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「立ちはだかる幻影」 (Tachihadakaru Gen’ei)
“Haunted by Phantoms”
There’s a Hyperbolic Time Chamber in my Gundam? And it’s made by Bleach’s Kurosaki Ichigo? I hope the universe doesn’t implode on itself from shounen and shounen colliding with mecha shounen.
I can’t imagine that I’m the only one who was reminded of Dragon Ball Z’s “Room of Spirit and Time” when the newly introduced 24-year-old Rody Madorna (Morita Masakazu, most well-known for his role as Ichigo but also played Auel Neider in Gundam SEED Destiny) flexed his engineering fingers and revealed his super simulator — especially when Asem was down and out from his dismal X-Rounder aptitude test results and ready for some serious overnight “leveling up”. Flit’s words of encouragement were understandably of little consolation, seeing as he was a childhood genius turned childhood hero and now the big shot of the Big Ring, but I actually like how Asem hasn’t been made out to be a prodigy like his father and will have to find his own thing to excel in. The writers went to great lengths to get that point across with both Woolf and Rody advocating how Asem isn’t his father, and actually did a pretty good job of it too. Sure it was a bit of a cliché, but I found it worked really well in conjunction with the portrayal of Asem’s anxiousness and impatience. I could really get a good sense of what Asem was going through, since the need to prove oneself after a blunder is something that just about everyone feels at some point.
The highlight of the week — at least for me since I poked fun at it in episode 17 — was Asem’s reaction to Romary gazing out in space and dreaming of meeting Zeheart again. I found myself torn between laughing at how Romary is definitely no Yurin and facepalming over how she evidently enrolled in the military in hopes of meeting Zeheart again — not to be with Asem and support him like Emily did with Flit. Neither outlook was particularly good, as my image of Romary as the supportive heroine pretty much went down the drain. She’s not doing anything to help Asem, who’s already way in over his head battling with his inner Zeheart demons. I dare say that I actually don’t want to see Asem to end up with Romary now, unless he’s forced to take her as his second choice. If he’s quick about it, he may be able to snag Remy Ruth (Sakura Ayane) before Obright gets his hands on her. I’m only saying that half-jokingly too, as Remy’s a brunette who doesn’t look like she’d just go off on cloud 9 and inconsiderately trample on other people’s feelings. If not Remy, then Arisa would easily be my No. 1 pick for Asem’s future wife. I’m sure both Flit and Dique would approve of their kids hooking up. (Quick, someone change Kio’s hair color to teal!)
Anyway, I have to hand it to the producers for using the preview last time as a red herring, but I don’t feel cheated whatsoever since they’re going to give us the real deal next time. It’s kind of interesting how the tables have turned with the Vagans launching a full-out attack on the Big Ring — a complete opposite of Operation Ambat in Flit’s arc — so that should prove to be quite exciting next time. I’m also looking forward to seeing the fruits of labor from Asem’s training. I wish I could tell him that not every Gundam pilot has to be an Amuro Ray. We could use more Kou Uraki’s and Shiro Amado’s. Newtypes, Coordinators, Innovators, X-Rounders… “Real” men don’t need to rely on telepathic handicaps!
* Gundam AGE gets a nod from me for featuring Minovsky particle dummies from the Universal Century timeline. I haven’t see these bad boys in ages.
* I was really hoping the official spelling was going to be “Asem” and not “Asemu” since they were pretty good about not making “Flit” “Frito”, but when most of the other English on the screen is spelled properly, it doesn’t seem like “Asemu” was left up to the animators. Out of spite, I’m still going by “Asem” for this post.
* Full-length images: 06, 09, 18, 21.
Preview
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Omake
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Official materials and the official English subs for the series available on YouTube via GundamInfo (only available for those living in South Asia and Oceania) uses Asemu since he first made an appearance. No big deal about it.
About Flit, this episode shows how cold he is. Also, the GundamInfo stream had a different preview for next week’s episode that features Show Spoiler ▼
I’m really enjoying the second generation.
Goooo asemu~
And we’re not even halfway done. This has certainly become an excellent Gundam series in its own rite.
I kind of hope Flit will die in a blaze of glory fighting Desil in the AGE-1…but maybe that’s too much to ask for.
Also, “Lactate Threshold Test”? WHAT DID HE DO TO PASS?!
lactate acid
it builds up on your muscle while doing heavy training
Wow, I need to read a friggin biology book.
LOL Romary went from being distraught after finding Zeheart was a Vagan to enlisting in the Army just to see him…wtf kind of reasoning is that? How’d she even know he’d be around? How’s she even gonna see him if he’s piloting a mobile suit? At least it looks like they’re throwing in that hologram of Zeheart so Romary can angst over it and call it “character development…
i may be bordering on sacrilege but kanahana can’t be the fan favorite in all her shows. i definitely agree romary is lame =/
well unless waiting for ai kayano to be in it to salvage what series got left give still not hmm about it & still waiting for GS movie or 3rd GS or gundam answer to DECADE & gokaiger or female lead gundam pilot.
till now PG gundam so age-yawn.
It´s still way too early to judge Romary´s character, for all we know she could´ve joined the army for an entirely different reason. But, I have to agree is heart breaking seing Asemu get so depressed over a girl he is obviously in love with; the poor bastard has to fight against his father´s shadow, his own issues with his best friend betraying him and being more talented that he ever be, but just to throw some little more turmoil add conflicting feelings wiyh a beautiful girl. I think Flit got easy in his arc.
I think Asemu just got slapped in the face.
“Oh, I didn’t think you’d join the military ‘for me’ (didn’t say that part)” -Asemu
“NOPE only to see your best friend turned Char Aznable.” -Romary
“https://randomc.net/image/Gundam%20AGE/Gundam%20AGE%20-%2021%20-%20Large%2014.jpg” QAQ -Asemu
did we already know what Arisa mom hair colour is? maybe we get unexpected from unexpected that we expected would happen.. < i don't even what i'm saying.
Red hair guy and mecanic girl! … Put two characters no one remember their names for potential pairing… Are the writers trying to put some romance into AGE just for the sake of it? There’s no need for this time consuming crap (the whole Woolf-Millais-Guy trianglenothing, Emilywhatever, YurindesigntoblowassoonasAsemuwasrevealed from the Flit Arc) when they have huge timeskip between each episode. Now here’s Romary who try to force her way into the Asemu-Zeheart doomed romance. Fail put aside, the writers are making a fine job so far into making Asemu the noX-Rounder who try to stay in the competition through his own merits (until he is revealed to be a X-Rounder anyway?).
What if they put romance so that it would be more tragic when one of them dies?
After I had seen Romary’s attitude in this ep,I began to think seriously that This arc will be mainly at Zeheart-Asemu bromance.At last Zeheart will be died by whatever reason,Then Romary will go to Asemu to reduce her sadness.
Look at OP..See Asemu and Zeheart meet their eyes with each other many times while Romary rarely appeared.It’s really obvious.XD
Put that topic aside,I really loved this ep.It definitely prove that 2nd generation is better than the first.Because at least we got lovable and interesting main lead.(The people who surround him have more personality than the flit’s one too.)I like the way that the staff develop Asemu so far.Not the genius,emo-kids or newtype.But was The normal boy who want to level-up because of his ex-friend,Father but he thought he could’t because he isn’t the specialist like them.I like the way that this problem end.Find your own style huh? Sound really cool here.
Asemu Fight!!! Hope next ep will not disappointed!
I, for one, hope we do not get a repeat of flit’s relatively loveless (as far as we’ve been shown) marriage, so I hope they have romary come around. Also, I thought having her basically ignore Asem for Zeheart comes a little out of left field. Yes they made clear that she was attracted to Zeheart during the school arc, but they also had A LOT of moments with Asem, having her just ignore him now does not reflect well on her character.
Especially since if she were a good friend she would understand that Asem is just as devastated by the loss of Zeheart as she is. Doing this makes her look selfish, thoughtless, and slightly crazy for pining after a guy who has made very clear that he’s more than willing to fight on several occasions.
That said, I agree about Asem. I’m a little worried that his fight scenes will not be as good as his dad the x-rounder and his potential x-rounder son (somehow I doubt they’ll have two normal protagonists) but that aside I like the idea of a normal hero showing that practice can make up for special genes.
I get the feeling that Romary is kind of put aside once in the military.
She can’t suddenly pop out between a Zeheart-Asem fight in outer space.
Unless she becomes a pilot?
About X-Rounders…
Could the X-Rounder powers come more easily to young children who fight to survive?
Like manifest faster if trained at a young age.
I thought this was going to be dropped since you are taking a leave of absence Divine. So what now are you going to find someone to blog gundam age for you or are you still going to continue until spring starts?
Asem as himself.
So he won’t be someone big in the Fed in the future?
Unless someone close to him dies to ‘encourage’ him?
So far he is doing what his father wants him to do, what will he do after he defeats Zeheart?
Asem will have to be a Graham Aker and not Kou Uraki to go against Zeheart 😛
Romary.
Could she just be envious that only Asem gets to meet their best friend Zeheart?
Both guys saved Romary before, perhaps Zeheart left a better impression.
Could Zeheart do something cruel(killing someone?) later on and make Romary turn to Asem?
So Rody should be the old Maddona guy at Kio’s time then.
Wonder will his simulation machine be mass-produced and used in the Fed’s special program?
Could this budding relationship between the 2nd gen Asuno and Maddona bring about anything later on?
This is something that I love about the Gundam franchise, its uniqueness anout their story and development, every series is different and have their own weakness and advantages and you made very clear with your post, nobody can predict where story will take you; everything you said cuold be true or none of it, you just have to sit, watch and enjoy the ride. The ecxeption is the Gundam Suicide Squad, you always know there is a poor newtype girl out therewith her days numbered. Oh! Yurin how I missed you, I hope Desil gets what he deserves in this generation, preferibly at the hands of Flit.
We definately need more Shiro Amada. Real men fight with guts and BALLs.
“We could use more Kou Uraki’s and Shiro Amada’s. Newtypes, Coordinators, Innovators, X-Rounders… “Real” men don’t need to rely on telepathic handicaps!”
I know he ain’t from the UC-verse, but we can’t forget Garrod Ran! XD
Nice to see adults acting like adults. Woolf is very mature, always helping Asemu and Flit acting like a dad istead of just doing the cliche: “Here I’m the commander and you’re just a soldier, so don’t call me dad!”
I actually have to disagree with you, Divine.
I don’t think that Romary is really crushing on Zeheart, at least not in the sense of love. She probably does not feel that way about either Asem or Zeheart. Instead, she is viewing both of them as precious friends, and she is expressing a bit of jealousy that the two are able to connect and converse in a way that she could not, through exchange of blows. The reason she joined the military is in hope of bringing the three of them back together, back to the way things were during the academy.
I am of the same opinnion, I think Romary sees some irreplaceble in the friendship the three of them share. Her rwason for joining the military might be to stop Asemu and Zeheart from killing each other, but is a given she is going to choose Asemu as her romantic patner.
Hey I haven’t really had the time to watch this series but I’m a huge Gundam fan. Is this AU series any good?
I’ve just read through the entire Age verse from beginning to end on this site and while i will allow myself to admit that AGE is not the total train reck i predicted. It does seem to leave me wanting in several various ways. Gundam Wing SEED and 00 are all very good and very popular franchises. In my mind AGE fall someware into the area of G Gundam and the like.
Now any fan of Gundam or more particularly a fan of the SEED verse but is not totally hooked on the Destiny sequel season need to check this out. On the website fanfiction there is a author named Maderfole who has potentionally rewritten and revamped the SEED verse.
For those who have no idea what fanfiction is. It is simply Authors takeing anime manga tv shows movies and books and writing their own stories about them. Now Maderfole has done this for the SEED verse. But he has taken his story up to a level beyond any other author on the site has ever done. He has written three stories so far based in the SEED verse. The first The Golden Age: Chaotic Cosmos which starts off right after kira wakes up form his fight with Rau at the end of SEEd season one. Just to tell you right now the SEED DEstiny season gets compleatly written off at this point. Not that Durandel the Destiny plan and all the other noteworthy characters from Destiny dont show up. Its just that entire useless season gets destroyed as it is.
Not the first of Maderfole’s three stories starts off a tad slow but cut him some slack. It was his first story ever and it was years ago. Not to say that it was not good at the start just that some less patient people might get bored. Maderfole really likes character development. But the main thig you should know about this first story is that it is over a MILLION words long. Paperback that is about 1900 pages worth of everything you love about Gundam. The sequel novel The Eden Disaster is slightly longer and the final in the triology The Reclamation War is only slightly over half done at this time and it longer than either of its prequels. These stories are indepth have many well thought out OC’s both good and evil all your favorite SEED cannon characters in roles you can’t even imagin. And im serious when i say that we Maderfole’s readers truely beelieve that Maderfole can get his fic turned into a real anime. And i believe that these fics are worth the time of ANY Gundam lover.
Did i forget to mention that Maderfole has a whold line of Custome designed Gundams and massed produced MS that the model designers back in japan would be drooling over if they knew of their existance. Don’t believe me. Then here is a taste of what Maderfole has to offer.
Designation: Lucifer
Pilot: Executor Kira Yamato
Height: 20 meters
Weight: 120 tons
Power Plant: FPR
Armor Type: LCR
Flight Speed: 7000 mph (atmosphere), up to 20000 mph in space
Ground Speed: 250 mph
Maneuverability: 21
Weapons (Location):
15mm Beam CIWS x2 (head)
50mm Ion Disintegrator “Holy Wrath” x2 (R/L hand)
“Lucifer’s Grasp” GMFG (Hands, Gravitic Manipulation Field Generators)
Quantum Crystal longsword x2 (R/L hand)
“Fractal Wings” MDDS (Multiple Detached Defensive System) (36 feather pods. Can project either Citadel Lightwave Barriers, Positron Reflector Shields or Geischmedig Panzer Shields around themselves. Can operate for up to five minutes at a time without recharging, at distances of up to 200 meters from the Lucifer. Individual barriers and shields are linkable into larger, more complex and stronger shields or barriers.)
100mm “Hellfury” FRALA x4 (two per side of torso, very long range, unlimited use, use ultraviolet light (easier to split) so the beams are purplish in color)
“Wings of Light” Beam Redirection and Multiple Target Engagment Program (uses the Fractal Wings to bounce, redirect the blasts of enemy beam weapons, allowing Kira to shoot in any direction no matter which way he is facing. By precision maneuvering of the Fractal Wings, the pods can also be used to create “prisms” that refract the FRALA beams into multiple smaller beams in a wide spread of angles. A single FRALA beam can be split into up to twenty smaller beams. The pods are rated to handle energy discharge of up to Lohengrin class weaponry.)
Salvation System (adds up to 108 extra Fractal Feathers, including specialty Refractor Pods, can only be used in Seed Mode, can further access 108 more feathers from Shark Party upgrades in Ascended Seed)
Equipment (Location):
Citadel Shield Projector x2 (R/L Forearm)
Positron Reflector Shield x2 (R/L Palm)
Vari-Camera (head)
NIC IV Control System
GRS 3
Holoshroud
Mirage Colloid
Ultra Fast Nanological reconstruction system
Heres the link if any of you are interested.
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/919751/Maderfole
Give it a shot. I don’t think that you will be disapointed if you try.
One more thing Madefole has in the works right now a sequel triology to his Golden Age. At its base it similar to the 00Movie if the 00 Movie was split into three long seasons and has many new Gundams. Now these three new stories are set to be told for the children of your favorit characters point of view. And whild Maderfole has taken lisence with anything after the end of SEED season one anything before that is strictly cannon. Everybody who died then is dead flay tole nichol rau all gone. But at this point in time i dont even see the characters as the same people from SEED. Kira Athrun Yzak Dearka Lacus and Cagalli have all been developed so much that i see them as Maderfoles characters now.
As for the Lucifer i realised that some of the things in Executor Kira’s gundam might be hard for you to understand so i’ll give you a little help.
FPR stands for Fusion Pulse Reactor
LCR stands for Liquid Crystal Regenative Armor
FRALA stands for Focused Repetedly Ampilifed Light Array
NIC stands for Nural Interface Control System
GRS stands for Gravity Reduction System
Was this whole post just a plug for a fanfiction?
Yes basically. I was just hopeing to get this fic out to more gundam fans. Have you taken a look at it. If my post offends you im sorry its just this stoy dosn’t get the following it deserves because by the time Maderfole began to write it SEEd fics were on the low so there were less readers.
Don’t you think a better place to post this sort of thing would be a forum or something like that? There you could get a thread to specifically talk about the fanfiction instead of where people are discussing the show itself.
like rika shiguma, won’t read unless it’s mecha pr0n!
Finally AGE does something I really can get behind on. Making Asemu have no aptitude as an X-rounder is a great way to make emphasis on skill and wits. One huge problem I’ve always had with UC series is its overall reliance on Newtype Magic powers as plot devices. Even Unicorn has resorted to it. I really hope they don’t pull some BS that Asemu did have latent powers but has to survive with just skill. Gundam needs more Garrod’s and less Camille’s I’m just saying.
Not really too surprising in terms of UC and Newtypes. After all, the concept was around even before the time of Mobile Suit Gundam and the Principality of Zeon, the most well-known UC antagonists, have their entire power base built on using those ideals of Zeon Zum Deikun to rally support, despite not actually believing in them. (The abilities, yes, but actually caring about moving mankind forward? Not one bit, lol.)
So it’s not surprising that it’s a thing that is constantly revisited with almost every series after (though, thankfully, the main characters don’t ALWAYS resort to piloting Newtype-based MS either). I’m sure if SEED were to continue, we’d keep getting SEED Mode hijinks, “Ultimate Coordinator” stuff, and whatnot repeated in each one.
test
I am quite sure its going to be another classic gundam story… where Flit will sacrifice himself and blow up the Big Ring and Asem getting all piped up with revenge.
Although I appreciate the direction we’re taking where Asem isn’t going to be an X-Rounder (It’s about time a Gundam protagonist didn’t win the sci-fi mumbo jumbo lottery), the whole “elite pilot assessment” concept was rather laughable, all things considered. If there was a chance just about any one could manifest X-Rounder abilities, it seems to me that the Federation would make this a mandatory screening for all of their pilots as soon as possible. Usually I let the fallacies Gundam series make in their portrayals of future militaries, but the way they delivered the (albeit welcome) development was just silly, even with its simpler outlook.
-Joke-
Remember Kids, Drugs are bad for you.
That being said, THIS is a controlled substance, aka. a type of drug. So don’t do it Kids, it can ruin your life.
-/joke-
that being said, this is one of the nicer exposition into Asemu’s mind and seeing how it ticks…I too would want to vent my frustration on something.
Is Gundam age dropped?
I suppose so.
Its removed from the ‘Current Series’ list at the sidebar.
But…Grodek just came back!
Would have been nice if they announced it or something, instead of leaving us to wonder why no new post is made.
Apologies. The current series on the sidebar only keeps track of series that have had a post in the last 45 posts or so. Gundam AGE hasn’t been dropped. It’s just backlogged heavily because it took a while for another writer to catch up on the episodes and write about it in addition to the Season Preview. There is a mega post coming out within the next few days to a week covering 22-24, from unlisted.