So I’m a kid who grew up with Gundam Wing and only came to the UC as an adult. Always loved those troubled boys in mech suits and grown to understand how horrifying Gundams are as I have rewatched shows as an adult. Bog standard

But finally getting around to Iron Blooded Orphans and… it kind of made it all click. Gundam has ALWAYS been leftist and… that is really weird.

Amuro and Kamille were kids who accomplished a lot while being chewed up by the military industrial complex. They… don’t matter a lot.

But Judeau. He was a kid who found hope and was left out to dry in a sequence that will make me forever hate Bright (even as I cheer for him in Unicorn for doing his fucking job for once in his life). This street rat who was given an opportunity to fight for justice for the people… and then left to do it on his own because The Federation didn’t want to take a stand. In OG and Zeta, Bright is “cop dad”. In Double Zeta, he becomes an irredeemable monster.

But then I look at Heero and his wing. They were also more or less left to fix everything for the world. And there is very much that 90s vibe of “Fuck it. You can piss away the world if you want to… God damn it, i guess I’ll help” with how the obligatory WMD was handled. The first strike? Yeah, Earth deserves it. The second? Time to fix this mess for all the idiots who hate us. And there is very much that 90s vibe of “If we make a good example, people will follow” between the end of Wing and the actions of Endless Waltz. I LOVE the idea of the Wing trying to fight with non-lethal shots (… to the knees and limbs of mobile suits) but… that shit accomplishes nothing.

Unicorn… is Unicorn. It is amazing but mostly as an endcap to the UC and not as a story. Yeah.

Then I finally get to IBO. Where we rapidly go from an idealistic rich kid thinking she can negotiate a better future to… let’s kill some mother fuckers because workers are being oppressed and media is being manipulated to think that is a good thing. So time to kill some oppressors. And the weird, kind of creepy, poly mess going on with the friendly ship is just another “Yo, I can think you are weird while still fighting for your right to exist” that is associated with social justice.

I always loved Gundam but never realized… this shit is insanely progressive. Came to it MUCH later but reminds me a lot of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series in that… it doesn’t at all feel like a stretch. It is just writers and creators who give a shit about the underdogs writing stories ABOUT the underdogs.

And considering a LOT of the mess going on in Japan… this hits extra hard. Because I am very used to having to try to ignore some of the weird politics of the media I love. But this is shit that is making me feel like I am not doing enough. And I now realize that… Gundam has ALWAYS been doing that.