Erich Sokol, 1959.

Erich Sokol, 1959.

I felt like writing something short today, so let’s talk about the New Gundam Seed Freedom trailer (it was either this or a quick review of SD Gundam CROSS RAYS).

I think I’m gonna genuinely struggle to take this movie seriously.

Now I’ve already done a few posts about my feelings on the Cosmic Era (and I’ll probably do more at some point), but in brief; I like both SEED and SEED Destiny. I like Destiny more because it feels like they had more freedom (ugh) with what they wanted to do, as opposed to vaguely retelling the original series, but I think SEED’s a bit more coherent.

(Stargazer’s a decent little yarn about Phantom pain pilots, I’d say it’s almost the cosmic era in miniature)

And I know it’s because it’s a scene taken out of context from the trailer, but-

Lacus: It’s my wish as well

Kira: UWA!?

Lacus: to fight alongside you

Kira: UK-GHA?!

He can emote, ladies and gentlemen!

Speaking of emoting, maybe it’s just that I haven’t seen Cucuruz Doan’s Island, but everyone seems to be really pushing that facial animation in this. Like, in another scene, Lacus turns around, looks faintly disgusted, then moves right along to joy. And I misread Shinn’s expression something like twice when rewatching the trailer (is it horny rage, or is it anguish?). It was odd.

Though I will say the new music (op? Inset song?) sounds really good, though I find the Cosmic Era’s always had good music.

Even though we have another moment of unintentional parody, where the music lulls and Kira says dramatically “I can’t see an end to this war, all I can do is……” (soundtrack) FREEDOM. And my mind immediately went to “metal gear protagonist”.

Admittedly while I don’t think I’ll be able to take it seriously, I do think it’ll be fun to talk about. But all the same, I was feeling oddly cynical. Not really sure why.

Unrelatedly, there was another announcement today, Mobile Suit Gundam Silver Phantom. A, uh, virtual reality narrative interactive experience as one news site has dubbed it. Gonna be honest, I feel the the top comment on the YouTube video sums up my thoughts “I was hype until the meta quest appeared”. Anyway, we know basically nothing about it, so I’m going to indulge in some baseless speculation for the moment. Presumably it’s a spin-off, I don’t think they’d make a whole new AU just for this. So then as a guess I’d say it’s likely either a Universal Century sidestory or SEED (since we got Gundam Seed Eclipse a little while back). But I did see one interesting theory while browsing earlier:

It could be this “Silver Phantom”. Unlikely, I think, but a neat theory.

Thought: I wonder if Gundam 00’s focus on True Innovators is sorta in response to Newtypes in UC not really going anywhere.

(Tomino changed his mind about them when making Victory is the explanation I normally hear).

This idea harassed me since morning ;- ;

I’m currently at Episode 22 of Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans: Urdr Hunt, I’ve got about two episodes left and since it seems to be a two-episode finale kind of deal, I figured I’d take a break and note down some thoughts up till now, then maybe do another post after the finale. Though I haven’t really arranged these, so I’m probably just gonna ramble.

*The following contains spoilers for episodes 1-22 of Gundam Urdr Hunt*

I’m liking a lot of the Mobile Suit Designs, Gundam and Grunt. Plus, it’s nice to see old favourites again, like the Grimgerde and Hyakuren. However, I do feel like some could be better utilised - The Asmodeus is a cool design, and it works as a lancer to the Hajiroboshi, I just feel like it could have been used more.

Similarly, is is odd how a lot of the major threats are lead-from-the-front characters, since obviously they have to function as bosses. I dunno, it’s just strange compared to all the non-action opponents from the original series.

I really enjoyed Range and Katya’s inclusion as characters, since they’re just sitting there providing a good general basis of what the average citizen of Post Disaster knows - Katya knows a lot of insider knowledge of Gjallarhorn for example, which the others remark on regularly. While Range is sceptical of the existence of mobile armours and views the Asmoday as just a particularly strong mobile suit. So they provide different ends of the same spectrum, I suppose.

I like how each of the maids/guides has their own personality, and I like seeing how they interact with each of their charges. But I do wish we saw more of them. Part of its because they feel like they have that potential to shine very well, and it’s also quite a large cast, so not everyone gets an equal share. I also found it interesting that they were all stated to have been “bought”, so they’re all former Human Debris. Unfortunately, Parstai (blue, with Foundling) is the only one it really comes up with, but presumably the others had full and interesting lives beforehand. You get hints of it with Batch and Tagging (the two that go with Cyclase), with Tagging being an excellent mobile suit pilot, and Batch having experience in ship command and a cautious bearing, but we know very little of the others prior lives.

I didn’t expect to vibe with the Zan Brothers as much as I did, that was weird.

Kouzou Mendou’s pretty rad. A genuine Archeologist, hoping to reveal the causes behind the Calamity War, and just generally seems to be a decent fellow. He does admittedly score points because he very clearly understands how dangerous Mobile Armours were/are, and is the first character to really articulate that. I kinda wish he’d told us, the audience, some new information about the Calamity War, but that’s not really a criticism at all.

Cameos from other Ibo Characters - mostly I can take or leave them, but I’d be lying if I didn’t get pumped when Mcgillis (as Montag) showed up in the Grimgerde to fight Londo Bron. I also loved seeing Isurugi going around, being generally competent.

Actually yeah, Londo Bron. For my talk about Cyclase Mayer at the start of this, I found myself really enjoying Londo Bron, surprisingly so even. He’s a good pilot, he has noble intentions, and he feels like a really good example of an Antagonist, but not a villain. He’s only really opposing Wistario because he wants to restore the Issue Family, and Katya is the best way to do that (I might do a proper post on him some other time).

Another character I really like, despite their short screentime would be Major Bradley. He’s essentially the perfect picture of a colonial administration officer - he’s corrupt, he’s unreasonable, he’s pretty solidly classist, and it all just works. He’s not even cartoonishly evil, he’s just the sort of corrupt Gjallarhorn Official that illustrates the failings of the organisation. Obviously he shares a lot of DNA with Coral Conrad, from the original series, but the boredom, the arrogance with which he carries himself just makes him memorable. Plus he just looks obscenely British, furthering the colonial parallels.

I am absolutely loving the fight scenes in this. Yeah, a lot of the fighting is supposed to be for the in-engine graphics, so they could have totally phoned it in. But they didn’t. If only other shows that cut out background, story, plot and characterisation to ostensibly focus on the fights *cough* *cough* Build Divers *cough* could do that.

I do love how absolutely shameless Cyclase is. Just like “Oh boy, how do I get out of this one? I know, Betrayal!” It works into his character and it’s really fun to watch, but it’s just kind of hilarious how he makes at least like five betrayals in the space of the show. Very efficient.

Character Designs’ still top-notch. I don’t really have any specific examples that I haven’t already mentioned but yeah. It’s good.

Ah, I mentioned that I was considering getting the Hajiroboshi kit? The thing is, a lot of the time I can really like a character, and that can end up selling me more on their mobile suit’s model kit. This is the first time that’s ever happened with a mechanic. In brief; I don’t want the Hajiroboshi because it’s the mobile suit Wistario Pilots, I want the Hajiroboshi because it’s the mobile suit Denmer maintained all these years.

I do have two more points - one positive, one negative, but I’m gonna pull those out as separate posts, simply because I want to consider them separate from everything else, and I feel like I’ll want to follow them up separately after the finale.

In a nutshell, I’ve generally liked Iron Blooded Orphans: Urdr Hunt - it gives a good showing of the world of Post Disaster besides what we’ve seen with Tekkadan and Tanto Tempo, and a lot of the side characters are interesting. The only issue is that some characters and mechanics feel somewhat under-utilised.

(Though maybe that’s my own fault for hyping myself up for the Asmodeus).