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.
No comments:
Post a Comment