Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance

Gundam: Requiem for a Vengeance is a very interesting entry to say the least. By no means is it "bad" but there is a lot that holds it back. Firstly, the most important aspect to address is the animation, a key part of its appeal and marketing. The entire show was animated in the game engine of Unreal Engine 5 and it really shows (in a bad way). While objectively the show looks good from a pure visual fidelity standpoint, it in turn makes the aesthetics feel bland and uninteresting, it's just "realistic". A problem that plagues a lot of modern games as well. I actuallyreally enjoy the mechanical designs, they look quite good the titular Gundam especially, it manages to come off as scary and menacing really well and it's design definitely feels like a "prototype". The rest of the designs for the Zaku, Goufs and GMs are what you expect but all look good nonetheless. My main gripe with the animation is the human characters, they what really remind you that this was created in a game engine, there's many occasions where it looks like I'm about to transition into gameplay. A lot of dialogue sequences look like automated cutscenes in an open-world game and everyone has these lifeless eyes that always seem like they're looking past the person they're talking to. The movements at times look like they tweened between multiple pre-set animations they found in a library as they at times have these weird and noticeable start-ups and stiff and sudden ends. Some other small aspects such as hair clipping throw hats and hair not blowing in the wind while other fabrics are, all add up and take you out the experience. The dialogue is pretty weak as well, character interactions just feel awkward and that especially the case when the intonation of speech doesn't match up with how the character is animated. There's quite a few occasions where character alignment isn't consistent. In the last episode Alfee comforts Iria by saying that her squad's death wasn't her fault and they're just soldiers doing their job, then when Iria decides to stay and fight the EFF (aka doing "her job") Alfee (and everyone for that matter) is against it. This show always love doing fake suspense, where it looks like a character is going to die but then someone comes just at the right moment to save them. That cliche occurs like three times in one episode. This entry can't also decides whether it's for newcomers or veterans, because for newcomers it doesn't give a good depiction of either side of the war and makes reference to other key events, locations and people for the U.C but then it also stops to explains the concept of Newtypes (which I know makes sense in the context of the scene but still). The EFF are essentially faceless nobodies just there to be obstacles, no one is even given the attempt to have sympathy, aside from the Gundam's pilot, who felt kind of shoehorned into the latter half of the show. It's like they wanted to have the Gundam as a threatening presence but also as a thing to feel bad for, and due to the shortness of the series it couldn't be explored that in depth, but I could see where they wanted to go with it and I think the fact that they left the pilot as a nameless child adds to the horror they were trying to depict. Most of the Zeon forces have little to no personality, they're all just there to "do their job" and "kill the enemy so they can go home", which is true for war but none of them display anything that makes them "Zeon", they act the same as the Earth Federation Forces in terms of motivation and ideals, they're almost interchangeable. This is especially jarring when you remember the existence of 'Operation British' and how much destruction the Principality of Zeon caused because of it, but no one even has an opinion on it, nor is it ever mentioned despite being such a major event. Iria is the only character to stand out with having an actual motivation but it's presented as if she's the only person who lost family in the war and/or has a child who's waiting for them. When the Mobile Suit battles actually happened they do look quite good and cool, the effects work on the explosions, sparks and beams are really well done and I did find myself becoming more invested in the story as it unfolded (I wasn't very impressed with the first episode) but for every step it took forward a bunch of little things would accumulate into it taking two steps back. The concept isn't bad but it's not the first time we've seen a prototype Gundam and the existence of this specific model doesn't really make sense nor is ever explained (I can only guess that in-universe it aided in the development of the Ground Gundam from The 08th MS Team? Supported by the cameo from Yuri that they want that connection, but that still feels like a bit of a stretch). There's a lot more I could mention but I don't want this to be too long. Basically... Watch it if you want I guess, you're not gonna gain much but you're not gonna lose anything either.

*In depth review.* Good. Could have been GREAT. Refreshing to "root for the other side" once again. Story: 7.5 Bit forced at times, and the ending feeling rushed and incomplete. But overall, the storyline was enjoyable enough.===== Dialogue: 7 Sometimes felt like the whole dialogue of the movie was a series of "coming attractions, previews style one liners" mashed together to make the movie. Especially when it came to tone and inflections of the characters voices and dialogue. A great feature that made it feel close to reality, was the lack of the well established anime style, (crazy) pilot-to-pilot, mid-battle conversations/arguments between opposing MS pilots. Enemies don't have long-winded, deep, life contemplating conversations as they try to take each other out. This feature (or lack thereof), made the battles feel quite realistic, and frankly, alot less frustrating to ingest, as a viewer. ===== World and Mechanical design: 9 The settings and battlefields were quite good, with great detail. Only criticism, would be that, while yes it can be understood that it is a dark setting and situation, being as they are smack bang in the middle of a war and its associated battles and battlefields, the production staff have tried to convey this feeling through the dark colouring, "lighting" and settings within the world and it's battlefields. Unfortunately this results in alot of these settings feeling overly flooded in darkness and making it hard to distinguish details etc. sometimes making it feel like everything was all one colour. The result being, almost making it a black and grey movie (or dark greens and dark browns in alot of scenes also). The mechanical designs of all the Mobile Suits, fighter jets, tanks, trucks, cars, and rockets/launch vehicles, etc, frankly, were amazing. It was hard to find any criticism regarding these details and designs (also reflected in the detail and quality of the new Gunpla model kits of the movies Mobile Suits). ===== Character Design: 6.5 Pre-release reviews indicated that the entire productions design was great, but the designs of the characters themselves were quite lacking. Unfortunately this turned out to be quite accurate. If there were no human characters to be seen within the story, you would very easily fail to remember, that the entire production was created via a newly updated and released video game design engine. The fact that the production DOES include human characters within the story, definitely reminds you that a video game design engine was used to create the whole thing. Awkward movements, awkward hand gestures, awkward facial/emotional expressions, awkward everything. Definitely needs improvement for any future productions using this method/design engine (remastered release maybe?). ===== Sound design: 8.5 The sounds of the trucks/cars, tanks, fighter jets, rockets/launch vehicles etc. made it feel like these elements were true to life, sounding as close to real life equipment as possible. Mobile Suits and their movements, weapons fire, clashes etc, also sound as close to real life equipment as possible. ===== Overall: 8 Considering any and all pros and cons related to the production, the story, dialogue, world/setting design, character design, sound design etc. the final result is one worth watching, and definitely something to recommend to any fans of the franchise. Newcomers to the franchise, using this particular production as a launching platform into the world of Mobile Suit Gundam, won't have the benefit of all previous in universe details to support their viewing, but in regards to this new production, it isn't needed at all. There aren't any moments, dialogue, details or information that comes up in this production, that would confuse newcomers, or have them questioning details to try and piece together the story, on the fly. It is simply a story of war, it's battles, it's weapons, the combatants, and the effects of such on the civilian population. Within the franchise, the majority of storylines are related to, and told through the perspective of, what many/most, consider to be the "good guys". When the story IS told from the perspective of, again what many/most, consider to be the "bad guys", it is always refreshing, especially considering it humanizes the lives of those on the side of the "bad guys". It's not often we find ourselves rooting for the other side, but this is definitely one of those times. - Jake. Perth, Australia.

Idk why this has such a low score, the idea of this show is so great, follow Zeon soldiers being hunted down by the recently deployed Gundams. The horror at how much stronger this one mobile suit is than whole platoons of Zakus, the helplessness of a war so quickly being turned around, it's a borderline horror anime. The animation is also incredibly amazing, it's CG but the mech and millitary fights are some of the best looking and directed in the entire Gundam franchise. This show deserves more than a 6.5 average. That said it's not perfect, while the mech animation is stunning, the characteranimation is sub par and very janky at times. Also aside from the amazing premise, the actual story line and character writing is nothing special and sadly predictable, that is to say, not very good. This had the potential to be an all timer great Gundam series. So while there's some giant flaws I gave it an 8/10 to boost the overall score a bit and to say its 100% worth watching if you like really good looking mech fights. Sadly this series is doomed to be a super niche underrated modern Gundam series, but don't sleep on it. And don't just take my word for it, Hideo Kojima gave it high praises on twitter too! lol

...Who is this Netflix Gundam series about Zeon soldiers FOR, exactly? So much of the tension of the One Year War story comes from the fact that Zeon's position is literally correct—the Federation is their oppressor. The spacenoids deserve freedom despite being organized by clear villains, the Zabi family who have betrayed everything Zeon the man stood for by being dynastic Nazis. So you're doing a story about spacenoids fighting a war for independence on Earth (probably on-planet for the first time). Also, their leaders recently committed genocide by dropping a colony on Australia, killing billions of people including the people who lived in the colony—people likethem. What is your main character's position on this? They do not have one? NOBODY has one? How? Literally, HOW is that possible? It's a story that could go in so many directions, and it has done so in the past. Truly, the ONLY unacceptable response is that the Zeon soldier is a noble warrior who merely goes where she is ordered. Like, going all in on them being an unapologetic Nazi and trying to humanize them would be (awful but) better than this. This is just people walking around and screaming about being soldiers. It has nothing to say about war or the human condition, and that's only driven home stronger by the introduction of the child solider theme at the 11th hour. Absolute waste.