Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn also finished up recently, and I very much enjoyed it.
Pros:
- Absolutely gorgeous animation, with numerous scenes featuring large numbers of mecha designs and an excellent mix of CGI and drawn animation that prevents either from seeming too "obvious". I've repeatedly seen this described as "mecha porn", and it's entirely accurate.
- Engaging story with a deep history and complexity. Characters are generally well-written and understandable, with numerous charismatic villains. It's a heavily political series (though not mirroring RL politics, thankfully) but there is a lot of discussion about why people fight and whether that is right.
- Beautifully scored; Sawano definitely gets the idea of a leitmotif and develops them for individual characters as well as the different conflicts presented in the series. I personally found myself listening to the soundtrack long after I'd finished the series.
Cons:
- Remember that deep and complex story? It's because MSG:UC is the 6th contiguous entry in the Universal Century Gundam metaseries, representing around 30 years of various shows and OVAs. As a result, the plot will be deeply confusing if you just step into the show without having seen (or at least read up on) the other entries in the series; I personally recommend actually watching as merely reading a plot summary won't really let you understand why certain characters do what they do.
- MSG:UC suffers from some adaption issues; the story was actually a novel before being converted to a manga and then the OVA. As a result, the OVA had to condense some of the story and while it isn't to badly rushed, certain individual episodes and characters can seem confusing or ollogical because they were not given time to develop correctly.
- The ending relies a bit heavily on what is referred to as "space hippie magic" by Gundam fans. This can seem jarring in comparison to the rest of the show, particularly if you prefer your mecha harder and more solidly grounded as I do. I really leave this one up to personal taste, as some people thought it was an excellent show of the triumph of man over machine.
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Topic: The anime thread (Read 12092 times)