Finished: Gundam 0080

[annwyd]

Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
Good: This is a damn well-made show. It's hard to find something about it that isn't good. Even the late-'80s animation is used expertly, with some gorgeous visuals (I'm particularly fond of the shot that ends the fourth episode). Some of the characters start out annoying, but their growing up is part of the point,

Comments

[selphish]

shit

i've got to see this now

[selphish]

brb going to check library system to see if i can order it from a neighboring library

[annwyd]

You can get the complete collection really cheap (less than $20, depending) from RightStuf or from Amazon.

[selphish]

Augh, library system doesn't have it. When I have some extra cash, I'll pick it up.

I'm so shameless, I'm more excited for a competent, likable female Gundams pilot than anything else. It's even more awesome because she's the only one.

[annwyd]

She's not an amazing ace or anything, but that's part of the point of the series--the amazing aces are all elsewhere. She's just the girl next door who also happens to be a Gundam pilot. I like her a lot--if I could do normal, well-adjusted characters, I would probably play her somewhere.

The rest of the mecha pilots are all male, but, well, Chris gets the hero Gundam, even if it wasn't originally meant for her. That makes her, as far as I understand it, one of only two female characters ever to get a hero Gundam, the other being Emma Sheen from Zeta, who inherits Kamille's.

Edit: Actually, arguably Rain from G Gundam counts as well, since the Gundam she gets briefly toward the end of the series is essentially a tweaked version of Domon's Gundam from the start of the series. But she's mostly not a pilot, so.

[selphish]

I meant she was the only one in the series. orz But I can deal with her not being an amazing ace--especially if she's how you described her.

I don't know why there aren't more female heroines in Gundam. :(

[selphish]

and "female heroines" is repetitive, why can't I write things today

[annwyd]

In my limited experience, mecha in general is not kind to female characters--with exceptions for things at the fringe of the genre like Magic Knight Rayearth and My-HiME. Even in Kannazuki no Miko, which is a yuri mecha series, the girls don't get to pilot a Gundam mecha until the end.

The recent Gundam 00 made some token efforts to mess with gender roles, and it had some successes (Kati comes to mind as a much more nuanced version of the serious-business domineering captain character we see in G Gundam as Natasha and Gundam SEED as Natarle), but in some ways it wound up making things worse, especially since half the time it chickened out of going all the way.

I think it's a combination of two things: one, the creators know that mecha has been primarily a boy's playground since its conception; two, the creators are also attempting to court female attention, and they figure the best way to do so is offer yaoi opportunities among the main pilots and non-pilot female love interests for girls to identify with.

because i'm an obsessed fanboy and I already told you all my serious thoughts about 0080

[asterphage]

If you don't count the Rising Gundam as a main hero Gundam, then you basically have to exclude everything else except Domon's Gundams. UNLESS you want to be strict, and only count actual national Gundam Fight entry mecha. Which is silly.

Sayla piloted the RX-78 for about ten minutes.

Karen pilots a mass-produced Gundam Groundtype in 08th MS Team, and then it loses its Gundam Head and everyone makes fun of her.

Some womens piloted V Gundams, but those were mass produced too. And there are some female copilots/substitute pilots/etc for the ZZ Gundam, which has multiple cockpits.

And there's always Strike Rouge...