Ranked #2148

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

Story: Without a doubt, V Gundam is the saddest Gundam story to date. And before anything else is said, I think it's worth a mention to say that a lot of people die, and most of the time for no good reason at all. That aside, I have to say I really loved the storyline. However, some of the story arcs in the middle could have been left out, and the story would still be intact; a lot of the time during said arcs I found myself wondering why the characters were doing what they were doing. There's not a lot of narrative glue to stick the parts together, and to keep one interested during some of the low parts. But, overall it's a nice story, with an emphasis on death, and at least during the last arc, a huge emphasis on the beauty of life.

Art: Very good. V Gundam uses a very simple art style to convey the characters and the Mobile Suits; which is both good and bad. Most of the Suits are very similar to each other, and are very rarely any unique. Characters however, look very nice, and some are just too cool for words, while others are just meh. Battles are everything you would expect from a mecha show, and although somewhat exaggerated at times (or almost all of the time), they're mostly very good. The simple style works here to make the art very nice looking even today.

Sound: Not much to say here. There's an excellent cast of actors working on the voices, and the mecha sounds are great, but nothing really stands out in this category.

Characters: We've got a cast of mostly children and women, with the main villain and one of the main characters being male. The rest of the male cast are either lesser characters or very old men. I can't quite remember why the cast is like it is, but it brings a fresh look on what might be a stale storyline. It also has the effect of removing almost all romantic involvement between the main characters. There's a peace-loving-battle-scarred boy, a princess girl, and a group of what seem to be orphaned children. Interaction between them is what really pushes the story along. Without a doubt, Oliver and Captain Gomez were my favorite characters, both of which received little screen time, but both of whom were very central to the story.

Overall: No where near as good as First Gundam, V Gundam is nonetheless a very nice looking, anime featuring a somewhat lacking storyline that'll get your emotions running if you're not prepared for it. Definitely recommended if you've seen the other UC animes, however, the story is completely separate from the main meta-plot. read more

Renowned as being the most depressing Gundam show, Victory is an odd sort of a series. At times it evokes the bleakness of Tomino's older works such as The Ideon and Zeta Gundam, while at others it's a humorous space adventure with wacky kids in the vein of Xabungle.

The art is similarly variable, with some episodes looking wonderful and others distinctly less so.

The music is consistently good, however, with a full set of quality OPs and EDs, plus a brilliant, poignant insert song or two.

Essentially, Victory picks up the UC storyline long after even F91 and Unicorn are done and dusted, with the Earth Federation completely ineffective. Elements of the show work with this, such as the cameo appearance from a Salamis or two in some episodes, but it does stand alone in its own right.

The main character is incredibly likeable - Usso gets on with it, does what has to be done and doesn't vacillate, whine or arbitrarily punch people for making fun of his name (too much.) He has a badass action Haro. He has a likeable dog which survives the whole series.

Contrasting him is Shakti, who is useless and annoying for a good part of the series. The villains are similarly unimpressive, with the only really good ones being Katejina and a few of the minor Zanscare leaders. The rest are fairly forgettable rehashes of UC archetypes (Chronicle is one of the weakest Char analogues in the franchise, notable for being as much of a failure as Zeta Gundam's Jerid Messa)

Mech design is all over the place, from the stylish and deadly V2AB to the plain insane Dodgore and Adastrea, which would be better suited to a super robot show. When it hits its stride, the results are spectacular but unfortunately that doesn't happen too often.

In terms of serious military drama, Victory comes across as a slightly tasteless black comedy rather than a bleak space horror ala Ideon or a depiction of a morally bankrupt hellhole as shown in Dougram. The climactic moments when Usso loses someone close to him are rarely hard-hitting but often ridiculous - almost equivalent to a mecha version of the Saw or Final Destination movies in their overly elaborate and telegraphed natures.

So all this criticism laid bare, what redeems Victory?

Firstly that it's different to a lot of Gundam despite deriving from it. It's at times fun, at times kind of bleak and frequently unpredictable.

Secondly, its likeable characters are really pleasant and nice to watch.

Thirdly, while the pacing is a little wacky and sometimes not ideal, the ending arc is very intense and powerful. One moment, where the insert song is used perfectly to accompany a moment of sacrifice, will stick with you.

By all means give Victory a good go before giving up on it. Just be prepared to accept it is very flawed. read more