I’m sick now, as far as I can tell. Normally I wouldn’t throw that little factoid in here, since this isn’t a personal blog, but I think it’s funny that Cuchlann and I both came home from college and got sick at roughly the same time. I’m a few days behind him, actually, so you might come to the conclusion that my plan to assume his identity and use it to take over the world is well underway.
And now for something relevant: ∀ Gundam (typing “Turn A” is too much trouble, you see) is my favorite Gundam show.
To some fans, this blasphemy is no doubt almost as unforgivable as my having seen none of the Universal Century shows (other than most of 08th MS Team and seven episodes of Victory, anyway). Forgive me; I don’t really know Gundam. But I do like ∀. Its “war is bad” message isn’t exactly revolutionary, but I like how it makes its statement by showing the effects of war on everyone from first-class soldiers to unassuming farmers to bakers and journalists. Mortality is one thing we all have in common. And there’s one thing in particular that hastens the arrival of the mortal fate unlike any other.
Please accept my apologies for this in advance: episode 27 of ∀ Gundam goes out with a bang.
The nuclear explosion here isn’t even purposeful. It’s a result of the recklessness of overeager combatants who have no idea what they’re dealing with. But it’s very appropriate, as that’s how war works for much of ∀: neither side really intends any harm, but the use of fighting as a solution tends to send things spiraling out of control in the worst way possible. It appeals to me because I’m nonconfrontational — I mean, you know that; my approach to art can pretty much be reduced to “everyone’s right.” It’s also a very potent way of emphasizing the futility of conflict; as the show’s characters discuss, survival of a nuclear explosion is unlikely, as even those who survive initially must contend with the blight left upon the land. War ruins the world for everyone, not just those immediately involved.
I should also note that the explosion pictured above is preceded by a smaller blast. It reminds me of a certain other pair of bombs with which the creators of ∀ are no doubt familiar. It’d be nice if our world wasn’t so analogous to action anime.
Pontifus
kaiserpingvin
cuchlann
Shance
TheKittymeister
IKnight
/ 21 December 2008I like how ∀‘s setting means that the characters (re)discover modern warfare (unlike your standard Gundam, in which people would know what nukes are). They literally excavate their weapons from the ground, I suppose (if I recall correctly, wasn’t that what was happening in the twenty-seventh episode?). I’d mention defamiliarisation, if it wasn’t a word I feel I hear enough already.
The land-blight thing is an interesting one, too. From what I’ve seen of the genre, the connection of the story to the physical land it’s set in in ∀ (its, um, ‘landedness’?) is very unusual.
Pontifus
/ 21 December 2008∀’s use of the land and the things found in it to drive the story forward made it all the more compelling for me, considering that (if I remember correctly) much of the show takes place in what used to be the eastern and southern United States, which is where I’ve spent the vast majority of my life. I went to college in a mountainous area that looks like it might house some ancient mobile suits.
It’s very unusual, I think, to see the land feature so prominently in a show that doesn’t seem to have much of an environmentalist agenda. Then again, I suppose what’s causing all the problems in the show is misuse of the land by previous generations. I wonder what my future grandchildren would think of A.
On the other hand, though, “misuse” of the land gives the people of the earth a means by which to defend themselves.