A Mobile Suit Gundam F91 Review and Commentary
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The year is U.C. 0123, 30 years after the events of Char’s Counter Attack. Relative peace has settled on the federation since the final Neo-Zeon movement and military mobile suit development has been slowed to a crawl. Without warning, a group calling themselves the Crossbone Vanguard attack Frontier Side, the federation’s newest set of colonies. The Federation navy decides not to bring its full force down on the Vanguard and instead lets Frontier Side’s garrison slug it out with their mysterious attackers.
A ragtag group of civilian adolescents, led by Seabook Arno (strange name isn’t it?) fight their way out of Frontier IV, and attach themselves to an outdated warship piloted by a rookie crew. Frontier IV is one of the Federation’s newest colonies and the first target and then operational base of the Crossbone Vanguard.

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 is a heavy, confusing attempt at a completely new Gundam story set within the Universal Century time-line. It was intended to be a full fledged series, but the 50 episodes were scratched and instead condensed into the two hour film that we have today.
What we’re left with is a Frankenstein’s monster of a film, with characters and plot events being stitched in wherever and whenever they can be. New characters come out of nowhere as others die suddenly, allegiences change without notice and Seabook quickly skips from angsty teenager to a fairly stoic veteran.
The tried, tested and true Gundam formula is followed, as our civilian protagonist Seabook is thrown into battle, along with his group of friends and refugee children, piloting the local ‘feddie forces’ only real chance to end the conflict decisively: the prototype F91 Gundam. And you guessed it, he’s a Newtype.

Mobile Suit Gundam in general can often be a melodramatic experience, but F91 takes it all to a new level. Everything about this movie is depressing, harsh and violent. It’s a non-stop barrage of cold-sober struggle and hurt and somehow the crushing seriousness of it all never crosses over into the realm of unintended self parody or over-exaggeration. There’s no relief from the grim reality of a meaningless war and over time we gain no immunity to it.
The Crossbone Vanguard conflict is a particularly harsh and unlikeable one and neither the Federation nor the Vanguard are likely to win your heart. This is no war of independence, no battle over resources and no selfless defense of ideals. The Cross Bone Vanguard is simply an elitist group in imitation of royalty who use brute force to carve out a small kingdom which is more fantasy than reality. It’s the kind of war that the aggressors can’t effectively justify and both sides want desperately to end as soon as possible.
There’s very little about the Crossbone war that comes off as artificial or fake, and it is probably the conflict’s meaninglessness and stupidity that lends it a feeling of reality.

Unfortunately most of the characters are as unpleasant as the war itself, in their own way, and all but Seabook and his younger sister leave a bad taste in your mouth. It’s not that they’re poorly constructed, or slapped together cliches, as was the case with ‘IGLOO – they’re simply frustrated and angry men and women fighting for their lives on one side, and insane psychotics or egomaniacs on the other.
There’s simply no one to root for in F91, and that’s a big problem from an entertainment point of view. No sympathy is cultivated by either side and all one feels for Seabook, our hero, is sorry that he’s been forced into a war without reason and surrounded by jerks and psychopaths.
There’s an “opposite sides of the war” love story at work that recalls to mind Shiro Amada and Aina Saharin from 08th MS Team, though it’s not as mature nor as interesting. Neither is it developed as much as it needed to be, no doubt another symptom of the 50 episodes into two hours compression.
The mobile suit design is probably the major triumph of F91 in this reviewer’s opinion. The Crossbone Vanguard mobile suits manage to be truly intimidating and distinguishable without being complete derivatives of Zeon designs. The hulking, armoured-up look they have is reminiscent of a Zaku but the helmeted faces, with two huge eyes, is a feature all their own. They function fantastically as antagonist suits and you’ll never confuse them with anyone else.
The Federation rank and file suits are the familiar Jegans and the F91 unit is a fairly typical Gundam design, with some distinctive shoulder “fins” that set it apart.

F91 is animated in beautifully painted cell animation but the film hardly takes advantage of it. We get fleeting glimpses of some stunning colour, movement and detail that outdoes any Gundam production before it. The trouble is, most of the film is made up of budget animation that, while still decent, was obviously intended for a full length series and not a budget busting two hour movie.
Most battles, including the final one, are poorly staged and a mess on screen. Things are cluttered and only a handful of mobile suits is ever shown at one time, making what should be a large scale battle appear more like a small skirmish. Establishing shots are rare, the point of view always focused on the F91 Gundam. It becomes impossible to tell where exactly anything is in relation to anything else.
We fail to get that sense of vast open space, as the “camera” is so tight and claustrophobic, insisting on focusing on the F91 and Seabook from awkward and uninteresting angles.
The soundtrack is tasteful and works well in the film, though most of it is an undisguised rip off of Star Wars themes.
Certainly the ghost of a full length series that will never see the light of day haunts the movie, as we’re subjected to abrupt plot and character movements without warning and a high contrast battle of quality vs budget animation. It’s a shame that F91’s promising mobile suit design, animation and over all serious tone were mashed together so bluntly.

The conclusion of the film proclaims “this is only the beginning”, but F91 was the Gundam that never was, the series that never had its chance. It’s impossible not to wonder what it could (or maybe should) have been, but as we have it today, it just doesn’t work as a two hour film.





Gundam Unicorn – the great white hope of Universal Century? If you don’t already know, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is a serial novel by author Harutoshi Fukui and (as far as I know) is currently in its thrid chapter.








































Turn A – My Thoughts So Far (Part 2)
16 03 2009Preface
It’s been a while since I last spoke about my impressions of Turn A Gundam. I said in that first post that it was the beginning of a series of three. I had almost forgotten about Loran Cehack and the Moon Race and was ready to move on when I happened to come across a model kit for the White Doll in a local shop, and it all came crashing back.
So, after nearly a year, I’m pleased to finally be able to continue with my thoughts on Turn A Gundam.
Turn A So Far – Episodes 06 – 25
They say no news is good news. Since we last left Turn A Gundam, 20 episodes ago, not much has changed. A few new mobile suits, a few new characters, but essentially it`s all the same.
First, the mechanics. A few new (and I use that word very loosely) mobile suits have been added to the roster. Most notably, the MS-06 Borjarnon, identical to a Zaku II, and the AMX-109 Kapool, a mobile suit that originally appeared in Gundam Double Zeta. I was somewhat relieved to see the more traditional mobile suit designs appear. I said in my first Turn A post that the strange new MS we saw in the initial episodes were a welcome change. While this is still true, after 25 episodes, the novelty has worn off.
As of yet – half way through the entire series – not a single battle has taken place. A handful of skirmishes here, a half-hearted duel there, but no battles. Even as the 25th episode closes, Loran is still barely able to use his gundam. The Earth militia mobile suits literally hurl explosive devices with their hands in a desperate attempt to scratch the enemies’ paint jobs. They’ve just discovered the machine guns built into their Kapools.
The show’s major disappointment as of episode 25, for me, is the total lack of mobile suit combat so far.
In contrast to the grand campaigns of Zeon or the epic battles of operation meteor, the Moon Race`s invasion of Earth is something like a tea party, or a fencing match. Each side moves its tiny forces around, neither one really intending to do harm to the other, both obeying the gentlemenly rules of war.
The skirmishes play out like a children’s game. One side actually manages, in spite of their own incompetence, to damage or kill an enemy and both forces go running in opposite directions because some one got a booboo.
That new and refreshing Earth setting is getting old fast. The same forest and desert backdrops are being used over and over again. They seem to blend into each other, making Earth just one large, dull, over-simplified parody of itself. And the grounded gundam action is like a shuffleboard match in comparison the aerial combat we’re used to watching.
It all makes for some very dull visuals. I suppose if I was a 14 year old girl, I might be more interested in the various relationship triangles, but that’s not the case.
That being said, if I really wanted to stop watching, I would have. There’s something quality at the heart of Turn A. No one could deny the sub-par action sequences but neither should one fail to recognize Turn A’s strengths. It’s innovative in just about every way, from mechanical designs and setting to pacing and plot.
The problem is, the initial novelty of these innovations has passed. Without the action typical of most gundam animations and a stagnating plot, what meat is there in this show? What exactly am I watching here?
After thinking about it, a realization began to creep up on me. I wasn’t really watching a Gundam series, but some kind of anime drama that happened to include the odd mobile suit. The main event, thus far, has been the slightly gender confused characters and the various doppelganger situations at work, not mobile suit warfare.
To be fair, it is suggested in the 25th episode, that Loran’s calm and kind personality could change some time in the near future. Lilly Borjarnon, the lady for whom the MS-06 Borjarnon is named, comments that he (Loran) is like a panther, who will turn his claws against his keepers sooner or later. That little teaser got me excited, but should this kind of development only be a speck on the horizon or something more by now? We’re now half-way through the series and plot development is just a possibility?
Ms. Borjarnon’s hint at something darker on the horizon makes me wonder if the second season of Turn A will be a different ball game that the first. For now though, this Gundam series sticks out from the rest like a thumb among four fingers. Turn A is slower (to the point of stagnation), more feminine, more innovative, less heavy and dials down the intense seriousness most Gundam narratives live on.
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Tags: borjarnon, kapool, loran cehack, moonrace, turn a gundam, white doll
Categories : Opinion/Commentary, Reviews