Mobile Suit Gundam I

Universal Century 0079. Humanity has settled colonies in space. One of the distant colonies declares independence and goes to war with Earth; the war kills millions within a short time. Amuro Ray is an ordinary young man living in a colony settlement. Fleeing during an attack he gets into a hangar and finds a newly developed combat machine. He reads the manual, starts it and drives off the attack. After that the army will not let him go. Ryoji Fujiwara and Yoshiyuki Tomino direct. The film dates from 1981. It is not newly shot; episodes of the television series were re-edited into a feature and some scenes were redrawn. The series had not drawn the expected interest on first broadcast; it grew through repeats and toy sales, and these films are the result of that. What the narrative builds is not heroism; Amuro is unwilling, afraid, and does not like fighting. That approach is counted a turning point in Japanese robot animation; before it the genre was largely a heroic narrative for children. The political side of the war is inside the narrative; both sides are shown to be in the wrong and civilians are constantly visible. Its limit is the compilation structure; the transitions are abrupt and some characters arrive unexplained. Who it is for: anyone curious about Japanese science fiction animation and the series. Who it is not for: the editing jumps, the drawing is old, and there are many characters.