Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt 2nd Season

Well, this particular short gundam series, well the second season that I have seen of this, was actually like a gundam anime movie packed into literally four episodes that had both sides literally trying to eliminate each other, but also, it seems like each side or each individual ace pilot was trying to pause or hesitate in between or before each attack, but gathered themselves and do what they were told by the orders give above or at the "top" one should say, even though this was a short and limited anime series I still enjoyed it nonetheless. I just wish there was more of ... a specific story to tell about this series, they even made two side compilation movies about this, which i am definitely not going to watch.

(LAZAROTH REVIEW - MEDIUM LENGTH - SPOILER FREE)

"Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt" movie/series 2, "Bandit Flower", is a visually stunning, but narratively disappointing, OVA sequel to the first OVA. This review will be shorter since most of my relevant critique is found in my first OVA review, as it carries over to here.


Animation/Art/Music.

Animation remains almost as stellar as the first OVA, such a beauty. There's some Mild CGI, but it's most often used sparingly to enhance a scene, rather than outright replace entire animation like most modern Mecha. Speaking of Mecha, the new mobile suits from both sides look incredible. There's some really great and ... creative cinematography. The varied settings due to taking place on earth rather than space is fresh, but loses some of the lustre of the first OVA.

Music is experimental, which I give credit for, even if it sounds like a bunch of drunk monks moaning into the microphone at times. The jazz is jazzy, so if you're a fan, you'll like it.


Story/Characters/Action:

The story suffers from being too short.

If it was longer, as in an entire anime season, it would feel much better as, really, not much happened in this OVA. Like, at all... I'm left with a feeling of "So that's it?", especially since it's been ALMOST A DECADE since this movie released. But I'll touch on that later, first, I need to praise the novelty of its narrative setting first.

Focusing on the direct aftermath of the One year war, it's very intriguing to see the Federation and the universe as a whole dealing with Zeon remnants who won't abide by the ceasefire after the Zeon empire's full official surrender. This is the earliest content (I think?) right after the war ended, but it hasn't really ended yet until the rebel resistance is squashed forever. I love that we get something like this, as it is something that media rarely portrays. Usually in war stories that have the war end on screen, by the very next scene, the world has returned to normalcy. But in this anime, things are more realistic. There will obviously be those who never give up, too prideful or vengeful to admit defeat.


There are some decently interesting ideas, but the story feels so... frivolous that I really wish they had just turned this into a 24 episode season or something. There was enough source material for that at the time, surely?


Overall:

This OVA was still quite entertaining due to the action, even if I didn't enjoy the story. I don't think I can even recommend that people watch this movie after they have seen the first movie. The first movie can be enjoyed in a purely visual way, the 2nd movie is more plot focused, even though the plot is extremely underbaked, partly due to this movie/series feeling like an "in-between" movie/series, but even then, it could've been better executed.

As much as I think it's a cardinal sin to say this, I think you're best off watching only the fight scenes on YouTube or something :/



Bonus:

I'm VERY disappointed that the Thunderbolt storyline wasn't a finished series. I hadn't realised that they were adapting an ongoing manga until it was too late. I HATE stopping in the middle of a story, especially when I have to wait YEARS AND YEARS for a continuation, as I have a horrible memory, which is part of the reason why I write such detailed reviews for almost everything I read/watch, to remember my feelings on something. I prefer to BINGE COMPLETED things, though I do make some exceptions, like with weekly/monthly manga that I keep up with. But if it's Video, I prefer binging, so I don't watch anime weekly. I wait until it's over to see all of it at once. Since there hasn't been a Thunderbolt anime in almost an entire decade, I really hate that I will probably forget the story whenever that other movie comes out, if it ever does!!

Worse than that, they've only adapted 7 volumes out of 24 (with more on the way)! Usually in this situation, I'd read the manga, but I really like the animation quality of this spin-off adaptation. It was a treat for the eyes, but I guess with a story this meh, I can forgive stopping in the middle like this.


Animation: 9.2/10
Action: 9.1/10
Plot: 3.0/10
Characters: 5.6/10
Ending: (It's unfair to judge an ongoing story on an arbitrary ending due to not adapting the entire thing, so no rating here...)

Overall: 6.2/10

(Yes I uploaded this review twice, for both versions of the adaptation.)

Gundam Thunderbolt's second season is nothing more than the burned out husk of a once great show. A bold-faced insult to the glorious first season it succeeded which sucks it dry of the energy it once had in favor of hollow pandering and incomplete, shallow storytelling.

Let's start with the very basic premise of this season, more specifically how it's broken from the very foundation. What defined the first season of Thunderbolt was the intense, morally gray rivalry between its two leads and the squads they represent. The show gave you time to truly get to know both Io and Daryl, grow attached to them and ... know their understandable reasons for fighting. This, in turn. made it all the more weighty when the two sides clashed, perpetuating their self-destructive cycle of vengeance over an ultimately-worthless sector of space in a fashion which is both exciting and tragic.

It's here where Thunderbolt Season 2 utterly fails. Being set after the One Year War, the fundamental conflict which defined Season 1's themes and characters is gone, and with it goes everything which made the story interesting. In its place, we now have the South Seas Alliance, an entirely new faction whose defining traits are "is evil" and "is vaguely cult-like", made up entirely of faceless minions with no definable character traits or motivations of their own.

Consequently, every battle in this season is absurdly boring, the character motivations and emotional intensity of the first season traded out for brainless, plotless schlock where no meaningful character writing or investment can be found.

Now in response to this, some of you might say that a big part of what makes Thunderbolt good is that it's cool action spectacle which you can turn your brain off to, so the fact that the writing has went to shit shouldn't be a huge impediment to one's enjoyment. I'm sorry to say, however, that the action and spectacle in this season are also rather lacking.

Now, to be clear, the show isn't exactly bad looking. The art style is still on point, the Mobile Suit designs are great, and the animation is a bit above your average seasonal trash, but it's still a major step down from Season 1. Moving the setting from space to Earth did a number on its action choreography, which now feels so much more sluggish and watered-down compared to the infinite creativity of the first season. The storyboarding rarely feels very striking or impactful outside of a few memorable scenes in the first episode, and the new color palette means that so very few of the visuals truly pop like they should.

This isn't helped by the fact that it just *drags*. Each episode is a few minutes longer than in Season 1, and while that might not sound that bad on paper, in practice it means that the season is collectively over 20 minutes longer than the first one, yet not nearly as much happens in it. Fights are drawn out longer than they should be and the plot tying it together is too thin to justify the extra time given to it.

The collective result of all this is that the entire season just feels so stale. watching through it all feels like it actively drains one's energy simply because it's so much more of a time sink next to Season 1 without nearly as much to get invested in. And coming out the other side it just feels like you've actively wasted your time.

In many ways, this season feels more like a crude parody of Thunderbolt's first season than a true follow up. A work which sets out to be a vague facsimile of the action fest it looks like on the surface while failing to understand the human core which made it work. It's a truly soulless *product* rather than a *story*, and I can't in good faith recommend such a thing to anyone who truly enjoys Thunderbolt.