My breakdown of the end of Gundam's Universal Century part 3: "Gundam F91" film review and Gundam's biggest gold mine of missed potential, UC 00120-148

This week's been rough on me, and I've not been in the best of spirits, however I finished this week's post, and so I can end the week on a happy note. Gundam is not a franchise one simply watches, as much as I wish that were the case. Maybe a how to watch Gundam list is in order for the far future. No this isn't a Gundam blog, but it's a blog about whatever is on my mind, and my mind as of late is thinking about Gundam. (it's thinking about other things too, but I really don't feel like airing out super personal stuff) I am currently awaiting Gundam Hathaway's movie sequel which Ban-Dai is radio silent about, I suppose you could see it as me coping, writing all this while I await a film adapting a novel I've already read because I am dying to know how the guy behind the Attack on Titan (I haven't seen AoT beyond the first season, but it kind of sucked in my opinion I'm sorry.) soundtrack, composer Hiroyuki "the GOAT" Suwano makes another absolute masterpiece of a score to accompany a dark and gritty story about overthrowing a corrupt government and the ideals of Char and Amuro combined into a huge extreme. I suppose I am getting sidetracked. I don't want to be one of those absolute creeps online who make one thing they like their entire personality, like those creeps who buy a PS5 and proceed to spend countless hours online arguing why their plastic box that looks like a wifi modem is better than the Microsoft rectangle shaped plastic box. However Gundam fundamentally made up a huge part of who I am. In an era where all the anime on TV in the west was women with big breasts and these seriously ridiculous situations (JoJo might as well have been called "tomfoolery the anime") or weird fantasies, (I like Yu-Gi-Oh  but it is such a trip) I was drawn into Gundam, catching it on Toonami and getting hooked. Though as a new viewer, a franchise who's popularity in its home country eclipses basically every other anime franchise (I'm not counting Anpam Man)  can seem daunting, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed with figuring out what to watch first. This is a fact Ban-Dai has remained consistently aware of since they ended the original saga of Gundam with the "Char's Counterattack" movie in 1988. This lead to the direction Ban-Dai began to take the series in during the 90s, with attempted soft reboots before deciding on full reboots in 1994 and not even worrying about a shared continuity. (don't worry I will talk about Turn A Gundam in a later article) The decision to do hard reboots after Tomino left the series could probably be attributed to the underwhelming performance of both soft reboots, the first of which was Gundam F91.

Gundam F91 is probably the biggest example of Sunrise and Ban-Dai actively hurting the franchise with their input. It was originally envisioned as a new series to mark the tenth anniversary of Gundam and a fresh start for the series so new viewers could get into the series. Sunrise feared turning Gundam into a franchise would actively hurt a sequel and any follow-up shows. Their fears were proven wrong with Gundam Zeta being one of the most successful anime series of the eighties and it propelled the series to new heights, and it's sequel show Gundam ZZ carrying the hype train ever forward. Even still Ban-Dai had superstitions about new viewers not having interest in sequels and such to a show from years ago, even after they were proven wrong, which lead to them directing some Gundam staff to a new series called "Metal Armor Dragonar", which was a reimagining of the original Gundam series from 1979 but with no connection to Gundam and being tailor made for the late eighties anime audience. While a success, it didn't match up the immense and unstoppable popularity Gundam and its subsequent projects were experiencing. Char's Counterattack breaking a billion at the box office only cemented Gundam as a colossal franchise that could not be ignored. Ban-Dai and Sunrise would begin making mandates on this new tenth anniversary Gundam series, like severing all connection to past Gundam projects in order to make it stand on it's own and encourage people new to the franchise to watch it. They also mandated a conflict a younger audience could relate to better than that of previous Gundam projects. Tomino complied, but still hoped to make his most ambitious series yet. He brought on Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (story consultant on the original series, and a character designer on the original series, Zeta, Origin and Unicorn) and mechanical designer Kunio Okawara, who at the time had designed mechanical stuff on every animated Gundam project up to that point except Gundam ZZ. This reunited the holy trinity that made up the core creative team behind the original series, which had also worked together on Gundam Zeta.. Yasuhiko had originally declined to work on ZZ because he had retired from animation to work on his own manga series Venus Wars, as well as his general dissatisfaction with the direction of the franchise and the increasing focus on things like newtypes. So a condition to him coming back as character designer was that he help develop the story like on the original series. This didn't up happening, but Yasuhiko ended up getting invested in more than just character design, as he ended up assisting in aspects of the animation too. 

Lots of conflicts arose during early production of the series while the scripts were being written. 13 out of 50 episodes were written, but the story was mapped out. Tomino had high-hopes for F91, but with production getting even more troubled as conflicts arose and studio meddling got in his way, the project was beginning to seem kind of hopeless. Eventually Tomino was forced to go with a new plan to salvage the project. He would adapt what they had into a film, and he would make a sequel film later to tie up all the loose ends. So they hacked the finished 13 episode scripts together into one film, also adding elements from later in the story planned for future episodes beyond the original 13. This would mean condensing 13+ episodes of a show that does not exist into a piece of media that was the length of about 6 episodes. (this is of course removing the time added from the intro, credits, "next time on" section and the "last time on" section in every episode of every Gundam series up to that point) Basically F91 had the opposite problem Gundam Narrative had, rather than adapting a piece of source material that only had enough material for basically a 40 minute episode of an OVA at best and needing basically start over from scratch like Narrative did, we're squishing down 13+ episode scripts for a show that mind you does not exist, into something the length of less than half that many episodes. This and some other aspects of the production hampered an otherwise great film. I think if F91 was a proper series and most of its production issues never happened, it could have been the best Gundam series, and in a perfect world we would have gotten that, but it's as Huey Lewis said "There is no perfect world anyways". 

As with the last entries of the UC breakdown I am going to go through the film without spoiling anything hugely important beyond a basic synopsis of the film's setup and the bear minimum needed for me to make my points. The story of F91 takes place in Universal Century 0123, about 18 years after the events of "Gundam Hathaway"/"Hathaway's Flash" and 30 years after the events of "Char's Counterattack". The Federation has grown complacent with the lack of any major wars, and they've largely left the branch in charge of the production of mobile suits to their own devices. They've eased up so much on their stance on space colonies that they don't police them much at all, caring mostly about what happens on earth and the wellbeing of their leadership. (compliant with the "Hathaway's Flash" novel which was published a couple years prior despite that novel being considered non canon, got to give Tomino props for that) However a new group known as the Crossbone Vanguard emerges. They are ran by the very wealthy Ronah family (I talked about them in part 1 of the UC breakdown), who have funded it using their wealthy monopoly on the salvaging business, and they intend to capture all the surrounding colonies in order to establish an aristocracy and build up enough power to overthrow The Earth Federation. While a group of friends is escaping their colony during an armed invasion by the Crossbone Vanguard, one girl among them: Cecily Fairchild, is singled out as the granddaughter of the Crossbone Vanguard's leader and captured so she can be made the public face of the organization and someone for people to rally behind. Meanwhile her friend Seabook Arno tries to figure out what's going on and gets roped into the experimentation of an advanced Federation test mobile suit made as a successor to the Gundam type mobile suits, and he takes on the task of piloting it so he can stop the Crossbone Vanguard and save Cecily, who is torn between her new duties as the leader of the Crossbone Vanguard and her moral obligations to stop her grandfather. 


Now F91 is agreed upon as a mixed bag, and while I love it, I don't have much of any real common critiques for it that I feel I need to defend against, because I think most of the critiques are pretty well justified. I'll start with these before getting into why I love the film. The film plays out like one of those weird compilation films Sunrise loves so much. Yes those films can be good, the original series' had two great compilation films and one so/so compilation film, so this isn't inherently a bad thing, but the film's pacing is jarring in parts. In Gundam shows during the 80s and early 90s it was common for the protagonist to have a moment where they kill someone on the battlefield for the first time and then get reflective about it or shook. Like when Kamille refused to pilot the Gundam mk-II after he first killed a Titans officer, or when Uso indirectly killed a Zanscare captain and was so shaken up by it he resolved to try and fight the rest of the series with killing as little people on the battlefield as possible. F91 has this moment too. Seabook in his first real battle using the Gundam F91 underestimates it's capabilities, and while testing his weapons he accidently fires a shot so powerful it not only kills the enemy pilot in front of him. but an enemy pilot doing something else that happens to be in the same line of fire. Seabook is horrified to learn he killed two people by complete accident, and then 10 or 20 seconds later it fades to the next scene and it's just him being casually looking for Cecily and blending in with other people. How much time passed? Did he get over it quickly? How did he end up in a separate space colony? When did he get there? These are all questions I had rewatching the film when this happened. There was a subplot about Seabook's dad staying behind after Seabook and his friends escaped, he did this so he could help a young child who was alone and in danger. What of this whole subplot? Seabook is reunited with his dad, we know nothing of the child, and Seabook just awkwardly escorts his injured dad back to the battleship he's been on and then they awkwardly write him off right then and there. The film ends with so many loose ends that it's kind of ridiculous. You are given a piece of text at the end of the film saying "this is only the beginning" while the main theme plays, but alas, that line has been the biggest teases in the entire series and one of the most tragic "what if?" scenarios in the entire franchise, but we'll get to that later. The soundtrack (while great) for some unknown reason it rips off The Empire Strikes Back's OST at some parts, and I'm being serious. One example: The Crossbone Vanguard's theme rips off the imperial march. My final critique is that the troubled production shows at some points with the editing, which was mostly rectified in the home video release, which featured newly animated parts and better editing. This has basically made it the definitive way to watch the film, and the only legal way to watch it since there has been no major release of the theatrical cut after it's original run in theaters. While yes everyone should watch the home video version because it is way better, its still kind of sad that we don't have a legal way to watch the original theatrical version. Some of the strange editing choices are still in this second version film too.

In terms of characters, this film leaves something to be desired while also absolutely delivering. Seabook and all of his family are well fleshed out for the time we spend with them, Cecily's mother and grandfather are pretty good too, but her biological father (and the franchise's first Char clone) Iron Mask is a super lame villain. The man's entire backstory is that after subscribing to his father in law's radicalist ideals his wife couldn't stand to be around him, so she cucked him and let another man steal her away from him, marrying him and taking Cecily with her, leaving him to wear a mask to hide his embarrassment and shame and vowing to never take it off until after the aristocracy of Cosmo Babylonia is the ultimate power in the galaxy. The villain is only doing this because he is a literal cuck who has been coping and seething for some 15+ years about being cucked by a less attractive man. Not only is his concept a rehash of Char, (a masked antagonist the protagonist must defeat in the climax of the story who plays a prominent role in the story as well as having a later revealed connection to our female lead) but his reasoning is ridiculous and stupid. I think him being the primary antagonist is an example of this movie being part 1 of a larger story that never came to fruition, at least not on a large scale. Seabook's friends don't get any time to shine either. We have all these cool characters with neat designs, I especially like Dorothy Moore who looks like a glam rock version of Elle Viano from Gundam ZZ. I actually dig all these character designs, and I think it stands as some of Yasuhiko's best work rivaled only by Gundam Zeta. However most of these characters get no development or anything saying why we should be interested in them except that they are Seabook's friends and we don't want to see civilians die. This is an example of the film being too rushed and clearly feeling like a compilation film rather than a stand-alone piece of media. Our protagonists Seabook and Cecily are wonderful characters who are developed really well and are great fun to watch. Cecily's conflict is particularly interesting since she is aligned with our protagonists and shares their goals, but is forced to serve as the Crossbone Vanguard's leader or else face things falling into turmoil. Seabook's a strong character who learns to pilot the Gundam quickly in a similar vein to how Amuro did in the original series, which works well. His story feels believable, and his relationship with Cecily was established in the beginning of the film, so him getting super passionate about her in the ending doesn't feel forced or like they rushed them into a relationship.

The animation is gorgeous and probably the best Gundam has to offer barring "Turn A Gundam" and "Gundam Hathaway". The presentation and overall direction is great too. At this point in his career Tomino was coming out of his bubble and began taking notice of the works by other studios and talent, it's clear to see some of these like Studio Ghibli were an influence on the film. (this would not be the last time Studio Ghibli directly influenced Gundam) Okawara knew the difficulty of animating the mobile suits if he made his designs too detailed, but Sunrise told him specifically to include as much detailed linework and panel lines as possible to help showcase the theatrical budget being put into it and because this was the first Gundam project (and first project by Sunrise overall) to be in widescreen. This definitely shows. The level of detail on everything here is incredible, and even big screen Gundam projects I have showered in praise over the animation like Gundam Hathaway don't even have this same level of detail. The battles here also look sweet, the action is nice and not feeling much at all like it is copying other Gundam franchise at all. The fight scene in the opening taking place in the space colony is the greatest colony fight scene in the entire series. Tomino said that after ending "Char's Counterattack" on a optimistic note and the fact that neither war presented in Zeta or ZZ were completely militaristic unlike the original series, he wanted something that showed the true brutality of war and just how much the civilian bystanders are put through. The worst part is a lot of the collateral damage is the federation's fault because it's been 30 years since the last real war in the UC, so none of these pilots have much of any real combat experience in comparison to the Crossbone Vanguard's soldiers, who have been training for years for this moment and have been gaining combat experience through their illicit actions. The final fight scene at the end is just cool, the way Seabook wins is just awesome, and his interaction with his mother at the end of the series is just nice. The ending itself is just nice, even with the dozens of loose ends.

Despite F91 being tailor made as a perfect entry point for new fans and to usher in a new era of Gundam that could appeal to newcomers and series veterans alike, the movie underperformed and lead to a decline in popularity for the series after the immense hype train carried through to "Char's Counterattack" didn't carry over to this new film. Parents complained of some of the sheer brutality in some of the scenes, because at the time Gundam was a series marketed to all ages because Ban-Dai knew kids and toy sales were a big factor in the franchise's success.  However spin-offs made with the sentient SD (Super Deformed) Gundams were becoming increasingly popular, and kids gravitated more to the SD Gundam short film that played at the beginning of the film rather than the actual movie itself. Thusly despite Tomino's extensive plans put in place to carry on the story of F91, he was stopped and forced to work on another project instead halting his work all-together. They attempted to rectify some of this with a at the time well received prequel manga called "Gundam F90", but it didn't do much to win over people who weren't sold on F91, leading Ban-Dai to stop pushing for the movie when it ended its run in theaters. Tomino would leave the franchise years later and Ban-Dai would take one of their greatest risks in the franchise's history, and it would pay off greatly. Ban-Dai had access to all of Tomino's production stuff now that he was gone, and when they found his notes on the production for F91's sequel they saw just how far he had thought it through and how he had a greater conflict beyond the Cosmo Babylonian War in mind. So they commissioned a writer and illustrator to adapt it into a manga. This person was a complete nobody by the name of Yuuichi Hasegawa. Hasegawa had his own project with Exper Xenon which was an underground success, but where Ban-Dai discovered him was his work on a Gundam manga one off for a small Gundam magazine. Hasegawa wanted a certain level of creative freedom over the work requested that he be able to make some changes in adapting it. So they gave him free reign to do whatever the hell he wanted, and after adding a time skip and glossing over some plot points we got the proper sequel to F91, which even tied together the conflict from that series to Tomino's then final Gundam series: "Victory Gundam". This sequel manga was called Gundam Crossbone, and despite him having no involvement in the manga, Tomino was given full credit as writer due to Hasegawa's intense respect for the man and him having wrote the entire manga based on his notes, as well as figuring the manga would sell better if it was credited to Tomino. Crossbone was such a runaway success that it ended up not only redeeming F91 in the eyes of most people who read it, but seen as a superior work and it became the single most popular piece of supplementary canon in the entire Gundam franchise, even to the point where most people forget the canon hierarchy and consider Crossbone and it's six sequel mangas to be the real canon continuation of the UC. Crossbone has gotten to the point where it is far more beloved and remembered than the actual movie it was a sequel to, and is represented in more games and crossover media than F91. I guess it just shows that they shouldn't have messed with Tomino's original vision, and that taking a chance on a totally unknown and obscure talent was a smart move. However I'll save Crossbone for another day, where I will go further into the greater story of F91 beyond the film.


F91 will forever serve as the biggest piece of missed potential in the entire franchise. Its fair for Sunrise and Ban-Dai to sweep this under the rug and do the bare minimum for it, because Crossbone may have redeemed it, but it doesn't change the fact that they ruined what could have been the best Gundam series. Crossbone fixes F91 sure, but it's a manga that a lot of casual people and fans aren't going to read, and it only shows that if F91 was a full series it could have been amazing. Yes the film is very flawed, yes it has issues, yes the pacing is bad and the editing could have been better, but I like to do as Ban-Dai does and celebrate Crossbone giving a new life to a very well made film rather than lament what could have been. F91 is very flawed film, but with hindsight we can look back at the most fascinating era of the UC fondly with this film showcasing Gundam at its best when it works, and just being mediocre when it doesn't work. If you haven't seen it yet I'd recommend jumping the gun and checking it out. It's a standalone story, so you don't need any lore. Just keep what I've said in mind when watching it. I have grown to love F91 over the years, and I hope some of you can grow to love it too. I'm giving it an 7.5/10, however that score is with hindsight and me having read Crossbone Gundam.