Gundam: G no Reconguista

Gundam: Reconguista in G (from hence forth RG) is an ambitious project from a man who made the Gundam metafranchise what it is today. The show takes some big risks, but unfortunately, the execution leaves much to be desired. First some back story. When Tomino produced the original Mobile Suit Gundam, he was struggling with deep depression and extreme suicidal thoughts. This led to his signature "Kill'em All Tomino" storytelling that bears a remarkable resemblance to George R.R. Martin's way of storytelling today--develop characters, get the audience invested, then give them the axe. By the mid-90s, however, Tomino was receiving treatment and began to reverse his dark disposition. He was less inclined to "Kill'em All" and more inclined to work out happier endings for his characters. This can be seen quite clearly in Turn A Gundam. In short, the Tomino who produced RG might as well be a different person entirely from the Tomino who made MSG in the 1970s. He is happier, more at peace mentally and spiritually, and less inclined to the brutality he once showed his characters as avatars of his own psychological struggles. However, many of his inspirations--Star Wars, Star Trek, and others--have remained the same and are quite clear in RG. Now, the best way to describe RG would seem to be a conceptual sandbox of all the ideas Tomino came up with in the 35 years since the original Mobile Suit Gundam. We have already seen him do this once in Turn A Gundam, and now again in RG. A lot of the ideas are actually quite good, and if you use your imagination a bit, you can even see where he is going. Also, we need to get something out of the way--RG has a lot of the usual Gundam tropes that have in many ways shaped anime as we know it today. You've got your talented pre-teen. Your Char Aznable masked enemy. Your invasion force from space. And, as often happens in Tomino, a "real" enemy revealed (twice) in the storyline that changes the way things are headed. If you are a Gundam fan of any magnitude, these can be forgiven, and perhaps even enjoyed. But they might be groan-worthy for newcomers to the franchise. Now the problem is that all of this is done sort of haphazardly. It never really feels like the characters develop much or that there is ever a credible threat in the show. Yes, there are plot twists and big reveals, but there is not much foreshadowing done and the characters don't really go through arcs in reaction to them. Compare Bellri, the main character of RG, to Amuro, the main character of MSG. Amuro suffers clear PTSD in reaction to the events of the series, and we, the audience, experience these traumas with him. Bellri on the other hand pretty much starts and ends exactly the same way. Though he experiences much and learns even more, he never really develops beyond the person we are first introduced to in Episode 1. This is a problem that exists in ALL the characters in the show. Motivations are assigned to them, but never really owned by them. Likewise, it seems like Tomino had planned to connect the Reguild Century more to the Universal Century, but all that really happens is a few one-off lines about the UC and some cameos of UC tech and locations. The show's main premise is that the human race has been limited in its expansion and use of technology on the planet Earth due to a system of beliefs developed at the end of the UC called "SU-Cordism". But the show never really outlines what the specifics of that system are. Indeed, it seems like SU-Cordism is a philosophy directly descended from Char Aznable's desire to clear the Earth of humans to allow it to recover, but this is never firmly established. Likewise, the signature of Tomino--Newtypes--are hinted at a few times but never expressly addressed, leaving some major questions over the evolution of humanity that had been raised throughout the UC Gundam series. All in all, for a diehard Gundam fan, the show is enjoyable, but far from perfect. Hopefully, the places and ideas it established may form the basis for other materials in the Reguild Century that better trace its linage to the Universal Century. Though, overall, if you are on the fence about watching this series, you can probably safely give it a pass for now. For a similar series that has ideas on par with RG, I recommend checking out Gundam AGE.

I've noticed that a lot of reviews for this series say that the person who wrote them did not finish said series - sure, there are some people who have finished the series, but the first 11 reviews are by people who, at the time they wrote their reviews, had not finished the series. So, as someone who's finished this series, I thought that I might as well add my opinion to the mix. No, I'm not going to be comparing this to Gundam IBO, Unicorn, both seasons of Build Fighters, or Thunderbolt - I'm going to instead compare this to Turn A Gundam, which, in addition to being my favorite Gundam series, also happens to be in my top 5 (as well as the last Gundam series Tomino directed before G-Reco, not counting the Zeta Gundam compilation movies). First, let's start with the story. While I do consider Tomino to be one of my favorite directors, I will admit that one of the common criticisms about him, that his narratives can be rather difficult to understand, does ring true a fair amount of the time (for me, the most notable case would be Zeta, although that could have been due to the depression he was experiencing at the time he made the show) - Turn A was an exception to that rule, since when I watched it, I was able to follow the events rather easily. I had the exact opposite experience with G-Reco; there were quite a few times where characters are captured by opposing factions...yet instead of being treated like POWs like you would expect, the characters were allowed to move around unrestrained. In all other Gundam series, when this happens (granted, it doesn't happen often), there is always an explanation - heck, even Gundam AGE did this right! It feels like this series was supposed to be the standard 49-50 episode length, seeing as how they try and cram so many factions into 26 episodes - yet at the same time, it felt like they somehow managed to drag a 13-episode plot out for too long. And the ending in particular made me appreciate Turn A even more - in Turn A, the ending was easily one of the best, if not the best, endings I'd seen in an anime. G-Reco has NO REAL ENDING TO SPEAK OF. Up next is the art. The art in Turn A Gundam reminded me a lot of Cowboy Bebop's art style - while I would still say that Bebop has the better animation overall, there were a few moments in Turn A that made me reconsider my stance. G-Reco's artstyle is one I can only describe as a mixture between the animation in Victory Gundam and Gundam AGE - the former I consider to be the worst Gundam anime, and the latter was the first Gundam series that I considered bad (before anyone asks, I watched them in random order). I didn't like the animation styles in those series, so to say I didn't like it here was an understatement. I do like the character designs though. Now, let's talk about the characters. Now, in most Gundam series, you have characters on both sides you can root for. For example, in Turn A, the Earth side has Kiel Heim, Lily Borjano, and Loran Cehack; the Moonrace, on the other hand, has characters like Harry Ord and Dianna Soreil. G-Reco has...to be honest, I couldn't think of any characters I liked (or for that matter, disliked) in G-Reco. I guess you could say that I liked the cast because I couldn't find anything bad about it...but by that logic, you could also say I hated them because I couldn't find anything bad about them either. I guess if I had to pick one thing that I liked about G-Reco, it would be the soundtrack - now, admittedly, it's pretty much impossible for any composer to compete with Yoko Kanno, so it's pretty much no contest when comparing Turn A's soundtrack to G-Reco. The one part I would complain about is something that everyone else likes a lot, the ending - while I know that a lot of people find it pretty catchy, it reminds me too much of the second opening to Victory Gundam, and considering that that song currently haunts my nightmares, you can probably guess how I felt about this song. When I watched Turn A Gundam, it started out okay at first, but it grew on me, and by the end of that show, I had a show that I was more than happy to add to my top 5. With G-Reco, on the other hand, I found myself seriously wondering why I had even bothered, since it was so boring that I nearly fell asleep a few times while watching it - now that would be fine if this was, oh say, Mushishi, but it's not. There were no moments where I was awestruck by how awesome the fightscenes were, or impressed with how much the characters had changed. I just found it incredibly boring. If Turn A represents Tomino at his best, then I'm almost inclined to say that G-Reco represents him at his worst - key word being "Almost", since I have not completed Garzey's Wing (which I've heard is easily Tomino's worst work). I suppose if you're a Gundam completionist, it's worth a watch, but as for everyone else...you're better off skipping this one.

I'm not going to make a long review for this series, as I have quite a bit I would like to actually cover, but do not feel doing so here would be the best. So I will make a very basic review, more or less outlining some of the points of Gundam: Reconguista in G. --Story: (This is the part I have a lot to touch upon, but will wait until I have a more fleshed out script set up to add back in if possible or re-do my review later on since there is more I would like to add to the rest as well) The story for Reconguista is G is very basic and straight forward. It follows the same basic set-up of most Gundam series' in that faction a is after faction b, with some sort of side agenda, or in Reconguista in G's case, factions a, b, c, etc. are after each other and will occasionally work with each other for their goals. Now while the story is very basic and easy to follow, you NEED to pay full attention while watching. Gundam: Reconguista in G was very likely condensed from a 50 episode series into the 26 episodes we see. With this there are things that are skimmed over or information is fairly scarce. However it is so basic that as long as you pay full attention you will understand what is going on (aside from the first 4-5 episodes, they're genuinely a bit chaotic and you may need to re-watch those episodes). This is not something to excuse however. The story for the show also does not require background knowledge of past UC timeline Gundam shows, however it does have some easter eggs and terminology that will resonate with those who have viewed them, making it a nice touch. Overall the story isn't much to gawk at. It's very simple and easy to follow so long as you pay very close attention. If you do not go into Reconguista in G and give it your full un-divided attention, you will likely be lost. Tact that with the series likely being compressed and you will not enjoy yourself. The story gets a 6/10, it's not deep, it's not dark aside from a few things on history, and it doesn't do a lot to really set itself apart from other Gundam series', and it may as well be considered an Alternate Universe timeline rather than a continuation after the UC timeline since there is no real connection between the two present. --Art: The art is where Reconguista in G really shines, if you've watched Overman King Gainer, Eureka Seven, etc. then this is what you're going into. The animation looks extremely weird on some characters at first, some are down right awkward, however the environments, mobiles suits and a good majority of the characters will look very good and at times it looks almost hand-drawn, something that really made me enjoy the way the animation was handled for Reconguista in G. The best compliment I can give Reconguista in G is that it's animation is always very consistent. It's action sequences are always very detailed and it doesn't resort to the pathetic streaking lines battles that seems to have become normal in Gundam since AGE. It is also something done in a lot of mech animes these days, but I won't stray to far. There isn't much more to say for the animation other than it is beautiful, and it genuinely deserves a 10/10. --Sound: There's not much to say about the sound. You have the usual Gundam sound effects that have been used for years, the musical scores are nice, albeit not the most memorable. There are a few scores that are still stuck in my head and randomly pop in and out here and there, but aside from that not much spectacular, yet nothing is bad so it's more of a hit or miss collection of tracks. The voice acting is very well done as most would expect from a Japanese dub. Personally I very much enjoyed Mark Ishii's portrayal of Bellri Zenam (the main character of the series), even though it was his debut role as a voice actor. There were one or two times where I felt he overreacted a tad, but other than that he did a very good job, and the rest of the cast was no exception. Since there really isn't much to go about with the sound it gets an 7/10. While there weren't a lot of memorable tracks in the series, there were those really good ones that stood out, having the Gundam sound effects added in was a nice bonus and obviously good voice acting is important, which it fulfills on. --Character Here's the other part of the series where the show falls. It has a lot of characters that it attempts to introduce, but then a lot of these characters will either die, have no relevance until later into the show or at random intervals or they just flat out disappear and are never seen or mentioned again. For the main characters it does do a good job of fleshing them out, however Reconguista in G has a bad tendency of bringing in too many characters from all sides, trying to make them feel as though they may be relevant, only to have them become pointless tack-on characters for the sake of it. If it wasn't for the MAIN characters getting developed well and fleshed out all throughout the series I would give this a 2/10, however because of how well the main, main cast is handled, it gets a 6/10. --Overall: Gundam: Reconguista in G was a fun ride. It can definitely be confusing if you're not in it 100%, but pay full attention and you will understand everything going on. It's a basic story that really doesn't try to set itself too far apart from the rest of the franchise. It does have very beautiful animation, with action sequences being some of the best I have seen in Gundam in years, the mech designs are interesting and diverse... give or take one obvious and very stupid mobile suit near the end of the series. The majority of the music may not do much for you, but the voice acting will, and the characters fall flat aside from the mains, but overall it's a fun watch. Overall Gundam: Reconguista in G gets a 7.4/10, on the review itself it will say 7 since it does not let you judge outside of basic numbers, and I round to the nearest whole number so obviously 7 is it. I would recommend this to seasoned Gundam fans such as myself, and would likely steer newcomers of the Gundam franchise towards something else. However it does not require any previous Gundam history to get into so I wouldn't completely ignore recommending it to newcomers, although I would likely recommend older series' regardless just because. Again I do have MUCH more I would like to actually touch upon for reviewing Reconguista in G, however I will wait until I can fully flesh out my review, and edit back on here or re-do it completely if the earlier is not possible.

I'm one of the biggest defenders of this series and find it greatly misunderstood. For me, it was like watching something you would find in avant-garde cinema. Maybe not necessarily from an experimentation standpoint, but in the sense of trying to piece the narrative together. It was such a perplexing, daring, and challenging experience. The messy politics, confusing human relations, lore, characters, and sprawl of it all was fascinating for me to unpack. Each episode is dense with thematic exploration and plot movement. You cannot watch this with your brain on autopilot mode. This series makes you work to understand it all because you won't get any info bumping from the director. G Reco is also Tomino at his most auteur, so you're either along for the ride or not. It is uncompromising and refuses to appeal to modern anime storytelling conventions. I find it impressive that Tomino is still making unabashedly daring pieces of art this late into his career. I see Gundam Reconguista as the Gundam series for the diehard Tomino fans. If his style was never for you, then don't rely on this series to make you a fan of his work because it is not easy. It is also quite postmodern in places because I get impression Tomino is providing meta-commentary on the franchise and fanbase throughout the work. It's not overt commentary or anything which makes it more meaningful when you find it. Turn A Gundam was getting at similar metatextual themes which makes sense when you consider the relationship the two series have together. I also appreciated how this series was like something you would've seen in the 1980s only with modern animation. It's simply the best looking Gundam series ever in my book. All-in-all, it's not for everyone, but it was certainly for me. I think it's a bold masterpiece and one of the great Gundam series. Don't let others shape your opinion of this show.

Story:It hard to understand by watch one time and have many relax scenes but it makes this drama serie have good lesson for kids about wars and reasons to fight of them. Art:Good , this is the one of all anime in previously season that have outstanding art.Especially,Mobile suit action scenes that born form animator drawn it and have red or blue shade when climax scene of that battle.And eyecatch dance scenes of main characters.Totally,it makes this serie easy to memorize. Sound:Have a good soundtrack that suit this story even relax scene,battle scene,G-Self's Theme and Ending G no Senkou that have good meaning for this story. Character:Many characters,many sides,it make so hard to memorize them but each main character have standpoint that make this seire have not good-evil character and outstanding to memorize. Enjoyment: Gundam fans or beginner can enjoy this story if you love to see relax and drama war serie like me.

Many Gundam fans avoid G Reco due to its reputation as being confusing and nonsensical, whether these claims are accurate or not is very subjective yet one thing is clear: G Reco is an extremely flawed work. G Reco, just like its spiritual predecessor Turn A Gundam, has amazing worldbuilding, we are presented with a seemingly peaceful Earth with a complex political division due to the regulation of energy resources and technological advancements by a religious institution. Several factions, with diverging ambitions, fight across this stage, thus giving the setting to the plot of G Reco. The protagonist Bellri gets to pilot the G Self by mere casualty, a mysterious advanced mecha that fell from the sky with an impaired pilot. The plot advances when Bellri starts to learn truths about the army unit he belongs to at Capital Territory and its role on the stagnant conflict with the continent of Ameria. During the escalation of conflict, Bellri has to challenge his religious beliefs and other preconceptions in order to understand fully the motivations and struggles of all parties involved, this being made by joining a rogue unit of space pirates alongside the strongwilled Aida. Due to Tomino's narrative style, the motivations and allegiances of characters and factions change rapidly without little to none exposition, therefore requiring the viewer to pay attention and note of every dialogue line and even actions. The plot could even be considered to be grounded and logical yet suffers due to the breakneck pacing and constant introduction of new characters and factions that leave the viewer with little time to assimilate the events of the previous episodes. Even following the plot closely, one of G Reco's worst flaws is the lack of character depth and development. During the 26 episode run, we learn very little about Bellri and his personal thoughts, his character development being also basically zero from the start of the series. Aida, who in my opinion should've been the protagonist, is the only character who has some sort of character development and has consistent thoughts and ideals. Due to the lack of character depth, the motivations of each character can get lost throughout the conflict, this being especially bad during the final episodes of the series. What G Reco excels at is keeping the audience at the edge of their seats due to its constant twists and imaginative exploration of the setting. The setting gets more complex with practically each episode, adding layers after layers of worldbuilding and (weak) character relationships. The animation is beautiful, the first cour especially offers lush backgrounds and a rich color palette, the character designs are unique yet beautiful, showcasing a diverse cast with recognizable designs and personalities. The mecha animation, done almost only in 2D, is fluid and even expressive, somehow a rarity in modern mecha series. The mechanical design is varied and colorful, referencing several eras of mobile suit design throughout the Universal Century yet can be forgettable due to the sheer amount of units being rapidly introduced during the series. Is G Reco enjoyable? Yes, it is, if you are able to follow the plot and overlook its many flaws. I would only recommend this show to viewers familiar with Tomino's works and narrative style, definitely not the best choice for Gundam beginners.

It's basically a war story where there hasn't been a conflict in hundred of years, Human forgot the horror of war and they play around in it. This is the main theme for G no Reconguista. The show isn't as confusing as many make it out to be. Just actually listen to what characters say and don't have the memory of a goldfish. But you can also benefit from looking at who is saying stuff, how they are saying it and why. The dialogue isn't as surface level like many shows, characters don't just serve as mouth pieces for the plot so the exposition you get is in a context. For the most part anyway. The best part is the animation. It's beautiful and fluid plus with Tomino directing experience action scenes are fun to watch. The way color pallete and how the characters are drawn makes it feel like 90s anime except in digital now. The show quality is also consistent the whole season.

Review 12.12.2017: Gundam G no Reconguista "Every review is subjective, art is subjective your opinion may differ, never trust reviews to make the opinion for you, use them as a guide and make your own journey." Tomino is certainly known to be very skilled at writing interesting really strange stories, Reconguista is a return to the old Tomino style of odd dialogues, very strange character behaviour choices and a world very unlike our own however despite being so alien and so strange its actually very evident that Tomino WANTS it to be different. Its not that Tomino cannot write consistent dialogue and realistic character behaviour because he can however there is a certain uniqueness to Reconguista because of this chosen style and while I hated it at first I grown to understand Tomino as a strange man with fondness of unique taste is style. However the series has a serious pacing issue, some episodes feel like they were meant to be two episodes but instead are crammed into a timeframe of 21 minutes, therefore its rushed and suffers from sudden cuts and transitions with many questions unanswered between what happens. However it is completely false and ignorant to assume you wont understand anything, the plot is still cut good enough to be comprehensible, there certain charm to the story development of this anime and can be comprehended more easily if you divide it into three and a half acts instead of trying to piece it all together as one. The story has a lot of interesting details to it that still makes it worthwhile with the classic Tomino twist to it. Towards the end of the series however we really start to notice the restrains of the limited episode count, you are left with the feeling of wanting more and wanting to know what happens next, you are never truly shown the big fight that was unfolding instead it wraps up very quickly even for Tomino. Art wise Reconguista is the best Tomino Gundam to date, its beautiful, unique and fluid, everything fits very well together, the little CG use is extremely well implemented one will easily forget its even there, all the mobile suit fights are properly animated with no CG use a relief in modern day anime. To put it simple, the art style looks old school but has a modern production value to it, instead of appealing to the new kids in school Tomino choose instead to make a Gundam the old fans will enjoy and he could not present it any better. The mobile suit fights are very simplistic at first portraying the lack of skill however as the show progress we are given far more complex combat scenes with surprising fluidity for being Sunrise and all the mobile suit fight scenes are done old school. When people talk sound they only talk music, while Yugo Kanno makes for some excellent soundtrack with punchy orchestra that gives a good amount of emotional impact in scenes and the openings and endings could not be more Tomino alike, happy and catchy only to be led on by false promises with devastating deaths that will make you realise you been Tomino trolled. Sound design in Reconguista is very good, in an age of overused repetitive sound effects its a welcome change to see some proper sound design again, we still get reused Gundam sound effects but with a surprising modern twist to them, you can truly feel the weight of a Gundam through the sound alone, the power of its blaster and good punchy explosions. Overall the sound truly enhanced this anime to another height, good sound can make your day or break your day very easily and sadly majority of studios underutilise it. Surprising amount of memorable characters in Reconguista thanks to not just the outstanding character design simple but effective, but also memorable voice acting and funny behaviour makes the character very real yet so different from us. In classic Gundam fashion we already are presented major characters that end up dying catastrophically unsuspectedly a theme that is surprisingly restrained throughout the series for being directed and written by Tomino. The main characters are very unique to Tomino character writing, Bellri can be comparable to Unicorn’s Banagher in that he switches sides very easily and therefore can be considered neutral until the last act of the anime however unlike Banagher, Bellri is extremely naïve and has no real idealistic vision for what he truly wants, he just follows the flow of events. Something that reflects the entire series, characters are mere actors in a big play, alone they cannot achieve much but their individual actions add up to a sum of change frequently portrayed in the series. And then there is Char Aznable, COUGH I mean captain Mask, the Char of Reconguista, he probably is the most memorable person of the series, unlike Char in many ways he is a very compassionate person but that is where the differences end, Captain Mask is very responsible and mature and also a very competent mobile suit pilot who happens to be the biggest road block for Ameria the enemy of Capital Guard which Captain Mask serve. Most side characters feel very well developed surprisingly and in good fashioned Tomino style can sometime even have an entire episode dedicated to them before they brutally perish whether done on purpose or just duo to lack of time is another question for another time. Overall the best thing about Tomino is that he writes stories that are built by characters direct or indirect actions, and does not follow the norm of a story building the characters. Reconguista reflects a very different type of Gundam, it has the ingredients but tastes different from the other, and while being time limited I think the series still delivered and I only want more of it, watching Reconguista is a memorable experience, more so than most of Tomino's work recently, time flew by so quickly that when I reached the end I want to answer of where is the rest? The biggest flaw of Reconguista it has too much to tell in too short of a time span and because of this I do not think it can ever be considered a masterpiece but certainly a timeless favourites among Gundam fans, a certainly good watch that requires patience and good deal of accustomisation to Tomino's unique style of directing and writing. If one thing is true with the works of Tomino is that you either like it or you hate it, there is rarely a middle ground to it. SUNRISE: Its important to note that Tomino did not have enough time under the development of Reconguista and was only given 26 episode production funds instead of the 50 he had originally asked for, the decision by Sunrise is not well understood but its thought by many there is great deal of jealousy and spite towards Tomino because of his personality. As a result, the team had to cut the 50 episode script down to 26 as the script was already written because Sunrise only gave notice right before production started.

G-Reco is a mix of the best of the UC with the politics of Wing. Very human, sometimes autistic-like characters go through strings of mini arcs that defy conventional plot structure. Along their way some of these arcs may have "pointless" conclusions. In a traditional anime a character will go through an arc and then they will be changed. In G-reco, a general may learn the truth in one arc, but then go back to his home country and choose to still continue with their potentially improper military campaign. A girl will learn her enemies are human, but still choose to continue trying to kill them for selfish reasons when her mettle is tested. Exposition is rarely given except to subvert expectations, and people do not always grandly declare their motivations. Sometimes extremely important plot-related dialogue will be delivered in passing conversations. This is all classic Tomino. Throughout it, you also see an extension of the themes of Zeta, Turn A, and other Tomino classics. One thing that's truly wonderful is how it presents combat. When combat occurs on Earth, especially early on, you see it from the perspective of nature. A mobile suit moves, and dozens of animals are displaced. A shot is fired, and trees in the forest burn. This is presented the same way some earlier Gundam and many other series present character deaths. However characters dying is treated as secondary in many of these scenes. You can see that the real issue is the destruction being caused to the Earth. Even in scenes where people are passively outside of their Mobile Suits, the Earth brims with life. It's through storytelling like this that many of the themes of the story are relayed to you. Tomino, like Anno, hates the average anime fan. He hates the Otaku, the Gundam Fan. He hates people who feel they're owed something by a piece of art, or that they own it. This can be seen in much of his storytelling structure. Early on characters give "awkward exposition" but they don't tell you anything you don't know. When they begin to speak about something new, that would allow you to "make sense" of the world you're seeing, the scene focus will shift or they'll be cut off. You are forced to piece together much of the important information yourself. I love this anime. I love how it relays information. I love the characters. I love the very normal ways it displays characters doing things like eating, or screwing up. I like the lack of grandiosity to most of it. In my opinion it's at its worst when it's having epic battles, or the finale. My main critique is that it could have used about 10 more episodes of breathing room, to properly decompress, as the ending is rushed. Truthfully though, almost every Tomino Gundam series ever has been rushed or cancelled, so that's just par for the course. Many people will not like this anime, because it is not traditional anime in any way. It is a rejection of convention on almost every level. Much like Turn A, it is at times intentionally produced in a way to upset people who feel certain ways about how things should be done, how characters should act/be presented, and things of that nature. It was on a budget, so at times it's also not a feast for the eyes, though to me it never looked ugly. I often found it quite pretty, but I can't deny it doesn't have the budget of some anime. If you are used to Tomino's work, or looking for extremely unusual structure and character actions in an anime, then embrace this one.

It's amazing this is the lowest rated Gundam show on this site. It honestly doesn't deserve it. It didn't fuck up nearly as much as Gundam Age or Gundam Seed Destiny--I mean, at least someone put some thought into it. But the point is, it did fuck up. You learn in writing class 101 that every story has to have a denouement, a fancy way of saying "ending". Gundam: G no Reconguista has none. And that is why it fails. And fails hard, which is a shame to say as I tried to love this show as much as I could. Yoshiyuki Tomino is the director, you know, the guy who created Gundam in the first place back in 1979. This was his first anime he directed in over a decade. I have great respect for the man--he directed so many classics, even outside of Gundam, like Dunbine and Ideon, plus he has an interesting personality. After all, why are his shows full of that odd but quirky and lovable writing that some people describe as "Aspergers-like"? Maybe a criticism, but that "odd" sense gives Tomino's shows their charm. Tomino's most recent Gundam show he directed was Turn A Gundam, which many say is the height of the franchise. I'm inclined to degree--the atmosphere, the emotion, the sheer charm behind it, most certainly makes it unforgettable. Now this show--you knew from the PVs, you knew from the director, you knew from the art, and you quickly learned from the story, it clearly intended to capitalise on that aspect. That's obvious from moment one, when you learn this is "after Universal Century" when civilisation is rebuilding itself. Okay, cool. So what will we do with this? We introduce a very interesting setting--we have a religion worshipping a space elevator in Brazil or somewhere nearby in Latin America, we have an interesting, enthusiastic protagonist, Bellri Zenam (first Brazilian Gundam protagonist), defending said space elevator, and we have a supporting cast full of intrigue. You've got some shady guys from the Moon (ancestors of the Moonrace of Turn A Gundam?), enemies of the future Brazilians in what's implied to be the future United States, and various other players in the intrigue like space pirates. It sets itself up well, evidenced from the introduction of the main Gundam when it crashes into some mobile suits from ZZ Gundam in an early fight scene--yes, Gundam fans are the target audience, make no mistake. Anyone familiar with a Yoshiyuki Tomino anime will feel at home--it's blatantly obvious Tomino never cared one bit about the current anime industry or fans of nowadays anime. Plenty of weird dialogue, plenty of obscure motives, plenty of that strange 80s charm, well-transcribed to 2010's style animation. Very good animation, I must add. Colourful and vibrant, but not like a children's anime like Gundam AGE nor "mature" like Gundam 00. It hearkens back to Turn A Gundam without a doubt, as does the character design and the mecha design. The G-Self and its many backpacks may not be as blatantly quirky as the titular mecha of Turn A Gundam (more reminsicent of Eureka 7, if anything), but it certainly is reminiscent of Turn A Gundam in so many ways in that it's one of the most unique mecha bearing the name "Gundam" (well, a protagonist's Gundam). For the music, it's not quite as good as the incredible soundtracks of the previous Gundams (every Gundam show up to and including Turn A Gundam), but it has a wonderful quirky nature to it, with jazz-inspired energetic tracks. It fits perfectly with the nature of the show. The ending song is glorious, too ("Tsukame prido! Tsukame success", etc.) as is the first opening song (a fantastic modern J-pop opener). But there's one issue with this that utterly kills my enjoyment of the show--it has no point! Tomino introduces tons of interesting plot threads, interesting characters, a very interesting setting that any Turn A Gundam fan would love, but it all fails to be tied together. I suspect at some point Tomino asked for a 50 (or so) episode show, but didn't get it. Instead of anything else, Tomino stuck up his middle finger and organised it as he would a standard-length Gundam show. No other explanation can be given for the time spent doing very little but fighting off random enemy raids (like in a typical Tomino show), the villains who clearly have something up their sleeve but never really show it, and just the general feeling you're only halfway through the show when it suddenly ends. I was expecting the whole time for something like the "Black History" episode of Turn A Gundam to show up, for the motives of everyone to be explained and come to light. But none of that happened. I was even expecting as late as the second-to-last episode for there to be an announcement of "there is a second season, don't worry!". But there wasn't. Instead, everything ends as basically follows--main Gundam gets uberhax weapon (that makes no logical sense why is only used a few times), a major battle happens (an admittedly very good battle, but regardless), and then a completely nonsensical ending happens which sees many, many out of character moments and utterly odd decisions by the characters. It feels like somone involved just said "fuck it, here's your ending". Which is an utter shame, since I grew invested in the many characters as well as the setting. Bellri Zenam, an energetic and positive Gundam protagonist who might otherwise rank among my favourite Tomino protagonists. Aida Surugan, who I was always waiting for her potential to be revealed even though it never was. Raraiya Monday, the utterly crazy girl with some real moe appeal as well as an interesting subplot ended all too soon. Klim Nick and his crew, from a rival faction but sympathetic and intriguing at the same time. And the villains, from the Char clone "Captain Mask" and the interesting ideological factors driving him to the various folks supporting the factions in space, many of whom are never really enumerated upon or masked in random dialogue that's just waiting for an explanation which never comes. Again, there is so much potential and I can't say I didn't enjoy watching this show until the very end of it. Really, up until the second half of the final episode, I'd be willing to give this show a solid grade. It's got plenty of great elements, and much of the charm of Turn A Gundam with almost no real bad moments (until the ending). But when you cloak everything in obfuscating dialogue and never reveal any of what it actually means, you produce something that means nothing in the end. Every story has to have an ending--G-Reco doesn't, instead it skips from the middle of the show to an ending that makes no sense. Production issues or just an utter lack of care? I don't know. All I know as a person viewing the end product is that somebody left you hanging in the process out of sheer lack of care. The ultimate question G-Reco brings up is whether the journey or the ending is more important. I can't deny I utterly enjoyed this show as I was watching it, up until nearly the end. But when you have no real ending and leave an infinite amount of plot threads untouched, or, well, wrapped up in the most haphazard and pathetic way possible, you can't possibly leave the audience satisfied. I have no doubt G-Reco could have been a worthy successor to Turn-A Gundam if it had been 50 episodes long. But again, you simply piss off the audience if you write the show like that. But it isn't, and that's the point. It fails as an anime, and watching it will do nothing but piss you off. If you like watching something with minimal to no overall plot, plenty of enjoyable anime exist for that. Not something with pretensions like this. G-Reco is to be viewed as a failure precisely for everything it doesn't do. This is a show for Tomino fanboys and Gundam completionists only, unless you have strong tolerance for being pissed off by the endings of the anime you watch. Not recommended for the sane among us.

Most of the previous articles on G no reconguista have been written by die-hard Tomino fanboys and not without a certain dosage of dogmatism and perhaps faith in the director's skill as well as vision. Their reviews hinge on comparing the series to earlier installations in the Gundam Franchise, with all the associated angst and archetypes. I am most probably one such a fanboy, but I am not going to commit to the exercise of comparison. I will instead be sharing my thoughts on G no reconguista as a disappointing work simply in its own right. If anything at all can be said to drive Reconguista, it is the story, and it is the plot. Both elements are best summarised as: complexity without invoking thought. There is a Byzantine web of power relations, much like any other Gundam series or war drama that invokes the sheer complexity of war. This is then compounded, in my opinion, by the uneven pacing and lack of exposition, which makes the show unnecessarily difficult. Make no mistake, I enjoy contrivances, but there is neither cleverness nor wit in the way the story is told. The labyrinthe subplots never do get resolved satisfactorily, and what we get instead are deus ex machinas and open ends. I cannot help but get the feeling that Tomino was trying too hard to follow his own script, and so instead of developing a fresh plot he ended up spreading it too thin, over the course of a measly 26 episodes. It cannot be stressed enough that the problem with the show is not that it is formulaic, as Gundam UC and Seed rightly show, a formula and a cocktail of archetypes can be a strangely magnetic mixture, but that it ended up rushing through said formula. The usual elements, the intrepid teenage pilot, the possibly romantic sister figure, the dashing man behind the mask, the Gundam itself in all its glory, the rogue fleet, and the epic journey from Earth to space and back again, they all survive more or less intact. But Tomino rushes through them so quickly as though he was doing some sort of slide-show on 'What makes Gundam Gundam', so that the individual set pieces seem disembodied, discordant, jarring. Worldbuilding has always been one of Tomino's strengths, and this production is no exception. The world of G no reco is a quaint potpurri of anachronisms and contradictions, much like our own. There is not only the usual visual feast of Sci-fi rendered in a rather pastel style, but also a profusion of hints and clues that allow the attentive viewer to glimpse into the vibrant present and troubled past of the invented world. Nonetheless, I feel that the potential has largely went to waste: one gets the impression that Tomino might have envisioned some grand cosmic scope, but then for some reason known only to the man, scrapped everything. I could sort of see what he was trying to get at: lying underneath the thin veneer of amicability there is always an undercurrent of hatred, violence, and warlust, and behind the most upright of nations is always a past of unspeakable cruelty. Reading the work thus, the world of Tomino's seems to send a singular message: that to fight war is not only to fight those who make war, but to fight human nature at its basest, to make war with the human condition. The characters are a decidedly mixed bag. Some of them appear more akin to caricatures or symbols, others are plainly underdeveloped, and others still plainly unlikeable. Our protagonist, Belli falls squarely into the third category. He is what I call a zealot. He is what Judau Ashta would be had Judau been born without a heart. Where you would expect the harshness of war and the unjustness of social division to faze him he does not falter. With usual genki-ness and stolid unconcern he charges into battle with the latest state of the art military equipment. He shares much in common with the typical shonen hero, a child with too little thought for consequences and too much power, thrust into situations far more complex than he could possibly comprehend. He is not a moral hero. Insensate to ideological nuances or the simplest human empathy, he is quite simply high on his own status. Yet, The characters are not all...terrible. The female lead Aida Surugan is in this respect the very opposite of Belli. There have been no shortage of complaints that she is consistently useless in combat situations, but these, I think, are balanced by the fact that she does possess a functioning moral compass and is just as likely to resolve things diplomatically as attempting to shoot them down no questions asked. Another sympathetic character is everyone's favourite, 'Mask'. Although devious in his machinations and completely ruthless in his modus operandi, he does strike me as an antagonist with vision, a vision for egalitarian society and the freedom from stigma, regardless of birth, status, and race. It goes without saying that I was rooting for him all the way through. He makes quite the entertaining foil to Belli: he is hotblooded to Belli's unflappable demeanour, he is a self-made man unlike Belli, who had his life (and Gundam) handed to him on a silver platter, and most ironically, whereas Belli is static, a paragon of a pilot throughout, Mask is human, flawed, and eventually does learn to reform from his mistakes and restrain his inflated 'Kuntala pride'. There does seem to be quite more than a little unrealised potential in the characters, though the same could be said of the entire series. The amnesiac Raraya could conceivably have been used to expound on the mental strain of war beyond its poignant emotional tolls but alas that did not happen. There is also a distinct absence of strong or relatable female characters other than Aida, in fact, to be perfectly candid, there is a distinct want of any characters who are both strong or relatable. Last but not least is Nick 'Tensai' Klim. He is one of the few truly original characters in this show, and make no mistake he is quite the warhorse. For me, I thoroughly enjoyed his theatrics and appreciated how Tomino managed to squeeze sympathy from the audience even if, yes, he is quite possibly the most vicious, manipulative, and power-hungry warmonger we are graced with in the show. Before I comment on the art and the sound, I would like to make it clear that I have very little by way of taste in either department, so please do take my words with healthy pinch of salt. The art reminds me of Turn A Gundam, it's softer, more pastel-y than what one might have expected from a show that's in essence, all about war. Unlike the realism of other additions to the real robot genre, Reconguista's visuals are more akin to those normally found in the realm of fantasy. It's a fresh take on a genre that's rapidly aging, to say the very least. Although whether one prefers this to the nitty-gritty aesthetics of other works is strictly a matter of taste and opinion. I'll review the battle scenes separately here. They do seem to be a bit aged and clunky, but thankfully come without any obstructive CGI or particle effects that recent series have been obsessed with. They are reasonably realistic so do not expect slaughterfests a la Seed. The mecha designs are eccentric, and as such have proven to be more than a little divisive among the fan community. I personally like them for their deco style, and sleek, flowing lines. While the look of the Gundam itself is unmistakeable, it manages to be less derivative than many other designs, and there's more or less an internal continuity in the designs that imitates real arms development, which is a veritable bonus. But there is one question I would like to raise: would we rather have glorious battle scenes that idealise war, or jolty, jerky battle scenes that are neither pretty nor intense, but which show war in all its horror and all its reality? I, for one, have a sneaking suspicion that Tomino was opting for the latter. The sound feels distinctly nostalgic. The first opening is lively and memorable, lik…

First I need to say a few things before doing the actual review. 1. English is not my native language so forgive me for any commited mistakes during this review. 2. This is my first review, so keep that in mind. 3. May include a few SPOILERS, not so many neither important ones. 4. This is my first Gundam canon series (I have watched Wing and Seed) Now let's get started with the review. Story (5/10): This is where my forth statement come along, since I haven't watched any other canon series, I don't quite understand the whole UC thing mentioned during the story. While the premise is quite good the whole story seems quite awkward. And for some time I didn't even know what to expect from the next episode so. My main problem here is the un-organized scheme that the guionist and director put us through. Episodes go all over place, dialogue is weird some times, and the plot is quite weird. Art (5/10): Art is difficult thing to judge specially if i'm not a proffesional artist. But one thing I really like was the colors they used in this anime, that was pretty enjoyable. Despite that my main problem was the "static frames". I mean the scenes where they are " fighting" but the just there... still having the characters saying something. But overall pretty good Sound (8/10): I found no problem with the sound really. Not perfect. Character (3/10): This is where things go bad... really bad. I mean the whole deal between the main characters and also the "enemies" was quite aweful. I can't really judge this without any SPOILER so, if you feel like discussing this with me, pm me. Enjoyment (7/10): Even if the characters and the story were quite aweful, this was still enjoyable (weird, right?). The audio and art was alright, it has Gundams and big nice list of robots, the fights were nice. So it was quite enjoyable. Overall (4/10): From my point of view, you should only watch this if you like mecha anime and don't have anything more to watch.

I once saw someone say that Gundam Reconguista in G (G-Reco) was originally planned to be fifty episodes long, before the planned length was changed at some point before production began to be twenty-six episodes -- and I have never felt more certain in a statement being true without looking into the validity of it. G-Reco's pacing issues are, quite frankly, really bad. The show moves at a breakneck speed, with almost nothing in it getting room to breath. What few moments the show does take the time to stop and linger on, often don't hit quite as well as they should, because they simply didn't have time to setup the emotional stakes and make the moment land. The show practically feels like a work that was completed, and then was forced to be ruthlessly cut down into half its original runtime. At times, you can quite literally feel where the missing episodes would have gone. The flip-side of all these issues is however, that Tomino clearly had a vision for what he wanted G-Reco to be -- and he didn't compromise on that even one bit; the show is absolutely jam-packed with interesting ideas from start to finish. In a lot of ways, it is Tomino going over the same things he has been saying in his work since the 1970's: humanity is simply repeating the same cycles we always have even in the face of imminent environmental destruction, and we could perhaps forge a different path if society valued the opinions of the younger generations -- instead of the older generations constantly clinging to and consolidating their power. With Turn A, in 1999, the idea that women's opinions and experiences are also ignored to society's detriment was introduced into his work as a theme, and is also present here. However, just because G-Reco is treading well-worn ground for Tomino, doesn't mean it has nothing of value to add. Beneath the messy pacing and familiar messages, G-Reco is perhaps Tomino's most pointed work yet. In an interview surrounding the theatrical release of G-Reco, Tomino talked about how G-Reco was a story about environmental concerns. In that interview, he bluntly stated: “The Earth has already been polluted. At this rate it won't last for another 500 years”. This line of thinking is clear throughout all of G-Reco, from the small ways in which we see battles between mecha affecting the local wildlife, to dramatic moments of environmental destruction. However, there's one piece of world-building in G-Reco, brought up early in the show's runtime, that colors the whole work: the existence of the Kuntala, a caste of people who were literally cannibalized during famines in the (by the time of G-reco) relatively distant past. G-Reco is not a show about preventing complete environmental collapse, instead it is accepts the likely inevitably of such a collapse in its very premise. And as the show goes on, it highlights Tomino's opinion that humanity will likely constantly march towards destruction, suffer unspeakable horrors, rebuild, and start the whole process again -- in some of the most dramatic and captivating ways that he has ever managed to express that idea which runs through so much of his work. In the end, G-Reco has no answers to offer about the questions it poses; Tomino's stated goal, in interviews, that G-Reco was made to get young people to think about environmental issues, seems to be its main focus. Considering what he's been saying in the shows he's been making for decades and decades, it's pretty fitting that, as an old man, his last television show is simply trying to make young people think about the huge issues facing humanity. Did he succeed? Absolutely not. G-Reco was not particularly popular or well received, and I'd be willing to bet that most of the people who would go to bat for it are long-time Gundam fans in their 30's or older. He clearly failed to make the messages of G-Reco resonate with many people at all, let alone the youth. Even so, something truly great was born out of the attempt. To me, in a lot of ways, G-Reco is the last Gundam show that exemplifies the series as it had been up until that point. I can't help but place it in comparison to The Witch from Mercury – a show that accomplished something Tomino never could, even after his opinions on women's place in society shifted somewhat in the late 90's: it was mostly normal about its female characters. G-Reco, despite the massive improvements from his earlier work, still suffers from writing most of its women characters based on how they relate to the men in their lives, the female pilots are constantly getting saved by their male counterparts while the reverse is rarely true, and many other small misogynistic things here and there . . . and yet, The Witch from Mercury feels like the death of Gundam, while G-Reco feels like the send-off the series deserves. G-Witch is simply devoid of anything interesting to say. It has likable characters, and has sanded away the gross elements of Tomino's shows, but there's nothing left but a polished toy commercial. From the very beginning, Tomino has used Gundam to sneak political themes into the toy commercials known as mecha anime, and he never stopped doing that. In many ways, G-Reco is him doing that at his very best, and Gundam as a series will almost certainly never be able, or even want, to make shows like that without him. That he got do it one last time is something I'm thankful for.

I won't lie this was absolutely the most annoying and disgraceful gundam anime I have ever seen, and I have literally seen quite a bit of anime, especially the gundam related kind, this gundam series didn't really seem like it had a good story at all, it just seems like this was nothing but, bits and pieces that were put together in a rush, with no one to look over the final finished product. I just didn't really much care for this strange gundam anime. I just honestly wished it would end faster than what it did, but at the end of the day, it's up to me to, be the finish something. Not, other people.

All over the place in terms of characters and plot. So many terms, concepts and factions are thrown at you without any real base or development. Maybe I'm just an idiot and lots went over my head, or maybe I wasn't observant enough? After finishing the series there are plenty of things I felt were needlessly obscure, and what appears to be too much assumption from the writers made any of the bigger moments lack any impact. It can be interred that a number of characters have strong romantic relationships based on script and some of the actions/sacrifices they make for each other. They almost never feel earned or genuine because of the lack of development or context. The sense of humour also just didn't hit for me. Even the mecha designs didn't provide much to enjoy. The only positive thing I can say is that the art and animation is generally quite good. Beyond that I struggle to see why you'd want to watch unless you're a Gundam completionist.

So I decided to give this show go and I still stopped at episode 13. Main reason because is due to this show being an eye rape. The art style would have been popular back in 1970+. Yeah the OG grandpa gundam was no bae i will give you that but I was able to bear with it since it came out way before i was born. G-reco is in the 21st frigging century. The decline started notably in Age when we had oddly shaped gundams. took a real peak in g-reco with the cute g-self. and well each episode looked like it had no AA applied to it or whatsoever. IBO itself was weird too, gundams were ok but mikazuki and kudelia eyes look weird af. That wraps it up for my holy trinity of gundam going weird. Also, the plot seems a bit too soft core like it was made for kids. Apparently it wasn't made for an old man like me. https://soranews24.com/2014/08/29/gundam-creator-isnt-making-his-new-tv-series-for-you-doesnt-care-if-you-dont-like-it/ With this justification I can say it's a boomer show. As there were cooler designs in a shit show like Gundam Seed and I was only less than a teenager when i watched seed 12 years ago. The design of this show is too cute to be taken seriously. Mr Mask is a bigger loser than Char. When Char lost it wasn't hilarious. Mr Mask defeats is like a slapstick comedy. Like in a nutshell G-Reco is a no grade version of ZZ.

This series is full of holes and problems in general. It's very rushed and they take no time at all to explain anything. The character motivations don't exist, and they have no depth at all. It feels like you missed something between each episode because something just happens for no reason all the time. They do minor time skips for no reason. They constantly talk about "the taboo" and then break it immediately after. Which is all about not developing U.C. timeframe weapons on earth because they destroyed the earth. They introduce characters that have little to no importance on the plot and make them seem important for no reason at all. They even have next to no lines, be we focus on them for some reason. Primary masked badguy (Char proxy) has the shittiest motivation ever. "My people were raised to be soilent green, but this guy with the almost gundam thing was raised by rich people, he'll never understand me or how hard I have to try so now I must kill him!" Talk about a whiny b****. None of the characters are likable, they're never on screen long enough for you to care! tl;dr - There just isn't a story in this Gundam series, and nothing flows right.

This show is one of the most brutal rebuttals of almost every aspect of Gundam. However that feels like the only focus of the show, at the expense of being enjoyable to watch. The story mostly happens around the main characters, but that seems to be by design. That would be more forgivable if the characters weren't so frustrating. But even the characters being annoying and nonsensical and stupid seems to have been done at least partially on purpose, considering the background of the Char clone character and what his background means for the world at large. The best parts of the show by far are the ones focused on the absolute hostility of living in space. These scenes are done well, with one small scene in particular really elevating that aspect of the show. The mechanical design is bold and powerful and different, like in most Tomino shows. I hate the design style here, but I love that it exists. I do recommend watching it if you've seen a lot of other Tomino Gundams. The last 7 or so episodes are better compared to the front 3/4 of the show. And for what it's worth I do personally think Tomino intentionally chose to do a lot of the things that makes this show bad on purpose to get the viewer to see older Gundam shows more critically. All of that said, this is not a good show overall.

in the beginning it was great but as the series went on it felt like i had somehow skipped episodes at certain points. the series has some of my favorite suit designs in the franchise with incredible art as well. the characters (mostly) feel real enough for the setting and the tone. I feel like the story had been planned partially and then they just made it as the went after around the halfway point. and the ending doesn't feel like it belongs. overall the first half i gave a 7 but it dropped to a 5 because of the second half.

Reconguista in G has a lot going for it, but it's pretty messy in execution. It's animated extremely well, I never noticed any reused animation at all and there's a lot of little details in the animations that add a lot of energy to the show and breathe a lot of life into everything. I found the show to be energetic and generally focused on being fun which resulted in it staying entertaining throughout, even during the messiest points. My main problem with the show is its pacing, things move too fast for you to easily follow things properly sometimes. I also would like to note the last few episodes are comparable like classic Gundam climaxes where war is shown with extreme brutality, which is surprising considering how everything up to that is relatively lighthearted like Turn A Gundam, but I really like this ending. Overall, this is worth watching if it's convenient to do so, otherwise it's not an essential Gundam series to watch. I still found this to be worth a watch.