The year is Post Disaster 323. More than 300 years have passed since the
Great Calamity War between Earth and the Colonies. As a result, Mars has been successful terraformed
and colonized. However, even in the
future, independence is a thing of the past as Mars lives under the thumb of
the Earth. Kudelia Aina Bernstein, a
Martian Princess, is determined to gain Mars its independence. At the same time, the youth of the private
military organization, CGS, rise up against their adult overseers and declare
themselves Tekkadan. Their first
official mission is to ensure Kudelia’s safe passage to Earth. Though comprised of children raised since
birth for combat, Tekkadan has three elements that give it hope to stand
against Earth’s Gjallarhorn
military organization: Orga, their leader who will never stop until Tekkadan
sees it’s victory; Mikazuki, Orga’s best friend and a deadly pilot, and their
long buried but nonetheless most dangerous weapon-The Gundam Barbatos.
This ones been a long time coming (I think longer than
Digimon Tri), when it comes to features I wanted to cover here on First Impression
Friday. Problem was, I didn’t know how
far into the season I wanted to get through before voicing an opinion on the
latest entry in the Gundam franchise.
Well, for me anyway, the first season wrapped last week and the series
is on a lengthy hiatus until the fall.
So now’s as good a time as any.
What did I think of the first half of Iron Blooded Orphans?
It was…ok. I know
that there are a lot of people who really love this series and say it is the
best thing to happen to Gundam in a really long time. For me, it took a couple of episodes to get
into and even when I was knee deep in the series, a lot of stuff was flying
over my head. Politics has never been my
thing, even if Gundam it can be a little frustrating. IBO is no different in this regard. Like every other series, many characters have
hidden agendas that either don’t make sense to me, or I just don’t care
about. Some of the more personal
conflicts of the ginormous cast were more entertaining thankfully. If I do have anything bad to say about IBO’s
first season, it’s that sometimes the cast wasn’t too large, I just don’t think
it was diverse as it wanted to be.
Honestly, by the midpoint, I still couldn’t tell Eugene, Shino and a
couple other characters apart. When Orga
barks orders to them, I just scratched my head, “Who’s he giving orders too?” Of the many Tekkadan members, the only ones I
ever cared about (more or less) were Orga, Mika and Biscut (oh God that
name. Such an endearing character but
come on…). Everyone else, im really
surprised doesn’t get wacked by mid finale…and ill get to that in a second.
As for the two big leads: Orga and Mika are an
interesting pair. I still cant wait to
see Orga’s cool façade totally backfire and bit Tekkadan hard in the ass. It does in a big way towards the end when we
lose a major character. I’m just curious
how far he’ll go before he realizes, all of Tekkadan might die before they find
their place in history. As for Mika…Mikazuki
is the scariest Gundam protagonist of all time.
He’s like a loaded gun with the safety off at all times and he will not
think twice about killing you in any manner.
Matters of honor and procedure never fly with him. When one Gjallarhorngeneral tries to make a speech before he dies…Mika just
shoots him, like words were a waste of time.
It’s scary but when certain moments arise and it’s necessary for Mika’s
unhinged state to do some damage…ill admit I was excited. That big character loss I mentioned a moment
ago hits Mika pretty hard. So hard that
when the commander that kills the character challenges Tekkadan to a duel and
gives them 30min to prepare…Mika just says “F*** It” and annihilates them
all. I have no doubt that Orga cares a
lot about his best friend. Still cant
help but feel he a bastard exploiting Mika’s lack of humanity at times. Mika does grow though, opening up to several
characters, especially Kudelia, who is more or less his love interest. Kudelia was pretty frustrating up until the
last few episodes. She’s cute but I couldn’t
think of an episode that went by where she didn’t complain about how useless and
powerless she was. All these guys are
doing everything in their power to protect her, the least she could do is cheer
them on and support them rather than mope.
What about the Barbatos?
It’s one of the most interesting Gundam designs since the Turn A
Gundam. It may not have the “white
mustache” but it’s run down look is pretty noteworthy. I sometimes equated a lot of the action on
Mars to that of Mad Max and Barbatos definitely reminded me of a Mobile Suit
that would exist in a post apocalyptic world, and a lot less shiny that any
mechs in Gundam X (which was a post apocalyptic story). I also like how there was an emphasis on CQC
with this Gundam. The last few
iterations of Gundam have seen a lot of beam spamming, which I know irritates a
lot of fans. But here, we have a return
to the down and dirty, old school ways before cannons gave the edge. Though I never got why Mika always used that
heavy, if not effective hammer when he has a kick ass samurai sword. Mika is a stubborn kid but using that sword
would have saved him a lot of time in the long run at times. All in all, the Barbatos is a welcome
addition to the Mobile Suit Gundam line up.
As for Gjallarhorn…I
found them to be one of the most annoying aspect of the series. Many times I felt they were trying too hard
to be Treize Kushrenada from Gundam Wing…well for a few characters anyway. McGillis is way too complex for me to
comprehend. Galileo was just his pretty
boy sidekick. Catra…oh man did she pick
the wrong team of kids to try and talk about style, honor and legacy with, I was
just waiting for her to get what was coming to her. As the supposed villains of the series, they
were pretty easy to stand against.
Especially by the last few episodes when they should have realized that
no matter how much they screamed about Tekkadan’s lack of honor and respect…it
was never going to be heard. One character,
Ein, is around solely to avenge the death of his LT killed by Mika early
on. His final battle with the Barbatos was exactly
what I wanted it to be. In the tradition
of Black Lagoon’s Revy, Mika pretty much mutes the mouthy maniac and asks if he’s
just going to talk him to death or fight?
Gjallarhorn might be headed
in another direction in Season 2 and hopefully they’ll improve as
villains.
Oh and I cant
wrap this up without a shout out to my man Naze: the Teiwaz member who has his
own harem ship of female Mobile Suit Pilots…I want a spin off series with this man and
his ladies, hell a prequel would be awesome.
Maybe in Season Two?
Iron Blooded
Orphans tried me at times, but I’m glad I stuck with it. As far as Gundam shows go, it definitely
feels different compared to 00, AGE and Build Fighters. Gundam has always had a penchant for throwing
children into war but this just seems grittier, more darker and therefore more
interesting from the get go. The
characters are a cast of dozens but most are well rounded. The action is as intense as you’d expect from
the setting. And it always came with
that sense of wanting to know what came next when the awesome end credits
rolled. Oh and btw Raise Your Flag is
the best Gundam Intro ever…deal with it.
I’ll def be back
on board with Tekkadan when Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans returns
Fall 2016.
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