Reconguista in G (Watching Every Gundam)

Chuchumy!

 

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"Ooh that Gundam's a lil gremlin. This is going to be a good one." - Hayley, five seconds in.

"I'm adding BASE Jumping from a mobile suit to my bucket list." - Hayley, 60 seconds in.

"The G-self is brought to you by Red Bull." - Hayley on giving pilots wingsuits.

"Touching your Z'gocky will make your eyes go square." - Hayley on Catholicism.

"If there are infinite possibilities in writing, is it possible to write a story about the potential danger of stories? A story that renounces stories? Yes, it is. Reconguista of G did it" - Gen Urobuchi 

Well well well. The seemingly "safe bet" of hiring Level 5 to convince a generation of 12 year olds into becoming Gundam lifers has blown up in Bandai Namco's face, so in a panic they let Yoshiyuki Tomino back into the director's seat. Before going further, I need to clarify which version we watched. I've tried to use the original versions of each work as much as possible (the original TV instead of the movie trilogy, we ignored Zeta Gundam: A New Translation, the OVA version of Unicorn instead of the TV cut etc.) but I made an exception here. It was my assumption when we began this project that the G-reco movie quintology would be the final work of Big Tom's career, only for it to recently emerge that he's working on at least one other project as we speak. Even so, having watched both versions I think that the movie cut actually is the definitive version. You're less likely to have the ending theme stuck in your head, but the extra flourishes to the action and seeing key scenes in immediate sequence helps you keep track of what the hell is going on in this madhouse of a robot cartoon.

 I've fallen into a pattern of discussing technical aspects of the show before plot and themes, so let's keep that approach here. Any stability is valued after watching this madness. This is such a gigantic leap in craftsmanship over Gundam AGE that it's hard to believe the former was ever part of the Gundam legacy. There's this kinetic energy buzzing at all times. Close combat is scratchy and intense. Characters run around so passionately that when they bump into something they'll eat a 15 hit combo from the scenery for their hubris. There's stylised moments which take the psychedelic goals of the original Mobile Suit Gundam and refract them through the finest prisms a creative mind can put to digital cels. The audio engineering isn't as horrific as Ɐ Gundam's but that's only to the benefit in a world as cartoony as G-reco. There's a "boing" sound which screams "Tex Avery" used at least once. I've talked before about Peak Sunrise, and this almost feels like the idea's final hurrah. There's so much thought and care into not only how the foreground characters in a scene react, but the background as well. Characters are always living, breathing humans with their own lives and motivations and agendas in a scene, even if it's to pratfall or trash talk. Much like when I showed Hayley Gaogaigar last year, it almost makes me angry how few anime are capable of this much care and detail in their scene blocking.

Reconguista in G is funny. I don't mean it's an odd curiosity (though it is), I mean that the comedic chops are incredible. Everyone in this show is a goddamn idiot and the perfect setup or foil to somebody else's antics. Sometimes it's through banter, other times through pure slapstick. Colonel Campa turns down a threesome because he'd rather complain about his goons refusing to work weekends. The G-self, this show's Gundam receives a new ridiculous backpack add-on every twenty seconds. Sometimes the attachments interrupt regular limb function. Regardless of each joke's context and aim, it's clear that this is the show ZZ Gundam tried to be. War is a joke. Military expansion is a joke. Making a church of technology is a joke. Continuing to make Gundam after 1999 is a joke. If we have to keep on forgetting the lessons of the past, then we too are a joke of a society. 

Big Tom's shows often have strange decisions around how to pace and deliver information. It's usually mitigated by the formula of the show. Zambot 3 and Daitarn 3 are weekly monster fights. Space Runaway Ideon can end every episode with the Solar Ship fleeing another planet. Overman King Gainer has the overarching goal of reaching Yapan. In that respect, G-reco is in the lineage of how Combat Mecha Xabungle, Aura Battler Dunbine, Heavy Metal L-gaim and Brain Power'd all tend to futz around. That said, this is still the most extreme case of strange scene construction. The TV cut aired in 2014 but it feels like a direct attack on producer demands from streaming services in the 2020s. If you are not paying attention every second of runtime, you will miss a critical detail which will never be mentioned again. Not to solve a puzzle, but because there's so many ideas and so many shifting loyalties in play that the world will leave you behind.

So, what the hell is going on in Reconguista of G? Well, we can assume it's a few centuries after Ɐ Gundam. There's been a pivot away from the thermonuclear reactors in all those old suits everyone was digging up, along with a rapid shift away from fossil fuels. This has been achieved by constructing an elaborate solar power farm on the Moon, along with a battery manufacturing plant further out in space, presumably somewhere between Earth and Venus. I assume it's that area since the plant is named the Venus Globe. There's a small colony (named the Ocean Ring) near the plant, a second behind the Moon (named Towasanga) which handles further logistics and then final distribution is through a single space elevator called the Capital Tower. The Earth-side distribution is a monopoly run by a religion called SU-cordism. They have a pope. Earth has at least two other functioning nations (the united Ameria from Ɐ Gundam and Gondwana), though they're both beholden to the Capital Tower. It's the Holy SU-cord Empire! This has kept Earth in a slow, steady state of reconstruction but all is not well. There's been a lockdown on technological development and anyone involved with battery production is bound to secrecy to maintain the religious ceremonies of the batteries' distribution. This combined with the lack of populated locations in space mean residents of the Venus Globe region associated with weapons archival and research think it's time to just install themselves as violent rulers of that pretty planet they yearn to hang around on. Towasanga's torn between a faction who want to do the same thing, and another which would rather not do some fresh Colonial violence. Unfortunately, that peaceful faction lost political sway about a decade ago when their lead agitators and engineers were assassinated, so it's time for Towasanga to gear up a fleet too! At the same time, Ameria and Gondwana have been at war for around the same time. Due to limited access to weapons and energy thanks to the whole battery monopoly, it's mostly been a stalemate. Alas, Ameria has noticed that Towasanga's started arming themselves and in turn start further arming themselves with a space-capable ship fleet out of both self defense and a desire to take photon battery distribution for themselves. In response to these armaments, a faction in the Capital Tower led by Colonel Campa decides to further arm themselves. There's always been an honorary taskforce defending the area named the Capital Guard, but this faction is building a separate Capital Army as an actual military. All these developments are possible because at least one Venus Globe denizen has been leaking blueprints to everybody because he thinks human society needs a renewed interest in technological development. As the show begins, an irregular unit in the Amerian military claiming to be space pirates wind up bumping into one of the Towasanga peace faction's mobile suits, right as its pilot experiences extreme trauma and loses her memories for half the show. She's appeased with a goldfish in the meantime. Our main character winds up with this irregular unit, the crew of the battleship Megafauna. Hijinks ensue until everyone's too exhausted mentally and logistically to keep fighting.

 The Security Dilemma is one of the oldest known elements of political theory. We're talking people like Thucydides writing about it. A state increases its military for some reason, so their neighbours do the same just in case something goes bad. This leads to the first state assuming a war is coming, so they ramp up further. This prompts a spiral of escalation and worsening negotiations until somebody opens fire. We've had 35 years of Gundam at this point yet it's G-reco of all things which actually bothers exploring the idea. That it does so while also being a vague parody of 13th Century Europe is all the funnier. Perhaps the greatest criticism of the show is that it's not going for 14th Century Europe and working in every faction appointing their own antipopes. Give us the Avignon Capital Tower, Tomino!

While the events move at a breakneck pace with a clusterfuck of violent interruptions, this show's cast are such a joy to watch. Our lead boy Bellri Zennam is such a polite guy that for every scene he's not escaping through Comedy of Errors hijinks, he's instead making things worse through Comedy of Manners hijinks. He winds up the ace pilot of a group who are technically his enemies (he's a Capital Guard cadet the entire show) because he's simply too pilot to tell them no whenever they ask him to chip in. He's kind of motivated by being near a pretty lady early on, but when it turns out the two are orphaned siblings and heirs to Towasanga's peace faction's weapons plant, the rest of the show gives them a really tender and sweet friendship. There's other obvious standouts in the cast like Klim "I'm a genius | oh no!" Nick, his extremely hot girlfriend Mick Jack and the absolute loser that is Luin "Captain Mask" Lee but really everyone is such a silly freak that they're all a hoot to watch on screen. The Megafauna's captain had a buxom woman printed on his chair. The helmswoman Steer speaks fluent Japanese yet insists on showing off her American accented English as frequently as possible for no reason. Even nearly faceless goons like the Venus Globe police perfectly capture what a joke any serious attempt at administrative violence is at this point.

This is a show where dudes rock. It's such a breath of fresh air after how prescriptive and narrow Gundam AGE's perspective on men was. Guys are allowed to dress weird, talk weird, hoot and holler in groups, shit in their cockpits and even - gasp - not pursue romantic relationships! You've gotta work to write your queer ships in this show, but the whole vibe is sufficiently fruity to be an authentic Gundam experience.

Is Reconguista in G a good show? No, I don't think so. It is, however, perfect. It's one of the most unique rides you can take not just in this franchise, but anime in general. I would never recommend this to someone normal, but when watching in production order this is wedged between a cynical attempt at selling Gundam to kids and a cynical attempt to milk yet more One Year War nostalgia. One last time, the greatest hack director in anime spits in the face of corporate demands from art.