Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994)

Author note: This is the last regularly scheduled post for a while, as the film blog section will go on hiatus along with the Agent of C.A.R.D.S. comic it is meant to accompany. However, the “Old Tales and Modern Media” section is independent of the comic and will continue to update as usual a few times a year, on 5th Wednesdays. I will also continue to be active on Substack Notes and post sporadically (in different sections) during the hiatus period. To subscribers and regular readers, thank you for keeping up with my blog so far!

I have to confess I’m not very familiar with the Gundam anime franchise as a whole, but from online fandom discussions and retrospectives, Mobile Fighter G Gundam is to its franchise what On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is to the James Bond film series: tonally different with more overt romance, more or less an alternate timeline (“This never happened to the other fella!”), once considered kind of a guilty pleasure or a lesser entry in the series — but nowadays remembered fondly with its open-hearted earnestness considered a feature rather than a bug.

“Take this — my love, my anger, and all my sorrow!”

One thing that makes G Gundam memorable is its tone as a nostalgic tribute to older shounen anime shows — the simplicity and sincerity make it accessible to younger audiences, while the familiar tropes are appreciated by their elders. Even though G Gundam is deliberately theatrical and over the top — as famously portrayed by voice actor Mark Gatha’s well-loved, larger-than-life English dub — the in-universe story is serious, the characters take themselves seriously, and you actually care about what happens. No winking at the audience here. Everything played straight: silly international stereotypes, goofy Gundam designs, suggestive innuendo. And sometimes a character will do something totally wild (“LAUNCH ME!”) and everyone just acts like it’s normal.

Directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa, produced by Sunrise Studios, and based on the Gundam franchise created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, G Gundam originally aired in Japan in 1994 with TV Asashi. In 2002, the English dub made its American debut on Cartoon Network’s Toonami.

G Gundam was a whole genre departure from the main, war-focused Gundam storylines. Probably a more apt Western film comparison would be the difference between Red Dawn and The Princess Bride or the original Clash Of the Titans. As a full, self-contained story with its own timeline, it does not need familiarity with other Gundam shows to be understood.

The premise takes place in a “Future Century” where many people have abandoned an impoverished and desolated Earth for space colony versions of their home countries. To avoid war, these space colony nations have instituted a Gundam fighting tournament where the winner’s country gets to rule everyone else for four years. Although G Gundam is considered part of the “Super Robot” genre of anime, the giant mechas called “Gundams” have little to no AI and are more like giant humanoid vehicles whose movements align with the martial artists who pilot them. The problem is — these giant mecha fights are really destructive, casually wrecking nature and important cultural monuments wherever they take place, to the consternation of the inhabitants still living in the ruins of Earth. Or some inhabitants. Others have just fallen into apathy and shrug it off.

(Below is the first episode posted on YouTube, courtesy of the official Gundam Channel Intl.)

Neo Japan’s champion is Domon Kasshu (Tomokazu Seki / Mark Gatha), a mysterious hot-headed fighter who has inherited the title of “King of Hearts.” Passionate as he is, as the show’s dialogue repeatedly points out, he is not great with words and prefers to express his heart and soul with his fists. As another character describes him later, “Those who don’t take advice have to be taught physically.”

Domon’s entry into the tournament is personal: it is also a means to get to Earth and apprehend his older brother Kyoji, who — as far as he knows — stole the Devil Gundam (called “Dark Gundam” in the English dub) from Neo Japan, callously and indirectly caused their mother’s death, and caused their father to be blamed and sentenced to a cryogenic state. A young adult now, Domon spent years of his adolescence away from home, training in the martial arts under Master Asia (Yōsuke Akimoto / Dave Pettitt), the champion of Neo Hong Kong. The latter has to be one of the goofiest fictional mentors ever from an audience stand-point, but in-story he is stone cold dead serious. Just like the series as a whole!

Joining the quest to save Domon’s father, and maintaining their Shining Gundam, is Domon’s sole crew member and childhood friend Rain Mikamura (Yuri Amano / Jennifer Holder). She might as well be named “Barbie” because she is a mechanic and an engineer and a doctor, all at the canonical age of 20. Rain is the calm voice of reason to balance Domon’s hot-headedness. Her scientist father Dr. Mikamura (Motomu Kiyokawa / Byron Close) was a colleague of Domon’s father before the latter was cryogenically frozen, and he is one of Domon and Rain’s regular contacts in support of the mission.

The first several episodes are fairly slow, with self-contained stories and various one-off characters as Domon and Rain meet different people and participate in matches around the world, and bits of the main plot dropped in here and there as the setting unfolds and the main cast is developed. It is during these episodes that Domon meets his eventual friend group and fellow “Shuffle Alliance” members among the Gundam fighters: Neo America’s Chibodee Crockett (Hōchū Ōtsuka / Roger Rhodes), Neo France’s George de Sand (Takumi Yamazaki / Scott Roberts), Neo China’s Sai Saici (Kappei Yamaguchi / Zoe Slusar), and Neo Russia’s Argo Gulskii (Hidenari Ugaki / Stephen Holgate). Domon sought them out after the suggestion of another one of their main contacts, Neo Japan’s Major Ulube (Nobuo Tobita / Dave Kelly).

After the first several episodes, the series gets darker and we learn more about the nature of the aptly-named Devil Gundam. Originally created by Dr. Kasshu and Kyoji for benign purposes with the lifelike abilities of self-evolution, self-replication, and self-regeneration, this Ultimate Gundam fell down to earth and became the nefarious Devil Gundam — which takes on a serpentine appearance and infects its victims with DG Cells, which exist somewhere between machine and organic life form. Scientists in their laboratory experiments had discovered issues with the latter — the DG Cells could overwhelm their organic host, replacing biological matter with metal and wires and taking over the host’s mind. And now the Devil Gundam is hell bent on destroying and assimilating humanity.

Mid-Series Spoilers Below (Episodes 10-38)

The Devil Gundam is shown to zombify a dead man in one episode, and in the following episode, Rain’s ex-boyfriend acts on violent urges under the influence of DG cells. When Domon and Rain go to the ruins of Shinjuku in Japan, they find that Domon’s four friends Chibodee, George, Sai, and Argo have also been infected by the DG cells. The four express a sheer desire for power — gone are their individual goals, aspirations, values, honor, and drive toward causes greater than themselves. Becoming, as C.S. Lewis would put it, “men without chests.” Worst of all, Master Asia — who had only recently reunited with Domon and set himself up to be the hero of the beleaguered city — betrays everyone and turns out to be in league with the Dark Gundam.

The old Shuffle Alliance members appear in their card suit-themed Gundams and give their lives to heal and restore their successors; meanwhile, Rain rescues the other teams’ crew members who had been lured into assimilation pods. However, Master Asia had given himself to the cause of the Devil Gundam by choice — devastating his former student.

In confronting the Devil Gundam, Domon catches glimpses of Kyoji, who appears to have no personality outside of villainous cackling. When Domon has a chance to destroy the Devil Gundam, he has trouble controlling his Super Mode and accidentally strengthens the enemy instead. Oops.

Domon needs improvement, and Neo Germany’s masked ninja fighter Schwarz Bruder (Hideyuki Hori / Matt Embry) suddenly appears in his life and insists on helping him control and enhance his powers while training in the Guyana Highlands. Domon feels like there is something familiar and nostalgic about this stranger, but apparently he doesn’t know German… nor has ever seen Speed Racer… nor questions why this random guy is suddenly really invested in his success out of nowhere.

The Devil Gundam attacks again in the Guyana Highlands, and Domon and Rain are forced to switch the Shining Gundam with a new model, the God Gundam (renamed Burning Gundam in the English dub), in order to make it to the finals in time.

It’s one of many sweet bonding moments for Domon and Rain, and going through the entire series, their mutual attraction is a lot less subtle than I thought it was catching it intermittently on TV long ago. The show hits you in the face that they’ll probably be an item, like one episode has Rain just randomly get a fever and faint off a cliff so Domon can catch her.

At this point it is midway through the series, with most of the second half taking place in Hong Kong where the finals are. (Technically it’s referred to as “Neo Hong Kong,” but both the wrecked future earth locations and the space colonies are given the prefix “Neo” which I always found confusing.) G Gundam pays homage to international cinema, with late 20th Century wuxia films in particular, so there’s a lot of love for the bright lights of the city in nostalgic 1990s animation and Kohei Tanaka’s memorable score. One of the late introduced characters is the handsome villain Wong Yunfat (Kōichi Hashimoto / Ben Jeffery), whose appearance is modeled after Chow Yun-fat’s charismatic crime boss in A Better Tomorrow (1986). Aiming to becoming a permanent world dictator, Wong wants the Devil Gundam which he describes as “a massive power equal to that of God.”

Another late introduced main character is Allenby Beardsley (Narumi Hidaka / Carol-Anne Day), the blue-haired champion of Neo Sweden and the only female Gundam contestant depicted in the series. She meets Domon at an arcade fighting simulator, where they have an electrifying chemistry and become fast friends. Yet against her will, her country’s officials force her into a Berserker System that gives her more power but — as Domon observes — causes her to fight without heart and soul. Allenby becomes part of Domon’s training and inner circle very quickly, with Rain feeling insecure about it and being relegated to the team’s wet blanket for a few episodes.

Meanwhile, the Shuffle Alliance members sort out their own issues and want to fight Domon himself before committing to fight the Devil Gundam. Partly for their own self-improvement, but sorting out and confirming who is the really the strongest guy of the group also just has a practical implication in who later goes to fight the Devil Gundam directly while others fight the sub-bosses.

Domon’s four Shuffle Alliance teammates have their own focus episodes showing their development.

The congenial Chibodee Crockett (Queen of Spades) acts carefree in pursuit of his American dream of success, but he feels the pressure and doesn’t want to let down his audience who view him as a hope and inspiration for their own dreams. But of course he’s going to be second fiddle to the protagonist, and his character development is realizing that he isn’t any less if he is affected by childhood trauma or takes his share of losses — and that dreams, by definition, keep pushing forward.

The elflike knight George deSand (Jack of Diamonds) fights on behalf of the honor of his country and does everything by the rules, but gets to a point where he decides to disobey orders in order to achieve his personal goal to fight Domon — and this, in turn, gets his country’s officials to recognize he is indeed strong enough to represent the country’s honor.

The mischievous teenager Sai Saici (Ace of Clubs) grows more mature, experiencing first love, getting around to seeing himself as part of a family heritage with the seriousness that entails, and putting everything on the line in his goal to revive the Shaolin Temple.

With Argo Gulskii (Black Joker), I didn’t notice any big change, but more of his quiet persistence, reliable fighting, and occasional defiance eventually winning over others to his good intentions and his goal of getting his friends freed from prison.

Domon himself went from being unreliably powered by rage, to unlocking his true Super Mode with the power of serenity and thinking of the people who really matter in his life.

Late Series Heavy Spoilers (Episodes 39-49)

Prime Minister Wong is up to something, disagreeing with Master Asia and insisting that Allenby and not Domon is the strong fighter they need to use for the Dark Gundam. There’s also an ominous giant box being delivered over the city…

When Allenby is injured after the Berserker system is forced on her again, Rain tries to look after her but paramedics in a helicopter immediately take over and forbid her from joining them. When it turns out later that the “paramedics” were not legitimate, Domon — in one of his worst low-impulse-control moments — blames Rain for it, saying she should not be in the team even though he was right there a few yards away. Then he acts aggrieved when Rain takes him at his actual word and quits as his partner.

It is Schwarz Bruder who helps them reconcile, recruiting Rain to be his partner for his scheduled exploding cage match against Domon. The latter finally catches on that he needs her, and the explosion finally reveals what was pretty obvious to the audience by that point — Schwarz is Kyoji or something like it.

Domon apologizes and they make up, but the next match is the final Battle Royale where the crew can’t follow them anyway. They part ways, with Domon promising to tell Rain something important (obviously a love confession!) when they meet again. So Rain’s resignation stays in effect as she goes undercover in the hospital to find out what’s going on with Schwarz.

Meanwhile, Domon and the rest of the Shuffle Alliance go to Lantau Island for the Battle Royale actual final fights — a giant mecha free-for-all. A deadly barrier keeps them stuck on the island basically playing King of the Mountain.

Now there are the obvious power-hungry, grandiose, Saturday morning cartoon villain types like Wong… but there’s another type of more subtle villain who is motivated by envy, resentment, and victim mentality.

One of them, to Rain’s shock, turns out to be her own father Dr. Mikamura who was behind the destruction of the Kasshu family in collaboration with Major Ulube. It was Ulube — a former Gundam fighter and sore loser from a previous tournament — who had wanted to steal the Ultimate Gundam for his own purposes. And Dr. Mikamura, out of professional envy against Dr. Kasshu, was in on it — having Dr. Kasshu frozen in cryogenic state to silence him, while Mrs. Kasshu took a bullet for her innocent elder son Kyoji who was trying to keep the Ultimate Gundam out of Ulube’s hands. Domon and Rain were manipulated into the Gundam fight, with the latter being used by her father to learn information on them — an unwitting mole. Rain is horrified and devastated by all this.

Later, Rain manages to get into the Lantau Island ring with a different Gundam in time to fight and save Allenby from Prime Minister Wong’s plot, briefly crossing paths with Domon but neither interacting nor being recognized by him.

Meanwhile, Domon himself — with help from the four Shuffle Alliance friends who take on other villains to allow his forward movement — encounters Schwarz and the Dark Gundam and learns the whole truth about his brother. After taking the Ultimate Gundam to earth and crashing it, it malfunctioned and became the Devil Gundam with a mind of its own, pulling Kyoji in to be its core life unit, a human battery. Later, with what little control Kyoji had at that point, he transferred his soul and personality to the mechanized body of a real former Gundam fighter, becoming “Schwarz Bruder.” Kyoji’s physical body is doomed and battered from previous battles and nearly worn out, and Schwarz compels a tearful Domon to kill them both together, with body and soul being reunited at the last moment before death, and the Devil Gundam apparently defeated.

The last foe to be faced is Master Asia — another villain not motivated by power, but resentment and radicalization and idealism at all costs. A fanaticism so intense that he would demand of his own student to “give up your perfect body” to the same fate as Kyoji. A true believer in the Devil Gundam, he had supported its aim to exterminate all of humanity — justified in his view for their destruction upon the planet. A victor of previous Gundam fights, Master Asia had witnessed the damage and was dismayed by other people’s apparent apathy toward it. The former Black Joker appears to Master Asia, describing his mindset:

“But when you saw the destruction, you were devastated by the fact that you had contributed to it. And the resentment that you felt likely set all this in motion.”

Real-life authors like Hannah Arendt and Eric Hoffer have written about how loneliness, frustration, and desire for unity drive normal people toward totalizing mindsets and fanaticism. But when someone is actually going through loneliness, what that often feels like in the moment is wondering how other people can be so apathetic about what’s important in life. And this kind of judgment against fellow humans can prevent the person from actually seeing them.

Domon calls him out:

“The humans who you’re trying to eliminate were born here as part of nature. They are a part of the Earth. How can you revive the earth if you’ve forgotten that? That’s right. An idealized world that does not include humans is doomed to fail!”

A redeemed Master Asia acknowledges the point and agrees, then dies in Domon’s arms, and Domon and the former Shuffle Alliance members regret not being there for him earlier to hear his side.

But this is not the last we’ve seen of the Devil Gundam…

Now some fans consider the last four episodes to be superfluous — that after Master Asia’s death in Episode 45, the series had said all it really needed to say. I mean, I could see that — make the Devil Gundam defeated for good, tie up other loose ends somehow, keep the scene where Domon leaves his own victory parade, only have Rain be sensible and stay behind and meet him. They could have a quiet heartfelt reunion with the nature of their relationship left subtle and open-ended…

Haha, NO! This is G Gundam, of course! There’s going to be bigger and bigger fights, space battles, more ham, more tears, more yelling, and totally epic sparkly romance.

Besides, we wouldn’t see the Devil Gundam’s final form, nor have great dialogue lines like this:

“Anyone who tries to thwart another’s love shall be sent to hell by the hooves of this horse!”

So Domon experiences this hollow victory, he ditches his own congratulatory parade and fanfare and only wants to be together with Rain. Unfortunately, just as Domon has a low-impulse control, “yang” flavor of dumb, Rain does the “yin” type of dumb where she just withdraws and runs away when it’s totally unnecessarily. Feeling guilty by association because of her father, she decides to leave with him to the space colony and stay out of Domon’s life without so much as saying goodbye — breaking his heart.

Unfortunately, they are sharing a space ship with Major Ulube, who figures out specifically why Master Wong had wanted to use Allenby instead of Domon for the Devil Gundam, and it was nothing to do with fighting prowess. To bring out its full potential, the Devil Gundam needs a human who has the power to give life — in other words, a woman. Ulube forces Rain into the Devil Gundam, which then grows in Lovecraftian power, large enough to engulf the whole Neo Japan space colony. Ulube takes over Neo Japan in an instant coup and begins exterminating whole regions on earth.

The Shuffle Alliance friends convince Domon to stop moping already and head out past the atmosphere to rescue Rain, which involves riding a horse into space (no, really). The Shuffle Alliance crew members and other Gundams around the world put up a brave battle — the fighter from Neo Nepal uses an attack with prominent Yin and Yang imagery, and Allenby scolds the Devil Gundam as a “pest.” Dr. Mikamura frees Domon’s father in a last act of redemption, sending himself into the vacuum of space in the process. All five members of the Shuffle Alliance power up to hyper mode and face down the final villain Major Ulube, who allows himself to be taken over by the DG cells completely and crumples into a pile of metal dust.

But the only thing that finally stops the Devil Gundam is Domon reaching the frozen Rain and telling her he loves her, allowing her to break free and join him in a wild tag team attack move that finally gets the job done and vanquishes the Devil Gundam.

It’s the most famously cheesy (but effective!) over-the-top love confession scene I can recall. Fans make hay out of the Devil Gundam’s tentacles, and an “Erupting Burning Finger” may or may not be just an “Erupting Burning Finger,” but what really stood out to me was all the blatant yonic imagery especially as Domon goes to the organic cavernous power core to find Rain, and there’s the scene of him kneeling in front of the totally-not-female-anatomy that she’s lodged in.

This sudden emphasis on women as givers of life, the phallic and yonic imagery, the in-your-face romance paired with sexual subtext — these are a feature and not a bug of the last several episodes. The Ultimate Gundam / Devil Gundam was built with three life-mimicking abilities: self-regeneration, self-evolution, and self-replication. Humans literally and figuratively heal, grow, and… well… reproduce. Throughout the series, the characters heal and grow through various battles and trials — and finally, the ending promises a future of new life both literally and figuratively.

The joyful, sparkly final scene has the main characters all flirting or thinking about their crushes, elders musing about how these young people are fighting for the hope of a better future, and Domon carrying Rain bridal-style on the space horse and proposing to go home to Earth, the place loved by Kyoji, Schwarz, and Master Asia.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam may be the odd duck of its franchise, but that’s what makes it great fun to watch. It’s over the top and goofy and campy, and unapologetically so — not stopping to reassure the audience of their sophistication. The story takes you on a wild ride, takes its own suffering and tragedy seriously, and then it dares to have a hopeful and happy ending.

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