Mobile Suit Gundam F91

 

Mobile Suit Gundam F91

Release Date - 1991

Country of Origin - Japan

Directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino

Starring - Kouji Tsujitani, Yumi Tomura, and Masaki Maeda 

The 1990s saw a lot of new ground being covered in the world of anime. Some of the series that would become popular worldwide were created, some of those shows being Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and many more. A franchise which saw waning popularity in Japan, but would soon find booming popularity in the west was Gundam. Gundam throughout the 90s saw a decrease in interest, but was still in public mind through shows such as Victory Gundam. A bit of resurgence happened in the forms of Mobile Fighter G Gundam and New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, but this only lasted for a bit before the franchise would again lose popularity and not be seen until the 2000s.

Gundam would before all of this though broke a bit of new ground. In 1991 the second theatrical Gundam film was released (the first being Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack); Mobile Suit Gundam F91. Originally planned to be a new television series, F91 would eventually have the scripts that were written turned into a movie after disputes with the staff. Along with this the project was also a way to introduce a new cast of characters and was set 30 years after the events of Char’s Counterattack. The project would also present another new development for the franchise; smaller mobile suits. Throughout the 90s the suits seen in Gundam would stay smaller than the norm and the regular sizes would not return until the millennium. So F91 brought quite a bit to the table in one of the smaller entries of the franchise.

The question then presents itself; with all of the innovation and the oddity of its origin, just how good of a movie is Gundam F91? Well grab your normal suits, strap yourself in, and read on and find out.

It’s a nice peaceful day in a space colony, everybody at a university having fun as a beauty pageant commences. This peace soon turns to chaos as Mobile Suits crash through the colony and erupt in a fight that goes all over the colony. As it turns out the one side of the conflict is that of the army, the other side is the Crossbones Vanguard, they going around and taking control of colonies to grow their new empire.

Caught in all of this is a group of students and children, they trying to escape the destruction and insanity. One of them, Cecily Fairchild is approached by the Vanguard, for she is actually the granddaughter of their empire’s leader and is being requested to come and meet with him. She does so, leaving her friends belong. The group escapes and meets up with a small military vessel. They come aboard and join the makeshift crew, with student mechanic Seabook Arno becoming the pilot of the newest Federation Mobile Suit: Gundam F91.

Can the Federation Forces protect the remaining colonies? Will the Crossbone Vanguard and their Babylonia Empire take control of space? What is the plot of the man in the iron mask and what do bugs have to do with it? And will Seabook and his friends be reunited with Cecily?

As stated earlier F91 began life as a TV show in development, the 13 scripts written being turned into the film script after the decision was made to make it a movie. To be honest it kind of shows. There’s quite a few times when the movie just dives into some random scene that doesn’t really connect to the rest of the film. With this comes a multitude of different plot points that aren’t really developed or stay around for long or don’t add a whole lot. I can imagine a lot of these would be standalone episodes or would have been developed over time, but here they come off as clunky. Another unfortunate side effect of this is that things come out of nowhere and will leave you wondering what caused it or how something happened. Even with the core stuff that is clear and easy to follow there’s a few moments (a bit more on that in the character section). Yet while part of the plot could be considered fat that needs to be cut, the majority of the movie does flow together very nicely. The best part of the entire movie to me is the beginning with the ending battle coming in a close second, though it does have some issues. In the end the story of F91 is a bit of a mixed bag. I would say about half of the movie’s story is solid and made the transition from show to movie pretty well. However the other half definitely needed some fine tuning or just outright being cut. If you went into this without the knowledge of it being a couple of scripts then I’d say it would be okay, but even then there are some flaws which simply needed ironing out.

What of the characters? Well they are pretty decent. Definitely likable. The voice acting is solid as well and conveys a lot of the emotion needed in certain scenes. Unfortunately as you may have guessed there is a but. That comes in the form of just being condensed from 13 scripts. A lot of the characters pop up out of nowhere, with some only being in a few scenes before vanishing. Hell some of the established characters just up and disappear. There’s also a problem in that some of the actions taken aren’t really explained or hinted at. This leads especially true in the end. Like the story the characters suffer a bit simply from being condensed down, which leads to the main problem of some of the motivations being confusing and certain characters coming out of left field, leaving bluntly, and main characters vanishing as well. On the pleasant side though you at least like them and care for what happens to them, and they are acted very well. I feel as if the story is at least presentable, even if it needs fine tuning. But for the cons I just mentioned for the characters it is simply unacceptable, especially in the latter.

Finally we have the technical side of the movie, and this is where it is simply solid all around. The animation is just beautiful. This isn’t too surprising since as a movie the budget got upped and allowed for a lot better animation. Which is sad when you consider this came out in 1991 and this is what a series four years later looks like.

 Yeah…it may be a show but when it came out four years later and was out while an equally beautiful show in Neon Genesis Evangelion was running and yeah, bit of a weird problem. The fight scenes are especially beautifully animated and are plentiful (it was like Tomino knew there was too much dialogue in Char’s Counterattack and knew we wanted tons of action). I already mentioned the voice acting and how good it is. The music is just as good. Not going to lie though, a lot of it sounds like Star Wars, but hey, I can dig it. Eternal Wind (the movie’s theme song) is especially great and one of the best songs in all of Gundam’s long history. Whereas the story has some issues and the characters really show the disadvantage of being condensed, the technical aspect is just magnificent. I’d quite honestly be willing and ready to call it perfect.

I suppose somebody could make the argument that Mobile Suit Gundam F91 had an uphill battle and a handicap. After all it went from a planned full series with 13 episodes written to a tear hour movie that used those 13 scripts in a condensed fashion. It is true that this would happen in the past with various animes, but those were complete, the movies a way for fans to re-watch everything in a more straightforward manner, this being in an age without Tivo, DVR, Netflix, and the internet in general. But how well did it work within the supposed handicap?

The answer is a little hard to decide. On one hand the story is pretty nice and definitely holds true to Tomino’s wish to make it themed around family and bonds, and it succeeds in that aspect. Yet at the same time it does suffer some from being 13 condensed scripts, which even without that knowledge leaves a film with some confusing bits. The characters while nice just suffer even more from the condensing. Really it is only the technical portion of the movie that is solid 100 percent. Because the characters and story are so half and half in terms of good and bad it becomes difficult to judge it in a critical matter. Speaking personally I enjoyed the movie and is one of the very few Gundam entries I actually like and would want to watch again.

I do however have to rate this film purely on a critiquing level, and I’d have to say that in that mindset the movie is simply good. But an average good, not a pretty good or anything higher, it is just good. This is the first review I have ever done were it was this difficult to make a verdict and grade the movie. Mobile Suit Gundam F91 is a nearly spilling out full bag. The parts that are good are really good, but the parts that are bad are pretty hard to overlook. As its own movie it has problems in development and a few too many story lines but very likable characters, a story which at times does work well, and killer animation. As a condensed version of 13 scripts, it shows and it could have been converted a lot better. In the end F91 is a good film, but comes out to being simply an average good.

C