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I want to make it clear that I am a Railgun fan. I like Railgun. Railgun S & T in particular are fantastic shows. Which makes it all the more baffling as to how a spinoff show like Railgun came to be hundreds of times better than the original source material, which is Index.

Here's the TLDR short answer: This season of Index is bad. But a lot of the problems with this show are actually the same as they were for seasons 1 and 2 of Index. Many corners are cut on the animation (unlike with Railgun), the direction is terrible (unlike with Railgun), the ... writing is lazy and nonsensical (unlike with Railgun), there is noticeable filler dialogue where the characters repeat themselves or shout a bunch to pad out the runtime, the characters are underdeveloped and are mostly token baubles, so much happens and yet it is mostly just filler and serves no purpose outside of bloating the number of characters in the cast. The reason why people are making a fuss about this season more than the others is that in addition to being bad (which is a given apparently), the studio also butchered the source material this time around, to the point where the "Battle Royale Arc" - which I gather is well regarded in the books - is made into an indecipherable garbled mess.

Otherwise, the show has some parts that are better than past seasons, and parts that are significantly worse. If you liked previous Magical Index seasons and haven't read the books, you will probably like this show. It's fine to like the idea of this show, I think. But if you think that it's actually unironically good, might I recommend that you watch something more like Railgun S & T (if you haven't already) to get a better grasp on what the genre can offer when it's firing on all cylinders.

Now for some HOT TAKES:

- Index shouldn't be in the show. She's not a character, she's not likeable, she does nothing, she's utterly pointless. She's what the show is named after, yet you could remove her from the plot and almost nothing would change. And the author makes no effort to remedy this at any point. She is "I'm hungry" and "I bite you when I'm angry ('cause get it, I'm hungry)" the character. It was a case of a joke that was never funny and never will be funny. Random "towel girl" crush Itsuwa is just the superior character and arguably what Index should have been from the outset. The time we get with Itsuwa is one of the bright spots of this season, even though it's relatively pointless and she will probably be demoted back down into being little more than a cameo again in future. Imagine if we wrote Itsuwa out of the script for this season, and instead gave all of her character development and character moments to Index herself. It would fix so many problems with the show, and make Index more human, but the author doesn't care, why would he care? He's too busy adding in horny middleschooler jailbait number #55 as a pointless throwaway cameo, he can't sacrifice that to work on his actual characters.

- Misaka Mikoto shouldn't be in the show. She's not a character, she's not likeable, she does nothing, she's utterly pointless. She's the number 2 girl and number 1 waifu in the show, so popular that she got her own spinoff title, yet she is entirely sidelined in Index and is just turned into a mindless simp for Touma (the MC). Compare that to Misaka in Railgun, who is genuinely an amazing character, a nuanced and relatable protagonist with an incredibly interesting and versatile powerset, and who has meaningful character development and heartfelt relationships with the people around her. Utterly wasted in this show.

- Touma is an asshole. In Railgun, things are different: he comes across as an apologetic bumbling average nice guy who's trying to do the right thing while muddling through life, and he is hot enough and helpful enough to attract Misaka's attention, but he manages to make her feel flustered and embarrassed, leading to her overreacting and being a bit of a Tsundere. It's a solid dynamic. Unfortunately, if you watch Index, this is recontextualised: the only reason why he achieves this likeable impression is because we don't get to hear his whiny self-righteous inner monologue, which upon being exposed to, quickly makes him come across as being a bit insufferable. He's painfully generic as a protagonist, and spends his entire time using very basic logic to demolish the hilariously nonsensical worldviews of (insert villain of the week). The author sets up a strawman and then has Touma beat it down with one punch. Every single scenario that Touma gets involved with has him giving a self-righteous lecture, which is usually just common sense that everyone in the audience was already thinking upon analysing the villain's laughably stupid worldview, that is resolved with the same stock standard punch to the face. And it happens over and over and over and over and over again. As a formula, it was stale during season 1, it was stale during season 2, and it is even more stale now in season 3. I guess they thought it would be like a running gag, in that it gets funnier over time because of how ridiculous it is? Or maybe they are just appealing to the domestic violence fetish crowd, punching them ladies in the face.

- Hamazura shouldn't be in the show, yet he is elevated to co-protagonist status in this season. He's basically just Touma, but with a sleazy criminal past and no powers. This arguably makes him more interesting than Touma in some small ways, as him being a normal guy means he has to be smarter than just punching his problems. But the thing is, he isn't different enough to be his own thing, and you could remove him from the plot completely and nothing about it would really change, he's just off doing his own mediocre filler content. He was also always the least interesting person in ITEM, so putting the focus on him rather than the girls that people liked is not good. ITEM are the characters most affected by the butchering of the Battle Royale arc, and it's extra painful to watch them as a result of that after the arc has concluded.

- Last Order is underserved. It was a real highlight in previous seasons that after Accelerator gets brain damage, he is tied into the MISAKA network so that he can think more clearly and use them to perform the complex calculations he needs to use his powers. It was also supposed to be a nerf that gave him some interesting limitations. Unfortunately, in the Accelerator show and also in this season, they just ignore these limitations entirely and he's basically just as strong as ever. That is lame. It would be nice if Last Order (as the control tower of the MISAKA network) could be more proactive in helping him use his powers. Even if it's just her having to concentrate real hard when he's doing some particularly monumental feat. She also needs more moments of actually contributing to the plot, she's basically just a little cuteness bubble that floats around vaguely nearby Accelerator now and again. Her and Accelerator are two more characters that are greatly affected by the butchering of the Battle Royale arc, which is deeply disappointing, as they get so few moments together as it is.

- Magic shouldn't be a secret. If there is a cold war between the forces of Magic and the forces of Science (plus the English weasels who side with Science against Magic even though they themselves are a Magic faction, although in fairness that's totally in character for the real life C of E, and I'm allowed to say this because I'm English) then have everyone in the world know what the stakes are, even if they don't know the full scope of what is going on or how any of it works. It's ludicrous to have had Accelerator interact with magic users in depth on multiple occasions prior to this, and then make a plot point of Season 3 that he has no concept that magic even exists still. It's a ludicrous proposition.

- The morality in Season 3 is utterly mad. It's out of control on drugs, while having a seizure. That's the only way I can describe it. Multiple instances where characters get to murder people and/or attempt to murder countless innocent people and yet they are forgiven unconditionally just like that. Characters get to torture people and that's just swell. But lie to protect someone's feelings? Damn, man, that's just unforgiveable, how will you ever live with yourself? Hold on, I've just got to sacrifice my life to rescue this mass-murderer over here, maybe that'll help make up for my lie. Utterly bonkers.

- Teenagers are horny. It is okay to portray teenagers as being a bit horny if it is within character and makes sense within the fiction, because yes, it is true to real life, for better or for worse. It is not okay to have 13-year-olds randomly perform strip-teases directly to the audience for no in-character reason, just because on a meta-level the show wants to declare: "And this is for all you sweet beautiful paedophiles out there!" I don't like the show consistently treating me like a paedo, it's gross. Now, this has always been a problem with Index/Railgun, it has always walked uncomfortably close to that line and even crossed it occasionally before now, but Season 3 of Index walks waaaaay over the line multiple times. Author, you can include "fanservice" without making it this genuinely creepy (and downright lazy to boot). Please desist.

- I'm gonna be vague about this last one, although maybe don't read it just in case if you haven't watched the show yet: Characters should be allowed to die occasionally. Without the prospect of death (or at least severe consequences), there are no stakes, and if there are no stakes, the audience has no investment in what is going on. There has always been some death in the show, of course. But it isn't utilised at all well. To the point where people make it out alive from situations where logically they should 100% be dead. This harms the credibility of the show, and this season is particularly guilty of that. Although as has been mentioned above, it instead lectures to you that "you're a bad person for thinking some of them probably should die" while it does it. And when there is death, it tends to be incredibly arbitrary and is done without any adequate explanation or fanfare. It's like: "People might have liked that character. They were cool. And yet you just did that to them out of nowhere and moved on. And you also let all of those other cringe characters survive ridiculous situations, or deliberately spared them, when people don't like them nearly as much. Huh. What a bizarre creative decision that was."

I sincerely hope this show gets better. Three seasons and a movie, and it's not done it yet. But as one of the other reviewers put it, I'm clinging on for dear life, even though it seems like there's no hope. If you've come this far into Index, either you're like me (in which case, what we are doing is questionable, but I guess stay strong), or you are somehow able to look past its problems, in which case, you may yet get some small joy out of it (and I suppose to be generous, I hope you do).

NOTE: My verdict is to watch Railgun first (stick with it, it gets really good by the time it gets to Railgun S and T) and then come back and watch this as supplemental bonus material, as Railgun is simply the superior series by far, and by then you'll be invested enough that you can put up with this show's flaws. Either that, or watch Railgun up until the end of S, and then go back, before finishing with Railgun T so that you have full context.

I watched all of "A Certain Scientific Railgun" up to T, before going back and starting this, and I ... consider myself a fan of the Railgun series. Therefore, I have certain biases present that are very difficult for me to overlook when I came into this.

I won't get into any specifics about the Railgun shows here, and I won't give any actual spoilers for this show either, but I will use Railgun as a broad comparison in terms of this show's general flaws.


PACING PROBLEMS
If I want to be fair, we can say that this (along with the first installment of Railgun) is some of the author's early work, and they are still clearly finding their feet. You should watch it with that in mind, knowing that this series will get significantly better over time.

- The problem with the first Railgun installment was that more than half of it was pointless filler, and significantly more than half of that pointless filler was bad pervert jokes, with a few good action-packed arcs mixed in (S and T focus almost exclusively on the best bits of the first installment and thankfully fix all of the problems with it).
- By contrast, A Certain Magical Index has the opposite problem, with it being overloaded with too many payoffs with not enough setup, as we are thrown from one setpiece story idea to another, with very little connective tissue between them other than our protagonist, Touma, doing his standard shounen protagonist things.

The rushed pacing and disjointed nature of the show will cause issues for a first time watcher, although in a way it is probably more palatable than the first few episodes of Railgun to a casual viewer simply because so much stuff is happening, even if most of it doesn't really matter (whereas in the first Railgun, a lot of it does actually end up mattering, with Chekov's guns being sowed around everywhere waiting to go off, but the pacing is initially really slow, likely in part due to the author overcompensating for how rushed Magical Index was).


CHARACTER PROBLEMS
Another problem for this show is the characters.

- One of the strengths of Railgun was its characters, which is not something you would believe from the first five or so episodes of the first installment. But, while the entire supporting cast are at first very tropey and exist mostly to make bad pervert jokes, this changes over time and we get a lot more development and nuance in their performances that leads to them becoming very well-realised and enjoyable. You will learn to love them.
- Unfortunately, because Magical Index was a rough first attempt, it's basically a reverse-flanderisation of all of the characters that you enjoyed from Railgun. All of them are significantly less likeable, lacking most of their nuance and feeling far more generic in their personality. Misaka Mikoto in particular suffers greatly from this, which isn't helped by the fact that she resets to generic tsundere mode whenever she talks to the main character, and that's all she ever does in this show, so we never actually get to see her being a proper character. Our main boy Touma also loses a lot of his charm, having a much more generic shounen protagonist feel, where thanks to his inner monologue we come to understand that he is in fact much more of an asshole than he came across as when we didn't have that.

And what about the title character of the show herself, Index? She is nothing more than a fleeting cameo in Railgun, after all, so surely this is her time to shine! Well... Disappointingly, she might as well not be in it, even though the show alleges her to be the key to everything. To call her a McGuffin is to massively overstate her importance. She exists to be ineffectual, to be hungry, and to occasionally get angry at Touma and bite him as a "joke". Yes, this author has a problem with understanding that his "humour" is just built differently from everyone else's. Some people like the fact that Index isn't in it very much, because they find her annoying, but that goes to demonstrate just how inferior this show is to Railgun, which has actual deep and likeable characters in it.


THEME AND WORLDBUILDING PROBLEMS
There isn't enough of a difference between the magical aspects of the show and the scientific aspects, which is unfortunate, as the biggest promise of the show is how Touma and Index will shape the outcome of a cold war between mages and scientists, with him being the Scientist Romeo to her Mage Juliet. Runes are the primary differentiating factor, along with ritual locations, which at least does provide a certain amount of potential for interactivity in fights, but it still all ends up feeling very formulaic and sciencey in presentation, with Index herself talking like a robot when possessed by a spell.

For this first outing of this particular show, almost all of the episodes involving magic are underwhelming compared to the science ones, which is why the author takes so naturally to doing Railgun in the future, it just suits the way they like to structure things better. While there are the seeds of a lot of excellent worldbuilding regarding Academy City itself, the mages are far less fleshed out at this stage, when it really feels (given the title) that they should be taking centre stage. Hopefully it gets better in later installments, but for this one, it was pretty underwhelming.


HIGHLIGHTS
The highlights include everything to do with Accelerator, although the first arc that involves him was much better realised when it was remade in Railgun S. Otherwise, the show does have a lot of good standalone ideas that, had they been given a bit more room to breathe, a bit more refinement and polish, as well as some improved interconnectivity (as in the later Railgun shows), it could have been something really good. Unfortunately, it falls significantly short of that initial promise.

ANIMATION
The animation quality is serviceable and nothing to complain about, but it is little more than a pale imitation when compared to the jaw-dropping polish and expert direction of Railgun. I assume this will improve significantly in later Index entries.

SOUNDTRACK
The soundtrack is also solid, with the first OP being one of the best (if not the best) in the wider franchise.


LAST WORD
I'm gonna keep watching because I'm invested in Railgun. It should get better, as the author really gets into their stride in other shows, and even here, they flirt with moments that are conceptually brilliant, even if the execution is lacking.

Hope this helped.

IMPORTANT: Do NOT watch Episode 1, skip straight to Episode 2. Episode 1 is literally just a carbon copy of a later episode and it spoils basically everything, you're better off without it.

With that out of the way, Gungrave is an interesting anime that has a lot of strengths, but also a few weaknesses. This is because it has got two components to it:

1) A very watertight character-driven gangster story that takes up most of the anime, which is very much worth the price of admission.
2) While it's not quite correct to call it this, there is a point where I would describe ... the show as devolving into a Monster of the Week format involving fantastical elements that is unfortunately rather mediocre. However, as I say, this latter part is a minority of the anime's runtime, and the ending few episodes really brings the show back to what it does best.

The writing and characters are excellent, the art style is a bit weird at times but still perfectly serviceable, the music works really well at creating the right mood for this style of story, and the action scenes are generally good*.


A few other (non-spoiler) details...

The show spans a period of 30-40 years, showing the growth of various characters throughout their lives (but focusing in on the relationship between two in particular). It handles characters aging very well in the main, with the exception of Harry becoming a bit of a chain smoker and aging an extra 20 years more than he really should at the end.

*The show handles fight choreography for the mundane gangster shootouts very well, and there are also a couple of the boss fights with fantastical elements that are reasonably decent as well. However, the fights with Necrolyzed enemies and Orgmen in particular that happen later on (you'll know them when you see them) are very clumsy and underwhelming, with the wrong kind of low-detail sluggish bullet spongey combat. You'll just have to grit your teeth and bear them, but as I say, most combats aren't like that.

The mafia is also slightly more messy and OTT than they are in real life, but one can forgive the anime for that because it is in the show for the sake of adding in more action and drama.

Lastly, the idea of turning some characters you know from earlier in the anime into monsters of the week could have been a really great twist on the story formula, but it isn't handled to its fullest potential.


Even though it's relatively old at this point, Gungrave is one of the better shows that you can watch, and is an excellent gangster anime.

And while I have given it a 7, I don't hand out high scores lightly, so don't let that fool you. I'm not some clapping seal that ignores the lower half of the ratings system, and while I do enjoy some trashy anime now and then, this isn't one of them. It's really solid and worth a watch.

To quote Goblin Slayer himself from this series: "Nothing changed. We accept a quest, head to the location, slay goblins, save any prisoners, and go home. That is everything. [...] This road doesn't end. It's neverending. [...] That's all there is."

I enjoyed the first season of this show, it had a lot of promise. However, everything in this season is filler, you could skip to the next season when it comes out and you probably wouldn't notice much difference. It isn't a spoiler to say so, because there is nothing to spoil. Whenever a new plot element is introduced, it is immediately resolved with no ... lasting consequences, usually not even through the work of the main cast.

We even had what was effectively a beach episode, AS WELL AS a bathhouse episode this season, further showing the author's complete bankruptcy of imagination. Having irrelevant minor details that no one cares about carry over between episodes is not a narrative through-line, it can't even really be called connective tissue, especially when it sets up nothing and leads nowhere (other than one good joke, even if the setup was very forcibly shoe-horned in and doesn't really make any sense to have been brought up in context).

The show's strengths at its peak were some aspects of the worldbuilding (the goblins in particular are great antagonists), as well as the creative combat tactics and well-done fight scenes. However, even these aspects of this season were mediocre compared to past instalments.

Most of the characters were always shallow, but had potential and could've been made into something more with actual development.

- I have more affection for Lizardman this season, whose weird sayings and philosophising are endearing.
- Goblin Slayer himself is generally quite intelligent and his struggles at socialising are somewhat compelling, even though he doesn't make any real progress beyond hinting that maybe he is starting to want something more than just killing goblins. Shocker.
- Priestess had (note the past tense) grown so much by the end of Season 1, yet here she is flanderised and forced to relearn what she already learned, and fails to develop further.
- Dwarf and Elf pretend to do the Legolas-Gimli thing as always, but they're just running through the motions without any substance behind it, and are basically there for their fight utility rather than bringing anything to the table as people.
- Musume the farmgirl redhead is very wholesome, but does nothing new.
- Blind Archbishop Chick is pathetically needy and loses what was left of her mystique, boiling her down to the sole character trait of "horny for the protagonist".

None of the other side characters have anything useful to contribute, and in many cases are just boring or annoying (especially the Mageboy Lemming who insists on being incredibly obnoxious) and therefore are a detriment to the show.

Oh, and of course, it's not just the Archbishop; all of the female characters take it in turns drooling over Goblin Slayer. I wouldn't mind if it was one, or two, or even three of them. But all of them? Really? It gets a bit much after a while, no other men exist in this show apparently. Nor does this infatuation cause any complications for them. There are no rivalries between them, no drama, no bad decisions, just a couple of pining monologues while they stare longingly at our favourite Goblinslaydalorian from afar.

And the goblins just follow them around everywhere, even when they leave their initial zone and travel to a distant land. There isn't any variety in enemy types, or really even in action scenes. It's just "wow, we stabbed and clubbed them goblins real good" for the umpteenth time, with occasional gimmicks that are a bit weaker than past instalments.

Shame. I hope the author gets their act together, because it's a waste of this show's potential to carry on like this.

Positives: Well-produced. Aesthetically pleasing. Cool OP and ED. Well-voice acted. Understands some basics of how to create emotional moments. Had some potential. Is not the worst animé you could watch. Has two actual characters that you might sort-of like.

Negatives:
~ Consequences? Injuries? Setbacks? What are those? There are none of those in this show. None that are shown to matter, anyway. At any point. Why would there be? TBH, I have never found a show with more plot armour that pretends otherwise in all my years. "In the last season we killed off some pointless extras that nobody cared about for dramatic effect, so this ... show has stakes you guys, we promise."

~ Worldbuilding? What's that? Oh, I wrote some ideas down on the back of a beermat yesterday, will that do? There are more countries now, because the plot requires there to be them. They didn't exist until literally 5 minutes ago, and conveniently, they didn't know each other existed until 5 minutes ago either. YAY.

Everywhere is inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world, and each is in the middle of a cripplingly deadly war, desperately fighting for survival? Eh, they're just kinda modern first world countries with absolutely no hardship or consequences of said allegedly deadly war. Frankly, to look at them, you wouldn't know a war was even happening in them. Everywhere just has abundant resources and is doing just fine thank you. Don't question it.

~ Characters? While it pretends that there is a large and interesting ensemble cast, there are approximately two characters in the show that have more than two dimensions to them, and one of them is largely absent for this series. A couple of the two-dimensional characters do some half-decent stuff as well, but most of them do basically nothing of note. The rest might as well be cardboard cutouts who don't speak for all of the interest that they add to the show (in particular, I'm talking about the Minions of the main character, who after two full seasons and three books still are blank slates consisting of different coloured hairstyles with a couple of personality jingles to give the impression that something exists between their ears).

~ Dialogue. Sometimes it can be done pretty well, there are some good speeches, some emotional moments, and I'll give it props. However, most of the time, the dialogue (especially in the main cast) is painfully mundane, and even when it is good, there is rarely any subtext whatsoever. Everyone says exactly what they mean at all times, there is almost no subtlety whatsoever.

~ Fight choreography? Well. Because it's adapted from a Light Novel, the animation directors don't have a clear visual guide on how to proceed. Because in literature, it gives you a few flowery descriptions and your imagination fills in the blanks to your satisfaction. That doesn't work in a visual medium, which means that the directors need to be especially creative to make the fight scenes work. That, unfortunately, just like last season, is exceedingly hit or miss.

The final fight was pretty fun and well put-together, even if it was a ridiculous concept of trying to fight the big bad in an open field where it literally has all of the advantages. Unfortunately, the rest of the choreography is actually atrocious. The plot armour of the main characters is on full display when, especially during the initial grand offensive, they win due to the Legion having the reaction times of a slug and not firing back.

~ Premise. Do we actually showcase and explore the 86 as a parallel for ethnic groups who have been on the receiving end of war crimes approaching genocide? Kinda-sorta. We get to see some contrast for them, living in a normal country that (at least seemingly) doesn't hate them. (Good). And it tells us that they cannot easily overcome their trauma. (Good). They also have a stellar speech by a war criminal, which is almost worth the price of admission, because it really is a compelling narrative question. When this is over, it will be us vs them. Our people will be made to suffer, because the 86 and the world will want revenge. But our people don't deserve to get crushed for the crimes of a few leaders, do they? They didn't know the full extent of what was going on, even if they are a bit racist. (Great) However, nothing meaningful really comes of it, it's kind of a copout. Maybe there will be some subtlety in future instalments, but it really feels like the author is trying to wrap it up here. Maybe I'm wrong.

I just would've liked to see more consequences, which as per usual feel largely absent. More illustrations of how this issue isn't just clear cut, black and white, innocent people suffer either way.

*So, TL;DR:*

Imagine, if you will, the following formula:
Bait characters dying, emotional music, decent cinematography, teenage angst, but HEY YOU GUYS, NONE OF THAT MATTERED, ISN'T THIS FUN?! Rinse, repeat.

I'll give the show this: It almost executes its formula semi-competently, but at a certain point... It has to deliver. But it never delivers. It's the boy who cried wolf. Over and over again.

And when there are no actual stakes, it doesn't matter how many pretty visuals there are.

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.