Taking place a mere three years after the events of Char's Counterattack (U.C. 0093) and before F91 Gundam (U.C. 0123) Unicorn comes in where a large dead zone had formed in this franchise. It's an area with little interest, since some of the previous shows outbreak characters no longer exist and the ambitiousness of the era; such as the good guys turning bad and visa-versa and then back again, ...
Taking place a mere three years after the events of Char's Counterattack (U.C. 0093) and before F91 Gundam (U.C. 0123) Unicorn comes in where a large dead zone had formed in this franchise. It's an area with little interest, since some of the previous shows outbreak characters no longer exist and the ambitiousness of the era; such as the good guys turning bad and visa-versa and then back again, has a feeling of being tired and slightly gimmicky. Every time a new segment of Gundam comes out, particularly the UC universe, the go to answer as to why the show or comic exists is because the previous winner of the last war is acting arrogant and rude; so now the underdog has to stand up and knock them down so they can get a big head and eventually be beaten down. The teeter-tottering can get old. It's hard to really not hate the Gundam series but the formula might be old and starting to wear thin around the edges but it still works. So just like the old saying "If it's not broke, don't fix it." But Unicorn has done something truly drastic, they are changing the history of Gundam. What we were lead to believe was the reason why the One Year War (the name of the conflict in the very first Gundam series) happened is now being changed in the ethos of Unicorn. A long time fan of Gundam might be thrown back by this information, much in the way if a history buff through intensive research found in someway Hilter was right about his reasoning. Imagine the horror and disdain that person might feel. Unicorn slowly starts to peel away the behind the scenes of the back story and reasons as to why the One Year War happened, and it all begins with the Laplace Box. A safe guarded document that could easily destroy the Earth Federation (the good guys).
Enter Banagher Links a high school boy with a fairly complicated past. That's pretty much it, really. Banagher of all of the pilots of this franchise is the least known, we learn a little about him and his past but nothing beyond who his parents are and how he is connected to Gundam. Unlike, Amuro Ray who is a gadget loving teen, with a hero streak, or Kamille Bidan a loud, hot-headed teen, with short-man syndrome; there just isn't a lot of information on Banagher, which in someways makes his character appealing. Little is known about him and he isn't prone to soliloquies about himself. He is just a boy infatuated with a girl he just meet and is fighting to keep his world safe. Short, simple and to the point. There are other characters here with huge back-stories from previous shows.
And that's the rub of Unicorn. The real problem with this show is not the animation (which is nearly so gorgeous it has the promise to bring tears to the eye) but i feel the only people who can really, truly enjoy it down to it's bitter, breathtaking soul are long time Gundam fans. Which is the case for myself, but when i was watching one of the episodes my roommate (a moderate Gundam fan, meaning he's seen Wing and parts of G Gundam) asked as to why i was gasping at the identity of two of the characters, i realized he was missing nearly half of the show. The pretty pictures and brightly lit action scenes had caught his attention, but the story and the reasons behind all of it were only getting to my heart; and to be honest it was a little betraying. I felt he was being cheated, but it was of his own doing. Unicorn has done it all in the right path: a quick-paced, story with little time for messing around, a neat main character, a kick-ass mech that is so cool goosebumps pop up when it's fighting. Music that slams into your head and makes your heart race and beads of sweat glisten at your temples, visuals so clean and crisp it's almost not animation. All of it nearly for not because the man behind me never took the time to fully follow long with the history.
It's not for the new fans. This show is the reward for the fans that sat through the awfulness of Gundam Seed, or the long, boring and seemingly pointless dialog of Gundam 00. For those that were hardcore enough to put up with the groan inducing, odd charm of G-Savior because it's cannon in the U.C. timeline. For those that were cheated out of a show and got the short, choppily edited F-91 Gundam. The one's that note Heero Yuy as a good pilot and yes he took out Libra with a giant freakin' gun, but Amuro literally pushed back Axis with Nu Gundam; no big gun, no whining on how his life is meaningless, just outright determination to be victorious. It's for the old schoolers.
Even with this one major fault, Unicorn surpasses many other Gundam shows not just in visuals, but in story pacing, music, character development (even though most of it was done beforehand in previous shows) and short crisp, meaningful dialog. My only hope is the new fans look at this series and finds it interesting enough to go back and watch the older shows.
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