This Week in Anime

Tournament Fighting G-Gundam Style

Jean-Karlo
Okay, Nicky, it's been a bit since my piloting accident last September. I didn't think I'd get back into the swing of things but with the help of this cool guy I met named Kyoji, I got into some martial arts lessons to regain my confidence. The dojo owner was a cool dude, said he was unbeaten in the East. Anyway, I'm feeling good, I was just about to go to another appointment with my therapist. It's a new year, and there's no way that that engine noise I hear in the background is another... Oh no, not again, IT'S A GUNDA—

Folks should know I love my mecha, and while Gundam Wing passed me by I definitely tuned into G Gundam back when that aired on Toonami in the early '00s. GundamInfo has been uploading batches of the series over the past few months, and we were lucky enough to check out the first six episodes of this classic. I'm getting ahead of myself, but it was a lot of fun to revisit this series.

For real. Sure, it's an early-00s dub so there's a degree of awkwardness, but I miss that old Canadian dub. Mark Gatha has long since left the world of dubbing for orthodontal engineering, but his performance as Domon Kasshu is legendary and beloved for a reason—guy could scream his lungs out, and he could do it without THE HELP OF KYOJI.

We need to take a moment to talk about Imagawa, because he's definitely a director to know. Your friend and mine Mike Toole made a pretty good write-up of the guy a good while ago, covering some of the work he did for G Gundam as well as for that other bombastic classic of 90s mecha goodness, Giant Robo: The Animation - The Day the Earth Stood Still. Imagawa has my heart; mecha is too easily wrapped up in the meme of men shouting about stuff (see: Gurren Lagann's tragic fate—please, watch another mecha show), but Imagawa really knows how to tap into melancholy. Giant Robo posits a question: "Can happiness be earned without sacrifice?", you will ponder that and you will like it. Also, here's a giant robot stomping through France.

So too does G Gundam have hidden depths. As a youth, many of my peers preferred G Gundam to the other Gundam shows because "it wasn't as political", meaning it didn't have so many scenes of people sitting around jawing at each other. And yet, right from the get-go, G Gundam smacks us in the face with a creative interpretation of the Gundam franchise's ever-ongoing war between Colonials and Earth-bound humans. You see, in the setting of G Gundam, pockets of humanity have uplifted literal chunks of various nations into orbit as colonies. In order to prevent outright war between them, the colonies have a gentlemanly bout between national champions.

AND THEY FIGHT.

AND THEY FIGHT.

AND THEY FIGHT, UNTIL—ahem, until the last man standing is chosen champion and their representing nation rules the colonies for a term of 4 years. Problem is, for all the guise of good sportsmanship, the Gundam Fight, as it's called, takes place on Earth, and none of the colonies are in the habit of cleaning up after themselves.


Also, I wanna point out that the green-haired dude sitting on the Earth—Stalker, his name is—quotes The Criminologist from Rocky Horror Picture Show ("I would like, if I may..."). Imagawa is a tremendous fan of Rocky Horror, as well as Star Trek (Neo Sweden's pilot is named Ensign Allenby from The Next Generation) and old cinema like Andy Warhol.

Yasuhiro Imagawa ditched Anime Expo '93 after parties to attend midnight screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show at UC Berkeley in full cosplay. Imagawa is such a Rocky Horror fan that the narrator of G Gundam, Stalker, was intended as a tribute to The Criminologist.

— Minovsky (@MinovskyArticle) April 19, 2020

So many of these early fights are basically people encountering a Japanese T-1000 and getting their heads blown up, if you wanna be super-reductive.

Also, I wanna show off my nerd-cred a little and point out that I have RightStuf's G Gundam Blu-ray set, and the special edition not only includes the famous Tequila Gundam shot glass, it also includes a copy of Domon's photo—complete with instructions on how to rip it up just so. That's good feelies!

But yes, our protagonist is Domon Kasshu, of Neo Japan. When the show begins, we find him breaking faces in Italy on Earth. This episode really illustrates a ton: how much the Gundam Fights have devastated the Earth and the people on it, the underhanded nature of the fights themselves, and how many people on Earth fear and admire the colonies and Gundam Fighters alike.

It doesn't help that many of the colonies aren't terribly judicious in their selection of pilots. Neo Italy's pilot, Michelo Chariot, is a high-ranging leader in the Mafia and regularly abuses his reputation as a Gundam Fighter for his own personal gain.

Domon is definitely a jerk sometimes. I know some women go for the "I can fix him"-thing, like with Dark Schneider or Inuyasha, and Domon kinda has that going. But he really does deserve to get slugged in the face for how he treats his partner, Rain.

She's his childhood friend, according to one of the later episodes. Rain and the other female characters of G Gundam got done dirty—Rain in particular doesn't have much to do but suffer at the hands of Domon's thickheaded antics.

And she really does care—she camps out in Russian snowstorms trying to make sure Domon is okay.

The other reason why women veterans of the anime fandom love Domon and Dark Schneider: they bring the "cake" in "beefcake".

...Actually, now I'm curious—this show came out in '94. What are the odds that there was a Neo Yugoslavia or Neo Czechoslovakia written into G Gundam's world bible?

At any rate, Domon's adventures see him visiting several countries he has scribbled onto the back of his mysterious photo of the man he's searching for. After Italy goes bust, he goes to New York where he meets Chibodee Crocket, a boxer who may well have the healthiest polycule in anime this side of Lupin's gang.

This is where more of G Gundam's lowkey political writing comes into play. Chibodee was a street urchin whose natural ability was recognized by members of the Neo New York government. He was taken to the colonies where he trained as a boxer until he was ready to compete in the Gundam Fight as the pilot of the Gundam Maxter, a football-player-looking Gundam that also has a surfboard and a "boxing" mode. Neo New York's suits aren't above manipulating Chibodee or the members of his harem in the name of furthering their political agendas. Unfortunately for them, Chibodee cares more about proving his skills as a boxer than politics...

There's a very touching bit at the end of the episode between Chibodee and Domon where Domon reminds him that losing one Gundam Fight doesn't mean he can't compete—the Gundam Fight rulebook specifically states you can compete as long as your dream is alive. Seeing the people of New York rally around Chibodee definitely feels like a proper tribute to the people of that city.

Like we said, there's a lot of wuxia-influence in G Gundam. Domon himself is a recognized martial artist who has earned the title of the "King of Hearts". This ties into something called The Shuffle Alliance, a team of Colony-bound martial arts experts that sadly we don't get too much insight into them. All we know is that Domon's enigmatic mentor, Master Asia, was the previous King of Hearts.

I wish I could talk about Master Asia. I wish I could talk about how cool he is and how his appearance really kicks off all the awesome stuff G Gundam is known for. But that would require us watching more than what we were supposed to. We're only here to cover the first six episodes. So everything pas that is a SUPER SPOILER.

And G Gundam is a lot of fun. Like with Sai Saici! I can see a lot of people hating Sai Saici, people hate kids after all. But Sai Saici is also a Gundam Figher from Neo China that can keep even Domon on the backstep. He's the heir to what remains of the Shaolin Temple, trained by a rival offshoot from the colonies. He hopes to restore the Shaolin Temple to greatness with his victory in the Gundam Fight.

And he's not all talk, either—he fights Domon to a stand-still! This with Domon having several years on him, even. Sai Saici is a little brat, but he's a skilled little brat.

Jerk that he might be, Domon respects people who can prove they have genuine skill as Gundam Fighters. George Desand is a good example; the knight-like Gundam Fighter from Neo France, Domon is willing to throw the match against him in the name of keeping his princess from getting hurt by the toppled Eiffel Tower.

It's easy to make a "nobleman"-type character be a snooty jerk, but George really does care about his nationality and the years of service his esteemed family has rendered to it. He's otherwise kinda bland, but it's easy to see why Domon respects him.

Funnels are a long-standing part of Gundam technology. Only G Gundam has the creativity to turn them into ROSES!

The final country we get to see Domon visit is Mother Russia, where he meets the prisoner Argo Gulskii, a prisoner with a life sentence who pilots the Bolt Gundam. This episode is a fascinating "prison break" episode, not unlike Stone Ocean. Argo himself is a fascinating character, apparently a onetime space pirate who took a life sentence in exchange for the safety of his crew.

Also, the Bolt Gundam looks like it's wearing an ushanka. I love it.

It's a creative bit of strategy from Neo Russia: arrest any incoming Gundam Fighter, sequester their Gundam. The rules say "last man standing", they don't say you have to fight your way there.

But this leaves us with Domon. Six episodes in, we don't know much about why he's piloting the Shining Gundam, or why he's fighting for Neo Japan—only that he's searching for the guy in his photo. Episode 6, thankfully, really deep dives into his backstory, and it's a doozy.

So, as it happens, Domon's brother Kyoji and their father created a Gundam called the Devil Gundam. Neo Japan's government attempted to arrest Kyoji on grounds of treason; in the scuffle, Kyoji caused the death of their mother and fled to Earth. Domon's father was thus punished with being cryo-sealed until Kyoji was brought to justice. Domon wants revenge.

This episode is also heartbreaking as it's not even a flashback—it's hypnosis. Neo Japan's Defense Minister is forcing Domon to relive (what Neo Japan's government thinks were) the events of the day of Kyoji's betrayal to prove whether or not he's still a reliable pilot.

He's just chilling out in the ruins of his family's home while the suits check to see if he's stable enough to operate heavy machinery with kung fu.

Remember when my young colleagues said this wasn't a political show? That was fun.

The only thing keeping Domon safe is his own victimization. So, the Shining Gundam has a super-mode, because of course. And it's triggered by Domon's emotions, so even if Neo Japan decides to replace Domon as a pilot they can literally never find someone who will be mad enough about what Kyoji did to tap into the Shining Gundam's full power. Ergo, the Shining Gundam is fueled by Domon being that pissed about his brother betraying his family, and Neo Japan is benefiting from it. Even the goofy bits in G Gundam hit like a truck when you learn the context behind them. For years, I had thought Domon screaming "Take this: my love, my anger, and all of my sorrow!" was just a kitschy, memetic line. Turns out, Domon is venting years of heartbreak and anger out on the ghost of his brother.


I'm getting ahead of myself, because this is beyond the six episodes we covered, but as a kid I remember another character constantly reminding Domon that his anger was a double-edged sword—and in retrospect, that's some good character development because as it stands, Neo Japan is just unleashing a traumatized young adult upon the world and hoping for the best. Doesn't help that the Devil Gundam is pretty insane as a mech; it can self-replicate, self-improve, and self-repair, so even with all the anger he's got Domon might not be up to the task.

That's a thing I appreciate a lot about anime, and I have to wonder why it is that of all the stuff I watch I find it most easily in tokusatsu and mecha anime: yes, there can be outrageous fights between impossible mechs and grownups in spandex, but they nevertheless exist part-and-parcel with genuine emotional depth. And for all of the reputation G Gundam has for being goofy and silly, that's all here in spades: the cast has very human motivations, the world is fully realized and explores hard-hitting themes, and the main character has an engrossing melodrama to him.

I mentioned Giant Robo: The Animation - The Day the Earth Stood Still earlier, and it—or at least, the first two episodes, because Giant Robo's production took such a long time—makes for a fantastic companion piece to G Gundam. Both are stories of high emotion and high adventure, couched between very personal tales with emotional stakes. And for that reason, I really do hope that people give G Gundam a shot. It would break my heart to see G Gundam end up like Gurren Lagann where people just spout memes from the show upon hearing the title, because G Gundam pulls off so much more.

It helps that G Gundam is pretty influential. A few years back, there were a lot of waves made because an episode of the Pokémon Sun & Moon anime referenced it in a big way!

G Gundam x Pokémon Sun & Moon pic.twitter.com/D5P4JeSN7T

— Ashita (@AshitanoGin) January 6, 2019

So don't take it from me, take it from the Shining Gundam and its branded heat saber: watch G Gundam, because the School of the Undefeated of the East compels you!