TIL a friend thought Gundam was just a cartoon and I spent 20 minutes explaining the whole UC timeline

I was at a coffee shop last Saturday and a buddy asked what I was watching on my phone. I said Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans and he goes 'oh that robot show for kids right?' I gave him a quick run down of how it deals with child soldiers, war profiteering, and political corruption. He kind of just stared at me. Made me wonder how many people write off stuff without knowing the context. Has anyone else had that moment where you had to defend your hobby to someone who just didn't get it?

2 comments

2 Comments

shanenguyen3h ago

People really don't get how much thought goes into these shows sometimes. I had a similar thing happen when I was watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes and someone said it was just space battles with old guys. You nailed it with the child soldiers point, Gundam has some deep stuff but the mecha designs make people think it's just for kids. The funny thing is anime studios almost always start with more mature themes and then tone things down for TV, not the other way around. Like the original Gundam in 1979 was supposed to be a serious war drama and the network forced them to add the giant robot gimmicks to sell toys. So people laugh at the toys but the whole thing started with an anti-war message that was actually too dark for its time.

fiona_lewis3757m ago

You gotta approach it like selling someone on a movie they think they already know, just let them watch an episode before you explain anything. I usually pick the one with the most emotional gut punch and tell them it's a standalone, works way better than trying to defend the whole genre upfront.