Finally figured I should watch the original Gundam since it’s about time. You can only delay the inevitable for so long, afterall.
I was really surprised so much of the space tech that’s throughout the various series was there from episode 1. They had the digital light up platforms that recede back into the docks when ships fly in/out, they had the… well, I guess that’s the only part of Gundam that I thought was way original. I mean, rotating space colonies has always been a thing.
Speaking of colonies, I was surprised that they included a colony drop in the first 3 minutes of the dang show where they have the infodrop explaining the current situation of the world. They really mercilessly threw kids right into the middle of war and politics with nothing behind them.
Also, dang do they reinforce that war is brutal. Fraw Bau’s family is killed as an afterthought halfway through the first episode. She only survived because she came running to tell Amuro off, narrowly avoiding the missile that killed everyone else escaping the shelter.
Also Amuro is such a massive dick. He tells Fraw to run off by herself, sheds a single tear for her, and then goes back to jizzing over the Gundam’s instruction manual and then steals it for himself, clumsily gets into a fight, and accidentally blows up a Zaku, blowing a hole in the colony, jettisoning his father into space.
Amuro killed his own dad.
(When I told that to a friend, she said, “so that’s why his dad never hit him.”)
I want to say you should watch Turn A Gundam but I think that one is made even better when you have the context of other gundams just to see how much better it is.
Zeta Gundam is better than the original, so if you watch only one, that’s the one you should watch.
This is kind of the cost of 80s mecha anime, though? All of these shows have repetitive filler episodes. MS Gundam is like 70% filler. Votoms is relatively plot driven and light on filler. I started rewatching votoms as an antidote to my terrible completionist mistake of watching aura battler dunbine and it really feels much less hollow than most 80s mecha series
Well maybe because you are casting a larger met but it is worth telling someone casually getting into this field fo go “it is okay this is going to be boring.”
The Origin manga is a pretty good option and you get YAS amazing art as a bonus. He makes changes in the order of the original show and add an extra prequel arc (which is amazing and the material adapted in the movies they are making now) but they are for the most part changes for the good.
Sure, I just wouldnt single out votoms for being boring when it is recommended as an alternative to gundam. That carries the implication that it is more boring than gundam.
Wait, can I just read the Origins manga and skip the anime? Because I already have up to a certain point. I didn’t get to the part that the movies cover though, maybe just a little bit after he kills Garma.
My friend swears by Aura Battler Dunbine and holds it up as his favorite mecha anime. Is this just his childhood nostalgia or is he wrong? (Is he wrong or is he wrong?)
Almost certainly nostalgia. It was an innovation in some ways(if I am not mistaken, it was one of the first anime that had a western fantasy aesthetic) but such a dull poorly plotted mess otherwise. All the characters are so hateable, and they even ditch the fantasy setting in the second half. The names are particularly funny though. “Marvel Frozen? That’s an American name!”
I think Votoms holds up better on a second+ viewing actually. Maybe it’s because you know what’s coming and when it gets slow, but I didn’t find myself bothered by those parts any time I’ve rewatched it the way I was the first time around.
Well, it depends. You lose some chapters like the one about going for salt, Jaburo and Odessa happen in different order and there is less stuff about adding things to the Gundam. But is replaced with more characterization for secondary characters (Ral, Sayla, Kizylia and Dozle are wonderful in Origin) and the prequel arc. Char is more of a sociopath in the manga, though.
I don’t know, I see value in checking both in whatever order. I lean more towards the manga because I love YAS art and it take less time to read.
