Turn A Gundam Part 1 Episodes 1-5

Correct Century 2345.  For the past two years, a trio of spies from the long forgotten Moonrace have been living on Earth, scouting ahead for the day when their people would return to the planet.  That day has finally come…but not in the way Moonrace Spy Loran Cehack always envisioned.  The planet he has grown to love for three years is about to become a battleground between Earthers and the Moonrace.  With his adoptive home outmatch, Loran finds himself becoming their unlikely savior, battling his former home in an ancient weapon from humanities dark history.  They call it the White Doll but it’s true name holds even greater terror…Gundam.

 

Welcome readers to my annual…you know I don’t think I ever came up with a proper name for these, I guess Extended Series Review.  This is where I go on an accelerated review schedule through a series upwards of about 50 episodes long (compared to the 13-26 episodes shows I usually do).  Ever since I started this tradition a few years ago with Mobile Suit Gundam 00, it seems that every other year has fallen to a Gundam series, two years ago it was Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.  So why not keep that trend going.  This year, im diving into a Gundam Series that’s totally fresh for me: the landmark twentieth anniversary title, Turn A Gundam.

 

From the very first moments of Turn A Gundam, you know this is going to be one of the most interesting entries of the entire franchise.  Seeing as how it was the title worked on for the 20^th Anniversary of the franchise, it’s a good approach to take.  And Turn A Gundam brings it’s a-Game of talent along with it.  Gundam Godfather, Yoshiyuki Tomino, returns to the writer and directors chair since Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (A six year hiatus).  Sunrise is bringing their best artwork of the 1990s and to top it all off, the Queen of Anime OST’s Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop, The Vision of Escaflowne) is doing the score.  Add these into a dish with the most unique premise to set up a Gundam show, and there’s potential for gold, maybe even the best entry of the whole franchise.  It feels premature to make that kind of claim.  How about we just focus on the beginning?

 

Truth be told, from the beginning, I don’t think I needed to pay much attention to anything else in Turn A Gundam after laying eyes on the feast of visual brilliance.  Like I said, this came out in 1999 and it feels like the culmination of all the techniques all of Anime experimented with throughout the decade.  To be blunt, Turn A Gundam is one of, if not THE, best looking of the Gundam Television Series.  At the very least, in my mind, a new high bar has been set.  I could look at the lush green landscapes or how amazing the Mobile Suits move in general for hours and feel like ive gotten my fill of enjoyment.  Then there’s Yoko Kanno’s musical score.  It feels very “Escaflowne”, bringing a more fantasy like vibe to the proceedings compared to the much more scifi entries in the Gundam pantheon.  Still, the music never comes off as an Escaflowne clone, Kanno is too damn good for that.  I think by the end of the first episode, hearing the first few lines of one of the shows themes, “Moons Cocoon”, that I was fully on board.  Hell, I cant believe Gundam made it to 1999 and never had Yoko Kanno do the music for any entry, even then it feels overdue.

 

So from a production standpoint, the series is a 10/10 already.  How’s the story?  Turn A seems to ditch some of the more familiar Gundam tropes early on.  Or at the very least, we haven’t seen all of them right away.  The only bits of space we see are when Loran and his comrades are descending to Earth in the very beginning of the first episode.  We don’t get a look at the home of the Moonrace and all of the opening events take place exclusively on the Earth.  Also, this is one of the first Gundam entries not to open with Earth and Space in an ongoing state of war.  Earth’s civilization isn’t even as technologically advanced as it usually is in other Gundam stories.  That, right away, adds to the uniqueness factor.  How is such a “primitive” humanity going to handle the Moonrace when it’s biplanes going up against towering Mobile Platforms (I know theyre Mobile Suits but some of the Moonrace’s initial suits look like walking turrets to me)?  And just how familiar are both sides with each other?  It seems as though only a handful of humans are aware the Moonrace isn’t just a fairytale.  And yet I am not surprised when the Militia forces of Nocis begin attacking the Giant Robot dropping from the sky in a panic, or when the Moonrace pilots freak out when they didn’t expect any real resistance.  That said, im a little shaky on the intentions of the Moonrace.  They seemed to come in guns blazing when Loran has been hyping up their leader, Dianna, as the ultimate Relena Peacecraft like Pacifist.  Just how will she react after she arrives on Earth and discovers there have been casualties on both sides of what should have been an unintended conflict?

 

I guess im seguaying into the characters now.  Our Gundam Pilot of the series is Loran Cehack, a young boy who looks so much like a girl, one character just keeps calling him “Laura”…and we’ll get to that guy in a second.  Loran is more of a wide eyed dreamer than previous Gundam pilots.  He loves the Earth and cant wait for the Moonrace to see it as well.  He probably didn’t expect it to come and start a fight.  It seems a bit naieve to think this wouldn’t happen but Loran still manages to power through it.  Like his predecessors, he advocates peace with force as a last resort and yet he can still make the Turn A Gundam do some cool things when he gets used to the controls.  Next are the Heim Sisters, Kihel and Sochie.  Kihel is pretty much a dead on identical clone of Queen Dianna of the Moonrace so Loran does whatever the heck she asks without question.  Still, Kihel is nowhere near as annoying as her sister, Sochie, who is a constant pain in both the viewer and Lorans butt throughout this opening set of episodes (she even causes harm to his crotch on not one but TWO occasions and is ignorant of it).  Both girls don’t want to serve as just ladies of the house and want to expand to more progressive roles: Kihel wants to join the workforce and Sochie wants to become a pilot.  Strong goals, good goals too.  I just hope Sochie can drop the self centered brat aspect of her character fast.  The last two characters of note are Guin and Harry Ord.  Guin is the guy I mentioned above who calls Loran “Laura”.  From the moment I first met him…I didn’t like him and nothing in later episodes dissuaded me of that.  There’s just something instantly disingenuous about him and I can tell he’s going to be doing some underhanded things against the Moonrace to secure his own position of power, no doubt trying to abuse Loran’s ability to pilot the Turn A whenever he can.  Harry is our Char Aznable of the series.  Instead of a mask, he has two bug like lenses over his eyes, it sounds corny but it’s kind of cool too.  Harry is as cool and composed as Char ever was and I liked his interplay with Earth rep Guin.  Everytime, I knew Harry had Guin somehow beat in terms of cool represenetive factor.  He doesn’t do too much in this opening set but im looking forward to the inevitable rivalry that develops between him and Loran (cause come on, Amuro and Char, Heero and Zechs, Kou and Gato, Seabook and Iron Mask?  It’s gotta happen at some point).

 

There’s a ton to like about the setup of Turn A Gundam, from the beautiful setting to the circumstances of the conflict to the radical choice of Gundam design itself.  Oh yeah, I never mentioned that this is also the first (and as of now only) entry in the franchise where an American designer got to come up with the Turn A’s look.  So hats off to visual artist Syd Mead (Blade Runner, Tron) for giving us one of the most different and memorable Gundam designs in history.  Anyway, there’s a lot to like but the opening episodes do suffer from being too different and a few pacing issues.  The Gundam itself hardly does much in the first five episodes (it doesn’t even show up until the end of Episode Two).  Expect for a lot of time to go by where nothing beyond talking occurs.  Though the dialogue was always fascinating, I really do want to see the Turn A get into the fight.  So yeah, the opening moves a bit slow compared to the slam bang openings of say Gundam Wing or Gundam 0083.  There’s also the truth that the steampunk setting isn’t something were really used to in a Gundam series.  Like I said, the animation, music and even some of the mecha are very Escaflowne inspired (which in an of itself is basically a Medieval Macross or Gundam).  There are signs the Earthers will get their own Mobile Suits but until then, it’s old school fighter planes against towering behemoths with only one Gundam and a pacifistic pilot to go up against the Moonrace.  In short, this isn’t your typical Gundam and that’s going to take some getting used too.

 

However, the fact that this Gundam is far from typical is why I am enjoying it so far and cant wait to dig further into it.  Many fans I have spoken too have hailed Turn A Gundam as one of the absolute best of the franchise and I get the feeling Tomino himself loves this more than any other Gundam project he’s worked on.  Well…5 episodes down, 45 to go.  It’s going to be a long summer with the Gundam Moustache, but im looking forward to all of it.  See ya Wednesday for the continuation of Turn A Gundam.