What would you like to see in next Gundam Series? - Contest Winners
Thank you everyone's participation in this contest. It was a joy for us to read all your fun and creative ideas for a great Gundam series. We especially thank those who had put a lot of effort in writing out your ideas. There were definitely a lot of great stuff among the 700+ comments we received. GG, PatrickGrade & Hon were the judges in selecting the top 3 ideas which captured our attention. Now these ideas are in no way superior to some of the other great ideas posted for this contest, but they were ones which we thought..."Now that would be a making of a great Gundam series!!!"
For the 3 winners, we only ask that you send us an email to admin@gginfinite.com to inquire how you can receive your prizes.
1ST WINNER: Some Other Anon
PRIZE: MG 1/100 Tallgeese EW
TEAM GG: "An interesting story about power struggles, involving a Gundam with a special AI system. The emotional ties between the Gundam and the lead character sounds very interesting. This could be an interesting take for a new Gundam series!"
In an alternate century, mankind as settled on Mars and
is getting ready to explore the rest of the Cosmos. To this end, the Mars
Builders Association begins building a new Super Space Station, that will serve
as the launching ramp for this exploration. It is a joint venture between Earth
and Mars, and to ensure this, a new machine is created on Earth that allows
control of the Space Station. This machine is called Gundam. But unknown to
earth, the leader of the MBA is plotting to take over the Space Station so he
can use it to claim the independence of Mars, because he feel that Earth treats
Mars like nothing more than a work force, with bad working conditions, an no
say on Earth's politics. He comes up with a plan to highjack the Gundam on a
supposed routine testing of the Space Station. This doesn't turn out well, and
the Gundam's pilot ends up getting killed. Unknown to the MBA leader, though,
is the fact that the Gundam pilot had a love relationship with his daughter.
When she finds out about this operation, she tries, in vain, to stop her
father, but she's too late, and she ends up seeing the pilot die in front of
her. Full of rage against her father, she gets in the Gundam and tries to
escape to earth, so she can return it. She then finds out about this Gundam's
new AI system. It appears the Gundam has a learning AI, that picks up
personality traits from it's pilot, so the AI is all that she has left from her
lover. While on her way to earth, she gets contacted by an Earth rebellious
group, that informs her that Earth's plan was to use the Space Station to
destroy the MBA all along, because they felt the MBA was getting too rebellious
themselves. This rebellious group is led by an Earth Official that feels
opposes this decision, so he decides to go on his own to get, and ultimately
keep the Gundam out of Earth's and Mars' reach. Our heroin decides to join
them, and now she must protect the Gundam from the opposing factions that want
it so they can control the Space Station, torn between the feelings she has for
her father and for her lost love, forever present in the form of the learning
AI...
2ND WINNER: Lei
PRIZE: RG 1/144 Zeta Gundam
TEAM GG: "A well thought out grand scale Gundam space opera in the making!"
This is my idea for a gundam series where the Gundam
would be an integral part of the story, and not just a vehicle for the main
character to ride in, and the main female is both original and, imo, is better
for expressing the kind of darker feelings and tone this series would present
I've always been interested exploring expansion into the
rest of the solar system. In my concept, the solar system would be connected by
space gates. These gates would be expensive, energy intensive, difficult to
build, and have a limited tunneling range. Furthermore, travelling through
these gates would require special equipment.
The Solar System would be under a unified government (the
Federation of Sol?) centered around the Earth sphere, but many of the planets
would be de facto autonomous. The farthest full settlement would be Jupiter.
Saturn and beyond would have exploratory settlements. Colonies in the outer
solar system would mostly depend on giant fusion reactors for power to generate
the light needed for habitation and food. A terraformed and prosperous Mars
would get the extra sunlight through giant solar reflectors placed in orbit. A
terraformed Venus would similarly have solar dimmers. In addition to colonies
around the planets, there would also be autonomous colonies around the
Lagrangian points between the planets and the sun (in UC the Lagrangian points
are between the Earth and the Moon). The Asteroid belt would be populated and
controlled by mega-corporation industrial settlements.
The series would start in the middle of a conflict
between Mars and Jupiter 500 years after the establishment of said unified
government, during its state of decline. Jupiter is making a power grab to
control the inner planets for their land (better agriculture and standard of
living), and out of an ideology that asserts a superior Jovian race should
inherit the Earth. The Earth sphere has turned a blind eye to the conflict,
believing that Jupiter intends only to take Mars. Earth is willing to sacrifice
Mars to sate Jupiter's appetite. While Earth does not recognize the conflict,
Venus, the Moon and the colonies of the inner planets have declared neutrality,
but with many sympathizers in its government and businesses providing
assistance to Mars in secret. The Asteroid belt settlements would also be
officially neutral, with sympathizing factions to both Mars and Jupiter.
Most mobile suits at the start of the series would
resemble each other, as mobile suit development is based on centralized
prototype designs distributed by the unified government, though heavily modified
by the planetary governments. However, competitive 2nd or 3rd generation
designs indigenous to each planet have begun emerging by the start of the
series, with Jupiter leading in development. The main mobile suit of the series
would be a new generation prototype Gundam that Jupiter has been secretly
developing with the ability to open its own space gate. The technology is
imperfect, unreliable, and has limited range. Jupiter's intention is to perfect
this technology so that it can perform a surprise attack on the rest of the
solar system.
The series would follow a Martian spec ops unit forward
deployed into Jovian space. Their mission is to sabotage Jupiter’s supply
chain, strategic asset, and un-deployed fleets to reduce the number of forces
able to reach Mars’s defence perimeter. During one of these missions, the
protagonist discovers the prototype Gundam and steals it. The rest of the
series follows the spec ops unit as 1) they try to make it back to Martian
space so that Mars can reverse engineer and perfect the Gundam’s superior
technology, 2) they reintegrate into the main fleet as Mars tries to rally more
support from the other planets, 3) the other planets and Earth itself slowly
gets pulled into the conflict as the Jovian threat grows imminent.
In addition to all the usual tropes and themes from real
robot military shows (of which a number should be obvious) such as how ideology
and interests motivate wars, some of the themes that would be explored in the
series are whether man is doomed to division, what is humanity under extreme
conditions, and what happens to the concept of “home” as man increasingly
drifts away from their place of origin.
3RD WINNER: Jason Reynolds
PRIZE: HGUC 1/144 Delta Gundam Kai
TEAM GG: "A great story with great characters... sound simple, but is often overlooked these days."
Most Gundam series are variations of the same story with
many of the same situations but with new mecha designs and new characters. The
story is almost an afterthought. Instead the question is who is the new Char,
the new Ranba Ral, etc. of this series?
The only truly original Gundam series, other than the
original MSG, are G Gundam and Turn A Gundam. While they are great series in
their own rights most "hard-core" Gundam fans don't like them as much
as the OYW retreads.
With all of this in mind it is pointless to try and
create yet another variation of the MSG formula. I think it is time to shift
the focus back to telling a great story with great characters. 0080 is a
perfect example of what this should be. It tells a story about a boy who
idealizes war as a game who comes to realize how tragic and horrible it really
is.
CONGRATZ TO THE ABOVE WINNERS!!!
Other Comments which we thought were interesting and wanted to share with you:
- A world where Gundam is referred as a God
- Awesome Gundam name: Gundam Valkyrie
- Awesome Gundam title: Gundam: Guardian of Space Drifters
- Female as the lead protagonist
- Steampunk Gundams
- Prequel to the One Year War
- Gundam vs. an alien race
- Side stories / Continuation of Gundam UC, 08th MS Team, Gundam X, Turn A Gundam..etc.
- After the Gundam AGE series, a bunch of Gundam fans attack Bandai Headquarter.
ONCE AGAIN, WE THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!!!
Images above via goodfon.com & Windforcelan
