Gundam Takes place in the far flung future and humanity has already begun journeying out into the cosmos and settling in space colonies. These colonies aren't situated on planets, but are rather giant space satellites/stations that were suitable for human living called sides. One of these "sides" have broken off from the rest of humanity in order to form the Principality of zeon which leads to a one year war killing off half of the human race. While the war continuously rages on the real story begins to take place at one of the last remaining “sides” that survived the war, which leads us to our protagonist Amuro. The story starts making way as Zeon enters the “Side” in search of the Gundam, an experimental Mobile Suit being developed by the earth federation. This leads into a battle inside the “Side”, and Amuro piloting the Gundam with no prior experience until he and some of the civilians are able to escape on the spaceship known as White Base. after that endeavor the show is best split into three categories The Chase In Space, On The Ground, and The Newtype Hope.
The Chase In Space is just as it sounds like as White Base tries to run away from it’s Zeon Pursuers. Mostly outmanned due to the fact that many of the crew members are conscripts recruited from the abandoned side and are best described as an untrained militia. The group has to rely on Amuro and the Gundam to fend of the pursuers, and sometimes with the help of other crew members. The real purpose here is to emphasize how powerful the Gundam truly is despite the pilot being inexperienced, as he is going toe to toe with the most experienced mobile pilots. Speaking of experienced mobile pilots the main person going after them is a person named Char who despite being the antagonist has a lot of charm and charisma that he is an easily likable character. Yet this is how far as it really goes as it’s mainly about Amuro and Char fighting Until White Base makes it to earth.
On The Ground is the next part of the show as well as the longest as it mainly focuses on the White Base crew on earth trying to get to HQ while evading Zeon forces stationed on earth. While they are still being pursued by Char new characters begin to appear as well Such as the Zabi family, the head of Zeon, as well as military commanders such as Ramba Ral. It’s also here that more of the “realistic” aspects of war in the show begin to show such as the devastation the war has caused leaving cities in ruins, leaving people disenfranchised, War orphans, Ptsd, bittersweet victories, and giving character to enemy soldiers to show that they are not really bad guys but just people fighting on another side. While many of these ideas are great the way they are handled isn’t, and is just barely passable. Maybe due to the way the show has been formatted with most episodes being self contained or having small arcs of about 2-3 episodes long that many of these themes and ideas are touched upon on a surface level and that’s about it while most of the run-time is focused on fights. Even though the soldiers are given personality, it’s only a little just in order to have some smidge of sympathy for them. Even some of the bigger characters such as Garma and Ramba aren’t that well fleshed out and in the end just kind of feel flat. It especially true for most of the main cast on the White Base as they never get time to flesh out and develop their characters since they are busy fighting. That’s not to say no character got development, Amuro had a bit, Kai actually became one of my more liked characters, sayla had more screen time, and more about char’s motivation came to light. However that doesn’t excuse the fact that watching these episodes were tedious, with some good-ish moments in them that may or may not have been worth watching.
[About Amuro]
I think at this point i would have watched a good 30-ish episodes, and all i can say about amuro is that i don’t like him. I don’t really like his brat-ish attitude or the way he interacts with others, in all i just don’t like his character in general and not much of what he has done has really changed my opinion on that. I don’t hate him mostly for the fact that there wasn’t much to have me emotionally invested in him. In the end during this point i thought of him as less of a character and more of a device to keep the plot rolling and the Gundam operating.
The final part The Newtype Hope is about White Base getting sent back into space in order to help the Earth Federation fight against Zeon in any way possible. Some new things are revealed such as newtypes who are basically people with psychic like powers, and are able to use them to operate their mechs better. While it may have been there from the beginning it was only until now that that they reveal it. It just feels awfully misplaced and didn’t really sit right with me when reexamining the show from that view point. Char once again takes the stage during these episodes showing a bit more of his character and motivations which also happen to be with the newtypes. By the end it’s mostly alot of fighting with an abrupt ending that was caused by having less episodes than they planned to have.
All that’s left to say about the show is it’s production values which for the most part were all right despite the year it was made and the budget. All the characters have ok designs while the more mechanical designs ranged from meh to striking. The animation for the show is not so great mostly when it comes to human movement but works ok with the clunkiness of the mechs. There are multiple times of reused animation which is hard to not go unnoticeable. When it came to sound the voice acting was good although obviously hated a dated feeling to it. The soundtrack was good as well consisting of many catchy tunes with enough for the more sincere moments and others for the more campy moments that fit this anime just right.
Overall, despite having some flaws I think the show was an enjoyable watch and a decent anime that just barely stands the test of time. I liked many of the ideas that the show had even though many weren’t fully actualized. Maybe they could have done more with their story and characters, but what they had was serviceable enough.
