It was hard to choose between Sayla and the Gundam so I went with my heart…
So In keeping with going through my pile of old stuff along with stuff I was able to beg borrow and steal I just saw the last part of the Gundam Movie trilogy which I had started some weeks ago. To be honest I am not sure if my enthusiasm for Mobile Suit Gundam just died some where along that way or if nostalgia made it seem better than it actually was. I say this because after watching 8th MS Team and Pailsen Files many years since I first watched Mobile Suit Gundam I forgot how emo and whiny Amuro was in the early parts. Suffice to say when I saw it I was shocked and appalled that the badass pilot who grabbed Char’s escape ball and pushed off an asteroid in his Gundam in a epic moment of defending volk and fatherland to the death in Char’s Counterattack, was at first some whiny little prick who dared to bury his Gundam with sand… Well at least now I can forgive Amuro even after he wet himself fighting Ramba Ral. Overall I liked it but I was none too pleased to have been reminded that while Mobile Suit Gundam is great it still has is share of minor problems when it comes to the movies. I admit that it has been many years since I saw Mobile Suit Gundam dubbed on broadcast TV, but I think that since this was a compilation of parts that Tomino felt were important I think this is the final version of what Tomino had envisioned.
First off the bad, maybe it was mostly because things were so condensed and that in my old age my memory has been failing me more and more, but the love sub plots were kind of lackluster. I know that Tomino isn’t the most romantic kind of guy in the world but his love stories have about as much spark as a dead engine in winter. They are probably over all unimportant but some how I felt disappointed, perhaps as a young kid I just never noticed it but now I cannot help but ask what did Mirai see in Sleggar Law. I know Lt. Law is awesome and all but it felt rather forced and while Miria is of the Yashima family she didn’t seem charming enough in the movie to collect three boys… Also in the movie Amuro and Sayla seem to have much reduced chemistry, much to my dismay. Also during Gihren’s speech the Zekes didn’t sound enthusiastic enough, or at least not with the same gusto as I recalled. Also Frau really got shaft…poor Frau. Also the kids…suffice to say I am rather glad they stopped putting toddlers on ships.
I still don’t get what is so great about Lalah Sune when Amuro had that bombshell Sayla around but I suppose that’s just me. I really wish that Tomino had taken the chance to make Char more of a pedo but I guess even movies have their limitations on how many brothels an ace of Zeon can frequent. Gihren’s speech was still one of my favorite scenes, not because I like the Zeke bastards, but because that speech was just so quotable; Sieg Zeon and all. Sayla (Casaval nii-san!) was still the Sayla of my youth still kicking ass in her little plane along with Lt. Law. Hayato was kind of milquetoast and Kai was still rather despicable but not as hateful as I remember him to be. Ryu was still awesome such a pity that he had to die, but he went out like man! Lastly other highlights for me included the whole Garma debacle especially how Char offed the fucker and sent Garma’s moronic bimbo squeeze into hugging a tree as she wailed “Garma-sama! Garma-sama!” Oh yes, that did bring a smile to my face.
Still it was for the most part aside from Amuro’s whiny nature (at least he manned up in the end even if it took him a while), it was much as I remembered it for the most part discounting the Tomino changes for the better. I still enjoyed seeing the original Bright Slap on that emo version of Amuro and it was good to see that aside from the rather dated appearance by today’s standards that the battles were still fun and not just beam spam because those had limited energy reserves. It made me appreciate the Rick Dom more though I still prefer the later redesigns for suits like the Gelgoog Marine and the Gouf in later UC series. The scale of things was kept at a good level to make it look like a major war. For some reason though Char’s Gelgoog Marine looked much uglier than I remember, but then again maybe watching Gundam 0083 recently kind of raised the bar. The last fight was not epic as I remembered it to be, but I did smile when Char busted out a bazooka to kill Kycilia (Though I suppose that a Ranka fan would say that this was Char showing his deep and undying love for Kycilia.). So yeah if you plan on watching this just prepared to be shocked at how emo Amuro was, otherwise it’s still worth revisiting to hear Gihern’s speech.
In the end it as a fun experience to watch this again even with my shock and horror upon seeing the slayer of Char as a whiny little emo prick, though again hell yeah for the Bright Slap! It is important I think to see these movies as the establisher of many Gundam tropes rather than try and measure it against the rest of the UC series. It was a pioneer series that established many good conventions and toyed with some bad ones. I would not say that it is a relic but it certainly isn’t the kind of series you would encounter today, mostly because Ramba Ral would have suffered the indignity of being bishied if it were to be done again and that most of the soldiers would be young brats rather than tipsy old vets (oh wait…). It was a first in many people’s books and at the time a dude with a mask was not as silly as it is now. Like a good grandfather series Mobile Suit Gundam (I consider the movie compilation to be what Tomino had wanted his final edit of Mobile Suit Gundam to be) spawned many children series that for the most part exceeded even its own greatest feats.
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23 Comments
Rewatching old animes eh? I never got around to doing anything like that. For one the old graphics reduces the excitement dramatically for me when compared to the latest series showing now. I did however watch Evangelion, and old graphics galore.
I remember watching the movies ago, sometime around the turn of the century (and yes, it was on borrowed VHS). Having been introduced to Amuro through Char’s Counterattack some years back (shown on TV with Chinese subtitles), it was a bit of a shock to find him so whiny and emo. But then again, all great pilots come from humble beginnings.
i had the chance to watch the whole series once few years ago… i haven’t had the courage to watch it again… mind you it was a good watch… and going for Sayla is a good choice
now if only you could watch Turn A(which if i remember correctly you haven’t seen)
Haha, talk about perfect timing…
I am just watching the original Gundam myself, though the TV series, not the movies. I must say it is really well-made – it must have been amazing at its time. I really enjoyed the early episodes when the crew was still inexperienced and they had to work hard to destroy each Zaku one at a time. They had to actually use tactics and some slick maneuvers to achieve that. Regretfully, as the show went along the main characters got so good that near the end they were destroying Rick Doms like they were nothing. I missed that early appeal, though I must say that large-scale battles were a good substitute.
About Amuro, I don’t think he was all that “emo” in the beginning, especially when you compare him to his counterpart in SEED – Kira Yamato. Sure, he complained a lot and such, but I think it was within the reasonable limit having in mind the huge responsibility he had to shoulder at such a young age and without any experience. The guy was an engineer, not a pilot. Besides being a Newtype, he is still human and gets tired from battles and from constantly being alert and after the pressure of the battle is gone, the tension really caught up to him several times, forcing him to refuse to fight, and even desert. Besides, he didn’t have any problems killing people from the very beginning unlike “Jesus” Kira.
I have to seriously disagree with you regarding Kai’s character. From the White Base crew I liked him the best. I don’t know why, but I am always attracted to arrogant characters who act like jerks when they are first introduced. Maybe because that makes me interested in seeing what lies behind that cold exterior. Anyways, I thought Kai was the most realistic character from the crew. He could not care less about the war, but grew attached to the people on that ship and developed a desire to protect them. Of course, all of this happened after his gf was killed, but I still never thought of him as a bad guy in the first place. Besides, he was the sharpest member of the crew and could always see through people, like when he quickly realized the presence of the spies on board. Regarding his piloting and combat skills he used to really suck at the beginning, and I was really aggravated at how he could not even hit a single target, but as the series progressed he got substantially better and was able to provide good support for Amuro along with Sayla. This once again shows how realistic he is – instead of becoming god in a mobile suit from the get-go, it took him a while to get used to it.
Anyway, I understand why you may have a reason to hate him, though I would think you would be smarter and try to analyze his character and not just be turned off by his jerky behavior – it is all a facade. He’s just a jerk with a heart of gold
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Compared to Kai, Ryu and Hayato were much more one-dimensional and boring to me. Ruy’s death, while heroic, was the first notable thing he did in the show. Up to that point he was just kind of there – fighting the grunts, but without accomplishing anything notable. I guess he died too early before they managed to develop his character. Hayato was even less notable. The first sparks of development for him were during the Solomon battle when he got injured and started moping about how he wished he was more useful. Of course, I was annoyed at that, but at that time I thought to myself – “Thank god, this guy actually has a personality”.
Slegger was awesome! When he first came to the ship he also behaved like a jerk, but I really liked his attitude coupled with his superior piloting and fighting skills. I remember when he said – “So, this fighter needs to be manually controlled? All for the better!” – or something along those lines. I thought – “man, this guy is cool!”. I have to agree with you though regarding his short-lived romance with Mirai. When she leaned in to kiss him, I was like – WTF???. It came completely out of the blue. I guess girls fall for bad guys after all
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In the end, most of the characters in this show were genuinely likable, though that M’cuve fellow really gave me the creeps. I was so glad when he was gone. This series really deserves a good remake! SEED is more of a ripoff than an actual remake. I would love to see the original Gundam battles well-animated and supplanted with beautiful music.
Anyway, I’m glad that you are reviewing those old series. They really deserve some recognition, since they are what brought us to this point today and they are awesome even in their own right.
Damn!
It looks like I screwed up the link tag.
I wanted to say: “He’s just a jerk with a heart of gold”
. and then link the “jerk with a heart of gold” part to the tv tropes page. Could you fix that for me?
Thanks!
Hehe, I’m just watching the older series of Gundam as well (at the later half of Zeta by now) Not the movies by now, though. Maybe once Zeta’s done… I’ll throw in CC, and then the movies if I can get a hold of them.
Yeah, Amuro was prety weird… though, I think some parts were pretty awful. The epic Bright slap wasn’t even of much use. But still, I always pray for those Amuro-wannabee’s to get one… or two… or so.
But… it was definitely the first real great series ever done, creating prototype characters, and even whole plot devices. (Okay, maybe not that much, but they made great use of it. The characters were (mostly) awesome as well… Char of course is the most important, being like the Japanese Darth Vader, if not more.
Though… the old series had it lacks… I did not rly like the fights… they were often – not all, but many – just repeats of one and the same ’saber slash’ and ‘beam shot’ over and over again. Also, though Gundam was a superior suit, it was kinda weird Amruo beat veterans and armies, even before his newtype powers really came into view. But that’s just me. Ryu’s Heroic Sacrifice was of course very awesome, as were fights like those againsts the TriStars or Ramba Ral (Yeah, back then there still were real men in battle).
And… yes, the Mirai/Law realtionship was aweful. I think there are jokes saying ‘Tomino hid the development so good, not even the fans noticed.’ But I didn’t like the guy anyway, he was a showoff, he hit women, he was just an idiot. Glad he got killed off fast.
Anyway, I’m off watching the next ZZ episode, and I just recommend everyone who didnt so far, to watch the original series as well! (Among all the other’s, hehe)
anime ja nai!
Zeta Gundam was the BEST of the rest, at least, for me. The story is absolutely mind boggling. Kill em all Tomino really did a great job for the Gundam faithful. On the side note, the Kamille x Four love story is just like (kinda, LOL) the Alto x Sheryl rabu-rabu relationship.
Tomino should’ve given a bit more emphasis as well on the Beltorchika x Amuro rabu-rabu story, too. But I guess, Zeta is for Kamille after all.
ZZ on the other hand was good as well. Pure comic relief. ANIME JA NAI yo!
speaking of Gundam, my first series to watch was WING, then G, X, SEED, Zeta, ZZ, and the l8st w/c is 00.
Crusader is ze KING on all about Gundams!
hehe. thanks.
“Captain Quattro, he is a CHAR”
WARNING: RANT AGAINST AMURO
i hate that little shit.
emo for me does not make a character bad. what i don’t like is when characters are “too emo to function” something that was redressed very well in gundam 00.
what i mean is characters can be sad and look faraway while emo music plays in the background, they can even take round trips on the trains in an emo montage while passengers come and go. but the king of too emo to function is amuro ray when he was SO SAD BECAUSE HE OVERHEARD BRIGHT SAY THAT HE DIDN’T WANT TO BECOME BIG-HEADED (MIND YOU BRIGHT DIDN’T SAY AMURO WAS ALREADY BIG-HEADED) NOT ONLY DID AMURO RUN AWAY (LIKE A SHINJI)…
HE.STOLE.THE.GUNDAM.AND.HID.IT.IN.A.HOLE.IN.THE.DESERT.
the little ass didn’t have a plan, no water, nothing!
i understand that this was a CRUDE plot device to get amuro to meet cute with RAMBA RAL (made of pure awesome). but this has defined amuro for me, forever.
@Sagittarius
As a mecha fan I don’t mind QUALITY animation so long as the rest of a series is good.
@d3v
Oh VHS I am so glad that format is dead. yeah it was a rude shock to see Amuro as aome whiny prick, humbles beginning I can understand but good grief Amuro wasn’t a zero he was negative emo…
@Tenryu
Sayla is always the right choice I did see Turn A…
http://that.animeblogger.net/2008/07/30/turn-a-gundam-when-tomino-last-laughed/
About to start Gundam X…
@Darklord
I am sure kai had some good points, but he got a Sayla slap so if Sayla doesn’t like Kai too much I must follow her lead. I know that Kai is a jerk with a heart of gold, but I must appease Sayla-sama.
SEED was technically the remake and given how that turned out I think they should not do any re-makes under the current Regime that gave Fukuda a license to make Tomino rage. It as sad to see that eventually newtype powers came to the fore and Rick Doms turned into cannon fodder, such a lovely MS though…
Fixed your comment.
@Kato86
Yeah the bright Slap didn’t seem to do much, but at least Amuro got one.
How can you not like Lt. Law though hes’ the Laaaaawww?
@rollchan
I’ll do Zeta and ZZ around Christmas Vaction.
@ghostlightning
Yeah I know what you mean to bury a Gundam with sand is just sad and rage worthy. I never liked boys who got the chance to pilot a humongous mecha and treat it like crap and whine about not wanting to pilot. ny kid who rejects the opportunity ot pilot a mecha needs his head examined.
Ah… the origins. Yeap, its nice to see how real robots anime started. Personaly like more real robots than super robots. Kai is my favorite character, Amuro cryed to much. I guess that the only thing I dont really like is the New Type stuff, it looks like some kind of Jedy pilot hero.
“but I did smile when Char busted out a bazooka to kill Kycilia (Though I suppose that a Ranka fan would say that this was Char showing his deep and undying love for Kycilia.).”
You do realize that Episode 24 of MF will be aired in less than 24 hours, right?
BTW…I haven’t really seen MSG, but I might consider watching the movie compilation instead.
Thanks for the review. 
@Crusader
Here’s hoping then that the next retro blog you do is about something I didn’t watch on VHS, if at the very least, so I don’t sound like an old fart.
About to start X, eh? Good luck – I’ve stalled near the end at the moment, but it has its points (and its weaknesses too).
I’ve a lot of affection for the MSG compilation trilogy, but I suspect that’s just because I can watch it with subtitles on legal DVDs rather than in the form of illegally-acquired dub files (worst of both worlds, really) like the TV series.
Bishie Ramba Ral: DO NOT WANT.
@crusader
ah right apologies
To all the people bashing Amuro for taking the Gundam, there’s a key factor to consider. He wasn’t emo by that point. He was angry. Angry that Bright would even consider taking him off the Gundam. You see, Amuro has one hell of an ego. Once he got into the groove of actually piloting the Gundam, he was there to stay. After all, “I’m the best pilot for Gundam!”
Anyway, Amuro specifically went out to prove to Bright that he was the only one that could handle Gundam and singlehandedly take out M’Quve’s base. Granted, it didn’t happen that way, but he learned and became better for it. Sure he started out a bit whiny, but he was awesome by the end of the series, and as Crusader mentioned, CCA Amuro is the best of the best.
Anyway, it’s cool to see someone going through the classics for a change. I’m off to class but I’ll be back with more comments.
@mareo
Yeah the newtype thing sort of gets out of hand later on…
@grss1982
Getting ep 24 now…
@d3v
Right now it’s looking like Gundam X, and next week is going to be Crest of the Stars.
@IKnight
I am making steady progress and so far it has been fairly good to me, let’s finish it together eh comrade?
I also share you sentiment on a bishie Ramba Ral…I pretend that it just never happened.
@Tenryu
No need to apologize not too many people actually saw Turn A.
@Amuro1X
Technically angry is emo, but it just seems so criminal to treat a big bad mecha like that and just walk away in a fit of desertion. Besides robbing Sayla of her chance to pilot the Gundam again was a crime against civilization. Amuro made up for it in the end thankfully, but man I wanted to see Sayla pilot the Gundam again.
@Crusader
Thank goodness, I only saw bits of X on TV.
As for Sayla piloting the Gundam, well that’s what PS1 games of questionable quality are for.
@Crusader
Eh, I really don’t like the word Emo because it has too many damn meanings and it honestly gets thrown around to much. Anyway, do you have any knowledge of the novelization? Amuro actually shacks up with Sayla…and then later dies. It’s trippy.
Anyway, I honestly prefer the Trilogy to the series simply because it cuts a lot of filler (the search for salt episode comes to mind). The only thing I regret is the trilogy did throw out some nifty mecha, but I can live with that. I can feel you on Sayla though. The fact that Sayla is so absent from the everything after the original is a crime against humanity. She gets a speechless cameo in Zeta, shows up for an episode or two in ZZ, and is completely absent from CCA. I mean, her brother is throwing an asteroid at earth and she’s nowhere to be seen? what the hell!?
@d3v
I only purchase good games.
@Amuro1X
Yeah Sayla was supposed to be much more but sadly the voice actress died and no one was brought in to replace her. Such a pity that Sayla ends up forgotten in the following UC series.
Still Amuro was too whiny for me, mistreating the Gundam like that is not something that can be easily forgiven, but by CCA I was able to forgive after he grabbed Char by the ball… just wish the first Bright Slap would have set him straight the first time though. The Movies cut out a lot of the fat but somethings were also lost in the process, but it’s a good take on what Tomino’s final cut was.
I always thought the whining in the early gundams was the most realistic I’d seen in any anime series (probably because none of them looked pretty doing it, and the crying was so cheesy and overacted that it looked disturbing and therefore genuine) and no-one around seemed to know wtf was going on.. Did they include the bit where Bright writes a book of tips on how-to-be-captain for Mirai then gets ’stressed’ and hides in bed for numerous episodes in the film btw? the punching people always amused me after that..
Plus the fact that there was a lot less people glowing in space and exploding in the first series (even though it was probably only because they didnt have the budget) made the whole Newtype thing more inexplicable and Force-like, and less like standard anime-special-powers. But I do wish they’d explained where they found the swords from in the final episode
Apart from obviously because it was cool.
Sounds like we need to read those novels tho..
The swords are explained in the Movie editions. I wasn’t aware that Sayla’s voice actress had died, no wonder she didn’t make a reappearance like I expected in CC.
RAMBA RAL: the original man
Never had any concern over whether or not the animation was ‘quality’ a good fight scene is a good fight scene, regardless of visual effects. In fact I find a great many modern mech fights too flashy and incoherant to follow.
Finished ZZ recently… I don’t know why I do this to myself, I always just end up despising the later Gundam ‘heroes,’ telling them to shut up the moment they open their mouths and shouting encouragement to whatever opponent comes their way. Why did the Gundam have to become a combining magic mech? Why was it a super teen Gundam team? Why…just Why? I know Tomino stopped caring about ZZ the moment CC got greenlit but still…
It ended up much like I was with Zeta really: Why would the Zeta need to transform into a jet in space? there’s no air to be dynamic with so your top speed is unaffected! Shut up Kamille! Get i’m Jerid! The face! KILL HIM IN THE FACE!
I personally consider Kamille useless despite the hype surrounding him; no ammount of beatings from surrogate father figures seemed to do any good and his anger at the ‘man’ in the form of every adult he met lead him to the philosophy of “your soul is weighed down by gravity, humanity needs to go out in space to better facilitate our evolution into whiny emo psychics.” Which is the wrong argument no matter how you look at it; Newtypes are almost universally miserable and it would be the beginning of the end of humanity if we all got linked into one psychic consciousness (End of Eva anyone?). He fails so badly major villains SURVIVE THE SERIES, ‘certainly sounds unimpressive to me. All of that said Zeta ended well; death (or mind rape) to all! Kai cameo (excellent to see a member of the White Base crew who ended up well adjusted after the war) and Mineva the most precious looking fascist ever.
I sometimes think I continue to watch Gundam installments out of a morbid desire to see how depressed and angry at the producers Tomino was at the time of production, thus am starting Victory Gundam soon; (apparently after this one he needed a spell in a mental institution) Everybody gon’ die! ha ha ha!
New Types suck! It’s just unfair on the other side for a hero to have the best mobile suit coupled with a genetic predilection for piloting it. Why should I care it’s not a fair fight.
Oh no I seem to have descended into a rant, I’ll leave now with this:
Bright Noa, Bitch-slapping Gundam pilots back into line since 1979 (with some greatful assistance from Quattro “LoliconChar” Bajena