It is the year 1014 of the Reguild Century. Over a thousand years have passed since the
end of the Universal Century and mankind hopes that the darkness of war from
that era is long behind them. However,
during a training exercise along the Capital Tower, trainee Bellri Zenam is
involved in defending the tower from a Pirate attack. Among the attackers is a never before seen
Mobile Suit, the G-Self. Unbeknownst to
Bellri, he has a mysterious connection to this Mobile Suit modeled after a
legendary relic of the past. This
connection will draw Bellri into the heart of a conflict he never knew existed
and will cause him to question his cause and who he fights for.
Welcome, Dear Readers, to a
special Gundam Anime Corner event: Gundam Month Mark VI-The Undiscovered
Country (please don’t mind me on borrowing the Star Trek VI title, I just
really like it). This month, I’ll be
looking at the, as of right now, last two major Gundam TV Series in the
traditional sense (that theyre not Build Fighters or Build Divers spinoffs):
Gundam: Reconguista in G and Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans. G Reco is up first with IBO getting a special
ten day, two week long accelerated review following. And man, oh man, I cannot wait to get to Iron
Blooded Orphans after sitting through the first five episodes of G Reco. While this show was meant to celebrate the 35th
Anniversary of Gundam in 2014, with Yoshiyuki Tomino returning for the first
time since the Zeta Gundam New Translation Trilogy in 2005, many regard G Reco
as one of the weakest entries in the franchise and easily the worst offering
from Tomino himself. Five episodes in, I
can see why and I’m not even saying this because I’ve heard how bad G Reco is
going in. This beginning is freaking
terrible and I don’t even know where to begin cause, honestly, neither does G
Reco.
Random. That’s the word I’d use to describe G Reco
after even a single episode. The opening
minutes of the first episode showcase Lalah Sune stand in, Raraiya, getting
captured before cutting to a religious ceremony at the base of an orbital
elevator, called the Capital Tower, before we see a group of pilots mid
briefing interrupted by a cheerleading squad…all in the span of like 5
minutes. Any attempt to have anything
explained by anyone is quickly brushed aside because, as our “hero” Bellri
says, “Why do I need to answer something you already?” That’s both presumptuous
and rude and plenty infuriating. Most
Gundam shows have that 2-3 minute intro monologue that details the world, the
situation, even current events if the shows already begun. G Reco has none of that, expecting viewers to
just tag along without any information being given in a satisfactory
manner. It’s like if youre playing
Kingdom Hearts III having only played the first two games and none of the side
games and spin offs, youre gonna be lost, confused and at a certain point just
pissed off you haven’t gotten a proper education on just what the f*** is going
on. I wouldn’t even know that the
Reguild Century if the successor to the Universal Century without foreknowledge
going in from the internet. I get the
feeling I’ll be consulting a lot of guides on this one cause I doubt I could
even tell you what nations at war with who or for what reason or why the
Capital Tower is a Religious Site and just…yeah…WHAT THE F*** IS GOING
ON!!!!??????
Another word I
could use to describe G Reco is “Fast”. Random and Fast, the two don’t make the best
combo. And yet it perfectly sums up the
writing of G Reco. There’s a scene
between Bellri, Aida and Captain Donyell that I swear is three separate
conversations between each character and no one wants to pick one. “We shouldn’t trust Bellri, he killed our
Commander.” “What’s your connection to
the Director of the Capital Tower.” “You
guys shouldn’t be Pirates, it’s bad.”
That’s a general scene of dialogue between anyone. Anyone can start a conversation but it’s
doubtful anyone will finish it and just start talking about whatever the hell
they want to talk about. It’s enough to
drive anyone out of their mind, it’s freaking terrible. It doesn’t help that the characters spouting
all of this are some of the worst in the whole franchise. I cant stand Bellri and his “I’m the best”
attitude. All he wants in life are two
things: Aida and the G-Self…oh and he wants a high ranking position in
something cause again “I’m the Best.”
Aida feels like she could be the true heroine of the show but she’s just
as much a victim of the randomized script and is made to seem less than capable
than she really is. Noredo is there to
make sure Bellri doesn’t fall for any other girl besides herself. And then there’s Naraiya…who is clearly
unstable and I shouldn’t hold that against her but when every character in this
show doesn’t have to do much to irk me, it’s not gonna make me like her. We’ve also got Klim, who I guess is meant to
be Bellri’s pilot mentor a la Ryu Jose or Mu La Flaga and Luin, Bellri’s best
friend who is also our Char Clone with a Mask…and his codename is actually
Mask, God this show is lazy. Oh and we
have the ugliest Haro I have ever seen, or rather a “Harobe” named Nobelle. Have I mentioned this show doesn’t have to do
much to make me mad?
Mecha wise, the first few we see in G Reco are just as bad as anything else in
the show. The Rectens look like the
poorly made battery operated Toy Robots from the 70s and 80s, theyre just…ugh. The G-Self is, in my opinion, one of the
least amazing looking Gundams I’ve ever seen.
It looks like a Mobile Suit with a giant bug head that is just too silly
to take seriously, even when its showing off a random assortment of powers that,
guess what, nobody wants to try and explain.
There are admittedly a couple of cool designs like Aida’s Arcane that
could itself be a Gundam and is another reason why she should be lead
character, she has the better looking Mobile Suit. All in all though, the Mobile Suit designs
are somehow even worse than the lackluster offerings in Victory Gundam. There isn’t even the War of the Worlds
inspired choices that made the Mobile Suits from Turn A Gundam so
appealing. I hate it when Mecha shows
cant deliver on their Mecha and G Reco’s Mecha’s are just as poorly assembled
as the rest of this show.
Sigh, I haven’t
even talked about the plot much because I have no clue what’s going on. Pirates from a neighboring nation are
attacking the Capital Tower with forbidden weapons (aka Mobile Suits with Guns). Their objective is I guess a preemptive
strike cause they can tell Capital Tower is arming itself for war for some
reason. Bellri, through some miracle,
captures Aida and the G-Self and is immediately in love with both of them…so
much so that he lets himself get captured basically. Or rather, Bellri’s so caught up in the
moment he doesn’t even realize he’s been captured and never acts like it (God I
hate him). The Capital Army has it’s own
hidden agenda and part of that involves the retrieval of Bellri and the G-Self
but Bellri agrees to keep helping the Pirates, through secretly telling Noredo
that theyre gonna escape soon…they probably wont, Bellri’s not going anywhere
without Aida and the G-Self. Oh and no
ones trying to figure out why Naraiya is so…strange and why the G-Self is so
picky about it’s pilots. Is the damn
thing sentient? Why does it like Bellri
so much? I feel like in writing all that
down, I spent two minutes crumpling up a ball of paper and tossing it backwards
into a trashcan (successfully or not is up to you). That’s the plot of G Reco so far…a crumpled
up confusing mess.
My head hurts
worse than ZZ. And even then, that show
had the benefit of being a sequel so we didn’t need a lot of explanation as to
what was going on…and EVEN THEN the first episode was Judau and Roux doing a
full recap of the events of Zeta Gundam.
Reconguista in G had lived up to it’s reputation by the end of the first
episode and it isn’t getting any better.
The story makes no sense, the characters are crap, the Mecha are ugly
and the action feels so by the numbers it hurts. THIS is the 35th Anniversary
Project for Gundam? Damn…Iron Blooded
Oprhans cant get here fast enough. G
Reco might just have what it takes to accomplish what only one other Gundam
story has ever accomplished…and you can read my review of Gundam: Twilight Axis
to find out what that is. God help me,
we’ll be back Monday with more of…sigh…Gundam: Reconguista in G. Gonna go cry now, this is gonna suuuuuuuck.
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