I'm watching the original Mobile Suit Gundam. I pretty much decided on watching it due to wanting to watch 00 Gundam for years now since I promised a friend, but my autism wouldn't allow me to watch something so far into a series I've never watched before and so I decided to watch the original and go from there. I'll most likely watch the "main" parts of the original MSG, like Zeta and Char's Counterattack (now that better be good) and then jump to Double 00 in like 2 months.
Anyhow, so far it's been a fun ride. I wouldn't say I love the show but I do enjoy it. Currently on episode 37 and nearing the end. It's hard to really explain what I like about the show much. Character wise, I liked them all. Amuro is a good MC who has his flaws that are eventually worked out, when he stole the Gundam in a fit because Bright wanted to take him off piloting duty I honestly couldn't believe how careless he was being. Fraubow feels very underutilized in the show since she has her moments but is mostly being sidelined in a lot of scenes and is only around to be there for Amuro. It feels like she should've taken Sayaka's place in piloting another Gundam, although I do understand why Sayaka is piloting a Gundam and I do enjoy that both women and men pilot Gundam's in this. I like Bright a lot and feel he's a great leader and laughed very hard when he punched Kai in the fucking face for his attitude, honestly, this anime has a lot of people getting punched and slapped for no reason half the time. I wonder if he'll get with Mirai despite her seemingly going for others. I also really enjoyed Matlida, Ryu, Miharu and Slegger and it's a shame they all had to die. Honestly great characters.
Kai was a fucking bitch at the start but I've come to enjoy him, when he piloted the other Gundam's and ran out to help Amuro defuse the bombs I could see he wasn't a coward and had some more respect for him and his wise ass remarks. I honestly love the three kids in this too, I feel kids in war is an aspect that should be utilized more in media, less fighting and more just unfortunately being there and having to deal with the horrors it has, but I love seeing them help out by attempting to put out fires and that entire episode dedicated to them defusing the Zion bombs was really good. Then there's obviously Char and yeah he's cool and all but I sort of wished he would be around more. For a character with a very cool design, it's odd that he was just not seen for around 15 episodes. I get Amuro had to get better at piloting the Gundam but it feels odd that we never saw him for ages. It was sad in the early episodes to see his men cry out to be saved by him when they were near death.
I sometimes lose focus when the big Gundam fights are happening, sure it's flashy and cool but I just forget what is even going on in the fighting and have to rewatch it, especially when it's just Amuro slicing up some random armors for 3 minutes while we see shots of the White Base crew. I liked the music too.
Hoping it ends well and the sequel is better since I don't *love* this anime as others do but I am enjoying it a bunch. My favourite episodes so far have been the ones that mostly deal with character drama over Zion/Federation fighting so I hope I see a few more in the last few episodes.