The Megafauna’s arrival at the Venus Globe triggers a
plan decades in the making as a group of psychotic Towasangans prepare to enact
Operation Reconguista: The operation to retake the Earth for all
Spacenoids. Chasing them back to Earth, Bellri
and the others find the assembled armies of three nations ready for the war to
end all wars. Destiny calls upon Bellri
and Aida to head into the fire to find a speedy solution and bring about the
true golden age of Earth and Spacenoids.
The future of the Reguild Century begins here.
Well, it’s done and what more can I say that I haven’t
said repeatedly already?
This was a
really, really, really bad show from start to finish and even Tomino’s penchant
for apocalyptic level finales wasn’t even on full display here.
The final act of Gundam: Reconguista in G
continued the shows never ending string of poorly explained plot elements that
went absolutely nowhere, battles filled with loud and obnoxious children with
toys trying to kill each other for petty reasons, and a bunch of characters
that I could really care a lot more than less about.
Eventually, the show kind of just…ended.
Yeah, even at the end, G Reco’s finale didn’t
feel like a true ending but rather a “Ok we’ve done enough, let’s stop.”
I’d call that a mercy for a show that never
worked.
But before I give the score I’ve
hinted all along was coming, I should talk about the finale a little bit.
I think one of G Reco’s biggest problems is it’s
length.
At only 26 episodes, it’s about
half the length of a traditional Gundam series, which averages 39-51 episodes
total.
The show has been in a perpetual
state of “GO” since the very beginning and hasn’t taken time for any major plot
developments to sink in before the next big fight scene.
Case in point: Aida learns the truth about
the Humans living on the Venus Globe and in just how bad of an awful state
theyre in.
It’s a haunting revelation
that should terrify anyone and rock them to their core.
THIS is what’s waiting for Humanity living in
peace for so long?
But no, we brush off
that shocking discovery in favor of another Irish Dance song filled montage of
dancing, squash playing and people just goofing off for no real reason other
than this show loves to waste its time on everything it does.
Besides that, everyones motivations haven’t
had much time to simmer and take hold in the mind of the audience.
What the heck is Bellri even fighting for at
this point?
To stop the fighting in
general I guess but he’s screaming his damn head off more than half the time
it’s clear the only reason he’s survived this freaking show is because he’s
been in the cockpit of one of the most over powered Gundams ever created
(seriously the G-Self is practically untouchable until the tail end of the
final duel with Luin).
Even the setup
for the final battle is just pushing a bunch of ships together to “let them
fight”.
We never checked in with the
state of Capital Tower, Ameria or Towasanga while the Megafauna was off at the
Venus Globe.
So nothing is ever explained
as to why everyone is back at Earth sphere ready to pick a fight besides it
being the end of the series and we have to have a big fight.
In a way, I feel like the end of G Reco is trying to have
its way when it hasn’t even done a proper Gundam story all along.
What do I mean?
The mood suddenly gets very serious in the
final six episodes with major players finally biting the dust…and suddenly
Bellri realizes people can actually die in a war when all along he and everyone
else have been treating it like a stupid competition.
The final kill count is way below what you’d
normally get for a Yoshiyuki Tomino helmed Gundam project, though I openly
admit, I hated most of the cast so any death had little effect on me.
Probably the most impactful one was Colonel
Cumpa, who after being revealed the be the architect of this entire conflict
over the course of a couple of decades, who was now realizing how not a great
plan that was…gets kicked off a cliffside by a piece of debris.
Yep, even when G Reco wants to be taken
seriously, it’s character demises are all laughable like we’ve been watching a
Gundam parody this entire time.
I mean
who even was the Final Big Bad at the end of G-Reco?
You’d think it was Cumpa but if I had to pick
I guess it would be Luin.
And yet Luin
(as himself and Mask) had little interaction with Bellri to justify being his
final rival.
Look, I agree with Luin
that Bellri’s had it pretty easy from the grade skipping to getting the G-Self
to finding a cool older sister in Aida.
But still…Luin’s pettiness puts him on par with the Frost Brothers from
Gundam X, who started a world war because nobody loved them.
Not helped was Manny making a heel turn to
try and be taken seriously by Mask by trying to kill Bellri, all for the sake
of winning Mask’s heart…frak this was just…ugh.
And just as Bellri finally defeats Mask and reunites with
him Mom acting like she’s about to berate him for staying out too late from
home…the final battle just ends and we get a undeterminable time skip.
Everyones cool with one another, everything’s
fine and Bellri’s gonna go travel the world.
This is the point where middle fingers get raised to the screen.
After all of that nonsense and 26 of pure
utter crap…everyones just brushing off everything like it was just a fight in a
classroom the teacher had to break up.
You know what…that tracks.
G-Reco
wanted to be an easy going show with no consequences, no character development,
no actual steaks, no exciting fights and nothing even closely resembling far
better Gundam shows of the past.
Why the
hell should the very end of the show put in any effort to be something prolific
too?
The upside is that with Bellri
cheering himself on his way to another adventure, I don’t have to follow him or
anyone else on this show anymore.
G-Reco
is done and done and it’s time for me to deliver my final verdict.
Gundam: Reconguista in G might very well be the WORST TV
Series Anime I have ever reviewed here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
It claims to be a Gundam series but it’s
anything but.
There’s no compelling
cast.
Any serious topic that comes up
gets brushed under the rug in favor of fooling around on a space ship or
getting into another pointless fight.
The dialogue is pure Sims level gibberish.
This show couldve been the ultimate dream
Anime for an Abridged Series: you just insert any and all dialogue anywhere and
it would still make about as much sense as any sentence spoken in G-Reco.
The animation wasn’t as bad as I made it out
to be but it didn’t look special.
The
only other positive I can slightly admit is the music by Yugo Kanno (no not
related to Yoko Kanno by my knowledge).
It tried to convey a sense of wonder and hope that benefited something
like, ironically, Yoko Kanno’s score for Turn A Gundam…but got placed in G-Reco
instead.
Every single episode made me
angry and even if I looked away and caught up, I didn’t care if I missed a
detail or important line of dialogue.
Bellri
is one of, if not the worst, Gundam protagonist (Shinn Asuka is an Antagonist
through and through so I can still hate him in general), the G-Self, way too OP
and God I hated the insect head.
What
else can I say: I hate this series, I hate that it’s a Gundam series, I hate
that it’s an Anniversary project and I definitely hate that Tomino is being
given another shot to fix this by getting a 5 Part Compilation Film Project.
At least Gundam Seed Destiny had a solid hook
with the Junius Seven Colony Drop and Gundam AGE had the Asemu Arc that got
better treatment in an OVA.
Reconguista
in G has nothing that needs to be revisited and should be forgotten faster than
G-Saviour…and believe it or not, THAT has slightly more saving grace than
G-Reco thanks to one good performance and a campy one.
Folks, I’m done with this one at long last and it’s about
time to.
It doesn’t even really pain me
to officially grade this anymore…Gundam: Reconguista in G gets a big fat
absolutely deserved 0/10…and damn it for giving me a Gundam show to rate lower
than Seed Destiny.
Hopefully we can turn things around with the most recent
(albeit up until recently) full length Gundam TV Series. You can check out the
continuation of
Gundam Month Mark VI: The Undiscovered Country with the
Premiere of
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, right here at the
Gundam Anime Corner.
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