Kidô senshi Gandamu II: Ai senshihen

Condensed from the middle section of the television series, Gundam Movie II has 30% reanimated scenes, so, despite some dated animation, there is some nice eye candy if you look for it. Unlike the previous installment, this Gundam movie takes place entirely on Earth, as Amuro and the White Base crew deal with Zeon ace Ranba Ral,A trio of ace pilots known as Black Trinary, spies and their old enemy Char Anzable. Char remains largely absent for most of this volume, as the focus shifts to the main protagonists, Amuro Ray and Sayla Mass. This movie's a little slower compared to the other two, but you'll probably enjoy it nonetheless.

I'm definitely invested in this universe now. It weirdly feels nostalgic watching this, as if Transformers/Scooby-Doo/Dragon Ball primed me for a linear, serious story with the same quirks of the era.

The pacing is a little odd, but it's TV episodes meshed together so I'll let it slide once again. I'm enjoying where the characters seem to be going. There's some interesting developments that add depth and mystery to their motivations, and side characters like Kai really blossom here.

I can't believe there's only one more film left to cover the original story. Fortunately I'll be watching two shows afterwards and Char's Counterattack. Beyond that, who's to say? Lots of room for stories in space.

The first show set the Gundam universe up. It showed some complex things, but it was mostly about trying to escape from overwhelming enemies when your only hope is a ship and a giant robot manned by war displaced civilians. Now the second part just continues the story, but also brings more complexity and starts to expand the world with various factions, family drama, multiple ship and mobile suit designs, hidden bases and political intrigue. It also starts to show that no matter on which side you are you get good and bad people and that you can respect your enemy while you are killing them as you have to fight next to people you despise.

I thought the first Gundam was a little bit more technical, here they just throw new designs around and think less of how people manage on the inside of these fighting machines, but they also expand the characters and the political map and get more into the antiwar message that I feel the series is pushing. In conclusion I liked it more than its predecessor.

Comparing the movies might be irrelevant anyway, since both were released in the same year, so in fact it's just the second part of a larger story, with more to come. I will be watching Gundam III now.

Judging as a movie, it seems fast paced with lots of small plots, conflicts and the fighting after some time kind of gets repetitive. I have heard the tv series is much better and have given required focus on portraying emotions. This being a compilation of the same, although lot of rework done, as a standalone might not please all audience.

Mainly concerning one character, but for the rest the original series is still better than this. Extremely choppy editing, a lot of plot contrivances left dangling and the ideas at the core of the 0079 series (in particular the author's disapproval of military authority vs. the civilian efficency) thrown away in favour of pure action don't make this a must-go by any mean. We're still in the territory of non-necessary here.