Mobile Suit Gundam film 1

Mobile Suit Gundam, along with "Star Blazers" and "Lupin III", helped push anime toward more adult stories in the late 70s/early 80s. It's influence can certainly be felt in later anime classics such as Macross and Escaflowne. No longer would the mecha Genre center on a spike-haired hero with a mecha sporting super-special attacks and fighting evil scientists from Mars-it would at least aim for some sense of seriousness. Although it retains some elements of it's predecessors, such as brightly colored heroic mecha(Something that in 20 years, Gundam *still* has), Gundam is more serious. The villains are ambigious-it's really hard to tell who's good and who's really evil. The characters are well-fleshed out, from Amuro-the prototype for later milquetoast such as Shinji Ikari-and Sayla Mass, who is torn between duty and her own secrets. Since this is 1979 TV budget animation, the animation isn't the best(It's better than "Superfriends", at least), but the character designs are well done and facial expressions are very good. The musical score is also well done. This motion picture is actually a compilation of the first third of the Television series, so it's sort of condensed, with many scenes cut out. If one wants to see the full series, Cartoon Network has plans to air it next year, although it's dated animation might turn off many viewers.

I came into contact with Mecha anime way after the first Gundam movie came out, but I think it was some sort of newer Gundam or Evangelion thing. At the time I thought it was stupid and it turned me off Mecha forever. Yet, with unlimited time to "work from home", I now had the opportunity to watch the original Gundam animes on Netflix. And, for 1981, I think Gundam is brilliant!

Now, the animation is decent but dated, the acting and individual scenes are very Japanese and annoyingly communal. You get the classic woman who can't stop herself to care about children and some man, whether they like it or not, and who knows what's decent and good. You get the glorious nakamas who would do anything for each other except listen when they are told to run or save themselves or something like that. Apparently standing around and shouting someone's name when they are in danger is a genius military strategy. You get the senior people getting to decide how to bring someone down or humiliate them a bit in order for them to not get too cocky. So it might be difficult to get into the mood, especially if you are some American gen Z person who still hasn't acknowledged that the rest of the world exists. Ironically, if you are into fight movies, you might not like it either, because it shows how ugly and petty war is.

However, with all that said, the show has a complex political and historical universe to play on. The characters, good and bad, are complex and relatable. The little details of space combat and giant robot mechanics are pretty thought out, to the point that you start to believe that it makes some sense to have huge metallic humanoids fighting it out. What I liked most was that it showed war as it really is: groups within groups within groups of people, all scheming and positioning themselves towards some goal that only they know (or care) about, senseless death, backstabbing, uniformed politicians and generals and nobles that feel other people are their toys to play with. For people who witnessed a world war from the losing side, war is not fun.

So yeah, it is a show about giant robots fighting each other, but also a very adult antiwar show. I can't quite recommend it, because some people might not quite connect, but I think that if you get into it, you will love it.

That dumbs out important character development and world building elements (and pacifist messages, I might add) more pronounced in the original series while slightly improving on some side things, most notably the Gundam now not being made of three separable parts and the way the Gundam descends into the atmosphere. Not really that worthy of attention, IMHO.

I am purely reviewing this movie as it stands now. The effect it has had on mecha anime and anime as a whole is not considered and frankly doesn't make this movie any better. The question I am trying to answer is: "does this movie hold up compared to modern works of anime?"

With that out of the way, let's actually review this.

It doesn't take a keen eye to notice that the visuals are clearly dated. However, if you enjoy this type of eighties aesthetic you might still be able to enjoy it. And while the visuals can be seen as having a certain style to them, the audio suffers from its age far more. Sadly this makes for a rather poor listening experience.

The plot isn't anything to write home about either. The tropes that this movie popularised forty years ago have now become so widespread and have since been improved upon so greatly that this movie starts to feel like a parody of its own genre at times.

It's full of plot holes, logical inconsistensies, slow pacing and dumb character choices. The main character is a bland Mary Sue or Gary Stu, whichever you prefer and the side characters aren't too well developed either. There is a relatively interesting dynamic between our hero, Amuro and the main villain, Char. But in general, this plot has not much to offer anymore.

The strongest part of this movie is its sci-fi theme. It gives an interesting take of how people thought our future might look, and to be honest, I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff. I won't delve too far into it, as it is best to experience this for yourself.

In short, I can't recommend this movie to a broad audience anymore. Anyone who wants to watch this should be aware of this movie's shortcomings (even if they are a result of the times it was produced in).

There are plenty of movies from that time (and even way before) that have better animation, story, characters, pacing and sound design. And there are plenty of mecha anime from the last 20 years that have completely surpassed this.

P. S. Also who in their right mind came up with the name "Fraw Bow"?!

Of course the big negative of this film is that I'm now hooked into the Gundam universe. I have set time aside, quit my job and cancelled all social plans.

I have no idea why I thought Gundam was like Power Rangers. It's not really a big thing here in New Zealand, at least from the 90s onwards. So my perception is pretty skewed I suppose. This is a pretty dark and dreary war-torn universe that happens to have young people as the protagonists.

This first film was a solid start. It's dated, but if you grew up watching old Hannah Barbara cartoons like I did, it's actually pretty well animated. You have to go in knowing the nature of the original film trilogy: it's a series abridged and because of this the pacing is kind of weird. Basically, it's episodes stitched together, with 'filler' removed and improved animation. I liked it a fair bit. There's actually some gorgeous matte paintings to be found throughout, and the shot composition keeps things visually interesting. There's also none of the anime tropes that I find annoying (those tend to permeate through 2000s-2010s shows). So, a lot of positives. I think due to the shortening, some side characters that presumably got a lot of mundane things to do aren't developed as well as they could have been. The pacing is still rather slow, though I don't mind that so much. And, it does end on a note that doesn't seem incredibly impactful.

Overall this was a great first Gundam experience, and every second I watched improved that one moment in Ready Player One.