Baqto...and at that point in the series, the UE didn't need much else against Federation mobile suits.
  • Anvilicious: Grodek's murder at the end of Episode 24. By Arabel who had five minutes of screen time in Generation 1 where Grodek tells him that he will live for revenge, and the five minutes in 24, where he gets Grodek in the kidneys. No explanation of what else he's been doing in the intervening years or how he even met anyone in the Federation's State Sec. That's not important. What is important is that it was revenge and that is bad and destructive revenge will destroy you revenge revenge.
  • Author's Saving Throw: Romary's Go Through Me incident earned her a lot of scorn, comparing her to Nina Purpleton. In Episode 28, she admits her mistakes and naivety to Asemu and earns his forgiveness. Time will tell if she'll earn the audience's as well.
  • Awesome Ego: Woolf's, once he demonstrates that he is not the Miles Gloriosus.

"And the key feature of the G-Exes is that I, Woolf Enneacle, am its pilot!"

  • Base Breaker: Flit Asuno. To some, he is one of the biggest badasses to have ever graced the Gundam franchise and a sympathetic victim of a war that has been going on for way too long. To others, he was a sweet kid who transformed into a Jerkass Villain Protagonist who is obsessed with revenge, wants to commit genocide, and doesn't spend enough time with his family after Yurin's death.
  • Cargo Ship: Woolf is very fond of his suits. In Episode 13, he even half-jokingly refers to the G-Exes as his 'girlfriend'.
  • Complete Monster: Desil Galette is the crown prince of evil in this franchise. From killing his own soldiers just to have fun to viewing people as toys and battles as part of a game, he's an Ax Crazy Blood Knight who, at the tender age of seven, truly takes the Enfante Terrible trope to the max. Then, after he forces Yurin and Flit to fight each other, he kills Yurin and mocks Flit over it.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Yurin, Yurin, Yurin. She topped the official series character poll by a huge margin (in the Female Characters category, she got 60.5% of the votes), and at that time she only appeared in a single episode.
    • Arisa Gunhale became quite popular with fans for her fun-loving, boisterous personality and amusing way of getting Asemu out of a funk.
    • Asemu Asuno seems to have become the most popular of the three protagonists, mainly for the way he Took a Level in Badass towards the end of the Second Generation, became a Man in White to honor Woolf's legacy, and especially for taking ANOTHER level in badass and becoming the leader of the Bisidian pirates, complete with a sweet, sweet version of the AGE-2.
  • Fan Dumb: Gundam AGE seeming to be aimed for the under-13 audience pissed off the more 'serious' fanboys. It didn't take long for the barest scraps of scant information to spark rampant cries that Gundam as a whole has officially been Ruined FOREVER.
    • Check out the promo comments for more examples than you'll know what to do with.
    • Now that the series has aired, at least some of the people who were complaining seem to be rather ashamed at how childish they acted towards it at first, with a noticeably portion of the naysayers agreeing AGE has had a pretty decent start.
    • There were those who would cry out that this is an insult to Yoshiyuki Tomino. But even just by watching the preview trailer alone (yes, the exact trailer those complainers were whining about) one can find a lot of elements and style reminiscent of many of Tomino's works, both non-Gundam AND Gundam.
    • A certain block of people are now crying foul at the Gundam AGE-2 Dark Hound. Why? Because it means Crossbone X-1 and X-2 won't be the first animated pirate Gundams (assuming they actually ever animate it). However, they seem to be outnumbered by the number of people who think it's freaking sweet.
  • Fashion Victim Villain: The Vagan pilot suits would be bad enough without the massive, weirdly-shaped codpieces. With them...Dear Lord. In particular, Desil's suit in G1 has one that could plausibly function as a third leg.
  • Foe Yay <- -> Ho Yay: Zeheart and Asemu, full stop.
  • Fridge Brilliance: The Visidian Space Pirates pilot altered versions of suits such as the G-Exes, G-Bouncer, and recently the Dark Hound which is based on AGE-2 rather than develop original suits. Now think about what "piracy" means in real life...
    • Desil is one of the most improbably young villains in the series, a pilot and commander at the tender age of seven. But his brattiness hampers the Vagan cause: He calls off a sure victory just because he's bored with how easily they're beating the Feddies, and then he misuses the valuable X-Rounder that Vagan just recruited by treating her as a toy in battle, which results in her death. When Generation 2 rolls around, though, he lacks any authority at all—he's just a regular MS pilot who happens to be Zeheart's brother. Ezelcant apparently learned a lesson about that one.
  • Fridge Horror: Between the Second and Third Generations, Vagan sleeper cells were hidden on Earth, interacting among the Earth-faring populace like just any other person. The inevitable fall-out is unimaginable and unfortunate, especially if the Vagans found themselves making friends or even establishing families with those from Earth prior to the invasion.
  • Growing the Beard: While the fanbase had mixed reactions to the early episodes, almost every Gundam fan agrees that Episode 13 is a turning point when the series kicked into high gear. One could only hope the series builds up from there.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Flit, as of Episode 28, to those who don't see his coup as a crossing of the Moral Event Horizon.
  • Memetic Badass: Desperado. Who used a shovel and a Pickaxe as a weapon. It gets lots of fanart.
    • Not just any old shovel. A heat shovel.
  • Memetic Mutation: Card games in mobile suits! Yes, it's a meme already. Source. (Though admittedly, the cards are only used in the tie-in arcade game).
  • Misaimed Fandom: Flit's desire to exterminate the Vagans is meant to illustrate how terrible the cycle of hate can be. It's also garnered him a number of fans who actually cheer for him to succeed.
  • Moral Event Horizon: What Desil says after killing Yurin puts his status as a Complete Monster beyond all doubt.

Flit: Desil....Why did you.....Why did Yurin have to die?
Desil: There was no reason! It just means I've lost one of my playthings!

    • To many, Flit, of all people, crossed the line at the end of the Second Generation. When the Prime Minister was making negotiations with Vegan so they'd reach a compromise to prevent the total destruction of both sides, Flit stops them. He has the Minister arrested and executed for treason and he purges anyone with any Vegan sympathies or ties in the Federation. And then he reveals his entire goal is the complete and utter genocide of Vegan! Civilians or no civilians, that. Is. His. Goal.
      • Others would disagree with this. Considering that the Vagan were already planning on betraying the Prime Minister anyways, that there's absolutely no evidence of a moderate faction within the Vagan politically that might object to the "genocide the Earth" thing they have going on, one could argue that Flit was doing exactly what is necessary to preserve the survival of the human race on Earth.
      • Of course we have yet to see a moderate faction considering all we've seen so far are soldiers that are fighting for Earth instead of the people on Mars itself. Plus genocide no matter who is doing it is wrong.
    • Zeheart goes over the horizon in the Third Generation. In Episode 30, his squadron makes quick work of the Federal Force grunt suits. So what does he do? He orders his ship to raze the civilian sections of Kio's hometown, wiping out most of the city's population before Kio finally puts a stop to the bombardment. All of this is not just unnecessarily cruel, it also reinforces Kio's belief that all Vagans are genocidal monsters.
  • Narm: The Strider mode of the AGE-2. It's hardly the first time a Gundam has been able to transform into a fighter; that's fine. But the Gundam's head stuck on top makes it look completely absurd.
    • For worse, the infamous mobile suit that Yurin was forcibly put inside? It's bright pink. PINK.
    • And Yurin's death itself, for those who thought it was an incredibly ham-handed case of fridge stuffing rather than a Tear Jerker.
    • The reunion of Asemu, Zeheart and Romary in Episode 24. Zeheart offers to continue their friendship on the condition of Asemu abandoning the Earth Federal Forces. While looking like he's about to go Super Saiyan, Asemu rejects the proposal, saying that he has nothing else in his life. Zeheart then pulls out his gun and says "If you're in the battlefield, I can't be myself." Romary appearing out of effing nowhere to crank a Nina Purpleton only made the already narmtastic scene even more unintentionally hilarious.
    • It is very, very hard to watch any scenes involving the unfortunate Captain Einus and keep a straight face.
    • The name Wootbit. Wootbit. What in the world was Arisa thinking?
  • Narm Charm: Woolf encouraging Asemu to become a SUPER PILOT. Its simultaneously silly, endearing, and totally awesome.
  • Never Live It Down: The fandom basically found the Vagan pilot Daz Roden impossible to take seriously after his first combat outing, in which he piloted a top-of-the-line suit against three old men, a sprinkler system, and a hand-held rocket launcher...and lost.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • Desil Galette. While he was always bad news, his behavior in Episode 13 proves that he is a real horror show when left unchecked. The fact that he imprisoned Yurin in an auto piloted mobile suit to forcibly make her fight for the UE doesn't help either.
      • Imagine being chained to the cockpit of a UE mobile suit as an Ax Crazy Blood Knight controls the functions of that mobile suit. Then, when you see your loved one fighting on the opposite side, the system controlled by the Blood Knight orders the mobile suit to open fire on your loved one. And all you could do is just watch in horror. That's exactly what happens to Yurin when Desil forced her to pilot the Farsha mobile suit in episode 14.
    • You thought Desil being an Ax Crazy Blood Knight at the age of seven wasn't scary enough? Well, let's just say that in the Second Generation, HE GETS WORSE.
    • Flit's coup d'etat and consequential witch hunt in Episode 28. The faces of the officials who were rooted and presumably executed like the Prime Minister for trying to achieve a compromise with the Vagans and Flit's goal to exterminate every last Vagan are...disturbing to say the least.
    • The scenes of destruction in Episode 30 as the Vagan ruthlessly attack the city of Olivernotes. Particularly as civilians try to outrun blasts from the beam weapons and fail, demonstrating once again that the producers are uninterested in the Gory Discretion Shot.
  • Purity Sue <- -> Relationship Sue: Yurin is neither in canon, but rabid Flit/Yurin shippers seem to see her as few more than Flit's One True Love and the Incarnation Of All Purity In The World. Can become insanely creepy when you extrapolate it with the last snippet in the Memetic Mutation part, which showcases bitter Flit/Yurin shippers lashing out at Emily for being Flit's Hot Mom partner after Yurin's death; this means they're likely implying that Flit secretly hates Emily and wishes she had died instead of Yurin. Way to flatten and twist Yurin's character, people.
  • Rooting for the Empire: It's fairly easily to find yourself rooting for Veigan once you learn the UE 's true identity and realize how morally bankrupt the Earth Federation is. As you can see on the comments of this page, fans are already hailing Vagan as a true successor to the ideals of the Principality of Zeon, as well as the Jupiter Empire.
    • It's interesting to note that supporters of the martian colonists see Flit Asuno as a Feddie version of Gihren Zabi. Source.
    • Heck, some of the Federation supporters among the fans still think Flit is taking things way too far.
  • Ruined FOREVER: The reaction to the character designs was quite negative...from just the preview alone.
  • The Scrappy: Emily was rapidly heading in this direction.
    • It would help if 70% of her dialogue wasn't simply "Flit!"
      • And certainly it'd help that her "love rival" isn't...well, Yurin of all people.
    • Romary seems to have become a worse Scrappy than Emily for a number of fans, especially after Episode 24's reunion with Zeheart.
    • The inhabitants of Fardain are something of a group example, rivaling Moon-Moon for the dubious honour of 'most despised Wacky Wayside Tribe in Gundam'.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: There seems to be a bit of this developing between Flit/Emily shippers and Flit/Yurin shippers. While it's agreed that both pairings would be good and have their own high points, the fact that Asemu, Flit's son, resembles Emily in concept and promotional art has some shippers going at it.
    • Asemu x Arisa seemed to get quite the following.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Asemu and Romary. After joining the military, they very rarely interact on-screen and neither of them seem to get past the point of "I like you but what are words" for the whole series, plus Romary has feelings for both him and Zeheart. To resolve this, there is a flashback to one conversation between them in episode 28 and then the generation ends with the wedding.
    • To be fair, there is a drama CD coming out that will give some insight on how Romary got together with Asemu.
  • Tainted by the Preview: It's...staggering how many people declared AGE the worst thing to ever happen to Gundam after seeing the very first preview.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The UE capturing Yurin and forcing her to work for them was not a surprise. In fact, converting a powerful X-Rounder to their cause and training her as a pilot would be a great idea, and what a heartwrenching thing for her and Flit to--oh, they let the seven-year-old psychopath decide what to do with her? Well, I'm sure he'll make economic use of her talents...by turning her into a glorified accessory to his mobile suit...it was nice knowing you, Yurin.
    • For a lot of people the generation gimmick, while interesting in concept, has felt squandered as each generation feels rushed and characters feel rather shallow thus pushing the show into So Okay It's Average territory.
  • Too Cool to Live: Woolf.
  • Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: After his debut episode, Gundam AGE-1 Titus was placed in one against Gundam Maxter.
  • What an Idiot!: When Dique finds Asemu about to steal the Vagan X-Rounder helmet, he tells him off and then...leaves him in the room with it without even extracting a verbal agreement to not steal it. A more sensible person would have made sure Asemu left first and then locked the door behind him, not just locked the easily-breakable glass case.
    • Arabel. Okay, he was a highly traumatized kid, but when the man who you have just seen kill your father says "now you are going to ruin your whole life trying to avenge this, sorry," maybe you should not be operating by this stellar life advice in your twenties.
  • What the Hell, Hairdressing Department?: Froi Olfenoa's hair antennae don't exactly convey the gravitas one would expect from the leader of a nation. Neither does Lord Ezelcant's hair...corkscrewy thing. Asemu's hair looks like a hedgehog combined with a mullet, one of the Magicians Eight has his bangs combed over both eyes...the list goes on.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Natora Einus, all the way: Someone like her could fit better in a goofy Mecha parody like, per example, Martian Successor Nadesico, but when you're in a much serious setting like Gundam, you know you will be treated like dirt, and she seems to be aware of that.
  • Win the Crowd: Between criticisms of character designs, starting premise, and head writer, it was a challenge AGE had to worry about from the beginning.
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