Hogan Reviews

The insanity that is G Gundam continues as the build up to the fight with the Devil Gundam / Dark Gundam continues. It’s a chunk of episodes full of DG Cells, training arc clichés and some fun and crazy battle scenes. Let’s take a look!

Episode 14 gets us straight into the first “big twist” in that shortly after Rain finds the unconscious bodies of Chibodee, Sai, George and Argo and sees they’re infected with DG Cells (if you’re confused, you’ve skipped over Review 1…) the four wake and emerge to not only see their Fighters attacking Domon but soon Master Asia reveals that he’s in league with the Devil Gundam and has betrayed everyone, showing his black Master Gundam off and then is about to take out Domon until four new Fighters arrive: The “Shuffle Alliance”, four of the top Gundam Fighters in the world, causing Asia to flee. Shortly afterwards Domon and Asia fight and as they do the four previously mentioned allies fight the Shuffle Alliance, who then sacrifice themselves to pass on their magic crests to Chibodee, Sai, George and Argo and by doing so also cleanses them of their DG Cell infections. This leads to a big showdown where the Devil Gundam itself is found underground and Domon and Asia clash after the newly birthed Shuffle Alliance are handily defeated (great debut guys!) the Neo German fighter, “Schwarz Bruder” (Yes…) appears and handles Asia long enough for Domon to attack the still sleeping Devil Gundam, but as he still believes his brother is in the cockpit he aims elsewhere on the machine with his Shining Finger and by doing so transfers his energy into it and fully revives it.

Always loved the Master Gundam, one of the few G Gundam mobile suits that doesn’t look hilarious in some way or another…

After foolishly running after Master Asia with no plan Domon is stopped by Schwarz who then tells him to “master his Super Mode” and so all five main Gundam Fighters head to the Guyana Highlands for a training arc. Chibodee struggles with the memories of being DG Cell’d and his all-female support group are put at risk until he overcomes his fear, Sai Saici acts like a pervert with Rain and a female member of the Neo Russian crew but freezes in fear at the sight of Argo due to PTSD from the Devil Gundam but after he and Argo team up (with Domon and Schwarz) to defeat a DG Cell copy of his Dragon Gundam he overcomes his fear, and George suddenly remembers a year ago when he and a rival to his position of Neo France’s Gundam Fighter, Jean-Pierre Mirabeau, had a fight and in deflecting a missile aimed at their King by the disgruntled loser George accidentally caused the deaths of innocent bystanders, which coincidentally leads to Jean-Pierre breaking out of prison and head to the Highlands to fight George out of revenge with his DG Cell-infused Gundam only to lose when George over comes his fear and regret. This obviously leaves Domon to complete his training, which he does when he nearly dies fighting Schwarz and finds himself peaceful and calm at the moment before death, allowing him to tap into his true potential, or something. Classic “serine mind overcomes hearts clouded with anger” type stuff.

Odd that the “Ultimate Gundam” is a large Gundam head with a smaller Gundam sticking out of it… Ultimate or not as designs go it’s pretty crap…

As everyone prepares to head to Hong Kong for the Gundam Fight finals (yes, that’s still going on, in case you’ve forgotten… which would be easy to do…) Master Asia and the Death Army begin attacking and Domon and Schwarz take him on together and although they push him back the Shining Gundam is damaged in the battle. The Shuffle Alliance fighters begin battling the Death Army to give Domon and Rain time to fix the Shining Gundam and thanks to a plan by Schwarz a good number of them are swept away by a surge of water, so with so few remaining everyone leaves the Highlands apart from Domon, who wants to finally have a fair 1-on-1 fight with his Master, only for Asia to bring out the Devil Gundam instead…

So in case you can’t tell, G Gundam is still pretty crazy and not afraid to go for the generic cheese with its plots. Much like the first chunk of episodes if you’re in the right mood it’s a good laugh though!

Overall Thoughts:

I’d make a comment about a German ninja not being historically accurate but boy-oh-boy if you’re looking for historical accuracy is this ever the wrong show for you!

The second quarter of G Gundam deals with the Devil Gundam plotline… for now, and introduces Master Asia as the new over-arching villain of the series. Beyond that though it’s a lot of generic training episodes and some set up for the next set of, if memory serves, generic enemy-of-the-week episodes… Ah well, the Dark/Devil Gundam stuff is good fun and has some well animated / scored 80s cheese going for it during its “final” battle so it definitely raises it above averageness.

Domon attacks Master Asia and loses himself to a fit of rage when he sees his brother appear on top of the Devil Gundam which leaves him easy pray for Master Asia’s attacks, but when Schwarz arrives and take a near-fatal hit from Asia Domon remembers his serene state of mind and activates “True Super Mode”, allowing him to easily defeat Master Asia and seemingly destroy the Devil Gundam for good measure. Master Asia flees (though not before getting a shock when Bruder’s mask falls off, off-screen naturally… though, I mean, even if you don’t know German you should’ve figured it out by the name alone anyway…) As all of this was happening the Neo Japan scientists send down the “God Gundam”, or Burning Gundam in the dub, to help Domon and so when it became time to leave he jumps into the cockpit of his new craft and with the help of Rain remote-controlling the Shining Gundam to transfer the data to the new craft (as the expense of the machine) Domon heads off the Neo Hong Kong for the finals, just in the nick of time after some shadowed Gundam Fighters tried to stop him.

Domon goes Super Saiyan, as was the style at the time.

The um, “opening ceremony” (of the finals, I guess…) begins and we not only see Domon and the four Shuffle Alliance Fighters but Michelo Chariot, despite losing fair and square to Domon in Episode 1, Gentle Chapman despite being DEAD, and Master Asia himself, leading to Domon declaring he’ll win all his fights until he get to finish off Master Asia once and for all…