Gundam Reconguista in G: Profound Weaponized Storytelling or Unintelligible Garbage?

Gundam Reconguista in G: Profound Weaponized Storytelling or Unintelligible Garbage? | G-Reco

Рет қаралды 7,665

Жыл бұрын

G-RECO was a celebratory project meant to commemorate Gundam's 35th Anniversary. It also marked the return of Yoshiyuki Tomino to the franchise. It's a... strange series to say the least, and as controversial as it gets. Yet is Tomino really a mad genius that weaponized storytelling to deliver a brutal anti-war message or are we just reading too much in between the lines?
So my friends, I'm Absa, and in this video I'm going to talk about why G-Reco didn't work for me and it has nothing to do with the “bad written story” angle or the “weaponized story” angle.
You can continue the conversation over at Social Media on:
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Пікірлер: 89

@reimu3627 Жыл бұрын

I'm not going to say G-Reco is "deeper than you think" or anything like that, but I think the show is more enjoyable if you see it as a road trip story. The main crew's goal ends up being to check out how the world works for themselves after realizing the 3 (later 4) factions are too far up their own ass to listen to one another's perspective. There's a stupid war going on but instead of following that confusing mess, we're following the crew actually putting in the effort to understand every perspective. It’s no accident that by the end of the show, the main crew has recruited people from Ameria, the Capital Tower, the Moon, and the Venus Globe.

@zgmfx-09a Жыл бұрын

Man tomino is something else, how can a man be so brilliant yet so... whatever else he is

@aliastheabnormal Жыл бұрын

ALL HAIL THE GREAT GOD MICKEY!

@absa Жыл бұрын

The thing with Tomino is the fact that he has been working almost nonstop for over 40 years, so some of his ideas are brilliant, but others are just plain dumb. But he keeps on working and creating new things. That's probably the secret.

@zgmfx-09a Жыл бұрын

@@absa he was like this back in the 90s too tho victory gundam would have been so good if he wasnt so weird and cynical!

@TrevRockOne Жыл бұрын

He's just too galaxy-brained for us.

@chrisstick5403 10 ай бұрын

I wish him and Hideo Kojima would make a Gundam game together.

@zellcrs 2 ай бұрын

It answered the most important question. Do mobile suits have toilets? Yes. Yes they do.

@VaviVove Жыл бұрын

Personnaly I felt that the story was really fun to follow, especially with predicting what the story want to convey. Also this series is so beautifully crafted, visuals and effects are top notch.

@auttkanjanapatee6590 Жыл бұрын

Maybe all this problem could be fix with a recap episode in the early part of the story to explain the world itself. G-reco feel like story just start in the middle of an already started story (because it is) along with all the new names and word that it just casually say out. Making it instantly overwhelming to follow .

@absa Жыл бұрын

Yeah, something like that would've done wonders for the story. Either that or just focus on one plot, be it the venus globe, towasanga or the capital army... not the three at the same time.

@AsherReigns Жыл бұрын

I absolutely loved G-Reco. Honestly I think the main problem with the show is the pacing. It makes me feel that he originally planned a 50 episode show but it got cut in half somewhere in production. I feel this is par for the course though with Tomino. He has a hard time truncating his stories. It’s why F91 is so wonky as well.

@TheRibbonRed Жыл бұрын

It did work better in his 6 compilation movies, so yeah.

@MrTigracho Жыл бұрын

Tomino should partner up with Yoko Taro for the next Gundam series he directs. He can do a great job making emotions flow.

@willyvereb Жыл бұрын

Given their eccentrics and the fact Tomino's one of the most stubborn people on Earth, I'd bet they'd both have a terrible time. This may have worked when Tomino was younger but he's not.

@absa Жыл бұрын

Hahaha that pairing has only 2 possible outcomes: a fantastic magnum opus that reinvigorates the mecha genre with the power of an exploding sun... or a super weird and incomprehensible plot that alienates and destroys it.

@skylangford6083 Жыл бұрын

After drinking a 30 pack, Taro would take Gundam completely off the rails and turn it into Ikaruga and who would be the main character? A garbage can of course

@steenk.2291 Жыл бұрын

As always I love your insights and analyses, thanks for posting Absa!

@absa Жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!

@Baddest_of_Men Жыл бұрын

G-Reco is one of the only anime that I've watched that I could feel myself forgetting what I was watching as I watched it. I say that having watched both the T.V. series a few years ago and the movies in more recent memory. Klim Nick was the best character because he was actually entertaining, and the Dahack is probably my favorite MS in G-Reco, with the G-Self being a close second. Still, if the series really was actually supposed to portray war as a stupid, meaningless farce, it just makes me feel like the story has its head up its own ass while thinking that it's actually better than it is. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a better sort of story told by something/someone else.

@absa Жыл бұрын

That's exactly my problem... if it's trying to deliver this supposed anti war metatextual message, at least make it interesting to watch.

@jhw1235 3 ай бұрын

Reminds me of Jojo's Rabbit, a satirical story set during WW2, and based on what you said in this video, does a better job at teasing the absurdity of war while also giving us characters to care for and feel sympathy towards when tragedy caused by war happens.

@bacd-nn2lg 4 ай бұрын

Once you watch past Gundam shows from original Universal Century including Turn A Gundam this shows becomes really fun to watch. For example we have Newtype, and Moonlight butterfly references in this anime. Ps. I think that this show could work better for most gundam fans if they would make 50 episodes instead of 26.

@KOFKYO2012 10 ай бұрын

I like that we get to see where people in the UC ended up at. My question is does this take place before or after turn a? Or is it even set in the same continuity?

@allenbroussard1451 8 ай бұрын

its before, but Turn A is a combination of 3 different timelines so its not directly a continuation.

@chimbloanimation9242 Жыл бұрын

Abhsalonikas g-reco was 50 episodes story but cut down to 25 episodes story because of Tomino old age.

@aoto8897 6 ай бұрын

Will you do a review for the movie series of G-Reco? It redeemed the series for many fans.

@last_raven 4 ай бұрын

G-Reco was definitely hard to watch, but man it was beautiful. I agree with what a lot of people are saying that it was written as a 50+ episode series.

@gersonredrum7165 Жыл бұрын

Holii, perdón que te pregunte esto en este canal, pero ¿Qué pasó con el otro dónde hablabas de Animé?, ¿Porqué lo dejaste?:0

@absa Жыл бұрын

Llegó un punto donde ya dije prácticamente todo lo que tenía que decir de Saint Seiya e intenté hablar de robots pero al público no le interesó tanto así que preferí seguir mi camino ahora en inglés.

@wannabkain4400 9 ай бұрын

Was some good points in this show but hardly understood what was going on at times lol

@broodo1 Жыл бұрын

I'll be honest G-Reco is one of only three Gundam series I haven't watched. Mainly because people keep telling me it's not worth watching. This confirmed they're probably right. Though it also makes me wanna watch it.... just did the confusion factor

@TheRibbonRed Жыл бұрын

I'll recommend the compilation movies over the TV. At least there, it's more focused & didn't have writing problems with Bellri & the world around him.

@absa Жыл бұрын

Wow, so the movies really do a better job at explaining the story? I think that I'll check them out sooner than later then.

@BioGoji-zm5ph Жыл бұрын

@@absa It would be awesome to see you do a review of the movies as well while making comparisons to how the story is told between the TV and film formats.

@Idunnoyouguessit 8 ай бұрын

All the Tomino Gubdams are worth watching, even if you don't like them.

@El-Duderino-His-Dudeness 9 ай бұрын

Aspects of it remind me of God Emperor Dune. Forced stagnation. Spice was rationed out, much how battery technology is in the show.

@reimu3627 7 ай бұрын

A major theme found in G-Reco is also in Dune, that being not too rely too much on leaders and believing what they say so easily.

@denshou 11 ай бұрын

Story apart (Not bad in my opinion), Reco has one of the best mecha and character designs in the Gundam universe, as well as the best explosions in space battles, they seem mixed with magic.

@LordCiego Жыл бұрын

Have yet to see the movies to see if the improve the series. The series was too much Tomino set loose

@MSTGamingTV Жыл бұрын

I have seen 3 of the 5. I would say it is easier to comsume than the series. SRW X is the fastest way to know story of G-Reco tho, imo.

@absa Жыл бұрын

Yeah, hopefully the movies tell a more concise story, that's the only thing really missing, everything else feels like gundam.

@thetruth4116 6 ай бұрын

As a hardcore Gundam fan who usually binges every series in the franchise with a few days at most this show was a painful month long slug to get through: I had to force myself to watch one episode a day like I was doing homework and yet by the end of it all I could not tell what any of it was about. I did not care about any characters because there was no character development, no world building, the dialogue was incoherent exposition dumps and meaningless drivel. The series sucked huge gorilla balls!

@Jun-kun-iu4ls 7 ай бұрын

Why does the G-Self eeriely look like Chronojet Dragon

@Insert_Bland_Name_Here 7 ай бұрын

G-Reco is one of those really interesting shows, in my opinion. It's the kind of show that becomes more entertaining, the less I try to think about what the hell is going on. It's like several integral scenes were deleted, or straight-up never animated, and the final arc was cut by several episodes. And there's some parts that just straight up make no sense, like the Kuntala being literally bred to be eaten (I'm not joking, that's literally what's being stated about them early on), yet late in the show, one of the Kuntala talk about his pride as a Kuntala... What? He's suddenly proud of being literal food for others? Yeah, it's a nonsensical show.

@18corderro Ай бұрын

Remind me too much of a Eureka 7

@aliastheabnormal Жыл бұрын

Blame Gundam AGE. We will never get another 50 episode mecha series because of it.

@TheRibbonRed Жыл бұрын

Interesting, because AGE got in due to Level-5's insistence on "making Gundam for children" via their Little Battler's Experience (LBX) series. After AGE, Level-5's mostly went back to their Professor Layton & Yo-kai Watch series...leaving LBX to the dust & AGE for Sunrise to pick up the pieces. Tbh, part of Sunrise is also to blame. They still foster this "don't take it seriously, it's for kids" mindset in some of their shows, like Build Divers & Re;Rise. It's easier to them to not think of character & narrative development when anything can be excused.

@aliastheabnormal Жыл бұрын

@@TheRibbonRed And to sell toys. I mean the Build series was good. But it has long overstayed its welcome.

@TheRibbonRed Жыл бұрын

@@aliastheabnormal well, the whole Gundam franchise exists to sell toys. But 00, IBO, Build Fighters, Origin, Thunderbolt, Hathaway, etc. still think about their characters & the story. There's really no excuse to not properly expand them out. People saying "it's for kids" is inherently mocking us for watching it & children for their comprehension. As if kids couldn't get how good a show would be & it'd just be a waste to make anything good for them.

@aliastheabnormal Жыл бұрын

@@TheRibbonRed AGE wasn't meant to be an anime to begin with. It was an RPG. But some higher up decided to take the plot of a JRPG and place it whole cloth on a 50 episode anime.

@TheRibbonRed Жыл бұрын

@@aliastheabnormal yet even then, they didn't properly expand a lot of AGE (especially Kio's Arc) & things just happened for the Asuno bloodline to solve because they're the MC.

@PCveteran117 Ай бұрын

There's also a manga.

@CircePenfield 6 ай бұрын

I was just genuinely upset by G-reco honestly. ESPECIALLY with the Kuntala storyline and how hard it was fumbled over and over again. When Mask is on the deck with his Kuntala crew members, talking about their pride, it was such a great piece of solidarity for marginalised communities and then oh look he is a non-character and the plot point is nothing more than an excuse to name his MS something cooler than the G-IT labs could have Bellri is also a mary sue. Aida just forgiving him for murdering the only man she ever loved is WILD. And speaking of her, she manages to not have a single actual fight in the entire series. Not one. Even when Bellri/Aida/Raraiya are fighting the uh pyramid he really just solos and the G-Lucifier does a little too. The rockpie storyline was like, ok though

@SeniorAntonio Жыл бұрын

I love it

@AlberichY 8 ай бұрын

For me G-Reco was awful, most of the time I didn't know why things happened or what importance it has. Some of the suit designs were good, tho.

@ShinetoZeroX Жыл бұрын

My man's gonna be in a real shock when he watches the movie, 'cause the majority of the things are actually explained.

@telluhwatboy Жыл бұрын

Didn’t know that. Hopefully I can rent the movies or crunchyroll gets them

@ShinetoZeroX Жыл бұрын

@@telluhwatboy Eventually Gundam info will air them

@aliastheabnormal Жыл бұрын

I don't know what's worse. The fact that the SU-cordists didn't learn a god damn thing from UC. Or that SU-cordism actually managed to fix the Earth...

@ShinetoZeroX Жыл бұрын

@@aliastheabnormal Both implications are hilarious either way you look at it, The concept of building a religion around space power cords is hilarious and wacky and that's why I love it

@TheRibbonRed Жыл бұрын

@@ShinetoZeroX GundamInfo did air the first three, but waiting for all 6 is near-impossible. They really want you to buy them all to experience it, and they'd rather re-air the worse TV version if push comes to shove. They still haven't aired all of Origin, so why expect the G-Reco movies?

@needsmoretacos4807 6 ай бұрын

In my experience working in creative fields, Tomino is an 'ideas guy'. He comes up with amazing novel and exciting ideas, but he lack in the ability to execute. Has a big vision but should really have people help him in the details and nuance

@bryfunkenstein 3 ай бұрын

Steer FTW!

@StudioWDOnline Жыл бұрын

The story wasn't confusing, rather mysterious. The characters weren't meh.

@absa Жыл бұрын

I don't know, aside Genius Klim and maybe Mask and his whole kuntala pride... all of the others feel a little bit uninspired.

@thetruth4116 6 ай бұрын

The characters were absolutely 'meh'. When anyone died I just blinked and shrugged.

@blackthunder8482 Жыл бұрын

Hello bro I have a question, what happened with xnmedia?

@absa Жыл бұрын

It's still there... just in sleep-mode haha.

@blackthunder8482 Жыл бұрын

@@absaHahaha I understand, at least I know you're okay, your inactivity on that channel made me worry

@matiasmorgado4 Жыл бұрын

Next franchise please Zoids

@absa Жыл бұрын

Haha right now I just started checking out Aquarion but I'll do my best to check out Zoids.

@Sorain1 Жыл бұрын

@@absa Now that is something I look forward to as someone with only a tangential involvement with Zoids. (I feel the one series I saw did the 'mech fighting as a sport' thing better than any other attempt I've heard of.) Getting to know it better from someone who's depth of analysis and opinion has earned my respect is something I look forward to.

@matteste Жыл бұрын

Seriously, I rate this show as one of the worst, if not THE worst Gundam series to date. As dreadful as the likes of Destiny or AGE are, at least they are actually watchable. G-Reco just felt like pulling teeth while watching it. It had this breakneck pace and yet at the same time it felt like it was dragging its feet. Just a chore to watch. And the whole "cold logic" statement was just BS given how nonsensical it was. There are plenty of other plots out there that have confusing narratives that leave out that whole "birds eye view" part or that run on pure logic and they are perfectly watchable. A lot of the defense I have seen for this show is ultimately just pretentious drivel or attacking those who don't like it by people desperate for their idolized director to be seen as faultless. Just the mental gymnastics some go through to justify it is baffling.

@joeyzapata6786 11 ай бұрын

Destiny was great until Kira came back lol.

@wreday720 11 ай бұрын

@@joeyzapata6786honestly yeah, wasnt amazing but was enjoyable before Kira

@thenuclearoption3565 10 ай бұрын

@@joeyzapata6786This, the entire first half of Seed Destiny was interesting Then the 2nd half happened

@thetruth4116 6 ай бұрын

Well sai and laid out. Any love for this crappy excuse for a Gundam series is nothing but cope for fawning fans of a director who enjoyed the smell of his own farts one too many times.

@gundamturkiye Жыл бұрын

I'm sure about one thing: G-Reco was much more intelligent story than Turn A or G-Gundam series.

@absa Жыл бұрын

You really believe so? I mean, I can more or less understand the G-Gundam statement... but Turn A?

@gundamturkiye Жыл бұрын

@@absa 1- Plot was one way or another depends "durr hurr Diana-sama" point and I can't endure this. 2- Turn A's tremendous power level and references on non animated contents (also my next reason) makes Turn A looks like a mecha-Dragonball Z than a realrobot story. Same way, Loran's attempts as using %1 (or %0.001) power mode were unacceptable design choice for me too. 3- Turn A's "end of all timelines" presentation not worked on my headcanon and references shows itself as a fanfiction. After War Gundam X or G Gundam elements were unreconizable. Same way SEED's Coordinators, 00's Innovators, AGE's X Rounders, G Reco's outer sphere factions or IBO's destroyed Moon or terraformed Mars not worked on Turn A's story on me. 4- Characters weren't memorable for me. I can't say Turn A was 1/10 show but I can't say above 6/10 for me. I can understand likers arguments due people wanted see this a "end of all timelines" or "Ghibli Gundam" but I prefer G Reco as a far future story and consider every timeline as stand alone except G Reco.