Kidô senshi Gandamu: Suisei no majo

*This review is after watching Season 2*

This is sort of a guilty-pleasure anime for me. Because when it comes to the story, I stopped caring a long time ago. It was just too confusing for me to follow. At first, I thought the problem was within me and I was just not smart enough to understand this story. But after seeing the finale, I'm positive that this anime itself is a mess. The fact that they even opened so many plotlines, and ended the entire story in 24 episodes, is ridiculous. Things just suddenly happened in this anime, and I kept racking my brain to figure out why. The motivations of so many characters made no sense. Even the action scenes were hard to follow. That's why in between the story, I actually just gave up on following it.

So why did I continue watching it? Why don't I regret watching it? Well that's because the 2nd season did something that intrigued me. All these characters in the first season were just very immature and somewhat annoying in their own way. In this season, the writer just unleashed hell on all of them. Each and every character gets a brutal reality check. And this season just kept on coming at them, giving none of them any time to even breathe. And these characters were actually forced to improve. They had no choice but to grow up. There are so many character arcs that I actually didn't see coming. This season was not afraid to be dark. Even in the first season we saw that grim darkness a few times. But this season capitalised on that itself. And sunrise did do a good job on the soundtrack and animation. Not on the story though.

This isn't a good anime, frankly. I gave it a good grade because like I said, the character arcs and the darkness intrigued me. But that's why I know it's a guilty-pleasure for me. Because the story is just a mess, and many people aren't going to enjoy it.

So firstly let me say the good stuffs. The art and music in this anime is done pretty well.

That's it for the good stuffs so let the bad ones roll.

1. Plot. The whole plot is full of plot holes and a lot of the direction of how the story progress is due to chance/fate? Its completely random and I think I would shoot myself in the head if I am the author of the story.

2. Main character. Suletta is not an interesting person at all. They tried to make her likeable, but she is not cute or interesting, or relatable. I understand that there might be due to further character development, but I don't see anything interesting until the last episode where we finally see something going on but its too little and too late.

3. Other characters: The is no one that is particularly charismatic or interesting. Miorine is too much of a princess. Guel is too arrogant, Elan and Shaddiq are both too pretentious.

In my humble opinion, just skip this for now. If season 2 does pick up, then maybe can consider to watch this. I've regretted spending like 6 hours on it...

Music Amazing, Drama, action, funny all there.

Japanese language version much much better than english version.

The issue which is not relevant at all to the series is the love story between girls, again forcing this to a new generation of teenagers, pfff The 2 seasons, takes u gradually into action, really really good, u will watch it again and again and the music alone gets u addicted.

U might have seen a previous series or the movie of gundam but u will search for more series or movies to watch, each has its own story, not related to each other which is slso really good to see, looking forward to see a real good movie from these series.

Wanting for a new Gundam series to take the concept of "newtypes" in the right direction, to introduce new technologies and to elevate the stories that have been told for generations!

But it feels like this series wrote itself into a "hole" it can't wait to get out of.. imagined after properties that wished had the word "Gundam" in their name.. Taking the concept of puppeteers to the extreme, with parents playing chess with their kids in a nonsensical and unsatisfiable manner. With a plot of teenage-brides, a supposed-school where studying is not the focus and rushed settings that ultimately holds back what would be a meaningful entry. Seeing the things I'd be more interested in buried in a deeper layer and relegated to background ideas.. such as agitators and revolts, effects of technology, humanity, military issues, space politics and more! What dissatisfies me the most, is that it pretends to have some sort of Gundam-related Biotechnology (similar to newtypes), but it is just a thin-veiled power-up with no explanation.. not that something so cheap could be any interesting, anyway.

For what it is (another generic "quality anime drama" with robots, instead of filling the role of "space opera").. it is decent enough. Episodes could be watched out of order (from 5 to 9, unknowingly, in my case) and nothing felt out of place immediately.. make of that what you will. The writing, for the genre and the target audience, is okay. And the characterization and personalities are also well done. No one is particularly annoying for trope's sake, with decent action and technology.

It's just too bland for my taste to recommend.

There's only been like 4 episodes released so review is based on those.

It's not like typical Gundam series.

The animation is beautiful, the story is okay, but the main character Suletta is extremely silly. Many anime have silly moments and childish characters but Suletta is on another level. She has the mannerisms of a 5 year old child. Hiding behind people because she's too shy, crying like a toddler, which makes it even more weird that they're dueling over marriages.

They've basically made what would normally be the comic relief character the main character of the show. This makes it harder to take her seriously as a pilot when you see how she acts, it's hard to believe that she has the constitution to go into space and pilot a mobile suit. It's similar as to how in season 2 of Gundam00 the guy's ditzy girlfriend had become an elite mobile suit pilot. It just didn't fit.

They've shown little so far as per the normal themes of Gundam, but Im hoping it will get better. Even the Gundam has a more round cutesy face than normal, because the pilot is female, and females cute, shy and innocent, right?

I really hope it get's more serious later on.