Mobile Suit Gundam
Universal Century
I want to believe (a sign of zeta)
This is an AMV I made in 2016.
You belong to me サヨナラ言えなくて
いつまでも 抱しめたかった
I belong to you 張り裂けそうになる
この胸を 君に差し出して
We belong to Earth 遥かな宇宙（そら）のもと
コバルトに 光る地球がある
悲しみは そこから始まって
愛しさが そこに帰るのさ
ああ メビウスの輪から抜け出せなくて
いくつもの罪を繰り返す
平和より自由より正しさより
君だけが望む全てだから
離れても変わっても見失っても
輝きを消さないで
You can change your destiny 時の向こう
You can change your future 闇の向こう
We can share the happiness 捜してゆく
許し合えるその日を
夢という 風に導かれて
あやまちの 船に揺られてく
We belong to Earth 生きてゆけるのなら
いつかまた もどれる日がある
ああ メビウスの輪から引き寄せられて
いくつもの出会い繰り返す
Beyond the time
希望より理想より憧れより
君だけが真実 つかんでいた
はかなくて激しくて偽りない
まなざしを閉じないで
You can change your destiny 時の向こう
You can change your future 闇の向こう
We can share the happiness 捜してゆく
愛し合ったあの日を
You can change your destiny 時の向こう
You can get your future 闇の向こう
ああ もう一度君に
巡り会えるなら
メビウスの宇宙を
越えて Beyond the time
Fanlistings:
Ad Stella
"What if Revolutionary Girl Utena had mechs?" "What if Char Aznable was your mom?" "What if piloting a Gundam was really bad and it killed you?"
At the time of writing (Dec. 31, 2022), the season finale has yet to air, and the second half won't air until April. It may be foolish to recommend the show before seeing how it ends, but I'm feeling optimistic. It's pretty good! I don't know where it will go with the questions it raises, but the journey so far has been interesting.
My biggest complaints are that Miorine's arc has been a weak misinterpretation of the message of Utena (I hated being fought over like a trophy, but it's okay now that I'm YOUR trophy!), and that the Aerial is kind of ugly. There's still a whole season left to figure out the whole Miorine thing.
UPDATE: Season two was NOT good! I love the cast, but the narrative was so unsatisfying... and those tomatoes looked gross!
Fanlistings:
Miscellaneous
So... I've been playing the Gundam-branded Overwatch clone. I used to play Overwatch a lot (even joining my college's competitive team for a semester), but I stopped playing to get away from the noxious parts of the playerbase. Overwatch used to be the one exception to my lack of interest in competitive shooters, so I was surprised by how much I've enjoyed this one. The maps could do more to highlight that you're piloting giant robots, but it's still pretty fun to jump around in a Rick Dom.
Last I checked, the North American server is pretty dead. I waited something like an hour for a ranked match before finally giving up and switching to the Japanese server. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand any strategizing happening in the chat, but almost every game I've played has been devoid of a single message. Marking locations on the map and hitting the "Nice!" button is enough for some level of team coherence.
I've had a nice enough time with it, but I hate battlepasses so I'll probably drop it soon. Though I am tempted to get all of the achievements...
UPDATE: It's over.
Pacific Rim
I've loved kaiju movies since early childhood, and my high school best friend was a big fan of Guillermo del Toro, so Pacific Rim seemed like the perfect mix of our interests. We were so unbelievably hyped for this movie, and it didn't disappoint. I remember doing donuts in the parking lot after we got out of the theater, yelling about how much we loved it. Despite my longtime interest in kaiju, somehow it wasn't until Pacific Rim that I watched something with giant, pilotable robots. (Pilotable is an important distinction here. I loved The Iron Giant, but he's his own guy! Not mecha to me.)
Soon after that first watch, I remember reading some article discussing del Toro's obvious love and respect for mecha anime and thinking "wow, I've gotta see what that's all about." So I immediately watched Evangelion, then Mobile Suit Gundam, and now, a decade later, I'm still watching/playing/reading anything with a giant robot in it. I'm not sure there's any other film that's had such a clear impact on my personal taste.
Well, I've said a lot about what it means to me and little about the film itself. Is it any good? Oh hell yeah.
Fanlisting:
Recommended: Rosemary's amazing Pacific Rim shrine
Gunbuster
I've rewatched Gunbuster more times than anything else on this page, and I can't imagine that changing any time soon. It's short and sweet and my go-to "watch this with me" recommendation for any friend I'm trying to get interested in mecha. It was one of the first things added to my recommendations page, and I'll recommend it to you again right now!
Gunbuster is a solid sci-fi story with gorgeous animation, really charming training montages, and a final episode blows me away every time. I think it's a shame that so often it's only brought up in comparison to Evangelion (because they were both directed by Hideaki Anno), because Gunbuster has so much to offer on its own.