#unicorn gundam show | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

burgers-in-anime · 10 months

Text

The lack of burgers in Witch from Mercury is giving credence to my theory that burgers are not so much a calling card for Gundam as they are a calling card for Yoshiyuki Tomino. Stay with me here.

Burgers most prominently feature in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, in Zeta Gundam and in Gundam ZZ. Each of them have multiple episodes with burgers, and in many cases, those burgers are explicitly addressed — not incidental details. Zeta Gundam, famously, has Bright chowing down on a burger while Emma drops some psychoanalysis of Kamille on him, but it also has Bright being told off for eating a burger on the bridge. Burgers are all over ZZ, including a scene where Judau hands them out to the crew from a basket. And MSG has a burger as Sleggar Law's death flag, but also an entire episode dedicated to Bright trying to procure salt to make the ship's burgers taste better — both of which were iconic enough to become meals in the Gundam cafe.

And one thing these three shows have in common is that they were all written and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino.

Four examples of burgers in early Gundam works. The top two are from MSG; the bottom two are (L-R) Zeta and ZZ

Tomino doesn't feature them as prominently in other works, but they do still appear. For example, Victory Gundam still includes a scene of characters eating burgers, and Gundam F91 has a burger on a sign in the background. That second example doesn't seem like much until you remember that F91 was originally planned as a full TV series before being compressed into a movie, and has little opportunity for characters to have downtime — so that one appears at all feels very intentional.

You can also see burgers on display in another Tomino work from the period, Space Runaway Ideon.

L-R: Victory Gundam, Gundam F91, Space Runaway Ideon

Meanwhile, when Tomino was kicked off the franchise, the burgers went with him. In G Gundam, Domon is offered a pizza, and there is no sign of burgers. In Unicorn, Banagher takes Mineva to get some fast food, but they visit a hot dog stand. In Gundam Hathaway, Hathaway and friends get fried chicken. And in Witch from Mercury, the only food on display — aside from the tomatoes — is cafeteria grub and, uh, slabs of ham.

Really, the only instances I know of burgers appearing in a non-Tomino Gundam are in Wing, and all that has is a burger on a billboard and a Wacdonald's sign — both blink-and-you'll-miss-it background details. While on the surface, this may seem comparable to F91, it really isn't: when you have forty-nine episodes and a movie to work with, you can do a lot more than a sign.

Gundam characters pointedly eating something other than a burger

And what happened when Tomino returned to the franchise with Reconguista in G?

The burgers came back too!

Reconguista in G

There is a single exception here: War in the Pocket, not directed by Tomino, does prominently feature burgers (and I don't mean the meme). But that, itself, may be telling. War in the Pocket was the first Gundam series to be made without Tomino's involvement; were the creative leads perhaps inspired to add a gratuitous burger scene to evoke the spirit of Tomino?

All that said, the reason this is still only a theory, and not a master's thesis, is that I don't have all the data yet. I haven't seen every post-Tomino Gundam series (though, frankly, I have no real drive to see what I've missed), and the only one of Tomino's non-Gundam works I've seen is the aforementioned Ideon. If burgers show up in Xabungle, L-Gaim or King Gainer… then I'll really know I've cracked the code.

#burger history #gundam #mobile suit gundam #mobile suit zeta gundam #mobile suit gundam zz #mobile suit victory gundam #gundam reconguista in g #gundam witch from mercury #yoshiyuki tomino #anime #burger

551 notes · View notes

athena-cat-wizard-official · 10 months

Text

Reccomending Gundam is like: "oh, i want to reccomend Gundam Unicorn, but that wont make any sesne if you haven't watched Char's Counterattack. but. hu. that doesn't really work well unless you've seen the original series, or at least the compilation movies. And tbh Gundam Unicorn works best if you've watched Zeta and Double Zeta, but the frst half of Double Zeta kinda sucks? Also 08th MS team is soo sooo sooooo good but its only 12 episodes and not related to anything else. still watch it though. And then i want to reccomend NON UC gundam, but there's so much? Like, watch IBO and Witch From Mercury for sure. but you should also try older stuff. SEED is really good but everyone hated SEED destiny, but theres a new SEED movie in 2023? also watch Turn A gundam and Gundam Wing totally, but i haven't seen them yet they're just in everyone elses recommend lists. Also some AUs feel like they'e connected to the UC canon but aren't at all, like 00 gundam. so like, watch them before or after UC? who knows. also theres late UC which happens, like, 50 or so years after the main series (0079). And that has an entire new enemy and new mobile suits and such, that are really barely connected to the original UC events, but there's apparently some good stuff there, like F91 and Victory (i didnt really like ep1 of victory so i never gave it a go). So do I reccommend that? do i tell people to start with late UC given you dont need early UC to understand it? Oh god oh fuck what about gundam build fighters!??! How do you even explain that" Anyway, if you liked Gundam Witch From Mercury, I think a good place to start is with 08th MS Team for a taster of UC, or Iron Blooded Orphans for a darker Gundam show with similar formatting, characters, and themes to G-Witch, but better pacing.

324 notes · View notes

amalgamasreal · 10 months

Text

On G-Witch and the "Giant Space Laser"

Seeing a bunch of new fans who's first experience with Gundam has been Witch from Mercury be either confused or even angry at the big laser:

So I thought I'd take some time to explain the history of Space Lasers and Gundam and how every long time fan has basically had it on our bingo card since the show started. Note: I'm not including Victory's Keilas Guilie or G-Gundam's Statue of Liberty Cannon.

The first one was called the Solar Ray and it appeared in the original Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979, it was a converted colony from Side 3, and used by the Principality of Zeon during the One Year War:

The second one appeared in 1985's Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam as the Colony Laser and it was called Gryps 2, it was created out of the husk of the colony of Side 7 and used by the Titan's during the Gryps War:

The next time we'd see one was in 1996's After War Gundam X, an AU timeline which was almost a "What If?" universe of the original Universal Century timeline that asked the question "What if Char had succeeded during the counter attack?". The colony laser in question was created out of one the abandoned colonies left over during the 7th Space War. It also had one of the coolest destruction scenes in a show IMHO:

2002's Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has not one, not two, but three different stand-in's for the old Colony Laser in the form of the the "Cyclops System", which was a powerful targeted array of microwave satellite weapons that vaporized all water it was pointed at, this included inside of human bodies. The effects in the show were graphic.

The second from SEED was GENEIS or Gamma Emission by Nuclear Explosion Stimulate Inducing System, which was essentially a huge gamma ray cannon that used nuclear explosions as the fuel to generate the gamma ray bullets. Just like before the results of it firing are VERY GRAPHIC.

Moving on to the third from SEED we have Requiem, which was a large cannon installed on the dark side of the Moon and used reflecting relay stations positioned around the Earth to hit targets with pin-point accuracy:

Leaving SEED behind finally we move on to 2007's Gundam 00 and their Memento Mori system, which in a departure from previous superweapons in Gundam was mounted to the Earth's orbital ring and used by the Earth Sphere Federation organization A-Laws to destroy basically the entire Middle East. Silly fact: because it was mounted to a ring the first one had a conical field of fire which gave it a blind spot that they could sneak up on.

Circling back to the Universal Century we have 2010's Gundam Unicorn trotting out Gryps 2 again, and in a scene that Witch From Mercury directly pays tribute to: a character face tanking the blast to save their friends and family:

youtube

And now we're at today and Witch From Mercury has used the reference wonderfully.

I hope this explains a little bit of the history of these things and how they fit into the Gundam Franchise and how they don't come as a shock or surprise to the long time fans. Rather if anything it's like seeing an old friend back in the mix.

#mobile suit gundam #gundam #mobile suit gundam the witch from mercury #g-witch #gwitch #g witch #gundam the witch from mercury #gundam witch from mercury #universal century #after war gundam x #mobile suit gundam seed #mobile suit gundam 00 #mobile suit gundam unicorn #long post #gundam history #Youtube

173 notes · View notes

eleemosynecdoche · 8 months

Note

is the tsukasa x sanae stuff outta nowhere or is there some weird canon thing implying they actually fucked in the new game

The oil fire is coming from the fact that Tsukasa shows up in the new game calling Sanae "Sanae-chan" and just... living at the Moriya Shrine for the rest of the game. Sanae doesn't seem to be trying too hard to chase Tsukasa out. Tsukasa says something about Sanae to Aunn that sure looks like she's revealing some private secret. Tsukasa makes this face:

It's very clear that they had the worst sex humans or youkai can possibly have and are now cringe girlfriends, Tsukasa's wounded heart healing day by day as she's exposed to raw autism.

And if you don't believe me, you can ask ZUN if it's true that Tsukasa started awkwardly fumbling at Sanae's dick in between Char's Counterattack and the first episode of Gundam Unicorn.

#touhou #th19 spoilers #oil fire

119 notes · View notes

genshingorlsrevengeance · 2 months

Text

Original Writing Project: 916

OKAY, now that I've edited the first few chapters enough, I think it's finally time to have its debut to you all!

This is an original sci-fi story completely written by me, with MAJOR influences from things like Gundam and whatnot.

I want to post it here to get your all's feedback and just to share some good ol' storytelling, so please let me know what you guys think of it, your feedback/comments is always read by me!

I expect to have the first few chapters out sometime during this week after your normal schedule of simping, but this post will just be covering what the main idea of the story is/what shows/games is influencing it.

Below the cut is the blurb, inspirations, main characters, and a story excerpt!

First of all, thank you so much for even pressing the keep reading tab/showing any remote interest. I understand this isn't really what you come to this blog for, so it means the world to me!

Anyways, first up is the story blurb:

===

Story Blurb:

The year is 1177. Thirty-four years have passed since the battlefield had been introduced to the bipedal warmachines known as Soldat D’acier. Though they only stand a few meters above tanks, they were able to reduce armored divisions to scrap metal, and fortresses once thought impenetrable transformed to piles of rubble.

The entire continent of Anis rushed their militaries into an arms race to have their own versions of these steel behemoths.

In the name of expansion and rightful conquest, the country of Florence had declared war on Cumbria in 1155. The invasion saw countless deployments of Soldats on both sides, and death quickly followed in their wake. The two nations signed a peace treaty to end hostilities after five long years, but their crimes wouldn't be so easily forgotten by the people, nor its creations.

Now, the man-made atrocities emerging from the "Enhanced Human Initiative" stoke the flames of war once more, forcing an uneasy alliance. And from the same crime that threatens them, comes their final hope: Enhanced Human 916.

===

Inspirations:

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Mobile Suit Gundam: Narrative Mobile Suit Gundam: Unicorn Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeta The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, Scarlet Nexus, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Girls' Frontline,

I was not joking when I said the major influences are from Gundam. At first I was worried about not being 100% original, but eh. Write what you love, right? Elements of the story, themes, suits, and a unholy amount more is snatched from all the Gundam shows listed above.

Armored Core 6 is what inspired the look of the "Soldats", and how combat flows in the story. The main lead, 916, is called numbers bc of the player character 621. (I also learned that the reasons I chose that number came from my subconscious, specifically Darling in the Franxx and that character, 196 aka Ikuno)

Scarlet Nexus inspired some of the tech things regarding the pilots being able to "read each other's minds" so to speak. Pretty much a less space-magic version of being a Newtype from Gundam, as well as other characters.

Trails of Cold Steel and Girls' Frontline inspired the other cast members, and speaking of which:

===

Main Cast:

Wolf Company

Enhanced Human 916, "Vi", Age: 21

A young man who escaped the "Enhanced Human Initiative." Due to augmentation and surgeries, he remains stoic and emotionless, but thanks to his adoptive family, has shown signs of opening up. Earned his nickname after his violet eyes.

He pilots the Soldat R1-N0, "Rhino", a bulky mech utilizing rush and ambush tactics, armed with a 60mm Autocannon and Heat Dagger.

A/N: Titular character, heavily inspired by Byleth (Fire Emblem Three Houses), and Mikazuki (Iron-Blooded Orphans). My second favorite character to write so far in the story, ironically.

David Collins, "Boss", Age: 53

Leader of a PMC called "Wolf Company". David took 916 in at a young age and raised him to be part of the "family". Loud and proud, he takes great pride in all serving underneath him, and has known to have a temper in anything regarding his age. Earned his nickname since calling him "Boss" was more comfortable for everyone.

He pilots the Soldat "Juggernaut', a machine with the legs of a tank, but upper half of a mech with arms. Armed with wrist-mounted machine guns and twin battle-cannons on top of its shoulders.

A/N: Inspired by Maine from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Don't look too much into that, don't worry. You can also tell from just his dialogue how much I like writing him too. He is my number 1 favorite to write.

Chloe, "Flare", Age: 35

Second in command of "Wolf Company. Chloe is extremely loud, complementing her foul-mouthed nature. Generally regarded as the "Big SIster" of the team. Earned her nickname from her extremely short temper.

She pilots the Soldat "Mantis", a lanky and smaller machine focusing on blitz tactics, able to leap surprisingly massive heights due to its inverted legs.

A/N: Inspired by Bianca (Gundam Thunderbolt), Sasha (Attack on Titan) and Miku (Darling in the Franxx). To everyone I have shown this story thus far, she has been the fan favorite, including her partner in crime:

Hayes, "Screw", Age: 32

The newest "rookie" of Wolf Company. Impulsive, a little too confident in himself but admittedly a talented sniper, Hayes is always eager to prove himself. Earned his nickname from either screwing himself over, or the enemy.

He pilots the Soldat "Phantom", a mech focusing on stealth and sniping, able to keep itself off enemy radar.

A/N: Inspired by Connie (Attack on Titan) and Zorome (Darling in the Franxx). Him and Chloe are a fun combo, as you will soon see.

There's eight more main characters, but I'll let you read their introduction yourself! 916 and Wolf Company will be the ones we'll be following the most throughout the story. Though this part of the cast was heavily inspired by Iron-Blooded Orphans. For those who watched the show, again, don't read too much into that.

===

The last thing I'll have for this post will be an excerpt from the prologue to get things started! Hopefully my slow ass will have the prologue out soon, so please look forward to it!

Without further ado-

===

Story Excerpt:

===

“Doctor Moreau, do you think we go to heaven?” asked the small girl.

Doctor Moreau stopped typing for a moment as her eyes glanced over the terminal, seeing the child laying on the operating table, standing out from the rest of the clean black walls and white tiles. The room was supported with soft lights illuminating the room, complemented by the blue screens and dizzying amount of automated surgical equipment quietly whirring into position.

Moreau pushed her aging white hair away from her eyes, looking at the child, subject designated 403. 403 was about seven, she barely stood up to Moreau’s stomach and had long black hair that stopped at her shoulders. The light blue gown was slightly too big for her, the sleeves extending over most of her hands and just revealing her fingers. Seeing her face again reminded Doctor Moreau of 403's rather inquisitive nature.

“Why are you asking that, 403?” Moreau replied, her tone indifferent. Her fingers went back to typing as she sighed. “If you’re worried about the procedure, the chips are perfectly safe to implant. There has been no previous record of anyone dying from-”

“-But I’m going to die after.”

“...What?”

“After the chip goes into me. Will the others and I go to heaven?”

The question had caught the doctor completely off guard. Moreau had answered questions such as, “Will this hurt?”, or “Do I have to?”. This question was something she could not answer with her usual dismissive tone. She sat up straight in her seat now and turned to look at the child. 403's eyes were still fixated on the ceiling.

“Why are you so certain you’re going to die, 403?”

“That’s what my brother told me. When the chip goes into our brain, we’re sent off to die.”

The girl’s voice stated it as a matter of fact. There was no confusion in her tone of what was to become of her. Doctor Moreau had no response as she stared at 403 with her mouth slightly open. The child simply turned her head, facing her and expectantly waiting for an answer.

“... I certainly hope there’s a heaven, 403. I’m sure heaven will allow good kids like you and your brother.”

“What about my friends? Will they-”

“We’re about to begin the surgery. Please face up towards the light and close your eyes.” Moreau bluntly cut off the conversation.

403 pouted, but complied. It was clear that the answer did not satisfy her as much as she wanted it to. Doctor Moreau took a second to recover and focus back on the job at hand. Facing back towards the terminal, she began typing once more. With the input of several passwords and confirmations, the surgery to implant the combat data-chip into 403’s brain would commence. Afterwards, she would be sent to her brother’s unit, and be deployed to the battlefield.

Just like all the others.

This room had always been nothing out of the ordinary to Moreau. The same procedure had been repeated more times than she could count and yet why did this one make it so hard to breathe all of a sudden?

“Doctor Moreau?”

“Yes, 403?”

“Can I ask one more thing?”

“You may.”

“Can I listen to that song you always play? The one that goes ‘Lalalalala~’? I want to hear it one more time before I sleep. I really like it.”

Doctor Moreau’s lips suddenly dried up as she once again stopped typing. With a slightly trembling hand, she turned to the radio sitting on her desk and nodded.

“...Of course, 403. No more questions, please.”

She could see the smile form on 403’s lips as the mask was gently put onto her face, the anesthesia slowly starting to pump into 403’s lungs.

“...Thank you.”

Doctor Moreau swallowed hard as her finger pressed the on switch of her old radio. Despite being in such a high tech surgical room, her radio was comically outdated. It was a small gray oval-like object that only had a speaker and a few buttons. To even put music in it, she had to insert a smaller rectangle that contained the songs in it via tape. It was a gift from her father when she was 403’s age, the thought of their roles being reversed not lost on the doctor.

‘Sing, sing a song Let the world sing along Sing of love there could be Sing for you and for me…~’

Doctor Moreau could hear 403 softly hum along to the song as her voice gradually became quieter, and eventually turning into soft breathing. The whirring of the surgical equipment and the radio being the only things in the room left making noise. The only remaining step was for Doctor Moreau to approve the procedure to implant the chip into 403’s brain.

“Is there heaven…” the doctor quietly repeated the question to herself, attempting to ignore 403’s startling self awareness of the situation.

"Authorization confirmed, Implant procedure beginning.” A deep robotic voice rang out across the room as the sound of a drill began drowning out the other equipment. Doctor Moreau sat on her chair as she closed her eyes, waiting for the procedure to be done and turning off the radio in the process.

“For me, I don’t think so…Heaven was lost to me long ago.”

...

‘Sing, sing a song Make it simple to last Your whole life long~’

The Doctor was snapped out of her melancholy as the music continued playing. Sighing, she moved to turn it off for good.

“Piece of junk is starting to-” She stopped as her finger was about to hit the switch.

The radio was still off.

Listening closely again, Moreau realized the singing was coming outside of the door.

‘Don't worry that it's not Good enough for anyone Else to hear~’

Creeping towards the door, the doctor put her ears to it and heard what sounded like a chorus singing. The song wasn’t over the intercom, otherwise the voice would be far clearer.

Instead it sounded like-

A sudden sense of dread hit the doctor as she swung the doors open and ran towards the hangar. Multiple guards and scientists were opening the doors along the long gray hallway, joining Moreau and investigating what the noise was. When they finally got to the railing after the doors slid open, none of them could speak.

‘Just sing, sing a song (Just sing, sing a song) Just sing, sing a song~’

Inside the massive hangar stood rows of countless Soldats, giant bipedal machines that stood several meters tall, lined up next to each other as if they were statues. Their bulky legs stood firmly in place and the compact yet slender arms did not move an inch.

The only things moving were their horned box-like heads, slowly moving side to side in perfect sync. Each of the voices emerging from the Soldats were different but singing in perfect harmony.

Their normally offline and horizontal segregated visors were suddenly flickering to life with blue lights, illuminating the large dark room with bright blue rays.

‘La la la la la, la la la la La la la la la la laaaaa~’

Doctor Moreau could hear the voices of security guards rushing down the stairs to halt the singing, shouting orders at the others to back away.

However, the doctor could only hear their cheerful singing along with her breathing becoming noticeably shorter with each second, feeling her chest tighten.

Once again, the question 403 springed up to the forefront of her mind.

“Is there heaven?”

...

===

And that's the first part of the prologue done, hope to have this out soon, and again if you got this far, thanks for taking the time!

See ya soon, and back to the normal content for now!

#not an ask #chris's thoughts #oc story

24 notes · View notes

beeffilledshark · 10 months

Text

While I’m very happy at wfm’s success and how it’s drawn so many people into Gundam (me included), it’s so upsetting we have to do this song and dance and explain how to “interpret” the explicit narrative that Sulemio is a real romance despite “them never kissing or saying I love you.” The whole fucking point of Gundam and the Newtype story is “understanding each other without misconception,” and while Witches aren’t able to really do that the same way Newtypes are, the core story of Suletta is getting people to truly understand her.

Sulemio’s resolution is Miorine finally “understanding“ that Suletta WANTS to save her family and Miorine revealing her “ugly” and disheveled self she’s hidden from everyone, only getting a taste of it when she invited Suletta to her room in ep 4. Suletta “understands” her mother and Aerial’s betrayal after Quinnharbor and that they do love her, just that they think she’ll be fine separated from them and to not involve her in their machinations. Chuchu’s entire arc is the perfect example of this theme: she goes from violently hating Spacians and picking fights with them on a regular basis to basically becoming Suletta’s older sister and rescuing hundreds of Spacian students and providing food and aid to them. The tragedy of Norea and El5n is amplified by this theme since only El5n could possibly “understand” Norea’s agony and existential anguish in considering herself a living casualty of war as a Gundam pilot. What’s made worse is she “understands” El5n empathizes with her and truly cares for her moments before being killed by Cathedra after her rampage. Hell, the Space Magic solution of Gwitch is a direct reference to Unicorn where the Gundams project the love interest's voice throughout the Earth Sphere so that they can communicate directly with the common person.

If you’ve watched Unicorn as many times as I have, you know they drill this fucking theme into your head every chance you give them but similarly to gwitch, there’s no kiss scene or “I love you” scene. Gundam, and Sunrise in general, has a long-standing tradition of demonstrating the primary romance through the dialogue and actions of the characters. I have never seen anyone question if Audrey and Banagher are in a relationship despite them never having any kind of kiss scene or a scene where they utter “I love you.” Of course, they were kind of meant to parallel Amuro and Sayla, but the dynamic between Suletta and Miorine are almost identical: Gundam pilot who has to protect the Princess from scheming enemies on both the enemy and their side.

The point of this post is that you have to be able to possess an ounce of media literacy in order to understand the sheer plot and character interactions of most popular Gundam media. Now that a lot more people are interested in picking up this franchise, I’m BEGGING you to really think about these shows and movies beyond the mech fights. Every Gundam series has something you can pick apart and the first step in analyzing that is to understand some of the core ideas of Gundam. We don’t kiss here. We’re too high brow to have that so we have characters say shit like “promise you’ll come with me to Earth,” since it means Miorine intends to incorporate Suletta into her future and in her desires or calling the Princess of Zeon Audrey despite her government name being Mineva. Though it may have been forceful, Banagher understood what Mineva wanted and vocalized that by referring to her as her cover name until the end of the OVA.

I do also want to add, this theme is why the Blowjob Brothers exist in nearly every incarnation of Gundam ever. Once you learn how to interpret characters' actions and how they demonstrate love, you'll understand why the fandom has so many gay ships with varying degrees of "authenticity" or canon-ness. The difference with Suletta and Miorine is that it's unabashedly explicit and the focus of Gwitch.

Anyways, any fellow Gwitch enthusiasts who are dipping their toes into 0079 or IBO or any other property as their second Gundam experience, please understand that a LOT of narrative devices and characters are direct references or homages to the past and trying to catch up on it all is like trying to integrate yourself into a religion you converted into. There's a lot of unwritten practices and beliefs that you have to learn and teach yourself, especially since there's psychos out there in the fandom.

(this entire post was spurred on by a dipshit twitter user arguing Sulemio wasn't the goal of gwitch and they changed it mid-hiatus to appeal to the wokes asdfklafd;ljkasf. Anyways Chamuro is real and gundam loves doing polycules this is unironically true)

#gundam #mobile suit gundam #gundam unicorn #iron blooded orphans #gwitch #wfm #wfm spoilers

122 notes · View notes

kishigunpla · 4 months

Text

Photos from my visit to Gundam Base in Odaiba today. Definitely going to go back and catch Unicorn's nighttime shows

#kishi's travels

31 notes · View notes

comicaurora · 9 months

Note

So, you mentioned on the podcast that you were watching some classic-era Gundam.

For the season(s) you've watched, assuming you're not planning on suddenly taking the plunge and making a Universal Century Detail Diatribe, would you mind sharing your opinion so far? Universal Century can be a bit divisive, but I always enjoy seeing people's opinions on it. I have mixed feelings on some of the decisions made, myself, but in the grand scheme of things I enjoy what I've seen so far. (Especially Unicorn, but that's not really classic era.)

Also, I'd like to reccomend watching (or reading!) Gundam The Origin, since it acts as a really good, pretty, (and in the anime's case, short) prequel series to the original.

It's interesting! I've watched the compilation movies for 1 and 2 and most of 3, and I can't tell if they lost the plot after 1 or if the writers were being really, really scathing in a subtle way.

1 was incredibly blatant about how Amuro is a traumatized kid who got strongarmed into being the gundam pilot and using it to kill people, something that he clearly absolutely hates - and it's pretty overt that the Federation Force is more than willing to mulch up as many child soldiers as they want in order to win. The movies, and I assume the show they're compiled from, go out of their way to show that there are sympathetic young people on both sides of the conflict that just want to be free of this war, and there are also right bastards on both sides that are willing to be very callous with the lives of others. You can, of course, always identify who the compassionate people are by how pretty they are, and all the right bastards by how grotesque they are. It's pretty unsubtle about that being the core of the narrative, and they really twist the knife at certain points, like when Amuro's mother is horrified and ashamed at him self-defense-killing a Zeon soldier that was actively menacing her refugee camp, and Amuro concluding that she doesn't love him and he truly has no family to go back to.

By 2, things have gotten a little confusing, and I'm inclined to assume this is because the compilation movies had to make some cuts that would've made the character arcs flow a little more smoothly. Amuro decides to leave the whole war behind, which makes sense, but he takes the gundam, which doesn't. They introduce this thread that Amuro is extremely attached to the gundam and very proud of his ability to pilot it, and he has an actual breakdown when he learns that other members of the crew are now trained in its operation and can use it just fine, if not quite as skillfully as he can. It seems like there was a bit of a lurch from "Amuro has been unwillingly dragged into this nightmare and is forced to fight again and again despite his extremely obvious PTSD" to "Amuro refuses to let go of the giant robot that tethers him TO this nightmare," and while it's very interesting in the implications, it doesn't exactly flow cleanly. In fact, this is where there seems to be a bit of a shift from "war is bad" to "wow! cool robot." Amuro goes from PTSD-catatonia every time he destroys an enemy mobile suit to counting them during fight scenes, which is kind of a chilling indicator of the mechanized horror he's becoming accustomed to - assuming that was on purpose and not just a broad defanging of the story to do more Cool Robot Fights.

But the thing is, there's this subplot sometime around 2 or 3 involving a bunch of actual toddlers that have been hanging around on the ship - because it started as a refugee vessel escaping the destruction of a colony, so there's a lot of women (who are now conscripted pilots, of course, and shockingly badass for the era it came out in) and children onboard, and they've been stuck on the front lines running from Zeon with almost no ground support because the Federation likes throwing the gundam at things too much to care about a handful of six-year-olds potentially getting mulched. But throughout this little arc, the kids are finally on track to getting rehomed on Earth by the military - something that the kids are unhappy about because they've got a whole Found Family thing going, but Amuro approves of them leaving, saying "little kids shouldn't see people killing each other," which aligns very firmly with how he is a kid who hates all the killing he's stuck in.

Except then the happy ending is that the six-year-olds get to stay on the warship because they recently helped out with bomb disposal and "they've seen things you guys can't imagine, they don't want to leave!" And this is either really losing the plot or absolutely brilliant spiteful writing on the part of the creative team, because as I understand it, executive meddling was pushing them to include newer, flashier, more colorful giant robots (weapons of war and untold suffering that our teen hero has been trapped in by a mechanized war machine that has effectively enslaved him for his talents) to push toys to the exact age demographic of those chipper six-year-olds. It's almost like the teenage child soldiers are turning out to directly face the camera and saying "what's the difference between forcing us onto the front lines and letting these precocious youngsters keep flinging themselves into the crossfire? Gotta sell more gunplas, right?"

So if that was on purpose, I really liked it. If not, it's kinda hearbreaking to see the show gradually start pulling its punches in favor of turning the Oops All Babies warship into a heartwarming found family situation.

Also they started really banging the "newtypes are the plot now" drum in 3 and once everyone started getting psychic powers I kinda lost steam tbh

#asks #not aurora

110 notes · View notes