#Like it's nothing new that ace has captain abilities and is a born leader

[enjomo-arch]

I love how the novel really nicely references Ace's leadership. It's not only charisma or his heroism that pulls people closer to him but something above it. He very easily manages to catch people following his steps and finding a strange interest in him. Instant fondness or even respect -

[thehardonreviewer-blog]

Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Review

Mobile Suit Gundam, a franchise with a multitude of sequels, prequels, spin offs and other related series bearing the name, it makes anybody wanting to get into the series confused as to where to start and with good reason since there’s just so much Gundam in the world however, just like any other franchise I strongly suggest starting off where series first began with Mobile Suit Gundam 0079. It came out during the era of great sci-fi space series such as, Star Wars, Star Trek and Battlestar Glactica, and like all those series Mobile Suit Gundam would heavily influence science fiction, specifically the mecha genre of anime for decades to come. Now let’s see why this show is a classic.

A little background info as to what is happening before the start of the show, it’s the distant future where mankind has achieved the ability to live out in space in large cylindrical space colonies and has been for almost a hundred years. One space colony however decided to become independent from the rule of the Earth Federation, that colony was the Principality of Zeon, a fascist military dictatorship ruled by the Zabis family with Degwin Zabis being the head of the Zabis, and used a new type of weapon called mobile suits, which are large mechanical suits of armor used for warfare, to give them an early edge in what would be call the One Year War. After the Federation suffered countless losses to Zeon forces they decided to create a new mobile suit, one with whose capabilities vastly surpassed any Zaku II, the common grunt mobile suit of the Zeon military, and it was designed by Tem Ray which he gave it the designation of the RX-78-2 or as we know it Gundam.

The plot starts us off in space as we see two Zakus attempting to sneak into the space colony Side 7 to destroy a new prototype Federation mobile suit. The whole colony is on high alert and issued an evacuation order of all personal onboard. This is where we meet two of main cast Fraw Bow; a young caring optimistic and loving girl, who came to help her dorky aloof friend Amuro Ray who we find tinkering with some electronics despite the fact there’s loud sirens blaring out for people to leave the colony. They try to reach a bomb shelter of sorts but Amuro goes out to look for his father and conveniently stumbles upon the manual for Gundam after which he gets inside the mobile suit and manages to destroy the Zakus attacking the colony. Then Amuro with the aid of the Gundam helps everyone escape the colony in a top secret new military space ship known as the White Base, which would serve to be the new home of the people of Side 7 for pretty much the remainder of the One Year War.

After all that without going too much into spoilers, we meet what will be the White Base crew including; Bright Noa, a fresh young faced officer in the Federation army that gets promoted to the de facto captain of the White Base after the original captain died shortly after their escape from Side who is challenged with leading a bunch of civilians to fight and survive in a war that they were all just thrusted into without warning, Mirai Yashima, a navigations expert who is very motherly and caring and is often seen as the voice of reason in the ship, Sayla Mass, a medic who is a very kind sweet caring young woman but is clearly hiding something about her past, Kai Shiden, a vile disrespectful punk who always gets on people’s nerves but deep down is a good guy that cares about his friends and comrades and of course there is Fraw and Amuro.

The crew is one of the strong points of this anime as they all grow together in a natural way, at first they don’t know each other and would often be at each other’s throats, but by constantly fighting alongside one another they built a strong sense of trust and friendship. Like its contemporaries at the time like Star Wars or Star Trek, Mobile Suit Gundam is very character driven, you get invested in all these characters because they have depth to them and don’t act like one dimensional cardboard cutouts like characters in mecha series before Gundam. You feel the pain that the crew goes through and hope they find a place to live peacefully despite being under constant threat of attack from the forces of Zeon. You see the original Gundam had little to do with the machines but more about the adventure that all the characters go through, sure seeing giant robots fight is great but it was only to enhance an already great space opera. Mobile Suit Gundam uses mecha to show you a story and not to use a story just to show cool mecha doing things.

However if you’re not into seeing character development and want some mecha action then Gundam doesn’t disappoint in that field. The fight scenes have a feel to them like early tank warfare whenever they are fighting on land and by that I mean that in one or two hits the mobile suit usually get destroyed so the pilots have to be very careful and methodic in how they approach combat but in space the fights tend to feel like a mix of fighter jets and tank warfare as there are 360 degrees in which you can fight in space it really does make for great tense battles that are memorable and entertaining to watch. One fight I love personally is when Amuro has to fight a Zeon officer by the name of Ramba Ral, see before this Amuro had no problem dealing with rookies in Zakus so Amuro built an overconfidence thinking no Zeon pilot can beat him thanks to his experience and data collected from previous fights, but in comes Ramba who overpowers him in his Gouf mobile suit and it’s like nothing Amuro has dealt with before it takes him back and shows that overconfidence can in fact be a slow and insidious killer. That fight is great because there’s actual tension and stakes to lose because Amuro is fully aware that if he fails to fight off any Zeon mobile suit then everyone on board the White Base is as good as dead. That’s why a lot of the fights are so good in this series they aren’t just a mish mash of high speed action with laser beams fired everywhere, it doesn’t matter how well choreographed a fight is if there is no tension or purpose to the fight then it just serves to be nothing more than just eye candy. Of course, to be fair there are some fights in Gundam 0079 that are just nothing and are there just because they needed some action in the episode.

Now it would be foolish not to talk about one of the best villains in all of anime, Char Aznable. Char is cunning mysterious, ruthless to those in his way, yet has a soft side for his lost sister Artesia. It’s established very early on that Char and Amuro are rivals because Amuro, a virtually rookie pilot, managed to beat one of Zeon’s best pilots and elude him and the humiliation of being defeated by him ignites a fire in his eyes to beat Amuro. It should be mentioned that Char in essence laid the foundation for a new character archetype because after him in other Gundam series as well as other anime shows or in video games, now to understand what makes a character a Char is simple; having blonde or very light hair, wearing a mask or some kind of helmet to conceal their true identity, be associated with the color red, clearly has some kind of hidden agenda, tends to be a sympathetic villain, prefers skill and speed over brute strength, and stands as the main rival of the protagonist. Now you can find loads of examples of characters that are clearly inspired by Char such as; Zechs from Gundam Wing, Shin from Fist of the North Star, Griffith from Berserk, Protoman from Megaman, Sirius from Fire Emblem, Godot from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and Schwartzwald from The Big O.

There is a political side to Gundam and it stems from the ideology from the former head of Side 3, Zeon Zum Deikun, who wanted independence for all spacenoids (people who are born and live in space colonies) from the control of the Earth Federation and believed that spacenoids are the future of humanity are the next step in the evolution of humans a “new type” as it would be later called as. New types are humans who are believed to possess superhuman reflexes and a somewhat psychic ability making them unbelievably talented mobile suit pilots. Before Zeon Zum Deikun could enact his plan to make Side 3 an independent space colony, he mysteriously died and in comes Degwin Zabi who became the new leader of Side 3 and soon became a dictator and with him his family who would all serve in the One Year War as leaders of the Zeon military. Ghiren Zabi would act as Degwin’s second in command and he is about as evil as they get, I mean at one point he openly admits to being a follower of Adolf Hitler and has no problems killing anybody who doesn’t fit into his perfect world, Garma Zabi, the youngest of the Zabis, is a high ranking officer that has shown promise in being a military leader but is pompous and over confident, Kycillia Zabi, is the only daughter of Degwin but she is just as cold blooded and ruthless as her brothers, and finally there is Dozal Zabi, a giant scar covered proud general in the Zeon Military and out of all the Zabis Dozal seems to be possibly the least evil since he is just a general doing his job in trying to win the war he doesn’t have any evil ambitions he just seeks glory in combat and is a loving father and husband.

Despite the fact that the Zeons would basically become space Nazis, the Earth Federation aren’t the all around good guys, I mean they threaten the White Base crew with life in prison just because they don’t want to keep on fighting in the war and just want to leave and live normal lives again and keep in mind there were children on board so yes they actually threaten to imprison underage children for not wanting to fight in the war. Also a lot of Federation soldiers act like complete scumbags like getting drunk in Amuro’s mother’s house and wrecked the place and also treating an old woman like shit and refused to pay for fruit from her stand. This proves a very interesting point about war because in reality there are no good or bad when it comes to the sides of the war because they are fought with people and people are good but can also be complete jerks. War is not as clear cut as some movies make it out to be and Gundam shows a more human side to war. Not every soldier is a blind follower of their side’s beliefs in fact a lot serve because they have to or wants to help protect the ones they care about.

In conclusion I believe this series is easily one my favorite but also one of the most important animes in history. It built a legend and created a much beloved universe that led to an enormously popular franchise. Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 on its own is a very enjoyable series with 42 episodes it’s an easy watch but if you want a more condensed version of 0079 there are 3 movies that just show the most important segments of the series and with better animations which I would highly recommend if you want to get into Gundam but don’t want to see the entire episodic show then the movies do a great job giving you an more focused experience. How does it stand in comparison to later Gundam series, well I would still put this series in my top 5 favorite Gundam series but overall there are some that surpass it like its sequel Zeta Gundam or the movie F91. It’s a great start to an amazing franchise and stands the test of time as being one of the best mecha series and I would highly suggest to anyone that wants to either get into mecha, Gundam or just anime in general this is one series that you must watch.