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Originally released as two sets of 4 episodes viewable only by internet Pay Per View, these were later compiled into two movies: December Sky and Bandit Flower. Since I was using digital backups, the folder sorted them into alphabetical order and thus we watched them the wrong way around. I actually think that improved the experience for reasons I'll get into later.
There are two One Year Wars. The first is the One Year War as portrayed in the 1979 television show Mobile Suit Gundam. It's a World War 2 allegory written and drawn by the generation who came after, processing the trauma of their parents, their own upbringings and trying to work out how to prevent something that vile happening again. Its associated works include Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, the direct sequel Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and most recently Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky.
The second One Year War is a hard science fiction TTRPG setting with a captivating, unique art style. It is a world of endless violence and endlessly cool robots to customise. An ever expanding war where you too can equip a Guncannon with explosive harpoons or fit an Acguy with a flamethrower. Amuro Ray isn't the top Ace anymore, but maybe your team can take his spot. There's always going to be another bunker full of Zaku Is and customised gelgoogs to take down. Its associated works include The 08th MS Team, Blue Destiny for the Sega Saturn, Zeonic Front for the Sony Playstation 2, MS IGLOO, Gihren's Greed for the Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, Sony Playstation 2 & Sony Playstation Portable, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower and most recently Mobile Suit Gundam Gquuuuuux. Its direct sequel is Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory.
We watched Bandit Flower first so I'll talk about it first. Gundam is an eternal struggle between artists trying to make meaningful discussion of war and corporate interests looking to extract surplus value from the tools of war itself. It's best encapsulated in that image of our old frined the RX-78-2 firing an arcing beam labelled "war is bad" while an onlooker simply stares at the Gundam and says "wow cool robot". Bandit Flower is all the way in the "wow cool robot" side of the scale. It may well be the purest work made for a type of guy who thinks Gundam should be about professional soldiers doing cool action in a drama-free way. To be fair, the action present is unbelievably cool. There's a clear cut morality here. The Earth Federation troops are good guys who kick ass. The Zeon remnants are more complicated (Daryl is a sympathetic man trying to help out a deeply traumatised girlfriend, but also one of his squad mates fitted a fucking flamethrower to an Acguy). Fortunately there's a third group of Super Evil Zeon remnants using psychic powers to brainwash people, so both sides can eventually team up and kick those guys' asses. Well, they would if the manga this is an adaptation of had reached that point. This whole Thunderbolt animated project was abandoned after Bandit Flower in favour of the Gundam Hathaway trilogy, as yet still incomplete as well.
Gundam Thunderbolt is heterosexual as hell, but I can forgive it this time because Bianca Carlyle is extremely hot. I'm mentioning this because sex appeal in the franchise often has quite a limited view of feminity. That's not to say it can't succeed (we need to put my wife in Fa Yuiry's yellow outfit) with strictly femme presenting women, but it's rare to see a woman willingly covered in the scars of the life she's led who isn't immediately killed for a man's character development. Her flirting with Io throughout Bandit Flower is endearing and fun. While Gundam is often at its best when at least a little fruity, cishet relationships are a common, normal thing for most of the world's population. They just need to have more chemistry than something as soulless as Flit x Emily.
December Sky swings all the way back to "War is Bad" in such a perfectly Gundam way. It's not quite as bold in its methods as War in the Pocket, but the feeling's all there. For every second of incredibly cool action between Io and Daryl, there's something harsh and brutal to suck the joy out. The discordant jazz makes every blow from the Full Armour Gundam feel that much crueler. This is contrasted perfectly with the sheer misery and sorrow set to a 50s doo-wop love song every time we shift back to the Zeon crew. Io is incredibly cool but also an ableist, somewhat sexist asshole. Daryl is a disabled man who tragically can only find autonomy by adhering to psychotic research programs from a dying fascist regime. Everyone is relatable and everyone is wrong. The federation send children out to die and Zeon willingly sever limbs to replace them with crude wires and hunks of steel. Ending our time with Thunderbolt on such a textually sour note made so much more impact than an unresolved cliffhanger would have.
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