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morgoth0084
Reviews
Kidô senshi Gundam F91 (1991)
The epic that never was
Once upon a time, someone said "Hey, it's time to make another 50something episode UC Gundam epic!" And everyone agreed. Then Japan's economy went bad. "Oh, no! We have to make it a 13 episode OVA!" And everyone still thought it could work. Then Japan's economy crashed. "Oh, no! We've filmed the first 2 episodes, but ran out of money! We have to make it a two hour movie!" And it shows... Even worse, this movie was ironically in theatres at the same time as Last Blitz of Zeon, the Stardust Memory movie, and failed on every level to produce a decent expansion of the gundam universe. One word "Cosmobabylonia!" no... no...
Kidô senshi Gandamu: Gyakushû no Shâ (1988)
Amazing movie, if you've seen the rest of the series...
Tomino finally cut the kiddy stuff after the fiasco that was ZZ. Unfortunately for everyone in the united states, when CCA was released on DVD and shown on Cartoon Network, only the most die-hard fans of gundam who had gone out of their way to get their hands on illegal copies of Zeta Gundam (and in some cases the even more illusive Double Zeta Gundam) had any idea what was going on. Seeing as the final episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam were never aired in the US because of 911, and Zeta Gundam was just released as a limited edition box set, and Double Zeta will probably not see the light of day for years to come, it made no sense for them to release the theatrical climax that concludes the saga after 3 series and roughly 145 episodes worth of women dying in outer space. And lets face it. Even gundam fans in Japan hated Double Zeta so it's gonna be a looooong time for we get it in the states just to see what happened and how Haman and Mineva are killed/deposed.
Kidô senshi Gundam: Dai 08 MS shôtai (1996)
Who knows where this would have gone if the director hadn't died after the first episode?
The first episode of this series is amazing and leads into what had the potential to be one of the darkest and grittiest gundam series ever created. War in the trenches. Robots shelling each other for hours. People dying right and left. But no... Amazingly enough, despite focusing entirely on the grunts who don't even get the good gundams (Amuro had an RX-78-2, Chris had an RX-78-NT1, these guys had RX-79s and RX-79-EZs). It was like they were the guys in Panzer IIs while everybody else got Tigers and Panzer IVs. But no, no one dies. In fact, fewer characters die in this than in any other Gundam series, amazingly enough. You'd think this would be like Hell is For Heroes with Robots, but instead it's more like Last Flight of the Memphis Belle. It also lacked the testosterone drenched eye candy that made 0083 worthwhile. One can only guess how this show was supposed to look, but after the death of the director, this OVA became a bungle job that lasted 2 and a half years because they just couldn't figure out what to do with it and had to get it out somehow. Another epic that never was.
Kidô senshi Z Gundam (1985)
After many years of waiting...
Bandai finally gave UC Gundam fans what they'd been waiting for: the delicious orgy of death called Zeta Gundam. Unfortunately, the legitimate packaging is a disappointment to hardcore fans and casual (if there is such a thing) fans alike. First of all, Bandai removed both the original opening theme songs... Strike one... The translation is lamentable for having taken as long as it did (learn a little bit of Japanese and it will help fill in what the translators left out or changed) Strike two... Get some cultural consistency checkers; "Pallas Athene" is the full name of the Greek goddess, yet they change the suit's name to the "Palace Athena" for some reason or another. Other things that are annoying caused by the lack of internal consistency within the gundam universes naming translators. Traditional spellings of character and ship names that have lasted over 15 years have been changed. The Agama is the Argama, Jamitov Hymen is Jamitov Hymem, Camille Vidan becomes Kamille Bidan, and just other irritating "Engrish" errors in the translation, but we'll leave this as a foul ball. Devoid of any special features (unless you consider the pencil sharpeners special features). Strike three. Don't get me wrong, Zeta Gundam is the greatest sci-fi anime of all time, however the packaging did everything it could to sabotage it.