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So I came across a new series this season, "Cross Ange: Rondo of Angels and Dragons", and I got interested because I read some of its staff worked on Gundam SEED/Destiny. In particular, the mech designer, and Fukuda, SEED's director, are on the staff.
Two episodes in, and it's pretty good so far, and I think it has good potential, despite its.... yuri-ness. But that's not what this post is about. I'll post more about Cross Ange itself later.
No, I'm making this post because as soon as I saw the animation of the main mech flying around, and the opening, it immediately gave me Gundam SEED/Destiny vibes. So I took a closer look at the opening sequence, and I'm going to compare scenes to SEED/Destiny ones to show you what I mean.
For reference, the opening can be seen on Crunchyroll (the opening starts about 3 mins in, but you can see the main mech flying around before that, and it just screams "Freedom" to me)
So without further ado, let's look at the opening scenes. The left-most image in the row are from Cross Ange, subsequent ones are GS/D.
Ange's mech reminds me more of the Freedom than the Destiny due to its colouring and the way it flies. But I couldn't actually find any good images of the Freedom flying in any GS/D openings. And this pose of the Destiny is actually pretty similar
Title cards. The title in front, with the main mech in the back.
Naked couple in front of mech time! That's like, signature of GS/D openings. Every opening had at least one.
This thing takes off pretty much the same way the Core Booster in Destiny does.
The take-off sequence is very much Seed/Destiny style, with showing the launch board and "Abort"s flipping to "Clear"s. Seed's board is pretty simple, and Cross Ange's is more complex, like Destiny's.
I think the way mechs fly in general are just animated very similarly to Seed/Destiny
I just cannot unsee it as the Freedom/Strike Freedom lol
The two images from Destiny are in direct sequence; I don't think Shinn and Destiny are ever overlayed in any frames like Ange and her mech, but the animation sequence is very similar.
Okay, the last scene isn't all that similar. It actually reminds me more of the last scene in the first Gundam 00 opening:
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So yeah, Fukuda directed this opening, and it shows. The Seed/Destiny images came from a bunch of different openings (and scenes) so Cross Ange isn't copying anything frame by frame. I'm not criticizing it or anything. In fact, I find it quite nostalgic and amusing. I had fun looking through Seed/Destiny openings to find the similar images.
And the similarities between the two worlds don't just end there. Because while the enemies they're fighting look like just dragons, they're actually DRAGONs
Gratuitous Engrishy acroynyms, check! Just like these:
A lot of things in SEED/Destiny are acroynyms, like ZAFT, GUNDAM, PLANT, OMNI, SEED etc etc. I wonder what else in Cross Ange are acroynyms too. Maybe "CROSS"?
Anyway, I'm quite looking forward to new eps of this show. It's just kind of hard to recommend to people..... ^^;
Two episodes in, and it's pretty good so far, and I think it has good potential, despite its.... yuri-ness. But that's not what this post is about. I'll post more about Cross Ange itself later.
No, I'm making this post because as soon as I saw the animation of the main mech flying around, and the opening, it immediately gave me Gundam SEED/Destiny vibes. So I took a closer look at the opening sequence, and I'm going to compare scenes to SEED/Destiny ones to show you what I mean.
For reference, the opening can be seen on Crunchyroll (the opening starts about 3 mins in, but you can see the main mech flying around before that, and it just screams "Freedom" to me)
So without further ado, let's look at the opening scenes. The left-most image in the row are from Cross Ange, subsequent ones are GS/D.
Ange's mech reminds me more of the Freedom than the Destiny due to its colouring and the way it flies. But I couldn't actually find any good images of the Freedom flying in any GS/D openings. And this pose of the Destiny is actually pretty similar
Title cards. The title in front, with the main mech in the back.
Naked couple in front of mech time! That's like, signature of GS/D openings. Every opening had at least one.
This thing takes off pretty much the same way the Core Booster in Destiny does.
The take-off sequence is very much Seed/Destiny style, with showing the launch board and "Abort"s flipping to "Clear"s. Seed's board is pretty simple, and Cross Ange's is more complex, like Destiny's.
I think the way mechs fly in general are just animated very similarly to Seed/Destiny
I just cannot unsee it as the Freedom/Strike Freedom lol
The two images from Destiny are in direct sequence; I don't think Shinn and Destiny are ever overlayed in any frames like Ange and her mech, but the animation sequence is very similar.
Okay, the last scene isn't all that similar. It actually reminds me more of the last scene in the first Gundam 00 opening:
---------------------
So yeah, Fukuda directed this opening, and it shows. The Seed/Destiny images came from a bunch of different openings (and scenes) so Cross Ange isn't copying anything frame by frame. I'm not criticizing it or anything. In fact, I find it quite nostalgic and amusing. I had fun looking through Seed/Destiny openings to find the similar images.
And the similarities between the two worlds don't just end there. Because while the enemies they're fighting look like just dragons, they're actually DRAGONs
Gratuitous Engrishy acroynyms, check! Just like these:
A lot of things in SEED/Destiny are acroynyms, like ZAFT, GUNDAM, PLANT, OMNI, SEED etc etc. I wonder what else in Cross Ange are acroynyms too. Maybe "CROSS"?
Anyway, I'm quite looking forward to new eps of this show. It's just kind of hard to recommend to people..... ^^;
Comments
Cute Haro cursor!!