I haven't seen Gundam X in years, not since High School when some senior had bootlegs ripped on an ftp server for people to DL. I also only ever saw 8 episodes. Generally the first episode was a ton of fun, far better than Gundam Wing in my opinion. Though I do find it hilarious that everyone has such immaculate clothes for what's supposedly a post-apocalyptic world. I also love all the 'off-brand mechs' we get in the opening credits.
I know fans mostly just say to watch the series, but it felt too long to me (especially because so much time was spent on developing characters I didn't even like). In that sense, faster pacing with new bonus mecha animation could work for that. Is A New Translation that bad? Also, how well does it transition to CCA?
As someone who doesn't think Zeta Gundam is all that great to begin with (Good ideas, poor execution) I think the New Translation movies are generally good. The biggest issues are, as I understand it:
1. The new animation, while utilizing a retro style to 'fit in' with the older 80s animation, don't really succeed. The new animation looks amazing, but sits jarring with the original work.
2. The ending for the third film has been changed, altering what a lot of fans feel is one of the best aspects of Zeta. This change, without spoiling too much, erases the need for Double Zeta's events. Considering though there's a huge gap between ZZ and CCA, and Char underwent a pretty major character shift between the two anyway, CCA could probably still happen? I guess, no matter what it does seemingly erase ZZ from the timeline and is generally considered non-canon.
3. In the effort to cram the series down from 50 episodes to 3 90 minute films, the past is exceedingly fast, certain characters and plot lines are shafted for screen time, etc.
I personally don't feel like 1 is an issue. 2 I have mixed feelings on. As I don't really think ZZ is that good (save for a laugh) I don't mind the ending change, although I do agree it erases one of the more interesting ideas Zeta offered up.
3 I kinda agree with, at least with pacing. The films move at a crazy clip with almost zero down time between fighting and talking. Dialogue is constantly going, with no breaks besides battles and even then most people are motor mouths still. As far as cutting plot lines go I actually feel like the best stuff was kept and if you weren't taking to the original, you probably won't be bothered by what's missing. Anyway that's my 2 cents.
