Getting to Know Gundam Again: Part 1

Posted On June 30, 2025

Anyone who has been following me online for some time knows that Gundam has been a part of my life for a while. However, despite a sustained interest in the franchise for over 2 decades, due to a lack of easy access to the series for many years, along with my old tendency to follow primarily newer anime in the first decades of this millennium, for the longest time I was primarily taking in Gundam via the vibes. And not to diss vibes–these vibes were strong, as I named my old web comic^[1]I’ll start it back up… eventually. after the famous “mistakes of youth” quote, and I was able to chat up any old Japanese dude about Gundam in random bars or izakaya.

The situation changed when 2020 rolled around, bringing with it the coronavirus pandemic, and giving me a great opportunity to go back and watch a bunch of old anime I used to love, including Gundam. As such, since 2020 I’ve been slowly making my way through Gundam’s UC entries, revisiting old favorites, and digging into series I hadn’t seen before.

I’ll admit that this journey through the Universal Century was not exhaustive. Part of it was enabled by Netflix Japan, which at the time didn’t have 0080, so I did miss that one^[2]And from my point of view I had seen the show recently, but just looking back at that review I linked, I last saw it over a decade ago…. I also didn’t really make the effort to figure out where shows like Thunderbolt fit in… and I’m probably missing other small entries here and there as well.

Anyway, with the G-Quack TV series just wrapping up, I felt now would be a good time to go through what I’ve seen over these past five years and leave some brief thoughts on each of them. Admittedly I’m reaching quite far back for these first entries, but given how empty those early pandemic years were, a lot of these impressions still feel quite fresh in my mind. 

Note: Titles are listed in the order I watched them, using their shorthand English titles. 

The Gundam Movie Trilogy

Not going out during the pandemic meant I had money to burn on Blu-rays, and one of my first purchases was the UC Gundam Blu-ray Libraries release of the Gundam movie trilogy. I had only ever seen the versions of the films with the re-recorded audio mix that removed the insert songs, so I was hype to see them in their original form for the first time^[3]Meanwhile, I have still yet to see the “despecialized” Star Wars films….

I first saw this trilogy in college^[4]That’s between the years 2006 and 2010 for me., and while I do remember liking it, I also remember taking a lot of breaks. Nearly 15 years later, the same thing happened, and mostly with the first film–which may well be how my initial watch back in college played out. As I do enjoy Gundam as a story, seeing a bunch of those early TV episodes stitched together is fun, but the inevitable issues with pacing does make these a chore to get through as films from time to time. Thankfully, they get a lot better. This is certainly not a new take, but watching that third film for the first time in a while cemented in my brain how much of a timeless classic it is. Be it the finesse of the polished-up animation, the psychedelic mindtrips, or just the extremely relatable and devastating human drama–it’s one for the ages.

08th MS Team

Like many kids of my generation, this one was on heavy rotation between me taping it off of Toonami, and eventually getting my grubby hands on the DVDs. As a huge Kawamoto Toshihiro stan, I’ve always loved the character designs in this show. It’s right when he was hitting his sweet spot, striking that nice balance between retro anime designs and the then-modern streamlined 90s aesthetic, which he would then carry on to Cowboy Bebop. But beyond just characters, I always loved the rich texture and grime constantly present in the show’s steamy southeast Asian setting, and in the subsequent grungy battlefields the crew are whisked away to. Same for the mechs–I just revel in how every machine is kind of busted, and not quite working right.

I could be wrong, but based on vibes online, I get the feeling that people rag on this one for the direction that the story goes^[5]Happy to be corrected if I am wrong., but I felt it was serviceable in delivering some great battles and spectacle by the end, so I’m happy with how it played out. Also, I still enjoyed the characters in this one after all these years, and listening to them in Japanese for the first time. This speaks to the quality of the character writing, which is adept at portraying a bunch of maladjusted adults–and one kid–with a bunch of convincing quirks and personal convictions. Needless to say, this is one I gotta pick up on Blu.

0083: Stardust Memory

This one felt pretty new to me watching it for the first time in a while. I want to say my initial encounter with 0083 was TV ads that played early mornings when I was trying to catch either Pokémon or Dragon Ball on UPN, but I actually got around to seeing the show proper when it first aired on Adult Swim weekly, memorably catching some key episodes of the show at a friend’s house during a couple of sleepovers. I also vaguely remember seeing it once more in either high school or college when I picked up a brick of the show. 

Despite seeing the show two times prior, I have a feeling it probably didn’t stick with me due to the rather generic soap opera approach to the character writing. Being written and produced as Japan’s bubble was slowly bursting, it certainly felt like a “trendy drama” take on Gundam with the romantic relationship between Kō and Nina hitting a lot of standard beats. While this probably stands out as a weakness for some, to wah in his 30s, I do think it helps the show stand out as unique among other Gundam entries. I do have to be in the mood for it though, and it’s hard to deny that the main love triangle kind of stinks by the end.

But who cares! The robots look fucking good. I’d be happy to own a Blu of this as well, and throw it on once every couple of years with a beer in hand.

---

And that’s it for this part! Look forward to the rest, coming soon (hopefully).