Turn A Gundam: When Tomino Last Laughed

By Crusader | Published: July 30, 2008

This is Laura Rola she is a Gundam Pilot (or what the average twat donkey calls a Meister), in fact she is the only pilot of the true good guy Gundam. Suffice to say she is not your typical Gundam pilot.

Well given how summer is a slower academic time for me I was able to slip in another series to follow for the last month. Given how IKnight loves Turn A Gundam so damn much I decided to give it a go. Turn A is quite different from your typical Gundam series and goes way off the beaten path into one more of an adventure. The adroit use of the setup allowed Turn A to escape the mold of more modern mecha series by Sunrise as there is less sexy violence through massacre after massacre and a lot less crying on the part of /m/en. The trick and the charm to Turn A is that even the moon people cannot build Gundams; every one digs them out of the dirt and takes it from there. While the moon folk can build mobile suits they look radically different from your typical humanoid MS and more like construction vehicles and tripods a la ye olde Space invaders from beyond the moon, the poor bastards are digging through dirt just like the rest of those Terran barbarians.

Yes in the far future man will have regressed back into corsets.

In the future instead of dudes with masks Sunrise will opt for guys in stunna shades.

Not the usual kind of relationship between MS pilot rivals…

I liked how from the out set all the Earthlings were in the 1930s with their air ships, biplanes, towed flak guns, vacuum tube computers, and armored cars with out an iota of futuristic technology. Then the moon people start arriving with their tripod like mobile suits to stomp on the militias who only had 1930s style equipment. Eventually though the Earthlings start digging up Kapools and Zakus to try and fight back, but despite this new power even the venerable Zaku was little match for moon people beam weapons and FLAT shields. Kapools come off worse, but nevertheless the people of Earth try and manufacture Zakus, and Kapools, however I am not sure how they could have come up with a comparable power plant. In any case the continual search for lost technology led to some oddly funny moments like when both sides found a cache of tactical nukes and the Terrans being barbarians started tossing them around. The moonites on the other hand start shooting at the guys with nukes in a quirky effort to capture said nukes. Suffice to say there was a detonation that took out one of the more likable blokes in the series.

Not nearly as silly looking as those Zeon outfits. Ah the days when men looked like men and not bisshies.

You got the touch!

BTW if you haven’t noticed yet Laura Rola is really a dude.

The war is really much of a war since the Terran Militias are so out classed that they rather hold the line and counter attack, while the moonites under Diana Counter are doing their darnest to not let things escalate. The war takes a back seat for a while as the main protagonist Laura Rola a.k.a. Loran Cehack goes on a journey with his masters Kihel Heim and Sochie Heim with some quirky characters to dig up more lost technology including the aforementioned nukes, we also get a space ship, GM, mass driver, Gallop, and more weapons for Turn A Gundam. Overall the journey to the moon and back was more enjoyable than the later battles. Mostly because the villains included some annoying fat fag who thought he was a samurai and Mary Bell. The big bad was kind of meh and silly looking because he looks just like Carrot Top. It was a rather light hearted series sans the one story about having to use cryogenics to manage the population, and is nowhere near the serious business kind of bullshit we see these days. It does feel sort of like a Ghibli-esque adventure in that it can be enjoyed by pretty much any one including those who are not mecha fans.

As to the fate of this lady it was really surprising in a good sort of way…

Surprising how the future looks just like the early 20th century/late 19th Century Earth.

I find this age disparity disturbing…

However it does give an added bonus to those familiar with some of the previous Gundams with the insertion of the most teary eyed Mobile Suit Gundam viewer ever, a more mellow Char clone, and the ascended fanboy Corin Nander. The ending was pretty family friendly and bittersweet because Sochie ended up all alone. Though the added bonus of watching Guin and Mary Bell get exiled on a Nice Boat, which made me fall out of my chair, basically became the high point of the ending montage.
All in all it’s a show more suited for those more interested in a not so serious adventure with a steam punk-ish feel who can tolerate mild levels of, sometimes humorous, mecha action (they throw missiles like grenades!), and long time Gundam fans who can accept the idea of digging up lost technology and chanting a litany of activation. Lastly being familiar with Warhammer 40K helps one come to terms the idea of just digging up a ship from the dirt in nearly working condition without much fuss. If nothing else if the idea of having big bad mechas dragging around 1930s style flak guns instead of shooting pew pew lasers sounds like an interesting sight then Turn A Gundam might be worth your while; even better if you want to see a light parody of your typical Char character that inhabits every Gundam series sans the OVAs. However if you are a fan of more traditional Gundams who needs a serious dude in a mask with pew pew laser action and brightly colored beams across your screen with some additional pretension to politics this series isn’t for you. Well I liked it and so might you.