Episode 37 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. The bet between Andy and Duncan over what Ben's favorite anime is (currently) has been resolved, yet somehow the lattermost feels like the winner here, because now everyone has to watch Turn A Gundam. Well, "everyone" in this case means Duncan and Jeff, but Ben will take what he can get! Why does this anime appeal so much to someone who claims he's not a Mobile Suit Gundam fan or even really a mecha fan? How did Yoshiyuki Tomino and his writing team avoid the pitfalls typical to multi-cour giant robot shows? Why exactly does Turn A feel so unusually modern and relevant? You'll find out all of this and more, just play the episode!
Discussed:
Turn A Gundam (0:51)
Brain Powerd (10:43)
Related Links:
That Turn A Gundam concert on YouTube that Ben references a lot
A good translation of the lyrics to "Tsuki no Mayu"
A revealing peek into the writers' room for Turn A Gundam
Heyy
Been meaning to leave some comment on Turn A Gundam for quite a while, and now I haven't got all of the details from the show in my memory, but there is a few disjointed things that stuck with me. Firstly, banger opening (the first one, the second is a crime), banger name, got me hooked immediately. The premise is so interesting and so unlike anything else in the Gundam franchise. The first eleven or so episodes were brilliant. Even thought the plot is so messy and its characters are so low-fidelity (jeez what is that thing that Will Game is supposed to have for a beard??) - in spite of that, Turn A has such evokative images:
I loved that scene where the moon people were sending their delegation to the city for the first time, and it's just mechs clumsily navigating a cityscape that wasn't built for them, and then Loran and that queen's guard guy literally bump their mechs' heads together when trying to look at Diana beneath them, you just don't get to see that anywhere else. Really emphasises the scale that mechs operate at, which is absent entirely when everything is set in orbit or in a liminal space. Like, what's the point of making giant robots, when there is no proportion to their size?
Loran carrying the farm animals across a meadow was also enchanting, there was this lullaby-esque track playing in the background, such a sweet moment, I really realised what an actual hero-figure in a mech could look like when I saw that. You have this mechanised military industrial machinery just completely divorced from its origin and design, you wouldn't really think that could be done, not intuitively, it wouldn't make sense, until you see it in that shot, it captures that kind of optimism that permeates the series so well.
Loran constantly leaving his mech was so anxiety-inducing for me at first, I wanted to shout at the screen, wanted to tell him that this collection of space goons and south American slave owners would just shoot him, that he should under no circumstances leave his god-like mega-robot. I just couldn't understand the kind of blind trust that he had in people to not take advantage of his carelessness. Heck, even giving other people unsupervised access to the mech seemed so outlandish, but honestly, in the end I thought that was such a beautiful touch. He pilots the mech only insofar as it is needed, he never takes ownership over it, never lets the immense power it affords him warp his sense peace and community. I have genuinely never seen that before, not expressed in such a pure form.
Unfortunately, I also felt like after the tenth, eleventh or so episode, the show had told me everything it wanted to tell me, and I was left with a cast of characters that wasn't that fleshed out, or that relatable, or very much human in what little access you have to them as a viewer. The show arranges them back and forth and I kind of lost sight of any kind of vision of what could come of the story. Turn A is also just a bit too uncompromisingly childish or child-like in certain moments, especially when it leans into shonen tropes or vibes. And Poe, oh Poe, what a strange character. But it's not even Poe herself who comes across as off-putting, it's the bizarre way in which the show treats her. I will never, never ever forget the weirded-out perplexity I felt when the queen's guard guy disarms her, sits her down, kisses her, then tells her that she should probably change her underwear because she has been sweating so much. Haaa?! How have we gone from Loran swimming in a swarm of dolphins to this???
Anyway, thank you for putting this show in the spotlight. I discover so many interesting anime and manga through this podcast 🙂
Nod