I just recently got back into blogging after almost a half year absence, and I've got to say...I'm amazed at how fast I'm being turned away by it again. Months ago, Ngee Khiong officially ended his blog citing reasons related to the progression of the Gundam community. I was a little confused by his reasons, but I think I'm beginning to understand.
Personally, I'm sick of this disparity between the old, Gundam embracing generation of fans, and the newer, younger fans. The first group is a group of long-time fans that often prefer the Universal Century timeline, and have a wider view of the Gundam series as a whole. The second group...is basically the teenagers who happen upon the very latest Gundam series and become new fans. This new group is incredibly troubling (and to me, very annoying) because the latest series have degraded into shounen action anime's similar to the likes of Naruto and Bleach. The fans they attract are the same mindless children that argue about "KAKASHI IZ SOOO MUCH BETTER THAN SASUGAAYYY" on online forums.
You can just imagine how idiotic the discussions can get. It began with Gundam Seed, when new fans were the majority, and all they could talk about was Kira and the Freedom Gundam. Then it moved over to 00 Gundam, with the magic Trans-Am powerups and innovators. I make my Gundam Top 5 posts to share my love for the long rich history Gundam has had over its decades old run, but all I run into is "WHAT ABOUT 00 GUNDAM AND ITS GIANT STRONGER THAN EVERYTHING WEAPONZ" comments. I can't keep this up if the trend is just "make it bigger, flashier, and more magical than the last show".
This disparity will continue if the trend continues like this, and I'll likely keep ignoring the new bullshit powerups that keep showing up in newer series. I'm not going to sell out and add things from the latest series just to appease the younger fans who only know how to appreciate the only series they've watched. That's all I really have to say...
Among a number of fan communities I've encountered, the conflict within the Gundam is quite a large one I have to say, and it ranges from UC vs non-UC "war" to "I just want MG model and nothing else" kind of arguments.
ReplyDeleteIt does saddden me a bit seeing how fans argue among themselves, and even for hobbies, and the latter kind of ruins the point of hobby in the first place - to have fun in free time.
Younger generations tend to like the newer Gundam series, and vice versa for the older ones. Not only are some concepts and the 'power' of the Gundams from different era vary from one to another, causing people to have different (and perhaps conflicting) views, the age difference can cause people to become less acceptive of age groups that they do not belong to either.
Seeing Ngee Khiong as a very informative blogger and a net friend I've met stopping his main blog is quite a sore feeling, especially since he got very affected by the Gundam community that he used to love to share with. While many people will continue to disagree with each other. I think what we can do is to not make examples of them, ignore those that are harming, and encourage people to make something of a more acceptive community, even though lots of these are more like easier said than done.
But nonetheless I'm sure there are still many sensible fans out there. Stick with those and we'll do just fine.