Kidou Senshi Gundam MS IGLOO: 1-nen Sensou Hiroku

The Gundam series was inspired in many ways by World War II, so the fact that this specific side story focuses on testing Wunderwaffe is a genuine novelty. The original series had a number of super weapons and super prototypes, but this series illustrates how for each Gundam, there are a half-dozen failures.

Originally created for Gundam's 25th anniversary and only viewable at the Bandai Museum in Mibu (two hours from Tokyo), MS Igloo later received a DVD release, to the great rejoicing of many Gundam fans. Now, first things first, the animation is dated, but this early 00s CGI is in many ways better ... crafted than the CGI anime slop on Netflix. Still, the mechanics are clean, which is what most fans come for in the first place.

The story is straightforward - Zeon has a military unit dedicated to testing various weapons, some of which are propagandized as war winners, similar to Nazi Germany's "wonder weapons" like the V1 and V2 missiles or the Messerschmitt Me 262. Each episode has one such weapon, and these are all put through their paces in real combat conditions. Since this is the One Year War we're talking about, there's really no need to discuss how things go, is there?

The writing is pretty decent, given the limited context for the OVA - vignettes around one weapon and one test, Oliver May is the engineering lead on all these evaluation tests, and he is quite honest about his opinion on how the test went, the viability of the weapon, and how things went wrong. As dry as his final reports are, the process to writing them is anything but dry. Oliver is invested in the pilots and the weapons they test, and he wants the best for them. There is a real current of frustration when things go wrong, especially when politics meddle with what his job is supposed to be about, which is quite regular. Given the limited time, the series does a good job of establishing the characters' personalities, and then launching them into battle.

The cool part is these weapons are given a genuine chance to shine. Some shine more brightly than others, but the viewer is engaged with the process. As small links in the entire One Year War, they are not wold-altering, but their actions have consequences, particularly in the third episode. My favorite is the YMT-05 Hildolfr, which is superior to the RX-75 Guntank and the MS-06J Zaku II in ground operations, and was really given a bum rap by Zeon Command.

In the end, give it a watch. Gundam fans who love the war machines will enjoy the spectacle of it all, especially since these are tests for weapons not really seen very much in the rest of the Gundam canon. The stories are pretty good in their self-contained arcs, especially since the focus is on development and testing of weaponry.

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.