Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt 2nd Season

*Spoilers for both seasons of Gundam Thunderbolt*

The phrases "Robots are cool" and "War is hell" are nothing if not ubiquitous with Gundam. Anyone who fancies himself even a remote fan of Gundam can tell you that. Yet, while most war stories opt for the "war is hell" angle, there aren't that many of them that really feel...human. Sure, we can have something like "Apocalypse Now" and "Saving Private Ryan" which accomplishes that, but most of the time, we get "SEED Destiny" and "00 Second Season" which have it's characters come off as more "idiot/asshat tools for a broken narrative" than truly human characters that make ... us feel something good.

Gundam Thunderbolt has always felt human. Yes, it still goes the "robots are cool" angle Gundam and most mecha anime in general have as their bones, and yes, there is a lot of sick jazz to really get the adrenaline pumping when action takes place, but Gundam Thunderbolt feels truly human about expressing war and its combatants, and this second season is no exception. Yet somehow, a lot of people fail to realize this, seeing it as nothing more than pretty action romps with little substance. While in the surface Thunderbolt is another epic war series full of some of the flashiest visuals you will ever see in anime, it presents everything more realistically than dramatically, all the while making perfect sense, effectively becoming more dramatic than most of its much longer brethren. So, how does Gundam Thunderbolt go about being human, and what does this Second Season do to strengthen such a human feel? Well, let's find out, shall we?

It's one whole year after the One Year War, and now Zeon remnants have aligned with this strange religious cult known as the South Seas Alliance to take down the feddies. Once again, we have two stories, two main perspectives to follow, Io and Daryl. The interactions they have with their crew are excellent and really bring the best out of everybody in terms of expressing their character, and their battles are as exciting as always. Then in episode 6, we receive a reminder of just how human this show really is after the epic reestablishing episode 5 did and was meant to do. One Zeon troop lost his newborn son in debris and is now fighting out of grief while all we see is a scene of him crying while swiping through pictures of him and his wife right after her giving birth. Next we see Commander Bull, and in one moment, he flicks the head of a bobblehead baseball player with pictures of him and his son also being in the amphibian mobile suit he’s piloting, and in another scene, him getting ready to shoot himself in his room full of more baseball bobbleheads. I love this kind of human storytelling placed on even grunts we’ll never see again. Whereas any other Gundam anime would've shown them fighting while shouting about their children or not even showing bobbleheads, this one does, and I'm really thankful for it.

Everything this anime teases us with even slightly is tied up perfectly beyond the main plot. In episode 5, we see the old hag chairman (or whatever position she holds) having a sort of incense necklace and in the finale, it turns out this was from her Newtype Facility that the original cultist, Levan Fuu was from before he began his cult. After an awesome session of playing the song “Groovy Duel” before a mission in episode 6, Io and his new jazz aficionado friend Bianca say they'll do another session, and in the next episode, they remark on how they never did and how they'll do that right after the operation that lasts from then to the end of this finale, except it's gonna keep going because this show burns us with a cliffhanger. Before that, a few things I wanna clear up, as well as one minor gripe.

Some people have accused the Groovy Duel scene of being nothing but filler. That is not true. That was there to quickly reinforce that this hobby of Io’s and Bianca’s they share wouldn't be just a one-off aspect of them that never came up again, unlike most anime that have character mutually involved in a hobby unrelated to the show’s narrative. We already know that about Io, but we didn't know that for Bianca, and it was fun to see them do it and then Io reminiscing about episode 1 of last season where he was in space combat before his suit got sniped. I'm also glad that episode 7 reinforced this, though after episode 6, that was set in stone about the two and their friendship. A few issues come up though. Well, actually just one. Apparently, Claudia survived getting shot being in the ship that got destroyed and somehow she was reduced by the South Seas Alliance. How? It's a dismal plot point and a big issue with the second half of the season, but it's not enough to derail my experience with the show.

Io is just as cool as ever, especially in his new Atlas Gundam, and it's nice to see him really worry about Claudia once she shows up, though I already covered him last time. His chemistry with Bianca is damn fine though. Speaking of, Bianca is officially the best girl in Thunderbolt. Going through a lot of crews and being an awesome jazz aficionado was damn fun to know about her, and overall she’s very fun and full of jabs. Some of my favorite moments of her include her threatening to drop Io by calling him a selfish prick and asking if he wants to take a swim when he complained about her being late as his Mobile Suit’s footstool in episode 8, and her covering her head and apologizing after seeing Cornelius grind his knuckles on Io’s head for messing up his mobile suit and saying that she was guilty of it as well. Speaking of, Cornelius is here and doesn't do much but hey, fun to have him and the tissue gag back.

Like Io, Daryl is back and we don't really need to delve much into him this time, except for one thing. Remember when Karla started going crazy and screaming her head off in episode 4 last season? Well, as a result, she has reverted to her prepubescent stage mentally and thanks to the whole 3 metal fingers resemblance her father had to Daryl, he has to pose as her father while she is in recovery, which is insanely bittersweet. His crew and their interactions are pretty alright as well. We don't need to touch up on Claudia either. She’s basically the same except with new people and we already covered that. Including those two soldiers from episode 6, we have a really wonderful and rather human cast. Hell, their dialogue is often great too, especially Bianca’s. I love when a series a built a bit on its old cast while making the new guys just as great, which is surprisingly hard for Gundam sequels to do if Gundam SEED Destiny and 00 Second Season have taught me anything.

The mobile suits and new Gundams like the Atlas Gundam, all look damn amazing, and some of the Feddie suits that didn't look quite right in season 1 now look perfect here. The stellar action is fun and flashy as always, like when Daryl pulls off a maneuver that involves boosting into his Frizzy Yard cloak and it looks shimmering with the red protective cloak and the blue-ish booster flames, and the battle at Ao Boa Qu in episode 5. Despite the mildest of weird CGI, this probably even tops or at least definitely rivals season 1 for the title of best looking Gundam anime. Hell, the Groovy Duel sequence was pretty well animated, and contrary to some people’s belief, has no reused footage other than Io simultaneously reminiscing on the battle in episode 1. Needless to say, this ONA is as eyegasmic as it was before. It is Gundam Fucking Thunderbolt, after all.

Naruyoshi Kikuchi comes back for this season as well, delivering another round of great scores. The elephant in the room is “Pretty Song” for being so upbeat and so different from any kind of music from the series, and it's definitely a cute song, no pun intended. Others such as the episode 6 and 7 ED themes I can't currently find a name for, as well as “Groovy Duel” which rivals “Thunderbolt for Main Theme” from season 1 in terms of being real blood-pumping jazz. I also like the song "War of Sara Yoshida" from episode 8. Now I wish I could find the names for more of these tracks since there amazing and I do like more of the ED themes of this season than those of last season.

With magnificent action and equally fun jazz and music, this series more than satisfied the adrenaline-inducing action junkie in me. With brilliant and real dialogue and subtle and true displays of humanity, I could only appreciate this series even more. It more than fulfills its duty as a worthy follow-up to its predecessor, which is unfortunately rare for Gundam sequels. Even if you don't agree that this series or even this season is great, at least we can all agree on one thing: it's leagues ahead of that piece of shit Twilight Axis which aired alongside this. With all that said, I bid you adieu.

(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.)

Includes spoilers
It's bad. It's so bad.
I had high hopes after season 1 (which is an at least 9/10 piece of art), this is just disgusting compared to it's predecessor. I will rate this season comparing to season 1.
Story: 1/10
literally nothing important happens, that's not saying no plot progression was made. Like season 1 they tried to cram as much information as they could in to 4 episodes, except it was way lighter in season one due to the high quality battles. This entire season is purely exposition, with no mech fights that are remotely comparable to season 1. The intense battles between the 2 main ... characters was what drove the show to greatness, this season is just nothing comparison, literally like not watching anything. since none of the side characters ever got any development, none of them matters when they die. the main characters didn't even fight so they had plot shield the entire time, which made none of the battles involving them interesting.things that drives the plot is as pointless as it gets. Things that happens in season 1: Io got captured, Claudia dies, Daryl looses his limbs. How season 2 negated all of these things: Io breaks out first thing for no good reason, Claudia is just not dead, 2 limbs or no limbs, Daryl once in a while clinches his teeth OH NO!

Art: 7/10 not much to say, very stylized way that excelled in season 1 now mostly spent on talking animation. goofy ass fodder mechs and planes ruins the moments (when there are basically no "moments")

Sound: 5/10 remember how much the frantic, scattered jazz pushed the space battles in the asteroid field? well now we have that over slow underwater crap that doesn't ever fit the pace of the music.

Character: 1/10 Whats character development? Season 1 characters you gave a shit about because nobody else mattered: Io, Daryl. Season 2 you gave a shit about because nobody else mattered: just Io. I'm willing to bet that you can't name anymore than Io Daryl and Claudia off of your head because none of them made any kind of impression nor impact on the story. Season 2 characters include: that bald chick, that one chick that played an instrument, the professor chick that has daddy issues

Enjoyment: 1/10 i want my wasted time back. it's a gundam show, there is barely any gundam, plus the only gundam lost it's first legit battle to some dude.

Over all: 3/10 is as generous as I can get


After note: this season shouldn't even be called gundam thunderbolt since it has nothing to do with gundam thudnerbolt. the actual gundam: thunderbolt isn't in here, the "thunderbolt sector" wasn't in here, the shit that happened in gundam thunderbolt didn't matter cause the fact that claudia is alive, and Io escaping immediately negates all of season 1's plot. This is literally a piece of garbage using a superior show's title to gain views.