Driftinisomething something I love turn A's character design
and so ends my 2nd gundam show, this time it's Turn A's.. turn
easily the best gundam entry I've watched thus far, for as much as it pains me to say it, zeta (let alone 0079) just doesn't hold up nearly as well
unlike with previous entries, presentation oddities are completely out of the window this time - great animation, very distinctive mobile suit designs, and finally great sound design that makes MSs FEEL heavy
the mobile suits here (with special exceptions I can't spoil) look very different both from each other and from anything the first couple gundam entries ever had, with common sights like WaDs and WaDoms outright trashing the humanoid silhouette for something entirely different¹
the Turn A gundam itself just looks awesome to me, the face has some weird appeal with the orange eyes, the crest-like feature on the head, the more dynamic shapes and all² (not to throw shade at more traditional gundams, the Turn A is just so different there's no direct comparison)
the pronounced textures on several mobile suits also look really cool, like the leg vents/thruster things on the Turn A and the extreme roughness of WaDoms' legs (Wodoms according to the wiki?)
production values aside, unlike the entries I watched prior to it, proper mobile suit battles not only take a long while to show up in Turn A, but they remain relatively uncommon (for most of the runtime at least) compared to 0079 and zeta, with characters getting far more attention instead
I've gone on several times about how I love most of the character designs here, they're a huge upgrade from differently colored spacesuits and they're also woven deep into the unusual steam-age setting of the show
the characters themselves feel more interesting, with even a few gimmick characters I originally dismissed as.. well, gimmicks, eventually redeeming themselves by actually having plot significance and just being fun to watch³
(1/5)
it was exceedingly clear for a LONG time that guin was plotting something but I never expected him to leave behind everyone except militia loyalists for the sake of his own goals
I like turn A's take on the og gundam's core fighter and on the qubeley's pods from zeta (at least that's how I interpreted the turn X being able to separate and fire from multiple angles)
also wtf is guin thinking going back with 1/3 of his pilots and without his strongest MS when earth is currently in the process of being taken over by a bloodthirsty wannabe dictator from an infinitely more advanced civilization
then again I guess he does have the turn X and knowing he's good with words he'll probably spin it as nearly everyone who departed got killed OR defected and he'll use that to refuel hatred toward the moonrace
ever since I saw harry in the op for the first time I knew I was gonna give him kamina glasses
rough af + halfassed pose cause this was supposed to be a sketch to get the design decently right and I went for something overcomplicated
I like how the rett team isn't just a bunch of gimmick characters as they first came off as
and new mobile suits for the first time since the transforming ones from like 10eps ago?? harry (quite unpredictably?) betraying the militia?? dio's va being in gundam too because of course he is?????
come to think of it I'm quite close to the end, I'm so not ready 😭😭😭
finally a solid episode again!!!!!! felt like the show had lost its footing with the last few episodes, they felt weirdly unfocused on the plot compared to much of the rest thus far
the action in this one wasn't just good but it most importantly didn't feel like fanservice
also some change is starting to blossom in loran
I would've never expected an "everything goes to absolute shit" episode so early on
the militia was way in over their heads thinking they could stand a chance against far future mechs that hardly ever took damage so far, with mere biplanes and a handful of unarmed mechs of their own
their attack was also obviously very poorly planned on top of that, cause as soon as the soleil took off they were just like "oh well. better luck next time"
the ignorance of a hundred people or so singlehandedly tipped the already extremely unstable balance into total destruction of an entire city without even a silver lining in sight
it's fucked cause you'd normally say the militia is in the right here as earthers are the legitimate current settlers of earth, but with just one absolutely unauthorized move they caused far more destruction than the moonrace would've ever brought unprovoked and that brings the militia under some pretty serious bad light (and they were already disagreeable in their actions before this)
and obviously you just know the militia is gonna find out about nocis being razed to the ground and entirely shoulder the blame on the moonrace to desperately try and cover their ass
honestly really bold move for the show to cast main characters like sochie and miashei (and the "good guys" faction in general) in such a bad light, 0079 and zeta already had plenty of moral grayness but turn A brings it to a whole new level, it doesn't make you think "damn that's kinda bad from some points of view" but rather "jesus christ what the fuck are they doing"
the moral grayness in turn A seems far deeper than what 0079 and zeta had, this time there's no plain evil macrofaction but rather rogue groups among the militia and moonrace alike, while the leaderships of the two sides are actually trying to avoid war
but at the same time there's still some definite arrogance in the moonrace's expectation of coming back down on earth after emigrating to the moon for what have probably been millennia, even if their return doesn't officially/intentionally involve any violence towards the natives
it's the morally complex "two sides of the same coin" setting I expected from both gundam entries I watched before this, and I'm glad to finally see it
now to see how loran's admittance to belonging to the moonrace is taken by both sides, doesn't look too good for him right now
turn A also has an oddly lighthearted tone a lot of the time, considering how dark it gets sometimes
new day, new gundam thread, this time it's turn A
that was a great first episode??? also at a glance you'd absolutely NOT guess this is gundam with the old-looking setting, this is super intriguing
nice ed theme too, super looking forward to ep2 this evening
FormulaBefore watching Turn A Gundam, I thought the mobile suits' nickname "Mustache" was something that fans made up.
But it's actually used in the anime by those not knowing its actual designation.