Long Overdue Self-Masturbatory Nerd Excercise Gundam Summary As Follows:
(those that don't particularly care for the previous word armageddon may want to scroll down a bit)
After Victory Gundam, Bandai began to shift its priorities. The UC continuity wasn't selling like it was before, and despite the show's relatively low ratings, Bandai was still making serious bank on mobile suit model kits. In an effort to create new properties (and thus market new model kits), Bandai began a series of standalone Gundams not related to the Universal Century. The following have no relation to each other and can be viewed independantly without missing out on any backstory:
G Gundam - TV 1994:
G Gundam was the first of the Alternate Universe Gundams, and being directed by the man behind Giant Robo, it took a huge turn from the Gundams preceding it.
Domon Kasshu is looking for his brother. Domon Kasshu is also the champion for Neo Japan in a global tournament to determine the ruler of the world. In G Gundam, the Earth is ruled by the colonies, and in an attempt to avoid conflict, every 4 years, the colonies send their best mobile weapons and pilots to champion their causes in a global tournament that determines who rules policy for the next 4 years. Domon's brother is involved in an unsavory organization called the Devil Army. A soulless organization created by the Devil Gundam, a mobile armor created using nanomachines, and implanted with an uncontrollable artificial intelligence. Domon must find his brother and defeat the Devil Gundam with the help of an international crew of friends he picks up along the way.
Ultimately G Gundam is a love story buried in a fighting show. The story is pretty rediculous, though the plot advances very well, and the characters are more often than not likeable, even admirable figures. G Gundam is first and foremost about big robot fighting, and so long as one keeps that in mind the show is an enjoyable experience. The general Japanese stereotyping is also hilarious, as the Gundams of the various nations implement hilarious stereotypes into their designs. The Mexican Gundam, for instance, has a sombrero, and the American Gundam is a boxing unit that carries a pair of six-shooters.
G Gundam is a fun watch if you're not looking for a serious militaristic drama as is featured in almost every other Gundam to date.
New Mobile Report Gundam Wing - TV 1995:
That's right, the Gundam Wing. The show that more often than not got people interested in the Gundam franchise. If you've seen it, then you know the score, but if you haven't, I'm honestly not going to bother making a full review and summary for this show. Compared to every other Gundam, this is pure shit, and up until Gundam Seed: Destiny, the most shallow and soulless attempt by Bandai to push their model kits. Ultimately the show is nothing more than a retelling of the Universal Century from the One Year War to Char's Counterattack, only with different characters and a retarded plot.
In Gundam Wing the fate of the world is determined by a singular untouchable demigod (in other Gundams, the Gundam pilot was always increadibly powerful, but the danger the unit and its pilot was in were never in question) and the deaths of millions of people is meaningless to the plot, and only affects the personal issues of a few whiny brats. Gundam Wing also borrowed a page from DBZ's playbook, and unabashedly recycled animation over and over and over again in lieu of making combat that actually seemed like battles. (this was also something that was used in older Gundam TV shows, but they were never used as much or as noticeably as is the case here) The best thing to come out of this huge piece of shit was the fighting game for the SNES.
I'm also not going to say much about the follow-up movie Endless Waltz, which is meaningless save for Bandai's mercy killing of the franchise.
Bandai: And then all of the mobile suits were destroyed and the people lived in peace, the end.
Fanboys: But, we want more Gundam Wing...
Bandai: The end!
After War Gundam X - TV 1996:
The Gundam That Almost Never Was But Was Given The Greenlight Before the Budget Was Retracted Due to A Saturday Morning Timeslot and The 49 Episode Run Was Reduced to 39.
Gundam X exists in an alternate history for the Universal Century (while this isn't directly claimed, there are a lot of serious implications to it) in which the Spacenoids didn't stop with the colony drop on Sydney, and turned the Earth into a desolated wasteland. This time the Gundam pilot is fifteen year old Garrod Ran, who is a member of the Vulture scavenger group.
Despite its post-apocalyptic setting, I still haven't seen the show due to a disinterest in its underdeveloped plot. If fan reactions, and surface appearances are any indication, though, Gundam X is probably marginally better or worse than Victory Gundam.
Turn A Gundam - TV 1999
After a 5 year hiatus following Victory Gundam, Tomino returned to direct Turn A Gundam for Bandai's Gundam 20th Anniversary Big Bang. The result was a show that drastically diverted from Tomino's own conventions, in addition to those of Gundam.
In Correct Century 2345, the Moonrace had grown tired of their isolation on the Earth's natural sattelite, and sent a forward reconnaissance team to gather information about the state of Earth culture and society, and to work with Moonrace agents as they start their forced emigration to the planet that birthed them. Loran Cehack is one of the group of three sent to a nation in what is the former United States. Loran becomes the servant boy for a wealthy mining family, and develops a master/servant relationship with the family's two girls, one of which bears a near perfect resemblance to the queen of the Moonrace. During the village's coming of age ceremony, however, the forward team of Moonrace begin shooting up the local capital following misunderstangs between themselves and the local militia. As a result, the totem that is central to the ritual is revealed to be the a white mobile suit rumored to have destroyed the world thousands of years ago. Loran pilots the mobile suit in order to protect his masters and friends, yet ends up being tied to it due to obligations forced upon him by the nature of the conflict between the Moonrace and the Militia.
In my opinion, the best Gundam ever made, and definitely one of the best overall Animes ever made. Unfortunately, it hasn't been released in the United States yet, and Bandai has made no intention to localize it any time soon.
The way this show varies from the other Gundams can be demonstrated in the first episode: no fights. The first episode features not a single combat, (there's even only one mobile suit in a 10-second scene) in a franchise dedicated to giant piloted robots beating the crap out of each other. The reason for this is because Turn A Gundam is a character play rather than a War Drama. In fact, an honest-to-goodness war doesn't even flare up until well into the last 10 episodes, as the rest of the series is a running series of skirmishes and political maneuvering between militia and Moonrace, as the Earthnoids attempt to catch up to the Moonrace militarily. This character play is further enhance by the setting, in which post-apocalyptic societies on Earth have just reached a late-Victorian Era level of technology and culture. This is literally a period drama set against the backdrop of giant robots and spaceships. Even the technologically advanced Moonrace has limited capabilities due to the lack of resources and the population with which to harvest them. The ending is also phenomenal, and while not everyone dies as in other Tomino projects, not everyone lives happily ever after.
All of the characters are phenomenal. Not a single one is overly annoying (with the exception of Agrippa Maintainer, who is annoying by design) and each one is extremely well written with deep personalities and identifiable issues. The protagonist follows along the long series of pacifistic Gundam Pilots, only whereas most of them had been idealistic children, Loran has a legitimate concern that affects his aversion to killing, namely that in being a Moonrace, he has an inherent need to avoid fighting his own people, but at the same time must be the champion of the Militia so that the Earthers have a strong footing on which to negotiate. This places him in a plausible dilemma, which is easy to identify with.
The production values are phenomenal, the battles are very well directed, and there's not a single usage of recycled animation. The mechanical designs are very unique, as Bandai enlisted the creative services of Syd Mead, who is best known for his work in Blade Runner. The music is also increadible, as it is scored by the legendary Yoko Kanno. (Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus)
Again, the best Gundam ever made. Absolutely everyone must watch this show, as it's a high point in anime storytelling.
Gundam Seed - TV 2002:
The beginning of the end for Gundam TV. At the present, it would seem that Turn A Gundam effectively "jumped the shark" for the Gundam franchise, and this show marks the unfortunate degeneration into mediocrity.
Gundam Seed takes place in an Alternate Universe a lot like the original Universal Century, only a serious divergence in its history leads to the development of nations and cultures unlike any in the Universal Century.
In Gundam Seed, the space is dominated by the Coordinators, a race of genetically enhanced (and racially persecuted) society of superhumans. For close to a year they've been fighting against the oppressive Earth Alliance in an attempt to establish their independance. (sound familiar?) In an attempt to steal the newest series of mobile suits in development for the Earth Alliance (also sound familiar?), one of the Gundams ends up being piloted by Kira Yamato, a local engineering student on the colony, who at first is only interested in protecting his friends, and then ends up joining the Earth Alliance as he becomes caught up in a senseless conflict pockmarked with tragedy and genocide.
Gundam Seed starts off with a lot of problems. First off, the premise for the show is exactly like the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The Earthers have no mobile suits, and are forced to fight the militarily superior Spacers with mobile armors and tanks. The first prototype mobile suits developed by the Earthers are almost stolen by the Spacers before the Gundam is taken by a reluctant pilot with a heart of gold as he develops a pacifistic philosophy before becoming an untouchable Demigod. The first episode also follows practically the exact same circumstances as the first episode of Zeta Gundam. Spacer commandos infiltrate a colony where the latest model Earther mobile suits are being kept, and try to take them, only to have the most powerful unit end up being piloted by an engineering student.
This lack of originality permeates the show as it replays the early events of Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam until it gets to Earth and starts to show some signs of originality. It's not until the second half, though, that the show kicks into full gear and actually becomes worth the viewer's time. Ultimately, it still borrows plot elements from Zeta Gundam, but a lot of the characters ended up growing on me and the end of one in particular brought a tear to my eye.
The protagonist, on the other hand, is the most unlikeable of all the Gundam protagonists. While his best friend Athrun is pretty solid, and their initial conflict keeps the show fairly interesting throughout the horribly mediocre first half, Kira himself is a stupid brat. Whiny, easily manipulated, and extremely idealistic, he dwells too much on the people he's killed, and turns into an emo Demigod.
Of all anime character archetypes I hate the most, it's the Demigod. Usually the anime Demigod is a pacifist, who uses his exceptional skills to avoid killing others, no matter how bad they are, or how many people they've hurt (Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun). However, these Demigods usually end up recruiting a group of followers that admire their pacifist ideals.
The problem with this is that while it's fine and dandy for the Demigod to not kill anybody, it's unreasonable for him to apply his standards to his normal weakling followers, as they're more often than not incapable of self-defense without having an intent to kill. The end result is that the followers more often than not end up dead due to their inability to defend themselves without lethal force (Trigun) and yet despite the fact that their ideology only ends up killing more people, the Demigods continue to remain pacifists, completely devaluating the sacrifices of his followers.
The same can be said for Seed's Akira, and while it is a pet peeve of mine, the show still ended up pretty exciting for people that haven't seen Zeta Gundam. Overall pretty average.
Gundam Seed: Destiny
The nail in the coffin for Gundam TV. If Gundam Seed was its Fallout Tactics, then Gundam Seed: Destiny is its POS.
Don't watch it, never watch it. No matter how interesting the show may seem at first, the ending will only piss you off as the plot degenerates into stupid, mindless, bullshit. The complaints I have for this show is a mile long, and I don't really care to repeat them here given the late hour, and the general disinterest many of you have. I love talking about how bad things are, though, so if anybody's interested drop me a line on the subject.
Terrible, awful, no good. You will waste your time if you watch this show, never watch it ever.
