by Dr Kain » Wed Jan 04, 2017 1:39 am
Well we finally watched Victory Gundam.
I'm not sure where to start, but as a whole, this series was wonderful. Sure, it was slow moving and I'm pretty sure a good 15 episodes could have been cut out, but overall, it was very enjoyable. Uso and his band of merry misfits were a really great cast of characters who all played up on their strengths without really getting down into their bare bottom of their weaknesses. The comedy these guys provided was done really well as it always felt like the show knew when to be silly and when to be serious. The voice acting was all top notch and it was nice to see no one be treated like a total moron. If there is really any of the good guys I can complain about, it is how pointless Shahkti was for the vast majority of the show. The stuff they did with her in the end kind of redeemed that, but she really didn't need to exist at all and nothing would have changed as far as the main plot goes. Also, for being the child of Zanscare's queen, they didn't really do much with it.
Speaking of Zanscare, they were the biggest negative to the entire show as they were nothing more than cookie cutter super villains that wanted to take over the world. There was no reasoning for it, they just wanted it because "We're evil." I've got nothing wrong with one dimensional villains like that, but the "villains" in Gundam are supposed to have a viewpoint that makes you consider why they may be in the right. Here, nope, none of that at all. None of these characters were developed in the slightest and most of them served no purpose. Faula had the potential to be this series' Haman Karn, but instead of utilizing that, she is gone for 80% of the series and doesn't accomplish anything when she is around. Cronicle is the worst Char clone ever as he too never accomplished anything and we saw nothing that motivates him to be a soldier at all. His biggest trait is that he's the brother to the queen. Oh, and Katejina is right up there with Quess, Relena, and Flay. Hell, she makes Relena look tolerable.
Thankfully what this show lacks in character development for the villains it makes up for it with great visuals. Outside of certain drops in animation quality (and the fact that this show essentially has 3 partial clip shows), the animation as a whole was well done. It's not up to par with Zeta Gundam, but it's certainly better than the three series that succeeded it. Also, there were some truly enjoyable mech battles going on. The battle with The Tiger was by far the best fight in the show, but there were quite a lot of others that were intense, which were all enhanced thanks to the excellent soundtrack. Although, the constant reuse of the same tracks did get a little tiresome when it occured for a good chunk of episodes before somthing new was heard.
The last negative for the show belongs to its character deaths as you pretty much knew what characters were going to die, even if it wasn't in that very same episode. That was kind of annoying because so many of them raised their death flags immediately. I think there was only one death that took me by surprise, and it was more so that it occured episodes later than I expected.
Except the tire mecha that didn't make any sense in outer space (OR underwater,) the mobile suits of the show were pretty good. There wasn't anything that lives up to the Qubeley or the Hyaku Shiki, but they were still cool nonetheless. I did like the Zanscare ones from the beginning of the show that had the helicopter blades on their arm. The Victory itself wasn't bad, athough I liked the V2 more.
In the end, Victory Gundam was a solid show despite the areas it dropped the ball in. I have no idea why Tomino hates this show so much when he turned out a solid entry for the most part. It's most definitely in my top 10, albeit closer to the #10. Nevertheless, I do look forward to revisiting it some day in the future after I've had some Gundam rest.
Okay, that isn't happening any time soon with all of the BDs coming out, but my next show is going to be IBO, which I'm hoping to start this weekend. Crunchyroll, you better not crash!!