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Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation
(Mobile Suit Gundam)
by
"A great read."—Asian Reporter
Japan's Gundam franchise boasts a worldwide cult of devotees. This second edition of creator Yoshiyuki Tomino's novelization is redesigned for a new generation of fans.
Yoshiyuki Tomino is one of Japan's best known science-fiction directors.
Frederik L. Schodt writes extensively on Japanese culture and lives in San Francisco, California.
...more
Japan's Gundam franchise boasts a worldwide cult of devotees. This second edition of creator Yoshiyuki Tomino's novelization is redesigned for a new generation of fans.
Yoshiyuki Tomino is one of Japan's best known science-fiction directors.
Frederik L. Schodt writes extensively on Japanese culture and lives in San Francisco, California.
...more
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Paperback, 520 pages
Published
April 3rd 2012
by Stone Bridge Press
(first published April 1st 2004)
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Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation
Awakening: ☆☆☆☆☆
Escalation: ☆☆☆☆
Confrontation: ☆☆☆☆☆
Reviews of individual novels in the links above. ...more
Aug 16, 2016
Maverynthia
rated it
did not like it
Recommends it for:
People who hate women
Shelves:
jp-books
48 Status updates....
It starts at page 21 and it goes till page 516.
The misogyny train in this fine literature is fully booked and not stopping till it reaches the other station.
WOOOO WOOOOOO
Women are only around as literal sex objects, towards the end it even describes an alarm voice as "attractive female" IT'S JUST A VOICE and finally the last sentence is of a naked woman.
Let's not mention that Lala Sune and Kusko Al die for manpain and Amuro is the one that sends them to their grave because h ...more
It starts at page 21 and it goes till page 516.
The misogyny train in this fine literature is fully booked and not stopping till it reaches the other station.
WOOOO WOOOOOO
Women are only around as literal sex objects, towards the end it even describes an alarm voice as "attractive female" IT'S JUST A VOICE and finally the last sentence is of a naked woman.
Let's not mention that Lala Sune and Kusko Al die for manpain and Amuro is the one that sends them to their grave because h ...more
It's always interesting to find a translation of a Japanese novel aimed at the anime fanbase. There aren't enough of these available in the West.
I'm a big fan of the original 70s Gundam series. (It wasn't as good as, say, Gundam Wing or War in the Pocket, but few anime are.)
This book is a alternate retelling of Gundam 0079 and includes all of the Tomino tropes that are frustrating but fascinating.
Stupid impulsive characters. Mindless senseless deaths. Pacing that's too fast for it's own good. B ...more
I'm a big fan of the original 70s Gundam series. (It wasn't as good as, say, Gundam Wing or War in the Pocket, but few anime are.)
This book is a alternate retelling of Gundam 0079 and includes all of the Tomino tropes that are frustrating but fascinating.
Stupid impulsive characters. Mindless senseless deaths. Pacing that's too fast for it's own good. B ...more
It was nice having the technological and Newtype stuff laid out in a clearer way than the show, and I liked getting to spend more time with some of the characters and the alternate ending (although I wish there was more to it!) but HOLY MISOGYNY BATMAN. Tomino and Murakami competing to see who can write about women more terribly lol.
The novel that I have read is the second part of three part of the novel series, Gundam. I do not really remember when I watched Gundam, it was really popular back then when I was a child. It is animation show about wars between robot which is write by the same author who write this novel, Yoshio Tomino. It is a translation novel from Japan which translated by Frederick L. Schodt. The three parts of this novel are Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation and Confrontation and the title that I r
...more
My name is Mike, a Gundam fan, and I put this book down 2/3rds of the way through it.
The story being different than the anime was fine. It was cool to see Amuro already be a semi-trained pilot, and the action scenes were well done. What didn't work was... well, everything else. Parts 1 and 2 literally ended the exact same way with Amuro falling for a chick he doesn't know and then killing them in combat as they pilot an Elmeth against his Gundam. Most characters got exactly zero development. To ...more
The story being different than the anime was fine. It was cool to see Amuro already be a semi-trained pilot, and the action scenes were well done. What didn't work was... well, everything else. Parts 1 and 2 literally ended the exact same way with Amuro falling for a chick he doesn't know and then killing them in combat as they pilot an Elmeth against his Gundam. Most characters got exactly zero development. To ...more
Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in space, with a characteristically detached, emotionally stoic Japanese presentation. If you're familiar with the grandiose, almost camp world of the early Gundam anime, the deliberate pace of the novel may throw you, but there's a real sense of deliberate plotting and world-building here. The coldness of the prose takes a little getting used to, but as pretentious as the book's desire to elevate the "future robot wars" genre can sometimes make it come off, it works. T
...more
As a fan of the original Anime, I was skeptical when I saw the size of the book, but it covers everything from the series and a little more, as well as being a little more descriptive than the Anime was.
If your a fan of Gundam in general, The original Anime or want to see what the Gundam universe is like without committing to a 50 episode series, this is a decent book for any of those categories.
If your a fan of Gundam in general, The original Anime or want to see what the Gundam universe is like without committing to a 50 episode series, this is a decent book for any of those categories.
This book serves as an alternate telling to the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. The tone is much more serious and the characters more developed and deep. It provides an enormous amount of background detail surrounding the lore and technology of the Gundam universe. There are a few parts where the writing is a bit awkward, but overall it was a good read and I hardly put it down. A great read for a newcomer or for someone already familiar with the franchise.
As someone that is a huge fan of Gundam anime in its many forms, but mostly of the UC Gundam universe, I marveled at the differences and complexities of this book. The differences are frequent, such as the story never actually decending to Earth, and the relationships were far more mature than the ones seen in the anime. This novel was far more straightforward and as I was getting towards the end of it all I kept thinking was it would be an absolutely amazing anime series!
This book was definitely an engaging read that held my interest throughout. This novel demonstrated a war larger than any World War between two leading factions. It tackled the idea of good and bad by displaying the two sides' ideas and beliefs, which forces the reader to think about the side that they support over the other. Bias is shown towards one side, however, it really is far from the traditional novel, which shows complete bias to one side, essentially stating the faction as the "good" s
...more
Its a shame that a story about war and what it brings in misfortune was turned into a kids show. Alot of Japanese authors from post WW2 era has expressed that nobody wins in war, more specifically, normal citizens get hit the most while the higher ups are playing a game of human chess. The author, however, didn't go extremely dark until his masterpiece: "Space Runaway Ideon".
...more
3 1/2
As an alternate experience to the proper Gundam 0079 anime, it's different enough to warrant a read-through, but the prose and writing itself leads much to be desired, especially in characterization.
...more
I'm a long-time fan of the Gundam series even if I believe it's been about ten years and five series too many since they had anything new to say. Then again, that's the nature of all fandom for continuously operating decades-old franchises. For those unfamiliar with it, Gundam is a mecha anime based around the titular brand of mecha which is a portmanteau of the words "Gun" and "Freedom."
The rough premise of (almost) every Gundam is that there's a central conflict between two factions, usually ...more
The rough premise of (almost) every Gundam is that there's a central conflict between two factions, usually ...more
A must-have volume for those who grew up on Gundam anime and models. Quite different than the anime series, but this gives the reader additional insight into the primary characters' inner thoughts and motivations.
Knowing that this was written in the 90's based on the original story from the 70's Japan, there are some quaint and frankly condescending views of women in this book. It is strange to think that this never bothered me when I was first exposed to the story in my teens. Females are portr ...more
Knowing that this was written in the 90's based on the original story from the 70's Japan, there are some quaint and frankly condescending views of women in this book. It is strange to think that this never bothered me when I was first exposed to the story in my teens. Females are portr ...more
500 pages of garbage. Utterly flat story telling, total lack of character construction, and pages upon pages of action that lack any concrete imagery or meaning.
I read this book because I was interested in seeing how giant-robots translate to literature. I was surprised by the "Pacific Rim" novelization, as the robot fights were well written and surprisingly successful in literature. But what made the PR fights interesting, the detail put into how the robots work and fight, and the struggle of t ...more
I read this book because I was interested in seeing how giant-robots translate to literature. I was surprised by the "Pacific Rim" novelization, as the robot fights were well written and surprisingly successful in literature. But what made the PR fights interesting, the detail put into how the robots work and fight, and the struggle of t ...more
As a fan of the original Gundam series, I couldn't pass up a chance to read the creator's personal ideas on how the series should have been played out.
The result is something grittier and more "adult", in some ways at least, that gives us a bleaker vision of the war between the Federation and Zeon and the introduction of Newtypes to the universe. Overall, I loved Tomino's take on the series and I prefer it to the story the animated series itself told despite the fact that his alterations here ef ...more
The result is something grittier and more "adult", in some ways at least, that gives us a bleaker vision of the war between the Federation and Zeon and the introduction of Newtypes to the universe. Overall, I loved Tomino's take on the series and I prefer it to the story the animated series itself told despite the fact that his alterations here ef ...more
A truly different recreation of the popular Gundam series. The story is told in third person through the eyes of various characters. Anyone who has some knowledge of the anime series might be a bit startled to see familiar characters acting somewhat differently.
If it's your first experience with the Gundam series, then you might have a little difficulty adapting to the "lingo". There are some things that aren't explained very well, as if the author assumes the reader knows them already. As a wh ...more
If it's your first experience with the Gundam series, then you might have a little difficulty adapting to the "lingo". There are some things that aren't explained very well, as if the author assumes the reader knows them already. As a wh ...more
Oct 16, 2007
Amju
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Any Sci-fi
This book is definitely a must-read for any sci-fi, if you have seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime then you'll love this....well, you might, can't spoil it. But it goes in-depth with the characters, the story, and best of the all, the next step of human evolution, newtypes. Though i did start to lose it at first because it was kind of slow leaving the colony, it picks up fast. I'd give this a 5 but I'm a hardcore fan of the anime, and there are a few major differences. If you read this y
...more
While it's based on an animated television series and its three compilation movies, the book itself is a completely separate entity telling its own unique story. As such, new readers need not be familiar with the source material to understand this book. I may even dare say that this book will add to the base series and movies since it expands on concepts and themes that are brushed upon in those said mediums.
As for the story itself, it's a militaristic take on the Gundam story. It gets quite dep ...more
As for the story itself, it's a militaristic take on the Gundam story. It gets quite dep ...more
Yoshiyuki Tomino's vision for the original Gundam, stripped of the super robot anime cliches. While the robotic mobile suits play a significant role in the novel, they are downplayed, while the political and social aspects of the story come to fore. Tomino attempts to examine (not always successfully) how space colonization might usher in a new, more highly-evolved type of human. Unfortunately, the book ends with the dawning of that new age, and we don't really get answers to many of the questio
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As a fan of the universal century and not a big fan of the recent works i.e. Gundam SEED and sequel I was expecting a lot from this book and i received it. Of course the start of it was slow but it was enjoyable. When it sped up into the story it made it much more enjoyable. The characters are icons to anime Char especially in Japan. I read this again and again for pure enjoyment. I did not have a problem for its departure from the Compilation Trilogy and the series as a matter in fact I liked t
...more
The inconsistencies from the TV series quickly fall to the wayside as the story takes a life of it's own. Very valuable as a Gundam fan to garner insight on Tomino's ideas of Newtypes. The story is just as great if not better. The translation did a good job of retaining the style of writing from the Japanese text while lending to readability in English, though still strange in some points that might be off putting to someone not familiar with the style.
...more
An excellent trilogy of novels for Gundam fans. Those outside of the fandom may struggle with the Universal century timeline if they read these first. They are an alternative telling of the original series and many of the changes are in harsh contrast to the animated story line.
They add a lot of interesting details to the series for long term fans, as well as showing how different the original outline was compared to the final canceled anime.
They add a lot of interesting details to the series for long term fans, as well as showing how different the original outline was compared to the final canceled anime.
Great action! I had a little bit of a hard time following the book at first, that's my own fault though, I never followed any of the original anime. Still a great trillogy. I have a habit of passing on books I like, and this one will be for my brother. =)
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A wonderful mature take on the oringal series, worth reading if you've seen the show or you're a big science fiction fan.
...more
This was a great take away from the story of the original series. It's interesting to see how Tomino originally envisioned Gundam.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| excellent works ，The bigger than my old | 1 | 10 | 11. März, 07:42 Uhr |
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