Discussion Post: Side-Stories and Other Non-Animated Gundam

[taichara]

From manga to gunpla variations to light novels and everything in between, there is a lot of Gundam material that isn't found in any given main anime series in the franchise.


Which brings us to our new discussion topic:

What do you think of the Gundam 'side' materials?


Do you have a favorite, or least favorite? Do you consider it all canon, or only certain parts -- or maybe only for some Gundam universes and not others -- or does it even matter? Are there side-stories you're interested in but haven't read/seen/watched yet?

Lay it all out here!

Comments

[taichara]

(I am so slow)

I've picked up a fair few manga and other suchsorts in the Gundam multiverse, many of which I find myself being attached to probably as much, sometimes more, than the original source material in many ways, oops --? (Frozen Teardrop yaaaaaaay ~~~)

Major examples, hmm ...

G00F and G00P I'm really fond of, G00P probably more than the actual G00 anime despite having pieced together the contents from summaries and brute force (damnit Bandai you should have translated that one and not 00F even if I do love Fon) and despite G00-proper having Lockon in it ... but G00I is just ... it's from a stupid part of AD's timeline and written after Chiba fell into the crazy zone is all I can say about it >.>;;

I faaaaar prefer the various Astray series to actual SEED/SEED Destiny, oops. Except for VS Astray because what even the merciful godfuck was that o_x

And of course Gundam Wing Frozen Teardrop is absolutely amazeballs and if they ever ever actually do use it as a launchpad for something animated I will die of joy :D


On canonicity, that one gets weird, lol. Sunrise-Bandai likes to claim sometimes that absolutely nothing but what is animated is canon, but then you get things like Red Frame in SEED's OP ~~ And that pretty much the entirely of G00's background hinges on 00P. Things like that. (but especially Red Frame because that shit's hilarious and I sometimes sweat bullets overwonder what might have been if Astray stuff had actually been in the anime ...)

[redsixwing]

AUGH how could I forget Frozen Teardrop.

And Endless Waltz for that matter, sure it's animated and therefore canon but I guess I've never really elevated it out of side-story status mentally. *s*

Ask half a dozen fans what's canon and you'll get at least eight answers. I cherry-pick shamelessly for fanfic purposes, and don't care if anyone else does it too - I just want to know what's canon for a given fanwork.

[taichara]

Have you poked it at all yet? :D?

Hilariously, EW gets to be extra muddied just by sheer virtue of how many versions of it there are now ~~

(hay I wonder whether Glory counts as a side material, a canon revision, or just a thing that's happening? I've heard all three opinions lololol)


*grins*

[redsixwing]

Not really. orz
My job sort of leapt up and ate my face recently. I've been studying kanji like mad, but actually reading things? Haha, no.

Which is even better! Pick'n'choose canon ahoy.

(Oh my gosh, right? I lean toward "canon revision" personally but there's a ton of options out there.)

[taichara]

I hear you on the work thing, yup >.>;;