Victory Gundam Discussion [spoilers]

[Haak]

My Review

Spoiler for deaths:

This is the ninth Gundam series I’ve watched but although I was eagerly anticipating what I heard was a very dark series, my impressions were rather mixed. The start was just ridiculously slow and tedious. The first couple of episodes were really becoming repetitive (as well as confusing) and it was starting to become a bit of chore. The plot started moving when the Shrike Team were introduced but then that lead to another problem – they started dying quite quickly. Not that that’s a problem but it kinda felt odd when Uso and the other characters kept crying like there’s no tomorrow, for characters that I barely knew and only had a couple of lines at most. I can’t even remember their names (well I resolved to remember Kate’s, since she got the award for the “Most Dickish Way To Die”). As it stands the only Shrike team death that I really felt sad for was Junko’s. She was the only properly established Shrike Team member that had more than just a few lines.

It gets a lot better when they go to space, though. Shrike team deaths are more spread out for one thing, but the main thing is that the plot starts moving more and maintains a good pace all the way until the end. As far as deaths go, I have to admit I’m a bit mixed there too. Not consistently mixed with each death, but rather I feel like each death has induced a different reaction from me. Some of them made me sad. Some of them made me angry. Some of them made me roll my eyes. Some of them made me laugh. And some of them just left me befuddled. Take Oliver for example. Granted his funeral was very touching but I wonder why he went for a kamikaze and couldn’t just eject from his Core Fighter before crashing into the Motorad Fleet. Pippiniden has, hands down what has to be the most hilarious death I’ve ever seen. I mean the look on his face as he saw his impending doom coming towards him in the form of a crazy bitch with a Mobile Suit that’s about to explode on him, had me laughing my head off for a good 10 minutes. Most of the Shrike team deaths had me rolling my eyes, simply because there would always be someone (usually Uso) screaming and wailing all the time. Frankly it pissed me off and made me realise that it’s actually a common cliché for characters to perform anguished screams when someone dies. Duker Iq and Renda’s deaths had me facepalming at the high concentration of cheese and Tassilo had me facepalming at his decision to kill Maria whilst Uso was pointing a massive gun at him. Some deaths really hit home though. I’ve already mentioned Junko but perhaps the one that hit home for me the most was Uso’s mum’s death. That was truly tragic. It’s strange that each death brings a different reaction. I thought I would either like all the deaths or hate them all. The result turned out to be rather more complicated.

As for the characters themselves, I consider them to be the biggest problem in this series. I didn’t find a single character that I could really become attached to. Uso and Shakti don’t have much more to their personality than hating war. Uso annoyed me for screaming at everyone’s deaths whilst Shakti annoyed me by constantly running to the BESPA’s, thinking she could control them. At first I thought I’d like Shakti because she was seeing what war was doing to Uso but it just ended up being the same God damn commentary every single time. Chronicle didn’t turn out to be the rival I expected of them (and had the most irritating voice to boot). Katejina just completely baffled me. How the hell did she accept the Zanscare philosophy so easily? Her Face Heel turn just made no sense to me. It’s like Reccoa from Zeta all over again. And then she just get crazier and crazier (Semi-naked women? Seriously? That was your bright idea?). It’s really annoying that the one death that would’ve I loved to see the most doesn’t happen. Speaking of crazy women, Victory Gundam was certainly not in short supply of them. Let’s tick them off:
Junko – Suicidal
Fuala – Living in space for two days turns you into a psycho killer with bells on your face?
Katejina – An extreme case of Stockholm syndrome
Maria – God complex
Lupe – At first I thought she was just a paedophile, but it seems she had deeper issues than that...
Tomino was supposedly suffering from depression when he wrote this show and now i feel like making a haphazard guess as to why

So yeah, overall I’m a bit mixed with this one. It’s certainly good but it’s not as good as I hoped it’d be. Great soundtrack though. I wish I could listen to it on youtube. There were some tracks I could listen to all day:

Overall: 7/10

Also, for some reason I can't find the thread for Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (Hate it that much do you?) so I'll just post my review of it here:

Spoiler for Gundam F91:

Seriously, what the hell? This was the eigth Gundam story I watched and I was pretty much scratching my head at this whole film, struggling to understand just what the hell is going on. Well the last 30 minutes or so was pretty entertaining, especially the ending where Generic Male Lead Number 335543, tries to find Generic Male Leads’ Love Interest Number 435347. Otherwise, it was all rather bizarre. Got to laugh at the Star Wars knock offs though.

Overall: 5/10

[kakakka]

About Fuala

Spoiler for spoiler?:

I heard that she got oxygen deprivation(?). Her oxygen supply can only last for 2 days from what I remember. I thought she lasted much longer in space...

[Haak]

Spoiler for Fuala:

As far as I remmeber, before she was shot in space she was told by Chronicle her supplies would last for three days, and later when she was brought back she said she had to spend two whole days in outer space.

[Tak]

I hate to say this, but some of the deaths in Victory Gundam felt like a peculiar sort of demented sexual fantasy.

The most infamous of that not being the Shrike Team, but the anti-MS Neneka-corps, which had been parodied to death many years back. Yeah, really nice touch. So Tomino-depression means graphic death to scandedly clad women... or women in general... I wonder what happens when he gets high...

Other than that, characters were often introduced for the sake of being killed off, which makes you wonder why they were introduced in the first place.

Anyway, some liked it, some didn't. Nonetheless, the entire show just didn't sit well with me, and I don't like Victory serving as the end-era UC.

- Tak

[Amuroray]

Victory was the best in the series and the best gundam overall.

Felt like there was an actual war going on,the characters were great,uso was the best main character since amuro,great battles,realistic and shocking deaths,realistic.Plus it had a strong story line.

Better then zeta by some bit.

[RX-78GP04G Gerbera]

And even then, the scale of Victory Gundam was STILL small compared to the One Year War, lol. (Big and/or important battles took place at almost every major Federation/Zeon base/stronghold all over Earth and Space during that time.)

Pretty much every conflict/war since then was more or less an "isolated incident" more so than a grand scale war and only involved a small portion of the Federation overall; usually those situated in the immediate area(s), those specifically tasked to deal with the threat at hand, and/or those who actually CHOOSE to help like those in Char's Counterattack, Victory Gundam, and such.

[Elo the Blue]

Originally Posted by Haak

Chronicle didn’t turn out to be the rival I expected of them (and had the most irritating voice to boot).

While his voice didn't bother me, I found Cronicle to be a disappointing character. He was just there, not really swaying my feelings on him one way or another.

I can't remember the quote exactly but I think Maria summed him up perfectly when he said he had a "weak heart".

His death was also rather weird.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Elo the Blue

His death was also rather weird.

You mean when he flies out of his cockpit and wangs his hand against the Angel Halo with a loud and hilarious thud? Yeah that was kind of amusing.

[Elo the Blue]

Originally Posted by Haak

You mean when he flies out of his cockpit and wangs his hand against the Angel Halo with a loud and hilarious thud? Yeah that was kind of amusing.

It was. Definitely one of the strangest and funniest deaths in any series in my opinion.

[Roloko vi Britannia]

Just finished watching this a couple weeks back and I have to say it was depressing.

Although this series has some of the weirdest fanservice I've seen in any Gundam. Uso is the classiest Gundam character ever he gets all the chicks all over him, he has a shower with an enemy woman and bites her boob, then while in the Gundam's cockpit he is in a weird position with his dog NAKED, Elischa and Warren's lover can't think of her name see his trouser monkey, and he sleeps with his Mom while she is in her bra and panties. I think Uso has gotten Makoto beat as the worlds greatest pimp.

Spoiler for about Odelo and Katejina:

Well anyways I think Odelo is the greatest character in this for me everytime I see him I smile I seriously thought he was going to make it until he started piloting a mobile suit and gave his charm away to Elischa. I denied that he was going to die until the very end. I was so upset when he did die and I hate Katejina for it. I didn't mind her before until she kill sweet little Odelo. Then she became a bitch I'm glad she got hit by the almighty karma train and went blind and lost her memories. Flay is still Gundam's biggest bitch though I don't think anyone can replace her at the top.

Overall I really enjoyed this series 8/10

Now I'm finishing up Wing since AGE is over. =D

[RX-78GP04G Gerbera]

Uhh...what?

[imandarkknight]

Spoiler for mecha:

but usso ewin not dead in the end of episode, not like amuro who really died protecting earth from axis that would even seen on the GUNDAM UC episode 5 who bright actually talk to amuro picture right ?

[RX-78GP04G Gerbera]

Yes, Uso is alive in the end. Amuro is dead.

[imandarkknight]

that would be nice if one of main character from gundam series was dead protecting the girl.

Spoiler for my imagination:

like in death note of my delusion light yagami deaths is by protecting misa amane THAT SOUND SO DAMN NICE I LOVE IT :P

[artquest7@]

I may be wrong about this but I believe the shrike team is actually hyperbole. It was supposed to be a strong statement about how women were being depicted in other series of the time. Killing them off was the idea that anime needed to drop the scantily clad fighting woman altogether. I read about this a long time ago though so I could be getting this wrong. Can any other gundam veterans around here chime in?

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by artquest7@

I may be wrong about this but I believe the shrike team is actually hyperbole. It was supposed to be a strong statement about how women were being depicted in other series of the time. Killing them off was the idea that anime needed to drop the scantily clad fighting woman altogether. I read about this a long time ago though so I could be getting this wrong. Can any other gundam veterans around here chime in?

I think there’s no way to confirm whether what you said is right or wrong. As we all know, Tomino was pretty depressed when he made Victory, so killing Shrike Team as Tomino’s statement/reaction to how he feels about female pilots in mecha genre might also be possible. In addition, the episode where a bunch of female soldiers wearing nothing but bikinis fighting Victory Gundam only to seduce the pilot inside it can also be considered his statement regarding how ridiculous girls in sexy-looking suits in mecha anime is. Still, the main question to that theory is: are girls in sexy-looking getup in mecha series already that common when Victory was airing?

[RX-78GP04G Gerbera]

Well, when you consider what was left of the Jupiter Empire was involved, and men from Jupiter having an obsession with women (displayed as early as Paptimus Scirocco in Zeta Gundam), it's not surprising that there seemed to be a similar thing, at least with Zanscare.

I could also say it could just be as simple as Katejina underestimating Uso in thinking he was just a little boy who would be far too preoccupied with the female body like, let's face it, a lot of 13 year old boys would start to be at least. Unfortunately, having gone through the Zanscare War and being forced to grow up quickly as he did, Uso didn't fall for such tactics and, instead, was all, "Wtf is this?".