I went into the very first Mobile Suit Gundam with low expectations due to its age. To my pleasant surprise, its animation wasn’t bad and its writing was far from being bare! It’s very much like how I was surprised by how good Evangelion was due to the same biases.
…Maybe I should stop underestimating old anime.

0079 is definitely endearing. Its plot is about a bunch of trainees and civilians involuntarily taking control of the Federation’s best ship and its best mech, trying their hardest to survive onslaught after onslaught of the enemy forces that want that technology. I’m as surprised as anyone that the show can make that interesting for 43 episodes, but they did! It’s always fun to see the Gundam be overpowered, but the ship’s crew also pulling through is also always good to see! To be fair, I started to get a little tired of it around the midpoint, but that fatigue didn’t last too long.

Its main strength is definitely its characters. I ended up liking pretty much everyone in this show, both good and bad, both major and minor. And “minor” includes the REALLY minor guys. I also want to emphasize that this statement includes A LOT of characters because the show just has so many. Even a lot of side enemy mech pilots get names and small moments to show their personalities. (The bomb squad keeps showing up in my brain whenever I think about this.) They all have a sort of charisma that makes it hard not to root for them. Even the villains. Sometimes ESPECIALLY the villains.

My main character issue is that Amuro, our 16-year-old main character piloting the Gundam, often gets moody in the first half. That itself isn’t the problem — he’s a child soldier after all, he SHOULD have mental conflicts — but the execution never felt like it was done well. Also, some of the main crew felt underdeveloped even after spending 43 episodes with them (not that I don’t like them, of course). But I think in every other aspect they did such a good job with everyone. (Except M'Quve…he’s really the only one I can think of that never made me interested.)

I will admit, the direction the show takes in the last fourth didn’t feel right. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked it because I just inherently like that kind of thing. But it felt like it went from the plot described above to something completely different — and so suddenly, too. Maybe it’s all foreshadowed in previous episodes in a way that makes a second watch-through even more interesting (or maybe I just didn’t pick up on it at all until it took the stage in episode 34). Still, even if the shift was interesting (and I repeat: definitely not bad), I liked the state of the show that came before it more.

As an aside, the soundtrack is so good. Every song is immediately recognizable to the point where I instantly noticed new songs start existing in later episodes. I don’t know how many songs there actually are, but even if it’s not a lot, they never got old.

I think what makes Gundam 0079 so good to me is that it’s an underdog story through and through. And who doesn’t love some good underdogs? While I still don’t feel the drive to buy a model kit (yet?), I’m very glad to say that Gundam starts very strong!