"Wow Geoge de Sand is looking even more breedable than usual here." - Hayley on the second opening credits.
"I swear this horse better be piloting its own Gundam." - Hayley shortly before Fuun Saiki delivers.
"*incoherent lesbian noises*" - Hayley on the second ending credits.
Where do I even begin with this one?
Alright let's try breaking it down.
G Gundam Understands The Class Politics of Gundam
"We're bringing back MILFs *and* inflicting violence on a minor in the same episode? We are so back!" - Hayley on Episode 8
"Connie deserved to live the longest because she realised women shouldn't say more than one line per episode if they wanna survive this." - Hayley on The Shrike Team
"This show is so Normal about women." - Hayley at least once per episode.
"Wheels AGAIN?!!" - Hayley when a water dragon mobile armour started rotating.
"I'm kind of mad this show's giving me intense baby fever" - Hayley, again once per episode.
Let's traumatise a 12 year old for 50 episodes straight.
"This movie's pace is so fast it gave Theo Fairchild a heart attack." - Hayley, absolving Iron Mask of any murder accusations.
"Seabook Arno is a terrible Gundam lead. He's neurotypical, has a healthy relationship with his parents which improves over time and isn't into MILFs. The suits were right to can this project." - Hayley
Yeah alright let's get the obvious part out of the way: this was supposed to be a 50 episode TV show but plans changed so they had to cram that entire story into under 3 hours. It's going to have pacing issues.
"It says a lot about this show's gender politics that a stoic male friendship gets the love song montage but Kou x Nina never does." - Hayley, taking what she can from this mediocrity.
It's everything War in the Pocket chose not to be.
"The horror of war isn't enough to stop the intense Baby Fever my brain's dealing with right now." - Hayley after spending 3 hours watching a little shit of a kid.
Gundam turned 10 years old and so it was decided to make a 6 episode direct to video special set during the original show. It was also a good business opportunity for a large-scale retcon of mechanical designs, numbers and starts related to said show's war. Why do that? So you can better sell tabletop RPGs and supplementary materials of course!
"For a movie famous as Toxic Yaoi this sure is mostly about a teenage girl." - Hayley prior to the best line in the movie.
This is the greatest film ever made.
Hayley: "WHOA when did Mashmyre get so jacked?"
Hamarn: "Keep an eye on Mashmyre. We may have Enhanced him too much."
"I can't believe the point this show turned around was when Judau ate an ice cream really fast." - Hayley on her newfound love for Elpeo Ple
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Caussidière for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851 for the Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle. And the same caricature occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of the Eighteenth Brumaire. - The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Karl Marx 1852
The Titans have been thwarted. Earth's government is in shambles. Our heroes the paramilitary Anti-Earth Union Group sort of have Federation backing but are completely depleted of functioning weaponry and crew. Kamille's brain is fucking friend and Amuro's still trying to keep shit together on Earth. Casval 'Char "Quattro Bajeena" Aznable' rem Deikun is missing.Zeon's remnants have returned from exile in the Asteroid Belt and incurred minimal losses by playing the Earth Sphere's factions against each other.
It's time for a slapstick comedy!
"Mmmmmrrrrrrgh" - Hayley's reaction to the above frame
It took a grassroots fandom of women starting book clubs, mailing lists, magazines and conventions to start the ball rolling, but by the time Mobile Suit Gundam was re-cut into a movie trilogy and sponsourship moved from Clover's die-cast metal toys to Bandai's plastic model kits, Gundam had become a pop culture icon. There's a curious gap in this cultural awareness though:
If you just randomly mention "Gundam" to a baby boomer or Gen X they'll quote lines from the original show, dance to Sassotaru Char and bring up the Black Tri-stars' Jet Stream Attack. The original show is what they're thinking of.
If you talk about what Gundam is to a Gundam Fan though, their brain is immediately conjuring up Zeta Gundam.
"Wow, what a great episode! This show cannot sell a toy to a child to save its life." - My fiance Hayley somewhere around Miharu's death.
So if you haven't heard, the year 2024 had two fun developments in my life:
I finally commenced Hormone Replacement Therapy
I started dating a friend of five years who then also came out as a trans woman and later I asked her to marry me
There are of course consequences to completely entwining your life with another. Moving house, adjusting sleep habits and discovering that the love of your life is sorely lacking an education in large robot cartoons. Thus, we've started watching Gundam.
