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I was going to post this in the Gundam General thread but the last post in that thread was in 2010 and I don't feel like necroing it--especially when it doesn't list CC in its description! Hah!

Anyway, figured I'd give a review of Turn A Gundam now that I've seen all 50 episodes and the two compilation movies. I'll start with a spoiler-free review then delve into the thick of it with a spoiler tag. In my opinion it's a series good enough to warrant watching without spoilers despite having come out over a decade ago--especially seeing as most of you probably haven't seen it yet!

So without spoiling anything, don't watch the compilation movies. I'm well aware that it's incredibly tempting to do so for many reasons. For one, they're shorter! Two movies seems to be way more accessible than 50 episodes. For another thing, they were released on bluray! I was quite tempted by the movies and tried to watch them first. Huge mistake For one thing, the subtitles for the movies are taken from Hong Kong bootleg DVDs and result in some rather hilarious scenes. For instance!

Image size reduced, original size: 800 x 600. Click here to view the image in its original dimension.

Now, as some of you know I have a pretty good grasp of the Japanese language, enough to turn the subtitles off and know what's going on. So I did just that, disabling the horrendous subtitle track and watching both movies back-to-back. What I found was that even after watching both films I was utterly in the dark about what the story was supposed to be. Nothing was explained. Stuff was thrown in randomly. Plot would progress at a jarring pace that left you often wondering how the hell you got from point A to point B. The films were just...bad.

When I watched the series I discovered this was because the movies skipped over most of the intermediate plot points. For instance, Movie I ends at episode 27. Movie II starts at episode 37/38 and skips around. There's a ten-episode gap between films that is never actually explained. One minute we're worried about nukes on Earth and the next we're at an asteroid floating in space. What!? What the hell happened here!? That's only one of the worst offenders. The fact is, the movies tried (unsuccessfully) to compress nearly 17 hours' worth of content into two two-hour-long movies. You can't do that. Even if it had gotten three movies (Mobile Suit Gundam, Gundam 00 Special Edition, etc) I feel it would still have felt rushed. That it was a Tomino series just made it that much worse. More on what I mean by that later if you don't already know.

So basically, don't bother with the movies. I know it's tempting but just don't, you'll only hate yourself or you'll think that Turn A Gundam is a terrible show and you can't figure out why so many people online seem to like it. Since that would be almost the level of a sin I am warning you now. Do not watch the movies. Watch the TV series.

Bottom-line: Turn A Gundam was amazing. It was the last Gundam series I had not seen and I don't regret watching it for a second. I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in Gundam or sci-fi Anime in general as long as you have some patience. It starts pretty slowly but once it gets going...you'll be glad you stuck with it.

Here's a download link for the series subtitled in English. If someone ever releases it domestically I will rant all day about how everyone needs to buy it but as of right now Bandai has dropped the license so the chances of that are slim to none. Thus I can without guilt point you to a reliable source and tell you to grab it and enjoy on your own.

Now that that's done, on to the more comprehensive review.

SPOILER

First, a little black history. I actually tried to watch Turn A Gundam back years ago, in...2008, I think it was. I got a few episodes in and was like, really? This is the 'great' series everyone's raving about? Now, I had just gotten done watching Victory Gundam which was horrendous so I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about yet another Tomino train-wreck. So when a few episodes in I was still feeling lost I gave up on it and put it onto the back burner. Skip ahead to 2011 and I decided to give it another go with the compilation movies since they had come out on bluray. The subtitles were awful so I turned them off and watched. I was left bewildered and confused. That was the 'amazing' series so many of my mecha-loving friends had raved over? What a piece of garbage. So yet again the series went into the back of my mind. I never truly abandoned it, but I knew that one day I would have to sit through all 50 episodes and find out what was going on. It was my duty--this was the only Gundam series I had not finished watching. So I'll admit this much--it wasn't until I spent money at a sale to buy a Master Grade Turn A that I thought, man, I should sit down and watch all of this. The plan was originally to watch it with a group of friends online who had likewise not seen it but we were already watching (or trying to watch) Zeta Gundam and had only gotten a few episodes into that. On top of that the subtitles weren't exactly perfect. I discovered later that they actually weren't too bad but there were lots of things that were wrong. Little insignificant things (not catching that old cameras use 'plates' and not 'film'), bigger things (names of ships, characters) and huge things (calling 'BLACK HISTORY' 'DARK HISTORY' even though it's clearly called 'BLACK HISTORY' in all the reference materials). The subtitles on the TV series were certainly watchable but weren't perfect. Makes me want to start a project to fix them. It doesn't help that Bandai has had the license to release the series in the USA since forever but never did anything with it! So I got off my ass, turned off the subtitles and got down to marathoning as much of the series as I could. It took a few days on and off but I got all the way through. Boy was I glad I did. Story: 9/10 I'm only giving this a 9 because as is usual for Yoshiyuki Tomino works it takes quite a while to figure out what it's trying to be. In fact it takes nearly 13 episodes to figure out where it's going and stop jerking the viewer around with cuts that make no sense. The beginning of the series has a very 'jarring' feel to it, as if Tomino wanted to cram way more story in then decided later to cut bits and pieces of it up and paste components together later to make the episodes. Not to mention the majority of the timeline takes place in those first few episodes--years, in fact, go by in a flash that leaves your head spinning. Once the series settles down around episode 13, however, it takes you on a wild ride through the many facets of humanity and a gripping plot pitting 19th Century Earthlings against 22nd Century Moon-dwellers. For one, many of the characters at first seem to be kind of annoying. Some of them never really shake that (cough cough SOCHIE) but many of them mature during the course of the show and become people you actually care about. Loran Cehack, the lead, is actually my favorite...and not just because there's such a huge in-joke about him being a girl. He matures quite well throughout the show, managing to avoid becoming the obnoxious Kira Yamato stereotype who screams STOP FIGHTING all the time and instead knowing that there are battles which must be fought in order for humanity to survive. He does his best to mediate between the many factions but his desire for a peaceful resolution doesn't stop him from kicking ass in his Gundam or flat-out lying to the people around him. For an example of just how awesome Loran is, check out this short gallery. I call it 'Loran is a total badass'. Yeah, that's right. Loran just told Gym Ghingnham, one of the most insane badasses in the entire show, that if he so much as laid one finger on Dianna he would drop a nuke right on Gym's fucking house. You certainly don't see any other Gundam protagonists with that sort of resolve! Now, there's a pretty cool story about the whole Loran Cehack/Laura Rolla thing. For those who aren't aware, one of the characters in the show refuses to call Loran by his name, instead calling him 'Laura'. Loran doesn't object to it, even going so far as to wear a dress at a few points in the show to turn Laura from a stupid gag into an enemy-confusing mind-boggling paradox. I expected the series to explain this nonsense since Guin calls him that from day one without provocation. In fact one of the characters does ask Guin why he calls Loran 'Laura'. His response? "Hmm, let me see... doesn't 'Laura' suit him better?" I didn't like that explanation and was about to curse Tomino forever when a friend of mine told me what had actually happened. Apparently when Tomino pitched the series he billed it as the biggest thing to happen to Gundam ever, perfect for the turn of the century. It would have mecha designs by an American sci-fi artist named Syd Mead (Blade Runner, Short Circuit, Tron), a lead cast of humans living in an era similar to the late 1800s, and a dark-skinned female lead. Sunrise let Tomino have most of that cake but told him that a female lead just plain wasn't going to happen. So Tomino did what any dick would and simply changed the gender of the character from 'male' to 'female' without changing anything else. Guin's inexplicable name-calling is in fact Tomino thumbing his nose at Sunrise. It does get resolved later on, too, so no stone left unturned. I only noticed a few scenes with plot holes and mostly they were minor things like items ending up in someone's hand without explaining how it got there. At one point someone steals the Turn A and quite smartly orders Loran to give her the Gundam's manual/computer. He does so, but then is seen using that very same manual/computer as a comlink. Little things like that. Nothing too major. So overall? Nine out of ten. Great characters, great plot, an instant classic. On top of that it makes a solid attempt to put every single Gundam series that came before it (all the UC shows, Gundam X, Gundam Wing, even G Gundam!) into the same universe albeit at different times. It is also worth noting that since the Zeta Gundam movies retcon ZZ Gundam, they therefore retcon Turn A Gundam (since ZZ Gundam is shown at one point in Turn A). Still, a very impressive show. I totally understand why so many people rant and rave about this series. Mecha: 10/10 Turn A comes at you with a number of different designs. There are the original designs meant to have come from the final period of 'Black History' and beyond which were designed by Syd Mead, then a bunch of throwbacks to the Universal Century. In the same universe as you have such things as Turn A, Turn X and Sumo...you have Zakus and Kapools. Now, the one thing is that they don't explain why Zakus and Kapools are the only out-of-timeline mobile suits to appear. It's implied that they were buried on purpose from the previous timeline but why? Out of all the mobile suits that could have been buried for future generations to arm themselves with you get a bunch of ancient Zeon designs? At least there's a joke that when a group of soldiers uncover a cache of Zakus their leader picks out a Zaku I and calls it 'custom' because it's different from all the others (Zaku IIs) and therefore must be stronger. They don't know any better and it's adorable. Of course, that complaint is eased as the series goes on and you get engulfed in Syd Mead's awesomeness. Turn A is one of the more versatile mobile suits I've seen, taking on jobs such as being a statue, a bridge, moving cows, being a washing machine and drying laundry. While I love that design to death I came out of the series really loving the Sumo. It was actually supposed to be the Turn A but apparently Sunrise didn't like the idea of a mobile suit with a dome for a head being called a 'Gundam'. Thus the Turn A got a mustache and the old design became the Sumo. For a suit that wasn't a Gundam it got a lot of screen time and a lot of great action. Not to mention it's the source of the infamous "UNIVEEEEEEEEEERSE!" line most people associate with the series. Fun fact: in the TV series that line is only said once and it's by Harry Ord piloting the Gold Sumo. The movie adaptation then changed it so that the line was said more often, including by Loran. Enough about the mobile suits for a moment, though. Let's talk about a little thing called the 'Zacktraeger'. It's quite possibly the most amazing piece of mechanized awesomeness in the entire series and is probably what pushed me to give the mecha in the show a 10/10. No, it's not a mobile suit. It's not a mobile armor. It's not even one of the battlecruisers. No... it's a freaking orbital catapault. Gundam 00 eat your freaking heart out, who needs an elevator when I can just use a giant space catapault to throw my ship at the moon? The concept is a type of momentum exchange tether known as a 'rotovator'. The idea is that you have this giant arm in orbit. Its momentum keeps it where it is and keeps it spinning. On its lowest stroke its relative rotational velocity gets near zero, allowing a craft lifting off from Earth to 'catch' it. The craft is then carried as the rotovator spins until the spin brings it to its release point, flinging the craft free towards the moon at high speed. All of this requires only enough thrust to lift off from the Earth--no extra propellant is wasted going cislunar. To 'recharge' the momentum that the catapault uses to fling craft to the moon, ships from the moon will use the rotovator to decelerate before re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, imparting their momentum into it. It's an absolutely brilliant way of doing lunar commerce and was not something I was expecting going into the series. Bravo, Syd Mead and Yoshiyuki Tomino. Bravo. Animation: 9/10 The series looks spectacular compared to its peers--at least comparing TV series to TV series. Sure, there were OVAs which looked better but they also had more legroom to work with. For a TV series the animation really was top-notch and almost garnered a '10' here simply for being able to age gracefully. It was the first Gundam TV series to mesh computer graphics with traditional cel artwork and it was done in a way that isn't invasive. This isn't Initial D--it's a very subtle, very smooth transition between the cel art and the computer-generated objects. It's obvious that great care was taken to get certain scenes just right... ...but then it has the QUARITY which makes a Gundam series a Gundam series. Had Turn A managed to avoid it somehow it would've been a 10/10 but there are some parts where the animation takes a dip and things get a little questionable. It's never enough to detract from the story but it's there. Considering the show was from '98 it's still damned impressive and at no point did I feel like I was watching something that old. I hope the series gets a bluray release...but then again I just hope it gets a stateside release! Music: 10/10 I could go on and on for hours about the music in Turn A. Tomino usually has a habit of putting memorable music in his shows. For instance, most Gundam fans will be able to easily recognize tracks from Zeta Gundam even if they were only used in the background. Just about anyone who knows a little about Gundam will recognize songs from the original 1979 classic. Turn A blows all that out of the park. Every piece is filled with grandeur and fits the scene at hand perfectly. There are certain pieces which can be listened to independently for hours on end while others can become grating but at no time does one get that sensation watching the series itself. The music is beautiful and does a great job of setting the mood of each and every scene. If there's one thing that sets this apart from every other Tomino work...it's the music. Turn A just plain has some of the most beautiful orchestrations of any Gundam series ever. Unicorn comes very close...but Turn A still holds the crown. Overall: 9/10 No, it's not perfect. Yes, it has a bumpy start. Yes, it's a show from 1998. No, it doesn't have an official release and yes, the fansubs aren't the best in the universe. But seriously, do yourself a favor. Go grab a copy and treat yourself. Chances are if you bothered to read this...you're gonna love it.

This post has been edited by Nomake Wan on Mar 4 2013, 02:02 AM

This is one of the Gundam series I first read about from a Gundam encyclopedia book I got many moons ago and still possess. The mustache Gundam turned me off quickly but I was still curious to see what the series was about to a degree. I just never got around to checking it out. It's certainly still on my list and I may start on it once I finish off Eureka Seven. Thanks for the review.

Definitively one of the cooler looking Gundam series out there. Thank you for the comprehensive review N1! This is totally bumping the series onto the top of my must watch list. Now I just have to find the time to watch... Are you planning on doing in depth reviews for all the different Gundam series, because that would be pretty rad.

Just a heads-up that this series is finally getting a well-deserved Bluray release! Previously only the (horrendous) movies were available on Bluray, and while they looked amazing...they were the movies. The first half of the TV series will be available on September 24th and the second half will be released December 25th. Merry Christmas! Have a Laura on me!

That's some great news, makes me wonder if one of the better groups who did some Gundam subtitling projects (Encodergasm) will work on it, that is if they're still around.

EG supposedly retired a year ago...then spontaneously reappeared and began releasing Gundam shows as if nothing at all was the matter. Thusfar he's the only group to have properly released the blurays for the original Gundam and Gundam Wing.

So he might rehash his old release's subs for it, we'll see.

Turn A is my second favorite gundam of the entire metaseries with Zeta retaining it's spot as my favorite. It was an incredible show. Had a really fleshed out cast and really interesting story that was honestly surprising, also THAT ART.

I didn't even realize there were blu rays of Original Gundam, I thought the best that was out a Remastered release that was in 480p.