Friday, December 28, 2018

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky

Universal Century 0079.  The Moore Brotherhood of the Earth Federation and the Living Dead Division of Zeon clash for complete control of the Thunderbolt Sector of Side 4.  Comprised of vengeful, desperate soldiers who have fought without rest of relief, both sides are reaching their breaking point.  At the height of the conflict, an intense rivalry emerges between Federation Maverick Io Fleming, piloting a specialized version of the Mobile Suit Gundam, and Zeon Sniper Daryl Lorenz.  Their duel may decide the fate of the entire Thunderbolt Sector.  The One Year War is drawing towards its conclusion.  However, for the Federation and Zeon forces in the Thunderbolt Sector of Side 4, the war is far from over.

In its long history, the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise has always been about one message: War is Hell.  We’ve seen stories in the past where this really hits home from children finding themselves thrust into the middle of devastating conflicts, to the extrodinarily high body counts of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Victory Gundam.  Well…apparently that was all just playtime compared to the powerhouse of uncomfortable epicness that is the Gundam Thunderbolt saga.  December Sky is a compilation movie of the first four episodes of the Original Net Anime.  It actually flows pretty well for a short feature, though it assumes you know what’s going on far beyond the battle in Thunderbolt Sector with the One Year War.  And even if you don’t, Gundam Thunderbolt still feels pretty accessible to newcomers of Gundam.  Though id warn those newbies in advance…Gundam gets dark but not quite this dark. 

From the moment you first glimpse Thunderbolt Sector, you really are propelled into spaces equivalent of Hell.  Barely five minutes in we’re introduced to the paranoid and desperate atmosphere that has engulfed both sides of the war.  Its more than just the war that’s run everyone raged, it’s the increasingly personal stakes.  For some reason, the Federation has deployed a garrison, The Moore Brotherhood, comprised of survivors of this chaotic region that used to be their home. That doesn’t make sense to me really and just sounds like a recipe for disaster when the going gets tough.  And then there’s the Living Dead Division, Zeon amputees equipped with metallic limps in order to continue fighting.  The horrors of war are every where and the sense of optimism that always followed the crew of White Base in the original Mobile Suit Gundam series is nowhere to be found.  In fact, the ever growing sense of uneasy insanity building in much of the cast, especially the Federation side, left me with very few people to root for.

At the center of this story are our two leads, Io and Daryl.  Io is a psychotic maverick who hides his pain and loss from the war behind jamming out to Jazz while tearing Zeon suits to pieces.  Sure he does draw a line at the sight of literal children barely into their teens being conscripted as reinforcements.  But Io virtual lust for the conflict made him so freaking unlikeable.  He’s the kind of guy I could easily see joining the Titans in Zeta Gundam just because he’s that far gone…and they let this maniac pilot a Gundam.  Daryl, on the other hand, is losing his humanity in his own way piece by piece, literally.  His feud with Io pushes him to sacrifice more than he already has and the flashbacks to what his life was before and during the war instill more of an emotional response than anything you get from Io.  Plus, Daryl has more of a connection to his crew of fellow amputees and the beautiful Karla, who supplies them with their new limbs.  Unlike Io, who has accepted the demon he’s become thanks to the One Year War, the bond and eventual romance between Daryl and Karla does give that one small glimmer of hope in an other wise pitch black dark story.

So yeah, we’ve got guys with multiple lost limbs; children dying in rapid succession, Captains under pressure and a lot of pain killers, scientists willing to sacrifice lives for progress and people who should, quite frankly, not be put in a Mobile Suit ever again, least of all a Gundam.  December Sky does not hold back on the horrors of war and if that kind of stuff makes you uncomfortable, this might not be for you.  However, I will admit it’s a story told in a very effective way and there’s still a lot of the mecha action that Gundam is also known for to offset things a bit.  The battles in the Thunderbolt Sector are some of the most rapid fire in the franchise.  It wasn’t hard to keep up with but all the sudden laser blasts while trying to dodge debris left in right kept me on the edge of my seat.  I also liked that the Mobile Suits were all custom made for this region, including the Gundam itself.  Everyone is armed to the teeth for a small war, fitting since everyones battling the hassles of flying debris as well as each other.  Oh and there’s the music.  I felt like I was watching something out of Macross for a little bit.  It’s been a while since ive seen music play such a factor into a Gundam story, probably not since the days of Seed and Seed Destiny.  Jazz is the tune of the day, and no usual orchestrated soundtrack to speak of.  If it sounds a bit chaotic, that’s because it is and it fits the battles and struggling of the characters nicely.  It’s not quite Cowboy Bebop good but its still very appropriate.  Hell I feel like you could mute Io’s dialogue all together and have his Jazz show you just how far off the deep end he has truly fallen.  I will also say that the battles and mecha all look amazing, not quite the bar set by Gundam Unicorn but still right up there and very polished.  The character designs seemed a little weird to me at first but when the true nature of the setting really set in, yeah id imagine a lot of characters looking a little warped too.  These definitely aren’t the smooth and shiny character designs from recent entries like Iron Blooded Orphans or Gundam Build Divers.

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky is one of the few Gundam entries to play war almost like it would in present day (albeit in space).  In that, it’s sort of in the same vein as 08th MS Team, especially with the lack of Newtypes and a heavier emphasis on the darkness of Hell that comes through war.  It can be uneasy to watch, especially the chaotic last act when everything goes right down the drain.  But it’s a risk that Gundam dared to take and it actually did work out.  War isn’t meant to be a comfortable thing.  Gundam knows this and has demonstrated it time and time again but never before with this kind of intensity.  For that I commend it, even if I prefer some more hopefulness in my Gundam tales.

8.5/10

My question now is, how the heck does a story that feels like a stand alone tale somehow continue?  Well we’ll figure out how that happens tomorrow as I review the second compilation movie of the Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt saga, Bandit Flower.  See ya then.

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