Kidou Senshi Gundam III: Meguriai Sora-hen

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Movie Trilogy is the definitive incarnation of the massively influential Mobile Suit Gundam TV series. It may not be perfect, but it definitely deserves its lofty status in the history of anime as a proven classic. As one cannot have one part of the trilogy without the others, this review will cover all three of the compilation movies.

The first question on any new viewer's mind regarding the story of Mobile Suit Gundam: the Movie Trilogy (MSG) would be: "Do the films condense too much story from the TV series to fit into its limited run time?" The answer to that is ... "no". MSG takes the liberty to cut some of the flab from the original series and manages very well in terms of preserving the integrity of the story. The pacing may strike as a little faster than usual, but there are no glaring problems pertaining to the question above.

The story of MSG follows the crew of White Base, a secret earth federation battleship housing the RX-78-2 Gundam. The protagonist, Amuro Ray, makes the difficult transition from an ordinary civilian to the ace pilot of the federation military, along with a number of other civilians who were also pulled into the conflict against the Principality of Zeon when their space colony was destroyed by a Zeon attack, the purpose of which was to destroy the White Base, along with the experimental mobile suits being developed in secrecy. The long journey aboard the White Base exposes Amuro to many ugly facets of war far beyond the destruction of his home and the loss of life. In the midst of it all, Amuro is burdened with the responsibility of risking life and limb to protect his friends and comrades aboard the White Base, a target of constant Zeon attack, with the gundam. All this weaves an engrossing tale of struggle and growth, rife with challenges on and off the battlefield, making MSG a very interesting war story. There is an epic feel to the films, because though the adventure of the White Base stretches over many destinations, it is but a small part of the vast web of war and politics that makes up the interstellar conflict, and the characters' struggle for survival in the monstrous web makes them seem all the more vulnerable and the story that much more gripping.

The characters of MSG are some of the most iconic in the history of anime. Amuro, as mentioned above, is a very well-developed character. His teenage angst may strike as a little too much in the beginning, but his clear maturation throughout the story makes him an endearing character. The antagonists of MSG also also equally memorable, as they are some of the best antagonists one will come across in anime: the cunning and skillful Char Aznable and Ramba Ral, the bold and courageous Dozle Zabi, and even the cold and calculated Ghiren Zabi -- all of them have plenty of admirable traits that really makes the viewer respect the nazi-inspired Zeon. Even when these antagonists bite the dust, the viewer would still feel for them.

Hailing from the early 80's, MSG's visuals and sounds are quite aged. Though the animation has definitely improved from the sometimes laughable quality of the original TV series, it will not win over any new anime fans by itself. The frame rate is low, the proportion are sometimes warped, and the details are always shallow. Yet despite all this, MSG still manages to produce a number of memorable battle scenes, which is something to applaud for. The mecha designs, especially that of the gundam and zaku II, influenced mecha designs for decades to come. Even to this day, these old-school robots are sights to behold. The sound effects of MSG are almost as iconic as the mobile suits themselves. Fans will recognize the buzzing sound of the beam saber as well as blast of the beam rifle from miles away. Granted, the quality of these sound effects aren't anything amazing objectively, but they serve their functions well, and their nostalgia value is beyond measure. There are also a couple of very catchy battles tunes to be heard, as well as great sound acting, though Amuro's voice may be a little over-the-top at times.

In the end, Mobile Suit Gundam: the Movie Trilogy should be a must-watch for anyone interested in mecha anime or the history of anime in general. Its influence, popularity, and historic value is simply through the roof. There is a reason why even almost three decades later, model kits of the old RX-78-2 are still selling like hotcakes and the name "Char Aznable" remains recognized almost everywhere in japan. MSG is the very definition of a classic, and this fact cannot be denied. What lies in question is the modern viewer's enjoyment of the aged classic. But with a stellar story and memorable characters, MSG still has the quality to win over its viewers, a quality that will most likely remain as long as there exists people who watch anime.

The final installment of the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy is a masterpiece. Watching this film, it is incredibly difficult to believe that the movie is a compilation of over 20 TV episodes as the pacing, plot, art and character development are all outstanding. If any of the three movies in the trilogy have any rewatch value or are strong enough to stand on their own, this one is it.

Let's begin with the story. The Newtype concept comes full circle in this installment, embodied by a love triangle between Amuro, Char and Lalah Sune. The relationship transcends relatively simple romance and enters the realm ... of spirituality. Amuro's identity as a Newtype propels Lalah into becoming the most important person in Amuro's life, a relationship that is somehow believably intrinsic despite being slightly rushed. Newtypes in later series are synonymous with super-skilled ace pilots (a fact that Gundam Unicorn bluntly points out) This doesn't feel like the case in this movie; true understanding and love at first sight were Tomino's original vision of the Newtype concept and it really shows.

As a result of accepting his new identity as a Newtype and his relationship with Lalah, the rivalry between himself and Char becomes a deeply personal feud leading to many interesting confrontations. Char's identity is also finally revealed as is Sayla's, allowing justification for his actions and neatly concluding the movie. Without giving away too much, Char's identity is also closely linked to the Zabi family who have a much larger role and presence in this film and give a greater insight into the inner demons of the Zeon rulers.

The characters become fully developed and mature in this film, their identities solidifying and defining their further appearances in the franchise. Amuro's journey is complete. He is now a noble soldier bound by his duty to protect those he loves, a stark contrast to his former angst-ridden self. Though all of the White Base crew is combat-hardened, they are undoubtedly family and the audience always hopes that the final, dangerous confrontations with Zeon won't claim any lives, not only because such a death would be tragic for the audience but also for the other characters. The character development is just that good; you really feel for them.

This constant danger that the characters are placed into creates a very effective sense of dread, keeping the suspense tight and making the action that much more enjoyable. And there's plenty of action. From the famous confrontation between the Gundam and 9 enemy Rick Dom suits, to the gigantic scale of the space battles, the action only abates during critical scenes of character development, finally concluding in the epic Battle of A Baoa Qu.

After all is said and done, one can only sit back, exhale and exclaim "wow!" as the credits roll and the fantastically 80s kitsch track "Megurai" sung by Daisuke Inoue plays. This film has solidified in my mind why the original series is so revered in its home country, to the point of becoming part of the national consciousness. An impressive trilogy to say the least, any Gundam fans who have not experienced the original series or the Universal Century should do what I did and witness this amazing trilogy, especially this powerful work of art that is the final installment. And as a self-referential sign of things to come, the credits conclude with a wonderfully cryptic sentence appearing in English which I will quote:

And now... in anticipation of your insight into the future.

32 years later, after watching hundreds of animes, i still find myself enjoying every second of this movie from beginning to end. You may ask yourself: But isn't this movie outdated? How could i enjoy anything so old? Well, that's exactly what Mobile Suit Gundam is all about. It's about a series which made a huge impact in the industry, and even today, you can still see its influence which still lies deep in the roots of the history of anime.

This movie, aired in 1982, reprises the events from the original series created by Yoshiyuki Tomino back in 1979, from episodes 31 to 43, ... with almost a whole new animation.

The story in this one it is really well paced and covers almost all of the main events from the original series, with less political background than the previous movies and more focused on the battle scenes. It's plot revolves around the fictional characters Char and Amuro, where their rivalry reaches new heights with the appereance of a new female character called Lalah, who finds herself very attached to both of them, and the upcoming decisive battle between Zeon and the Federation.

The art is also unbeliable. Even today, i am still impressed by it and i certainly think that it won't discourage anyone who decides to give this movie a chance thirty years later. The character's design are quite appealing for an anime this old and they match the characters personalities pretty well. Also, i find that many of the battles which happen during the movie are extremely well animated and would put in shame many animes from today.

The sound... what can i say about it. Amuro, voiced by Toru Furuya, and Char, voiced by Shuuichi Ikeda, two of the most well know seiyuus in the anime industry, reached a legendary status within this series, giving birth to one of the best rivalries ever made in anime. The soundstrack suits every scene pretty well, specially in the most touching scenes from the movie, and the great ending theme "Meguriai", which made me shed a few tears...

As for the characters, there is some development from the White Base's crew members, specially Mirai, and from the Principality of Zeon, but it mainly focus on Char and Amuro. For those who also watched the original series, there may be some criticism about the characters in the movies simply because their development seems to be a bit rushed, which is very true, but you can still apreciate how they feel about themselves and others, along with their particular perspective on war, friendship, love and death.

Overall, the movie is very enjoyable, with a fair balance between romance, action and drama, and characters with a depth way ahead of its time. But not everybody may be used to watch anime this old, and would be understandable if that hold them back from enjoying this beautiful movie to its fullest.

I personally think an anime movie can't get much better than this.It is never too late to give Gundam a chance and enjoy this fantastic movie, along with the rest of the Universal Century related series.

I've looked at the first two films based off of the original Gundam series. And now we're on the finale, Encounters in Space. So far, they haven't been good. They've been pretty trite and overly predictable. I'd like to see them end on a high note, but I don't expect it given what we've seen thus far.

Story:

So, when we left off our heroes were leaving Earth in White Base with the Zeon forces in hot pursuit and attacking the Jaburo headquarters behind them. Sayla also had a quick encounter with her missing brother who happens to be Char of the Zeon forces. Holidays ... will definitely be awkward for their family.

In this film, we open with White Base having returned to space and engaging in battles with Zeon forces there. The conflict is coming to a head and both sides are in an increasingly desperate state. The Zeon have a new super weapon and White Base is the lynch pin in the Federation attack against it.

Let's start with the biggest issues with the film. The most obvious being that, like the previous films, its way too predictable. Any major character who's going to die has an obvious death flag. The narrative itself has no unexpected twists. In addition to that, the bad romance writing gets particularly egregious here. There's a weird love pentagon thing going with Mirai, Bright and two other dudes who weren't in the prior films and only have minor roles in this one. So, it's kind of pointless and doesn't contribute anything except some contrived romance melodrama. Because that's what we need to add intrigue to this story about intergalactic war. Speaking of pointless nonsense, Amuro's father shows up in this for no good reason. Amuro just kind of speaks to him briefly, realises he's suffering from some kind of brain damage and then acts like the whole thing never happened.

You may recall that when I reviewed the first film I mentioned that it tried to make both sides sympathetic but failed because the Zeon are basically portrayed as space Nazis. Well, this film exacerbates that perception by outright comparing Gihren, leader of Zeon's forces, to Adolf Hitler. So, the comparison is deliberate and they're still trying to show the Zeon as somewhat sympathetic... Suddenly, it makes a lot of sense that the original creator of Gundam, Tomino Yoshiyuki, also directed, created and scripted both Brain Powerd and Garzey no Tsubasa.

The most interesting element is still Char's whole arc although it's kind of a letdown with how it ultimately concludes.

Characters:

The big problem with the characters as a whole is still that they're duller than a plastic spoon. Amuro is also really getting on my nerves at this point. There's a part of the film where he encounters someone on the opposing side who says it's weird that he's fighting without any actual reason. He doesn't deny the fact that he has no reason for fighting but still thinks it's petty that she's fighting out of a sense of gratitude and loyalty towards someone else. And while watching that exchange all I could think was "at least she has some motivation." Seriously, this guy just admitted to not having any real reason to fight and he thinks she's the one being petty in that situation? Fuck off.

Art:

So, we have art and mecha designs that haven't really aged very well. If I'm being honest, the only mech designs in this I kind of like are Ball and Big Zam and it's not because they're good designs. It's because they're stupid in a way that kind of makes me laugh. Ball is literally a tiny ball-shaped mech. Big Zam is a massive saucer with no manoeuvrability attached to a pair of huge legs for no apparent reason. Seriously, what purpose do the legs serve? All the weapons seem to be in the saucer section. Is it supposed to be so that it can kick or step on other mechs and call them scum?

Sound:

The acting is fine, even with Amuro's whininess. Inoue You and Ikeda Shuuichi have the strongest performances. The music is and has been the most consistently quality element in these films.

Ho-yay:

There's none. No one is Trowaing anyone else's Quatre.

Areas of Improvement:

1. You can't make your antagonists sympathetic while also making a clear comparison to them and Nazis.

2. Amuro needs stronger motivation. He comes across as someone who's letting themselves get dragged along into a conflict that they have no strong feelings about.

3. If you suck at writing romance, just don't have romance. Trust me, the fans will ship characters they think mesh well regardless and you certainly don't need romantic drama to add intrigue to a story about an intergalactic war involving mecha. You just need better writing for the intergalactic war involving mecha.

Final Thoughts:

This is not a strong ending. Not only are all the problems with these films still present, but they're actually accentuated with pointless scenes and a bunch of poorly executed romance. And because of that, I'm not giving this part of the trilogy an average rating. I'm giving it a 3/10.

In this review of the last movie, I will leave out the art and sound parts because they are similar to the first and second one so instead of repeating myself, I will focus on the story and the characters.

As a conclusion to the film series, it did great. First mention would be the battle scenes. I stated in the second movie that Gundam should be more battle oriented (like developing the war aspect of the story). And that's what I got. Politics were kept to a minimum in this one and it was rather well done except the Hitler kudos (yeah Gihren Zabi, ... I'm talking about you). How come he is successful with his superior race speech? It's like a bad attempt at creating the ultimate villain but failing because he had no personnality.

Another thing that caught my attention was the "Newtype stuff". It seems to me like an equivalent of the Force in Star Wars (Gundam and Star Wars really got something in common). Newtypes are like Force users, some have a stronger affinity with the Newtype Force and start developing abilities (Like Amuro the chosen one). I didn't mind at first because it tied well with "Humans adapt to their environment". However, the possibility of a "Newtype afterlife"... it was weird (no spoilers here).

It should be taken into account that a compilation movie has to cut out minor plots like the relationship between supporting characters. I liked how Sayla Mass and Char displayed more background story but what bothered me was the relationship between supporting characters like Lieutenant Bright and Ensign Mirai or Frau Bow and Hayato (not spoilers). They made a weak drama impact and it was hard to understand because of its underdevelopment and the short time allowed.

I also have something to say about the nudity in this film series. Really, what's the point? I know it's no more than two minutes but still, it felt out of place. What about giving more character depths instead? Though that's just a personal thought.

All in all, the third movie was really good. The story itself had a good conclusion, not some "to be continued bullshit". I didn't feel the necessity of watching the entire Anime to get a better understanding but it's true that some characters still need more scenes. I'm just nitpicking in this review because there wasn't any major flaw worth noticing.

Now I watched all of the first Gundam as episodes and not as movies, so I decided to make this review on the final movie to make it easier. Definition of a Mid anime. To put it simply, you're sitting to watch a 43 episode history docu of “Space WWII.” It has its moments of being interesting and also has a good way of how war can affect a person. Amuro (MC) is 15 when the show starts, just a kid who likes to tinker. Then he turns into a battle-hardened warrior with a 400/0/0 KDA. The side characters thankfully don’t suffer from what I ... like to call the “MHA problem.” Although there are a ton of side characters, most don’t really matter since they don't affect the plot too much, so forgetting them isn't the biggest crime. However, the major problem this anime has is that you really can start anywhere (Remember I didn't watch it as movies.) You could basically skip to any episode, although not getting all the context, could simply keep going since the show just either skips it or tells it again. Overall, MID.

There are memorable death scenes happening constantly throughout this entire movie. Like, "the mobile suit legs are just for show; the brass will never understand that" was a HUGE brained line that casually pointed out they had thought this space war stuff through, but they just spent the whole movie iterating on what it means to die in a space war to drive that home in as gruesome a way as possible. Amazing.

The story was a little too disjointed for me, though. Not necessarily in a bad way, but I felt like I was drowning in all the exposition about the ongoing battles and missed ... a lot of the background motivations. So the revelations about Char didn't hit as hard, and, honestly? Neither did Lalah's death. I wasn't expecting that to be an incidental event in the middle of the movie. Of course, "I've done something I can never atone for" after the GORGEOUS mental connection between Lalah and Amuro dad excellent. But then Amuro and Char just fight as normal here, mostly. Albeit with huge brained space combat damage.

So, I dunno. It didn't seem that deep to me—certainly not as deep as the other two movies—but it was a great ride. And perhaps I need to take into consideration that I watched this during the 100+ degree heat wave the Pacific Northwest experienced in 2021. I know this whole movie has been mined for greater depths, especially in connection to "Zeta Gundam" and "Char's Counterattack", but I'm just on my couch trying to stay hydrated, y'know? I'll probably watch this again sometime before I die, though. Maybe then.

For full disclosure: My only experience with the Gundam franchise has been through these three movies. I have not seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam, hence why I won't make any comparisons to the show here and will only talk about how the trilogy stands on their own.

That said, this finale does an excellent job of nicely wrapping up all the plot points established in the previous movies. We learn what happens to White Base, Amuno and the crew, Char, newtypes, and how the One Year War reaches it's conclusion. Each member of the cast has time to shine and the final battle last so ... long as to properly convey it's sheer scale and impact. Everything about it is 'grand' and is the best send-off for a story this big.