G Gundam Review

This show is a weird one, I do enjoy it and it's probably my favorite non Universal Century Gundam show that I have seen. I still kind of feel like I start losing engagement the more I watch it.

First of all, if you are one of those people who thought the Gundam franchise took itself way too seriously, this show might be for you. G Gundam while having the setting, the mechs, and the battles of a Gundam show, it's much more of a traditional fighting shonen, if you have ever seen Saint Seiya, this show feels like it borrows heavily from it. From the loudly screamed attack names that are mostly just punches, to the characters of the main cast representing a certain part of the world, and to the characters all having armor that represent their "gimmick". It all feels very familar. Familiar but welcome.

I do like the first half the show even if so many of the moments feels like you got to suspend your disbelief heavily just to go along with it but at the same time that first episode is pretty much make it or break it, the show established how ridiculous it is from the moment Rain makes a shield with her make up accessory, if you can't accept that, then the show is better off being dropped because it only gets more ridiculous from there.

The first half, I liked since it was introducing new fighters and expanding on the world and it's just over the top mech fight after over the top mech fight, plus Domon is just so typical of a shonen protagonist but at the same time so pure about it and never really contradicts himself that much that I can't help but find him delightful.

I did like how it was alluding to the Dark Gundam as this big overarching threat with him hiding but slowly showing his hand in affairs. It also had some solid character building with Domon and Rain while establishing other characters in the main cast with Domon fighting them and then their backstories getting revealed afterwards. The show will remind of their goals constantly to the point where it would be hard to forget even years after you watch the show.

But then the issue I had with the show and where I started to lose engagement with it is when Domon beats the Dark Gundam for the first time. It was way too early to fight him and it should've been saved for the end of the show since when Domon was fighting him, it didn't so much feel like Domon wanted to beat the crap out of him but because Domon was annoyed and wanted him out of the way so he can get to the tournament. It kind of lacked emotional investment by Domon to be engaging. The Dark Gundam also loses two more times and never gets a clean win over Domon so it's even harder to care about his as a villain.

After that it's a tournament arc and it's...okay, not terrible but it Wong and later Wullube are way too dull of villains to carry it. Wong's goal weren't all that interesting nor did he have an interesting enough prescence to make me wish he got beat up and Wullube is just such a generic out of left field and boring villain that I zoned out every time he was on screen. Wong also somehow gets access to the Dark Gundam parts...so the series can still have some overarching plot thread connecting everything. Wullube's redeeming aspect is that he gives all the Gundam fighters an excuse to band together and defeat him which does a good job making the tournament arc feel more than just a generic tournament arc.

Master Asia is a decent villain and a solid rival to Domon and his english voice actor does a good job at giving him a major prescence even if at times, he feels like he is crazy one moment and then rational the next but he is an entertaing character that I kind of let this slide.

Kyoji Kashu feels like a prototype to Itachi Uchiha from Naruto and to Kyoji's credit, he is done better here than Itachi, but I do ask questions why on earth did Neo Germany let Kyoji run around and do want he wanted and didn't question if that was actually their original fighter. He's decent character.

Overall, I do like G Gundam and it is a show worth checking out, but I can't deny that I did start to get slightly bored the more the series went on. It's still watchable but the later parts could've been handled better.