What does any of this have to do with Gundam? Well, several weeks ago I
thought I knew what Gundam was all
about but there was a voice in the back of my head (you already knew I was
crazy, right?) which said “How can you think you know about Gundam when you’ve never watched the
original series?”. Good point. So I watched Mobile
Suit Gundam (1979) and I have to say that little voice in my head was
right. I’m glad I watched this because as old as it is, it’s an impressive
series and it’s changed the way I think about Gundam and anime in general. In other words, Mobile Suit Gundam (from this point on abbreviated to MSG) is old, certainly, but it’s worth
your time for being incredibly influential and for spawning an immense anime,
manga and plastic model franchise.
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| Enemy soldiers are people too? Stop making sense! |
I don’t want to spend too much time summarizing the
events of the series. I want to focus on specific elements and write about what
I enjoyed, what worked, what didn’t work so well, and reasons why MSG is an important anime series, let
alone important to the Gundam
metaseries. For anyone who wants a broad introduction to the setting of the
events of MSG, you can check out the
introduction post to my Mobile
Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. There I wrote a piece that works well as an
introduction for the Universal Century timeline and for MSG.
As for the series proper, the first dozen or so episodes
of MSG are nothing short of stellar.
The first episode begins with a bang. The Earth Federation’s new Gundam carrier
ship, the White Base, has recently landed on colony Side 7 (also known as Noa)
near Lagrangian Point 3. The colony is in the middle of evacuating
civilians since the presence of the White Base and the experimental RX-78-2
Gundam is believed to be attracting the attention of Zeon forces. Naturally,
three Zeon Zakus enter the colony to spy on the Federation’s activities and
everything quickly escalates to a full blown attack on the colony. A young man,
Amuro Ray, son of the engineer who built the RX-78 Gundam pilots the mobile
suit for the first time in an effort to protect his friends. By the end of the
first episode Amuro has already shown an affinity to piloting the Gundam and
he, along with some of his friends, are being asked to serve aboard the White
Base which is severely undermanned, having lost soldiers in the attack. For the
first third of the series the story focuses on the trials the White Base and
its crew face as they try to escape the Zeon forces and eventually get
officially enlisted in the war effort.
Those episodes make for a stunning introduction to the
series. Not only are they good stories but they set the foundational elements
for the rest of the series. Nearly all of the main characters are introduced,
some in more detail than others, but they will all get fleshed out as the
series progressed. Some of the key villains are also introduced, specifically
Char Aznable also known as the Red Comet. In many ways, this exemplary
beginning plays the same role for the rest of MSG as the series did for the rest of the Gundam metaseries. But before I get to that I want to talk about
the elephant in the room: 35 year old animation.
I can say without a doubt that some people will not like
the animation of MSG, begrudging it
for being old, unpolished and difficult to watch. Personally, I learned to like
it. If you’ve watched anime before, it’s unavoidable that there will be a
jarring effect when you start watching MSG.
Once I had watched three or so episodes I started to settle in and get used to
it. After a while I didn’t mind the older animation and I only noticed just how
old it was when I consciously focused on it. If you’re open minded and, like
me, can accept that it’s mostly old animation and not specifically bad
animation, you’ll be able to focus on the story and the characters as opposed
to the fact that most of the explosions are pink and that the mobile suits
regularly move as if they’re either made in one solid piece or made of rubber and bend in was they simply shouldn't be able to bend.
I think it also helped that I didn’t watch any other animated movies or series
during the time I was watching MSG. I
imagine if you’re bouncing back between old and new series, this gem from 1979
will always be irritating to watch.
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| Char "Red Comet" Aznable is one of the best Gundam characters ever. |
It was interesting to watch such and old series though
because I realized that there are things about new animation that I like and
things that I don’t. Things I like about new animation that I missed while
watching MSG was the consistency in
the animation. The RX-78 Gundam doesn’t look 100% the same from episode to
episode. It also isn’t consistent in the way that it moves. One of the things I
dislike about modern animation is the lighting and use of shadows. It’s done
well as often as it’s done badly but some series are either over lit or far too
dark and shadowing which makes it difficult to determine what’s going on. In
contrast, MSG is lit almost
objectively. Everything is lit in the same way and you lose that sense of depth
and weight that good lighting can provide. There are many other comparisons
that could be made between the animation used in MSG and more recent anime series but the point I’m trying to make
is that MSG’s animation is not all
bad. I’m not suggesting it’s better than today’s animation but it certainly has
its charm. Another example is that this old animation has a certain kind of
warmth to it, specifically in the motion of characters and the colouring. It
has the fluidity of hand-drawn animation that really suits certain kinds of storytelling
while computer generation or computer assisted animation fares better with the
mechanical designs.
What helps with the (now) sub-par animation is that the
mechas, the ships and the characters are really well designed. Many of the
iconic visuals of the franchise are lifted straight from MSG or are updated versions of what we first see in this series.
It’s from the obvious things like the RX-78 Gundam, the Zakus and the White
Base to smaller things like the cockpit of the Gundam, particularly the lever
that slides forward and backwards. Even the way that device is used in the cockpit has become a staple
of Gundam shows to follow. When a
character slams it forward it’s because he is launching into the air or it
means that a battle has gotten serious and the character isn’t going to leave
any other mobile suits standing.
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| All the girls have to wear pink, OK? Boys in blue, please. Good soldiers. |
As teased above, MSG is a microcosm of the entire Gundam franchise. It’s not just responsible for introducing the iconic design of the RX-78 but of many other things that make up the bread and butter of the metaseries. Let’s make a list of recurring elements that were introduced in MSG, just for fun:
·
Political and philosophical debates about war,
·
The visual designs of the series including mecha
designs and the sleek (though blocky) design of the White Base which Gundam SEED shamelessly revamped in
their even sleeker design of the Archangel,
·
The way battles are setup and choreographed,
·
The conflict between Earth and the space
colonies. Sure this changes from series to series based on the specific
factions and political or military organizations, but the main element remains
the same,
·
Villains that are later portrayed as heroes or
at least more heroic than they were at an earlier point in the series,
·
Characters who wear masks,
·
New mobile suits for important characters or
upgrades to current mobile suits (side note: just how many mobile suits and
mobile armors does Char pilot in this series?),
·
Newtypes or a more physically and mentally
advanced population of humanity,
·
Characters dying and staying dead, and
·
The main character always starts of as whiny,
brattish and thinks the entire weight of the world (plus the space colonies)
rest solely on their should. In the good series the character grows out of it
and becomes an interesting character. In the bad series and Gundam SEED, the main character just
gets more insufferable and the series goes on.
I’m sure there are plenty of other things I’ve missed but
I’m also sure there are tropes specific to Gundam
series that I’m not even familiar with since I haven’t watched all of the
series. I think the above list is enough to support my claim that almost
everything Gundam related can trace
its source back to this series. That might seem like a dumb statement but it’s
important to point out because none of these elements would have endured in
multiple variations had the origin versions not been good. Some later series improved
on some of the elements found in MSG but
chances are they wouldn’t have tried it if it wasn’t for MSG’s initial success with it. Above all else, it’s the characters,
complex and properly examined during the show’s run, that tie everything else
together into a satisfying series.
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| Ramba Ral. One of the best Zeon officers. You were too awesome for us. |
I have to clarify that MSG is by no means a perfect show. Even when you don’t factor in
the quality of the animation, this is a very flawed series. While shorter than
your average number of episode for a Gundam series (50 or so) I think MSG would have benefit from even less.
The series explodes out of the gate and sustains this wild and manic energy for
several episodes before slowing down considerably before the middle of the
series. It’s here that things seem to meander around for a while and I admit to
taking a break from watching it because I got a little bored. It’s crazy to
think that I binge watched the first half of the series only to leave it for a
few weeks before returning to it. I’m glad I did because the last third of the
series picks up considerably and while it doesn’t quite match the impact of the
first third of the show it still ended in a satisfying way, though abrupt, way.
Other criticisms would include the female uniforms. Why
are they pink? Why can’t everybody be in Federation blue or command grey? Don’t
even get me started about the terrible idea of Gundam transformation.
Unfortunately, around episode 10, this idea was introduced and it’s just awful.
The Gundam’s cockpit is actually a core fighter (think space jet, and you'll get the idea) which can be used as the
cockpit for the Guntank, the Guncannon and the Gundam. It’s the most ridiculous
and hokey idea of the entire show but I really started to hate it when I
realized the recurring use of the transformation sequence in the show. Aside
from seeing the segment repeated over and over (occasionally multiple times in
a single episode) I completely disagreed with the idiotic strategy to send out
Amuro, the only person abord the White Base who can pilot the gundam, in a ship
other than the Gundam because it almost always resulted in the decision to have
him transform or transfer into the Gundam mid-battle. Things get even worse
later on as more parts are given to the crew of the White Base. The Gundam can
now be combined with the G-Fighter to produce the G-Armor, they can detach in
mid-air! Wow! Who fucking cares? Not me. It’s lame. I admit I’m a bit consoled
by the fact that the gunplay model kits outsold any other kind of merchandise
that was produced based on this transformation idea.
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| Sleggar being fly. Don't get too attached, Mirai. |
At the end of the day though, this series isn’t fondly
remembered for its animation or use of transforming Gundam sequences. People
remember MSG because of the story and
how the characters are handled. They remember the series because of how realism
was incorporated into the series. Being a long series there are several
episodic stories here and there, some of which don’t matter at all to the
larger story, but some of those episodes contribute to character development. It’s
also pretty sophisticated for an anime series about big robots, mostly because
it’s not just an anime about big robots. It’s about characters and how the war
influence and impact the characters. Amuro’s development throughout the series
is fascinating to watch. The changes he faced during the series affected me
also. I’ve cared for him, hated him and pitied him in turn. Complex characters
make for complex reactions from viewers and this series is an example of that.
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| "What do you mean we're getting cancelled? Bummer." |
It’s easy to forgive a lot of the show’s flaws as with
many trailblazing works of fiction, there is a great deal of experimentation,
happenstance, studio/publisher/editor interference, luck and marketing that can
have a large impact on the work’s legacy. While animes that focused on giant
robots was nothing new, MSG heralded the
sub-genre of Real Robot. Prior to Gundam,
series that focused on giant robot characters were of the Super Robot
sub-genre. Mazinger Z is a classic of
that genre. The added realism in which MSG
dealt with their robots heralded a new form of story. I’m not an anime expert
and I’m certain many other people would be better qualified to place MSG in a historical context, but it doesn’t
change the fact that MSG was very
different from other shows on at the time. However, it wasn’t popular during
its initial run. In fact, it was threatened with cancellation and the studio
eventually agreed to end the show on a shorter run (hence only 43 episodes). It
took a few years for it to be recognized as an important and entertaining
series and its continued legacy as one of the pillars of anime is proof of its status as a classic.
Some series in the franchise have gone on to improve this one (something I’m a
little familiar with but I’ll get a better idea once I’ve watched more series)
while others have made a mess of things and can only be remembered for their
action sequences and Gundam designs. The fact remains that for die-hard fans of
newcomers alike, MSG stands tall as
an inspiring series . . . as long as you can accept its animation style.
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