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Time for something from the vault now folks. What I consider to be the ‘kickstarter’ of the mecha genre proper.

Mobile Suit Gundam: 0079 TV Series

Genre: Mecha War Drama
Director: Yoshiyuki Tomino
Distributor: Bandai Entertainment
Duration: 25 minutes approx per episode with 42 episodes total
Production Creation: 1979

Plot Synopsis

Due to chronic overpopulation, mankind has expanded out into space and in doing so has created space colonies, known as sides. As more and more sides were established, a resistance movement who called themselves the Principality of Zeon, wanted to declare independence from the Earth and the Earth Federation.

Unshakeable in their intent, the Zeon forces began a war to ensure that this dream of independence was realised. The story begins at the start of this war, Universal Century 0079. After the genocide of billions at the start of this war and the use of high-tech combat mecha known as Mobile Suits, the Earth Federation have very few experienced pilots remaining. Young teenager Amuro Ray finds the calm peace of his life shattered when the war spreads to his colony. Swept up in the chaos, Amuro somehow finds himself at the controls of the Federation’s newest and most deadly weapon, the Mobile Suit known as Gundam.

Known as the ‘grandaddy’ of the mecha genre, Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original Gundam effectively kickstarted the whole genre in the first place with it’s unflinching and realistic portrayal of war, action packed mecha battles and believable characters.

The Review

When I first got into watching anime, it was Carl Macek’s Robotech that actually started my love with the whole mecha genre. After that I ‘graduated’ onto Macross, Neon Genesis Evangelion and other such great stalwarts of the genre. At some point recently I thought something was missing in my mecha anime. This feeling was compounded by the fact that I had heard innumerable praise about Gundam and in particular, the original Gundam series. Intrigued, and at the same time somewhat skeptical that an old crusty anime from back in the 70’s was as good as everybody had told me, it was with almost clenched teeth that I sat down to watch the series. With bad memories of other 70’s anime fresh in my mind, I figured I wasn’t going to be greatly enamoured with Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original Gundam series.

How silly and misguided those prejudices were.

Mobile Suit Gundam is the anime, at least in this reviewers humble opinion, that can be credited with the genesis of the mecha genre. Above and beyond that though, Mobile Suit Gundam can most significantly be credited for being the first and still one of the best anime for illustrating the horrors of war in a believable and non-patronising way. Whereas some other shows may simply show war as the good guys versus the bad guys, Mobile Suit Gundam shows you the conflict from both sides and the full gamut of human emotion displayed by each.

To achieve this in a convincing manner requires characters that are both interesting to watch and entirely believable. Fortunately, Mobile Suit Gundam has these in spades. Everybody from Amuro Ray, the young reluctant rookie of the Federation, through to the cunning yet admirably driven Zeon ace, Char Aznable, seem to have truly fleshed out multi-dimensional personalities. Just when you think they might fall into a generic role, they surprise you with actions or words that really make you realise just how superbly deep these characters are. The plot too isn’t a half-hearted venture either as you might imagine, as there are political power plays on both sides, criss-crossing relationships, betrayals, plot twists and a fair amount of tragedy thrown into the mix. Oh yeah, before I forget, there’s a whole load of pretty good mecha battles for you action junkies too, just so you don’t feel shortchanged. At the risk of spoiling the plot, I will simply say that if you are looking for an intelligent, human portrayal of war and how it affects those that are both directly and indirectly involved, Mobile Suit Gundam is rarely bettered.

The aspects in which Mobile Suit Gundam have been subsequently bettered are, as you probably would have guessed by now, the technical stuff. Original broadcast in 1979, but failing to gain any kind of mass audience until the movie remix versions were released sometime later, Mobile Suit Gundam is a very dated looking yet functional looking show. Line art tends to be simple, as do any kind of detail on the characters, mecha or backgrounds. Animation also tends to feel stunted, dated and jerky at times, with some really low frame counts at times. Even so, for anime of it’s time period, it was a remarkable achievement as the production values were good for it’s time and it managed to keep the values steady throughout it’s entire forty-two episode run. Sadly though, it doesn’t really compare to the shiny vistas and glossy CG aided animation that many of us are bombarded with today in our anime shows, and as such, will be criminally overlooked by those who can’t get past the dated visuals.

Thanks to Bandai, some extra effort has been afforded in bringing the audio in this show up to scratch. The music appears to be substantially different and better than the original ultra-cheesy tunes that blighted the shows original broadcast. As good as the music may be compared to the original, it still seems a bit cheesy and overly repetitive at times. The sound effects though fair a bit better and don’t quite carry the same typical 70’s sci-fi sound effect selection that was present to start with. Not bad, but you can still tell that the audio aspect of this show somewhat reflects the time in which it was made.

Ultimately though, Mobile Suit Gundam charm lies in it’s great storytelling and compelling characters. Sure it isn’t the pretty show around by the longest shot, but look beyond it’s dated technical aspects and persevere. Trust me, if you have even the remotest interest in a good story with drama and mecha action in equal parts, you will be like me: wondering why you doubted it in the first place.

Highly recommended.

Ratings Summary

Animation: D
Art: D-
Music: C-
Content: A

Overall: B+

Review by: JP Jones

Suitability for children

Despite it’s appearance and the time in which it was produced, Mobile Suit Gundam does have some scenes of civilian death, people being burned alive in their cockpits and events like that. Thankfully, they are not depicted in any kind of explicit way and are tastefully done. There are some fistfights and some scenes where a small amount of blood is spilled, but just this and the minimal amount of profanity, make this suitable for those aged 11+.

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