Director: Yoshiyuki Tomino
Screenplay: Yoshiyuki Tomino
Voice Cast: Mark Ishii as Bellri
Zenam; Yu Shimamura as Aida Surugan; Akio Hirose as Cumpa Rusita; Atsuko Tanaka
as Wilmit Zenam; Ayahi Takagaki as Manny Ambassada; Minako Kotobuki as Noredo
Nug; Ryota Ohsaka as Klim Nick; Takuya Satō as Luin Lee / Mask; Yukari Fukui as
Raraiya Monday; Ami Koshimizu as Kun Soon; Atsuki Tani as Lorucca Biskes; Ayahi
Takagaki as Nobell; Michelle Yumiko Payne as Steer; Michiko Kaiden as Mick Jack
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
My first Gundam title...probably not the best way to ever get into this
series, started in the 1979 series and ongoing in TV series, films, compilation
movies, video games and parodies set across multiple different versions of the
same premise, but I was completely aware of what I was getting into. Another
will be spent with the original series, another with the likes of 0080: War in the Pocket (1989), another
with Char's Counterattack (1988),
another with a Cartoon Network
favourite Gundam Wing (1995), maybe Gundam Unicorn (2010) one day, maybe
even the controversial and camper reboot G
Gundam (1994)...but for the first I choose a ridiculous one, yet befitting
as one of the men integral to the original 1979 series is Gundam Reconguista in G's director/main writer Yoshiyuki Tomino, who this is also my first work of.
Tomino is a veteran, held highly for the likes of Space Runaway Ideon (1980), and an
integral part to Gundam when it
became a franchise in the eighties. He's also, into the nineties onwards, a
divisive and perplexing figure, the same man behind the infamous OVA Garzey's Wing (1996), The Wings of Rean (2005), the
notoriously bad attempt at a Neon
Genesis Evangelion beater named Brain
Powerd (1998) and this series. Reconguista
in G is his attempt a light hearted romp part of Gundam's 35th anniversary, clearly meant to be set thousands of
years after the 1979 series and its own sequels, at least in terms that (aware
I have no knowledge of Gundam as an
outsider) characters use the term "Universal Century" for the ancient
past, also the same name uses for the franchise for any story set in the
original 1979 show's timeline rather than an alternative dimension version or
this, set in the Regild Century1.
Tomino's Reconguista in G,
aware of what I was getting into, it too weird to live but too rare to die, a
good honest eccentricity matched by a plot structure which is absolutely not
recommended to follow in practice as a budding screenwriter. Let's get out of
the way that, regardless of what I get into, this is still a TV series better
made and better produced than many I have probably covered as, due to Gundam turning into a cottage industry,
its rights owner Sunrise wouldn't let
any title be too bad. Despite the many bad business decisions they've made, especially
in importing the series to the West, it would've been a black eye if they let
something shoddy be released. Even if Reconguista
in G was a critically divisive and unsuccessful work, something I'd argued
is that on a technical and creative level it's an absolute joy, but is being
helmed by a figure that is absolutely erratic in this particular tale.
Notoriously Toshio Okada, a co-founder and former president of Gainax who became an anime scholar by
the time he talked of this show, took
this series to task in terms of being in comprehensible. The issue is not the
premise, which is complex but easy to go through. In the far future, after wars
decimated the Earth, the surviving society rejects technology and embraces a
religion that (through the "Capital City") runs the space elevator
which brings all the vital supplies (photon batteries, water and air balls etc)
down to Earth. Ameria, the least subtle American stand-in possible, want to
liberate this elevator for all Earth, and unfortunately, the Capital's own army
(unlike their guards of the elevator) are going against the protocols against
advanced military technology. Later on, who is above the space elevator on the
Moon and Venus intervene, rebel factions within them wanting to commit a
Reconguista again Earth itself, desiring to reclaim it.
Where things get weird and Okada's concerns came is that Tomino, the mind behind this story, has
a view of plotting and characterisation which is utterly convoluted at times to
say the least. As a result, two sides of the coin, he can be maddeningly
pedantic in strange tangents or a uniquely alien experience I did enjoy,
sometimes in the same scene. It's probably both, for as my first Tomino work, it's one thing to try to
describe his clipped, abrupt manner of characters thinking aloud their
thoughts, to quickly discarding them (even when a beloved one has died) for
another, or for points to be brought up as plot or motivation only to be
disposed of, but it's another to witness this in motion. The issue is that he
likes to negate transitional dialogue and scene structure that would explain
and/or clarify plot points as you'd find another anime work. He has characters whose
emotions swing wildly, allegiances changing per same episode, and many characters
shaking of deaths as mentioned with alarming ease. Even if a large portion of
the show is meant to be fun and for kids, which means abrupt and sometimes
random comedy moments, this is against some deeply adult plot ideas and some
incredibly blunt (even unintentional humorous) deaths befitting the man once nicknamed
"Kill 'em all" Tomino.
The plot is denser in terms of
all the characters thrown in, Tomino
as much influencing this by his tendency for whiplash plotting and how he
clearly likes to surf plot holes like currents here as much as good ideas.
Protagonist Bellri Zenam, son of Space Elevator manager, is a Capital guard
trainee who find a mech called a G-Self that came from outer space, the design
in aesthetic the trademark "Gundam" of the franchise. He finds
himself kidnapped by space pirates; strangely, though the show takes liberties
to justify it and the pirates are soon shown to be good guys, he soon joins
sides with them, even if it means attacking and even killing his former guard
members2. The space pirates, on the Megafauna, do have some of the
most memorable characters, from the ship steerer named Steer to the lonely
technical wizard who is this world's Q, alongside Aida Surugan, the daughter of
a major Amerian general who, as the pirates are original working for Ameria,
has a lot on her mind in terms of liberating the space elevator whilst finding
her own life in intertwined with Bellri's then they both presumed.
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| From http://i.imgur.com/tCUtCWI.jpg |
There are many characters to mention. Noredo Nug, a capital guard cheerleader, who ends up friends with Raraiya Monday, a person from space who for the first half of the series, due to oxygen deprivation, has the mind of a small child for a while (and is named because she was found by the Capital Guard on a Monday). The Amerian forces include Klimton Nicchini, son of the president who claims himself a genius, but comes off as a cocky ass, with his more interesting female second in command Mick Jack (whose name just brings to mind Mick Jagger every time she's named). The opposition include, alongside renegades on the Moon and Venus, Colonel Cumpa Rusita, leader of the Capital Army and Luin Lee, a classmate of the protagonist who as a Kuntala, formally the lowest caste of people once eaten, who uses his power under Rusita now as "Mask" to show his talent for the sake of his caste even if at cost of his morality. Yes, despite being a kid's show, and never being a major plot point, this world once had people whose function was to be eaten, with the adding adult nature that, as Kuntala is used as a slur, the show's digging into issues of bigotry it never gets around to.
It's a lot to digest, but it's
all interesting even in a less than perfectly used state. The real issue for me
is not Tomino's scattergun, abstract
take on pace but how the series procrastinates, taking thirteen episodes to get
to the top of the Space Elevator and to the Moon, only in the last few episodes
getting to the crux of the show where all the sides are introduced and are
hastily brought into conflict. Remaking the show would lose all the hard work
and style, alongside its quirky charm, but it'd also use the plot points rather
than squander them. I haven't even mentioned details like a 200 year old leader
of Venus, with his incredibly clumsy princess, or that the Reconguista of the
title that isn't that elaborated upon as you'd expect. Aspects of this show are
fun for me, but I won't lie that alongside the sense of glee was still in the
midst of a twenty six episode show that left me at times wondering where
exactly Tomino was going, long
periods that would only take four episodes in another series stretching even
longer with various robot skirmishes especially in the first quarter.
Is it actually good? Probably
not, though this is a curious case where so much onscreen is better than most
anime series, actually exceptional for me in style, but with a director/main
scriptwriter in the centre of the production who leaves it a mess; many would
understandably hate this, but I for one admit there's so much that's going to
be impossible to forget. The show is, as mentioned, incredible looking and for
all the mad tangents, it does build a fascinating world worth exploring. One which
has had to change as a result of major cataclysmic damage, where the anti-tech
religion is openly Catholic in aesthetic to having a Pope, and its own
idiosyncratic cultures and costumes, even members of the Venus groups looking
like they've wandered from a JoJo
Bizarre Adventure's narrative arc. Many of the characters are just
memorable from how they look, character designer Kenichi Yoshida an integral
part to this series coming to be, having worked with Tomino before, and doing a damn fine job. The robot designs are
just as interesting, as someone who hasn't seen many shows like this, from the
conventional designs of the franchise to the increasingly stranger ones, like a
literal death pyramid or ornate space ships meant for ritual transport. Hell,
even the Capital Army's mechs called Mack Knives, who legs split asunder to
fly, whilst potentially ugly for long time fans befit that faction's lack of
morals with a willingness to fund ugly and quickly manufactured machines just
to got on to business.
This is in mind too there's a lot
I find charming in the quirks as well, both Tomino's
and the production's. His proclivity for odd names, whilst not as ridiculous as
other work, is to be found here even in terminology, naming the terminals of
the space elevator "nuts", with the first the "under nut". The
details which are interesting or good ideas, like abruptly including
cheerleaders to cheer on the Capital City robot pilots, are still imaginative
even if sadly discarded, the cast (such as Barara Peor, a femme fatale with
robot bunny ears) befittingly eccentric for this material. Even if it means
some utterly risible and silly dialogue, the tone if the plot was clarified
would still be appropriate, a sense of flourish and style right down to clever
(and visibly eye catching) transitions to pilots in their mechs or the end
credits that, in contrast to the tedious two opening credit sequences, is at
least memorable in depicting characters regardless of allegiances springing up
in the air with smiles and even can canning in unison.
This is all in knowledge of the
many visible flaws that, really, means this is a true case of a "guilty
pleasure", not that I felt any guilt but I am aware that, unless you used
this style deliberately with a better precision3, there's many
issues that are a pain to sit through. Those plot issues. The occasional streak
of sexism that thankfully is undercut by so many strong female side characters
but means some of the main ones, especially Aida Surugan, are made useless in favour
of a dull male protagonist less interesting than his merry band of eccentric
friends.
There's a whole sense that Tomino's not actually making any
coherent sense for moments as a result; in terms of message, Tomino despite his Amerian bashing does
have the hippy-like idea of peace not war, something to his credit is
emphasised, particularly on Earth, whenever the robots are contrasted with
shots of nature and animals during skirmishes. This was in the end, though,
meant to be a fun show, and it wasn't successful; many would struggle with it
and it's definitely not appropriate for children in how dense it is. Arguably, it's
the worst place to start with Gundam,
only for the hardcore fans to try, but willingly choosing it, I got what I desired.
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| From https://wrongeverytime.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/horriblesubs-gundam- reconguista-in-g-02-720p-mkv_snapshot_20-11_2014-10-03_14-45-24.jpg |
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1) Yes, that sounds confusing but
is the same thing as when American superhero comic books need to create new
alternative realities for their characters so they can write new stories
without stumbling over the canon lore.
2) Even if he tries for large
part of the series to not kill anyone, as much to do two incidents early on,
he's an odd duck just for his dialogue to say the least.
3) The Samurai Flamenco technique to christen the term.
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