Anime Rebirth

Review - Kidou Butouden G Gundam

Review by Roriconfan

Prologue
This series is supposed to be an alternative universe of the Gundam timeline. But besides the same name, the series has nothing else in common with the renowned title. In fact, it just borrowed the name and the basic robot design in hopes of increasing its sales. Why? Because if you see it just as a stand-alone series, it is just a pile of trash.

Story & Characters: 4
If you have seen any of the normal timeline series, you will know that Gundam is essentially a sci-fi war drama. But this series is a shounen flashy-technique-robot-tournament genre, like Plawress Sanshiro, Angelic Layer and Medabots (but with big mecha!).

Unlike Gundam’s normal themes, there is no struggle between Earth and the space colonies, no angst before the tragedy of war, no sorrow for the dead over the struggle for control of the world’s natural resources. The war is presented as a tv-show, where robots fight only one-on-one and where there are rules to be followed during the battles (as if any rules count in war!). Instead of feeling sad over the death and destruction that is happening in the world, you simply scream: “Yeah! Blast them all! How cool! Everything’s turned to rubble! More! More!”

This series is about a bunch of heavy-dudes, piloting supernatural machines and beating the crap out of each other, just to see who is the strongest. Yes, the overused phrase “I want to be the best in the world” exists here as well.

Like in almost all heavy-dude series (like Fist of the North Star, Afro Samurai, Highlander the anime movie ) the protagonist is an overpowerful “don’t f*** with me” man who wants to avenge a loved-one’s death. And like in many heavy-dude series, his main rival is his brother.

As for the rest of the heavy-dudes, they are typical, shallow characters we see in most Hollywood movies. They all have a specific goal in life and nothing else in personality or character development. And yes, they all solve their problems through fighting (as if violence ever solved anything!). Typically, they begin as secondary rivals for the protagonist, but after he kicks their ass, they miraculously adore him for that and aid him in his battle with the main villain.

And how original! Towards the end, the scriptwriters try to teach us a moral message by introducing a worldwide threat that requires all the heavy-dudes to team-up against it. The moral message they try to promote is supposed to be: “We may belong to different countries, but we still live on the same planet.” Really?! You don’t say! And here I thought the moral message was: “As long as there is nobody stronger than us, fighting each other is ok!”

To sum it up, there is no story or characters. Just lame excuses for unrealistically brainless fighting.

Animation & Sound: 5
The good part in this department is that the visual and sound effects are well made. Also, the way the mechas move around is also interesting. The pilots in the cockpit don’t sit and use steering wheels; they stand up wearing a suit that interfaces with their mecha and copies every acrobatic move they do or think. Very nice!

The bad part is ALL THE REST. What kind of mecha designs ARE THESE?!!! Gundams that look like windmills?! Like schoolgirls?!! Like Egyptian Pharaohs, Napoleon, fish with a Gundam head coming out of their mouths?!!! What drug did the designers take to draw this shit? How could they ridicule the Gundam design like this? How can someone actually pilot one of these without becoming a laughing stock? How can a huge robot even move with such a shape?

And those special attacks, oh my God, they were unbearable. There is no hint of realism on them. How was I supposed to like this kind of battles? How can anyone?

Value & Enjoyment: 4
Assuming you have an I.Q. higher than 90 and have seen some good mecha series, you will definitely HATE this one. Just don’t let it make you hate Gundam in general. This and Gundam ZZ are the only Gundam series that really suck.