#f91

1954 DKW F91

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Well that sure was a movie. And that sure was Gundam. I won't take away from it the fact that it is certainly a Gundam movie.

Yeah, this one doesn't need five pages of analysis. If you didn't know, it was supposed to be a 50 episodes series, and was cut down to a 2 hours movie. So the runner has barely left the starting blocks and both of his legs just snapped backwards. I won't dwell too much on the many problems this causes because they're all pretty self-evident: The movie moves at 200kmh in a desperate rush to get all of its plot points across, many characters get introduced and die within ten minutes, and the remaining ones don't have nearly enough screen time to get developed beyond basic archetypes.

However, I've seen many people see the movie as a missed opportunity with a lot of potential and wish that we got an actual series out of it. But frankly I don't even believe that, because what we saw of the story was derivative as hell, even by Gundam standards. The space colony Side 3 Frontier IV declared its independence and renamed itself the Principality of Zeon Cosmo Babylonia, led by the noble Zabi Ronah family. The story starts when a small squad of mobile suits from Zeon Cosmo Babylonia attacks a colony of the federation. In the ensuing chaos, Amuro Ray Seabook Arno finds himself piloting a Gundam prototype developed by one of his parents, and joins the White Base Space Ark, a federation spaceship crewed by rookies and civilians. During the attack, the young blonde friend of the protagonist Sayla Mass Cecily Fairchild meets her brother Char Dorel who's a part of Zeon Cosmo Babylonia, and it is revealed that Sayla Cecily is actually Artesia Deikun Berah Ronah, heir to Zeon Cosmo Babylonia.

And the goal of the villains is to push humanity into space so that they may become Newtypes by exterminating its population on earth. And the leader of the antagonist faction is an ambiguously sympathetic old man whereas his son is the real bad guy, a complete arsehole who makes big evil speeches...

I won't deny that it has some good elements. The old guy is an semi... quarter-interesting study of the banality of evil and the way the upper class justifies its oppression of the people (whoops, feeling my French communist genes flare up), having the aforementioned parent of the protagonist be a part of the crew is an idea with potential, especially since his sister is also there. And the fight scenes and Mobile Suits are cool but because everything is so rushed and crammed into a movie runtime, identifying which mobile suit belongs to whom is impossible. All in all, nothing that will make me post #ReleaseTheTominoCut on twitter. When it's not ripping off its own franchise, it's ripping off Star Wars, with budget Darth Vader and totally-not-the-imperial-march.

So let's not dwell on it and move on to the visuals. Animation is excellent, so you can at least enjoy it on pure spectacle (though again, it's impossible to follow because there are so many mobile suits that we haven't been given time to clearly identify). As for the actual F91 design, it's close to greatness for me, but there are several details that bring it down a lot. Like the shoulder... wings ? Fins ? Flaps ? Anyway, they stick out in a way that feels wonky. And the big grate on its lower torso is just a slab of visual noise. I do like it's animation when it goes super, great use of after-images.

I think that's it. As of writing, those reviews are close to catching up to what I'm currently watching, so I'm trying to step up the pace. However, I think the next one will take a while to review nonetheless. Because it's Unicorn. And Unicorn is a mess.

See you there!

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