Kidou Senshi Gundam I

In the future, with Earth's population rapidly increasing, humanity has developed giant orbiting space colonies gathered in clusters known as "Sides." As the elites on Earth force most of the populace into space, rebellion begins to brew. In the year Universal Century 0079, one of the colony clusters known as Side 3 declares itself the Principality of Zeon and launches a war of independence against the Earth Federation.

Despite having only a fraction of the resources of the Federation, Zeon quickly gains the upper hand in the conflict through the use of giant humanoid robots called mobile suits. Chief among Zeon's mobile suit ace pilots is Char Aznable, a mysterious masked man known as the "Red Comet." When Char's squadron comes across the Federation developing its own prototype mobile suit called Gundam in the colony Side 7, his men launch a brutal attack. Amuro Ray, the son of the prototype's developer, gets in the Gundam and is able to fend off the Zeon attack. As Amuro soon finds himself directly in conflict with Char, he is forced to flee the colony on a Federation ship.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Aznable, Char Main

Ikeda, Shuuichi Japanese

Ray, Amuro Main

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Noa, Bright Supporting

Suzuoki, Hirotaka Japanese

Haro Supporting

Takagi, Sanae Japanese

Mass, Sayla Supporting

Inoue, You Japanese

Ral, Ramba Supporting

Hirose, Masashi Japanese

Zabi, Garma Supporting

Mori, Katsuji Japanese

Shiden, Kai Supporting

Furukawa, Toshio Japanese

Zabi, Gihren Supporting

Ginga, Banjou Japanese

Hamon, Crowley Supporting

Nakatani, Yumi Japanese

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Yatate, Hajime Producer

Tomino, Yoshiyuki Director, Script, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics, Original Creator

Fujiwara, Ryouji Director

Reviews

Aug 26, 2023

AronSensation

Recommended

I first watched the original Mobile Suit Gundam series from 1979 when I was in high school and I first started to get into the anime medium. Back then I wanted to learn more about the history of anime and Mobile Suit Gundam is definitely one of those foundations the expanded anime to the western world. Before Pokémon came along, the craze was all about Mobile Suit Gundam toys and games in the 80s.
Although the series hasn’t aged well, the trilogy movies is a slight improvement from the original series.
It is easy to digest and the series doesn’t feel too dragged ... out as the original. Art work is fairly decent and the diologue in English dub is really nice. For some reason when I watched the series it takes me to the decades of the 80s, in a way you can learn a bit about the lifestyle of people during the 80s
This first film covers the events of Amuro Ray’s first flight into the Gundam all the way up to the fight with Garmna Zabi.
Definitely the trilogy movies is a good option if you don’t want to watch it’s longer version.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 28, 2022

GwenPineapple

Recommended

Surprisingly well held up visuals for an anime from 1981, and some real nice sounding audio design. It's lacking in the striking visuals of something like Eva, which comes out much later, but nonetheless remains a visually pleasing piece of work for its time; it sort of has a "rustic charm" to it.

The real star of the film is the characterisation of Amuro and his struggle with PTSD, which grows over the course of the film to excellent pacing, until he's incapable of sleeping or eating almost entirely, barely being animated for anything but the Gundam he pilots. It completely does away with the cultural ... idea that all mecha anime pre-Eva was lacking in any sort of psychological conflict or focus; the image of war is vivid: it's not just Amuro who gets subsumed by the pointless and eternal war, but all of his friends and neighbours, who quickly assume their roles in the military as if it were second nature.

Certainly, the writing is good, excellent, even: Amuro's portrayal of PTSD, and the war he's fighting in, feel grim and real, often lacking in some of the theatrics and eccentricities that come with a lot of anime, but if one thing can be said, it's that the film likes to announce "this is war" just a little too much.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 29, 2023

Strange_Hero

Mixed Feelings

This is my second full exposure to a Gundam series--the first being Gundam Build Fighters--though I'd consider this to be my first 'main' Gundam series as, after all, this is a condensed version of the series that started it all. For true Gundam fans, the original series is a must-watch.

But I'm not sure if these movies warrant such praise. In fact, this film felt like a horrible way to introduce yourself to Gundam's core story. The first hour is pretty confusing: yes, you clearly understand that this is a war between the forces of good and evil. Yet, characters aren't fleshed out enough for the ... audience. I found myself confused as to why the protagonist was piloting a Gundam outside of it being an absolute necessity the first time around, not to mention why he struggled emotionally before and after piloting the Gundam. This, I feel, is thanks to the pacing of this film being all over the place.

It's clear this movie is made up of a bunch of episodes that have been Frankensteined into a coherent film, which makes story/character comprehension and immersion equally difficult. The pacing is absolutely shot. At first, it feels like nothing is happening, and then you're inundated with action scenes and character development which gives you no time to process what's going on. Complete focus isn't enough as there's too much and too little information to properly understand what's going on. Keeping up was impossible; I kept getting lost in the previous 5 minutes, where I then fully absorbed what happened, only to realize even more important things happened while I finished processing the previous scene.

I'm sure Gundam fans, especially ones who are somewhat familiar with or have seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, will enjoy this to some extent. But this feels like a significant downgrade from the original show, as there is just so much happening in a little amount of time. I didn't identify with any characters, nor did I empathize with any tragic events, because I didn't have a full understanding of what was going on. And, worse of all, when I did finally understand, the frantic pacing meant I was left in the dust as a new dramatic scene passed me by.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Jun 5, 2017 11:01 AM by Sakana-san | Discuss (12 comments)

	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam I Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Veethorn - Oct 21, 2009	53 replies	by L-S-M-F-T »» Oct 3, 6:50 PM
	how should i go about it? Ubada03 - Nov 29, 2023	6 replies	by Epiccgaymer »» Dec 5, 2023 4:09 AM
	What am I doing wrong? operanerd - Jun 20, 2023	24 replies	by operanerd »» Jul 3, 2023 7:49 PM
	Poll: Why Do People Suggest This? Uutama - Feb 17, 2023	12 replies	by Lucifrost »» Mar 23, 2023 12:10 PM
	Is this just a compilation of scenes from the original? Teirayo - Feb 27, 2022	4 replies	by OneMoreFinal »» Jul 18, 2022 7:32 AM

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