#MS IGLOO

[slobozan-shitposting]

Zeek girlbosses my beloved

[oywcalendar]

April 27, UC 0079

As Zeon forces push into Southern Europe, outgunned Federation forces in the region send a newly formed anti-mobile suit platoon to cover their retreat. Led by Lieutenant Ben Barberry, an anti-tank veteran, the squad is to lay in wait in an abandoned mining town to ambush an advancing group of Zakus – though Barberry's team receive conflicting reports on the number of enemies to expect.

When the first Zaku comes into view, Barberry's inexperienced subordinates spring the trap too soon, revealing their position. The team manage to bring down the first Zaku, but the second to arrive eliminates the entire platoon – except for Barberry, who is able to destroy the mobile suit after its weight collapses an unseen tunnel beneath it. Lieutenant Barberry is killed when a third Zaku emerges from a hidden position.

(MS IGLOO 2: The Gravity Front, episode 1)

[kaxtwenty]

Newly updated Gundam rankings. It's getting a bit more complicated to categorize these smaller ones (MttR and RfV are in "Gund" tier for entirely different reasons). GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- will probably be moved off once the show itself is finished, but what I've seen so far has already won me over quite a bit.

[divinespanking]

I really wanted a project to test my skills, and I chose to do it with the HGUC Zudah. I did extensive seam line removal, removed mold lines, filled in some holes I didn't like with putty, and scribed out some of the shallower seam lines and details. I definitely need to upgrade my equipment on that front. I also didn't like the way that the rifle's scope was deeply recessed, so I used a length of sprue to extend it. I'm pleased with the results.

I used the weapons and parts of the body as a chance to practice quickly switching between colors in my airbrush. I also hand painted a lot of the details. After a couple months mainly doing mini painting, it felt like I had multi-classed or something. I painted the mono-eye and scope lenses with fluorescent enamel paint over a layer of white. It looks super cool in person and I will definitely use that technique again in the future.

The weathering was done starting with a layer of silver drybrushing. Then I used a Tamiya weathering pallet to create some contrast on the larger areas. I then finished with sponging on black. I had tried sponging before, but the sponge I used was way to big. Much happier with the result this time.

I am so so happy with how this kit turned out. It was a lot of work but it's great to see what I can do when I go all in.

[billveusay]

I watched Gundam MS IGLOO and...

So if you didn't know, MS IGLOO is a mini-series of nine OVAs. They are divided into sets of three (The Hidden One Year War, Apocalypse 0079 and Gravity Front) but the first two sets form a cohesive whole, both visually and narratively. So I'll refer to these two as season 1, and Gravity Front as season 2.

This is a fully CGI series that started coming out in 2004 and aims for a realistic art style. Yes, you were justified in raising those bushy little eyebrows of yours, so for once let's immediately talk about the visuals, focusing on season 1 for now. The few times I saw discussions about MS IGLOO, they were either people turned off by the CGI or other people asking them to give it a chance, they just have to get past the animation. But it's really not that simple. In visual mediums, the visuals are not just a dish for the story to be served on, they're an integral part of the story. I'm sure you can think of many moments in cinema, live-action or animated, where you could see a powerful and complex mix of emotions that would have needed 10 minutes of dialogue to be expressed, conveyed through just a few seconds of silent acting. And conversely, no matter how good the story or the voice acting, it's hard to get invested or find a character appealing when he looks like he comes from a PS1 opening cutscene. Which is actually mean to the PS1, Soul Reaver was on the PS1.

And yes, it's more than 20 years old, of course it wasn't gonna look like Secret Level. But maybe they could have checked the calendar and seen what year they were living in before going for full photorealism. That's the most difficult thing you could do in CGI, and there are alternatives that look fine or even great like the Clone Wars art style. The fight scenes are pretty well directed though, especially the tank fight in the second episode, and the CGI on all of the non-human stuff is quite decent, save for a few wonky elements. Doing forced perspective doesn't work if you move the camera, because then the parallax reveals that this dude is the size of a Zaku compared to this camp. But they succeed in giving the series that rusty, gritty look.

So, still focusing on season 1, if we manage to get past the unfortunate visuals, is it saved by the story? Weeeeeeeeeeeeeell no. At least I didn't think so. First, there's the fact that every episode follows the same format with only small variations: They get a prototype that their superiors don't believe in, a guy shows up to pilot it and they also don't believe in him, but after a few setbacks, he proves both his worth and the worth of the prototype, but gets killed or sacrifices himself in the process. Yes, I know it's the intention, but there's zero suspense and it's extremely artificial.

But here's the main problem for me. This is a story that focuses on Zeon soldiers, which has the potential to be interesting, grey and grey morality, everyone's a cog in the war machine, etc. But it looks like most of the time, the writer forgot about the fact that we're following space Nazis and that space Nazis are bad. Or that... you know... war is bad? Which is weird because there's a popular anime franchise that made this point repeatedly, which I'm sure the writer was very familiar with. It's called Gundam. Yes, the tone is very tragic, but it's all heroic deaths, soldiers going out in a blaze of glory, and episodes ending with the protagonist gazing wistfully into space as the Zeon flag appears behind him.

And like... the core of the first two episodes is humanity entering the age of Mobile Suits, so gunners, tanks and big cannons are being abandoned by the high command. But both times, veterans from the old guard prove their worth with a final heroic act, and then they die with a smile on their face because even though their time is coming to an end, at least in their final moment they've shown the world what they and their big cannon/tank were made of. And then white boy (yes, I've forgotten the protagonist's name, what do you want from me?) writes in his report that if it had been given a chance, this prototype could have been so effective, such a shame.

And... Kim, there's people that are dying. You're not gonna make me feel bad for your murder machines because they didn't get to murder enough people.

Episode 3 isn't better, basically the same thing but this time the prototype and the pilot got rejected because his competitors sabotaged his model. But in the end, he proves that it was actually good, yay for the death robot. Episode 4, I didn't even get that guy's deal but he sure was passionate about the sea. And episode 5... well they don't say that child soldiers are cool, but compare it with Thunderbolt. Here, you have teenage rookies sent to fight and everyone is shocked, but then one of them exceeds expectations and fights like a real pilot, destroying several federation balls. And he dies, but right before, he asks blondie if he did a good job defending his homeland, blondie says yes, and it's emotional... and meanwhile in Thunderbolt, when rookie teenagers pilots are sent to fight, they get instantly decimated. And Zeon literally amputates its pilot to turn him into a weapon. A least they don't demonize the Federation soldiers too much in this episode (the Federation are not the good guys anyway but you get my point, it's even worse when it's truly presented as black and white) by having them fight other rookies.

In that episode, they also introduce the guy in full Gestapo costume. And while they don't paint him as a sympathetic, he's not a monster either, he mainly just a... dick. With a weird leather fetish, judging by the way he repeatedly squeezes his glove. But he gets a "redemption" in the final battle by helping the remaining Zeon troops of A Baoa Qu escape. And it's a noble sacrifice, helping their comrades live to fight another day because the evil Federation soldiers were gonna slaughter them, even though they had surrendered. But in the end they all survive, they laugh, they embrace, the Zeon flag floats proudly... and again, there's nothing wrong with a story focusing on the antagonists' side, but that doesn't mean you have to adopt their point of view. You could do a movie about confederate soldiers and how the war sucked for them too, but it would still be weird if the movie ended with a shot of the confederate flag with triumphant music in the background.

By the way, quick aside, this was directed by Takashi Imanishi, who previously directed the second half of Stardust Memory. And yes, while Stardust Memory remains my favourite for now, I'll admit that towards the end, it has the same problems of glorifying Zeon and the noble sacrifice of its soldiers fighting a desperate battle against insurmountable odds. While they had just dropped another colony on earth.

And with the visuals, the plot and the themes out of the way, we're left with a trio of main characters that are... present. The captain is kinda charming, but overall they neither pull the show upwards or downwards. So yeah, I really can't say it's better than F91, so that is officially my least favourite Gundam thing I've seen. It's straight to the bottom of my ranking for this first season.

Yes. Everything I've said so far only applies to The Hidden One Year War and Apocalypse 0079.

Because y'all. Gravity Front... is so fucking good. It's unbelievable. As I said, the first season is dead last on my ranking, that is to say in 16th place. Gravity Front is in 5th. Above 00, Witch from Mercury, Thunderbolt, even 8th MS Team.

I know that for every piece of media I reviewed, I assumed that whomever was reading was already familiar with it. However, this is probably the nichest thing I've watched yet, and because the first season sucks, many people who tried it probably bounced off of it. So for once, I won't spoil and tell you to go watch Gravity Front. It's a major step-up, still hard on the eye but now good enough that you can actually relate to the characters and truly feel their emotions. And if the fight scenes were pretty good in the first season, now they're truly amazing. Dynamic, gripping, with great tactical twists that make them interesting.

Story wise, the jump in quality is equally astounding, if not more. Focusing on feddies already makes it less morally dubious (again, the Federation also sucks but they're not pretending otherwise here) and in this season, war is really ugly, and the gritty aesthetic now fits perfectly. No more "it's sad how this beautiful death machine was rejected" (there's a sliver of that in the third episode but it's pretty minor), in Gravity Front it's all "war sucks, and all of those deaths are meaningless". They really do relish in making them meaningless, especially right at the moment where the characters think they've found a form of victory or catharsis. Plus it's not cheap drama, they do a good job of making each episode narratively captivating with very limited time and new characters every time. I'll just tell you this: the second episode is a retelling of Moby Dick with a Zaku instead of a whale. If that doesn't pique your interest...

There's also a semi-supernatural element, which is... weird, and will probably turn many people off, but somehow I kinda love it. I don't even know why, maybe it's because it's left ambiguous enough to be a mix of hallucinations and poetic licence, it doesn't impact the story, it gives it more personality, and even reinforces the feeling of watching a tragedy. The doomed characters literally see the incarnation of their inevitable fate. However, the design of the shinigami is... why did she have to wear dominatrix boots?

A'ight, that's it for MS IGLOO. Skip the first six episodes, or maybe just watch the second one to get an idea of the rest of the season. Then watch Gravity Front because it slaps, even though it's depressing (but y'know, it's UC Gundam, that's kind of a given).

Next, Gundam Narrative. Shouldn't take long because I'll just be pointing at Unicorn and say "Yeah, it's most of that thing I didn't like". Bye!

My gundam reviews :

> Hathaway's Spark > Mobile Suit Gundam > Gundam Zeta > 0083: Stardust Memory > 0080: War in the Pocket > 8th MS Team > The Witch from Mercury > Gundam Thunderbolt > The Origin > Turn A Gundam > F91 > Gundam Unicorn > Gundam 00 > MS IGLOO > Gundam Narrative > Iron-Blooded Orphans > Gundam Wing

[temmye-temmye]

HGUC MS-14 GELGOOG for Herbert Von Kuspen

[aniplamo]

1/144 TR-6 Oggo II (A.O.Z) - TR-6 オッゴ II

By AniPLAMO

When I was building the EX-Model Oggo, I noticed that the underside of the fuselage had details similar to the TR series core drum frame. I wondered if this was another drum frame that had not been revealed in the A.O.Z ReBoot Art setting illustrations for Gaza and Oggo. I wonder if Fujioka Kenki intended this as a fact during the design process.

I attached the lower appendages of the TR-6 Woundwort to the Oggo. I did this to test my theory. If the Oggo had another drum frame, it could have legs and look like this.

There are endless possibilities for drum frames.

My friends on twitter have named this project Oggo II

[iftadwascool]

its called Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO because Igloo a military term for a ammunition depot. which, i guess, you can extrapolate into them being a depot of experimental weapons or something.

either way, the logo looks cool

[holmslice69art]

[clockybroad]

when u ask a man what kind of underwear he wears

[justsomerandomdumbass]

Action roguelike with a special speedrun mode where your character's speed is uncapped, but if your velocity goes above a specific threshold (which is considerably higher than the normal speed cap) you explode and die.

[slobozan-shitposting]

Today we're learning fractals!

[oywcalendar]

January 15, UC 0079 – 11:14 PM

The Battle of Loum begins at Side 5. This is the first major engagement of the One Year War, with the Federation Forces attempting to prevent a second colony drop after Operation British.

During the battle, Lieutenant Char Aznable earns distinction as “the Red Comet” by singlehandedly destroying five EFSF warships in quick succession using his signature Zaku.

(MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War, episode 1)

[kaxtwenty]

"Are you sure you won't regret this?"

[scanline-angel]

There’s no peaceful end for those of us who belong to a long gone age. I’ve just finished Gundam MS Igloo 1 (The Hidden One Year War & Apocalypse 0079), it was an excellent series displaying the Zeon side of the One Year War. Anime News Network described the cast of the series as the last of the cowboys, and it’s an apt title for this small, unimportant crew. They won me over and had me praying for their individual success even though they were Zeon soldiers at the end of the day.

[gremoria411]

How to get into Gundam

Because fuck it, I was gonna do one of these sooner or later anyway.

So you want to know what this Gundam thing’s about, maybe you like the mecha design, maybe you caught part of an episode one time and want to catch up, or maybe you saw a nice piece of Chamuro fanart and want to go to the source.

But there’s so many shows and timelines that it can be quite daunting on first look, so this guide is intended to give a rough overview.

I would however like to stress two four things beforehand however:

This guide is not intended as “The One True Way” or anything. There’s no harm it coming into it a different way, and these are only my own opinions.

There’s nothing stopping you from just watching one show and leaving it there. You don’t have to watch every single show going, even I’ve only seen most of these, not all. Gundam typically has variations on similar themes - it’s very nice watching multiple shows because they complement one another, but it’s not necessarily required.

I am very much an insider looking out here, so let me know if there’s any details I’ve missed.

I’m not gonna recommend these on a “if you like X, then watch Y basis”, mostly because I don’t personally find genre recommendations helpful, so I’d recommend picking based on promotional material (vibes, if you will).

I’ll be using this chart, supplied by the excellent@l-crimson-l, to illustrate everything.

Gundam as a whole can principally be divided into three sections: Universal Century (or UC), the Alternate Universes (AU’s) and the Build Series.

The AU’s are below the light blue line, near the bottom of the Chart, the Build Series is within the bright green line at the top-right corner of the chart and UC is the big line in the middle. We’ll talk about each of them individually.

The AU’s

The Alternate Universes were conceived as a way to get away from the continuity-heavy nature of Universal Century and provide an easy jumping-on point for new fans. The AU’s are standalone and require no prior knowledge, and are thus an excellent place to start. Honestly, I’d recommend quickly searching some promotional materials (like posters) and just going with the one you find most appealing based on that. They are (in production order):

Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994)

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (1995)

After War Gundam X (1996)

Turn A Gundam (1999)

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (2002)

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (2007)

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (2011)

Gundam: Reconguista in G (2014)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans (2015)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2022)

There’s side series and movies and other things besides, but these are the mainline shows, if you will. I have specific notes on a few of them:

Witch From Mercury - It’s of a shorter length than is usual for mainline shows, so consequently it’s a much smaller time investment than the others.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - While undeniably rad as hell, I would recommend watching another AU first. G Gundam differs from its stablemates in a few key areas, and I find it helps to have a contrast to fully appreciate those differences.

Gundam AGE - is probably the only one I wouldn’t recommend. I didn’t like the art style and the technical explanations just got on my nerves, so I stopped watching.

Turn A and G-Reconguista are technically part of UC as well, but it’s not really crucial information so don’t feel like you have to watch UC first (I’m only including this detail for completionism).

I’ve found all the AU’s I’ve seen to be pretty good, so I’d say that which one you start with really just comes down to personal taste.

The Build Series

Is just kind of doing its own thing. The Build series is basically Buy Our Toys: the series. It’s got a far lighter tone, and I’ve had cause to compare it to pokemon prior. It’s also chock full of references and in-jokes to the other series.

Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try are the ones I’d recommend - they’ve got actual stakes and the fight scenes are really good.

Build Divers and Build Divers Re:rise I can’t recommend - I just find Build Divers aggressively boring. Build Divers Re:Rise is just okay - neither standout good or particularly bad. Its main flaw is that it’s a sequel to Build Divers.

The OVA’s are pretty much bad across the board - I’d particularly recommend avoiding Gundam Build Metaverse.

Universal Century

Universal Century is the big main timeline of Gundam, and is the timeline the original Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979 takes place in. There’s a tendency among certain fans to place UC as the one-above-all of Gundam, but I wouldn’t really go that far. It’s all pretty good, but I wouldnt really say one timeline is better than another (save personal preference, anyway).

Because UC is so big, it can be subdivided a couple times. The primary division is “Mainline” UC versus everything else. Basically there’s four-five shows in Universal Century from which everything else flows. As long as you know roughly what happens in these shows, then you can watch basically anything else in UC and have a good idea of what’s going on. These are (in order):

Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) - sometimes called Mobile Suit Gundam 0079.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985)

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)

With Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2010) as a nominal fifth (honestly I feel like you could argue either way).

The rest of the shows are:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989 Three-Episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991 Movie)

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991 Thirteen-episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1999 Twelve-episode OVA)

G-Saviour (2000 Live Action Movie) - nobody ever talks about or acknowledges this one, it’s just here for completionism.

Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo (2004-2009 Three OVA’s with three Episodes each)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (2015 Six-Episode OVA, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (2015 Eight-Episode Series, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis (2017 episode, adapted from a light novel of the same name. Later rereleased as Gundam Twilight Axis Red Trace, with additional footage)

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative (2018 sequel movie to Gundam Unicorn)

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (2021 ongoing movie series, very much adapted from the novel Hathaway’s Flash)

Most of the other series relate to events in the aforementioned “mainline” shows in some way, but a lot of the sidestories set during the One Year War require very little introduction (Thunderbolt, 0080 and 08th MS Team). Similarly, works set in “Late UC” (F91 and Victory Gundam) carry on from the other series thematically but don’t have any plot connections, so they can all be watched without any background knowledge of the rest of the Universal Century.

Compilation Movies

Just a quick note here - many of the Gundam series have compilation movies, where either a whole series or part of one are compressed down into a movie. While each movie compares differently, they usually boil down to this: Compilation Movies usually have worse pacing, but really nice animation.

One of the great things about Gundam is that different shows offer variations on themes, so seeing how different characters react to similar situations, or how different settings change their approaches can make it incredibly rewarding.

I haven’t seen enough of SD Gundam to make any sort of recommendations there, and Manga is something I might touch on another day.

EDIT: Oh hey also: You can watch a good chunk of these on YouTube, for free, officially. The Official Gundam.Info YouTube channel rotates the series shown on its channel periodically. I think it’s got F91 and SEED on there currently? But it’s had Wing, 00 and Witch From Mercury before. Also all of the Build Fighters series are there.

So yeah, that’s a thing.