G Gundam is Trash. Delicious, Delicious Trash.

Gundam is, for the most part, “real robot”. This means that it attempts at relatively realistic physics and mechanics, albeit with liberties taken as necessary for the core premise. The original series more or less invented this genre, contrasted with earlier “super robot”, in which mechs were basically superman and didn’t have to consider any sort of realistic mechanism.

G Gundam was the first series set outside the Universal Century, the timeline of the original Gundam series. It’s also the only mainline Gundam series that is decidedly not real robot. It’s not even called “Mobile Suit Gundam…”, it’s “Mobile Fighter Gundam…” This is because it’s not really a mobile suit anime — it’s a martial arts anime with a few layers of Gundam-themed paint dumped on it.

G Gundam was meant to push product. Unfortunately, a real “story” was added to this, one which, frankly, adds little to the actual value of the show. I would argue that everything to do with the Devil Gundam detracts from the show and constitutes the worst parts of it.

G Gundam traffics heavily in stereotypes about countries. This is sometimes funny — Neo Holland has an entire army of Nether Gundams, which are basically just big Windmills with arms and legs. Sometimes it’s offensive.

Intro

In the world of G Gundam, Earth’s nations and city-states have all moved to space, taking comical chunks of their culture and everyone with any real resources away from Earth. The remainder, on Earth, are poor and live difficult lives. Earth is also where the Gundam Fight takes place: a tournament, held every four years, to determine the next ruler of Earth. This was implemented as an alternative to war.

Neo Japan. Note that there’s nothing to give it artificial gravity or atmosphere or anything like that. As I said, not real robot. Also, the Earth has a fucking boxing ring around it because of course it does.

Ostensibly, fighters must travel and fight various opponents in order to make it to the big tournament, held by whichever state had won the previous tournament. In reality, we find that even those who had been defeated show up, so all of the foreplay was completely meaningless.

Neo America. The Statue of Liberty is secretly a mega laser.

This brings us to our protagonist, Domon Kasshu. Domon is 17, making him one of the oldest main series Gundam protagonists. He was trained by the previous tournament’s champion, Master Asia, and his reason for fighting is that the Neo Japanese government has his father in cryostasis after his brother, Kyoji, stole the Devil Gundam. (This is the tacked on story). He is obligated to fight in the tournament and has to win to free his father, and in the meantime goes around trying to find traces of the Devil Gundam/Kyoji.

His Gundam is the Shining Gundam, and his power is… Shining Finger; a move in which he grabs someone else’s suit with his entire hand and then makes it explode. It’s one of the most boring finishers in the entire anime and its name is completely baffling.

Shining Gundam

Domon is accompanied by Rain Nikamura, a trained doctor and engineer who clearly really likes him even though his useless ass treats her like crap.

Domon also has a special power, the King of Hearts. That’s because he’s part of the Shuffle Alliance, an organization of Martial Artists named after playing cards, whose crests each give them extra power and, for some reason, immunity to the Devil Gundam’s influence.

I suppose I should also introduce the Devil Gundam, because nothing makes sense without it.

The Devil Gundam was developed as the ultimate Gundam, capable of evolving, replicating, and regenerating. This means that it is, for all intents and purposes, alive. It changes form across the series, and it’s piloted by Kyoji.

People influenced by the Devil Gundam end up becoming cyborgs. This starts with the spread of DG Cells, metal scales. They grant immense power, but end in people losing their minds and becoming zombies. The Shining Finger can free someone from the powers of DG Cells, restoring them. Shuffle Alliance members are immune to their powers, for some reason. You can, theoretically, get rid of them with surgery as well but this is never shown.

The Devil Gundam serves as the main boogeyman for about two thirds of the show and is initially defeated around the midpoint. It comes back and is defeated twice more in the last 8 episodes or so. It has an army of silly critters vaguely based on this guy, the Death Army, but which have a number of variants. They are all puppets.

One more thing, and this is very important.

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Here is a scene played out a dozen or so times in full, in which Domon suits up for the Gundam. Gundams are piloted via some kind of holographic energy system instead of controls, so fighters are literally performing martial arts moves inside the cockpit. Other characters also go through this sequence, and it is shown to be difficult to endure — Rain struggles with it and a child becomes trapped when he attempts to steal the Gundam.

You cannot convince me the suiting up sequence was not designed by someone with a latex kink. Game recognize game.

2. The Show

Going to have spoilers, but honestly, it really doesn’t matter. The show is exactly as good if you know what’s going to happen because it’s never good.

G Gundam tries to be serious. Oh boy, does it try to be serious. It repeatedly preaches about the harms of war in the same episodes where people perform absurd martial arts moves in already ruined cities and pilot robots that look like lumberjacks or boxers/football players or what have you. The first half of the series generally plays it very straight, and in so doing is a complete flop. It’s drawn out farce, but not interesting enough to be good or unhinged enough to be funny.

Domon finds a group of like-minded fighters through his travels — Sai Saici (Neo China), Chibodee Crockett (Neo America), George de Sand (Neo France), and Argo Gullski (Neo Russia). They form a brotherhood through the power of their fists, because according to the show, martial artists can only communicate with their fists. Sai Saici is a 13 year old Shaolin Monk and sex pest. Chibodee Crockett is a former street urchin with a harem of mechanics who used to be a criminal gang. George de Sand is some kind of knight who a literal child princess wants to date. Argo Gulskii is a prisoner, always wears shackles, and is transported by a dominatrix-ass prison warden and a big show of him breaking his metaphorical shackles is made for every single fight he’s in.

Nastasha Zabigov, she’s way out of his league. If she weren’t spiritually a cop, she’d be a perfect woman.

Domon eventually finds out that his teacher, Master Asia, is working for the Devil Gundam, and a bunch of fighting happens. The Shuffle Alliance comes in and saves Domon’s bros, transferring their powers to these guys and freeing them from the Devil Gundam’s powers, so now they’re the new Shuffle Alliance. They go to the Guyana Highlands to fight the Devil Gundam, where Domon encounters a man ostensibly from Neo Germany who fights like a goddamn ninja and who is named Schwarz Bruder (Black Brother).

It’s made apparent very quickly that this is Kyoji. I’m not even going to call that a spoiler, it’s so heavily telegraphed that it’s not funny and it takes Domon the entire show to figure it out.

TOTALLY NOT KYOJI, GUYS

He trains Domon, and then Domon goes and blows up the Devil Gundam.

It’s… tedious. There’s a real plot going on, but little of it is interesting enough or enjoyable enough to make it worthwhile. More than anything, it tends to flail towards pushing a message but not go far enough to feel sincere.

The second half is where the show fucking shines.

3. The REAL show

If you remember, the show is about the Gundam Fight, a big tournament. Well, it’s time for the tournament. Domon gets an upgraded suit, the God Gundam, and is off to Neo Hong Kong. There he declares that he will go undefeated, and the cast has to fight through an obviously rigged tournament run by the slimiest shithead, Wong Yungfat.

I’m not going to go into any further details here, because this is the part of the show that really makes it worthwhile.

You see, where previous episodes were barely watchable and even intolerable at times, every episode here is a goddamn gem. This is peak camp, where nothing matters and everything is silly and they go balls to the wall. Let’s take a look at some of the Gundams.

Zeus Gundam, from Neo Greece. No, there is no horse in there.

Nether Gundam, from Neo Holland. Still no official model kit for this.

Mandala Gundam, Neo Nepal. it’s terrible and hilarious

Jester Gundam, Neo Portugal

Nobel Gundam, Neo Sweden. Yes, it’s piloted by a girl, yes she’s a reference to Four Murasame from Zeta Gundam, yes she has blue hair and she doesn’t even look like she belongs in the anime due to her entirely different art style.

I’m not going to give you any details here. Suffice to say, almost every Gundam is schlock and it’s glorious, glorious trash. There’s drama, ridiculousness, and absurd martial arts. I cannot overstate this: it is actually some of the most fun you will have with a Gundam show, as long as you can tolerate things that don’t really matter and don’t make sense.

Master Gundam, from Neo Hong Kong. There IS a horse in this one and yes it has a suit up scene.

Love is found, love is lost, fights happen, assassinations are attempted, Wong pulls some absolutely bonkers shenanigans, characters who should be out of the tournament show up with Devil Gundam enhancements and suits that transform into much more powerful suits. It’s great.

It culminates in a free-for-all on an island, where the top fighters of the tournament (Domons’ Crew, Devil Gundam people, and a few others) fight it out. The Devil Gundam comes back, controlled by Master Asia (kind of). There are dramatic battles in which the Shuffle Alliance members sacrifice themselves to let Domon move forward. Domon is forced to confront his master in a very silly epic battle.

Things are resolved, Domon wins, the Shuffle Alliance is, gasp, still alive, and then the Devil Gundam is taken back to Neo Japan.

You see, at this point we have four more episodes of time to fill. A Japanese officer, Major Ulube, turns out to be a villain, and he fuses the Devil Gundam with the entire colony of Neo Japan. And then he uses that to take over the Earth as well.

It also turns out that the Devil Gundam was malfunctioning when Kyoji was piloting it, because it is supposed to be fused with a woman. Because women have wombs and can reproduce and the Devil Gundam wants to spread its seed. Yeah. So Ulube kidnaps Rain Mikamura and sticks her in the Gundam, and she lets it take her because she thinks Domon doesn’t actually like her. Which, frankly, is a valid take given how he’s treated her throughout the show.

The entirety of the Earth Sphere has to unite against it, in absurd space battles featuring dozens of Mermaid and Nether Gundams, all the various Gundam Fighters who didn’t decide to be evil shits, and various grunt suits. A bunch of Gundams from the UC also have cameos, like the GP01. In the end, Domon wins through the power of love. The Statue of Liberty is a GIANT LASER.

It’s nonsense. It’s dogshit. It’s horseshit. It’s pigshit. It’s GLORIOUS.

I cannot overstate this enough — this is by far the worst of any mainline Gundam series in terms of “is this Gundam”. For all intents and purposes, it is not a Gundam series. It only shares surface-level similarities.

It’s also one of the most enjoyable watches and unquestionably one of my favorites, assuming you can stick through a very tedious first half.

If I were to rank it, it would be a show that is simultaneously F tier and S tier at the same time, a superposition only possible through the power of total dedication to absurdity.

4. Various Notes, comments, etc

There’s a decent amount of misogyny. Nothing particularly egregious by Gundam standards, but also more than I’d like (0).

This is the first mainline series not to have Yoshiyuki Tomino on board, which means it doesn’t have his particular brand of weird misogyny and there aren’t any relevant pedophiles in the cast. This is a good thing.

I would argue that most of the suits in this show are bad. Some of them are fun, but few of them are what I’m looking for in a Gundam. I could give you a dozen critiques for pretty much any suit.

I do, however, stand by the Tequila Gundam being one of the coolest designs they’ve ever done. I hear it’s quite popular with Mexican fans, in the same way that Speedy Gonzalez became popular in spite of being a racist caricature. Take that as you will.

Tequila Gundam, Neo Mexico

Domon is not a likeable protagonist. This is not particularly novel — Judau (ZZ) and especially Uso (Victory) were incredibly unlikeable protagonists. Like his predecessors, Domon’s issues largely stem from immaturity and stubbornness. It makes sense for a child protagonist to be immature and flawed, but there are ways of making said characters actually appealing, as was done masterfully in Zeta Gundam with Kamille Bidan.

This show has one of the smallest percentages of model kits of any Gundam series. Many of the designs are simply too weird to have been considered for production. If you’re into model kits, you may be disappointed by lack of options. At least it’s not as overlooked as After War X or TurnA in that regard.

Watch the sub. The dub is one of the earliest to air in the United States. I’ve never seen the dub, but I can’t imagine it’s worth it.

So yeah. Fuck this show: it’s good, it’s terrible, it’s not Gundam, it’s a fucking martial arts anime and we love it.