I have read some not all gundam side story manga and please correct me if I am wrong but a lot of these stories are just narrative nightmares, the art is not that impressive (I think Thunderbolt was animated becasue it looked the best out of most of them), and the stories are just so boring and drawn out.
Other stuff off the top of my head
>Love to include original MSG characters like Bright or Char randomly making the setting feel smaller than it should be
>Every idea tries to one up something and then later in the manga tries to one up itself
>Most of these manga tend to have a good solid couple of chapters but just morph into slop and rush to the finish
>Side stories dont feel like side stories
a quick example I have is Gundam Katana. It starts off with a custom GM Striker with a gundam head for show however its then revealed it has a special EXAM system called Demon Blade that embodies the soul of a samurai and holy shit the author just introduces a new EXAM system out of no where for no good reason.
No special reason, just the usual ones AFAIK.
Even Thunderbolt kinda sucks after its initial start this entire South Seas alliance plot is so boring. The problem is these authors grew up with gundam and barely care about other IPs or franchises so they write their OC shit.
Thunderbolt also starts with the Full Armor Gundam, which was impossible since it was said to be impossible to make work in MSV.
Adding a new Gundam is not new for UC
The frick are you even talking about? Otagaki does a ton of works for different properties. He's currently doing Dougram, and he had a great run with Front Mission.
Bandai even came to him and told him he can do whatever he wants. Thunderbolt is UC AU.
Because manga is a fast food format, you're supposed to read it and throw it away.
Gundam Ace should just be terminated.
Just like your existence.
>GM Striker with a gundam head for show however its then revealed it has a special EXAM system called Demon Blade
Wouldnt this mean the new type soul stuck in the EXAM system is still tortured? As we needed to destroy all EXAM suits to free her?
So, theres a tiering system to the japanese nerd entertainment industry. At the bottom you've got light novels & webcomics, because they're really easy to produce. Anyone can make one. And the best ones of those (or people who can do better in the first place) get turned into manga, which are much more professional in general. And then the best of those (or who can do better in the first place) get anime. What this means is that in general, anime is more normie shit than manga, is more normie shit than webcomics/webnovels. So you basically have the best produced things being the most boring and mainstream. Manga is there for people who want to have fun, try something new, etc. You don't have to read it, and you shouldn't go into it all serious. Just enjoy the fun.
the ark performance stuff is alright
which one is this, looks pretty good
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Plot to Assassinate Gihren
Well we know how this ends
While they fail the original plan well there's an argument the conspirators plans succeed in other angles as it wasn't just a plan to put a bullet in Gihren's head even though that was the main objective.
And some of the characters in that will show up in MSV-R
AP's gundam side story is the best. Every characters that recruited to their works usually got a 30 IQ boost. They are also very charming and has charisma. AP's art style really make the MS feel like real war machine not just shounen characters scale up.
Also they really get people looking stylish like Yazan in a suit was something I never knew I needed but man he wears the hell out of a suit.
Some UC manga just comes off as some ones head cannon fan-fiction being officially published. Out of the ones i've read i found 0083 rebellion, AOZ novel (first few chapters), return of johnny ridden, and federation hooligans to be good.
The best UC OYW side story manga is the one about the Zeek bros trekking across North America to get to the evacuation site in their Acguys.
Because the authors know they’re not canon anyway so they just go nuts. There’s a billion different Gundam manga out there and even more in the UC setting so might as well go nuts. Samurai EXAM system Gundam? Why the hell not? Yankee comedy series? Sure thing. It doesn’t matter
Complete freedom doesn’t mean good story. A good author works with restrictions
I read all of CDA and I will never get that time back.
CDA is good
What movie is that from?
Check out The battle tales of Flanagan Boone.
Talks about UC side manga, post pic from Cosmic Era side manga.
This isn't really a Gundam exclusive thing, I think most franchises run into this issue when they try and do side stories. Star Wars, Marvel, etc.
I think the authors of side-stories main problem as you have listed is that they let the story go on for way too long and the scope becomes WAY too large.
At a certain point it stops feeling like a side story that supplements the main stuff and just starts to encroach or eclipse it.
UC Gundam's worst examples of this are in the OYW side story manga, those are all batshit insane.
The 80s-90s OVAs were the perfect example of how you do side stories that fit into an already established storyline.
Manga also being a medium where sales dictate how long they last versus anime which have definitive lengths also adds to that.
At some point they just keep adding shit to continue making money.
Thunderbolt is dragging on right now it’s like the author wants to make it less popular and writes nonsense on purpose
>The 80s-90s OVAs were the perfect example of how you do side stories that fit into an already established storyline.
No the current manga are just following in their footsteps. Even those introduced new Mobile Suits and some element that could have altered the outcome of the war if they could have impacted the main story. 0080 is the least severe because it's isolated in one place but both 08th MS Team and 0083 have big out of place superweapons and some huge destructive event. Shiro and gang don't realize it until the end but their out to stop a mad scientist from quasi nuking Jaburo. They just had to make the plot swerve towards a big grave threat to the Federation's victory. The problem with these manga is there's 30 of them doing the same thing now.
I personally find some earlier "Other" Gundams plausible. Like Gundam 4 and 5, the Ground Gundams were just GMs suped up with parts they weren't using for the Rx78, The alex was made for Amuro but wasnt sent to him in time.
Even Blue Destiny is plausible as its not a gundam but a new type of GM made.
Zeon was constantly debuting new super weapons in the OG gundam series, so to me 08th MS team featuring one we never heard of before wasn't too groundbreaking to me.
Zakrello wasn't going to conquer the world.
Neither was the Alex or whatever other Gundam or prototype that new mangas are pushing
Pale Riders are fine too well this one...When you look at a Pale Rider you can at least trace its origins back to being a suped up GM Sniper II
It's really a hybrid of GM Sniper II and G04/G05. And Calvary's a striped down Pale Rider and more like the Sniper II by yanking out some of the G04/G05 based components
Dullahan is Calvary without HADES and DII is just Dullahan with Zeta Era modernizations
Plot to Assassinate Gihren is the only good one that's translated anyway.
>side
>manga
you had your answer already
its only made to create more dumb toys to sell. its not consistent with MSG.
I guess it really isn't a side story, but to me it is: Gundam the Origin is cool. It's a nice little retelling that doesn't replace the orginal and its art is beautiful.
I don't even care that Katana reads nothing like what should be appropriate for UC in general, let alone the after-0083-before-Zeta, it's fricking ridiculous and fun and brings in a lot of obscure shit like the King of Dragon and the goddamn Gromlin. Not to mention I adored the visuals for the MS of it, including the ridiculous nature of the Dolmel doing some weird breakdance of annihilation with its beam toes. After a certain point it was just something to just embrace and and make you wonder "alright, what nonsense is it going to break out next" as it takes you for a ride
[spoilers]I will, however, admit that I am very easy to please[spoilers]
Ah frick, knew I missed a key somewhere, oh well