∀ Gundam Called "Turn A" Gundam (Watching Every Gundam)

 

"The Moonrace appointed Homer Simpson to design these." - Hayley on the MRC-U11D WaD.

"Sochie thinks she's Bright Noa but she's Beecha." - Hayley on adjustments to Gallop command structure.

"Look sorry, I'm trying to make more quips but every time I think of one it turns out the show was already planning to make that very same joke." - Hayley on good writing.

Four Gundam continuities, two runs of University and an entire gender ago I was a film theory student. In my first year there was a lecture on the death of genre which outlined the three most common reasons a genre fades from popularity:

1. Sheer saturation means over-investment in a genre so the first expensive entry to under perform causes a collapse from panicked investors. (Hello Dolly and Dr. Dolittle did this to Hollywood roadshow musicals)
2. A work executes the genre so perfectly that audiences are satisfied and no longer care about seeing something similar. (Avengers: Endgame, every attempt by Dragon Ball to pass the torch from Goku to Gohan, Wrestlemania X7.)
3. A parody of the genre hits the notes so perfectly it is impossible to take the normal entries seriously. (Airplane! for disaster movies until Roland Emmerich and Twister hit the scene, Austin Powers forcing a complete rework of spy action movies)

 It is 1999, two years since Gundam X brought Gundam to its saturation peak. It's the 20th anniversary of the original show. Out of ideas for how to milk this franchise, original director Yoshiyuki Tomino is brought in to make lightning strike the same place twice. Instead, he sets out to kill the Gundam in our minds. Given the tone of this show it would be easy to assume that's via method 3 but the beauty of ∀ Gundam is that it is also method 2. This is not only the best Gundam show ever made, but one of the best anime to boot. This show is so damn great that my struggle is going to be how I can convey this without just repeating "wow good show" for 2000 words. Let's try breaking things down.

 Let's talk about the sound. No, not the incredible Yoko Kanno soundtrack; this franchise already has a stellar lineup of music over its first 20 years (too bad about F91's). I'm talking about the foley. The sound effects. Up to this point there's been three eras for how Gundam sounds in action:

1. The original TV show. This sound library hasn't really been used again oustide of videogames about the original show until Gquuuuuux which has aired 6 episodes at the time of writing this piece.
2. The 80s Gundams. Zeta through to War in the Pocket. The foley's more subdued in Char's Counterattack but it still has the distinct 80s Gundam sounds.
3. The 90s Gundams. Stardust Memory through to Gundam X. Once you notice 90s Gundam sounds you can't unhear them. If you've played any Super Robot Wars game made from 2000 onwards then about 5% of your brain power will be dedicated to looping them over and over in your head for the rest of your life.

There's one notable exception prior to  ∀ Gundam: the 1981 movie trilogy recut of the original show. That cut's audio was handled by Yoota Tsuruoka. The original foley's much more subdued, the background music almost entire removed from action scenes and it's all replaced with much nastier, visceral, realistic sounds. The bullets tear, the cannons roar, the engines erupt and all wireless communication has this fuzzy filter applied which immediately transports your perception inside a cockpit or corridor of White Base. By the final third of Encounters in Space, this all serves to accentuate what a horrifying parade of death you're watching in a way that's distinct and special compared to the already fantastic television version.

Tsuruoka has worked on other robot shows since, but  ∀ Gundam is his only television Gundam credit. The results are breathtaking. There's this rich depth of contrast between the gentle sounds of nature and the dreadful metallic mankind insist on tainting the land with. There's weight and impact to everything in a way never before felt in Gundam. When the Wing Zero fired its Twin Buster Rifle, it made the same goofy sound blowing up a bunker as it did destroying a space colony. When a mega particle cannon is fired in ∀ Gundam, it is the sound of a nation's collapse.

Since I appear to be taking a video game reviewer approach of talking techincal elements, this is the only Gundam entry I would say fits my description of the "Peak Sunrise" aesthetic. By the mid 90s the company had built up such a huge roster of young talent and developed such excellent mentor programs that pretty much every year from 1996 until 2002 has at least one show that is breathtaking at every level. Detailed backgrounds, minor characters with nuanced visual acting, designs and concepts that take you to fully realised worlds. Motions as fluid or as sharp as required to convey the ideas required. The era's also characterised by experiments with digital animation and computer graphics in ways which while rough, are also employed as stylistic choices. Think of Escaflowne's unsettling dragons, Gaogaigar's digital morphing of the Zonders, or those empty, lonely establishing shots of planets in Cowbooy Bebop. ∀ Gundam often plays around with weird morphs, squashes and the occasional asteroid which looks like a bad FMV cutscene. Even so, it feels appropriate for a show about an awkward clash of past and future to use that to squish poor Sochie's face around the frame as easily as it equips an AMX-109 Kapool with a 1920s howitzer.

∀ Gundam looks and sounds great. How's the writing and direction? Well it's another Yoshiyuki Tomino joint and he's one of the greatest hack directors out there. Characters love to stare at the camera and yell thesis statements at each other. Scenes often crash head-first into each other as easily and rapidly as poor Loran takes another hit to the groin. Yet unlike some of his earlier works, it's all part of the plan now. The world is changing at an alarming rate and nobody on any side of the conflict is quite prepared to handle it. This show has the subtlety of a brick but much like its lead character it's so damn sincere at all times that it's impossible to resent. There's times for a complex introspection into the human psyche and there's times to scream with all you have that a better world is damn well possible and we must fight for it immediately.

When I talk about large piloted robot fiction, there's some ideas always floating around my head. Let's assume humanity was made in the shape of the divine. A sort of photocopy of something eternal. What does it say about humanity when we make something in our own shape? What does it say about how we understand ourselves when we make that construct move in certain ways? When we equip it with certain tools? When we exclusively use it for certain applications? What then are we saying about ourselves when we take our own bodies and force them into these photocopies of photocopies, restricting our own sense of self and overwriting it with something much colder? Are we trying to construct something that enhances us to try and reach our divinity ("Mazinger Z could make you a god or a devil, Kouji!") or are we trying to reduce our fellow people to mere exploitable tools (just look at full pilot suits in Armoured Trooper VOTOMS and weep)? Plenty of piloted robot fiction explores these ideas but few take the angles ∀ Gundam does. This is a television show where the most devastating weapon in history, one which set back humanity for thousands of years is awoken and used by our plucky working class hero to:

• Form a temporary bridge.
• Rescue lost animals.
• Spear tackle and karate chop artillery mechs.
• Handle archaeological digs.
• Do the laundry.

More than any other piloted robot story out there, this is a show about reclaiming our humanity. What does ∀ Gundam think it means to be human then? Mostly, it means being a weirdo. There is not a single normal person in this entire show. Loran is a puppy, frequently honest to a fault and so dedicated to conflict escalation that their efforts often make combat harder for everyone else. Sochie's an aimless mess of anger. Kihel and Dianna, after stumbling into a  Princess & The Pauper scenario are clearly having the time of their lives messing around with everyone's perfection of them by the end. Guin Rhineford's an industrialist so fixated on seeming ahead of the curve that he loves trying to clock people as trans on a whim. Harry Ord is the obligatory Char Aznable (well, Quattro Bajeena) tribute but he just can't stop moving his hands around. I could go on and on. Plenty of shows follow a "Monster of the Week" format but ∀ Gundam is more of a "Weird Lil Guy of the week" affair. You have no idea whether an episode is going to introduce someone with brain damage from countless centuries in cold sleep or an angry grandmother with a pitchfork. Keith Lajie may be the only normal person in the entire show and, well, that's why he actually sticks to baking and selling bread for 50 episodes.

 If I had to make a high school essay on a theme of ∀ Gundam it would be that this is a show about social constructs. It has some pretty strong opinions on the assumptions societies make, and how they're all bullshit. Fragile ideas which can collapse the second they're questioned. Divine right of kings and queens? Bullshit. The daughter of a miner on Earth does a better job at being Queen of the Moon because she's actually motivated about building a career. State monopolies on violence? Bullshit. Without sufficient checks, balances and restrictions on weapons access your military will keep escalating conflicts and ruining your negotiations. Borders on maps are bullshit because once somebody's erected a fence or wall they're far more effort to remove than erect. Paper money is only real so long as a state bank and retailers accept it as legal tender. Well what about gender? That's the most bullshit of all. Loran fights as well in a dress as pants. Nobody really questions which gender's presented to them on first introduction. This shit's fake just do what makes you feel the most authentic version of yourself.

Oh I should actually talk about what the hell the plot of  ∀ Gundam even is. Well, we're somewhere between 3 and 10 thousand years after Victory Gundam. Earth's been nuked back to the stone age so long ago that it's now crept back to 1920s tech. All the space colonies simply left the earth sphere entirely at some point. All that's left is a caretaker society on the moon slowly watching, waiting and often taking stints in cryogenic storage to pass the time until they can come back to a clean Earth. Well, that time has arrived and everyone involved is awful at negotiating. We're touching on ideas of first nation homelands, Colonialism, immigration disputes and how weird bigotry is. One of my favourite touches re: bigotry is when a Moonrace mechanic grumbles about how dirty Earth air is then takes a huff out of an Oxygen tank. This is about 20 episodes into establishing how beautiful and pastoral the American Northeast has become.

Conflicts escalate for various reasons, not least of which is both sides keep finding preserved relics from previous wars all around the place. There's new weapons aplenty all designed by Syd Mead, set designer for Blade Runner with strange designs that look futuristic and goofy at the same time. As older mobile suits from previous shows appear, the show takes delight in selecting some of the most forgettable entries from ZZ Gundam to spite anyone expecting nostalgia plays. I mentioned the Kapools earlier (and they take about 30 episodes to operate in water despite being designed as an amphibious suit) but the AMX-102 Zssa shows up to spite you too. Yes the Zakus inevitably show up but come on, that would be like making a Star Wars sequel without a Tie Fighter. Nobody nows how to really use anything to their full potential, and in a beautiful creative decision that applies to the late stage antagonists as well. Having spent most of the show pitting two types of civil militia against each other, a weaker show would portray the Moon's real military as a serious violent force. Instead, we take a much more sensible conclusion to read into a warrior clan who's done nothing but drills and beating up the CPU for 2500 years: they suck at war. Really suck. They lose like half their troops to four Earth suits because they had genuinely never thought that you could win an engagement by advancing forward and shooting to kill. They're still a threat, but it's entirely on political terms rather than because they're good at killing.

I've probably said too much about what goes on. More than any show since the original Gundam (and arguably G if you like high camp martial arts melodrama with a political twist) this is must-watch television. It's energetic, entertaining, creative and a beautiful work of art with a stellar ending. While Gundam X tried to put an end to specific ideas from the original Gundam, it is ∀ Gundam which uses a weird anachronistic romp across America and the Moon to bring this all to a close. As we enter the second half of this franchise's history, I'm not sure we will actually see a show which justifies continuing to make Gundam after this point. It's not a flawless show, but it is perfect.

It also has the funniest variation on "going down Niagra Falls in a barrel" you may ever encounter.