Gundam Unicorn is, to me, the absolute peak of what Gundam has to offer as a franchise. It is an entry that serves as not only an expansion on but also a culmination of everything that his been presented thus far, whether it be UC Gundam or any of the various AU series. Unicorn has all the markings of a passion project; it's a series where it feels as if the staff decded to challenge themselves to do the best they could. The succeeded; they stepped up to bat, and they delivered a product that ended up catching me off guard. Gundam Unicorn shattered my expectations, which comes as a shock given how high they'd already been going into it. But why?

The first, and simplest, thing to talk about would be the combat. A lot of Gundam series throughout the years have had absolutely fantastic fights, but one thing that's been inevitable for the most part is that they'll occasionally feel cheesy. Unicorn has none of that, with fights that feel grounded and heavy. The emphasis placed on the visuals and sound effects makes each hit feel like it has weight behind it. The beams in this series have such a distinctly powerful sound, giving the impression of overwhelming power even if one were to look away from the screen. When a mobile suit is struck, it'll have impact marks, the viewer can easily see what's going on and what effect each and every action taken by the pilots has in the grand scheme of the fight. One particularly memorable moment is when one of the characters plunges their beam saber into a random goon's cockpit. It was a moment that was beautifully visceral and brutal, such that I found myself reeling back at the kind of weight even a simple, inconsequential thing like that could have.

This, of course, is backed by some absolutely phenomenal mobile suits. The titular Unicorn Gundam is one that I found somewhat uninspired in the beginning; despite this, the way that it is used and presented throughout the series resulted in me developing something of a fondness for it. Its basic design ends up complimenting it, rather than being visually detrimental as I'd first thought. Everything else looks good as well, with there being evident effort put in to making even the nameless mooks have good-looking, charming mobile suits. Kshatriya, one of the other featured suits, finds a number of ways to make up with badassery what it lacks in beauty. Realistically, there are as many ways to talk about all the great suits and their uses as there are to talk about the characters who pilot them.

Which, of course, opens the door to talk about the incredibly amazing cast of characters. I fully expected myself to end up disliking Banagher Links, Unicorn's protagonist, but was caught way off guard. He ended up being a highly relatable character, and one who embodied all of the ideals that I've come to appreciate the most throughout my experience with Gundam as a franchise. His interaction with the other characters all felt genuine, written in such a way that they came across as natural progression for each participant rather than just something shoehorned in because it was necessary. Banagher leaves an impression on every character that he interacts with, and the way that all of these impressions eventually come together in the film's climax felt incredible. There was a tangibly charming element to the fact that these relationships felt so natural and that, accordingly, the way they all came together in the end felt natural as well.

The greatest highlight of Unicorn is the way in which it presents its themes. A large part of the appeal of the Gundam franchise is that its portrayal of war feels accurate; most of the time, there isn't really a good or a bad, a right or a wrong. It's, more often than not, a clash of ideals, with two sides trading losses until one has had enough. People on either side lose loved ones, vow revenge, fight harder for the people they've lost, creating a vicious circle. Nothing ever changes, and eventually, the purpose that they even fought for in the first place is lost amidst that. These aspects all come into play in Unicorn and are even at the forefront of some characters' presentation. However, that's not the central theme of Unicorn. Far from it, in fact. Unicorn's central theme is hope; the idea that we need to believe in the potential - the possibility - of humankind and entrust ourselves and our futures to that. Unicorn is a series that disparages the conflicts so defining of the franchise for something more concrete and more worthwhile, for something that should resonate strongly with anyone.

These things all come together in order to create nothing short of a masterpiece. Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is by any and all means a culmination and a near-perfected form of everything that Gundam has been trying to build upon and put on display since the late 70s. If there is ever any one Gundam show that someone should watch, if they were to watch only one in their entire life, I could not recommend anything other than Unicorn.

Good luck keeping away from the rest afterwards.