Monday, February 8, 2016

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Part 4-Episode 7


While Bright Noa makes a move to stop the Vist Foundation’s activities on Earth, Banagher is pursued by a jealous Riddie and Full Frontal.  The battle returns to Industrial 7, the place where this conflict began AND the location of Laplace’s Box.  Here with Mineva, Banagher learns what the box is and how it’s secret could rock the foundations of the Universal Century itself.  What will these two do with this knowledge?  Will it usher in a new era for mankind much like the arrival of the Newtype Phenomenon?  Or will it throw the world and space into chaos.  Whatever happens, the search is over and the fight must be finished. 

At Otakon 2012, it was announced by Sunrise that (amongst other Gundam announcements) Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn’s episode length was being extended by one, from it’s originally intended six.  So with this delay in mind, the double length episode arrived a year after Episode 6.  Seeing as how we’ve had a ton of build up til now, could Gundam Unicorn deliver?  And would the extra run time and production time on the episode make it the stuff of Gundam legend?  Let’s review this sucker.

We pick up exactly where we left off last week…with Banagher wasting all of his heavy artillery on fighting Riddhe.  Riddhe, Riddhe, Riddhe…what a pain in the ass he has been this whole series.  Even when he seems to find his redemption at the end, there is no reason to root for him, warm up to him, or feel even remotely sorry for him.  Riddhe went from hotshot pilot to racist against Newtypes at a very rapid pace.  It seems like they were just prepping him all along to be another rival for Banagher to fight besides Full Frontal.  I don’t know.  Everytime Riddhe opened his mouth to speak I just shook my head.  I was done with him the second he proposed to Mineva and expected to still be likeable.  He sucks as a pilot and even more as a character.  Congratulations Graham Acker from Gundam 00, you have a new roommate. 

Ok, my Riddhe rant aside, what about the big secret of Laplace’s Box?  Well…it’s actually kind of shocking that one tiny line of writing can be the cause of so much chaos.  I wont say what the actual secret it but it was worth the build up.  This secret really was a game changer for the Universal Century era.  It makes me wonder if this could have been somehow included in Amuro’s story, for reasons which would kind of give away the secret…but even then that’s kind of a hint I think.  It makes me wish there was a follow up story between Unicorn and Gundam F91 (the next conical entry of the Universal Century) to deal with this fall out.  Maybe a Gundam series or movie will come along detailing what happens when we hit the 100th year of the Universal Century (UC 0100, wow) and if there were any lasting ramifications to this unveiling.

So yeah, the secret of the box is a great twist.  Everything around it though, is good and bad.  The opening battle, for all it’s Riddhe nonsense, is pretty freaking awesome.  Finally, Banagher is able to make the Unicorn really fly as it went toe to toe with the Neo Zeon’s.  I wish he would’ve taken out Angelo and put that Full Frontal fanboy to rest, but I know that would go against Banagher’s beliefs.  Speaking of the man who will never be Char, Full Frontal’s giant God Mode Cheat mobile suit was so ridiculous.  It acted like an overpowered hydra, everytime an arm was cut off or destroyed, five more appeared.  Everytime it poked out a new weapon, I groaned.  I think the episodes runtime was partly extended cause Frontal refused to die cause he thinks he’s so important.  The suit more than matched Frontal’s personality, overcompensating for the fact that he will never, EVER be Char Aznable.  Char never needed all that tech to go toe to toe with Amuro and was the gold standard for key adversaries in the Gundam franchise.  You wanted to like him as well as punch him.  Frontal, you just always wanted to punch (and thankfully Banagher does a lot of that with his Gundam).

What was a miss about this episode?  Well the pacing was a bit of a problem.  After the opening third which featured the battle between the Nael Argama and the Neo Zeons, we got a slow plodding second third with the revelations of Laplace’s Box and not one, or two, BUT THREE ideologies spoken of back to back.  Sion Vist, Riddhe and Frontal all had to get their issues and wishes for the boxes use out of the way.  This meant a lot of talking when we should have been kept in the action.  At the very least, we could have cut out Riddhe’s stuff (cause who cares).  The excessive run time of this episode could have been reduced here if we kept it to Banagher and Mineva discovering the box’s secret then heading into the final battle.  Then there’s the final battle and that real trippy venture to the realm beyond realms  and it looked a lot like Gundam’s take on 2001: A Space Odyssey’s final act.  I’m not totally sure where it was that Banagher and Frontal ended up traveling to.  It was admittedly cool to see updated animation of battles and events from the original Mobile Suit Gundam series as the two traveled through time.  They made it sound like this is the plane where humanity will all end up one day down the evolutionary line  That probably is the case since we got a big surprise mini cameo by Char, Amuro (?!) and Lala Sune, all there to witness the final fight.  Guess the biggest rivalry of all Anime did get settled since Amuro and Char are getting along with Lala at their side.  We also had to deal with taking care of the annoyingly forgettable Martha Vist and her conspirators on Earth.  Sure Bright was there to take them down.  But the Vists were just one villainous group too many.  I miss the days when villains didn’t have to rely on being snotty and arrogant and actually felt threatening…you know like Char.

It had it’s issues and left things a bit open ended as to where things go in this beloved Gundam era.  I also think it was longer than it needed to be.  As far as finales go, this wasn’t the worst in Gundam history but I don’t think it was the best.  If you stuck with it this far, you owe it to yourself to see this series through to the end. 

So, at long last, my final thoughts.  Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn was an ambitious tale to tell in the franchise.  Sure there’s a thirty year history gap between Char’s Counterattack and F91 to take advantage of, but what other stories were there to tell?  If nothing else, Unicorn presented a great mystery to enlarge the mythos of the Universal Century.  We went back to the beginning and toured it’s history to see where humanity might be heading.  As far as casts go, Banagher ended up being a pretty good addition to the pilot roster, once he stopped whining and stepped up (and yes I do think he and Mineva did make a cute couple).  We also had a strong supporting cast with powerful female leads in Mineva and Marida, solidifying that Gundam needs more strong female leads like them and great Captains in Zinnerman (god I was spelling his name wrong in every review, I apologize), Otto and Bright Noa.  The villains weren’t really memorable if only for their annoyance and I think ive said all that needs to be said about Riddhe.  The series is gorgeous from beginning to end.  Unicorn is definitely the example each series needs to live up to now in terms of animation quality.  Overall?  This was a solid entry in the Gundam franchise, good moments and bad.  Hell it was enough to warrant a simultaneous release both in Japan and in America (a trend being continued with Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin).  Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn wasn’t the fully strongest of the Gundam entries, but definitely not one of the weakest.

Fly on Gundam, until we meet again on this blog…sooner than you think

7/10

Well now that that is finally concluded, it’s time for me to head out to Katsucon.  No new review next week…at least that’s the plan, but there will definitely be a new Top 5 Wednesday.  Who knows I may write a surprise review in advance.  Whatever happens, check back definitely in a couple of weeks for the return of Ghost in the Shell: Arise.

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