Since I’ve been a blogger, my primary focus has been on newer or current anime. Watching newer series has helped me maintain my interest in anime fandom, which is a fandom that often seems to pride itself in bulk consumption – as much as possible and as quickly as one can manage. There are certainly a lot of anime series out there and it can be very easy to get caught up in the destructive mindset of watching as much as humanly possible (I have to say, I do pride myself on the number of anime I’ve completed even though I’m not necessarily proud of having finished everything on that list. I’ll leave that to my readers to guess at which anime fall into what group).
With a near constant onslaught of new anime, it becomes much more difficult to look backwards to the classics. I’ve admitted in the past that I have some large blind spots when it comes to certain famous franchises. I’ve watched very little Dragon Ball (or its offshoots). I don’t have a special connection with older sports anime like Slam Dunk. And, in probably one of the more surprising twists of my life, I’ve never really gotten into the Gundam franchise.
The latter hasn’t been from lack of trying, however. Though I’m pretty much the exact right age for it to have consumed me along with many of my female fandom peers, the entire Gundam Wing fan frenzy somehow passed me by. I’ve seen a couple of the shorter series in anime club over the years – Gundam 0080 and O8th MS Team – and many people claim them to be very watchable for those who don’t know much about the franchise, but despite acknowledging that they were both pretty good, I’ve never felt strongly about either of them.
As Covid-19 has continued to disrupt many aspects of my life (including causing me to completely biff any sort of new anime previews or reviews last season out of depression – thumbs down for mental illness), our anime club’s move to online meetings has opened up some new opportunities for ad-hoc showings aimed at smaller groups. A friend offered to stream the three-part compilation film series that covers the events of the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV anime, and it was at that point that the story finally captured my interest. Who could have guessed that watching from the original starting point of an incredibly epic story would serve as the most logical and user-friendly point-of-entry? That’s a rhetorical question that no one should feel obligated to answer. I feel like enough of a doofus already.
In retrospect, it seems obvious; the charm of most long-running series tends to grow organically from slowly learning about their worlds and characters. One has to walk before one can run; one has to learn who Captain James T. Kirk is before reading some obscure tie-in novel for the original Star Trek series. And really, one has to see Amuro Ray and Char Aznable in action, get a whiff of Sayla Mass’s tragic past, and witness Ramba Ral’s sacrifices, to get a sense of what makes the Gundam series more than just a show about cool robot armor and grandiose outer-space battles.
We followed up the original series with the much more recent adaptation of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin manga. As one might expect, this is a prequel that follows most of the major characters’ stories to the point at which they enter the story as depicted in the original. One part fanservice (which I mean in the traditional way – character cameos and references to things that we know are going to happen later on) and two parts character development, with a heavy sprinkling of action and melodrama that hits just right, I can say that Origin was what really solidified my interest in watching more UC Gundam (although my friends who are experts also tell me that they think I’d like Turn A Gundam. I suppose we might see!).
As a long-time anime fan, I know how easy it can be to avoid a series you haven’t yet developed a relationship with, and to discount that lack of connection by assuming that the issue is with the media itself. That could very well be the case, but I challenge those of you out there who find yourselves with some free time on your hands to think about some anime you’ve overlooked in the past. Maybe you’ll never find the entry point or angle you need in order to really enjoy watching it, and that’s fine of course. But there’s always the possibility that great anime – anime that might become your new favorites! – are sitting out there in the void just waiting for you to sort yourself out and appreciate them. And honestly, isn’t having more anime under your belt a good thing?