Ashes Unfit for Giant Robots? What Goes with a Shooting Star?
Over time the Gundam franchise evolved to match what’s appealing and interesting to the youth of Japan. Or Asia. Youth in Asia. Nice Boat.
Sorry, just couldn’t stop myself there.
Uh, while I was somewhat of a fan of good o’ The Brilliant Green in its hay days, the band’s return last year was a big question mark. I think quickly, though, they’ve shown much of their old selves. It’s still a little too early to make a prudent call, but it’s never too early to exclaim “wow I like this” when, well, I like their Gundam 00 single.
But that bothered me. A Buriguri song in a Gundam anime? Yes I know much of the two’s demographics overlap. But so what? That’s like hearing Radiohead on Avatar or something. Well, that’s probably too much of an exaggeration.
And while L’arc en Ciel has anime tie-ins on a regular basis, their last song on Gundam 00 was also a little odd and unfitting. Not that it was bad (and in fact, I like both songs as well as the animation) but something just doesn’t seem right.
It begs the question: what does seem right? I made a reference to a classic KOTOKO song, Onegai Teacher OP, in the title, because I thought that song fit as an example. In fact, I love Second Flight (Onegai Twins) even more, and the overall package that the opening animation for the show was superb and it is something that I just don’t see much at all in recent shows.
And even so, Gundam opening and ending songs have consistently set some kind of landmark–good ones and bad–for anime that came before and anime that follow. I think See-Saw still rakes in the big bucks from their SEED works, and anison people like Chihiro Yonekura got a lot of popularity from her classics in 8th MS Team. If we broaden it to Sunrise “real” mecha shows then the list will probably double with people of more mainstream impact as well, like KOKIA, among some long list of other musical achievers.
I thought about Gundam specifically. Perhaps it felt odd only because I had a preconception of what Gundam is suppose to be like, and the grungy style of alternative rock didn’t go with it? It’s not to say there aren’t other Gundam theme songs that were “out there” or anything, but they somewhat fit the show. Older songs fit the older Gundam shows; fruity songs like Turn-A-Turn fit fruity Gundam anime like Turn-A; Nami Tamaki’s dance beats did wonders for SEED. So why is Ash Like Snow giving me any problems? It’s hardly the worse or even the most unfitting song-to-show.
Perhaps I’m just not taking Gundam 00 seriously enough? Or maybe music marketing is just being too aggressive? Sigh.
Gundam Your Mother, or “Is That a Curse Word or Just Really Hard Metal?”
This is actually unrelated to this post (despite the matronly reference) and a response to these posts, only because I’m prompted by this post in reminding everyone that the more you spam your blog the bigger your visitor count-penis gets!
And silly Night Elf hos should just stop cluttering my game by quitting and doing something more productive with their lives, like making money.
The Story of Redemptive Violence, or Gundam Will Continue Forever
Redemptive violence is the bigger, badder, more brainy term to describe violence justified. This ranges from executions to “eye-for-an-eye” to even a war to end all wars and even using violence to protect someone and catch criminals. Gundam 00 throws a nice, juicy fat herring from the get go, tying terms like “dunamis” and “kyrios” (Greek for Holy Spirit and Trinity) with “oh noes I’m a kid fighting a terrible war excused by religious reasons and there’s no god poo hoo”?
Sigh, I feel like an 8th grade kid trying to explain to random internet people the point behind faith and love.
And thankfully, most Gundam shows do make a point to talk about faith and love (or maybe just hope and love?). Because it’s only in these incredibly human, idealized feelings like faith and love that we can even stand, point and laugh at the folly of war, of greed, and the tragedy of looking at people not as people. (And also, I’m sure, that the producers feel the moral burden upon them, with all those 8th grade kids watching their shows.)
Most Gundam shows also do make a point about Gundam as some kind of idol, too. The whole “I want more power/to be stronger” nonsense goes hand in hand with the “there’s someone I want to protect” nonsense or the “this world sucks” nonsense. In fact this probably explains why a lot of anime have crappy endings, not limited to just Gundam shows.
Still, I think unlike a lot of other stories told in popular media, Gundam tells a much more elaborate, and philosophically complex stories about redemptive violence (and, even showing the myth of it as well) by actually telling you these things up front, instead of using characterization and theme to explain things to you. For better or worse, this gets the message across faster and clearer usually.
That said, it’s probably unfair to pin so much of Gundam into the pigeonhole that is redemptive violence. A lot of other people have said their piece about Gundam’s stories, their motivations, and the intent behind them. And indeed, Gundam means a lot of different things to everybody. And it doesn’t help that the franchise has gotten to a point, that each series keeps on repackaging the same story, myth, legend, troupe, and theme that I am never so sure what it was saying at the end.
Maybe that is why to date Turn-A has been my favorite Gundam series in how it walks that tight rope between redemptive violence and redemption itself, that war is never the answer to anything besides “how do we kill a lot of stuff real fast and make a lot of trouble for everybody.” That the feeling to protect someone is only going to make the person you protect into a bitter, old maid as the other lover of the person you died protecting ditches her because your death made things complicated. That by loving your enemy’s hairdo as your own is the first plank to build a bridge for reconciliation and peace. Or cross-dressing. I’m not sure which works better.
I hope 00 makes a similar effort to tackle the core moral dilemma instead of pandering to mere drama. That’s what makes the Gundam franchise more than just a nice boat (even if the roots are rather nice boat-ish). As the myth of redemptive violence perpetrates today’s society in its core, the ongoing saga of the Gundam franchise will continue and draw a lot of attention for being the marketplace and battleground of ideas between pacifism and the school of redemptive violence. Maybe eventually it’ll surprise me with a valid answer?
Or at least get all their fancy-pants Greek Gundam names to match. What’s Exia? Exegesis? I mean that’d be the poetically fitting reference.
