The finding that over half of Japanese young men quizzed about their favourite Gundams had never even heard of Gundam has thrown the popularity of these cultural titans amongst the younger generations into question – with plenty reluctant believe it can be possible.
A Japanese magazine hoping to hack together a ranking celebrating the 35th anniversary of Gundam based on actual data undertook a survey of young men (women not even being worthy of even being asked when it comes to mecha matters it would seem) with the assistance of a market research firm.
They quizzed 200 young men in their twenties on such pressing matters as “what is your favourite mobile suit?” and “which mobile suit would you most like to pilot?”
This effort rapidly ran into a rather fundamental problem (aside from the pathetic sample size) – they were shocked to discover that 51% of respondents had never even heard of Gundam to start with.
Some of the results they did gather by way of an omake – the favourite mobile suits from those who had actually encountered the original series:
1. Gundam
2. Char’s MS-06 Zaku II
3. Char’s MS-14 Gelgoog
4. ZEONG
5. DOM
This finding was greeted with disbelief by the online masses, although whether this can be blamed on the woeful ignorance of the younger generations with respect to the all-important world of fictional giant robots or their own insular outlook is another matter:
“They must have heard of it.”
“There are new shows every few years so it is amazing they haven’t heard of it.”
“Next it will be kids not knowing Macross, and after that Eva!”
“Why do they have to know about Gundam again?”
“They know, they are just ashamed to admit it.”
“Come on, even the Chinese know their Gundams!”
“I’m 38 but I’m a bit troubled by this belief that you are some kind of philistine traitor if you don’t know about Gundam.”
“We should be amazed 49% know about it.”
“I think it is a lot. They asked commoners and not anime fans so amongst them there are sure to be lots who never watch TV or the like at all.”
“Why is it so shocking that someone doesn’t know?”
“Macross embraced moe and is even now popular with the young. Why did it come to this…”
“AGE…”
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nah.an obvious lie
Exactly. 49% admit to it, 51% lie about it.
To be fair, the question was "which mobile suit from the first gundam", so some of those negative replies may be due to not knowing much about the first gundam show, rather than not knowing gundam at all. (The first gundam was 35 years ago, and you are asking people in their 20s, who are not necessarily anime watchers even.)
If that's the case it's hard to believe they even got any positive replies at all. I've seen the original Gundam but I don't remember any of their names. They all sucked.
The ones I remember are actually the top 5
guess you cant enjoy old westerns, or Medieval theme films,or whatever is old, because you simply
dislike old stuff by default.
Not by default, I gave lots of anime from the 1960s and 1970s a fair chance. They just all plain sucked.
The sample size was just 200... It could easily be that the 102 of them has never heard of gundam, much less capable of naming one.
Exactly. Ask 200 people if they *insert x* and you'll most likely get such results. The sample size is ridiculously small. Usually they quiz around 1000 people (which I think is too small as well). Well, this article just proves my hatred of statistics, it's inaccurate if done wrong!
gundam sucks ass
your mom sucks even more.
Btw, she was awesome. Been a while since I came that much.
Sweeping generalization that isn't always true: Young people today have amazing access to all forms of media but won't look at anything made before (current date - 6 years). It's a shame.
And theres more crucial fact, the guys you see hanging on streets with girls and just chilling somewhere drinking (I.E the normals) got no clue about anime about 90% of the time, small portion even considers anime "kiddie shows".
To be fair older anime do suck compared to newer ones. Stories are mostly outdated and animations look like shit. For most it's not worth the trouble to dig through all this shit to find the few titles that are still good.
Chen-04: Same can be said for today's anime, too. Sturgeon's law is always in effect.
The point is good shows turn into crap with time. Only ~1% of good shows today will still be good 20 years from now.
@Chen-04
go on.....
you have no heart and watch anime only for totally superfluous reasons, that's why you can never figure out what old anime classics have to offer or why anyone could possibly like something you're not interested in
They probably have heard the name and just never watched any. I havent seen gundum but I still first heard of it as a kid before I even liked or knew the term anime.
Probably
KIMOCHI II ZE
Because big mecha anime are awful and boring.
Off the top of my mind I can recommend you Neon Genesis Evangelion, Vision of Escaflowne, The Big O, and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan.
If you aren't imbecile enough to refuse to watch an old masterpiece give Gunbuster a chance, then Diebuster.
Yes a lot of those are from Gainax.
I actually don't like the Gundams (*gasp* I know) but I can recommend you Code Guess which is a train wreck, but a very enjoyable one. There is also Gun x Sword which is Trigun with mechas.
I can go on, but those are the best.
Unless you intentionally spelled it "Guess", then I'd say you're the imbecile.
lol "Guess"
itz CODE GUYZ
i personally find sakura taisen to be one of the better ones... i can't be the only one?
and the ones you've watched are more interesting and exciting? how bout you walk us through your whole list of junks you've watched you piece of shit?
Mecha anime are much more interesting then the moeblob stuff.
yes i bet you prefer K ON, but everybody has the right to his own tastes.
GUNDAM SUCK BALLZZZZZ... seriously.
They don't. However Zeon MS shoots Balls.
The machine that looks like a ball with a double cannon on top with claws.
not as much as your mom, that explains your presence here in this world, you're probably start sucking some soon.
51% don't watch anime
if you watch anime you know gundam.
I know tons of people who doesn't watch anime and know Gundam.
Because OO is already 6 years old and even if you tell me the children's show they made was good, I'm not going to watch it.
Release a real Gundam show again.
well,there's the Unicorn that serves after Char's Counterattack and quite enjoying it even though the lead's kinda forgotten on the rough side.
Not even anime fans in general all like mecha shows, or like Gundam in particular. I've been an anime fan since the Dirty Pair days (mid-80s for you youngsters) and I've never watched an episode of Gundam. I don't like mecha.
So what surprises me is not the 51% of men who haven't heard of Gundam, but the 49% who have.
I have allways seen gundam artwork over the net somehow.. somewhere.. i was never interested. boring old fashioned art and ugly giant roboters. i wonder why there are still ppl who like it.
i may not know what you like but pretty sure others will wonder why you would appreciate stuffs that are shit in their eyes.
I blame AGE.
A couple of years ago i went back and watched all gundam series (Since i had only seen seed0) from 0079 to age
and boy was it enlightening.
But honestly i think the bad outweighs the good in the gundam series.
I hear people talk about how amazing 0079 was, and it was pretty good, but the kids ruin it for me, they are just so damn annoying. G gundam is worse but i don't even consider it gundam, replace them with giant monsters and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
Gundam AGE isn't as bad as people say it is. Not the best series but a lot better than Seed Destiny.
Better than shit isn't saying much.
@Chen-04
you clean the toilet with that mouth?
Gundam AGE will fade into obscurity as it will never be dubbed. Sadly, dubs, shit as they are, drastically increase a shows popularity.
Na Seed destiny is better.
If you ignore shin...
Just fast forward everytime he appears and the series gets exponentially better.
I saw Gundam Z and I loved, but i couldn't finih ZZ for similar reasons, so I understand your point.
I always sleep when I try Gundam ZZZ
they asked those riajuu wannabee-party loving baka boys eh?
Gundam a shit.
Gundammit Jim,you need a doctor not a mechanic!