Audience reviews
18 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Striker009
Compared to the original series, this film trilogy introduces the term “Newtype” right from the start. On the one hand, everything related to the Newtypes is now presented in a much more organic and less abrupt way; on the other hand, this comes at the cost of sacrificing the element of surprise.
By condensing an average of 14 or 15 anime episodes into just two and a half hours, not only are entire episodes of the series omitted (some of which are more relevant to future events than they seem), but the time between events is also considerably shorter, leaving the viewer little or no time to process the scene they’ve just seen before moving on to the next one.
Read at the sourceDanteDemonZ
Mobile Suit Gundam I begins on a surprisingly strong footing. As an introduction to the world, the conflict, and its two central figures, it largely succeeds. Char and Amuro are immediately framed as compelling opposites, and the opening stretch retains enough of the original series’ tension to remind you why Gundam was such a seismic shift for the genre. Unfortunately, that initial strength does not last.
The film’s biggest issue is pacing. In compressing the early portion of the television series, the movie rushes through events that originally relied on gradual escalation and character development. Scenes arrive and disappear before they have time to breathe, emotional beats lack proper buildup, and transitions feel abrupt. What worked as episodic storytelling does not always translate…
Read at the sourceboredzura
It's not even about the animation.
You see, there a bunch of Gundams, some are good, interesting and others are just "Oh Lord, what are my eyes seeing". This one is the later.
Plot and characters lacks substance
Boringly predictable
Saying things like,
"And you call yourself a man?"
"Have you no guts?" and so on.
Some are blessed by being in the "main-cast"
while others are painted as completely evil and amoral.
That's also one of the biggest downsides of this show They focus too much on "moral" and "rightfulness", it just feels off
Perhaps it was a thing back then, though i don't think it aged pretty well.
Overall, it would get a higher score if they reduced the scope to a "fighting-mecha"
Read at the sourcetheo1763
Seeing Mobile Suit Gundam I was an interesting experience, particularly since it was the first movie remake of the original 1979 series. The movie sums up the first 13 episodes into one story, relating to Amuro Ray, a teenage civilian who becomes the pilot of the RX-78-2 Gundam by chance after a Zeon attack on his colony. Along with the White Base crew, he confronts the chaos of war, learning about duty, determination, and the heavy burden of being drafted into a war so much older than he is. The movie is capable of establishing the Universal Century, the Earth Federation vs. Zeon conflict, and the internal conflict of each character, and although there were some moments that happened a little too quickly because the movie is so short, it was still holding me through to the end.
The anima…
Read at the sourceLegionWrex
It's always difficult to discuss a compilation film as it's own work because, fundamentally, it's impossible to divorce from whatever piece of media it's originally condensing. And I don't think any other "recap" anime film, something that has been industry practice for a very long time, is a difficult itself to talk about then the original Gundam trilogy.
These aren't just recaps, at least not in the traditional sense. This one mostly is, as it's the least changed and screwed with of the original series, but even so it has the air of reimagining all over it. Gone are the smaller character moments that were the meat that held much of this cast together, and the majority of the battles have either been rearranged or deleted entirely. Instead, this really feels like a complete streamline of…
Read at the sourceStrange_Hero
This is my second full exposure to a Gundam series--the first being Gundam Build Fighters--though I'd consider this to be my first 'main' Gundam series as, after all, this is a condensed version of the series that started it all. For true Gundam fans, the original series is a must-watch.
But I'm not sure if these movies warrant such praise. In fact, this film felt like a horrible way to introduce yourself to Gundam's core story. The first hour is pretty confusing: yes, you clearly understand that this is a war between the forces of good and evil. Yet, characters aren't fleshed out enough for the audience. I found myself confused as to why the protagonist was piloting a Gundam outside of it being an absolute necessity the first time around, not to mention why he struggled emotionally befor…
Read at the sourceGwenPineapple
Surprisingly well held up visuals for an anime from 1981, and some real nice sounding audio design. It's lacking in the striking visuals of something like Eva, which comes out much later, but nonetheless remains a visually pleasing piece of work for its time; it sort of has a "rustic charm" to it.
The real star of the film is the characterisation of Amuro and his struggle with PTSD, which grows over the course of the film to excellent pacing, until he's incapable of sleeping or eating almost entirely, barely being animated for anything but the Gundam he pilots. It completely does away with the cultural idea that all mecha anime pre-Eva was lacking in any sort of psychological conflict or focus; the image of war is vivid: it's not just Amuro who gets subsumed by the pointless and eternal w…
Read at the sourceBibsMcF
This is the first in a trilogy of films adapting the original Mobile Suit Gundam series in a paced up yet still incredibly long format. This can very safely be watched in the place of the series, but you do trade some scenes for better overall animation quality. The first film covers the events of Amuro Ray's first flight in the Gundam all the way up to the fight with Garma Zabi.
The animation is passable, improving on the original in terms of avoiding stock animation (mostly) but still keeping the charm of the original's very saturated colours, large, blocky mobile suit designs and cute characters. I do prefer this approach to redoing the original, and I would say this means that the film generally gives the same experience as the series.
The films are edited a bit strangely, with very…
Read at the sourcerobert788
Mobile Suit Gundam I (1981)
1981, what a time to be alive. Imagine this coming out and seeing such a profoundly different style of the show, especially with how different politically the world was back then with what was appropriate and what was not.
The movie 1 of 3 culminations covering a series to a certain point brings home some pretty old ideas, age roles and gender roles. A story desperate enough to push children into action, women into most basic roles always second best and an old outlook on life. This itself is a piece of history that should not be forgotten. Women can also be in front line roles but always feel a bit pushed down.
The movie takes from the start of the Gundam series where you really push into this crazy world. Most of humanity is already in devastation from f…
Read at the sourceGundamIkimasu
Now, I may be a little biased, but I really really love Gundam. It's one of my favorite things, UC Gundam especially. The Original movie trilogy is my typical go-to if someone wants to experience the original story, as 40+ episodes can be pretty daunting to someone who is interested in Gundam but not yet ride-or-die, y'know? But, I always lay it out like this-
The first movie is kind of a tough watch in lots of places.
The second movie gets it's shit together in the right places, and is pretty dang enjoyable!
I have requested in my will that I am buried with a copy of the third movie.
This movie is a tough watch- it's pacing is odd, as it tries to capture as much as it can in a short amount of time. That's just the nature of a compilation, I can't fault it too hard! I doubt I could do it…
Read at the sourcemd5fungi
While I write this review, it's the year 2021... So I need to first off mention that Mobile Suit Gundam hasn't aged very well. There are definitely unintentional laugh-out-loud moments because of cheesy lines and occurrences.
That being said, the world-building here is pretty incredible. The story is incredibly convincing, and as you follow Amuro and Char, their personalities, ambitions, motives sink into you and really resonate. This is clearly the start of something HUGE and great, and the movie excels at this sort of exposition.
That being said, the movie ends "in media res", because it's really meant to be watched with the subsequent movies of the trilogy. Can I really judge this one alone? Perhaps not, but I recognize what it does for the Gundam universe as a whole.
Read at the sourcektulu007
The Gundam franchise is one I've talked about a few times. Half of the time, Wing and Iron-Blooded Orphans, it's been good. The other half, 00 and 8th MS Team, has been mediocre to sub-par. This time, we're going back to the beginning. To be specific, we're watching the first recap film based off the original series.
Story:
Our narrative is set in the distant future when humans have formed various colonies in space to handle our growing population. In this climate the Zeon colony declares itself independent from the Earth federation and they go to war. We open in the Side 7 colony where Federation troops are delivering a new mobile suit weapon and Zeon forces attack.
The biggest problem with the narrative is that it's all kind of formulaic. And I'm not just talking about the Gundam sp…
Read at the sourceHereLiesWaste
I was very impressed by the original Gundam trilogy. I haven’t seen the series, but these films managed to be much more coherent than I had expected, considering they had to condense something like 20 hours of footage into about 7. Even more surprising is that at least two of them - the first and last - manage to be totally functionable movies in their own right, both of them featuring something like a distinct beginning, middle, and end rather than the general homogeneous ‘this thing happened then that thing happened’ that can easily emerge from turning a tv series into a film. This makes sense, because the first film couldn’t have not had a beginning nor could the last not have had an end, but beyond this both these films also display a clear conceptual movement across their runtime. The…
Read at the sourcesiphus007
Engaging from beginning to end and holds up like a gem. And despite having a fair amount of action, it's the the fleshed out characters and sharp, tense writing that surprised me, and make this a great intro into the series.
Story & Writing: 9/10
Characters: 9/10
Art: 3.5/5
Sound: 5/5
Avg: 8.8/10
Beyond just the action and intense mecha battles, Gundam I also has a terrific balance of drama, character development, a flawed protagonist, memorable enemy characters that you slightly cheer for, and very realized factions on each side. The story starts off quickly, but takes time to world build and allow for slight realism of letting us watched inexperienced 'good guys' trying to figure out how to fight back and survive. But after the initial build-up, it doesn't let up, surely buoyed by cut…
Read at the sourceParaturtle
Story:
It's about a young boy joining the military, and the harsh reality of that process. However, with such a large ensemble cast, the story doesn't focus so much on Amuro like it should. The beginning jumps around a lot and around the halfway mark is it clear that the main arc we're following is Amuro's transformation from geeky teenager to self-sufficient soldier. It was annoying, because once I realized this I was wishing for more time to be spent with it.
I really enjoy the gray area nature of the narrative. Both the Federation and the Zeon have a cast of characters that are only fighting because they're aligned to different factions, not because they are inherently evil. That said, we do see on both sides the evidence of hatred and evils within the factions. It's a nice addition to…
Read at the sourceMI-NA-MI
Story: At first it seemed pretty messed up. I couldn't distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys but then innocents got killed so yeah. The story started slowly with a little display of conflicts, nothing wrong here. The problem is that it kept dragging on till the first hour and a half. I got sleepy there and had to take a break. However the "second part" got a lot better because the actions made more sense and some characters got development.
A mix of good and bad so 5.
Art: The art part was good for such an old movie, the chara design was great, no look-alike. That's a plus for me. However some scenes were weirdly drawn like one where Amuro puts a sad face but the way I see it, it looked like he was high on mushrooms with eyes gone white and staring at the wall like a broken r…
Read at the sourceParabellum25
The Gundam franchise holds a very special place in my life. Going back to my first exposure to it, my 11 year-old self was rather indignant that this new "Gundamn Wing" show was going to be replacing my favorite cartoon Dragonball Z. I now know that my local network was simply attempting to introduce a new, more serious anime and using the DBZ timeslot was a perfect test-drive. And I was hooked. A serious story, political drama, and giant robots, what wasn't there to love? As I put more research into this strange new series, I learned of course that it was only a small part of a much much larger franchise which consisted of alternate universes and of course, the Universal Century. Of course, I did watch other Gundam shows in between, namely SEED, SEED Destiny and 00. However, nearly all Gu…
Read at the sourceChag
Mobile Suit Gundam: the Movie Trilogy is the definitive incarnation of the massively influential Mobile Suit Gundam TV series. It may not be perfect, but it definitely deserves its lofty status in the history of anime as a proven classic. As one cannot have one part of the trilogy without the others, this review will cover all three of the compilation movies.
The first question on any new viewer's mind regarding the story of Mobile Suit Gundam: the Movie Trilogy (MSG) would be: "Do the films condense too much story from the TV series to fit into its limited run time?" The answer to that is "no". MSG takes the liberty to cut some of the flab from the original series and manages very well in terms of preserving the integrity of the story. The pacing may strike as a little faster than usual,…
Read at the source