To all the critics writing this was arguably the worst anime ever, 1 thing to consider: this got a full length movie and a second season. Total flops don't do that. ;) In fact, most anime never make it past 14 episodes and this has 52, making it one of the longest episodic gundam series to date!
When this show aired in 2004 on Toonami, I was not the target audience, I was just going into high school. My experience in the Gundam franchise of anime was Wing and G Gundam and my indulging in mass media anime was only newly blossoming with the dawn of
...
Naruto to the west. I saw the ads, laughed with my friends over how terrible this kid-version series looked in the ads, and then, in my stupid 14 year old wisdom, I decided to watch it to pick it apart mercilessly.
Then I fell in love.
Yes, that's right, this is actually a classic in my mind for 2004. And that may sound completely absurd to say this is my favorite Gundam franchise still to date, and you can judge me as you will. But I came in with low expectations and I felt I ended on much higher enjoyment watching week per week.
Will the effect be the same watching it now? As a rerun and having memories fondly attached to the entire series, I say yes and I HAVE been rewatching it. As a new consumer approaching 15 years past the original airdate? I can't promise the same. There are better stories now, with better CGI, and nostalgia seems to be a staple only for older media. So I'll be talking about how it felt at the time with my scores.
Story - 8
If you come in expecting a Gundam storyline, you're going to be disappointed. So don't.
However, there is a beauty in the contrary--- this is a stripped down Gundam. There is hardly any fantasy-tech talk. There isn't dread or a sense of political turmoil or getting bogged down in details and the mental stability of key individuals.
This is 'good clean fun'. There's a team of bad guys, doing bad things, and a team of good guys fighting the bad guys. The mysteries presented are not deep or emotionally damaging, they grip with intrigue and curiosity that is usually light hearted and perfect for the genre. And THEN they twist things unexpectedly just when you begin to feel a bit ho-hum, next thing you know the suspense is real. Slowly the entire tone of the series gets darker, especially beginning in season 2, but I find beauty in that they don't start with a crap setting and end in a crap setting with some glimmer of hope like Gundam series tend to. This starts in a high note, goes down to a pretty big climatic situation, and then returns us to an even higher note than we began. That is solid story telling. There's also no grating sense of "plot armor" either, real consequences can happen to the heroes in time.
(Just that alone makes this better storytelling than SAO which spends huge blocks of time explaining exposition in a cafe scene. Even SDGF's recap episodes still actively moved the plot forward.)
Art - 9
For the time it was, this CGI was very good. This was one of the best CGI pieces I had seen in 2004 timeline. I feel the human models were not as appeal stylistically but the Gundams (being the 'main stars' of the show truly) were great. The battle directing was elevated in Season 2 as well which is a huge highlight because by the end of Season 1 I began to feel most of the fight scenes lacked presence (exceptions being the first Ashuramaru fight where the setting felt real-time).
The character designs are not as paired down as we might imagine for a kid-audience Gundam series or for SD Gundam, which the original japanese shorts were VERY toned down in art style to be entirely comical. The setting is a futuristic tech-paradise and the tech, while not very modern looking by today's standards, reads the tone presented to the audience. Neotopia tech is lighter colors, friendly shapes and eye LED panels, they're helpful and they're friend-shaped. The bad robots from the Dark Axis are dark colored, they're inhuman looking and they sound either intimidating in their own unique way per each character, or comically inept and nearly harmless like the Zakos. I would have loved to see more detail into their worlds and especially more into the backgrounds as some were reused a bit too much (Season 2 again helped this aspect tremendously as we gained all 3 alternate settings in the last 26 episodes while were mostly stuck in the one setting for Season 1. It did make sense for the story, though.)
Sound - 10
The music and the sound effects in this were excellent and immediately recognizable. I had very few complaints on the voice acting too- if they felt overdramatic or overdone, that fit right in line with the storyboard of the theme. This was quality production in both the Japanese and the English voice over.
Character - 10
Honestly, this was my first hook. When I began this series coming from a critical eye, I expected this to be a royal joke but the characters-- while cliche in many ways-- felt unique; their goals were evident and important to the viewer, they had flaws which were humorous and sometimes worrisome, they didn't fit together like the most perfect pieces and cultural clashes happened-- this media, for as 'bare bones' as the expectation was set up on the premise of story, still took the time to make real investments in the main characters.
I would have only loved to see more of that investment placed in more of the minor characters, but I can't say they were ignored either. Some people read the bonding episodes as filler, but I felt they were the #1 reason I kept watching, and not because I thought this was a goofy and "sad" gundam series like I first interpreted, but because I became emotionally invested in these character's struggles. I wanted to see Baku return home. I wanted to see Lacroa returned to glory and the triplets de-petrified.
Enjoyment - 10
What could define enjoyment more than transforming from a pessimistic initial approach to sitting here buying merchandise and feeling at peace with a ""simple story""? I think most people in their lives would be blessed to have that experience. If you have it for SD Gundam Force like I did, then I'm extremely happy for you! And if you didn't, I still hope you find it someday.
Remember that diamonds hide under dirt sometimes. All you can know for sure is if you try.
Apr 27, 2018
SD Gundam Force
(Anime)
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To all the critics writing this was arguably the worst anime ever, 1 thing to consider: this got a full length movie and a second season. Total flops don't do that. ;) In fact, most anime never make it past 14 episodes and this has 52, making it one of the longest episodic gundam series to date!
When this show aired in 2004 on Toonami, I was not the target audience, I was just going into high school. My experience in the Gundam franchise of anime was Wing and G Gundam and my indulging in mass media anime was only newly blossoming with the dawn of ... |
