I just finished 08th MS Team, so the list of Gundam series I’ve yet to see has grown shorter once again.
Now I never know what I’m looking for when I start up a Gundam series. Do I want to see guys punching the shit out of each other, or do I want to watch people overcoming their emotions and growing as characters?
Most of the time, Gundam provides a little of both, but when it comes to romantic relationships, every Gundam series I’ve watched follows one specific formula. Excluding Gundam Wing, since I barely remember it, each series deals with the main character in a love triangle between a girl whose love he can’t return, and a girl who he isn’t allowed to love. Turn A deviates slightly, as it is the only one I’ve seen where the main love interest isn’t an enemy pilot, and (spoilers will abound from this point on) along with 08th MS Team, is the only one in which the main character actually ends up with the “enemy” girl. In First and Zeta, the enemy pilot dies, leaving the main character distraught. At this point he will turn to another girl, but amusingly enough, the girl who has loved him from the beginning has already given up, though Zeta’s Fa and Kamille do hook up later in ZZ, or so I hear. As another exception, Allenby, G Gundam’s enemy pilot, never bites the dust, but Domon was never deeply in love with her in the first place, which leads to his choosing Rain in the end.
My point here is that, even though each of these situations are incredibly similar, they vary enough that they don’t get old, not to mention they’re done really damn well. The tension in these relationships makes you really examine your own feelings towards the characters in ways that many of today’s romance series fail. In those shows, the protagonist realizes his love for one of the girls, but more often than not, for me at least, I do not share his feelings in the slightest. For example, the two romance series I’m watching right now, Clannad and True Tears. Clannad was enjoyable at first, but it slowly became incredibly boring. I lost interest in Tomoya and his antics, every girl’s arc was jammed in and then tossed out before it could get anywhere, all so that they could have a developed ending with the one girl that I don’t like. This final decision wouldn’t affect my enjoyment of the series if I felt the other characters got their due, but the only other girl who really got a some decent attention was Fuko, and once her story was over my interest rapidly dwindled. True Tears on the other hand made me care so much about Noe that I’ll probably consider the show a complete failure if Shin ends up with Hiromi. I know this will seem wrong of me to say after I claim to enjoy the repetitive formula of Gundam series, but all I want from True Tears is something I can’t predict. I want to be pleasantly surprised for once.
So, with that being the case, what’s so great about the cookie cutter love triangles of Gundam? Well for one, major events in the series keep things fresh and interesting. Take this scene from 08th MS Team:
When the lovers aren’t squabbling with each other, they’re out fighting other people in battles that are, in many cases, relevant to the characters’ relationships. Here we see the best battle in the series which, unbeknownst to either character at the time, is a battle between Aina’s lover and father figure, two men fighting against each other for the same reason; their love for Aina. It’s one of many ironic battles throughout all of Gundam, and it’s powerfully tragic.
So really, all the writers out there should take a lesson from the great classics and wise up. Maybe they’ll stop putting out so much shit while they’re at it.
Also, check out the Anime Blog Awards and vote for people who aren’t me.
edit: As of the latest episode of True Tears, my views have changed once again. Noe’s little stunt at the end of the episode really put me off, and I feel bad enough for Hiromi that I won’t mind her getting Shin in the end. So good play to you, True Tears.
jaded already?
Who? Me? Nah.
For those curious,
1. The nominations are only open for anime bloggers.
2. There will be a reader’s choice for voting where the public will vote. ^^
Cheers and thanks for the heads up ^^
meh. Similar things still exist. It’s not terrifyingly new, but there was RahXephon. And, uh, Gankutsuou.
Gankutsuou was an absurd adaptation of an incredible story that was written over 100 years ago, so it doesn’t really count as new romance material.
Not that I didn’t like the show. It did a great job contrasting the beautiful 2-d animation that we saw throughout the series with the repulsive 3-d animation that Gonzo is so fond of. I’m hard-pressed to think of anything in anime that made me madder than being subjected to that shit in such a visually stunning series.
I thought the CG was excellent in gankutsuou which is saying something since I usually fucking hate GONZO’s CG. But anyway… uh, fuck how did I forget Nadesico? that’s like the ultimate gundam-esque romance (likely because it’s partly a parody of gundam)
Nadesico’s on my list of things to watch on dvd. I’ll either buy it when I get the cash, or rent it later.
And yeah, the CG was better than most in Gankutsuou, but I’ve never been a fan of 3-d animation.
Oioi, beefy! I nominated you for best newcomer! I didn’t even realize it, but you’ve been going strong for quite a while now ^_^
lawls. Thanks. I’ll be nominating people later, but first I need to get on their irc channel or something and let them know that I never got the email with my password so I still can’t login.
Also, remember that you have to turn in at least 9 nominations for 9 of the categories if you want any of them to count, or something like that.
I dunno, I didn’t read the rules >_< I even made the mistake of nominating myself XD. Also, the email went right to my span folder, so it took me a while to find.
Great romance in 08th MS Team? Sure I guess, if you don’t mind your romances being a knock off of Romeo and Juliet, except this time it’s got robots and a generic main villain. Oh the end of 08th MS Team, how you pain me; especially when half way through Shiro turns into Relena Peacecraft. And yet I use to to love this show, re-watching it made me hate most of it though; such a good concept ruined by Wing ideals.
Yeah, series like this one and Turn A could’ve done with a little less of the constant peacekeeping tirades of the main characters, but I still liked the romantic aspect of the show.
And I hate Shakespeare, so I never consciously compare anything to his work.
You don’t have to: star cross’d lovers are too common a trope for The 08th to be linked to Romeo & Juliet. And I’d say that Shiro’s speechification was annoying, but that his idealism ultimately failed, or at least didn’t properly succeed.