Warning: I tried to be objective when writing the text, but like any other opinion, it is subjective and may not coincide with yours. If you have a different opinion or have some criticism of me, fine, I will be glad to listen to another point of view, if, of course, it is written adequately. My grammar is bad, you don’t have to tell me about it.
I’ll start right away with a big preface. The fur genre is quite an old genre, and although it did not appear in Japan, it was thanks to the land of the rising sun that it gained its popularity. It has a very clear history, with its own eras and important representatives who developed the genre and left their mark on its history. The first era of Japanese mechs can be referred to as the “Super Mech Era”. This era was dominated, as you can understand, by the subgenre of “Super Mecha”, or in other words “Battle of Super Robots”. Generally speaking, its essence is simple – a confrontation between people controlling huge super-powerful robots against monsters, aliens and similar “Super Villains”. If it’s still not clear, just remember the Power Rangers, the essence is almost the same. This era was started by the founder of this subgenre and its popularizer anime Mazinger Z released in December 1972, film adaptation of the manga Kiyoshi Nagai, as well known as Nagai Go (He may be as familiar to you as the author of the manga Cutey Honey And Devilman), made Toei Animation. After the release of Mazinger, his various kinds of followers and clones began to appear, which then flooded the entire market. The same type of and often unremarkable work was everywhere and something had to be done about it. Not many people wanted to watch Super Mechs all the time. There needed to be some variety. The solution to this problem was a series that changed not only the fur genre itself, but also the entire anime industry. And this series became Mobile Suit Gundam, released on April 7, 1979, written by the screenplay Yoshiyuki Tomino, from a fur-obsessed studio Sunrise.
The very first opening for the entire franchise.
Gundam became the progenitor of the “Realistic Mechs” subgenre. A distinctive feature of the genre was the way robots were presented. If in super mecha robots are an invincible technological miracle, one might say, metal Supermen, or huge versions of Iron Man, then in realistic mecha they were ordinary combat units (Tanks on legs). The series itself touched on things that people in Japan were trying to distance themselves from back then. I’m talking about war and all the topics that come with it, like political intrigue, its horrors, its influence on people and the like. It was great in many aspects (at least for its time), it was a revolution in the genre, it was a box office flop (Wait a minute)!?). The fact is that fur is a very expensive genre, and both then and now it takes a lot of time, effort and resources. To recoup budgets, you also have to invest in merchandise, especially in toys, since the main target audience of furs is usually children. Of course, now if you create suitable merchandise for adults, the series can also pay off, but then the creators of fur did not think about the adult audience. Herein lay the problem. Children were not very interested in watching a series that they did not understand and were not attracted to (Despite the efforts of the studio and writers to make it attractive to them), and in turn they had no reason to buy toys, and adults were not very drawn to Gundam merchandise. This also applied to the ratings of the series, which were gradually falling (I think the marketing department, realizing the situation, said: “Oops”).As a result, they were unable to recoup the costs of the series, which is why it was even cut. Moreover, if it weren’t for the authors, who bargained with the studio for one more month to create the series, it would not have had an ending at all. It seemed that the song was sung for Gundam, but it was not so! A second chance, which is a little ironic, was given toys. The series was sponsored by the company Clover, which was responsible for the release of Gundam toys and generally owned the rights to it, but this was until the franchise was bought out Bandai, who believed that she still had the potential to become financially successful. The studio decided to work on the mistakes, and also began to watch and learn from competitors who began to use the Gundam concept. As a result, after the release of animated films, a new series and new toys, the franchise took off and took off like a new unicorn to the skies. It became so popular that it was ranked number one on the list of the most famous anime in Japan according to the Agency for Cultural Affairs. More precisely, he occupied it before the arrival of Evangelion.
Not every anime gets the honor of having a huge statue created.
At first, I was afraid to touch this franchise beyond the first series. I didn’t want to watch the old Gundams, but I was afraid I wouldn’t understand the new ones. But, as it turned out, you can safely watch many TV series without worrying about not knowing the old ones, since somewhere the events take place in the distant future, and somewhere in parallel universes. As soon as I found out about this, I decided to get acquainted with the latest version of Gundam at that time. To my regret, the last one was Gundam Build Fighters Try, the premise of which confused me very much, and the first episodes discouraged me from touching the franchise, putting it aside.
I understand everything. The https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/nine-casino/ franchise is many years old, it needs some variety. But… seriously?
But I didn’t put it off for long. The very next year, on October 4, 2015, a new Gundam was released – Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai and written by Maria Okada, which got me interested. I came across it quite often and periodically in lists of recommendations. Considering that now mechs, to put it mildly, are not very popular, and that I had not seen Gundams in the recommendations before, I decided to find out a little about it. After looking at a few shots, the premise and a couple of reviews (the last one alarmed me, there were quite a lot of negative ones), I decided to watch it.
The plot tells about the distant future, in which space has been conquered and an organization called Gjallorhorn, acting as government. Initially, she brought peace and order to the universe, but corruption completely transformed her, as a result of which rich and influential individuals gained all the power in the universe, and ordinary workers began to receive practically nothing. The inhabitants of the Martian colonies suffered especially because of this. Many of its inhabitants began to openly show their discontent by raising various rallies, but this led to nothing.At some point, a girl from an influential family named Kudelia Bernstein decided to support support the people of Mars. She began speaking at various speeches about the problems of the colonies and the need for reforms. Kudeliya decides to perform on Earth so that her words have a greater effect. But realizing that Gjallorhorn will try to eliminate her, she decides to hire an escort for protection. As it turned out, the campaign in which she ordered her escort consisted of children under the leadership, no, tyranny of adults. A little later, a small coup occurs in the campaign, as a result of which the children take away all the power. The uprising was led August Mikazuka And Itsuka Ogra – main characters. They continue to fulfill the girl’s order, but under a new flag and name – Tekkadan.
RAISE YOUR FLAG!
The plot at first is not particularly compelling, and some of the characters even become boring (Sometimes I wanted someone to actually shoot Kudelia). Also, perhaps not critical, but still noticeable script errors were often seen. I also can’t help but mention that the series often liked to poke symbolism into the eyes, and it’s very obvious at that. But by the middle of the first season, these things gradually begin to disappear, and by the end they are no longer visible. In the second season, such problems were not noticed, at least not on such a scale. In general, the plot is interesting and follows the precepts of Gundam – political intrigue and war.
There are a lot of characters, almost each of them has their own charisma or charm, which is why you begin to get attached to them, but, let’s say, you get attached more to them as a group (It’s a little difficult to explain this more clearly). I especially want to highlight the duo of Ogra and Mikazuki, as for me they are the best characters here who interact perfectly and complement each other.
Remember these happy faces. I mean that by the way.
The animation is done quite well. And the fact is that robots right here drawn makes him also a breath of fresh air compared to many of the new mechs that make their robots using disgusting looking, clumsy CGI. Although sometimes they are also used in anime, but only for spaceships. And then, the CGI here is implemented quite well.
Barbados shining in the sun pleases my eyes.
The action is well done: mech battles look and feel as they should, that is, when I see a robot crushing another in a choke, making a pile of scrap metal out of him, it feels the same. The scale of what is happening and the entertainment is very pleasing.
The music is done perfectly. She conveys the tone of the scenes perfectly. You can listen to it for hours separately from the series.
I especially remember the theme of the second opening.
As a result, the series turned out good for me, especially the second season, for which you can tolerate the shortcomings of the first. There are quite a lot of things that you can find fault with, but there are not so many of them and against the background of the advantages you can turn a blind eye to them.