Opinions on Turn-A character designs?

[Amuro]

Well, I'm finally getting around to watching Turn-A Gundam from start to finish. I only recently started focusing more on chracterization in series, and MSG is the pillar of relatably realistic characters that every series needs to live up to for me. I've long been a fan of the general concept of unifying the Gundam AUs, and I'm all for a character based show with some unconventional western-styled mecha designs. However, I think that the character designs are the biggest turn-off for me at the moment. These characters simply don't look like real people in my opinion. Certain aspects of their appearance seem inhuman.

I mean.. who looks like this:
http://animepa.csusm.edu/galleries/T-Z/TurnAGundam/sm/lily72.jpg

or like this?
http://animepa.csusm.edu/galleries/T-Z/TurnAGundam/sm/snarl.jpg

When I looked at, say, Amuro, I saw someone who visually resembled a person I might come across in everyday life, and, upon examining his inner workings, I found the same to be true.

I can sort-of buy the Turn-A characters' internal workings, but the fact that many of them look so unlike any real human being makes it hard for me to form a complete connection to them.

Anyone have similar thoughts?

[Porco Rosso]

As Gundam characters, I'll have to admit, their character designs were a turn off to me at first. My first thoughts were that they stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the other designs in the franchise, but then I got used to them.

Honestly, I find that they work very well with the series as a whole. Despite the usual Tomino/Gundam themes present in the series, it still has a fairly light-hearted, somewhat magical, almost Miyazaki charm to it. If this was one of Tomino's "Kill 'em All" series I'd probably loathe them, but the somewhat "cartoony" character designs blend in very well with the overall atmosphere, in my opinion.

[nameo9876]

Without having seen Turn-A, I'd say no.

[CrossboneGundam]

Turn A's characters are great.

But what are you doing watching anime if you expect characters to look super-realistic in the first place?

The character designs in the original MSG were no better in terms of realism.

[Westlo]

But what are you doing watching anime if you expect characters to look super-realistic in the first place?

Quoted for Truth.

[Amuro]

The character designs in the original MSG were no better in terms of realism.

No offense, but that is highly debatable. What makes you say so?

[CrossboneGundam]

No offense, but that is highly debatable. What makes you say so?

It's frankly ludicrous to call MSG's character designs "realistic looking" for the sake of "arguing" that Turn A's are so much the opposite that it warrants the creation of a thread to complain about it.

To quote the kids: "Y HALO THAR!!!111"

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1268/amuro15qr2.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2285/kai08sz1.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1562/koba03bk4.jpg

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2161/char11gj6.jpg

[Bernard_Monsha]

No offense, but that is highly debatable. What makes you say so?


The fact Bright and Mirai look like they can be Charlie Browns parents. Whiteless eyes are not very realistic or common you know, they are also not indicative or realisim just a little fyi ;)

I have no idea why you don't like Gym Ghingham and Princess Diana but they are certainly not bad character designs.

[Levon]

Yet another thing I disagree with Amuro on, I sure have a large list-_-; Your like in another dimension.

I love the character designs. Of course they don't look real! This is anime, the mecha doesn't look real ethier! They arn't dull plain looking characters. They are unique & distinctive.

http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/5548/074tx.jpg http://home.comcast.net/~nimae/Turn3.jpg

Great art & style.

[HitokiriShadow]

I loved the character designs for Turn-A, with the only exceptions being nameless and/or unimportant characters and the katana guy that only appearead for about five episodes at the end (which wasn't bad, just fairly generic and uninteresting).

[Magami No ER]

XD Charlie Brown comment.

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/5287/aloranpaintingtc3.jpg

Loran looks great as a painting, imo. Adds a sense of depth even despite his rounded eyes, which are blue. Doesn't matter if black people aren't usually seen with blue eyes, it's quite nice looking.
And as far as the time these caharacter designs were conceived, they looked a hellva lot more realistic then other series in 1999. I should say TV series, because quite a few movies were opting for a more asian design before and around this time. Some still do today. But as Gundam Seeds character designs (-.-) showcase, Gundam doesn't have universal character desgns for obvious reasons, no certain "look" that they must have, the most obvious reason being that these aren't Yas's.
(Whose style, if I may mention , has gone even a tad bit more realistic as of late, and this is seen very much in his paintings for the Origin manga. I like his older designs of Amuro better myself, not that they look very much different in the actual comic panels.)

[Suiko Eiji]

I will also disagree that the difference in Turn A's appearance has less to do with Yasuda Akira's character designs and more to the change in Sunrise's general animation appearance over time from the very late 1970s through the 1990s. The later into the 1990s one get, the more Sunrise used computer technology to "clean-up" their traditional cel animation. This wasn't something that only applied to Turn A Gundam but was applied to every title they produced on every format - TV, OAV, and Film. Sure, Yasuda's designs look different from Yasuhiko's whose look different than Hirai's - with three different people, one would expect there to be changes; however, the final presentation of them is just as dependent, if not more so, on the animation staff and their techniques as it is on the original designer.

[Sora N]

I haven’t seen the series yet…however, personally I think the characters look awesome. (I really hope Turn-A will be licensed in the USA)