Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky

Man oh man, has it been ages since I watched a Gundam show... Sure, there was this Iron-Blooded orphans thing, but Gundam as entitled - that has been escaping my radar for years now. Why, you may ask? It's quite simple. For a hardcore fan Gundams ended around Turn A and the only reasonable approach to the topic were either the Unicorn or (loosely) 00.

Thundebolt then caught me completely off-guard. Having no time for animes these days I got the glimpse of the upcoming OVA through some promo I was never hoping to watch, It didn't say much though, only showing some really neat looking ... battle scenes. I am a mecha fan, even putting aside the fact that I stopped watching anime some time ago, so it was only natural that I would be interested in a battle sequence that actually resemebles just that - a battle sequence. From there I was only secinds away from being completely blasted into oblivion by the first OVA episode. The animation, the music, the pacing, interesting characters and refreshing approach at the topic on OYW - all of that packed into merely a 20-minute-worth of screening.
Then, I couldn't watch the other 3 eps because of chores and kind of forgot about it until recently, when I found out that it acutally got a re-release in a form of a movie: December Sky. And what a movie it is!
A spectacle is more appropriate - because technically and visually it blows away even the Unicorn OVAs and TV series! From ground up the visuals and audio are all pitch perfect. Finally one can enjoy eye-candy partially drawn battle sequences when there's very little actual CGI involved. Sure, there is still some, but not very offputting and someone who's not accustomed to the sight won't even catch it. That's very good, espeically in the era of mecha animes being nearly 100% done over CGI. Good job SUNRISE.
Then there's the music, the score and voiceover - all top notch, as expected of a high budget SUNRISE theatrical release. Seiyuus in both Japanese and English versions do their jobs well, although I would still prefer to hear the original voiceover for the fact of a better lipsinc. Japanese seiyuu also tend to pour more emotion into their characters than their English counterparts.

Plotwise it is a traditional good vs evil story, however the twist is here that in war there's no black and white but rather shades of grey and lots of ambiguity. The world in Thunderbolt is also much grittier than in previous installments and I believe that was the idea behind the project - to show, that wars in Gundam UC universe are comprised off not only genius pilots and giant robots but also, and probably most often off personal tragedies of minor characters that apear behing the curtains. In that aspect the story hits jackpot. It so reminds of another project like that caught me by surprise - 0080 War in the pocket. Albeit having an entirely different cast and approach to the topic of wars it still is, in a way, a reminisent of that amazing installment. Not often a 80 minute film will engage you so much into it's world and keep you at the edge of your seat until you hurt yourself. Amazing.

Overall, I recommend it mostly to Gundam fans for apparent reasons, but also it should find some audience around your average Joe's looking for a visually stunning mecha battle spectacle. For Gundam series to have a good story as an add-on is rarity these days, so enjoy it while it lasts.

For what this was, this felt pretty effective. The animation quality is strong, the characters get only flashes of backstory but it works well enough to give them some depth, the use of music is decently strong (albeit the choices should probably get more exploration) and we get some really hardcore moments representing the horrors of this war. The desperation of the Zeon and what they're willing to do is particularly strong, since we know this is near the end of the war and in a period where they know they're losing. Their willingness to mangle or even kill themselves and their compatriots to get ... any kind of leg up over their opponents is played well, and watching both sides fight over the ruins of Side 4, where this war began, really does hit harder if you know the history of this series. It's a nice touch.

That being said, it is still light on character motivations, most of the non-central two characters are easily disposable and lack any meaningful backstory, making those horrifying moments of war feel somewhat empty. Why one of our leads (Io Fleming) is such an effective pilot of the Gundam and his backstory with his girlfriend (Claudia Peer) are half-baked - her story particularly feels like it was jammed in there with only limited explanation. It's an effective movie insofar as what it is trying to do lands, it just doesn't have the kind of emotional attachment or strength of character writing that makes a Gundam series really connect with an audience. Still, it's a worthwhile watch, even if it doesn't reach the heights of other series in this timeline.

After watching the second movie and thinking about this, I've changed my thoughts to Mixed Feelings. Despite my rating being pretty good, and I still think this movie stands well enough itself, I'm torn on whether it's worth getting invested in this series. There's a reason the rating drops off for the second movie, so just be prepared for disappointment if you're going forward with it.

When I don't like a compilation movie, my first instinct is "well, maybe the full series is better," but I'm not sure how that could be. One of the problems I had with "December Sky" was its lack of characterization or an explanation of what the particular battles being fought were about. The first is conveyed through brief flashbacks for artistic reasons, which is fair enough. The latter may have been intentional, but it didn't feel deliberate enough to make me give it a pass. So most of this movie felt like mobile suits zipping around for no reason, blowing people up for shock value ... alone. And then they bring in child soldiers to double down on that in a terrible way.

It's edginess for edginess's sake is what it is. Gundam is usually a lot more thoughtful than that.

Also, I don't know why people give a shit about the jazz element considering the audio mix prioritized it under *bullets* 90% of the time. Couldn't even hear it.