by The “Mobile Suit Gundam” series, which began airing in 1979, is a famous work still being produced in various ways, including TV series, movie versions, and original video animations in the Reiwa era. Even if you’re not a hardcore fan, everyone has probably heard of the name at least once.
However, the “Gundam” series generally has a lot of male fans, and there seems to be little chance for young women in particular to watch it again. I think so. So this time, I decided to show my daughter, a 19-year-old college student, Mobile Suit Gundam. What do Generation Z born in the Heisei era think when they see “Gundam”…?
I can’t hide my surprise at the continuous “Why?” sound effects in the titles and commercials.
This time, I asked my daughter to watch up to episode 5, and from the first episode, she kept asking me, “Why?”. In the opening of this work, “Half a century has already passed since humanity started immigrating the overpopulated population to space ~ The space city Side 3 has called itself the Principality of Zeon and challenged the Earth Federation government to a war of independence.”
There is a narration like this. So the question was, “Why are humans fighting each other? Aren’t they aliens ?” The first Gundam girl thought the story was about a battle between “humans” and “extraterrestrials.”
Also, since the first episode, I can’t stop asking questions about the characters that have appeared one after another, such as, Is this person a child?'' andWhere is he now?” The author needs to gain knowledge of Gundam. So she said, “Just watch it, and you’ll understand,” and continued watching. Her daughter said that from the first episode onwards, more and more characters appeared, and it was difficult to understand. Perhaps because Generation Z now enjoys simple entertainment on YouTube and Instagram, it may not be easy to understand stories that feature characters one after another.
For some reason, my girlfriend’s daughter liked the opening title and the sound effects during the commercials. In particular, the sound effects such as “Shaa!” (!?) make me laugh and wonder, “What is this sound!?” If you think about it, sound effects like this were used in “Gundam” and in many anime and dramas during the Showa era… For some reason, this has clicked with Gen Z.
