I find it infinitely difficult to quantify Turn A Gundam (∀ Gundam) as a narrative. After watching it on and off over the course of a few years, I finally finished all fifty episodes this week. This is probably the longest I’ve ever taken to finish a show of any length, a dubious record usually held by titles I deemed to be mostly unfit for consumption. And yet having watched most of what the Gundam metaseries has to offer, I have to say in retrospect that, in spite of all its glaring flaws, Turn A Gundam offers a special ineffable something that lands the title a spot in my heart.

The lunar sovereign

It is my personal opinion that Gundam titles directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino all have poor storytelling. The themes are insightful, the ideas are grand and the creative visions are commendable, but the delivery is consistently awful as Tomino simply lacks the attention to details needed to synergize all those great concepts into coherent narratives. Every major titles directed by him (79, Zeta, ZZ, the semi-aborted F91, Victory) suffers from the same half-baked storytelling that overlooks character-level consistency in favour of big-picture ideas.

Loran (left) was originally conceived as a girl

Comparing his works to the mini series (80, 83, 08th) directed by various other individuals over the same time frame, a clear distinction emerges between the two groups of Gundam titles in terms of storytelling and attentions to plot details such as character motivations.

Characters in Tomino’s works often assume illogical out-of-character positions for no apparent reason beyond creating plot tension, while characters in other works behave within parameters one can empathize with. Underlying themes in Tomino’s works tend to be more visionary and abstract while the shorter works focus on the wartime human condition within limited contexts. Turn A Gundam is, as I see it, an attempt by Tomino to combine these two distinct aspects of the franchise. I won’t say that he succeeded completely, but I do like the final result.

The series describes an Earth that has recovered from a past global catastrophe and has a thriving industrial human population that is technologically equivalent to the turn of the 20th century. A highly advanced human civilization exists on the Earth’s moon, descendants of past refugees from a devastated Earth. Loran Cehack, the protagonist, is a member of an advance team sent to Earth to live among the local population in preparation for the moonrace’s return to their ancestral home.

As anyone with a slight irking of history, politics or economics can immediately gather, the sudden immigration of a large number of foreign strangers attempting to lay historical claim to your land can only lead to tensions and conflicts over resources, particularly if they are heavily armed and more advanced than you. (Doesn’t this sound familiar?)

The first quarter of Turn A is largely dedicated to exploring how in a climate of mutual distrust and asymmetric bargaining power, two sides can be driven by circumstances into a state of war in spite of the peaceful intentions of their respective leaderships. While I can’t say that this portion of the series is well written (character interactions and political powerplays all suffer from the usual Tomino effect), the premise itself is refreshing enough to keep things alive most of the time.

Coffee is universal, along with masked men

The shining point of the series comes somewhere in the second quarter with the development of Queen Dianna Soreil as a character, along with character interactions between Loran Cehack, Kihel Heim and Sochie Heim.

The desire of the queen of the moonrace for her people to return to Earth peacefully drives her character to lead with honour, and yet she is often powerless to stop the conflict’s expansion. Loran, a loyal moonrace who believes in the queen’s message of peace, nevertheless finds himself piloting a mobile suit and fighting against his own people on behalf of the local militia. His desire for the moonrace to return to Earth becomes anathema to his attachment to the Heim family who took him in when he first came to Earth.

There’s quite a fair bit of good material in there involving the four aforementioned characters and the second quarter of the series does a competent job covering it, if one overlooks the usual flaws. Interactions on a personal level between these characters generally make sense and produce the intended effects, if somewhat hampered by the poor directing and screenplay. I consider this to be the highlight of the series.

*wub*

However, all that is cast aside for most of the second half of the series where the story takes seemingly random detours that neglect and weaken the interesting character dynamics developed in the first half. This is so particularly in the last quarter where the story steadily descends into increasingly abstract discussions of war and free will, cumulating in a beautifully-animated mecha duel that somehow manages to be both symbolic (as a metaphor for the abstract concepts relating to war and human nature) and meaningless (in its relevance to the story leading up to that point) at the same time.

Towards the end, it becomes kind of hard to tell what all the major players are fighting for beyond some vague ideas of honour and hope, a stark contrast to the goal-driven political and physical conflicts depicted at the start of the series. Several illogical choices made by some of the characters also serve to undermine motivations developed previously over the course of the series. At times, it seems like things happen more or less for the lulz, or in this case dramatic effect.

Girls have a thing for mustaches, right?

As a result, I consider the last quarter of the series to be one of the weaker parts of the story. It’s a good thing that Turn A decides to hastily revive the neglected relationships established earlier in the story for a Hail Mary emotional ending backed by the poignant vocals of Aki Okui, or it would’ve ended on a weak note without a timely reminder of the things it did right.

All in all, I can’t say that Turn A Gundam improved significantly in terms of storytelling from Gundam titles predating it. For a show made in the post-Eva era and coming from a production team that was by then highly experienced after two decades of Gundam, it falls short on many counts.

Still, it manages to present an entertaining and at times touching viewing experience which I found much superior to Tomino’s older works. (Here comes the flame.) A purge of unnecessary plot detours, a more sensible screenplay and a better ending would’ve probably landed it a spot in my top five. As it stands however, Turn A Gundam is a show I found enjoyable and intriguing, but not one I can recommend to everyone.

On a side note, it is unfortunate that Sunrise chose to employ some unconventional mechanical designs for this series. If it had used regular Gundam designs, or if it had not marketed the show as a Gundam title, Turn A would’ve been saved from a lot of unfair expectations and undue criticisms.

It’s wearing a skirt

Okay, so I guess Gundam mecha designs have always been kind of whacky

It’s different from a Zak…wait it’s not

Also, Queen Dianna was totally the prototype for Lacus Clyne.

And now it’s time for me to return to hibernation.

Surprise! I bet you totally didn’t expect me to blog Code Geass, especially considering that awful parody video I made which should best be left to rot in the depths of hell, my MySpace account and the fact that I used to own code-geass.com.

That said, the fact that I’m a huge Kallen fanboy has absolutely nothing to do with why I have decided to blog R2.

OP Sequence

Miku miku ni shiteageru~âª

OMG who made her cry? T_T

Hurray for racial stereotypes!

For King and Country

Whose illegitimate child is this?

I hope this won’t be the eventual pairing…

Summary

Season 2 starts off with a fast-paced bang that manages to give airtime to most of the major characters that we have come to love/hate.

At the end of the first season, Lelouch faced off his former friend Suzaku and the confrontation ended inconclusively. Due to his (Zero’s) absence from the front line during the critical moment of the Black Knights’ insurgency, the Order was eventually crushed, with most of its senior members captured. (Kallen escaped, though.) Zero himself was announced to have died. Due to the failed revolt, Elevens are now mistreated even more badly than before.

Since then, Lelouch’s memories have been sealed off, presumably by C.C., and he has returned to his regular life as a Britannia student in Area 11.

Kinky

Interestingly, Villetta (the platinum blonde Knightmare pilot) is now a gym teacher at Ashford Academy, placing her right in the comedic relief section of the Geass cast, although that is probably going to change soon.

And I must have missed a few memos, but out of nowhere, Lelouch now has a younger brother called Rollo. Whatever happened to Nunnally?

mai waifu~

In the first episode, Lelouch and Rollo go to a high-rolling casino where Lelouch intends to challenge rich Britannian nobilities to chess as usual. Unknown to him, the remnants of the Black Knights are betting all their remaining strength on a plan to reunite with him and bring back his memories as Zero.

A secret royal military unit meanwhile has kept Lelouch under constant surveillance to lay an ambush and wipe out the Black Knights when they make a move.

chuuu~

The episode ends in (predictable) bloodshed, and Lelouch regains his memories in a déjà vu sequence that feels just like the first episode of the last season. Still, C.C. fans can rejoice.

Kallen and the rest of the Black Knights are once again under the command of Zero. (It seems that they all know his real identity now.)

Opinions

I think it’s a pretty good start. The feel is a bit too similar to the start of the first season, but I’m sure the story will diverge soon considering the difference between then and now, content-wise. The fact that Lelouch regains his lost memories in the first episode suggests that the comedic aspect of the show will probably be short-lived as compared to before.

At this point, Code Geass is pretty hard to screw up. Even if we are served more of the same, the well-established characters will probably pull the series through to the end. That said, I really do hope that Sunrise tries something different. Looking back, the most awesome shows from Sunrise are always the ones that try to be different from Gundam, while the rest suffer from the burdens of their past (“staying loyal to the franchise”) and are inevitably overshadowed by their similar predecessors.

I mean seriously, Sunrise. Let’s be creative and go all out! Make Kallen the main character! Kthx bye.

Screencaps

Isn’t this scene from that ero anime…

A familiar sight

Bunny kick

This alternate future is screwed up

Fanservice @_@

Poison gas

Suzaku is totally the villain now

Now if you would excuse me, I have to write a one-page report on postwar Japan’s new constitution… in Japanese.

The title aside, I actually enjoyed the first episode. Unlike every other Gundam series ever, no mobile suits were stolen in this episode, although for a moment it looked like one was about to be but it was just a false alarm. That’s good news.

Background

G00 is set in AD 2307, unlike the other Gundam series that use UC, CE and other arbitrary era names. This means that in 300 yeas’ time, by 2307, if we still don’t have Gundams flying around in space, we can look back and laugh at Sunrise for their silly predictions.

After running out of fossil fuels, the world presumably descended into chaos and eventually consolidated into three giant blocs, the Union, the AEU and the Human Reform League.

Union

President of the Union

The Union’s full name is “Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations” (太é½ã‚¨ãƒãƒ«ã‚®ãƒ¼ã¨è‡ªç”±å›½å®¶é€£åˆè»), which is frankly a very stupid name and that’s why they like to be called the Union instead. Anyway, it’s formed around United States, which makes the “solar energy” part extremely ironic if you consider the current president’s energy policies and the country’s infatuation with SUVs. But I digress.

AEU

Councillors of AEU

AEU stands for “Advanced European Union”, which is just like EU, except better! Also it sounds like “Anti-Earth Union Group” from Universal Century.

Jinkakuren

Chairman of Jinkakuren

Human Reform League jinrui kakushin renmei (人類革新連盟) is a bloc formed by China, Russia and India, which explains the nonsensical name. The name is shorten to jinkakuren (人革連), which can also mean “People’s Revolution Alliance”, so you can say that it’s a futuristic spin of Communist naming sense. Of course, as per mandated by the Law of Anime Stereotypes, Jinkakuren people are required to wear traditional Chinese costumes such as qipao so that no one would question their Asian heritage…

As usual, Sunrise’s story setting seems to be pretty influenced by current events, although I doubt that in 300 years’ time the geopolitical situation of Earth will be so predictable, considering how fast and drastically things change with every generation. I mean, just half a century years ago Japan took two American atomic bombs, just a century ago the Communist Party didn’t exist, just two centuries ago the Brits burnt down White House and three centuries ago USA didn’t even exist. But I digress again.

The three superpowers control the sources of Earth’s energy production, namely giant space elevators with solar panels in orbit.

Prologue

The start of the series takes place in AD 2301, in a yet-to-exist country in the Middle East. A group of mechas advances slowly through a town, killing everyone while declaring themselves as warriors of god fighting a holy war to cleanse the land of infidels. Save for the mecha, it sounds like something I just read on BBC.

Setsuna F. Seiei, the main character of the series, is still a young guerilla fighter struggling to escape from the fanatic jihadists, but all he has is a rifle that looks like 300-year-old technology. Just when all hope seems lost, an angelic mobile suit makes a deus ex machina entrance and save him, marking the beginning of his new life.

Hallelujah!

Fast forward 6 years, Setsuna is now all grown-up and cool bishounen-ish. He’s now an elite pilot working for the Celestial Being, a mysterious armed organization that is quietly and secretly executing a plan that will change the world.

I’m cool now

Celestial Being

Celestial Being’s goal is to eradicate war through armed conflict (平和の為の武力行使). There are four Gundam pilots, called Gundam Meisters, who pilot the four Gundams manufactured by Celestial Being.

GN-001 Gundam Exia

Setsuna pilots GN-001 Gundam Exia, a high speed melee combat unit.

GN-002 Gundam Dynames

GN-002 Gundam Dynames, a sniper unit, is piloted by Lockon Stratos.

GN-003 Gundam Kyrios

GN-003 Gundam Kyrios, which has a flight mode transformation, is piloted by Allelujah Haptism

GN-005 Gundam Virtue

GN-005 Gundam Virtue, a heavy weapons unit, is piloted by Tieria Erde.

Hmmm, but where’s GN-004? I wonder…

Summary of First Episode

As part of the Celestial Being’s plan, Setsuna attacks an AEU training base in order to destroy their new experimental mobile suit and to expose AEU’s secret arms build-up which exceeds the agreement set by international treaties between the three superpowers.

AEU’s experimental prototype

AEU’s experimental prototype getting pwned

Actually I’m reminded of Gundam Wing now… Oh shit. Well at least Setsuna didn’t steal the experimental prototype as that would have induced much worse déjà vu.

The rest of the episode involves an attempted terrorist attack on Jinkakuren’s space elevator which is foiled by Celestial Being’s Gundam Kyrios and Gundam Virtue. Like this:

Jinkakuren’s space elevator

Terrorists

Jinkakuren’s useless response team

Celestial Being to the rescue!

Mysterious cute girl interlude

Jinkakuren’s still useless response team

Terrorists

Gundam Virtue: I’m a camping whore

No more terrorists

Thoughts

Actually the first episode is pretty good. It has very nice animation, it introduces most of the important characters and factions and it has explosions. Not bad. I also realized that having Yun Kouga, the artist behind LOVELESS, do the character design isn’t as bad as I had imagined. I don’t like the opening theme song, though. I hate L’arc~en~Ciel.

On another note, Haro is in G00 too!

Haro in Gundam Dynames’ cockpit

And, going by the OP animation, this girl, Marina Ismail, appears to be the main love interest. Knowing Sunrise, the OP is usually quite a good guide for predicting plot directions. :P

Marina Ismail

It’s weird that she’s the queen of a newly-founded Middle Eastern country but she looks East Asian…

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that G00’s setting is partially based on recent events of our time, just as the original Universal Century was influenced by the second world war. I shall continue to follow this series because I’m really curious as to how Gundam’s usual anti-war message will be influenced by today’s headlines.

Anyway, I have some requests for Sunrise:

1. Bring Stellar back.
2. No Gundam F91 plskthxbye.
3. Please do not try to “adapt” (i.e. screw up) an existing manga or novel.
4. Don’t even think about letting T.M.Revolution voice another character.
5. More Lacus is good.
6. FictionJunction MAAYA… please?

Come on Sunrise. I’m not asking for a lot here. >_<

Anyway, nothing much to say except that they still haven’t learnt from the horror that was My-HiME ending. Because the ending sucked so much, I will talk about Erstin instead. Erstin was my favourite character. She pwned my heart and my soul. Until Sunrise killed her without a flinch. But it’s okay. There was still hope. I never stopped hoping. There might be a HiME-like reset I told myself. I forced myself to believe in Sunrise even though they failed me the last time. (Stellar… *cries*)

Once again, they betrayed my trust.

Quick recap…

• Aoi survived falling from a cliff. (perhaps some pillow merchants were taking a break at the bottom of the cliff?)
• Sergay survived a shot to his fricking head. (titanium skull?)
• Tomoe fell a few hundred feet and lived but I can accept that she might have survived due to her nano-machines. (who am I kidding?)
• Nina and Arika can replace NASA’s space shuttle fleet. That’s going a bit too far, no?

So… Why the $#@$@# did Erstin have to die? Obviously she could have survived using whatever mojo powers everyone else is using! What the hell is wrong with those asshats at Sunrise!? *Adds Sunrise to list of companies he has to burn when he goes to Japan in June*

makimakimakimakimaki…