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Mobile Suit Gundam: Universal Century tv Review
Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Z Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Char's Counterattack and other Universal Century anime series
Story & Characters
*This review is strictly based upon First Gundam and (to a fair degree) the complimentary film trilogy*
The year is Universal Century 0079 - The beginning of the One Year War, in which humanity has taken to the stars as an attempt to keep the Earth from overpopulating. In the middle of a war stalemate between the Earth Federation (Good) and Principality of Zeon (Bad), teenaged Amuro Ray comes across the prototype Gundam Mobile Suit and is tasked with piloting the device to protect an inexperienced Federation crew aboard a warship - White Base. The ship is bombarded by capable Zeon officials while in space (the most important being Char Aznable, an Ace Mobile Suit pilot responsible for downing five Federation ships single-handedly in battle). After multiple confrontations with Char, Amuro (unknowingly) seals the fate of a rivalry that will stand the test of time.
From start to finish, there's alot to like about Mobile Suit Gundam. It may come as a surprise that in spite of all the show's immense story had to offer, its episode number was shortened from 52 to 43 and given a quick cancellation in the original television run from 1979-1980. Much like Star Trek, repeats showed just how wrong the producers were and thus a movie trilogy (compiling the television episodes together with new animation) was born, creating the franchise we know and love today. Depending on your preferences, you may find the Movie Trilogy to be a quicker rundown of the series if you can't sit through the entire series. Whatever your option, once you're hooked there's no turning back!
Rating:
Art
The fair majority of the artwork here is handled by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, whom many anime affictionados remember from his work on Crusher Joe and Zambot 3. Once again, Yas demonstrates his expertise in animation directing and character design from the get-go. Each character has a uniqueness to them as demonstrated through the comical Kai Shiden to the slick, brave figures of Bright Noa and Char Aznable. Never in this series will you come across a void of "A Type" or "B Type w/C Type Eyes" characters here like in modern anime. The artwork, like most 70's-80's anime, tends to have moments with periodic "bad" animation in which Yas didn't storyboard or was unavailable at the time (the most notable absence being Episodes 38-43). Regardless, Yas' art design holds up quite well (and even morso in the movie trilogy, in which new animation is used to piece together the movies).
Additionally, Mech design falls under Kunio Ohkawara. Again, each Mobile Suit is given unique characteristics in order to tell apart the Federation and Zeon fodder (Ex: Zeon Mobile Suits are often monoeyed!). Ohkawara's work could easily fall into super robot territory here, but there are enough nuances within the series to make this argument slide. Expect the trademark Gundam designs to fall in line with what comes from this series onwards.
Rating:
Sound
Again, for a product of its time, Mobile Suit Gundam has a wealth of traditional Giant Robot sound effects that are well-fitting for the Mobile Suits. Beam Rifles and Mahine Guns have piercing noises, while the Gundam has some rather memorable sounds that will simply refuse to leave your conscious. Upon reviewing, I found the movie trilogy to have a better useage of sound effects overall as opposed to the television series.
Music is done by Takeo Watanabe and Yuji Matsuyama (who also handled Zambot 3's music). While dramatic when it needs to be, there are still some 70's conventions to be found within the soundtrack (Ex: dig the funky bass and drums of 'Gallant Char'!). The themes are sure to heighten your viewing experience, and are so memorable that they were even reused for the movie trilogy of the 80's. Chances are you'll be guaranteed to hum a few tunes!
The vocal performances are the heart of this anime. Familiars like Tohru Foruya and Shuuichi Ikeda handle Amuro Ray and Char Aznable quite well. Other roles of interest include the late Hirotaka Suzuoki as Bright Noa and Daisuke Gori as Dozle Zabi. Each character is voiced accordingly to their personalities. Amuro is portrayed as very intuitive and shy, but when in battle Tohru gives Amuro a brave cadence of survival depending on the situation. Char on the other hand is stealthy and strategic, but Shuuichi gives him a hidden sense of a past life.
Those who prefer english dubbing might find the Ocean Group dub a refreshing take on the original Japanese mono track. The voice actors chosen were said to be handpicked by Tomino himself, and upon hearing it's not hard to this coming as truth. Brad Swaile and Michael Kopsa are just as good as their original seiyus in the roles of Amuro and Char. Sound effects are where the dub fails, thanks in part to the Ocean dub trying too hard to make the original audio sound "cool" to younger viewers by overusing new sounds over the mono mix.
Rating:
Presentation
It's been said before that Kidou Senshi Gundam is the Star Wars of Japan, and I'm quite inclined to agree. Mobile Suit Gundam was the very blueprint for Real-Robot (Mecha) Anime at a time when Super Robots were all the rage. The Mobile Suits are war machines, the characters were brimming with genuine emotional conflict, and there was a sense of military politics behind the story. Another interesting change of pace was how we got to see the war from BOTH sides, rather than just have the enemy be a one-shot joke every episode
Spoiler (show)
. Each episode doesn't have a stereotypical happy ending, and there is a great balance between action and character development to be found. The overall concept, while flawed from time to time, serves to demonstrate a space war drama at its finest (at least to me, anyway!)
The show's greatest appeal is that of teens-adults, due to the series having blood/violence, adult themes and occasional swearing (at least in the Japanese dub).
Rating:
Final Verdict
7.6667 (good)
Reviewed by crscottjr, Jul 14, 2010
Comments
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emina07 Mute Member Jul 20, 2010
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nakakainis Jul 27, 2010
salamat
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rukasu04 Mute Member Aug 12, 2010
Nice review :P
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SchRita Aug 27, 2010
Thanks!
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patriz0 Oct 05, 2010
thanks for the review
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Warpten29 Jan 11, 2011
This great, thanks for the anime's review it inspires me!
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