Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux

 
 Finally gave this latest Gundam iterations a watch after it finished original airing recently. At first I thought this series called Gundam Gqux will be another "miss" due to unusual approach in visual direction to appeal younger audience. This might have been a consecutive failure after Witch from Mercury if executed poorly but it proves to be otherwise! Deep down, Gundam Gqux is a Legacy Project that involved legendary figure, Hideaki Anno which results in a Gundam series from the joint effort of Studio Sunrise and Khara. It is truly an honor for outsiders to be bestowed an opportunity to work on Gundam series considering Studio Sunrise tend to be very protective with their IP and Anno and studio Khara production team decide to make a Love letter to Yoshiyuki Tomino and Universal century which UC fans will appreciate.

Mobile Suit Gundam : The Witch from Mercury

 Finally finished the latest installment of Main Gundam series and gotta say this one is easily one of the weaker Gundam series out there along with G-Reco and Age. Witch from Mercury pretty much become the victim of Gundam IP success as high expectations from many stakeholders which more often than not conflict each other end up making this series a wasted potential. Theoretically WFM could have been another successful Gundam series but given the mismanagement of the story pieces cause this series have to be ended prematurely.

Taking the Post War setting where major conflict where Gundams were used to spread terror has recently concluded, Witch from Mars tried to deliver different sort of story in Gundam Universe with High School setting attempting to cater Gen-Z and Alpha audience. However the attempts ended up miserably because it alienates the existing Gundam Fanbase way too much especially with the Yuri crap they try to shove in. As a result WFM storyline is a pure mess despite the high production value while the Model Kits are relatively successful just as Bandai wanted. From the beginning right until the end, I never able to like the Main characters; Suletta and Miorine due to their poor writing and end up rooting for supporting Charas like Guel and Elan 5 who doesn't get the opportunity to shine even better due to the timeslot limitation. All we have in Witch from Mercury are bad angsty Teen dramas that just don't make good material for Gundam series. In any case given the blunder of WFM, I will just hope the next Gundam series will able to have some decent storyline and learn from its predecessor mistake.

Gundam Seed Freedom Movie

 Ever since the premiere in Japan early this year, Gundam Seed Freedom screening is no doubt one of the most anticipated moments by Gundam Seed fans for this year. After SEED franchise being dormant for almost two decades due to some trainwreck from unnecessary drama, Gundam Seed Freedom definitely doesn't disappoint for the fans and personally I got the opportunity to attend the premiere screening on my local movie theater last week. Overall Gundam Seed Freedom Movie is a whole level of a treat for SEED Fans and really live up to the expectation for the long awaited and much needed fanservice for the fans!

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative

 Early this year Bandai advertised this series to oblivion and obviously it meant having distributors like my Company to take in tons of Gunplas related to this series. I guess Gundam Unicorn is considered to be very profitable so that Bandai tried to squeeze money down further by making another spin off based from the series which of course include newtype hax. The result is we are having a movie length anime narrating the story of Unicorn and Banshee's third sibling, Phenex. As expected, Gundam Narrative have solid animation quality like Unicorn OVA with good action sequences, but other than that there are not much things out of it. If you are someone who dislike the original Unicorn OVA like me, you will likely find Gundam Narrative to be mediocre because it is mainly made to sell Unicorn Phenex complete with the OP hax that unicorn had.

I am just baffled how Bandai coerced my company to stock in model kits like Narrative A-pack in the quantity of hundreds while it only made appearance in less than two minutes. I doubt this particular notorious trend of Bandai to shove cats in the bag to the distributors will change anytime soon and i bet the recent Build Diver Re:Rise will follow the same trend too. Nevertheless i am quite curious how the Newtype Power of the Unicorn Gundam will end up incorporated to Turn A. I am very sure this won't be the end of Unicorn series as Bandai is going to have their way to milk the franchise again with Hathaway's Flash movie next year.

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing

 In late 90s/early 2000s Gundam Wing is probably the gateway for most fans outside Japan including myself. It was not the best Gundam series but nevertheless it serves it job really well to attract newcomers into the Gundam Universe. Finally i got to finish this series properly despite this was the first Gundam series that i watch and with this things are coming in full circle as i have finished watching every Gundam Tv series save for OVAs!

 From Gundam Wing personally i like the Mecha Design and the Aesthetics which the latter were contributed by Yutaka Izubuchi yet again. However i don't really like the storyline which is just too noblebright and unrealistic for my personal taste. To me the weakness of the Gundam Wing is the lacklust antagonist faction which the grunts are just too weak to put up a fight with the main characters. Nevertheless Gundam Wing do have the winning formula for a commercially successful Gundam series which some of them are replicated by later Gundam series such as SEED and 00. I will be moving onto Endless Waltz quite soon and at some point going to make my personal rank chart for the Gundam TV series. Overall Gundam Wing is not the best Gundam series when it comes to story department but it is packed with cool mecha actions which makes a good gateway to Gundam.

Turn A Gundam

 The Alpha and Omega of the whole Gundam series, Turn A Gundam is easily Tomino's Magnum Opus. Yoshiyuki Tomino's works were either Hit or Miss since he really needs a good writer to make his visions coherent to viewers and Turn A seems to had one since the series work wonderfully. I think Turn A Gundam is one of the few series that didn't get much interference from Corporate Execs as it managed to do its own thing. Nevertheless this series did definitely deserve the respects from /m/

Gundam Reconguista afterthoughts

 Possibly the last of Yoshiyuki Tomino major work which unfortunately end in rather bad notes. Gundam Reconguista is easily one of the weaker Gundam series out there despite having Potentials. The series is what you expect from a Tomino series, good animation but hard to follow storyline as the characters behaved rather erratically and for G-Reco it is rather similar to Overman King Gainer. The Premise is about the group of youth trying to make a change in their world with the help of powerful Gundam called G-Self but good intentions without pragmatism never end up well. Tomino might had some ideas for this series but i guess he doesn't have any good writers at the time to help him make these ideas into fruition. I suppose this also had to do when a big series like Gundam, interference from the stakeholders are inevitable considering Bandai will definitely want a return for their investments on the animations. The Mecha designs in G-Reco are actually good but a weak series make it difficult to appeal for general market even though i do like G-Self and Kabakali. The main heroine Aida supposedly had important role in the series but ends up being wallflower most of the time. In the end G-Reco unable to leave a significant mark despite the potential it possess tagging along with Age in the bottom list of Gundam series when it comes to success. As for Tomino, his animation directing skills are superb but his storytelling ability is a lot to be desired.

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

 At last my journey to Universal Century come to a full circle as i get to finish watching Victory Gundam! This series is no doubt the most depressing one in whole gundam timeline but quality wise it is very mediocre. Victory strongest point is its undiluted portrayal of the bleakness of war which it still reigns at the top of all Gundam Titles. Where your average Gundam series glorify war to some extent with most of the main protagonists side mostly unscathed, V Gundam doesn't hesitate to kill most of the characters from both sides, sometimes dying meaningless deaths showing a good view on Horrors of War.

Double Zeta Gundam

 Guess Iron Blooded Orphans make me decide to marathon my Gundam Anime backlog and went for Double Zeta after Unicorn. As a Gundam series ZZ is still a decent one but plagued by many problems stemming from the burden of being Zeta Gundam successor. For me, the main issue with ZZ is that it feels that the series are not focused which results in Half Baked characters and rather shaky if not wacky beginning. The first Half of the series is rather unbearable but the second half of ZZ do get better and now i get to see the infamous "Moon Moon"! The Protagonists in ZZ are definitely overshadowed by Zeta considering the Shangrilla Misfits are nowhere as good as Liutenant Quattro team and they survived mainly due to sheer luck. However Judau Ashta is one of the most likeable UC Era protagonist and i liked him better than Amuro or Kamile. This is because he is one of the most compassionate Gundam Protagonist out there without being too hypocritical and manage to retain his humanity even after going through horrors of war. Heck even he still managed to be badass in Late UC whether it is canonical or not. No doubt with his Personality, Judau would really get along with Garrod from Gundam X

 Fluff-wise the main points that i grasp from ZZ is that EFSF are already hopeless at this point and the biggest tragedy is that AEUG fight to maintain the stagnant status quo. I can see how the events in ZZ precipitated to Char's fall to Despair and lead to CCA event. Had Neo Zeon didnt collapse due to Civil War, i guess some better reform could have existed and i would look forward to see ZZ alternate take on next Gihren's Greed. With ZZ finished, i have watched most of Universal Century titles save for V Gundam and the Recent Thunderbolt and overall i got 3 Gundam TV series left away from completion. As a Gundam series, Double Zeta might be weak title but it is far from the worst though watching the series straight after Zeta do give you some shock Therapy.

 Also from ZZ Gundam, now i get why Elpeo Ple is such popular character at its time. Had she not died in the series, i think she has the best chance to be Judau's lover. But SRW gave plenty of consolation for such scenario already and in any case have some Purus!

Gundam Unicorn Finale thoughts

 Very late to the party on this one but managed to finish this Gundam OVA. While it is not the conclusion that i prefer for Universal Century, Gundam Unicorn has a fitting end to wrap up the early UC timeline. Unicorn will be remembered as the series that has one of the best mecha fight animation in gundam franchise but it is still riddled with issues. To me i just find the Gundam Unicorn tried too hard to shove its message to its viewer which is translated into Banagher Links aka Banana, one of the most idiotic mary sue Gundam Protagonist.

 The Laplace Box reveal does make sense but at the same time it makes the whole conflicts until UC Gundam feels futile. I understand the intention for the Anti-War Message, but the Laplace Box just makes the cause of struggle between Zeon and Federation are baseless to the point of being disrespectful. Nevertheless at its core i can see that conclusion of Laplace Box is that a well intentioned lie can snowball into nightmarish vicious cycle. It is just depressing that good characters in previous Gundam series struggled and literally died for nothing when the truth being revealed.

 With this i guess i can stomach the Gundam Unicorn stages in SD Gundam Genesis. But seriously i don't really like how Bandai put too much spotlight on this series because it just got too many magical hax bs. I still wonder if the existence of UC Gundam makes the Late UC titles being retconned too. For now i am just curious how Sunrise will handle the transition.

Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Final Thought

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 With Iron Blooded Orphans finished airing early this month, a while ago i gave the series a quick marathon and finished the last episode recently. After the flop from Gundam Age and Reconquista, i guess Sunrise did try to put more effort with Iron Blooded Orphans. While IBO Second season got some Significant flaw. Nonetheless i think IBO still managed to achieve its main objective, to reboot the interest of Gundam series which it did with Flying colors. But if Iron Blooded Orphans was not a Gundam Show, i think IBO could have gone even more grimdark.

 Iron Blooded Orphans strongest point is its storytelling, which is very good by Gundam standard. Using Child Soldiers as the main characters does make powerful anti-war message after all but the clever deconstruction of Gundam Tropes plays a huge part in my opinion. For a Gundam series, Iron Blooded Orphans ends with rather bittersweet note. But in the process, IBO breaks most of the convention that the previous Gundam titles made and at the same time cements its position as a Solid Gundam series, possibly one of the best Alternate Universe title by far. Apart from the story, IBO got some good fighting scene as well with the brutal nature of the combat helps to emphasize the message that the series try to deliver. The Mobile Armor fight in Episode 36 is certainly some top tier stuff.

 If i have to mention the series flaw. The Second season in IBO felt kinda rushed especially after Episode 36 for some reason. This plays a huge part for the Char Clone of the series causing its character stunted thus lead the final showdown less climactic. I think IBO could have another 12 Episodes to conclude properly. As for the mecha design IBO is rather weak compared to SEED or IBO. Mainly due to poor grunt unit designs and the Cool units doesn't have enough screentime despite it got some moments, but it is just not enough. On a side note, i think some IBO Mecha design are heavily inspired from Five Star Stories especially with that anorexic waist

Starting watching Gundam Build Fighters Try

Slightly late watching the series but it seems like it is going to be a fun ride just like the previous Gundam Build Fighters. Just now i caught up the series until the 4th episode and i would say i am really hyped with Gundam Build Fighters Try. GBF is a good medium for Bandai to have all Gundam series have appearances without worrying too much about messing up canon storyline and appease avid Gundam fans at the same time. While it is still over the top like previous GBF i can still stomach it up considering the mecha actions are still really good. GBF doesn't do enough justice with G Gundam series but now Try will make up for it and i will look forward the time when the protagonist will shout  俺のこの手が真っ赤に燃える！and hopefully some Domon cameo will show up. I am not too interested with how the series with end up but i think GBF Try will be enjoyable ride as long as Bandai keep the focus of the series toward new and old fans balanced.

Gundam Build Fighters, Ongoing thoughts

  I have considered to share my thoughts about Gundam Build Fighers when it finished as usual with other anime but i will just do it now before any possibility of disappointment when the series ends which i hope it won't. I would say this is one of the recent gundam anime that made me smile(and giggle abit) especially with the episode 15 which is the best episode yet. Gundam Build Fighters feel like Danball Senki in terms of story structure considering it is aimed to the young audiences but unlike Age i think Sunrise pull it off properly this time by not alienating the older fans because the more you have seen previous gundam series, the more satisfied you will be as Build Fighters pays homage to all previous series(except Age). I still feel that Build Fighters could help some more G Gundam which would make Build Fighters even more awesome but so far the series is still good. It really feels that the team who animate the series have good passion in mecha or gundam at least considering Obari also joining in which makes the impression "from the fan to the fan". As for characters i like Kawaguchi, Fellini and Dallara who are just awesome as they shown some passion in the fight and does not rely on too many gimmicks with their gunpla. Never like Nils and Iori/Reiji because they the opposite of the characters that i find likable considering these characters are aimed for young audience as self-insert. As long as Build Fighters does not get way over the top i think it will be really enjoyable series for the Older fan and while i am not a big fan of Wing Gundam, i will get MG Wing Fenice which is likely considering Bandai is churning out Build Fighters MG model which Fenice should get one due to the popularity.

If you could pilot your gunpla like in the Build fighters, which model would you like to use? i would be using High Mobility Gyan or Marasai with beam naginata and Zeta gundam i have to pick a gendum

Gundam Age afterthoughts

Watched the 49th episode of the series two days ago which marked the end of the series. Got to say i got mixed feeling about Age, As a gundam series i think Gundam Age is probably one of the weaker Gundam Tv series but definitely not to the point to be crowned as the worst Gundam series. I feel Age shoots itself on the foot from the beginning since it targets children as the main demographic while tries to appeal the existing Gundam fanbase at the same time. In my opinion the main problem with the story of Gundam Age is that the 3rd Gen arc is rather weak despite it got some good potential, partly caused by transition of the 2nd Gen to the 3 Gen isn't handled well which subsequently lead to slower buildup of the character despite it has plenty of time to cover itself. Another problem is the conclusion of the series is rather weak with the antagonist faction which are slightly hard to symphathize with.  Despite Age's story script is rather unpalatable, what i think the main weakness of Age as a Gundam series is that it doesn't really have memorable overall mecha design unlike other Gundam TV series which makes its feels less "Gundam" compared to its predecessors.

Despite its obvious shortcomings of the series, Animation quality and soundtrack are pretty solid. Age also probably conceived one of the better Gundam protagonist, Flit Asuno who i find to be quite well written character despite he had rather slow start. Like some people says, Gundam Age doesn't deserve Flit as a savior who probably fits better somewhere in UC era. Kio is probably unbearable sometimes but his greatest weakness for me is that he doesn't have strong enough conviction to justify his motive to match with his Grandfather. In Conclusion Gundam Age is does okay but probably will be one of the least memorable Gundam series. With the Gundam Age ended, Sunrise probably need to think over really well before they make the next Gundam series or otherwise there won't be much future anymore for Gundam.

Zeta Gundam a New Translation

One of the Gundam series that i have watched recently and i am watching the newer Movie version. While i have been familiar with the series for a while already, this is actually the first time i touched the anime series. In short the movie is a highly condensed version of the Television series with some animation enhancements all over. Overall i find the Movie is really well made as it really shows what makes Zeta Gundam to be famous and it also managed to make me planning to watch the TV series which is probably one of the goal was the movie was made. Though there are some differences with the original storyline that i know after the first movie for instance the Kilimanjaro arc and Dakar day are skipped and Kamille managed to survive this time. While the movie is highly condensed and skipped some of the arcs, i find it still portrays the scale of the Gryps War really well which is actually smaller than OYW. Also what make me likes the Movie is due to the original series quality rather than the animation quality and now i know why everyone hates Katz :) (but i have to admit his character as a normal teenager in the middle of war is portrayed very well). The movie would have been really stellar if it is made with whole new animations but it still did really well with its budget(100 million yen for 3 movies?!). Anyway if you like the movie you might try to play SRW Z which feature the series and the characters are always the new version all the time!

After Wars Gundam X

A promising yet really underrated Gundam series - Revised February 2026

Mobile Suit Gundam: 0083 Stardust Memory

- Revised February 2026

I finished watching Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory back in mid-2011. Essentially, it’s Gundam’s take on Top Gun, but with mobile suits. I had been familiar with Stardust Memory through the G Generation games, yet experiencing the OVA in full gave me a deeper understanding and explains why the series tends to be polarizing. In short, Stardust Memory boasts top-tier ’80s OVA animation and the potential to be a great Gundam series, but the plot occasionally takes a nosedive. Despite its glaring flaws, the series fills an important gap in the Universal Century timeline, bridging the One Year War and Zeta Gundam.

Gundam 00 Awakening of Trailblazer

As part of my Realm of Darkness Gundam restoration project, I decided to revisit Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer in July 2026. Earlier this year, I restored my articles on G Gundam, Gundam X, and Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. For some reason, the 00 Gundam movie felt like the next logical candidate.

When I first watched Awakening of the Trailblazer back in 2011, I came away feeling more confused than impressed. The movie was drastically different from both seasons of Gundam 00, and I struggled to understand what it was trying to achieve. Fifteen years later, however, many aspects of the film make considerably more sense, making it worth revisiting with a different perspective.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam

Gundam Fight, Ready! Go! (Updated - Jan 2026)