Mobile Suit Gundam Igloo 3: We upgraded to the PS5 pro edition
Having seen every single gundam animated series other than buildfighters and SD gundam, there is a lot of crap in this franchise. Requiem for Vengeance doesn't fall into that category.
Note: I live in Japan and watched this in Japanese. Any complaints about the dub don't apply here.
Much like its predecessor, the Igloo series, RFV follows a group of Zeon soldiers trying to survive a losing battle. Things are going wrong from the get go as the invading force, our protagonists, are being pushed back by a pincer attack on a convoy. We see our
...
heroes descend in their Zakus to save the day, and all is well for the time being.
Up front, the animation here is not going to be for everyone. A majority of video games have less stiff character animations and better facial expressions than our guys here, and them doing awkward, unnatural movements is fairly consistent for about the first three episodes. Character animation actually improves over time, but it's very clear that the people who worked on this were far more familiar with their machines than their people. However, for a Gundam series, that's actually alright.
The mobile suits in RFV are fantastic and give off the most 'real' feeling that any Gundam series has ever managed to pull off. They feel heavy, Zakus aren't jumping around doing back flips, when things get holes blown into them, they don't explode into nuclear fallout. The weight feels good, the action feels believable, and so long as we don't see the characters talking, anyone can easily immerse themselves into the story.
The story is fairly bog standard for a Gundam series set in the One Year War. If you've never seen any of the many of them, here's a quick explanation that is vaguely touched upon by RFV itself:
The Side 3 Space colony is home to the Zeon faction which was being oppressed and exploited by the world government known as the Earth Federation. RFV doesn't actually say anything about what Zeon did to start the war *cough cough colony drop, millions slaughtered cough cough*, just that they've had enough and now they want to be the masters of the universe. Only, with the introduction of the Gundam, they no longer have the bite to back up their bark.
The White Demon, the Gundam, shows up in the most haunting way possible, walking into its first scene out of fire and darkness to stare directly at the camera with two glowing red eyes. It proceeds to tear through everything and every one in short order traumatizing everything and every one. Namely our protagonist, Iria Solari.
~~Spoilers~~
No one else has a name worth remembering as most characters die episode by episode and we're only really shown what happens to Solari as she experiences these encounters with the Gundam. Like the original series, it's one battle to the next, except we're weathering assaults by the Gundam on the Zeeks, and not the other way around. At episode 5, things begin to take a turn when the Gundam was effectively held at bay thanks to the shackle its partner, the new Federation mass produced GM, becomes and the group gets a chance to go on the offensive.
Real gundam fans know that nobody in this universe is smart enough to have security keys for a cockpit, because how else is the protagonist supposed to steal the title gundam of the show? This is obviously not a real gundam series since they actually do get keys before starting the next mission.
After being given a command to attempt to steal a GM, our guys infiltrate an EFF base after a quick escape from almost friendly fire. Here, we're introduced to not-Amuro Ray, the unnamed child pilot of the Gundam. Through out the series thus far, we're told that Solari had a husband and still has a son waiting at home in Side 3 for her to return to. He'd be about the same age as the Gundam pilot, and thanks to her lightly touched upon newtype psychic powers (she has those, but you're just expected to accept that without any much of an explanation. Good luck if you aren't already deep into this franchise), she and the boy realize who each other are, but he ends up covering for her. They steal a GM for a whole ten minutes before getting pushed out of the base, barely escaping, and losing one of their last two Zakus, and the last remaining pilot of Solari's unit.
In the final episode, all is effectively lost and the last survivors make a desperate escape to the nearest space port to get back home and off planet. At the same time, said base is being assaulted by the Feds. In spite of having barely survived her last encounter with it, Solari dons her Zaku once more to defend the escaping ships. Here she and the Gundam have their final stand off in which she makes an appeal to the pilot to let them escape.
It works of course, and the Gundam saves Solari from some falling debris. As he's reaching out to make peace with Solari, however, he gets stabbed in the back brutally by a surviving Zeon soldier who'd been helping defend the base. You could see it coming from a mile away, but that doesn't take any of the sting off when it finally happens. And then, for god knows why, Solari then decides that the only way for the war to end is to keep fighting, so she stays on earth to continue aiding the failing Zeon incursion.
The End.
~~Final Thoughts~~
So, where does this land on a good o'l 1 to 10 scale? Personally, I find it to be very good and quite an enjoyable ride. When it comes to the mobile suits, the animation is fantastic, the machines look wonderful, and everything is excellently choreographed. There's a particularly brutal scene during the GM theft attempt where a Fed soldier has cornered one of the Zeon guys, only to be stepped on by the Gundam while it's in combat with Solari. Solari's nightmare sequences are some of the best sequences in the show outside of Gundam battles. The fighting is cool, but never without the tragedy of violence at every corner and there are several examples of Gundam series trying and failing miserably to pull off that tone.
The Character animation leaves a lot to be desired, the music is generic but used well, and the writing is servicable. On the 'incomprehensible Tomino garbage' to 'excellent dialogue' scale, it falls to about 'good enough.' The series definitely expects you to have at least seen the original series or Gundam The Origin to actually know the what and why of the conflict and underlying newtype lore because that's all brushed off with a handful of lines at most.
On it's own, it's sort of like watching an ARPG someone else is playing. You came in on the second episode and you missed a majority of the lore referenced later on, but it's fun to watch the fighting and delightfully tragic in the end. It will be a good time for anybody who likes sad robot action.
A solid 8/10.
Oct 18, 2024 Recommended Well-written  Spoiler
Mobile Suit Gundam Igloo 3: We upgraded to the PS5 pro edition
Having seen every single gundam animated series other than buildfighters and SD gundam, there is a lot of crap in this franchise. Requiem for Vengeance doesn't fall into that category. Note: I live in Japan and watched this in Japanese. Any complaints about the dub don't apply here. Much like its predecessor, the Igloo series, RFV follows a group of Zeon soldiers trying to survive a losing battle. Things are going wrong from the get go as the invading force, our protagonists, are being pushed back by a pincer attack on a convoy. We see our ... |
