Taking place several decades after Char’s Counterattack, the Earth Federation is now under attack by the newly emerging Zanscare Empire. They use old execution methods, such as the guillotine, to send a message of fear into the public, and want to take over space. Their religious leader is not a bad person, though others in the upper crust of leadership have different intentions and use for her. Also leading them among the ace pilots if Chronicle Asher, who despises the corruption of the Earth, and though he is part of this wicked Empire, his motivations are for the best of mankind.
Uso Ewin is the young protagonist, who finds himself in the beginning forced into the war, and becomes Chronicle’s rival as a result. Uso himself stands out on his own compared to previous Tomino protagonists, such as Amuro, Cosmo, Kamille, and Judau. As the others, he is critical of war, and also critical of himself. The war in Uso’s head feels more brutal than the war on the battlefield at times. One of Uso’s greatest strengths, is his improvisational and unorthodox style of combat. It is amusing and fascinating to see how creative he gets with the Victory Gundam, and resorts to many brilliant strategies that often perplex his opponents. It’s a breath of fresh air that deviated from keeping the fighting repetitive and predictable when compared to the earlier works.
The large cast of characters grow to love each other, and struggle together to defeat the empire. One by one, many begin to take up the Gundam. Shakti is Uso’s childhood friend, and often worries not just about the war, but about Uso as well. She sees the effect war has on him, and worries that he will be consumed by it and lose himself.
Uso becomes the hope against the empire. The adults, as shameless and useless as they are, are self aware that mere child is fighting the strong fight for them. As Uso struggles, the war continues to expand with all sorts of wonderful new ideas, that make Victory great and unique on its own. By the end, I placed it in my current top 5. There is also something else that Victory Gundam does that makes it it’s own. It’s what I have not mentioned yet. It’s own unique interpretation of something Tomino is known for doing in his work.
Victory Gundam Deeply and emotionally breaks it’s own characters. Uso painfully learns what loss means, as he sees his precious friends obliterated, often in needless ways. There are times you’d think he’s had enough and is ready to check out, but he keeps going. There are many episodes that focus on his tragic feeling of loss. Characters don’t just appear for the sake of it and die, there is meaning and value behind their circumstances and choices that leaves an impact on the viewers. The effect on the viewers can invoke bleak feelings of depression at times from how morbid Victory Gundam can be.
As Uso fights, he shows what I love about Tomino protagonists. Too many times, main characters are cowards that rarely ever grow or go anywhere. I can understand why. Instead of being a pathetic excuse of a main character for people to relate to, Uso is a character to aspire to be. Uso carries the fire of the protagonists before him, and fights in such a brave manner that it’s inspiring to watch. I always appreciate the short, passionate, and blunt comments Tomino protagonists make as they fight, and their analysis and realizations of war that give the viewers much to think about. Uso is also on the search for his parents. This leads to an interesting connection between him and his Gundam, that is very similar to the connection between Shinji and his Eva-01 unit from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
As the war rages on, there is an interesting focus on love on the battlefield, all too tragic to the reality that many times our significant others don’t make it. Victory Gundam interprets this as painful as it will come to show.
As Uso fights, and tries his best to overcome the reality of war, he becomes the new Newtype prodigy. As he fights on, the other characters grow with him. Some for better, and some for worse. Some characters, such as Katejina, fascinate me with some of the most interesting writing and twists.
Uso has the same curse that Yang Wen-li has from Legend of the Galactic Heroes. They are both outright critics who despise war, and yet, they appear to be as if they are the best suited for it because of their skills. Uso, however, gets put in situations where he could almost be genocidal, and the most kill hungry protagonist I’ve seen in Gundam thus far. There are times he loses control. Times he gets ahead of himself. Times where he kills, and starts enjoying it too much.
Despite this, You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. Besides, it took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. Uso is one of these madmen. To the extent that he resists his enslavement is the extent to which he is free.
As much as the soldiers try to arrest the people on Uso’s side, and try to blame them, it’s clear that Individuals do not create rebellions; conditions do.
The new mobile suit designs in this add to how unsettling this series can get, and it can get very unsettling. Many of the enemy mobile suits look like insects, in such a way, that they look intimidating; almost as if they were organic. At one point there is a centipede type mobile armor, and a giant serpent type. It feels as if this had to inspire the maverick designs in Rockman x3. Still, I appreciate the demonic like presentation in the designs of many of the mobile suits in Victory Gundam.
The animation does have some problems. There are a few odd slideshows that remind me of the production issues in Super Dimension Fortress Macross. There is reused animation that was very noticeable to me during the re-watch. Because of the lack of shading, some of the characters’ noses can look strange. Overall, however, the art and animation is very enjoyable, satisfyingly expressive, and horrifying when it needs to be.
The soundtrack is fantastic. The usual tracks played during battles and build ups are iconic, and can really help in setting the tone. The insert songs help make some of the best moments in Victory Gundam. If you are looking for a great finale, the last 2 episodes of this series ascend it to a different level.
Something about Victory Gundam that is interesting is it’s approach with Newtypes. Yes, you should watch the previous Gundam entries before this. If you don’t you’ll miss the history, context, and breakdown of what the Newtypes are. That is because this series never explains what they are. As a result, those viewers not familiar with the older entries may get confused on what a Newtype is. For viewers like me that did the homework and learned the history with the older Gundam entries, I felt a lot of appreciation for what this series does with Newtypes. Towards the end, it becomes even more important to know the context, as Newtypes start emerging everywhere.
To me, Mobile Suit Victory Gundam is a dark, yet beautiful story that is surprisingly hopeful despite the reputation this has with some viewers. It's tragic to see Western anime websites and viewers hold almost no regard to it. To me, this shows that Tomino, and the staff, were able to take Gundam and take it somewhere new in a wonderful way. At this point in Gundam history, and as much as he may not agree with it, to me, Victory Gundam is Tomino’s victory.
