Ranked #593

Turn A Gundam

Turn A Gundam marks a turning point in the career of Yoshiyuki Tomino. Caught in a severe depression during and after the production of Victory Gundam he turned out two lackluster projects (Brainpowered and Garzey's Wing). As he came out of his depression he began developing an idea for a new Gundam series to include all the alternate continuities into one the Correct Century. He succeeds with Turn A Gundam.

Breaking away from his Kill 'Em All melodramas that marked his earlier successes, he came up with a much lighter outlook which has shown in the works after. While Turn A follows the usual teenager finding himself piloting a mecha in a war it manages to present plot devise in an interesting and untried way successfully. The Mecha themselves (by futurist Syd Mead who designed Blade Runner and Tron) are so aesthetically different they border on grotesque. This plays very well in early episodes when the battles take on a very War of the Worlds feel to them. The characters interacting in a typically rich Tomino script are well rounded, likable, and surprisingly complex who carry with them stings of an individual plot that the director skillfully weaves into a deep and complex story. The plot itself is heartwarming, funny, tense and has Machiavellian dealings on both sides of the war. Action does take a back seat to plot development, but as the series progresses fights become faster, more brutal, and with none of the canned battles that tend to pop up in mecha series recently. Yoko Kanno delivers again in the soundtrack, one of my favorites she has done. Of Particular note is Tsuki no mayu which appears in the first episodes in one of the most memorable scenes in the show.

Now if there was a downside I would have to say hardcore action fans would be disappointed in the slower pacing as Tomino slowly develops characters and the political situation. On the plus side this is one of the few Gundam series you do not need prerequisite knowledge to understand what is going on. It also has the single best ending I have ever seen in an anime. Whether you are a mecha fan or not I would implore you to at least give this underrepresented series a try, you will undoubtedly find something to you own liking. read more

Story and Characters

Initially, Turn A Gundam started as a total departure from the normal Universal Century Gundam formula. Set hundreds of years from the traditional gundam storyline, the earth has just began to recover from the depredations of the gundam wars, and the old earth citizens who escaped from the moon are planning a return to earth.

Our protagonist Loran, is one of three "advance scouts" sent to earth by the Moon's queen, Dianna, to figure out if the planet is (1) habitable (2) worth returning to. This is his story. On the way he learns about earth, the moonrace decides to return and he inevitably ends up piloting a powerful relic from past "Dark History", the Turn A Gundam. He also ends up surrounded by powerful, strong women - at least, compared to other gundam series, the women in this series seem REALLY strong, and I don't mean physically. But the best characters by far were Keith and Guin Lineford.

I have to admit, the first 22 episodes of Turn A Gundam flew by as the story, characters, lay of the land and politics unfurled. This whole set up was extremely well done and I was intrigued. Around episode 23 to 42, it started getting ... well ... repetitive and boring. Also by then my suspension of disbelief broke. Some of the actions of the third level peon military characters made me incredulous, I guess I can't believe how stupid they were, or how quick they were to change allegiences.

However, the series redeemed itself. By episode 43, there was a HUGE, major plot twist that made the last 7 episodes or so fantastic. To be honest, if this series was condensed to 26 episodes and the middle one third cut out, it could have been as great as 08th MS team! Again, this is another of those gundam series that had great potential but it wasn't fully utilized.

Art/Animation

Overall, animation was very dated with a lot of frame reuse, so was ok for its time but compared to current anime it really shows its age. But, I hated the moustache on the Turn A Gundam. It was ugly, seemed kind of pretentious and served no useful weapon or asthetic purpose other than having people be able to call it "the moustache gundam". Maybe I'm being harsh but when you think of the sunglasses from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan - now, that's how you do a feature correctly! In this respect the Turn A Gundam animators/model designers failed horribly!

To be fair, the Turn X gundam was actually a good looking gundam. All the rest were blocky and not appealing. Well, let's just say if I had the space to collect gundam models, based on this anime, the only one I'd buy is Turn X. Whereas I'd have purchased nearly every gundam from Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed, you get the picture. Art/Mecha design just wasn't well done.

Sound

Average sound effects, but the soundtrack was unexpectedly good, no great! Ending and theme songs were where this series really excelled. One of the ED songs "Moon's Coccoon" I have heard later used in RahXephon. I researched the OST and was not surprised to find out it is done by Yoko Kanno, a composer I really like. So, sound has a high score!

Enjoyment

I am in euphoria at having finished one of the last "old" gundam series, which makes my goal of completing ALL gundam closer to being fully achieved. Turn A Gundam's premise was intriguing, everything dragged in the middle and it got exciting again at the end. All this with a really good soundtrack and one of the best last 5 min epilogues I've seen in Gundam. Turn A is a solid 7 if you can get through the middle 20 episodes. read more