As part of our Summer Tv Binge, I thought I’d give myself a suitably unwieldy challenge that will likely take me years to complete. I’m a huge fan of mecha anime in several forms and, in fact, my favourite anime of all time is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Yet, I’ve always missed out on the franchise that helped bring mecha to a new level of popularity: Gundam.
Before we get into the review, some house rules:
- I’m watching the original Mobile Suit Gundam in it’s original Japanese with English subtitles. I don’t know how good/bad the dub is for this show, but I wanted to experience the original Japanese dialogue.
- This Summer will cover the first 21 episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam as per the first half of the Blu Ray release.
- If I’m lucky enough to continue covering Gundam past this series, I will be following the Universal Century timeline in release order (meaning Zeta would be next) before moving onto other timelines.
And that should do it! Let’s dive into ‘Gundam Rising,’ the very first episode of Mobile Suit Gundam.
1. God, This Is ‘70s As Hell
The funny thing about being interested in Gundam is that my first experiences with the franchise were two fold: the first was catching half an episode here and there of the English dub of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing growing up as well following the Gunpla scene for quite a while after being gifted a couple of models as a kid (which were pre-assembled Master Grade kits of Gundam Deathscythe Hell and Gundam Epyon from Endless Waltz, for those curious). That certainly coloured my perception of what the franchise was and it’s associated visual aesthetics that only developed as I caught glimpses of more recent series like Iron-Blooded Orphans.
That only made actually sitting down to watch Mobile Suit Gundam all the weirder an experience. From the animation that immediately called Speed Racer to mind to the ultra cheesy opening and closing themes to the gangly geometries of the Mobile Suits themselves, this was a strange experience. And yet, I loved it. It’s one of the progenitors of a genre that I’ve come to love and it has the same kind of dated yet timeless charm that still makes Star Wars so innately watchable after 40 years.
Moegare, Gandamu!
2. Would You Like A Side With That?
One of the things that spawned out of this surprise at the animation style is a weird tonal dissonance between the story being told and how it’s presented. The animation style makes me think of a 70s/80s Saturday Morning Cartoon and yet it’s a very gritty, political take on war that doesn’t shy away from maturity. There’s mentions of children being used as guerrilla soldiers and we even see the mass civilians casualties of the Zeon attack on Side 7; something that was much darker than I was ever expecting this show to explore and it does it in the first episode!
In this episode, we get to see the human cost of war, not just in their deaths, but in their lives. These people have known war for a long time and it’s affected their daily lives, even if they aren’t soldiers. We get a glimpse into the fact that the engineers of Side 7 hate the soldiers for moving in and bringing the attention of the Zeon forces there.
I was totally not expecting such mature storytelling from this show this early in it’s run and I’m incredibly impressed. Hell, there’s a moment where Fraw Bow mourns her mother in the middle of a pile of corpses in the first episode. This show is harsh, guys.
3. Amuro
Much like every other other mecha anime ever, our protagonist is a young boy thrust into a world he doesn’t quite grasp through a twist of fate. In this series, our protagonist is Amuro Ray and we actually get a solid reasoning for why he ends up being Gundam’s pilot. We’re first introduced to him being so wrapped in his work as a mechanic that he didn’t hear an evacuation alarm. He’s so focused that Fraw Bow has to almost mother him into making sure that he eats and is safely evacuated from Side 7.
Continued belowThere are moments where I had to wonder if they were purposefully coding Amuro as autistic or if that was a side-effect of showing him to be so focused on his work that the rest of the world seems to disappear. Either way, it’s interesting to have a protagonist feel so disconnected to the rest of the world initially and I wonder where they’re going to take his arc.
4. Gundam Rises
Okay, I have to admit: the way the Gundam is introduced is actually kind of weird. I mean, our first look at a Mobile Suit is of the Zeon’s Zakus and the animation plays a neat trick on the audience where at first it seems like they may just be armoured spacesuits? Before revealing that the human pilots can fit in the palm of the Zaku’s hand.
We hear whispers throughout the episode of the Federation making a Mobile Suit and indeed the crux of the episode is the Zeon forces investigating that out before attacking Side 7 when they find the Gundam. We see Amuro’s dad transporting the Gundam and get a scene where Amuro confronts his own father over caring more about the Mobile Suits than the lives of the people around them, but the episode undermines this by having Amuro lie down in the middle of a war zone to read the Gundam’s instruction manual? Before hopping the fuck in?
It’s a strange turn of events getting Amuro in the Gundam, but I will admit that the first battle with the Gundam against the Zakus show a real interesting series to come and I can’t wait for the robot fights to get even bigger and better than that.
5. The Crimson Comet
As well as our protagonist, Amuro, we’re also introduced to his opposite, Char Aznable a.k.a. the Crimson Comet. It’s interesting because we don’t actually learn much about Char in this episode other than being a leader of the Zeon forces investigating Side 7. However, everything about Char is shown to be the opposite of Amuro. From the fact that Amuro is more open as a character while Char is masked to the audience down to their opposing colour schemes (blue for Amuro, red for Char), everything we see of Char is in direct opposition to what we learn about Amuro.
This is a really clever way for setting up an antagonist for a story without actually having them meet or know each other prior. Instead, the information the audience is given about each character contrasts with each other to create a natural division between the two before they ever share the screen.
