Throughout Mobile Suit Gundam we're introduced to the protagonist Amuro Ray and his allies and foes. Amuro undergoes a great deal of character development over the course of the story. He not only grows as a character, but is a interesting character and one that the viewer will feel they can relate to. In addition, Amuro has one of the most legendary rivalries in all of anime with his foe Char Aznable. Char like Amuro is a relatable character since he too is caught up in a petty war like Amuro and doesn't wish for the war to go on like Amuro. He's an incredibly awesome looking antagonist and the way he develops as the story goes on is incredible. The fights him and Amuro have are absolutely incredible and definitely among the most memorable of the show. Beyond that, the rest of Amuro's crew is well developed.
First, we have Bright Noa who commands the White Base the ship Amuro is a part of throughout the show. He is a interesting character who is very memorable and definitely has a personality to him. Furthermore, there's several other crew members who help Amuro and the White Base out and they all have their roles to play in the story as well. Not only are the characters great in Mobile Suit Gundam, but the truly exceptional thing to Gundam is the themes of it's story.
For a anime written in 1979 the story is incredibly ahead of it's time. Why? Since this anime avoids the incredibly boring and generic good vs evil story we've seen several times in books, video game stories and animes. Despite the Earth Federation being in a never ending war and battle with Zeon neither side is truly evil. Both sides have people who don't wish to have to kill others and who question the morality of war. Due to this, you'll often find yourself not only cheering for the central heroes, but also their antagonists since they too are fighting for a cause they are passionate about. The anime's themes of war, corruption, the value of human life and grayness of morality will also cause the viewer to reflect on morality as well. Another great aspect of the original Gundam is the fights.
Many of the fights the main character Amuro gets into are incredibly entertaining to watch. The stakes always feel very high in the fights and most of the time the fights are very close so it always feels like a character could die whether it be Amuro or a ally of his in the show. There's some really incredible scenes like Amuro using his saber to slice an entire enemy mobile suit in half while jumping through the air or having to fight in a dangerous situation against multiple foes. Most importantly, during the majority of fights in the anime there's a lot of tension and it helps to really invest the viewer in the anime. Mobile Suit Gundam's music while not incredible does fit the atmosphere of the show and much of the music helps to intensify the fights and get the viewer more invested in the outcome of these skirmishes characters get into throughout the show. Last, I would like to speak about the production values.
The production values is definitely dated. Even for it's time I don't believe this was incredibly good animation. However, despite that it's still perfectly watchable and the viewer is able to see everything that needs to be conveyed to the easily. Gundam has some really incredible character designs and the mobile suits such as Amuro's RX-78 and the Zeon's Zakus are some of the most memorable Gundam designs even to this day. As said before, the music isn't anything amazing, but it does fit the atmosphere of the show and helps to enhance said atmosphere. Fortunately, the voice acting in the english dub was quite good. I felt the voices very appropriately fitted the characters and I didn't have much of a problem with the dub. So overall how is Gundam?
Gundam is an incredibly good anime. The themes it's story tackles were very far ahead of it's time. Furthermore, the pacing of the anime is good and by the first 3 episodes you've already seen the first major fight of the anime and you'll find yourself quickly getting invested into this anime. Gundam's portrayal of war and the way the characters question the morality of war and the actions people do during war leaves a strong impression. Many of the characters are interesting and develop over the course of the story. Mobile Suit Gundam also has quite possibly the best anime rivalry of all time between Amuro and Char Aznable. I thank Gundam for showing me how incredible the mecha genre can be. Previously, before Gundam I had ignorantly thought mecha genre shows had weak characterization and the focus just all on the robots, but I could not have been more wrong. This anime truly goes above and beyond and is a titan in the world of anime that stands the test of time. It shows that mecha animes can have complex well written stories with great characters along with incredible fights. Do not pass this anime up!
