Mobile Suit Gundam (Anime TV Series) Review.

 

CW: Mysoginy, Fridging

War is hell is a message that is not only eternally paramount for us as observers' to take in but is a story that sadly has necessitated a retelling of that story through so many mediums and fictions. The cruel reality of war and reflecting that reality in its complexity has been an ever ongoing story throughout our history and telling it in a profound and connective way remains ever important.

 

So it's a shame that one of the earliest examples in anime and particularly mecha fiction, the proponent of the 'real' robot genre, focusing on realism over superhero like grandeur, Mobile Suit Gundam is at its core, disappointing in this regard. For its age, for its pacing, for in general a sincerely patronizing tone with a mild interest in talking from a position of understanding on issues or experiences that are dated at the most mild of criticisms.

 

Having watched this series over a period of many months with a family member, I'm going to state that I understand my own bias's; the key most grating aspect of this series is it's intense use of the killing of women to further the goals of a male characters advancement, with most if not all attached to or dying to affect or for a male love interest or character. The relentless hatred of women is continuously poisonously malignant among the plot, with characters such as Sayla, one of the most prominent and proficient women in the central cast essentially reduced to a character obsessed with her brother who despite with time being revealed to have the same capabilities and strengths in some cases as her male counterpart, Amuro, is reduced to being told she's not built for this conflict, to go 'be a good woman' by her own brother.

 

Outside of this, the story tends to lean into side stories and ambling escapades that lead character development to feel like it repeats itself in wavering strokes; a mutiny story that feels like it repeats two to three times and with the acknowledgement that while characters are allowed to go back over things and show issues with progressing and regression, it still feels like the show can't decide what level to take things seriously with, the extent of the length of the show meaning I can't feel connected to or hone in on an overarching feeling of just either odd or poor pacing or suffering from archaic ideas of what 'right' and 'bravery' are that come across as regressive and foolish.

 

At most, this show has wonderful animation, some good music and moments of sincere empathy when characters are allowing themselves as such; where the ability to connect as humans and trust one another is more powerful than the idea of military command and doctrine or doing your 'duty'. But that is at its peak; and it does not truly have many of those.

 

For something I took a year to finish, the only things it leaves me strongly with are disdain and demerit. But that's where I leave it at; for now, I call my own personal One Year War to an end. Thank you to my brother for putting up with this for so long.