Kidou Senshi Gundam MS IGLOO: 1-nen Sensou Hiroku

(LAZAROTH REVIEW - MEDIUM LENGTH - MINOR SPOILER SECTION)

"MSG: MS Igloo" is a series of fully CGI OVAs that takes place during the one year war, following a Zeon Technical Engineer in the first and second set, and a variety of Federation ground troops in the third. This is a review for the first set, which is the first half of the main character, Oliver May's story.

***PSA: You can watch the entire "MS Igloo" series English subbed for free and 720p (better than 480p release) on INTERNET ARCHIVE, though there's a watermark in the corner, but you'll forget it's there after a bit. Due to ... the obscurity of finding this series online or IRL, I hope this helps people who are looking for this mostly forgotten 25th anniversary piece of Gundam history.***


Animation/Art/Music:

I'd say that the CGI is outdated, but it isn't fair to judge a 20 year old show by today's standards, although with how bad CGI has been shown to be in recent years, such as "Berserk 2016", I really don't think that calling it outdated is warranted. It looks good, not as good as the CGI trailers of "Assassin's creed", but for a full CGI show, it's perfectly just good. The CGI has a very early 2000's "realistic" CGI look to it, so it has some immense charm. (Yes it was literally made in the early 2000's, so that makes sense...). It's a very expressive CGI, perhaps a little too expressive, and sometimes lip syncing is off. But it is appropriately weighty, and the sense of force and speed are sold usually wonderfully well. It's actually quite good CGI, and a novel way to watch Gundam.


The cinematography of this OVA really surprised me. It is full of dynamic and creative shots and angles, fully utilising the CGI medium to its fullest.

Music is really good, albeit quite limited. The battle theme "Shisyu-seyo!" is incredibly fitting as it provokes themes of intense patriotism and it's just fun to listen to. I added it to my song list.

The mobile suit's designs really stand out in the full CGI format, and still manage to look appropriately menacing, something that was lost in the CGI Mobile suits over 10 years later with the Origin anime adaptation. More on this in the last set.



Story/Action/Characters:


Despite the plot's lack of drama, I still really love the fact that this show revolves around the "Research and development" and subsequent "Testing" of the Zeon empire's new military weapons and vehicles such as canons and mobile suits. It's an aspect of the war we hadn't really seen, so I really like that it once again feels like a fresh perspective of the Gundam Franchise. And once again, we get to see the war from the perspective of the Zeon empire. I still really love how heavily the Gundam franchise has us in the shoes of the conventional "bad guys". Though the characters here are basically conduits for the plot to run through, and don't really make an impact themselves.

There is a fairly big theme of Propaganda in this show. Even with Zeon's initial dominance with the Mobile suits, Zeon brass still manipulate the facts once they begin to be pushed back by the Federation's advancing tech by pretending to the entire Zeon forces that the war is still going in their favour, deliberately misrepresenting the facts in order to further push moral and Zeon patriotism. It's quite an interesting theme that we haven't really seen in Gundam (Keep in mind I'm watching via chronological order, not release order, so if this theme is prevalent in Gundam media that released prior to 2004, then I am wrong here, but it's new to me!).

I think it's brilliant that the show dives into how Mobile suits became the jack of all trades of the war and made certain aspects of Military weapons and groups almost obsolete. You can feel the frustration of some people as their entire training and specialism have gone to waste as they are upended by superior machines of war that aren't even specialised for one niche.


Some of the action scenes are actually very epic and captivating, I particularly like the scene where a fleet battle happens, but with each side rotating their cannons sideways, like old pirate ships would be pointing their cannons. It's a unique way to show the sometimes boring space battles in Gundam.

I like how the end of each episode make it out as if the episode was just an personal report of the operation by the Main character, who witnessed the events unfold. It's a unique way to look at things.



***MINOR SPOILER SECTION***

Seeing the Federation brutally gun down thousands of defenceless, fleeing Zeon soldiers after the Odessa battle while our characters frantically try to save them is horrifying to witness, another way this franchise shows the horrors of war.

***MINOR SPOILER SECTION END***



Overall:

I didn't think I'd like this going into it at first, but wow, I was wrong. The CGI offers a novel way to experience Gundam, and dare I say that it fits the Gundam universe amazingly well, I actually wish we had more shows like this. The plot delves into yet another unexplored aspect of war that is overlooked, but essential in winning the arms race, that of "Research and development". It was really interesting seeing all the different scenarios, even if the actual plot was very thin and even pretentious at times, it thinks it has something to say, but it doesn't really. There's some decent themes it plays with though. Still, the spectacle and uniqueness of this show makes it worth a watch, so I recommend it!

I'll be reviewing the other sets, though they'll be shorter since most of my overall critique of the Igloo series is found here.


Animation: 7.9/10
Plot: 6.2/10
Characters: 6.2/10
Action: 8.4/10
Music: 8.0/10
Ending: (since this is half of an on-going story, there's no ranking here...)

Overall: 7.6/10

Yoo, I love this Halo 2 ass animation. Whole things fine. If you really like Gundam, I'd definitely recommend this. If you kind of like Gundam, kinda casual interest, this is a solid pass. It follows some dudes in a ship on the Zeon side and their mission. It is only 3 episodes but like, not only is it just kind of meh, as I stated earlier, the animation is on par with a cutscene from Halo 2. Its all CG, like super bad ultra shit ass CG lol. Kinda cool ig, but it's not that interesting and honestly I don't really recommend it unless ... you are already really interested in Gundam. Also if you haven't yet, watch Turn A lol.

It is the worst gundam series to date, the animation is dire, it is made entirely by cgi and it is like seeing the graphics of play station 2 or very bad. Above the story is awful. The best 3 episodes in the world. Also the characters are shit, very bad you do not empathize with any. But worst of all is the animation that makes you want to kill yourself every so often and you wonder why you're watching this shit. I do not recommend it to anyone unless you are a masochist. Do not waste your time watching this gundam series having such ... good things from the same saga.
En español:
Es la peor serie de gundam hasta la fecha, la animacion es nefasta, esta hecha enterramente por cgi y es como ver los graficos de la play station 2 o sea muy malos. Encima la historia es abuirridisima. Los mejores 3 episodios del mundo. Tambien los personajes son una mierda, muy malos no empatizas con ninguno. Pero lo peor de todo es la animacion que te da ganas de matarte cada rato y te preguntas porque estas viendo esta mierda. No la recomiendo a nadie a no ser que seas masoquista. No gasten su tiempo viendo esta serie de gundam teniendo tan buenas cosas de la misma saga.