Requiem for Vengeance may not be the future of the franchise, but it's still a fascinating detour
Netflix original anime Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is now streaming. Set concurrently to the events of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime, Requiem for Vengeance is a multinational collaboration written by Gavin Hignight (Tekken: Bloodline, Star Wars: Resistance), directed by Erasmus Brosdau (Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness) and co-animated by Bandai Namco Filmworks — historically known as Sunrise, the franchise's longtime production studio — and SAFEHOUSE.
The Gundam official website provides the following summary:
"In the year Universal Century 0079, a state of war began when the Principality of Zeon declared its independence from the Earth Federation government. In the war's opening stages, the Zeon forces maintained an advantage thanks to the effectiveness of their new weapon, the mobile suit. However, they lacked the fighting strength to fully conquer Earth, and the war became a stalemate.
- Official Gundam website
Eleven months after the outbreak of war, a base in Zeon-occupied Eastern Europe is captured by the Federation Forces. A Zeon composite battalion is sent to recapture the base, and among its members are Solari and her Red Wolf Squadron, a mobile suit team that has only just arrived from space... "
Keep reading for Anime Away's review of the latest entry in the Gundam franchise.
The Good
Since the series is animated entirely in-engine with Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5, Requiem for Vengeance is gorgeous. With the right TV and the capacity to stream Netflix at the highest resolution, the series can be downright jaw-dropping in how good it looks. There are, however, a few lingering issues with the animation of the human characters that need to be worked out — more on that later.
Although the human characters do occasionally stumble into the Uncanny Valley, everything that isn't a human being looks phenomenal. The environments — although consisting primarily of drab, abandoned, burned-out cities or being depicted at night — the explosions and the military vehicles are all great. The standout of the series' aesthetic is, as you'd expect from the Gundam franchise, the on-screen portrayal of the Mobile Suits themselves.
In particular, the Gundam EX is the absolute high point of the entire series. The Gundam audience is used to watching Gundams tear through Zeon Zakus like tissue paper, but not usually from the perspective of the Zeon pilots. It's clear from the very first encounter with the Gundam that the Zakus are completely, hopelessly outclassed, so the Gundam EX itself is portrayed as an unstoppable, monstrous force of destruction. Honestly, there are times when the best comparison to the tone of Requiem for Vengeance is something like Godzilla Minus One — this isn't a mecha series, it's a monster or a slasher series.
The one Zeon character the audience gets a chance to really connect with is the heroine, Iria Solari. She's shown to a be capable soldier and Mobile Suit pilot, while also struggling with her own trauma and the death of her husband elsewhere in the war. She works as a sympathetic protagonist and delivers various statements that reiterate the franchise's longstanding themes — namely that war is a terrible thing. On the other hand, her actions don't always match up with these statements and she's shown to be a little too eager to keep fighting the Federation.
Also quickly worth noting is that the soundtrack is absolutely amazing, but understated enough that it can be easy to miss if you're not actively likely for it. Most notably, the opening sequence is a lot more somber and both visually and thematically dark than the standard Gundam opening.
The Bad
As mentioned previously, the human characters don't always look quite right. Thanks to the capabilities of the Unreal Engine, their design is great and they look fine when they're still. However, the animation does tend to look awkward in motion. The biggest thing is potentially more of an issue with the direction or the acting than the animation itself. A lot of the time, the animation of the characters, especially their faces, doesn't seem to match the emotions they're speaking with. Characters will either be moving too aggressively while speaking quietly or look too calm when they're angry or distressed.
Requiem for Vengeance is only six episodes, so the characters don't get most chance to grow or win over the audience's sympathy, especially because so many of those characters are killed off so quickly. This is also complicated by the fact that Zeon isn't exactly the most sympathetic faction for the audience to root for. We've known for almost 50 years that Zeon is willing to commit atrocities and war crimes to further their goals — the opening of the original Gundam anime series prominently featured Zeon dropping a space station onto Sydney, Australia. Granted, none of the Zeon characters in Requiem for Vengeance are cartoonishly evil or anything, but none of them ever quite succeed at shaking the lingering notion that Zeon overall aren't good people.
There are few lingering issues with Requiem for Vengeance, but nothing that's particularly glaring and there's still overall more good and bad.
Conclusion
On the whole, since Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is only six episodes of about 20 minutes each, there's a lingering sense that it may have worked better as one two-hour movie. Still, worth noting is that its total runtime is so much smaller than most previous Gundam series — for refernce, the original Gundam is 43 episodes, Gundam Wing is 49, and even Witch from Mercury is still 24. Requiem for Vengeance might be one of the easiest points of entry into the franchise, though it does often feel like it presupposes a certain level of knowledge of the Gundam lore on the part of its viewers. Even so, there's probably enough mecha action to draw in newcomers on the strength of the fight scenes alone even if they don't quite understand exactly what's happening.
Requiem for Vengeance may not represent the future of the Gundam franchise, but it at least demonstrates a very interesting lateral style in the production of the series. Netflix and Bandai Namco have clearly demonstrated their willingness to work together and take their projects seriously, which is certainly a good sign for how the forthcoming live-action Gundam movie will turn out.
The transition from the typical anime style to 3D and very Westernized animation wasn't flawless, but was certainly at least a valiant first attempt. Future 3D Gundam series will hopefully get the opportunity to iron out the issues on display in Requiem for Vengeance. Ultimately, Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is worth watching at least once and has enough positives to appeal to both longtime Gundam fans and newcomers.
Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is now streaming on Netflix.
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