Monday, March 4, 2019

Gundam Evolve

Prepare to experience Mobile Suit Gundam like never before.  From Sunrise, the studio that brought the legendary Giant Robot into the world of Anime comes 15 animated shorts from all corners of the Gundam Multiverse.  Experience the return of many of Gundam’s most famous time periods and heroes through a mix of handrawn and 3D animation.  Amuro Ray and the RX-78-2 Gundam, Heero Yuy and the Wing Gundam, Domon Kasshu and the God Gundam and more appear in this, the ultimate celebration of all things Gundam, paving the way for the future while fondly paying tribute to the past.
 
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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