Note: I’ve skipped two shows. After ZZ Gundam came Victory Gundam, which I’m less than a quarter of the way into. Gundam’s overall popularity waned when the ultra-depressing Victory was released, so toy company Bandai (a long-time commercial collaborator with Sunrise) bought out Sunrise and suggested new Gundam series set in separate universes. That resulted in G Gundam, which likewise I’m about a quarter of the way into. So I’m skipping ahead to the series after that: New Mobile Report Gundam Wing.

This is a spoiler-free review, as I won’t even attempt to describe the show’s plot.

I cannot review this show objectively.

No review is ever truly objective, of course, but one can at least hold most shows to some kind of standards, and see what most would enjoy.

The reason for my subjectivity began with the Midnight Run on Toonami. They’d show uncut episodes of Gundam Wing and Dragonball Z from midnight to one in the morning every weeknight. It’s an odd time to watch an action show; the house is quiet and still while brightly-colored people scream and gun each other down on the flickering TV screen.

I’d watch Midnight Run in my room, running an IM conversation with Saalon (and occasionally Brennen) while watching. Unfortunately, the computer screen was directly opposite the TV, so I kept whipping my head around to catch action on the TV or a message from Saalon.

We came in about halfway into Gundam Wing (and a few episodes into DBZ‘s Frieza Saga). We had no idea what was going on. We couldn’t keep track of the pilots. Characters seemed to switch sides every episode. The mecha fights often re-used the same movement and explosion animation.

And yet, Saalon and I fell completely, head-over-heels in love with the show. We loved the complexity of the storyline. We loved the intensity of the characters. The Gundams looked cool.

We later re-watched the show, finally understood what the heck was going on, and we loved it even more. I’m sure Wing has all sorts of flaws, but I literally can’t see many of them because when I watch the show I instantly enjoy myself.

So, with that little ego boost out of the way, what exactly is Gundam Wing?

It’s a politically complicated show about terrorists sent from space colonies to soften up the Earth’s militaries, in preparation for the colonies declaring independence. Each colony sends its own pilot, under separate orders, so the pilots don’t necessarily know (or even like) each other, despite working for the same overall goal. Indeed, the pilots often come into conflict with each other. A few of the pilots are certifiable nutjobs.

As the story progresses, the pilots begin to question their goals and develop more complex opinions of the growing conflict. And some of them go even more nuts.

Gundam Wing marked the second Gundam series told in its own timeline, after the intentionally cheesy G Gundam. Wing returned to a somewhat more serious tone for the franchise, though Wing is cheesy in its own way. Whereas G is cheesy like a 70′s super robot show, Wing is cheesy like an overly-serious opera.

The show is arguably the most politically complicated show I’ve ever seen. Alliances are made and collapse, characters switch sides; if you miss an episode or two you can be completely lost upon returning to the show to discover that one character’s dead, another’s fighting for a completely different group, and heck a new political alliance has formed.

Interestingly, the five main pilots are themselves the least politically motivated. They’re given orders, which they (initially) carry out completely and without question. It’s the folks around them that are constantly jockeying for advantage or the betterment of mankind, and trying to maneuver the pilots into acting for or against their own interests. It’s a revealing moment when, fairly early into the show, the viewer realizes that one pilot’s actions play completely into the plans of one of the villains, neatly accomplishing the villain’s goal. That’s the kind of show it is.

Every character has a distinctive personality. When reviewing Baccano! for Otaku, No Video, I described the characters as having “bold” personalities. I can think of no better adjective for the characters in Wing, though the boldness is more a melodramatic intensity and distinctiveness. There are very few shy, retiring characters here.

Opera is actually an apt comparison. Wing is big, brassy, over-the-top, and melodramatic in tackling an epic story with memorable (and often insane) characters. You have to accept it for what it is, and when you do, you’d better strap yourself in for a heck of a ride.

Forgot to mention: I have a Kindle DX.

Not sure how to describe it, as I’m not sure how much you all know about Kindles. Where to start?

The Kindle is Amazon’s electronic book reader. The DX is the latest in their line, and larger than the previous Kindle 1 and Kindle 2. The screen’s 9.7 inches along the diagonal, compared to earlier Kindles’ 6-inch screens. So the DX is more like a hardback book, while the others are more like paperbacks.

Which is not an unqualified difference. The K2 is a tad lighter, and thus a little easier to hold, but has a smaller screen.

Basic functionality: you read books on it (duh!). There’s a Sprint cell modem on it, so anywhere one can get a Sprint signal, one can access Amazon’s e-book store and buy more books. E-book prices are averaging $5 to $10 each at the moment.

While my initial interest in the Kindle cooled after six months, it’s ramped back up since then. And not just because of the DX. About nine months in, I found myself reading more than before. It’s just so convenient to always have a book with you, which can always become any book. Or magazine or newspaper (the selection grows). The DX makes the whole experience more pleasant, as magazines and newspapers just fit onto it better.

I use it constantly, and for a bibliophile, what better endorsement is there?

Spoilers are hardest in this review. My enjoyment of this show hinges on several characters and plot points that reference the previous show. So, the first part of this review has no spoilers, and the last half will be clearly marked as spoiler territory so I can explain my love.

I’ve enjoyed every Gundam series I’ve seen. Each is fun in its own way, of course; Gundam spans a surprising variety of philosophies and tones.

While I enjoyed ZZ Gundam, it’s the most difficult for me to recommend. It doesn’t fit traditional categories of worth or enjoyment. It starts out lighthearted, more in the vein of an adventure show for tweens. The protagonists exhibit minimal angst or emotional problems; they basically go on weird adventures for the first half-dozen episodes. Then, halfway through, the show delivers possibly my favorite episode in Gundam; it gets serious and dramatic and downright painful, which the show returns to frequently throughout its second half.

But that’s not to say that ZZ Gundam starts goofy and turns serious. It’s a trend. It’s fun throughout; there are just more serious moments in the latter half.

I also have trouble recommending this show because of the villains. They’re just completely flat and uninteresting. From a stale rip-off of Char Aznable (supposedly, this character was supposed to be Char, but Tomino got a green light on his later Char’s Counterattack movie as he wrote ZZ, so he substituted this character for Char), to a spastic woman wearing dominatrix gear who occasionally flashes her breasts at the audience, to the sadly one-note presence of Haman Khan, the various Neo-Zeon antagonists never appear threatening.

The show begins literally hours after the final moments of Zeta Gundam. The main ship limps into port at Side 1, and gets involved with a group of rough-and-tumble teens, who become the protagonists of the show.

And it is odd. We basically watch these kids stumble around for a good chunk of the show. They’re no big fans of the Federation. The central pilot, Judau, is a typical passionate shonen teen, full of bravado. His friends are also similar shonen characters. In fact, not long into the show, Judau’s sister falls into the hands of Neo-Zeon, and I think this was the only way to keep Judau and the others fighting.

SPOILER WARNING

Then, halfway through the show, Judau finally re-unites with his kidnapped sister. Briefly.

He finds his way into a Neo-Zeon stronghold and grabs his kidnapped sister. Guards open fire, and a shot hits his sister in her side. They escape, Judau hiding his sister in a nearby hut while he returns to his Gundam to fight off the Neo Zeon forces chasing them. Judau then takes out a mecha which crashes directly on his sister’s hut, which explodes in fire and metal scrap. Judau lands, unable to believe she’s dead, and paws through the wreckage while the ten-year-old girl he rescued earlier drags at his arm, crying, “I’ll be your little sister from now on.” At which point he turns and slaps her across the face. And she collapes in a crying heap.

It’s an episode of pain and pathos. Perfectly done. It works.

Which is a relief because ZZ is a mess. It’s a jumble of drama and comedy, of laughable villains and stock protagonists. But when it starts to fire on all cylinders, it barrels along with an intensity rarely matched in any other Gundam show before the turn of the millenium.

One of my favorite aspects of this comes in the form of Kamille Bidan, the protagonist of Zeta Gundam. He appears in ZZ, still a shattered, catatonic shell after the events of Zeta. In an episode about two thirds of the way through ZZ, the characters end up in the same city where he’s recovering in the hospital. He now shifts uncomfortably in his coma.

During an episode involving at least four Newtypes (people who’ve developed mild psychic powers), Kamille leaps to his feet and runs from the hospital, still incoherent and unable to recognize even his girlfriend. He flees down the coast to observe the battle which he can clearly sense.

The battle rages on, the pilots fighting on multiple fronts, separated and searching for one another. Suddenly, a voice speaks in their heads, calmly informing them of each others’ whereabouts and situations. We cut down to the beach, and Kamille sits there, staring at the flickering lights of battle overhead. You know he was the one speaking. You know he’s okay, somewhere in his head.

Especially after the emotionally exhausting end of Zeta, to see that Kamille is on the mend and would be okay is a huge relief.

An odd thing to mention, perhaps, in a review of ZZ–the treatment of a character from a different show. But it shows just how sensitive Tomino is to his characters and his audience. He knows who we care about. Of course, it also says something about how little I ended up being emotionally involved in the actual protagonists of ZZ.

And the characters are what make ZZ work, in the end. There’s a big battle at the end, of course, and despite the muddy execution, I felt good about who fought whom, and who won. It also has possibly my favorite death in Gundam, mainly because of the poetic justice of it all. Again, this is Tomino knowing how to treat his characters right.

Overall? The show is as muddy as this review. There are plenty of things to dislike about it. But, despite that, I enjoyed ZZ, I’m glad I watched it, and I wouldn’t mind watching it again. There’s some good stuff here.

I was reading a Wall Street Journal article about the problems of graduating college this year. The author points out that, with the economy, job seekers will have to either make less than they anticipated, or start in a different industry than they wanted to.

Good.

We no longer live in a society where you can graduate and immediately make $40K a year. That was called a bubble, and it’s burst.

And about changing industries: every single person I work with is doing a different job than the one they went to college for. Some still work in a similar industry—a nurse becoming a manager at a pharmaceutical company, for example—but none of them are doing what they planned.

Listen, all you graduating seniors: Grab this opportunity.

1. Learn rigorous financial scrutiny. Watch every dollar you spend. Literally, record every purchase and compare it to your other purchases. Don’t worry; you won’t have to do it forever. But this will keep you from becoming like my generation, which bought more than we could afford.
2. Explore the job world. Your goal right now is to get as many job offers as possible. So, apply for jobs you never thought you’d want. What’s the worst that can happen? You can always politely decline their offers. You can find some fantastic people to work for, and you can learn skills that you’d never get in your intended industry. Heck, why not take a 3-month job in a weird industry?
3. Meet a lot of people. Make a big network of friends and acquaintances. You don’t have to like all of them. But many of them will be useful, and the bigger the pie, the bigger the slice.

In general: Take advantage of this. Please.

If you want a job, drop me a line, and I’ll try to hook you up with someone.