Victory Gundam

[MidnightFenrir]

I think, out of all the gundam series, victory gundam is easily the most gritty and realistic in feel. That being said, Shakti irritates the hell out of me.

[DuelGundam2099]

Best of the Universal Century and my second favorite gundam series, 'nough said. I can understand Tomino hated it because of his sheer depression and rough times while this series was made, but to me this is as close as a real robot anime has ever gotten to being perfect (literally, just change the background music to something more "fitting" and it is fixed). Such an overlooked work, I'd call it my favorite of Tomino's works, but Ideon: Be Invoked wins that title.

[Destiny_Gundam]

I hated how it was dark only for the sake of being dark. It's my 2nd least favourite Gundam series. That said, it manages to beat out Zeta Gundam because the characters in Victory were actually likable. They actually got along and you can feel the comradery. I genuinely felt awful when one of them got killed.

[ShadowCell]

V had this weird bipolar nature where it could have Uso running around a Zanscare base buck-naked after being forced to take a bath with a hot woman as some kind of test of his Newtype aptitude (as they called it back then, i'm sure) and he bites her breast to escape and the Zanscares steal his underwear and then there's a dog and motorcycle battleships and stuff, and yet it's the same show with the Shrike team and Zanscare squishing villages under their giant wheels of rage and the guillotine and Katejina and Uso's mother's end and the piles of dead characters, seemingly introduced for no other reason than to die, and a superweapon that uses people for fuel

V is just a bizarre experience. sometimes it's pretty good, other times it's just desensitizing. it's clearly the product of a man with some issues. i don't think there's ever been a Gundam show with as much spite written into it as Victory.

it's worth a watch, but as often as not it is an ordeal.

[MidnightFenrir]

hahahahahaha the motorad battleships make me laugh so hard. however maybe i should have been more specific; the mobile suit combat is what i find to be extremely well done. rather then uso doing a jesus yamato, a tactical situation is depicted.

[Arbiter GUNDAM]

Well that's because Lord Yamato had yet to appear!

[Sume Gai]

I consider Uso a very technical fighter among Gundam protagonists. While most MS pilots treat their machines as large people with various weapons stuck on, Uso uses his Gundam as a machine doing things a person can't do.

Admittedly I'm pulling this from somewhat distant memory but I recall Uso using the parts separation and twisting his machine's head and limbs in unusual fashions to surprise his foes.

[ShadowCell]

yeah, the parts-swapping fake-outs and stuff that Shinn did to beat Kira in DESTINY had their source in Uso's shenanigans with the Victory/V2's separability. if i'm not mistaken, that's the trick he uses to finally get rid of Fuala, just spamming a bunch of V2 parts.

Uso fighting is generally pretty fun to watch. one of V's redeeming features.

[Shinji103]

Say what you will about V, but it's one of my favorite Gundams, right up there with Z and X. And personally I think the switching between the lighthearted and the grim scenes was pretty well done. Plus, this show had some dang good battle choreography.

On a related note to what Shadowcell said above, one of the Strike Gundam's poses from the various Gundam SEED artworks is also taken from V; in one of the early "looking for Shakti in space" episodes, Usso's Victory Gundam pulls the exact same pose that we see in one of the Strike's artwork poses ten years later. ^^b

[Apsalas]

Loved V for all its well paced fights and sad moments. Just have to go with all the death and more death....and well more death for the rewards of the V2 wings of light and Uso (even at 13) being one of the best Gundam heroes.

[Destiny_Gundam]

Victory is definitely worth a watch. However it's not something I feel the need to ever watch again, and I've seen Zeta twice.

[schwarz ritter]

I personally don't like Victory, although I do commend it for its mechs.

I don't really care for most characters, other than Uso, Katejina (yes, the psychotic bastard. I think ShadowCell might understand why, lol), and Connie Francis. I find the rest annoying and well...bland. Especially Shakti. Oh dear...Shakti...

But hey, its Universal Century. Its something you MUST watch if you really want to understand the franchise. And its also worth seeing some of Uso's moments of coolness as well.

[tHeWasTeDYouTh]

Victory Gundam is one of my favorite Gundam series

I actually love all the post CCA Gundam series like F91: Formula Wars 0122(game and manga), F91(movie) and Victory

I actually love the music from Victory gundam, have been looking for it for a long time

[Kratos]

I'm not a big fan of Victory, either; I found its "grittiness" and obsession with "realism" to be bleak to the point of blandness. Its casualty list was added to so regularly that it became difficult to feel anything for them, and none of the regular cast struck much of a chord with me.

Then again, I don't like most of the Tomino-helmed productions; the only two that I outright enjoy are MSG and Turn-A, and I'm back and forth on Zeta. The others...well, I'm not so hot on them, so maybe I'm just not the audience for a series like Victory Gundam.

I would, however, dispute the notion that watching Victory is somehow integral to understanding the franchise. It may have just been a while since I watched it last, but I recall it being pretty standalone, and most of the ideas it presented being present in other series.

[schwarz ritter]

I'm not a big fan of Victory, either; I found its "grittiness" and obsession with "realism" to be bleak to the point of blandness. Its casualty list was added to so regularly that it became difficult to feel anything for them, and none of the regular cast struck much of a chord with me.

Then again, I don't like most of the Tomino-helmed productions; the only two that I outright enjoy are MSG and Turn-A, and I'm back and forth on Zeta. The others...well, I'm not so hot on them, so maybe I'm just not the audience for a series like Victory Gundam.

I would, however, dispute the notion that watching Victory is somehow integral to understanding the franchise. It may have just been a while since I watched it last, but I recall it being pretty standalone, and most of the ideas it presented being present in other series.

You pretty much said what's my personal opinion of Tomino's works, lol. Cheers.

My personal favorite Shrike is Connie (is it spelled right? There's a whole lot bunch of spellings out there, I dunno which one's the "official" spelling). How about you, guys?

[HellCat]

I'm watching Victory for the first time finally and 6 episodes in I'm enjoying it. For some reason, all the tragedy thus far makes sense and I like ideas like 'the enemy commander who is completely ruthless but will kill his subordinates for being dicks and freaks out when he realises the Gundam is piloted by a child'. Kind of a nice contrast to all the 'I'm in this for myself and will kill friend and foe alike' of earlier UC stories. Speaking of, it's interesting to see the mythical status the Gundam form has earned at this point.

[ydawg314]

I am a big fan of this series.
First of all I loved the mech designs. Sure some were a little weird but how awesome is the idea of using propeller shields for flight on earth? Also the action was probably some of the best in gundam. I personally liked most of the characters. I know this because anytime one of them died I felt bad. I also loved the ost. It added just enough dramatic feel when necessary.

That said:
I don't think i will ever understand the character development Katejina went through.

Spoiler

That and Why was Chronical even in it? He was a cool character who really did nothing.

Tangents:

Spoiler

why did they have to make usso's mother's head come off like that........?
Also did any of the newtype people powering the super weapon mind f*** thing make it?
Lastly how epic were the last two episodes?

[schwarz ritter]

I've heard Tomino was trying to destroy the franchise with this series. Seriously, I heard that once, somewhere...

But of course, they must've been just trolling, so don't listen (take my posts too seriously) to me

[Kratos]

I've heard he tried to do that with ZZ. Tomino's attempts at self-sabotage are probably just rumours, but it's pretty well-documented that he was going through a depression at the time he was directing Victory, which makes a bit more sense.

[kayone73]

Good show, very depressing, I just found it hard to watch when the drama go too weight-y, in combination with the rather simplistic character and mecha designs, neither of which visually appealed to me.