Watching Gundam

Review - Cucuruz Doan's Island 2022-09-28

Back when Gundam: Hathaway came out last summer, Sunrise announced rather quickly that Netflix secured the rights for the film in several western regions.

However, the same thing did not happen this summer for the premiere of Cucuruz Doan’s Island, the latest and greatest Gundam film. That led me to suspect that maybe, just maybe, the film might get a limited theatrical run instead.

Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Last night the subtitled version of the film was shown in a “one night only” release (with a dubbed version airing tonight in the same theatres). Naturally I grabbed a ticket as soon as possible, and I’m here now with my intentionally vague and spoiler free review.

Thoughts on 'Gundam Narrative' 2022-03-22

Spoiler Preface!!!

This post contains extreme spoilers. You have been warned

I’m doing my recap of all the Gundam movies I watched on Youtube in order, which means we have to start with Part 1 of Gundam Thunderbolt

Gundam Narrative (or NT for short) was widely panned by fans when it came out, but over time I’ve seen more than a few defenders. In fact, the kinds of people defending it tended to espouse other opinions about Gundam that line up closely with my own. I try not to go into films with any preconceived notion about whether or not I’m going to like them, but I had a good feeling going into this one.

Thankfully, this time my gut was correct. I don’t think NT is perfect, but I do think it manages to accomplish its main goal in a satisfying manner.

Thoughts on 'Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower' 2022-03-21

Spoiler Preface!!!

This post contains extreme spoilers. You have been warned

Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower is the sequel to December Sky, but they don’t have much in common beyond a few returning characters. It takes place in a new location, with a new enemy faction, and leads to a cliffhanger that goes in a completely different direction.

Suffice to say that this cliffhanger both does and doesn’t feel like it comes out of left field. I guess I’m not really sure what to think about it because the film is too short to really delve into the consequences of what this story is trying to do. Which means I don’t really have anything else to say! Once again, there are lots of well animated action scenes, and really that’s about all it is good for.

Gundam Movies on Youtube 2022-03-19

In order to celebrate hitting a new subscriber milestone (I believe it was 2 million?), the official GundamInfo channel on Youtube put a whole bunch of Gundam films (temporarily) up for viewing. I managed to somehow watch all the ones I was interested in, and I’d like to share some of my thoughts on each one.

They’re not going to be super in depth, nor can I say they’ll be particularly good. The fact that I wrote up anything about them is a miracle - usually I try, but end up throwing away whatever I come up with. Just publishing some impressions of some non-model kit piece of entertainment feels like a milestone.

Thoughts on 'Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky' 0001-01-01

Spoiler Preface!!!

This post contains extreme spoilers. You have been warned

I’m doing my recap of all the Gundam movies I watched on Youtube in order, which means we have to start with Part 1 of Gundam Thunderbolt

Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky is quite beloved by fans. I can understand why. It’s beautifully animated, with some of the best looking mobile suit fights I’ve ever seen. It’s (mainly, but not exclusively) jazz-driven soundtrack is the kind of thing you can either genuinely appreciate, or at least pretend to appreciate in order to look smart.

Most importantly (in the sense that it’s key to understanding its popularity), December Sky wallows in the kind “#wellactually both sides were wrong” whataboutist BS that is increasingly (and disturbingly) common in modern Gundam stories. And it does so by being excessively dark and edgy in the name of highlighting the horrors of war (which, I imagine, is also part of the appeal).

So I understand why it is popular, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s good. Yes, the animation is good. Yes the music works (the chaos of improv jazz really does match the chaos of the Thunderbolt sector, a region place where the remnants of destroyed colonies crackle with lightning). But as a story, this one falls flat.