XXIII: "Mobile Fighter G Gundam"

The Mobile Suit Gundam series is known for quite a few things: lasers, broken machines, and a whole lot of destruction. The more unique of the franchise happens to be Mobile Fighter G Gundam, whereas, opposed to the common guns, sabers and war, it's filled with different mechs with different styles of fighting, with the Earth serving as the ring for these battles. Set in an alternate timeline after Universal Century (the timeline of the original Gundam series), wars have ravaged the Earth into a nearly inhospitable planet. It was later proposed that a competition of sorts was to be used as a way to decide the ruler of all the colonies over the next four years. This is where the term "Gundam Fight" came into play. Every 4 years, a tournament is held, with representatives from their respective national colonies (Neo Japan, Neo France, Neo Hong Kong, and Neo America to name a few) competing in the infamous machines known as Gundams. They fight, and fight some more until one unit remains, gaining the right to rule over the colonies for the next 4 years.

The story of G Gundam takes place in the year Future Colony (F.C.) 60, during the 13th Gundam Fight. Neo Japan's Domon Kasshu is selected as their representative, and he pilots the Shining Gundam. His reasons for participating is to hunt down his brother, Kyoji Kasshu, who stole the nefarious Dark Gundam (Devil Gundam in Japan) and free his father, the man who was part of the conception of the Dark Gundam. Throughout this task, he meets many friends and opponents, and cross paths with Master Asia, the master who taught him martial arts, and Shwartz Bruder of Neo-Germany, his surrogate teacher.

The voice actors of Domon Kasshu (Mark Gatha) and Master Asia (Dave Pettitt) also worked together in their respective hero and villain roles in Mega Man X: Command Mission (X and Epsilon), and in Mega Man X8 (X and Sigma). Each participating Gundam has unique abilities, the majority of them suiting their names. The way that the Gundams are piloted is very different, in contrast to the other Gundams in various series. While the Gundams of other series are more mechanical, and are piloted by controls in the cockpit, G Gundam's machines are piloted by the means of a system that allows the Gundam to move in similar actions to the human pilot. Very rare that Gundams apart from this series have power up forms (the main exception of this being the F91 Gundam), while it's more prominent with Shining Gundam and Burning Gundam. Localization called for a number of names of the Gundams to get alternated, the American names for some being fairly close to the originals. In certain parts of the animation, various Gundams of different series made cameos, including the Wing Gundam, whose series, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, wasn't made until the completion of G Gundam.

I grade G Gundam as a 7.5 of 10. Not the best in the franchise, but it was truly unique amongst all the Gundam media. Surely, this is a rather acceptable outcome of combining mecha with fighting styles.