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MS Gundam Igloo 3: Requiem for Vengeance

In a delirium brought on by high fever and being bedridden for most of the last week, I was reminded of the last time I was in such a state: the year was 2023, and I’d caught an inner ear infection that spawned intense vertigo that left me unable to walk for ten days. Since I was stuck in bed I was inspired to keep up with the Great Gundam Project who were about to tackle Mobile Suit Gundam: MS Igloo, the CG OVAs from the mid 2000’s.

Usually my “I’m sick in bed” watching material is Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories but since I’d been sick for so long I’d watched a fair amount of that already and figured caching Igloo would be a good way to shake it up a bit - and I was right. During that sickness I ended up watching the entire Igloo series. It was deeply stupid, but in a fun way.

So a year-ish later, here I am in bed again and what pops across my Netflix but an image for the new CG series Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance.

Cover art for Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance

I’d seen the trailer a month or so ago and had a pretty normal reaction; the suits looked incredible, the people were kinda run of the mill unreal engine extras, and the idea that we’d get some kind of “Amuro doing the Darth Vader at the end of Rogue One” view of the Gundam from some Zeon grunt perspective was intriguing. Universal Century Gundam has a long history of focusing on Gundam pilot protagonist while their opponents regularly decry the 'White mobile suit' as a demon, or a scourge to spacenoids with not too much reflection from the special boy protagonist other than a 'I had to kill you because you got in my way!' - so I was pretty up on the idea of seeing the horrors Mr. Ray inflicted on rank and file soldiers from their perspective.

Personally I’m a bit tired of the “One year war” era of UC for reasons I’ll get into below the spoiler section but I took a bite...and had an Igloo-level blast (even though there's a lot to criticize).

(Also no disrespect to the English cast but I’m so used to watching Gundam in Japanese that I used that audio instead and it was great.)

My recommendation:

If you're into UC Gundam at all, there's something here for you. If you've never seen Gundam in your life, that might be an even better experience. If you've only watched Gundam outside of Universal Century I don't know what to tell you other than start with 0079 and go in release order.

More detailed thoughts and spoilers for Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance below

As well as spoilers for various other Universal Century set Gundam series

The pacing of the first episode is well done; it feels designed to cater to a newcomer to the admittedly daunting franchise. If you didn't know anything about Gundam you might even be confused by the opening scene; Zeon uniforms and insignias resemble (intentionally) World War II era Nazi regalia and the eastern Europe setting as they parade through with their tanks does not scream "high science fiction giant robots in space". It almost feels like you're watching a cutscene from a modern shooter set in WW2.

For a franchise that so regularly depicts mechs tearing each other apart1, it was a bit jarring to see the Zeon soldiers in the tank caravan immediately getting realistically depicted gunshot wounds to the head as they're beset upon by Earth Federation tanks - but it lets you know this is trying to tell a more human story.

Then of course, the mechs show up.

A closeup of a Zaku's mono-eye head

Red Wolf squadron’s arrival is here to show you, the viewer, that without a shadow of a doubt - the MS-06 Zaku II is fucking cool. 'Wow cool robot' has never been on display as hard as this moment while they make quick work of the EFF tanks - that is until the Gundam arrives and Uno reverses the Zaku with the tanks they dispatched.

In this interpretation, the Zaku move like machines. Slow. Clunky. It reminded me more of a Mechwarrior short than something from the Mobile Suit Gundam Franchise at first. Contrasted with how The Gundam moves like a person, it feels like an intentional choice by the film’s team to showcase just how advanced and scary this 'white devil' is.

Black screen with white text: -[indistinct talking] -[Gundam sounds growing louder]

This is where you lose me though; it’s made clear throughout the next few episodes; this is not THE Gundam. This is not Amuro Ray in the RX-78-2; this is (again) a top secret Gundam prototype that somehow existed in tandem with the timeline of the original MSG: 0079, and perhaps more egregiously, is geographically located in a place Amuro historically will be within days to do important plot things - so a second (or like, fifth?) Gundam here feels off.

The show does a fair job trying to tell a story out of that though; connecting the nameless Gundam pilot (who of course is a child) with the show’s Zeon protagonist Illia Solari - and self-contained maybe it works, but for a grizzled Gundam fan like me I’m exhausted by how many times we can dip into the “oh and then there was ANOTHER Gundam prototype during the one year war!” well when the primary plot point of the first act of 0079 is that the federation is losing the war because they don’t have mobile suits to compete with the Zaku and everything developed at the secret facility on Side 7 - except that which was salvaged onto the White Base (the Gundam, Guncanon and Guntank) - was destroyed.

It’s not impossible that the Federation had other manufacturing facilities (and don’t get me wrong, 0080 War in the Pocket is one of my favorite entries in the franchise and its story hinges on that) plus hearing how the fifteen year-old pilot on the White Base is a prodigy might make you try more experiments on kid pilots - but in the timeline of 0079, Amuro and the White Base were on route to this exact location; there’s no reason other than “we need to have Solari have a newtype mom connection with this kid” that they couldn’t have been menaced by by the White Base' ace pilot.

Which also brings me to Solari; dead spouse and “is a mom” as her motivations felt off, especially when her driving force the whole show is to get home to her son - only for her to abandon that at the zero hour so she can have a newtype connection with the Gundam pilot simply because he has mommy issues and she's a mom. It’s messy. But hey - war is messy. The dream violin concerto for all her dead comrades was messy. It is what it is. Write strong female characters who don't have 'exists to be a mom' archetypes challenge level impossible I guess2.

I'm being harsh, but if I toss out everything I know about Gundam and watch this for what it is, it’s rather enjoyable! The scenes with the white devil are absolutely horrifying, the mech combat is really well done and the score does a good job of keeping things flowing.

I'd even argue that if 0080: War in the Pocket and Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz are 'The Christmas Specials' for Gundam, Requiem for Vengeance serves a good 'Halloween Special' niche. Running down the checklist:

Instant Halloween classic.

Taken into context of Gundam though - it really is just Igloo 3; a CG series that's stupid but fun if you don’t think about it too much. I did get attached to some of the characters and I legitimately thought Alfee was gonna bite it at one point, was shook to see him make it into Space.

Lastly - of all the cameos they could have given to established Gundam characters, they had to choose the Wolverine-haired shithead from 08th MS team??

Still from 08th MS Team; Yuri Kellerne with arms wide open to the camera in a crowded hall

Like - seriously??

I'm a renowned 08th MS Team hater and don't like to be reminded of it but I suppose it was inevitable inspiration as the fans (wrongly) call that series the 'Apocalypse Now of Gundam' - this story feels like it's trying to do a similar vibe from the other side. I don't really agree but I can see how you get there.

Given the Igloo similarities though, I would have lost it if they actually had a reference to Oliver May, Monique Cadillac or anyone from Hidden One Year War or Apocalypse 0079. Or hell, I mean they were at Odessa - toss in an appearance of pre-bazooka Kycilia...or wait better yet, M’quve holding a vase! A goddamn crystal vase!! Would have made this show a solid ten!!

Anyway - I enjoyed it. It's visually stunning and well paced, but with all my criticisms I have to accept that the more they add to the Universal Century, the more it has to lose for me.

But hey - not everything has to be for me, and the original UC stuff still exists for me to enjoy. A good lesson for us all.

  1. I know the shows (even the ones specifically targeted at children) often show grotesque violence towards humans but there's usually a level of abstraction - or the animation being a deterrent to realism. These Unreal Engine humans are designed to look as real as they can, and their blood is everywhere at first.↩

  2. I'd argue that Hayley doesn't count since she barely gets any internal motivations or characterization and exists to be the designer's 'badass pink haired out of uniform tatted anime lady' insert.↩

#gundam #media review I guess #universal century