However as soon I went to Gundam forums and facebook groups and I declared that Victory Gundam was the worst Gundam show ever made I got a lot of blackish from many hardcore Gundam fans who actually thought Victory Gundam was a good show. Many fans of the show thought me that I didn’t understand the show because the creator and director Tomino was going through depression and I should feel bad for him. Honestly I felt bad for Tomino that he was going through depression but at the same time I thought Tomino should have abandoned the show halfway through and let another director take over the show because the show could have been a lot better and tolerable if the show changed directors halfway through but history is history and we cannot travel back in time to 1993 and change things around.
As people continue to blackish me for my opinion of Victory Gundam as well them telling me to re-watch it again my friend contacted me about my opinion my Victory Gundam and he told me to come to his house to get his Victory Gundam Blu-Rays that were released by Nozomi Entertainment in the US. Since I live in the UK I had to borrow his small Region Free Blu-Ray player that allows Blu-Rays from the USA to be played. I ended up borrowing his Victory Gundam Blu-Rays and the Blu-Ray player for a month and when I was not busy with personal life I sat down and watched the whole thing in 5 sittings and by the end of my re-watch I was honestly I liked it the second time watching. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think it was a great show but at the same time, I don't think it was a bad show and am going to tell you why.
Hello, everyone, this is Shawn aka KurataLordStage and welcome to my review of Mobile Suit Victory Gundam and with that out of the way let’s get started.
Story.
It is the year UC 0153 90 years since the One Year War, 60 years since Char rebellion and 30 years since the Crossbone Vanguard the earth is still lossly controlled by the greatly weakened earth federation who are under attack by the BESPA the armed forces of the space colony-based Zanscare Empire. Only a ragtag resistance movement, League Militaire, stands in BESPA's way as they swiftly conquer much of space and start their invasion of Earth, with the advanced mass-produced mobile suit, the Victory Gundam, as the League Militaire's secret weapon. However, BESPA's power continues to grow, using violent means, including public executions with guillotines, to strike fear into those living on Earth.
The story follows a 13th-year-old Uso Ewin who is living peacefully on earth with his childhood friend Shahkti in the Eastern European town of Kasarelia. However, the peaceful days would come to a end where they are thrown into a conflict when they encounter with they encounter ace BESPA pilot Chronicle Asher. Soon, Üso finds himself joining forces with Marbet Fingerhut and the rest of the League Militaire, Now Uso must pilot the Gundam so he can fight against the BESPA as well discovering the true horrors of war.
The story of Victory Gundam begins in a very odd way because episode 1 is actually episode 4 while the episodes 2 to 4 were actually episodes 1 to 3, however, there was a reason for this awarkawd start. Around this time Bandi brought the rights to Gundam as well as Studio Sunrise and needless to say director Tomino aboustly hated it. The main reason why episode 4 was showed first instead of the actual episode 1 is so Bandai can promote the Victory Gundam mobile suit to increase model sales.
The one thing that should know that Victory Gundam is easily the darkest Gundam show to date even surpassing Zeta Gundam and this is mostly due to the fact that director Tomino was suffering from depression where if you know the man well it leads to a kill them all series.
Besides that what do I think about the story of Victory Gundam? Honestly, I thought it was just decent for the most part.
For starters, I really like the tone of Victory Gundam for the most part as it perfectly captures the atmosphere of war in a more darker manner. Unlike all of the Gundam shows before and after Victory, this one is mostly dead serious in terms of tone as it rarely has any lighthearted moments.
I also really loved the themes that were explored in Victory Gundam such as betrayal, death, immigration, peace, and insanity and the show did a pretty great on exploring it' themes without being too preachy about it.
The final 12 episodes were Victory Gundam were pretty awesome overall as it was well paced had a lot of great elements which I won't mention due to spoilers, good writing great battles and the ending for Victory Gundam was great as it perfectly concludes the series in a sad but satisfying way.
However, Mobile Suit Victory Gundam has a lot of problems.
The first problem I had with Victory Gundam is the pacing. In terms of pacing Victory Gundam has some of the worst pacing I have ever seen in a Gundam show and while it’s not as bad as Wing and especially in Seed Destiny it’s still a big problem due to how nothing really important happens in the middle portion as it’s only featured a lot of repetitive fights in space.
The second problem I had with Victory Gundam were the deaths themselves. While I liked of how Victory Gundam explored the theme of death the problem is the execution at times for example characters who got little to no screen time until that point suddenly become the focus of the episode have the audience to get attached to these character for they respective episodes only them to be killed off by the end of the episodes. The was okay in the beginning but it really got annoying and predictable as the series went on. Honestly, what is the point of putting characters in the spotlight if they are going to be killed in the end?
This is just subpar writing and it really just toys with the audience emotions.
The third problem that I had with Victory Gundam is how women were portrayed. I understand the writers tried to make Women as ruthless as men in a war setting however they writers really jumped the shark here because all the women in Victory Gundam are either ineffectual or unexplainably psychotic and because of that they were all really hard to sympathize with which is a huge problem in terms of characterization.
The fourth and final problem with Victory Gundam was the despite being a dark Gundam series it was way unnecessarily over the top for its own good meaning the show would be too flashy about the deaths and other stuff in the show. It wasn't so bad in the first half but the second half really got carried away with it’s over the top nonsensical deaths to some of the cringe-worthy stuff like the Lupe bathtub scene in episode 29 which completely screwed up the tone of the series greatly.
Beside those shortcomings, I thought the story for Victory Gundam was okay that had a lot of good themes and elements.
6/10
Characters.
Like with the story the characters in Victory Gundam were decent for the most part.
Uso is pretty good Gundam protagonist. Despite being the youngest protagonist in Gundam he maturely says otherwise as he develops as a very compelling character to struggles to prevent the death of his friends and comrades but can never keep people from dying no matter how very hard he tries not to mention he is a greatly skilled pilot.
Shakti is probably my least favorite character in this show. While she was a decent chararter in the beginning but once she started to reach Lacus, Marina and Relena levels of annoyance and preachiness I started disliking her greatly.
The characters in the league militare were decent and enjoyable characters overall however apart from Odelo who was a good character they were all pretty underdeveloped.
While the Zanscare Empire as just as ruthless as the Titans in Zeta Gundam however unlike like Titans in Zeta Gundam where some of the characters were actually likable every character in the Zanscare Empire minus Cornicle and Katejina were lackluster.
Chronicle Asher is the char clone of the series but is honestly not a good one. While he, not a good char clone I thought he was still a pretty decent chararter overall and I really liked his sympathy where he doesn’t like to target non-combatants but instead he rather order civilians away from areas of danger.
Katejina is a pretty interesting character because she is probably the character that I enjoyed the most in this show. Yes, she did some unspeakable acts through the series that would make anyone angry but think I enjoyed about Katejina was her journey to madness. She went from your typical spoiled rich girl who worried about Uso safely due to he being young in the League Militaire to an utter psychopath where she switched sides with the Zanscare Empire after being captured by Chronicle.
While I personally don’t like Katejina as a person thanks to her unspeakable acts I still liked how the show did with Katejina.
Overall the characters in Victory Gundam were decent but enjoyable for the most part.
6/10
Visuals.
For a show made in the early 90s, I thought the visuals of Victory Gundam were alright.
The character designs were pretty good for the most part and I really loved of how the show was able to showcase different skin colors instead of the usual white skin characters that we all seen before in many. It really gives characters more diversity in terms of how they looked.
As for the mecha designs, I thought there alright. I really loved the Victory Gundam and V2 designs as there were both original and great designs not to mention I really liked thy feature that they have such as V2 Wings of light.
The mobile suit for the Zancare Empire were pretty weird of Gundam standards. While I give them points for trying to be original but some of them were outright ridiculous like the Gedlav.
As for the actual animation, I thought is alright overall. While the show has no stock footage used and some of the fights were well animated I thought at times the show can get pretty choppy at times with its animation.
6/10
Sound.
The soundtrack is great as it perfectly fits with the dark tone of the series.
Both the opening and endings themes were pretty great overall yes they are very light-hearted compared to the rest of the show but I thought they were all great and catchy.
The Seiuyuus did a great job with the roles that were given so I have no complaints whatsoever.
Unfortunately like with ZZ, Turn A, and X victory Gundam does not have an English Dub.
Overall the soundtrack and voice acting for Victory Gundam were pretty great.
8/10
Final Thoughts.
So after re-watching Victory Gundam for the second time what I think about it?
While I personally thought it wasn’t an amazing Gundam show by any stretch of the imagination I also thought it was not that awful. While I prefer to watch most of the other Gundam shows that came before and after it I find the experience of victory to be pretty enjoyable for the most part. It still has a lot of problems in terms of the story and characters but it wasn’t an insulting pile of shit like ZZ Gundam, Build Fighters Try and Seed Destiny was. I thought Victory Gundam was a decent Gundam show that had a lot of good things in it but it does it have the problems that prevent it from being one of the good ones. The pacing was way too slow for its own good at times, it was way over the top with its themes at times and dark nature and some of the characters were not that good.
Victory Gundam may get a lot of hate from non-UC Gundam fans and for very understandable good reasons mind you but I must remind you all that Victory Gundam wasn’t a total disaster. Victory Gundam had to potential to be awesome but sadly it was mismanaged and toyed with for the most part and because of that, this show ended up being a decent at best.
If you haven’t seen any Gundam show before I recommend you to avoid it until you have seen most of the U.C Gundam shows that came before it in the timeline.
After Victory Gundam was done director Tomino would be kicked off from the team and Victory Gundam would be the last U.C Gundam show from the timeline and for what it was I thought it was a decent end to a great timeline.
Final Score 6/10
