It’s strange to think that there haven’t been more
anthologies like Gundam Evolve in the history of the Gundam franchise. By now, the world of Gundam is about to turn
40 (yikes). Between the Universal
Century where it all began and the half dozen plus alternate realities, there’s
a lot to both explore and celebrate.
Gundam Evolve might not be the definitive celebration of the franchise
but it does have some good eggs in this basket of shorts.
Contrary to how the description at the top sounds, there
isn’t really a proper balance of 2D and 3D artstyles. Gundam Evolve is about 10% 2D and 90% 3D and
that’s kind of unfair. Is it cool to see
3D Mobile Suits battling the heck out of each other, yes and no. Yes because there are some stand outs and
they absolutely rock or do something very right. No because it does feel like your watching a
bunch of tech demos for an upcoming Gundam video game more than half the
time. About half of the 15 collected
shorts tend to follow the same pattern of establish the series you’re covering,
insert Gundam or Mobile Suit into space and let them battle a small squadron,
then wash, rinse and repeat. There is
added dialogue to focus on characters of certain shorts like Heero Yuy or Char
Aznable. But even those feel secondary
compared to making the 3D animation look presentable. It’s a double edged sword cause you have
winners like the Strike Gundam short which has Kira putting the titular Gundam
through some cool Matrix like maneuvers and the Domon vs. Rain match up. Other times though, the Mobile Suits look
clunky and move rather stiffly.
My other main complaint is the lack of variety in a
regard. Every short focuses on one
particular Mobile Suit from a Gundam to a Rick Dias and even a Ball. No the variety lacking complaint stems from
the fact that out of 15 shorts: 10 are set in the Universal Century and out of
those 5 about half of them are Zeta Gundam centered. Even though I haven’t seen it beyond the
compilation films, I know Zeta Gundam is a very, VERY popular entry in the
franchise. But Gundam is more than just
Zeta or the Universal Century really.
Even though these shorts came out between 2001 and 2007, there’s the
fact that Gundam X and Turn A Gundam don’t have any time on screen and there
are a couple of notable UC era Gundam titles that should’ve gotten some
spotlight if you were going all out.
Truth be told, if I were doing this, every Gundam title from Mobile Suit
Gundam to…I guess Gundam Seed, should have gotten an animated short…I think
that tracks about evenly (maybe you could skip F91 and Victory idk). Plus there’s the aforementioned lack of more
hand drawn animation. Only the first
short, which is a clip show of the original Gundam series, is fully 2D and
there’s barely anything else sprinkled throughout. Gundam Evolve blows it on the 3D I’ll just
say it and it needed to be toned down a bit.
I feel like ive complained a lot but did I like anything
about Gundam Evolve? Well…yeah. Even with the problems I voiced above, the
shorts did plenty I never expected. Save
for the aforementioned 0079 recap, there was some thought given as to what kind
of stories should be told in these 5-10 episodes. A lot of that time is spent expanding pre
existing stories and even continuing some of them. The Gundam 0083 short got to show us the GP03
Stamen in action minus the heavy armament containers Kou Uraki uses towards the
end of the series, and its even piloted by a more competent pilot than he ever
could be (not that hard though). The Nu
Gundam short even gave an alternate ending for pain in the ass character Quess
from Char’s Counterattack, which was pretty sweet actually. The Gundam Seed one I talked about was the
most bad ass short but the best one by far…the SD Musha Gundam short if only
because the kid Gundam characters he’s protecting are so damn adorable and the
short itself is played fully for good laughs (unlike that BS CG SD Gundam
Series from forever ago). The ZZ
continuation was a surprise and it’s always cool to see Char get a short all to
himself, and is even forced to fight a simulation of his old Red Comet Zaku. So…yeah id say I enjoyed about half of the
shorts if I had to give a rough estimate.
In the end, it’s a pretty even round out for Gundam
Evolve. Half of the animated shorts are
fun and respectable outings that shine lights on both Mobile Suits and pilots
from the last few decades of Gundam. The
other half are either boring or unnecessary or make the CG animation overstay
its welcome more than it already has.
Still, I think there should be more anthologies like this out there for
Gundam. There so much to appreciate
about the franchise, especially since its grown much more since these shorts
came out. I think that the staff thought
too highly of the CG and forgot that we still love the old school artwork of
the 70s, 80s and 90s chapters and that should be rectified in the next
attempt. You’ll definitely find a couple
of shorts you’ll love and a few you wont like.
Either way, this was an uneven project but there’s something for
everyone if you love Gundam as much as I do.
6/10
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