Netflix’s Miserable New Gundam Show Has No Idea What to Say

For astir of the 3 hours it takes to slog done Netflix’s new Gundam series, Requiem for Vengeance—a 3DCG animated bid made by Bandai successful collaboration with Safehouse that dropped connected the streamer past week—there’s small merit to beryllium found. It looks bad, similar a mid-aughts pre-rendered video crippled cutscene. It sounds bad, with stilted dialog delivered by performances seldom matched by the clunky movements of its animated protagonists. Its pockets of enactment consciousness weightless successful each the incorrect ways for a mech anime similar Gundam, fto unsocial 1 attempting to instrumentality the inspired prime of framing the series’ combat from the position of radical connected the crushed of a conflict. But for the astir portion beyond that Requiem for Vengeance conscionable has truthful small to accidental that contempt each this, it’s mostly an inoffensive discarded of your time.

This is simply a uncommon bully happening for the series. Coming into the show, determination was overmuch skepticism from Gundam fans astir the thought of a bid that centered the position of the series’ archetypal antagonists, the Principality of Zeon. Although the franchise has agelong played with exploring the quality of close and incorrect crossed the spectrum of its myriad factions, and the systemic maltreatment of powerfulness structures that tin corrupt adjacent nobly intended movements, astatine the constituent successful clip Requiem for Vengeance is acceptable in—the last period of the One Year War, the devastating interstellar struggle betwixt Earth and the separatist abstraction colony Zeon depicted successful the original Mobile Suit Gundam—what was near of Zeon’s equipped forces was nether the nonstop power of ruling powers explicitly pushing them down the way of supremacist fascism.

The bid has ever been wide astir Zeon’s parallels to Nazi Germany adjacent arsenic it has fixed the faction a texture that goes beyond that parallel. But portion determination person been Gundam stories told with Zeon protagonists before, a uncommon Western-led bid telling 1 astatine this infinitesimal successful clip for the franchise leads to plentifulness of hesitation astir conscionable however Requiem could perchance valorize characters who, astatine best, would beryllium duty-bound soldiers “just pursuing orders” or, astatine worst, proponents of what Zeon’s origin had go astatine this constituent successful the communicative of Gundam‘s primary “Universal Century” continuity.

Requiem for Vengeance mostly takes that at-best approach, simply due to the fact that it has thing to accidental astir its characters beyond the information that they are soldiers and find grant successful doing that. At nary constituent crossed the communicative bash its protagonists truly question wherefore they’re warring what has intelligibly go a warfare they’re connected the brink of losing, nary substance the horrors they endure arsenic they find their numbers perpetually dwindled arsenic their squadron is chased crossed Romania by a deadly caller prototype Federation mobile suit, the Gundam EX. Their paper-thin characterization starts and ends with “we’re soldiers and we bash what we told,” adjacent arsenic they’re joined by a third-party battlefield medic, Dr. Kasuga (Maxwell Powers), who perpetually pushes them to see wherefore they’re continuing to prosecute successful bloodshed. For a bid that has ever considered the authorities of its violence, connected some quality and mechanized bodies alike, it feels similar a immense missed opportunity. But again, the alternate was a precarious valorization of a determination towards fascism, truthful it’s possibly it was for the best.

That is, until its final, perplexing moments. At the climax of the six-episode series, Requiem for Vengeance‘s superior protagonist, Captain Iria Solari (Celia Massingham), engages the Gundam EX successful 1 past hopeless conflict to bargain her remaining friends clip to evacuate backmost to Zeon’s forces successful space, reaching retired to the aviator of the Gundam that has slaughtered her ain mobile suit squad and spent the past six episodes attempting to decorativeness her and her allies off. Having made the realization that the Gundam is being piloted by a kid soldier—and 1 of the Federation’s aboriginal attempts to exploit younger generations and research their capableness for developing Newtype powers of heightened psionic cognition and understanding—Solari successfully manages to person him, arsenic a parent herself, that they are some agelong past having a constituent to really warring each other, either arsenic individuals oregon arsenic examples of the Federation and Zeon astatine large. But calamity strikes: 1 of Solari’s chap pilots defending the evacuation fleet stabs the Gundam successful the backmost portion it’s distracted by her plea, sidesplitting the aviator instantly to Solari’s horror.

Over the ending narration for the series, this infinitesimal galvanizes Solari to marque a caller beingness for herself choosing to enactment connected Earth and combat with Zeonic remnant forces successful Africa. Solari describes her chap remnant fighters arsenic soldiers consumed by hatred and a request for vengeance, warring to dice successful honorable glory connected a battlefield careless of the outcome, but that she is different: she is simply continuing the combat aft it’s implicit successful bid to make a aboriginal wherever determination volition beryllium nary warfare for children to beryllium forced to combat successful the archetypal place. It is already a baffling determination for her character—the 1 other furniture of characterization Solari gets successful the full amusement earlier this is that she was a celebrated violinist earlier the war, and conscionable wants to spell backmost to Zeon to beryllium with her ain young son, truthful choosing to stay connected Earth is an contiguous about-face connected her sole information established up to this point.

© Netflix

But it becomes genuinely chaotic placed successful the wider discourse of the Gundam timeline that Requiem for Vengeance is rooting itself in. As we antecedently said, the bulk of the amusement is acceptable successful the last period of Gundam‘s One Year War conflict. Solari explicitly describes her caller allies successful Africa arsenic remnant forces, pockets of Zeonic subject near down aft the war’s extremity that proceed to combat aft the defeated principality signs a bid pact with the Federation.

We’ve seen stories astir these remnants, successful Africa and crossed Earth, passim Universal Century stories successful the years since the first Gundam: they go important worldbuilding elements that play a portion successful Gundam‘s nonstop successor shows, Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam, aboriginal OVAs like Stardust Memory, and broadside stories crossed a litany of spinoff media similar manga and video games. And their full constituent is that they not lone support trying to combat the extremity of the One Year War to the constituent of abject futility, but their ongoing absorption sets the signifier for a everlastingly warfare that drags some the Earth Federation (whose strategy of authorities is repeatedly a root of thematic disapproval successful aboriginal Universal Century texts, and acold from the mostly heroic unit they were initially portrayed as) and Zeon’s eventual splintering into aggregate remnant governmental and subject movements into progressively darker places.

Decades of struggle aft the One Year War, including the near-destruction of Earth itself during the events of Char’s Counterattack, are successful portion perpetuated by these myriad remnant operations. The mobile suit arms contention that Requiem for Vengeance concisely touches connected keeps going, and some sides support abusing the coming generations of younker to support their ain systems of powerfulness arsenic portion of that perpetual conflict. In warring to halt a aboriginal wherever kid soldiers inactive exist, Solari yet chooses to assistance make that aboriginal anyway.

That would beryllium an absorbing decision to the series, and would astatine slightest accidental thing bleak astir the quality of Gundam‘s rhythm of war. But not lone does Requiem for Vengeance not marque clip to springiness Solari’s determination immoderate benignant of melodramatic impact—it virtually comes retired of obscurity successful the last minutes of the show—it explicitly portrays this determination arsenic thing noble and good, to the constituent that the last orchestral crescendo that accompanies her declaration is described successful Netflix’s closed captions arsenic a portion that is “[growing] much heroic.” The amusement yet ends with this thought framed astir arsenic hopefully arsenic it could be, clashing with the cognizance the remainder of the bid has for its spot successful Gundam‘s timeline to make a tonal messiness that, adjacent to audiences that aren’t acquainted with that wider discourse from the franchise, inactive feels similar a implicit blindsiding of the main quality they’ve spent 3 aimless hours following. That it’s the archetypal time Requiem really tries to accidental thing of value astir its satellite oregon its characters is damning—perhaps it would’ve been amended if it had simply not tried saying thing astatine all.

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