MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM MS IGLOO 2: GRAVITY OF THE BATTLEFRONT

DESCRIPTION

CAST

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OVA MechaMobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079
MANGA MechaKidou Senshi Gundam MS IGLOO 2: Juuryoku Sensen

REVIEWS

• 

  IsNotAChar

  51/100
  All of the flaws of the previous IGLOO entries (plus some new ones), but none of the strengths

  Quick tldr

  Only watch this if you are a gundam completionist, otherwise don't bother. When it's not utterly bland, it's just kinda weird (but not in a good way).

  What's missing (also, spoilers from here on for all of IGLOO)

  The previous IGLOO entries had problems, but they worked for me. I enjoyed them. There are a few things they did, that this just did not.

  1:The lack of a continuing cast

  This is is probably the biggest missing factor from an engagement perspective. The only cast that remain between episodes is:

  • one EFF officer whose name I've already forgotten who barely appears outside of the last episode and could've been cut entirely without effecting the flow of the story at all.
  • The god of death/a shinigami. she is not even really a character and I'll get into her more later.

  This lack of any real continuing cast makes it hard to get invested. The crew of the Jotunheim were characters that you got to know over the series and who igloo could use for some drama and emotional storytelling (it wasn't great character drama, but it was there). This made it all the more impactful when these characters were put at risk or experienced personal loss. it's what made the final battle of igloo where oliver finally joins the fight himself genuinely feel a bit tense.

  This also let the previous IGLOO tell an actual story. We see the start of the technical evaluation division testing experimental weapons, to their decline into basically reporting propoganda on mobile suits that are never going to see use, to them eventually being drafted into proper combat themselves. It was a good plot for what it needed to be.

  There is none of that here. So instead we just get a loosely connected string of one off episodes where everyone dies in the end. It basically kills any possible investment in the characters beyond the most surface level.

  2: The cool and wacky tech

  Being honest, it wasn't so much the characters that made me enjoy the previous IGLOO as much as it was getting to see a bunch of goofy and/or cool weapons being used. Don't get me wrong, IGLOO was better for having characters and a story, but the true stars of the show were the weapons.

  With the Gravity front, the first 2 episodes are entirely vs Zakus with no new or special earth federation equipment. The third episode gives us a new guntank at least, as well as giving a goofy looking zeon battleship (that was in the original series) some screen time.

  Compare that to each episode of the other IGLOOs introducing new weapons (and these weapons themselves reflecting the current state of the war and zeon's growing desperation) and it's pretty clear that IGLOO The Gravity Front just doesn't do that.

  3: A unique side to the war

  This at least was kinda achieved. IGLOO gave us an inside look at zeon's war effort from the perspective of people fairly low down in the hierarchy. The Gravity front does the same from the Federation side. That said, we already get a lot of federation perspective generally, so it is still less unique. Overall, it's the only strong element from the previous IGLOOs that is still really present here.

  Bad before, bad now

  IGLOO had problems, and this did not solve them.

  1: The animation

  Despite clearly having a bit more advanced and high fidelity animation, it almost looks worse. It's just a bit more uncanny. Even the battles are less impressive, mostly taking place in just ugly looking barren landscapes that just look way too empty.

  This is not entirely its' fault. OG igloo was mostly in space, which is a lot easier to have as a background.

  The battles look fine, but only just fine.

  Overall, the animation has not materially improved over the older IGLOO series and remains a major weakness.

  2: Structure

  As mentioned, all of IGLOO uses a primarily episodic structure (I'm not inherently against episodic structures when it comes to shows, but for a 3 episode series it's not a great choice). This used an even more episodic structure where almost none of the cast continues between episodes. For reasons stated earlier, this was a bad choice.

  The entirely new bad

  I don't know why they decided that there would be a supernatural death god subplot. It possibly could've been done well, but this was just not it. I found this whole element of the show to just be entirely unnecessary and weird. Normally, I like when shows do weird things, but this just didn't work at all for me.

  It doesn't help that the death god just look aesthetically wrong for Gundam. She looks like something out of an ad for some garbage mobile game.

  Honestly just a baffling idea as a whole. From concept to execution, it just doesn't work.

  Conclusion

  If this had been much longer, I may have just dropped it. At only 3 episodes, it is watchable if you just want to tick off a box and add it to the list of shows you've watched. I would not recommend this to anyone not on a Gundam completionist binge. Even then, there is so many other things you could be watching.

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