Some thoughts on a Turn A rewatch (oh and last night's moon photo)
Finished a rewatch of Turn A Gundam recently and I'm still blown away by it as a whole piece of work. The writing, music, art and mechanical design are firing on more cylinders than seems fair and it's such a perfect culmination of what 'Gundam' as a piece of art means. To me, nothing before or after has topped this.
If you've never watched Turn A - it's a 1999 TV Anime series directed by original Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, returning to the series after a several year hiatus during which other creators put their spin on 'Giant America Colored Robot Does War Crimes'. Tomino's work to this point in Gundam all took place in the 'main' timeline, the Universal Century and he definitely branched out a bit with the premise of Turn A's Correct Century timeline.
What people go in to Gundam expecting: Cool mechs piloted by teens, political intrigue, and the harshness of humanity living in space. Tomino shows up with; early 20th century americana, byplanes, airships, and an incredibly 70's opening song heralded by a British voice loudly proclaiming 'TURN EH, GUNDAM'.
Oh and the goddamn titular mech has a mustache
Despite it being ultimately more impactful if you've done the work watching in chronological release order from 0079 onward, I think this is a valid entry point to the franchise if you've never experienced 'Gundam' or are intimidated by the 46 years of kids in death robots and aren't sure where to begin.
I'm imagining a world where it got an English dub and aired on Toonami after Gundam Wing did back in the early 00's - what would that have done to western fan reads of the franchise? Who knows, maybe we weren't ready for it back in 99/00. Maybe we still aren't ready for it? Maybe the shocking dark history comes for us all.
Anyway, appropo of Yoko Kanno's iconic song from the series, here's a photo of the moon from last night.
