Entertaining But Let Down by Dated Animation
Summary
Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is an easy watch packed with explosive action scenes and cool mech suits; it’s a shame visually it looks like a PS2 cut scene which makes it feel immediately dated.
Plot: In the year 0079, the Principality of Zeon rebels against the Earth Federation, sparking a war. After 11 months, the Federation seizes a Zeon base in Eastern Europe as a mixed battalion moves to reclaim it.
Review: Gundam is one of those things I’ve always heard about but didn’t really know anything other than it featured large mech suits; I recently saw Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance on Netflix and as it was only 6 episodes at around 24 minutes each I watched it over the weekend.
It’s a CG animated series which could easily have worked as a 2 hour movie rather than a series, but it’s packed with giant mech action featuring near constant explosions and awesome weaponry.
This series is apparently the first to use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 which Collider said “if you’re just casually watching or passing by the TV while the show is playing, it would be pretty easy to mistake Gundam for a live-action production”. That’s blatantly untrue as the animation is sadly rather dated looking and considering it’s just out this year it looks more like it was made 10-15 years ago. The characters mouths don’t really move properly and I couldn’t help think this would have been far cooler if it was live action in the way Pacific Rim was.
Celia Massingham voices our lead, Captain Iria Sorari who leads the Red Wolves; she lost her husband during the war and now spends most of her time in a giant mech suit battling their enemies. The characters are mostly decent with Iria making for a sympathetic lead. The almost amateurish animation however, really lets the series down so we never get really emotionally involved. If we get a second season I hope they put a little more effort into the facial animation as that is key in keeping us engaged as viewers.
Overall, Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is packed with giant robot action and some awesome weapons, but the wonky animation lets it down from being truly great.