Kidou Senshi Victory Gundam

In the year 153 of the Universal Century, the tyrannical Zanscare Empire has taken hostile control over Side 2, a space colony outside of Earth's orbit. Following in the footsteps of the long expired Principality of Zeon and the more recent Crossbone Vanguard, Zanscare rules over its subjects with cruelty, routinely using a large guillotine for public executions.

Living in Central Europe, space immigrant Üso Ewin joins the League Militaire, a militia made up of civilians frustrated with the Earth Federation's inability to combat the Zanscare Empire. Üso's latent abilities as a psychic Newtype awaken and allow him to pilot the Victory Gundam, the only mobile suit capable of holding off the elite BESPA forces of the Zanscare Empire.

Hoping to protect his best friend Shakti Kareen and locate his parents within the ranks of the Federation, Üso fights on with the Victory, striving to bring an end to the empire's reign.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ewin, Üso Main

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Loos, Katejina Main

Watanabe, Kumiko Japanese

Kareen, Shakti Main

Kuroda, Yumi Japanese

Asher, Chronicle Main

Dan, Tomoyuki Japanese

Haro Supporting

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Cineau, Lupe Supporting

Itou, Miki Japanese

Fingerhat, Marvet Supporting

Shiraishi, Ayako Japanese

Gomez, Roberto Supporting

Katou, Osamu Japanese

Griffon, Fuala Supporting

Orikasa, Ai Japanese

Merril, Mahalia Supporting

Maruta, Mari Japanese

Yatate, Hajime Producer, Original Creator

Ueda, Masuo Producer

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

Sekita, Osamu Director

Reviews

Aug 28, 2023

vexium

Recommended

After having watched many an anime and not bothering to review one, even after several years of not logging into this account, so comes a time when, after viewing Victory Gundam, I felt compelled to deliver this abrupt introduction to the most misunderstood Gundam show to date...

Hey there, reader, do you like motorcycle tires? Do you like bike wheels so much you wish they could fly? What about if they could tread the ocean surface and act like whimsically half-rotated UFOs swarming about the seas? And how about if they were the entire bottom hull of a ship, like one massive tank tread - big ... enough even to squish your mom? Or dare I say, would you like them if they spun about, rotated, and generated motion in space? You do? Well then, do I have the show for you.

Hey there, reader, do you like fan service? Do you like harems of girls in your anime shows, void of a reasonable explanation but bountiful in the voluptuous department of volume? Do you like entire companies of soldiers clad in nothing but bikinis for the sole purpose of trolling the protagonist? Do you like your main character to be suggestively dominated and put in inexplicably compromising situations with women twice their age? Boy, do I have the show for you.

Hey, reader, do you like popcorn blockbuster action movies? Do you like action scenes with completely unrealistic outcomes, where the Hero performs stunts that make Tom Cruise look like a girl scout scared of knocking at the neighbor's door? Do you like when people parachute onto buildings and objects from impossible heights, with no realistic chance of survival, yet done with such impeccable grace as to seamlessly move on with no comment to the next insurmountable feat? Well, you guessed it, I have the exact show for you.

And that show is: Victory Gundam. Put your grievances aside. The plot is impressively terrible. The characters are surface-deep at best, inscrutable at worst. The ending makes absolutely no sense. The entire 3rd arc of the story is a ramshackle-monstrosity of motifs coagulating into a climax of needless death and seemingly random conclusions to arcs we didn't know existed until but an episode prior.

But that doesn't matter, because you know what does? Victory. Victory is what matters, and our boy, -the- boy, if you will, Uso, is going to achieve it. By God, he's going to achieve it even if Shahkti has to walk into the enemy encampment a thousand more times. He will achieve it so hard, every girl on Earth and in space is going to be 'miring so hotly that the Char Aznable of the story will actually disappear from the story for no good reason other than that we are simply too busy admiring Uso from the perspective of literally every female character in the show. Mission achieved, Victory accomplished.

Plot holes? Yes, those exist - in fact, if you look closely, you can glance through the swiss cheese of the show and stare into the realm of what could have been, and with that glimpse, great sadness will creep upon you, wondering what actual heights our Victory could have risen to. BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS, because we have Victory. And Victory is sweet, if not a little bitter at times.

Still, you might ask, what will Victory get me, in the end? Will Victory be worth it? Victory, with a visually augmented and stunningly clear capital 'V', is not only worth it; it's so worth it, you might find yourself wondering what else is. For instance, is a coherent story worth it? If we can just enjoy unique artwork and oddly captivating hand-drawn combat scenes of giant mechs delivering ultimate annihilation, do we really need any characters to make actual sense? Apparently we do, because Uso is that character, and for the better part of the story, you will be fooled into thinking that Victory is the development of this young boy into a war-torn but headstrong soldier, overcoming all odds and miraculously accomplishing the impossible, all to finally save the day.

But, FOOL that you are (for taking popcorn action too seriously), none of that matters, because you will undoubtedly find that true Victory, and incidentally the actual best case I can make to watch this show, is found in the hearts and souls of us all. We all share a passion for life and love that Uso and crew serve up in spades across the breadth of the story, making it real even when it's absolutely, certifiably, nonsensically surreal. These genuinely human moments, while fleeting, recapture the heart-wrenching success of the whole Gundam universe, despite taking place in a surfeit of flimsy plot developments.

In all seriousness, the real Victory is getting through this series without saying "huh?" once, but if your faith holds fast and you remain constant to your beating heart, to that undying, innate dream to live and love beautifully this one life we have, you may find you actually enjoy this wonky ride for what it is: a winning excuse to spend some time with Gundams, those beasts of burden tearing our hearts and souls out over endless, wanton strife.

Oh, except for Katejina. She has no soul.

10/10, would never watch again. 7/10, if you choose to take this show seriously (if it wasn't clear by now, you shouldn't).

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 10, 2022

Babineaux

Mixed Feelings

I dub thee, Gundam of Thrones. Seriously, this one is brutal, with gore, decapitations, and lots of death. In spite of its otherwise childish tone and visuals, literally no one is safe, so be sure to lock up your waifus and children. This is called "the most depressing Gundam" for a reason.

To qualify this review, going into this I've watched basically all of Universal Century Gundam back to back in more or less chronological order, and this was the last one on my list. And boy was this an interesting one.

There is a lot to like (and a lot to dislike) about this show. In ... many regards, it could be argued that this is a more polished and ambitious version of the original Mobile Suit Gundam animé, and I do give it high praise for that, because it was attempting to go in new and interesting directions.

The opening (which spans four interlinked episodes) is probably the strongest beginning to any classic Universal Century Gundam show, and it also features (in my opinion) one of the best and most likeable protagonists, Uso Ewin.

So the question is, why have I rated this show a 3, which is LOWER than I rated the original? Well, in short, Gundam of Thrones reaches for the heavens, but lands with a resounding thud.

THEMES (2/10):

It attempts to play with some interesting themes (matriarchy, mind control, life, death, rebirth, and of course the horrifying nature of war, all packaged in a French Revolutionary aesthetic), but they are almost always handled clumsily, and many lines exploring such themes are delivered bluntly without any subtext, like a bad infomercial.

ART & FIGHTS (6/10):

The art is simple and colourful. They sometimes refuse to draw noses properly and intentionally choose not to shade anything unless the light is particularly dim as part of their aesthetic, but otherwise it is perfectly serviceable.

Although the Mobile Suit fights are nothing special in terms of animation, and most of the designs for mobile suits are iterative and samey, they do make a conscious effort to consistently up the anti by adding in new tactics and weapons for both heroes and villains to use, which is very satisfying and again, is one aspect of the show that deserves a lot of praise.

CHARACTERS (3/10):

While it has the large ensemble cast that Gundam is famous for, which had a lot of potential initially, this show ultimately spreads itself much too thinly, I'd argue significantly more so than any other Gundam (including the original, Zeta and ZZ), which ensures that we get very little meaningful development of anyone other than Uso (and even then, if I am entirely honest, it is not much deeper than "his life is filled tragedy and he perseveres in spite of it all").

Characters frequently make grand heroic sacrifices, but this is rendered meaningless most times because we simply haven't spent enough time with any of them, sometimes you get a hint that there is more to their character prior, but none of that is ever explored.

The Char-analogue, Cronicle Asher, while again promising at first (with subtle signs of morality and heroic traits), becomes a bland villain without any coherent motivation by the end, as does another character I shall not mention (as it would be a spoiler), who becomes a complete raging psychopath for no logical discernible reason. Oh, and yet another villain also goes from interesting and somewhat reasonable to laughing like a total murder-clown for their final appearances.

For all intents and purposes, the villains mentioned above might as well all be different characters entirely, which renders their early appearances worthless in terms of character building. And you end up shouting at the screen alongside Uso, demanding to know why on Earth they are acting like this, while receiving no intelligible answers.

Lastly, an honourable mention must go to the best villain of the piece, Duker Iq, who is by far the most respectable, wholesome, competent, and memeworthy villain in the show. The lack of people picking him as a favourite character is deeply saddening to me. Please do your part to correct this injustice, as I have.

PLOT AND WORLDBUILDING (2):

Characters frequently make bizarre decisions that undermine the storytelling. And given the ultimate goals of the Zanscare Empire, their actions for the middle arcs of the show make actually no sense, it is simply a complete waste of their time and resources, it's just there to fill screentime really.

The political situation is arguably at its most unclear in all of UC Gundam, while also having an uncharacteristically clear-cut "good side" and "evil side", which again limits the investment you can have in the show. (Yes, I am a Zabi-Zeon apologist. This next part isn't a spoiler btw, as it is literally in the first few seconds of the opening of the original MSG series; sometimes your colony drop accidentally misses its original target, splits into three, and one of those pieces happens to hit Asia. I mean, of course half of the world's population is going to die if THAT happens, so cut them some slack, okay? You can't diss a whole society based on a few bad apples and bad luck).

And to cap it all off, halfway through the show, they suddenly introduce the idea that Mobile Suits go full nuclear bomb if hit by anything other than fists or beam sabers (even though this isn't how they've worked in past series of Gundam, and isn't even how they've worked for the entire first half of THIS series) just to try and up the stakes, but it is so hard to take seriously.

There were ways they *could* have justified it (for instance, enemies deliberately using experimental unstable reactors to discourage direct attacks against them), but none of that is implemented. They also do not talk about the consequences of the radiation released in these explosions, which I see as a missed opportunity. Perhaps there are effective ways to treat it in the future with super-medicine, but the implication being that it's rationed primarily for the military, or something. Not that this show needs to be more depressing, but you know.

IN CONCLUSION (TL;DR):

Diehard fans of classic Gundam will probably get reasonable enjoyment out of this show, which has many great aspects to it, but just as many serious drawbacks. It is a diamond in the rough, but it is primarily going to be enjoyed for its sentimental value rather than its market price.

I certainly did enjoy my time with it, arguably more so than with Stardust Memory and a number of others. However, my rating of 3 represents the very significant and often immersion-breaking issues with the show, especially in how it stacks up against other animé in general.

Strangely, the more modest and less ambitious storytelling of the original MSG show actually counts in its favour, as that show manages to competently hit the targets that it sets for itself, rather than making a pig's breakfast of everything like the more ambitious MS Victory Gundam does.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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Sep 19, 2023

Armio

Not Recommended

A Gundam for Completionists

The show is not very good and barely ties into the grand narrative of UC (unless you end up reading Crossbone). To keep it simple, I would only recommend this to people who are all in on Gundam.

The animation is inconsistent, and the plot has no idea where it's going, it just knows that it wants to talk about the weakness of women and their power over men.

There are positives though, the show starts off very interesting, and has some unique mobile suit designs. Uso is also a very cool Mc who has to struggle with a lot of things despite ... being only 13. The OST is also godly (the track 'Victory Gundam' is likely the best BGM created for an individual suit ever. Sorry Z Gundam). Unfortunately it seems that they used up all their creativity on the few good ones, as they seem to not have enough tracks to use; silent battles or happy music playing during a serious scene occurs often.

Gundam fanatics will likely find the weird sinilarities to titles like "Turn A Gundam", "Reconguista in G" and "Gundam AGE" fascinating. The ultimate plan of the evil Zanscare Empire also immediately clicks once revealed, fitting perfectly as a unfortunate result to the events of Chars Counterattack and Unicorn Gundam.

A shortened version of this show would do wonders for it, as the episodes 31-40ish had little consequence. Maybe someday a movie remake will be announced.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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	Poll: Mobile Suit Victory Gundam Episode 29 Discussion DonKangolJones - Jan 4, 2009	32 replies	by Keytee1 »» Oct 8, 12:14 AM
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