An old interview with Fukuda

This is taken from Gunota headlines and it's from 2003. Some of you have probably read it, but for those who haven't there are some cool things (note though that some of it has been changed since because Destiny has come along and whatnot). I particularly like Fukuda's original ending... it's a pity he changed it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

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A while back, I did promise a Fukuda interview. Well here it is (even though it's not the same one). This was taken from Fukuda's appearance at Kyoto University on Nov 23rd. The interview report was posted on Char Custom BBS and its contents have been confirmed by people who attended this event.

Warnings (at the event):
- No autographs or handshake
- No tape-recording or video-recording
- No use of cell phones

It started off with Fukuda saying "please don't post this (interview report) on the internet" and he kept repeating this throughout the event.

Apparently Fukuda never worked for Tomino.

Q: Reasons why you became part of the anime business?
A: I love Tomino-san! Only saw the last part of G. My favorite series is Turn A. Haven't watched anime in the past 10 years. Instead, watched a lot of drama and movies. Star Wars is my favorite movie. Tomino hates Titanic. Though I like it *laughs*

Q: Difference betweeen reality and anime?
A: After all, anime's war is only a fashion. I read newspapers like Mainichi and Asahi, but anime isn't really serious. They call it "anti-war discussion", but can't comprehend it because it's hard. With my son, I only discuss war on the level that it is bad.

Q: Difference between First (MSG) and SEED?
A: First was during the Vietnam War era while SEED was created during the Iraqi War. They say war, war, but it's only a robot anime afterall. Gundam elapsed on its own through the times so I wanted to bring it back to a pure robot anime, Combattler V-type.

Q: Are Mwu and Raww Newtypes?
A: Both are the last remaining Newtypes. They were the last Newtypes in the world so I wanted to write a story where non-Newtype people try to solve the problem.

Q: Any plans for the next series?
A: I can't say it. It's top secret. Movie plan was killed. There are plenty of Gundam and Mr. Tomino is still doing it so please guess. (translator's note: talking about the Zeta compilation?)

Q: Why did Waltfeld live?
A: Originally, I didn't plan for him to live, but let him live because there weren't a lot of cool adults left. When I saw the VA's acting on screen, I said to myself, "Man, he's not going to die." When Morita-san heard that, his face had a look saying, "What are you saying when he's planning to die."

Q: About Yzak?
A: He wasn't really a hot-blooded-type character, but his personality changed due to Seki-san's (Tomokazu Seki = VA for Yzak) acting.

Q: About Dearka?
A: Dearka wasn't suppose to switch sides, but I made it happen since the sales of Buster Gundam were bad. Sasanuma, Dearka's voice, had a real sweet voice so it was hard for him to completely become a bad guy.

Q: About the 3 dudes (aka EA Gundam pilots)?
A: I'm not going to give out their profiles. Just between ourselves, they are criminals sentenced to death. They plea bargained as Gundam pilots in return for lesser punishment.

Q: About Raww, Azrael and Patrick Zara
A: They are type of people you can't talk to to solve things so their deaths were forthcoming.

Q: About Athrun?
A: Unlike Kira, Athrun was a disciplined soldier at the start. Which is why I eventually had to 'break' him, but that didn't happen until episode 36 *laughs*

Q: About Cagalli?
A: Even though she told Kira that he's a coordinator, she has no discrimination feelings. Her father told her to study, but that's not her personality which is why she piloted Rouge. Originally, Fllay was suppose to pilot it, but I made them change it halfway.

Q: About Lacus?
A: People say they don't really understand Lacus and even the staff don't. Only I and Morozawa know her. Her personality never changed from the start.

Q: About Fllay?
A: A worried woman who was looking for a place to stay.

Q: About Fllay's Lalah-esque meaning?
A: The title of that scene was "What Fllay wanted to tell him." (a way to let the audience know what Fllay wanted to say). However a dead person can't express their feelings so Kira never heard those words. Which means Kira never got to know Fllay's feelings and he has to carry the burden of her death.

Q: The finale you had in mind?
A: Fllay was suppose to be a human bomb. She returned as a human bomb to Archangel. She was going to blowup outside of the ship along with Ssigh. Then Kira was going to die with Athrun losing an arm...

Q: The meaning of the neutral country Orb?
A: That's just an ideal. Japan that is. However, they weren't occupied. Think about it, in order to be ruled you need massive military power and that's troublesome.

Q: Any thoughts on any episodes?
A: Hmm, names... I'm not good at naming. Idea of SEED came up while I was on the phone. It started with a discussion of naming it with 'S' and I thought of Sin Gundam. However, you can't use that in America. God Gundam was no good in America so... *makes a joke about God Gundam's name* so I named it Freedom. When I thought of this name and announced it to everyone, everyone sorta froze and said, "What?!" This is when I believed, "This is it." About Justice, you have Ultraman (Justice). Usually you avoid having the same names, but "Hey, this is the almighty Gundam! Move out of the way!" Kira derived from "killer". Yamato is very Japanese. Amuro was "Zerosen" (aka the Japanese WW2 Zero fighter). Kai Shiden was from Shidenkai (another Japanese warplane), but Yamato is very easy. BTW, Athrun was derived from yo-ake (dawn), Cagalli from kagaribi (bonfire), Lacus from mizu-umi (lake).

Q: Meaning of SEED?
A: At first, there wasn't a meaning. Those came afterwards *laughs*

Q: Problem between Natural and Coordinator?
A: Since DNA-related subject is a complicated matter in reality too, there were a lot of gray area in the anime as well.

Q: How come the corpses were very graphic?
A: It was necessary. The TV producer stressed, "Show what you have to show" so Fllay's sex was included. About the death of Fllay's father in episode 11 and death of Elle-tan (the girl on the shuttle) in episode 13, the producer passionately said "it has to be more cruel!"

Q: About Fllay?
A: I thought of 2 ways to keep Kira attached to Fllay. One was to give Fllay a big scar on her face and other was sex. I wonder if I should have given her the scar *laughs*

Q: About the VA?
A: Auditions, but I already decided who was going to do whom. I fell in love with Kuwashima-san (VA for Fllay and Natarle) from her works in movie dubs. Same with Ishida-san (Athrun's VA). Fell in love with his dub as Luke Skywalker. I was definitely going to use Mitsuishi-san and Seki Tomokazu-kun.

Q: Meaning of each coul? (one coul equals a 13 episode segment of the show)
A:
1 & 2 - Kira's war intervention
2 - Kira destroying himself due to woman relationships
3 - Recovering Kira
4 - didn't comment

Q: Models of each character?
A: Kira's model was Tatsuya Fujiwara (played Shuya Nanahara in Battle Royale). During that time, Battle Royale was on. Lacus was Audrey Hepburn.

Q: Merchandise aspect?
A: Anime has to be successful in the merchandise department. Turn A was sorry in terms of merchandise. *laughs* The plamodel staff froze after looking at the moustache. I was shooting for something in between First and Wing.

Q: About the difference between the planned story and the final product?
A: Aile/Sword related Strike series plamodel sold over 900,000. I wanted it to hit the one million mark so Rouge appeared. <-- this may have been a joke) The name 'Rouge' was already decided.

Q: Any influence/ideas from other Gundam?
A: Before I started, I watched CCA and F91. I watched the first ep of X and returned the video. *laughs*

Q: Who does Kira like?
A: He doesn't really like either of them (Fllay and Lacus).

Q: What is your message of this anime?
A: If it's boring, please turn off the channel. Isn't it funny when people still watch it even after they call it boring. *laughs*

Q: Morozawa is the scriptwriter because she is related? (ie they are married)
A: No. I fell in love with her abilities. Cyber Formula went well too.

Q: Any SEED production stories?
A: The plan was set in August. The plan went to Mr. Tomino in December. When I was working on SEED, the president told me, "Mr. Tomino won't be involved." The president told me to go greet him anyway so I visited him during the New Year's holiday. Tomino was enraged, "I made Turn A to unify Gundam!" He later said, "Don't trust Bandai" and recommended the book "Cure of Turn A".

Q: About Gundam?
A: Out of all of the previous series, only Tomino-san's Gundam lasted a year (Translator's note: Not quite sure what Fukuda means here). Gundam is serious. Production cost of other anime is about 10-12 million yen, but SEED was 25 million yen (Further note: Presumably, Fukuda means on a per-episode basis rather than the entire series cost as a whole). This is a business where money comes by adding "Gundam." Gundam is awesome. For normal anime, they have to get it within 9 million yen. However, there are times you go over the budget which means you cover the excess cost with merchandise goods. For Gundam, no one argues if you use 15 million yen because it is guranteed that you can recover the cost with merchandise goods.

Q: Where did you spend the most in?
A: About 10 million yen went to 3DCG. (*many who attended said this really didn't answer the question)

Q: About Mwu stopping Dominion's beam. Is that a miracle?
A: It was an anti-beam shield so it can stop it, right?
Someone refutes Fukuda by "Isn't Lohengrin an anti-fortress beam..." and Fukuda replies, "I didn't know that *laughs*"

Other random comments by Fukuda:
- Currently working on next Cyber.
- Director pay for Gundam is good *laughs*


Comments by RGZ
- This is about how most of Fukuda's recent interviews are.
- Based on people who attended this, some were saying Fukuda didn't seem to fully understand the meaning of the questions (which might explain some of the answers being weird) and kept saying "off the record".
- In case you didn't catch it, SEED movie seems dead while Zeta compilation is still ongoing.
- Last, I would like to thank Neo-Era for proofreading this [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Dearka wasn't suppose to switch sides, but I made it happen since the sales of Buster Gundam were bad. Sasanuma, Dearka's voice, had a real sweet voice so it was hard for him to completely become a bad guy.
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faints...
can i call that... modelkitservice?
Making character switch sides so it could sell better... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

Yeah that was a big letdown to read because it was one of the best parts of the series IMO.
Then again - money rules the world.

Anyway - thanks for posting this interview Terra! [img]i/expressions/beer.gif[/img]
Nice reading!

Now, seriously, I believe that Fukuda sucks as a director. What the hell is going on with that guy? This is just ridiculous. If that guy wasn't poking fun at the audience all the time, he really has no clue of what he's doing there and should stop right now! That is just horrible.

A director telling you, that story devices really are that random and actually are introduced because of bad sales...OMFG!

Haha that is an awesome interview. Everyone has this great love for SEED but it sounds like SEED was randomly changing plot directions on a whim. No wonder so much stuff didn't get explained...the whole ultimate coordinator was prolly a last minute change. I mean Yzak wasn't supposed to be a hot head, Dearka wasn't suppose to switch sides, and Waltfeld was gonna stay dead, I think it would be funny to see what other characters had their storys do a total 180 because of crap like model sales or failure to realize killing adults gives you fewer adults later on in series.

I will say that I think the ending where:
Fllay was suppose to be a human bomb. She returned as a human bomb to Archangel. She was going to blowup outside of the ship along with Ssigh. Then Kira was going to die with Athrun losing an arm...
would have been a cool ending and it would have allowed us to avoid all the Shinn v Kira v Athrun fights that have come with GSD.

I also love the answer about how Kira doesn't really like Fllay or Lacus, and his sleeping with Fllay was the alternative to scarring her face haha. Makes it seem like everyone is anticipating a kiss that won't come, although this could have easily been changed since interview since the story could shift direction at any time. I think to come up with SEED and GSD despite the stuff he says in this interview is amazing go Fukuda.

if flayy was a human bomb, i bet i'll hate her alot more den now. she is sucky enuff already, thank god fukuda changed the plot

fukuda sucks

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Originally posted by: Kenzaburo
Now, seriously, I believe that Fukuda sucks as a director. What the hell is going on with that guy? This is just ridiculous. If that guy wasn't poking fun at the audience all the time, he really has no clue of what he's doing there and should stop right now! That is just horrible.

A director telling you, that story devices really are that random and actually are introduced because of bad sales...OMFG!

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I think this makes him a great director.

For him to make seemingly random decisions and still put out a great series really shows that him and the writers are extremely talented.

How many directors can make changes to their movies (shows in this case) and still turn out a great product?

I`m sure you could count them on one hand.

fox_t can i ask how many Gundam shows have you seen before?
Labeling GSD as "great product" you give it too much credit., great product is more than just outstanding Gundam model kit sales
A bit above mediocre at best. Plagued by manu clip shows

It sounds like Fukuda takes nothing seriously fomr that interview.

Q: Any influence/ideas from other Gundam?
A: Before I started, I watched CCA and F91. I watched the first ep of X and returned the video. *laughs*

I didn't laugh when i read that line about GX. While its not the best of shows the first episode is to early to have an opinion, SEEDs first episode wasn't all that either.

Q: Who does Kira like?
A: He doesn't really like either of them (Fllay and Lacus).

I find the question strange, at the end of seed i thought it was quite obvious
that fllay and Kira had feelings for each other. I wonder if the question shoud have been
"Who he likes the most?" What should you call Kira and Lacus realtionship now if he doesn't like
her?

Yeah Fukuda dissed Gundam X. He's a fucking moron.

@Cion: Keep in mind that this interview is old, Destiny didn't exist then.
I am assuming that in the end of Seed, they didn't really have feelings or a relationship but rather just relied on each other.
That changed over the course of 2 years though, I take it.

The reason why Deakka changed sides was absurd.

Flay killing Kira at the end? Could had been the worst ending i have ever seen, after Evangelion of course.

Flay piloting Strike Rogue, OMG, what kind of drug were they using.

Flay giving Sex or Geeting a Scar, Sex was the right choice, we have enough with Izaks Scar, oh, and Andy's.

Last, Kira doesnt like Lacus?. Destiny contradicts it, but maybe it was true in Seed, maybe Kira respected Lacus and after Seed and b4 Destiny they fell in love, but if i remember correctley in GS Special Edition there is a scene that wasnt in the normal SEED, where Lacus Says to Kira that she is Happy for meeting him and leans on him, then he puts his arm around her. So, i think we needed more scenes to be sure of that.

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Originally posted by: Marcis
fox_t can i ask how many Gundam shows have you seen before?
Labeling GSD as "great product" you give it too much credit., great product is more than just outstanding Gundam model kit sales
A bit above mediocre at best. Plagued by manu clip shows

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F91 Gundam
Gundam Wing
Turn-A
Gundam X
half of MSG
just downloaded Zeta Gundam

let`s get something straight...he was talking about GS...not GSD...

and yes GS was great..not the best...definitely not bad...

also...i prefer to see more new gundams...because i don`t buy model kits...

Edit: also if you hate GSD so much...stop watching it.

Well the Deakka comment and the general I-dont-give-a-fuck tone makes me see how Gundam Destiny is turning out the way it is...

I was shocked at how much he planned character development around the VA. Shouldn't they just be the tools to deliver the written character? I mean, its like the means are the ends...

His comments on the female characters were pretty damn funny.

And Mwu and Rau as Newtypes... what does that make Rey in Destiny?

Q: About Gundam?
A: Out of all of the previous series, only Tomino-san's Gundam lasted a year (Translator's note: Not quite sure what Fukuda means here). Gundam is serious. Production cost of other anime is about 10-12 million yen, but SEED was 25 million yen (Further note: Presumably, Fukuda means on a per-episode basis rather than the entire series cost as a whole). This is a business where money comes by adding "Gundam." Gundam is awesome. For normal anime, they have to get it within 9 million yen. However, there are times you go over the budget which means you cover the excess cost with merchandise goods. For Gundam, no one argues if you use 15 million yen because it is guranteed that you can recover the cost with merchandise goods.

This bastard IS just using the good name of Gundam to sell model kits, video games etc. and feels that sales are the focus, rather than delivering a good product. I feel like I've been watching a great long advertisement the whole time... And these were his thoughts on SEED... Destiny is far worse (The Quest to Make More Money, ala Spaceballs 2)

Q: About Mwu stopping Dominion's beam. Is that a miracle?
A: It was an anti-beam shield so it can stop it, right?
Someone refutes Fukuda by "Isn't Lohengrin an anti-fortress beam..." and Fukuda replies, "I didn't know that *laughs*"

And this bit proves that they dont pay a shit of attention to technology consistency or believability of weapons development. When its time to make promote a new model, they kill a character or change his role in the show or have a big battle where something gets destroyed so they can have another newer one come out...

God this guy pisses me off

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Originally posted by: fox_t

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Originally posted by: Marcis
fox_t can i ask how many Gundam shows have you seen before?
Labeling GSD as "great product" you give it too much credit., great product is more than just outstanding Gundam model kit sales
A bit above mediocre at best. Plagued by manu clip shows

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F91 Gundam
Gundam Wing
Turn-A
Gundam X
half of MSG
just downloaded Zeta Gundam

let`s get something straight...he was talking about GS...not GSD...

and yes GS was great..not the best...definitely not bad...

also...i prefer to see more new gundams...because i don`t buy model kits...

Edit: also if you hate GSD so much...stop watching it.

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Okay i see.
SEED was better than GSD that's for sure. Never argued about that.
I never said i hate GSD. I am frustrated yes. I understand that 2nd season can be worse but not that worse. People are ranting about GSD not because they hate it but because it fails to fullfill their expectations. They want war drama, character development and such. They get ridiculously overpowered Gundams appearing just about every day, silly fights with no reason, tons of recaps.

There is also an inconsistancy error in the interview, Fukuda claims that the original EA druggies were convicts who pleaded for a "lighter" sentence (and instead became living CPUs, hell of a light sentence)... but in Destiny, it's established that Clotho grew up at the Lodonia lab (the "concentration camp" for kids who were to become living weapons).

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Originally posted by: Marcis
Okay i see.
SEED was better than GSD that's for sure. Never argued about that.
I never said i hate GSD. I am frustrated yes. I understand that 2nd season can be worse but not that worse. People are ranting about GSD not because they hate it but because it fails to fullfill their expectations. They want war drama, character development and such. They get ridiculously overpowered Gundams appearing just about every day, silly fights with no reason, tons of recaps.

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it`s fine to be frustrated...

but you are getting a war drama...

there are TONS of anime that are FAR worse than GSD...far worse...GSD is only bad compared to SEED...compare it to any other large robot anime...and it`s easily better than average...

there wasn`t even supposed to be a GSD...and if there wasn`t tons of ppl on this board would be complaining for a second season of SEED...well u got one...not quite upto SEED standards but what can u do...oh i know...STOP WATCHING!!! otherwise...STOP COMPLAINING!!!!

ppl tune in week after week and then complain about how bad it is...that doesn`t even make sense...seriously if u don`t like it that much...stop d/l otherwise quit bitching...

by the way there were only 4 recap episodes...get over it...SEED had 2...2 more episodes...deep down you guys actually like the show...and if you would stop complaining...you would see that it`s actually not as bad as ppl on here try to make it seem...

ridiculously overpowered Gundams??? what are you basing this on...what is your point of reference...it can`t be any other Gundam series...in case you haven`t noticed...that`s the way it is in SEED...no i`m sorry that`s the way it is in EVERY OTHER GUNDAM EVER!!!! the main pilots get wicked suits...that`s just the way it is...deal with it...do u want to see Kira getting chopped down by a GOUF...or Shinn dying at the hands of a GINN...how about Athrun getting taken down by a ZAKU...

try watching F91 Gundam where the kid (can`t remember his name) just steps into a mobile suit...for the first time in his life...and starts taking down baddies who`ve been piloting their whole life...heck he even took out 2 mobile suits in 1 shot...during his first run...on his second run he was able to fake like he couldn`t fly...how does that work??? the justification there is that he`s a newtype...oh well...that`s ok right...

like i said...i`m happy with SEED...and i`m satisfied with GSD...i could go on all day about the character development in GSD...it`s a lot more subtle than SEED...but it`s a shame you and a lot of the ppl on this board missed out on it...

but really u want to complain about new Gundams and model kit sales...and really at the end of the day...there all in it for business...they want to make money...so can i blame fukuda....no...because i`d be trying to keep my job as well...and if it takes 7 new gundams...than it takes 7 new gundams...

Okay, end this discussion here. This is not the right place for this.

GotWoot Moderator

Some of you guys do notice this interview is from <u>2003</u> right? so things may have changed it's the directors creative input that makes a series what it is. If you think you can go do a better job go get a film degree and do it.

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Originally posted by: SOLDIER [X]
If you think you can go do a better job go get a film degree and do it.

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This is the worst argument ever.

"If you think this food tastes bad, then become a chef and do it better."
"If you think this game sucks, then become a game producer and do it better."

Etc.
You can't complain on anything just because you haven't the educational build to do your own version of it?

Q: About Mwu stopping Dominion's beam. Is that a miracle?
A: It was an anti-beam shield so it can stop it, right?
Someone refutes Fukuda by "Isn't Lohengrin an anti-fortress beam..." and Fukuda replies, "I didn't know that *laughs*"


He needs to know his own show...fucking dumbass

Quote:

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Originally posted by: aznimperialx
Q: About Mwu stopping Dominion's beam. Is that a miracle?
A: It was an anti-beam shield so it can stop it, right?
Someone refutes Fukuda by "Isn't Lohengrin an anti-fortress beam..." and Fukuda replies, "I didn't know that *laughs*"


He needs to know his own show...fucking dumbass

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While the Positron Cannon is the most powerful conventional weapon I've never heard it referred to as an "anti-fortress" beam before.

This was an interesting read, but I don't know how serious the interview was. Lacus = Audrey Hepburn?? I don't relly recall Ms. Hepburn having pink hair.... It seems like Fukuda was laughing a lot. Maybe he was trying to make lame jokes? I think I'll disregard most of it.

Quote:

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Originally posted by: Terracosmo
This is taken from Gunota headlines and it's from 2003. Some of you have probably read it, but for those who haven't there are some cool things (note though that some of it has been changed since because Destiny has come along and whatnot). I particularly like Fukuda's original ending... it's a pity he changed it [img][/img]

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Q: Any thoughts on any episodes?
A: Hmm, names... I'm not good at naming. Idea of SEED came up while I was on the phone. It started with a discussion of naming it with 'S' and I thought of Sin Gundam. However, you can't use that in America. God Gundam was no good in America so... *makes a joke about God Gundam's name* so I named it Freedom. When I thought of this name and announced it to everyone, everyone sorta froze and said, "What?!" This is when I believed, "This is it." About Justice, you have Ultraman (Justice). Usually you avoid having the same names, but "Hey, this is the almighty Gundam! Move out of the way!" Kira derived from "killer". Yamato is very Japanese. Amuro was "Zerosen" (aka the Japanese WW2 Zero fighter). Kai Shiden was from Shidenkai (another Japanese warplane), but Yamato is very easy. BTW, Athrun was derived from yo-ake (dawn), Cagalli from kagaribi (bonfire), Lacus from mizu-umi (lake).

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Since Kira's name was derived from "killer" and he did indeed kill quite a few people / beat up everyone, doesn't it seem like Shinn is derived from "die"? Meaning either he will cause much death or eventually die himself? Any speculation on this?
Kira was a main character in GS and Shinn is a main character in GSD. Following this logic, there is a possibility of Shinn dying. Please excuse me if any of this is wrong. I do not know much about the Japanese language. It just sounds like it to me.

About the Beamshield thing - as far as I know from Gundam 'lore' if you could call it that, 'Beams' are the product of energised Mega-Particles from Mynovsky Physics (something they made up to make all this possible), the Beam Coating on sheilds are made of thesame particle lattice used to disrupt the Beam energy (they also deploy it in cloud format around the ships) and the Lohengrin is a beam of Anti-Electrons.

Taking those three things into account, the Beam Shield 'SHOULD' have provided no, lasting protection against the Antimatter Beam, aside form giving it another chunk of metal to go through (this is why the beam shields still melt when exposed to high amounts of heat and just dissipate beam weapons.)

I'm not sure what the Hyper Impulse Cannon acctually fires, it's supposed to be a Beam weapon, but it has the same animation as every other Antimatter weapon as well so... I dunno...

It makes sense, after a fashion, I certainly don't see it as a big mistake or anything, since Strike did not survive the explosion (but apparently Mwu did... FUCKING STUPID WIRTERS!)