Monday 2 March 2020

#138: Mobile Suit Gundam-san (2014)


Director: Mankyū
Screenplay: Hideki Ohwada and Mankyū
Based on the parody manga by Hideki Ohwada
Voice Cast: Katsuyuki Konishi as Char-san/Suisei Hiyoko; Megumi Han as Lalah-san; Tsubasa Yonaga as Amuro-san; Kaori Nazuka as Artepiyo/Sayla-san; Kazuyuki Okitsu as Garma-san; Keiko Han as Proverb explanations; Rikako Yamaguchi as Fraw-san; Ryotaro Okiayu as Bright-san
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

I promise I'll actually review a true Gundam series, as yes, it's ridiculous that I have yet to see any of the main titles of this legendary franchise started with Mobile Suit Gundam (1979-1980). (No, Gundam Reconguista in G (2014) doesn't qualify even if I have fondness for its scatterbrained weirdness, because if any show really shouldn't be recommended as your first Gundam as it was for me, that's it). For the third, I promise, to watch an actual series in the main franchise or alternative world versions, be it the original, Seed, Destiny, maybe be wary of OO and its divisive sequel, maybe Wing as a breakout mainstream success, definitely not G Gundam as whilst I want to see it, a strange decision to turn a show about war and politics into giant robot tournament fights with humour is not connected to the franchise's main premises.

Until then, Char Aznableas interpreted as an evil red chick wearing a little helmet.

Because if anything, parodies of original properties which are officially sanctioned is a common concept in anime and manga, and a great way for an outsider like myself to be slowly introduced into these shows. Even if half the jokes here only really make sense to a fan, like the character of Garma Zabi who is clearly infamous for a series of misfortunate events to himself, if I can still see this officially commissioned piss take based on a four panel manga and find stuff of interest, I can now see the original serious work's significance in popularity, get a taste of it and now want to see the show both because of this and in happiness the Gundam creators at Sunrise have a sense of humour.

Parodies are their own cottage industry, even in the midst of a production of a sereis a chance of a short comedy micro-series to be created for the physical releases as a bonus, something I have come to love when they actually exist just for seeing the voice cast and production unwind and subvert their material. Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995) had a radio drama Evangelion: After the End (1996) where Megumi Hayashibara, who played the meek character Rei, got to play her as a motor mouth slapping cast members and creator Hideaki Anno himself as an evil villain. Fist of the North Star (1983-8) and its 1984-7 TV series, the influential manga that inspired the likes of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, is as sustained as much now by DD Fist of the North Star (2013) (about the cast of post apocalypse muscle men if the nuclear apocalypse didn't happen and they had to find work) as much as tie-in and remakes. Manga even has "omake", side pieces which might not always be directly about the work, or even a parody, but can have light hearted, and even have the creators both talk about their work and be playful about their persona, be it horror author Junji Ito for Uzumaki depict himself as going almost crazed researching the power of the spiral, or in Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (1993-5), the whole of the four woman manga team CLAMP to admit they drew that manga just because they wanted to see questionable girl on girl titillation.

Gundam-San, as a licensed product by the creators of Gundam, also can get away with being profane. I know, even having never seen Gundam yet, the importance of a character like Char, the famous antagonist who wears red and never takes off an iconic helmet that obscures his face. The first episode takes a scorched earth policy to this image, in less than three minutes, with a) Char being an idiots who gleefully likes being nude, and b) having his female second-in-command Lalah Sun (who is by all accounts much meeker in the original series) devastate him when she informs him painting his giant robot red doesn't make it go faster. It's completely hilarious even if I have no context for either character in their importance to the fanbase.


Gundan-San is slight, I'll be upfront with it, but if they ever bankrolled a longer series, I'd be there to watch it with interest because these versions of the characters can be played with for many possibilities. Char is useless, Lalah much more reliable. The male protagonist of the original Amuro Ray, the stereotypical plucky teenage hero, is a gleeful mocking of teenage hormones as awkwardly portrayed as possible, especially as he is a psychic (a "Newtype" in Gundam lore) which allows him to notice if someone's bra is unhooked. Likewise the female protagonist Sayla Mass gets to confess to a sadistic side to enjoying slapping people about, part of a funny traditional of gentle or/and stoic female characters getting to be played by voice actresses in bawdy, crude or even comically violent ways. Probably the best episode, number three, informs us the robot mascot Haro has actual flesh arms inside itself who also, on the phone when not seen, is a working guy with a family and issues with if wife, as if say Star Wars had R2D2 had to go off to the side and deal with his wife leaving him over a mobile phone between space battles.

Then there's chicken Char, which envisions Char as a red feathered chick with the exact same helmet. The closest thing to a narrative in the thirteen episodes is the ongoing struggle between Char and chicken Char, who are trying to off each other behind Lalah's back. I think my one disappointment with Gundam-San is that this semblance of a plot could've been taken to another funnier climatic punch line and ended the series on a high note, just instead abruptly ending with the last episode just being about Char presuming the mole on Lalah's head allowing her to psychically shot lasers out of it. Obviously, this is extra material for a fuller work, so the slightness is to be expected, but that running gag would've paid off if ran for at least one more episode.

What you get, like many of these parodies, is a more relaxed and playful attitude to animation too, as they play up to the greater limitations of it for humour.  I swear, when the titular Gundam robots appear, they're actual models. These type of pastiches are a way to have fun, and if anything even a novice on this subject has to be impressed that the end theme, a traditional Japanese sing-along, has three versions to reflect Char, Amuro and Garma, that hapless guy whose episode is entirely about Char being a dick tormenting him. The playfulness comes from an institution, so even those songs have a refrain to shout aloud the three's famous lines to play this up for a sense of amusement among fans. It even mocks some details that might be unintentionally funny from the main series, such as leader of Amuro's ship Bright Noa clearly liked to slap crew around, as an episode is based around him going to consoling about this fact and sharing a similar bond with Sayla.

The crassness, from the sex gags to the end credits even having Amuro nude tied up on a gym horse in red bondage ropes and a S&M gag, is felt with a healthiness to it rather than being tasteless, in allowing a series to become stronger by commissioning a sacred cow to be mocked officially. And it's consistently funny, so Gundam-San at least got right what it was meant to do.   Even if it's an odd choice to have made for myself in seeing this as one of the first Gundam properties, it does show promise when the official parody is as enticing to the main material as it is. Whilst there are probably equivalents in Western pop culture, this is definitely a concept very prevalent in Japanese anime and manga for the better, something heart warming to the fact its encouraged for production star and talent to let their hair down and do something as ridiculous as this from time to time.


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