Mobile Suit Gundam F91

Chag★ 6

Ever wonder what happens when a fifty-episode series gets condensed to under two hours? The answer to that lies within Mobile Suit Gundam F91 -- a textbook example of wasted potential. Though F91's core story is a solid idea that draws plenty of inspiration from its predecessors, without any flesh on its narrative bones, F91 is reduced to an inconsistent and and very much rushed tale. However, boasting its nostalgic story along with great animation, F91 is still worth a look by fans of the gundam franchise. Due to disputes amongst the original production staff, this ill-fated chapter of the universal century gundam saga was cutdown in size in a rather extreme extent. F91 tells the tale of Seabook Arno and the crew of the Space Arc, a spaceship of civilians trying to escape the conflict between the Earth Federation and the Crossbone Vanguard, a faction led by the Ronah aristocratic family. As usual, the protagonist is forced into the cockpit of the gundam in amidst of the chaos and destruction on the civilian population and is bound there by his obligation to protect friends and family. While F91 certainly does not make new ground in the way of plot creativity, it does incorporate many of the key themes in the gundam franchise with great success. There are a number of solid lessons and morals to be learned in F91, and though there is very little originality amongst them, they provide the film with much-welcomed substance. However, after the first third of the film, the plot begins to lurch forward erratically. Viewers are expected to connect the dots in places where considerable lines of narrative have been truncated. Names, faces, places, and political intrigue are constantly thrown at the viewer and are gone before the viewer gets a chance to absorb them. The end product manages to be more or less coherent, but much of the plot is lost and damaged due to the lack of elaboration. Needless to say, this does not make for good entertainment. Fortunately, the production value of F91 is that of a feature film rather than a TV series. Like other Gundam OVAs and films of its era, the action looks great -- arguably superior to the modern TV productions. The new generation of mobile suits (three decades past the technology of Char's Counterattack) have a number of new tricks, which makes for eye candy that will please most mecha fans.The 1991 character designs also hold up well to the test of time, though looks alone would not be able to veil the considerable flaws in characterization. Though Seabook Arno is a mature and charismatic gundam protagonist, due to the limited runtime and the large cast, most key characters are not very well developed, hence some of their actions they take seem incomprehensible. Thankfully, none of the characters manage to be obnoxious and repulsive. F91 is accompanied by a mediocre musical score that is sparingly used, though viewers will find a great theme song and plenty of classic sci-fi sound effects, for better or for worse. There's a great story in F91 dying to get out -- a story forever lost to the squabbles of yesteryear. Chances are, if you're a gundam fan, you will leave Mobile Suit Gundam F91 satisfied to some degree under the laments of disappointment over its lost potential. If you are new to the gundam franchise, there are much better choices than F91 for your entry point into the metaseries. And if you're not a fan of gundam or mecha in general, F91 is not going to convince you otherwise. Pro: - Great animation - Gundam veterans will be able to appreciate the remains of the amputated plot Cons: - Barely coherent - Underdeveloped characters - Bland musical score

Beatnik★ 10

Nobody does an attack on a civilian population better than the Gundam franchise. The opening to this movie blew me away. When a gigantic bullet casing, falling from a mecha's weapon, bounced off a lady's head on a street far below, causing her to fall over and die, I instantly gave this a 10. This is the kind of movie I was hoping Char's Counterattack would be. A coherent and compelling movie charting everything we love about the Gundam franchise. The horror and tragedy of war, the visceral action and drama, the complexity and ambiguities of ideologies, mecha blowing shit up. Char’s Counterattack had allthat, but to me felt like you were tuning into a movie midway through; you were thrown into a situation that you weren't introduced to properly. It had too much plot machinations and not enough breathing space for characters, too many ideas and not enough execution. F91 however does it all correctly. Yes, F91 is the outcome of a full TV series being cancelled midway through pre-production, and turned into a movie instead, but the movie does not reflect that at all. It does not feel incomplete or flawed beyond redemption, it actually feels like a prologue to an epic 50 episode saga, one that we won't mind missing out on because there’s too many ways they can end up generic and tiresome, much like the Gundam show F91 is the continuation of: Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. The only negative thing I can say about this movie is that some of the scenes with the Crossbone Vanguard aristocracy are a bit too long and feel obligatory, but they're still essential to understanding their motives, so they're not a complete waste of time. Obviously there's no villain on par with Char Aznable, but it would be too much to expect one. Where this movie shines, and what we should focus on, is the attention to detail, like the aforementioned woman-killing gigantic bullet, the reimagining of the tropes of the genre that Mobile Suit Gundam introduced back in 1979, such as survivors of an attack forced to become soldiers, and the ambiguous motivations that spur men to want to kill millions of human beings for a greater good. Another negative thing about F91 is the total rip-off of the Empire Strikes Back bad guys theme. I'm not a SW geek so I don't know the actual title, but it's probably 'Imperial March' or something. But other than these small nitpicks (and the fact that the MSG Random Slap ratio is pretty damn low) it's an awesome movie with brilliant animation that puts A LOT of today's anime to shame. And it hilariously keeps up another MSG tradition: stupid names for characters: Seabook. It's not the name of a prize-winning race horse. It's our main hero. Seabook. Remember it. Remember F91, don't let it get overshadowed by other Gundam shows, this one is an accomplishment.