The G turned retro again; Gundam reqonguista episode 1 and 2 impression

It has been some time since I saw a Gundam franchise and in this 2014, Sunrise presented us with Gundam in reqonguista. The first impression when I got after watching the first episode was how retro the feel of the show. The characters resembled the characters from the early period of Gundam especially from zeta, double zeta, and turn A Gundam. Even the style of the hair and the eyes pretty much imitating it's long previous incarnation. In addition, the opening music was remixed with the 8 bit tune, which resemble a bit of those retro Nintendo tunes. With Tomino being its head director, it was obvious that this time around, Sunrise tried to create a series dedicated to their die-hard veteran watcher.

It will be hilarious if she was named Jessica Friday XD

The story main character was Bellri Zenam, who worked as a capital guard members. This time around Sunrise tried to make the series turned into a more realistic sense as Bellri, while he was still a young cadet, had experience in piloting a mobile suit. So, there will be no instant pilot prodigy like Kira Yamato, who never take any piloting crash course yet still capable of moving a highly advanced Gundam in his first try. It seems like the tone of the series also turned more serious right from the beginning with instantly visualized how the Gundam moves and react just likes its previous incarnations. The last gundam that I saw (Gundam OO) made the Gundams look like super mobile suits, which each unit could moved extremely fast and break hundreds of other mobile suits in an instant (Trans Arms).

your color pallets was retro dude

Gundam in reqonguista was started with one hour special, which consist of two episodes and I think it would be more time efficient to write the two episodes in one writing. The first episode, “Nazo no mobile suits”(misterious mobile suits) started with two mobile suits chased a Gundam like mobile suit in the earth's atmosphere. One of the units managed to catch the it and from the hatch, a young girl in tan and white hair fell from the cockpit. The chaser managed to retrieve the girl and put her under their custody. Then, the scene moved to a giant space elevator in where Belri and his classmates was having their usual daily meeting complete with some cheerleaders trying to cheer them up along the way.

After 2 hours of listening to that XX songs (hey I am not putting a name here XD don't disturb me)

The Gundam reappeared once again, in which it was called a G-self unit. This time, a young lass spice pirate named Aida Reyhunton piloted the G-self unit. I was wondering how could the same unit reappear again with a new pilot. Since Raraiya was captured, the capital guard should have confiscate the G-self but with Aida piloted the exact same unit, it meant that there were two identical units. The problem was that the first episode did not explain about how did Aida ended up piloted the G-self if it was already taken by the capital guard. Regardless of the plot hole, Belri showed his skill in this episode as he managed to bring enough trouble to the G-self using a standard mobile suits known as Rectem. Then, With the help of his seniors, they captured the G-self and took Aida in their custody. The girl in tan, whose current name was Raraiya Monday, reacted to the G-self unit although she barely talked at all during her time in custody

Slash

The second episode of the show entitled G-self kidou, which literally means “G-self started” took place some time after Belri operated the G-self. The students/cadets have returned from the space elevators along with the captured Aida Reyhunton. The episode start with some introduction to the people in the capital like the Pope and Belri's parent. The brief moment of peace got disturbed as the space pirates that entered the earth atmosphere in the first episode, were trying to retrieve Aida and the G-self unit. They invaded the capital using mobile suits and the small scale war happened.

For gundam fans it was a fan service XD zaku, nemo, dom troben

With the prisoner tower got bombarded in the ensuing battle, Belri and his company tried their best to rescue Aida that was sent there. They reunited and with no other option, they went to the place in where the G-self unit was kept. Aida tried to enter G-self cockpit but Belri interfered and ended up sitting in the main seat. As the space pirate mobile suits were getting closer, Belri activated the G-self and started the unit. He fend off the assailant and in order to defend themselves, he stabbed the enemy mobile suit right in the cockpit. What ironic was the enemy's pilot was Aida's superior; Cahill and by the look of how she desperately sobbed to his dead, it obvious that she was having a special feeling for him and Belri just killed the man

In most anime stout and strong willed gal always end up crying their heart out

While I was thinking that the plot might still need some work. I appreciate how eager sunrise tried to get the Gundam back its root. For example, there were only one type of Gundam that I have seen in the first two episodes, which mean they really intend to focus the anime in the plot and story development. It was very contrast with the previous series, in which they seemed very eager to introduce new mobile suits so that we could “collect” (buy) the plastics models later on. Also, the story tone have gone more serious and darker in theme with introducing the theme of death and sadness of losing a beloved one through war in its early episodes. There will be many questions that need to be answered like who was the real name of Raraiya monday, the technology behind the G-self, and who were behind the space pirates and their real motives. However, it was still to early for the series so I think some mysteries will be explained later on. As for now, I will try to see how the story of this 2014 Gundam develop