Review: Victory Gundam

Well, I'm at a loss here.

I'm not even sure of what to make of Victory Gundam. This won't be a long review, because I'm still processing it.

Indeed it is, Jackie. Indeed it is.

There's really not much in this series that is get-up-out-of-your-seat exciting. There's a few good episodes, but nothing spectacular. It's not ZZ Gundam horrible by any means, but I just kind of feel like Yoshiyuki Tomino turned in an incomplete paper. If it's possible for a 51 episode anime to feel rushed, this would be it. In fact, this kind of feels like a 2nd attempt at F91.

This leads to a lot of things just *happening*. People start getting certain powers for no reason. People lose their goddamned minds with little-to-no reason why. Fuala Griffon starts out as a reasonable, Haman Kahn type commander and returns later as a psychotic version of Chara Soon with an even dumber gimmick: sleigh bells. I'm dead fucking serious.

Speaking of which, part of the reason the series is just so stilted is the amount of 20+ year old women talking to 13-year-old Usso Evin in very sexually suggestive ways. Seriously, this is the least subtle Shotacon anime I've ever seen, and I've watched Mahoromatic. For Christ's sakes, Usso even ends up naked in the bathtub with a female soldier. And to top it off, one of the weapons employed against him near the end?

Scantily clad women.

Yeah, not exactly the satellite cannon duel from Gundam X, is it?

By now, you've noticed that I've not talked about plot much. That's because I can't fucking tell you what it is. I know that the federation has fallen apart, they've fallen victim to the Zanscare Empire, the League Militaire (think AEUG from Zeta) is fighting them and Usso's really good at fighting. Beyond that, details get fuzzy because very little in this anime ever gets an explanation. Katejina Loos, in particular, is completely puzzling as a villain. Best I can figure is that she is stone cold fucking nuts.

Wouldn't be the first time.

So yeah, there's mecha battles, nudity, crazy women and some bizzare shit going on that doesn't explain itself well enough for anyone to really concern themselves with.

Verdict: For completionists only. Like I said, it's not ZZ Gundam bad, but considering that this story really doesn't go anywhere (and is 51 episodes long), I can't really recommend it. I only watched it because I'm a completionist and I wanted to be done with the UC timeline (well, except for Unicorn). While the mech battles are fairly well done, the designs aren't all that hot - the Victory Mk II being an exception- and aren't worth the time investment. The ending is remarkably unsatisfactory as well.