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Paptimus909's Mobile Suit Gundam: Universal Century Tv Review

Mobile Suit Gundam: Universal Century

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

The UC line of shows probably has one of the best stories out there in anime history. It's mostly politically based around two entities fighting for their beliefs. The Zeon want indepence in space whereas the Earth Forces want to maintain a control on the outer space colonies. Each side has it's own pros and cons, and between series, even, there is a constant perspective shift making the viewer really question the concept of war at its heart. The character development (with a few bizarre plot elements, mainly in ZZ) is outstanding, making most of the character's highly 4 dimensional; the greatest effect of this for me was in the 6 episode OVA 0080: War in the Pocket. Although it is strange how all of the main characters can seemingly pilot these suits they have little to no insight about on the fly, some of the raw talent behind them is either story-based into the New Type line or can probably just be attributed to good ol’ fashion “hey, it’s not real, you know?� One of the more remarkable things about the series is the villains and their logic about certain things, particularly space strategy. M’Quve and Paptimus Scirocco are probably two of the coolest, not to mention all of the Zabi line (the founders of Zeon…mostly they are power hungry bastards). The other nice thing is that there is usually at least one really well developed, although ultimately undercut, love story in each one that will further emphasize the previously aforementioned “tragedies of war�.

Rating: 10

Art

The art style is from late 70's through the 80's for the most part, with a few exceptions to "fill-in" series that were launched in the early 90's. Mobile suit concepts, or giant robot design, and anime was fairly commonplace for it's time, but was done with stellar effect as the series grew in popularity (and, I'm assuming, budgetting). The most important thing I can say is that people will turn this series down right off the bat because the style is “so old, so ugly, blah blah blah�. Suck it up. Modern anime styles are overrated as they are, and very few I’ve seen lately even bother to contribute to the overall goal of the show. Think about this in addition: Old video games are some of the best (i.e. FF6 vs. FF10…10 was good, 6 will still always reign supreme because of combat system, story, and char development…..pattern arising here?)

Rating: 7

Sound

All music and voices are really well done. The sound effects are mostly stock sound, but are ones that many people have come to grow and love. You'll never look at another mecha sound effect the same way after you watch a Gundam series :-) There’s never an inappropriate time for the music and the voice actors range from amazing at the main character level and sad/funny at the generic. Most of the intro music is what will hook onto you, as is evidenced by the alternate universe Gundam series. But even then the battle music or the sweet symphony during regal events will make you think nothing less of space chivalry at its peak, for the most part.

Rating: 8

Presentation

As far as I know, this is one of the longest running franchises from the early anime history. Humor is interjected when necessary (why are there random naked scenes throughout Gundam? The world may never know....). The main attachment that is evident in this series is the story movement, the character development, and last but not least, the crazy GIANT ROBO ACTION!! The series will take a while to get into, but once you're in, I'm afraid you are bound to be hooked (if you are into the staple of Giant Robots or sci-fi). Most of the clichés of the time are grabbed from here and there, but are tastefully used (98% of the time). The only hard times for me to watch the Gundam series was in ZZ. The original writer had nothing to do with the series until around episode 22 or so, and the first bunch were entertaining from a comical perspective, but once the story got cooking, you really will begin to wonder what the hell you were doing. Char’s Counterattack, what I consider to be the last of the UC line due to original character content, was a masterful way to end the series, although most hardcore fans will tell you they hated it. There’s not a lot of closure, but what the series is hinting at on the cosmic perspective makes complete sense to me. Think hard and Gundam will reward your efforts, young Padawan. To elaborate more on the originality, Gundam is what most people will tell you is a primordial soup (sorry Mazinger…) for all of the robot shows after it (ahem, ahem, VOLTRON BEING AWESOME…I mean, what?), so watch this and learn yourself good, son!

Rating: 9

Final Verdict

8.8333 (very good)

Reviewed by Paptimus909, Jul 29, 2005

Comments

  1. white-zero Jul 29, 2005

    Nice review of the original Gundam. Glad to see a non-G-SEED review, by the way. :)

  2. PAPTIMUS Sep 13, 2005

    GLAD TO SEE someone beside ME WHO likes paptimus...u DONT KNOW HOW happy THIS makes ME..

  3. AirMaster Apr 15, 2006

    Paptimus was one heck of a pimp lol.

    Anyway, nice review. I'm a bit sad to not see Victory in there, but the other UC series were good as well XD

  4. Aqua54 May 20, 2006

    Very nice review, i like how you threw in the random (i wouldn't say pointless, we're talking about appeasing the Otaku here) shower/nude scenes, nice touch. I'm a little dissapointed you didn't mention 0083 though, i still feel drained when i watch the last 5 episodes. Gundam really can have very powerfull moments.

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