Just finished up Victory Gundam, the final chapter of the UC saga, and have mixed emotions.

The plot is a rather cliched Gundam plot. Space Colony formed Empire wants to control the world. A reluctant teenaged pilot piloting the Gundam hero suit and a host of enemy suits and enemy characters. Rather straight forward Gundam stuff.

Our hero is a young boy named Uso Ebbing. He and his friend Shakti are living in quiet peace until BESPA, the military branch of the Zanscare Empire, battles the League Militaire, who has a mobile suit factory in the region. Through a series of extraordinary circumstances Uso first hijacks a BESPA suit then becomes the pilot of V1, the first Victory Gundam.

The main story lines are Uso protecting the League Militaire until they get into space, Shakti being kidnapped by BESPA, stopping a Zanscare attack on the Earth, attacking Zanscare itself, stopping a wheeled space battleship against Earth and stopping the Angel Halo.

Victory Gundam is very mature in its depiction of war and its consequences. One of the first things we see BESPA do in its conquest of Earth is the destruction of an entire city to flush out the League Militarie. Zanscare is never hesitant to visit war upon innocent civilians since the Earth Federation through inaction refuses to let the military be a valid target.

That is really my biggest flaw with the series. The Earth Federation Government does nothing to help the resistance against the Zanscare empire. Individual Earth Fleets help on their own choice but truly no singular effort to help is made. With what Zanscare visited upon the Earth and its population the flimsy excuse of rioting in the colonies doesn't seem to hold much strength as to the reason to hold back the military.

But honestly that's a minor complaint to how well done some of the aspects of the series was. In difference to pretty much every other UC Gundam series Uso had a good relationship with his parents, in fact part of the reason he joined up with the League Militaire is to find them, just so happens that they were both high ranking League figures who left Uso at home to keep him out of the war.

Another nice touch is that it took the ideas touched upon in Z Gundam, but never fully explored and which was completely forgotten in ZZ Gundam, about how women take an increasingly more prominent role in the battlefield. The League's top mobile suit team, The Strike Team, is an all-female mobile suit team. In the post war era so many men have died in war that seemingly the only people left to fight are women. Many of the main characters are women and their desires and manipulations are the driving force of the series.

A few minor weak points are Katejina's motivations to defect to Zanscare is never truly explained but instead hastily explained during her explosion in the last few episodes, she just seemed off. Chronicle Asher, the Char character and advisory to Uso, was boring. Him being the brother to Zanscare's Queen was not played to any effect at all and added nothing to the story. Having his character evolve to fight against the powers that manipulated his sister would have been better.

As I said I like the series and was shocked at how quickly it did move, shockingly few throw away episodes for a Gundam series. The Zanscare mobile suits and other technology are unique and very cool. The series is a good farewell to the Universal Century Gundam and worth viewing.

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Even though I'm a huge fan of Gundam, 106.83 GB of movies, enough to go get another hard drive solely for Gundam, I have resigned myself to the fact that Gundam wont be popular in the States.

It basically comes down to money. Bandai makes a huge amount of its money from Gundam merchandise, last I read it was over 30% from this one license alone. That there is the key to getting Gundam in the States. They need to sell the toys to finance bringing over the series; However there is a nasty catch 22 there for one simple reason: Gundam is too smart for the age group that would buy the toys.

All Gundam series, from the Good (Z Gundam and 08th MS Team) to the not so good (SEED and ZZ Gundam) all deal with a deeper topic than robots fighting. Be it human understanding, human fate or taking control of your own life and doing what's just each Gundam delivers a message in a story that is so visually dominated by the mecha. This is what gives the series such a lasting presence far beyond its pioneering status as a real robot show.

The main target who would buy the toys, 8 to 12, would not grasp this aspect of Gundam and would dismiss the show for the new flavor of the week; while those old enough to “get it” are less likely to buy the toys in any quantity to give Bandai a kick in the pants.

SEED was about the best chance Gundam had at succeeding in today's market. It was modern looking and relatively well done but still it failed. This makes it less likely for Bandai to bring new Gundam over or invest in subbing older series and bringing them over.

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I watched a lot of Gundam SEED Destiny over the past weekend and I was greatly impressed by the direction the show took over the course of the 48 episodes I have seen. Originally mirroring the original SEED with the covert team sent to steal new prototype Gundams, this time from ZAFT, and the slight change being true soldiers instead of civilians thrust into war.

Shinn Asuka is the main character, a coordinator who lost his family during the Earth Alliance attack on Orb. This fuels his hatred of Orb and his desire to fight. Additionally we have lots of Athrun and Kira and political intrigue.

After an attack by terrorist the Earth Alliance launches a war against PLANT and its own Earthnoids who refuse to join in. The Chairman of PLANT, who preaches peace throughout the series and a minimal use of force, offers aide to the people of Earth suffering under Earth Alliance rule. The interesting turn the show takes, while not shocking, is a welcome from pure bad guys of most shows.

Another interesting facet of the show is its use of “ghosts” of the past. Several characters from SEED return to play in the Destiny universe.

The fun but tiring aspect was the usage of Original Gundam mobile suits for the design of new suits in the SEED universe. From the ZAKUs and GOUFs of Zaft, the core fighter based Impulse Gundam and Dom-like suits of Lacus Clyne followers. Sullying the likes of those suits in a lesser Gundam series seems wrong. My other big dislike is footage recycling. There's only so many times I can see the same footage of Murasames or Astrays or Windams being blown up before I stop watching the battles.

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Last we left off Kira found out about his origin as the ultimate coordinator. Now we pick up with the conclusion of SEED.

The conclusion to SEED is as violent and death prone as the classic that is Zeta Gundam. Nearly ten main characters meet their maker in the final few episodes. In no particular order Mu La Flaga, Natarle, the three bad Gundam pilots, Azrael, Patrick Zala, the annoying Flay and Rau Le Cruset. Not too bad for an alternate universe Gundam series.

The final showdown between the Blue Cosmos led Earth Alliance and ZAFT comes to its end. Rau, feeding his own desire to destroy mankind since he himself has no past nor future, gives the EA the plans to the neutron-jammers. Instead of using this to help the people of Earth they equip a fleet of nuclear armed attack craft and attacks the PLANTs. To counter this ZAFT reveals their GENESIS weapon, a nuclear powered laser weapon. Standing between the two sides is the trio of Orb ships.

The hilights of the block were the showdowns, everything came down between two parties engaged in battle. Archangel versus Dominion, Kira versus Rau, ZAFT versus Blue Cosmos and so on.

After nagging Kira and Athrun for what seems like forever the trio of EA Gundam pilots meet their match in Yzak Joule, he takes out two of the three Gundams through sheer force of will, and a willingness to kill. Mu's death was a classic hero's death, and was a worthy one. Saving the ship and the woman he loved.

Ultimately my favorite part was the ending of ZAFT. A single soldier, standing up for his beliefs and knowing that the path Patrick Zala was on would lead to horrible results takes it into his own hands and shoots Zala, a nice parallel to original Gundam and the fate of Girhen Zabi.

I was ultimately disappointed in Rau's reasoning. He just hated everything. He had no other goal than killing, no desire for power, no nothing. How empty and undeserving of being a Gundam villain.

For a series it was rather successful. Good characters, good story and great battles. For long time Gundam fans its less filling, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Owing much of its plot elements and story arcs to the original series and Zeta Gundam and doing it with less realism isn't a way to win old fans over. That being said, it was better than ZZ Gundam and gets a final rating of 7 out of 10.

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Read The Rest of “Gundam SEED Phase 46-50”

Once again I owe the internet and legions of fans of the Gundam universe for providing fan subs on unreleased in the US Gundam series.

How to start this review of the black sheep of the Tomino age the Universal Century. Nothing could equal the greatness of Zeta and I'm sure Tomino knew that and changed course with Double Zeta. Infused with slapstick and zany antics the entire feel of the show is different.

For following up an epic series with epic space battles, huge reaching plot lines and personal stories Gundam ZZ doesn't live up at all. Double Zeta is a super robot show mixed with Gundam elements with a large dosage of Newtype juice.

I guess I should start with a quick summary of the series. The Titans lay defeated, the AEUG has only the Argama left and Char is missing and the Earth Federation is left in shambles as their own forces need to regroup. The only power left in the Earth sphere is Axis and Haman Khan. The crew of the Argama and a few newtype kids are all that can stop Haman's rule of the Earth sphere. Too bad the show isn't as good as the premise.

Judau Ashta, our hero, is the complete opposite of Kamile, brash and impulsive, but also selfish and pig-headed. The survivors from Zeta Gundam get pushed to the back as Judau and his friends take control of everything and run the ship. I'll give credit here; one of the few things the series does right is giving Judau reason to fight. First it's for pay and food, then it's to save Leina when she is taken by Glemy Toto (this produces my favorite sub-plot, Glemy teaching Leina the fine art of manners and being a lady), then to avenge the death of his sister and finally once he has “awakened” to fight for the hope of mankind.

Episodes 1 to 19 of the show are a complete waste. Relying mainly on slap stick, stupid characters, dumb battles and pure luck on Judau's behalf, he never becomes a serious pilot worthy of piloting a Gundam. The most despicable act in this run was the treatment of Yazan Gable, one of the two pilots in Zeta Gundam that Kamile could not defeat without using his awkening newtype powers. In Zeta he was a sadistic pilot capable of besting any main character in the series. For the few episodes that he's in ZZ he's a fool, a clown, a humorous distortion of his Zeta character. None of the other new enemy characters are much better, Mashymre Cello is a dope and obsessed with Haman, Chara Soon is annoying and only there to show her cleavage, and Glemy Toto, for how important he will be, is a bumbling fool.

Eventually the plot moves forward in episodes 20 & 21. A childhood friend of Torres, a bridge crewman of the Argama, has a change of heart about selling out the Argama to Neo-Zeon and sacrifices herself to save the ship. While it marks a turn in the tone of the series it doesn't make it a much better series.

Here's a list of things that bothered me:
1) The entire Moon-Moon arc is pointless, it serves to give Mondo a non-selfish reason to fight, when there are only a handful of episodes left.
2) There is no war. Neo-Zeon/Axis takes over the Earth without a shot being fired it seems.
3) There was no reason to drop a colony on Dublin, it made no sense in Haman's goal of ruling the Earth sphere and getting people to leave the Earth for space.
4) Haman's attraction to Judau is weird, though a nice twist on the older guy/younger girl popular in anime.
5) The African stories, while good stand alone shows and stories, contributed little to the overall story, save the Leina episodes.
6) Glemy's rebellion against Haman was barely setup in the series, how he gained control of a ship, let alone a fleet and winning soldiers to his cause, after being such a useless pilot I'll never understand.
7) The Near Argama vs the entire Neo-Zeon fleet is not a believable showdown.

The second half, taken on its own is a decent addition to the Gundam timeline but several things are elft unexplained. Glemy Toto, the ineffectual-Lu Luka infatuated Neo-Zeon pilot, starts a rebellion against Haman and the main Neo-Zeon forces, yet its hardly explained. Why he hates Haman, how he gathered forces to his side and what he plans to do are either under-explained or not explained at all.

During the African campaign Judau's sister Leina is believed to be killed, but turns up alive and in Sayla's protection, completely removing the weight of her death and cheapening the series. To me a conversation between Sayla and Bright about her brother Char seems to be the main plot hi-light of the second half, it sets up Char's Counterattack, regardless of the storyline of the show.

Even the final climactic battle between Judau and Haman is a disappointment.

I really didn't like this series, it was nothing of the Gundam I liked and a lot of the Gundam I don't like. If you can survive a shaky horrible beginning, under-explained and just confusing plot elements and characters who are more caricature than character then Gundam ZZ is an enjoyable show. However if you liked Zeta Gundam and any other Universal Century Gundam series then this is not the series for you.

I rate Gundam ZZ a very weak 4/10. To be watched by completists only.

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It's been ages since I posted the last set of reviews, so here's the review set for 41-45.

This set of phases establishes the three players in the battle for the future. The Earth Alliance wants to destroy the Coordinators, The PLANTs want to destroy the naturals and the 3 ships under Lacus Kline want to stop each side from destroying everyone.

Generally these episodes are introspective with a sprinkling of action. Kira's and Cagalli's relationship changes when she reveals to him that they are related. Athrun finally decides what he must do when he sees what his father has become.

A few ghosts from the past return. The first is Commander Andy Waltfeld from the Africa arc, has returned on the side of right, and his wiseness from war gives seriousness to the plight of the world. Another ghost is brought forth in the Dominion, the second ship of the archangel class, and Captained by Natarle Badgiruel, last seen ignoring the fate of Alaska. The final ghost is we discover who and what Kira is.

Episode summaries after the fold.

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Read The Rest of “Gundam SEED Phase 41-45 Review”

Through the power of Bit Torrent I was able to see the entire run of After War Gundam X, the only Gundam series besides the original that was cancelled early. It is also the only alternate universe show that deals with Newtypes directly.

Starting with a very promising back story, nearly the entire human population of Earth wiped out in a mass colony drop. The survivors have formed independent nations and Vultures roam the land finding and selling technology to these nations. Ultimately the birth of a new Federation and the Space Revolution Army pushes things forward, but that happens way too late in the series run.

Our hero is Garrod Ran, a 15 year old scavenger who comes to protect Tiffa Adil aboard the Freiden captained by former Federation Newtype pilot Jamil Neate. The early episodes, in fact nearly half the story run, concerns Jamil's quest to rescue and protect Newtyps from abuse at the hands of those with power, and really only one story arc forms from this.

The main plotline is the formation of the New Federation and their continued battle against the Space Revolution Army. The first bit is the New Federation waging war against the nations of Earth to unify them all under the same name. The Freiden does its best to protect one nation, but the politics involved in war are too much for the 4 Gundams to overcome. The battle moves to space and the creator's feelings towards the Newtype phenomenon are laid out. Newtypes are not infallible and not the next step on man's evolution. They are simply what they are, freaks.

The good parts of the series are the rich background. So much potential and depth that could be explored, but languished in the background. The Gundam designs were sleek and modern. The bad guys, Shagia and Olba Frost are incredibly cold blooded and evil, they might be the best pure villains in any of the Gundam series.

The bad thing is what killed the series. It was slow. Gundam fans love long deep story arcs. This series took over 20 episodes to get there, even for the typical slow starting Gundam shows, this is a long time. The other major issue was the immaturity of the characters. Every main character had a love interest, yet no one ever made a move. Love is a central theme of Gundam and for it to be so poorly used in this series was a disappointment.

I enjoyed the show, mostly once it got going. It took me some time to get through the opening episodes. Once it got going however I was hooked. The politics and philosophical issues the show brought up were on par with any Gundam series. Overall I give it a 6 out of 10.

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I picked up Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam Vs. Zeta Gundam for my PS2 the other day, needless to say I love it. Built heavily on Federation Vs Zeon its like slipping into a familiar suit, a familiar mobile suit. Controls are simple, graphics are simple and yet the game is great fun.

Unlike the first game which placed you as an unknown soldier during the one year war GvsZ allows you to play as the characters from the show, be it AEUG, Titans or even the renegade Axis forces. To offset the tendency for people dying during the run of Zeta Gundam alternate timelines become available when a character lives beyond their death battle from the series. One character's survival can also alter the routes of other characters creating a new Universal Century. All told there seems to be over 300 missions for the Universal Century story mode. Some added game play options added to this game over the original is an “Awaken” power that temporarily gives your MS extra battle power, speed or even a second chance if you're destroyed. The last added feature is the ability to upgrade your MS. Instead of unlocking more powerful suits, you spend “battle points” to upgrade your suit to more powerful versions.

In addition to the main story mode there's an arcade mode where you battle through various stages with MS from the original series to Zeta. There's also a VS Mode, a Training Mode and a Survival Mode.

One of the more fun parts of the game is the Gallery Mode. Playing each mode grants you points that you then use to “purchase” items in the Gallery. These items range from Mobile Suits of the Earth Federation, AEUG, Zeon/Axis and Titans, War ships, character profiles, background music and artwork. If only there was a way to export these to a USB drive.

Final rating. For the Gundam fan 10/10 for th general gaming fan a 4/10.

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Wow. I haven't posted in about two weeks, amazing. I'll blame the usual culprits of work and laziness brought about by the intense heat in Maryland this time of year.

That being said Bandai is releasing box sets of all the Gundam OVAs I have previously bought as single DVDs.

This includes “Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 DVD Complete Collection”, “Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 Complete Collection” and “Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team DVD Complete Collection”. I desire these sets because they have neat boxes with pretty artwork.

This set of phases pushes into motion the events set up in the last set of phases.

Athrun is set upon a path that tests who he is and what he is fighting for when he is sent to retrieve the Freedom Gundam and learns that his fiancé is the leader of a resistance group against his father.

Kira embraces his roll as trying to end the war and his comrades on the Archangel join this endeavor when the Orb homeland comes under attack from the Earth Federation.

Speaking of the Earth Federation the bad to be bad guys are finally introduced. Piloting a trio of super Gundams with awkward designs, these human machines are more than a match for Kira and Athrun.

By the end of Phase 40 the entire face of the world has changed for the worse.

A stunning series of events and thought provoking dialogs has planted this series as a favorite. Sure it's not as real as the original UC Gundam series but it's not shying away from reality either. The politics and the nature of warfare are very well done.

Read The Rest of “Gundam SEED Phase 36-40 Review”