Not so fun now is it Zeke? Now the Feddies got GMs you are so FUCKED.
So I was stuck in Virginia until Saturday for another C-School in the same ratty old barracks. At least though I finally got a hold of episode 3 of IGLOO 2 after multiple tries on a slow connection. While IGLOO will never get a grade A story it still matters little as all of them are about the best damn mecha action you will ever see in 30 minutes, the stories are simple and straight forward. This time it was about another crop of lunatics that drive guntanks as part of a penal legion. This time the fucking Zekes are on the run after the humble GM along with they mighty Type 61 with ample Big Tray and air support have been kicking Zeke ass across whole continents.
Ah the RGM-79[G] Ground Type it feels like 8th MS Team again.
No longer does the Zaku hold dominance as Feddie combined arms tactics have been kicking the shit out of the one trick pony Zeke strategy of “Send Zakus There.” While it was about the RTX-440 I was giddy at how much love the GM got, even after all this time I still have a weak spot for the workhorse of the Federation. It was fucking magical to see core fighters downing Zeke transports which hopefully full of Zekes and badly needed supplies. While Yandell maybe dead the Type 61 soldiered on and helps the new GMs reap a fearsome toll on the hated forces of the corrupt and genocidal forces of the Principality of Zeon.
I like how artillery was critical in this episode as it is about as gritty as you can get for artillery is King of the Battlefield and can knock anything dead. Things like that are all but absent in AU Gundams. That is why UC for me will remain superior to every thing AU except for G Gundam. It is rather sad to see that while Sunrise has a talented team in IGLOO, the IGLOO team along with the Pailsen Files team labor away in obscurity while Jihad-kun gets undue praise as Yandell goes unsung.
Good to see that the Type-61 is still around killing Zekes, Yandell must be happy that his old warhorse is still rolling.
So the lead this time is a technical officer (I’d just call her a warrant officer) Arleen Nazon whose beloved weapons project was scrapped after her former test pilot and lover went traitor she and her team get thrown in the brig while their funding goes away. She swears revenge and is allowed to form a penal unit to avenge her loss, it seems death likes Nazon a lot more than Yandell but it seems that Death is strong with the yuri and starts hitting on Nazon right away.
Major giggles makes a return and constantly gets shown up, at first he is derisive of the Guntank but soon he realizes the error of his ways as the RTX-440 platoon makes a dramatic breakthrough with the help of some GMs and a Big Tray strike group. No Zaku, Gouf, Dom, or any Zeke are a match for their might and they amply prove their superiority over the despicable Zekes. After taking out one Dabude Major Giggles tries to order Nazon to call off her attack but the fires of revenge were burning bright as her anguish over the untimely demise of her beloved RTX-440 program demanded satisfaction. Despite her erstwhile non-mecha lover begging for his life, Nazon loved the RTX-440 more and blew them all to hell.
Hey look no beam spam!
Death in the mean time constructed a wonderful story a out Nazon’s former non-mecha lover was actually a double agent. Certainly it seems quite possible as Major Giggles did order her to back off, but I think it was just a ploy by Death to get Nazon to give up on men so that she could have a night of her and Nazon that went on forever and ever… I have to say it worked perfectly.
Still it’s hard to put into words how awesome this episode was hopefully the screen caps will convince non- believers of how much WIN IGLOO 2 is and why UC is still better than any of that new CE crap. I hope they will have more Feddie centric IGLOO stuff somewhere down the line, certainly other things could use the same treatment, GM, Guncannon, Magellan, Salamis, and let’s not forget the big boys, Big Tray and Heavy Fork…
In the end I am going to miss this since this is probably the last dose of Real Robot I am going to get for a while since the Gundam Franchise has largely moved away from gritty killing and burning of Zekes to beam spam. Still there is hope once Gundam Unicorn arrives but that is a bit ways off, even if UC is just a faint memory these days at least there is still a team at Sunrise slaving away while their deeds largely go unsung as IGLOO 2 did not get as much love as the accursed Jesus Yamato and Jihad-kun. I liked this episode the most since it had the most combined arms mecha action of the OVA series and it was a rare treat that I can watch ovber and over again. The roster of models taking to the fight was pretty impressive, and even if IGLOO will not be remembered for being the greatest or deepest story told I did like simply because it was about the poor Feddies who died and lived only to kill Zekes, kill Zerkes, and kill more Zekes surely they would have made Halsey proud. Certainly it does reflect the fact that a person can run largely on hatred alone without having to have a shred of sympathy for the other side. As such it avoided the “Let’s All be Friends” bullshit that is spouted out these days and spoon fed to a whole generation that cannot appreciate the whole horror or war and can only see it as a place for moralistic platitudes and soap box preaching of the obvious.
Also this is clear proof that when you have a girl as the main pilot that great things can happen. While it may not tug on heart strings nor impart the treagedy that Gundam 0080 did, at least with Nazon we got the best damn combined arms slug out knock out fight that every mecha fans dream of. My only complaint was that it was not some hours longer…
Your point defense MGs only work in a box formation…Also I hope that Gaw was full of Zeke wounded and badly needed supplies, preferably medical supplies.
Our Core Fighter proves it’s superiority once again.
Zekes have piss poor aim and can’t sight their guns for shit. and how could you miss three GMs coming at you…?
Dang where are the GM Snipers?
Dabudes have broadsides made of weaksauce.
RTX-440s are here at this OK Corral, their names are Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt…
Tank platoons usually come in fours these days but I’ll take what I can get and I guess Nazon here counts as two…
I see Major Giggles is back…
The GM found it so funny that he had to ROFLMAO on Giggles’ ride.
FUCK YEAH Yuri in my IGLOO!
She is Chikane and you are Himeko in this rolepay…hell you already have the corresponding hair colors.
Well a moon shines because of the sun…
A Night of Nazon and Death that went on forever and ever…
Man this is a beautiful sight the only thing missing is the air support…
Land Battleship Squardron FUCK YEAH! Big Tray in the lead and two Heavy Forks bringing up the rear.
But seriously how did they miss that huge defensive ditch?
That one’s for ranging…
This one is for you…
Not that is MOBILE
RTX-440 literally blows the Zaku II away…
Hey look a Norris Packard wannabe…
Shot in the ass by a GM…
Shot in the balls by RTX-440…No Zaku amirte?
The GM is only here to help…
Fixed defenses are a monument to the stupidity of Zeon, what a Zeke can build a Feddie can blow up…
So many Type-61s…if only Yandell were still here to help.
For a moment like this… some people wait a lifetime…for a moment like this…
Because he is a Man of Destiny…and guess what he’s not in love with a Nina Purpleton…
Organic artillery support included!
Stupid Zeke MLRS would have sufficed…we Feddies call it Gird Square Removal System
Now you see them…
Now you don’t…it’s so…magical.
Magella Attack Tanks eh?
Feel the Fires of Retribution Zeke scum! These are the fires that cleanse your souls of your impudence and stupidity. ZEUS AKBAR!
I love the smell of burnt Zeke in the morning…
The Magella Attack Tank is not match for the RTX-440′s might.
Much more effective than a burning bag of dog shit…
How did you like them Valentine’s chocolate motherfucker?
Steven Hawking helped make the the RTX-440 possible, he even voiced the computer…
That is some GLOMP…
And then the Zaku I pilot shat himself…
He’s a Black one eyed Scoittish Cyclops…
Order now and you get this free Itano Circus!
Ima anata no koe ga kikoeru
“Koko ni oide” to
Samishisa ni makesouna watashi ni
Ima anata no sugata ga mieru
Aruite kuru
Me wo tojite matte iru watashi ni
Kinou made namida de kumotteta
Kokora wa ima…
The shaft is ray sheilded so you will have to use proton torpedoes…
Nazon trust me…
Oh they brought three Magella Attack Tanks…
This one is for Yandell.
Hey it’s Robosaurus…
Best Monster Tank Rally EVAR!
Always two there are…
Too Fast, Too Furious, Too Weeabo…
Dom Jedi…?
More lIke Dom the Star Wars Kid…
Here have a can…
…of WHUPASS.
Damn Zekes only coming out when the RTX-440 is wrecked…
Woah there was a big RED BUTTON on this thing?
Arleen will not let him kill her softly with that song.
Zekes have trouble finding the proper words to beg for their lives…
ZEUS AKBAR!
For getting her beloved Nazon to leave her mortal coil I guess that makes Death the Winner of IGLOO 2.
The best thing about episode was the SCALE.
17 Comments
So much awesome. It was even better than that post-Odessa scene in MS Igloo 1 where all the Zeke pods and J-type Zakus were getting picked off in orbit by GM and Ball teams. The Zudahs rescuing some were a Zeon propaganda ministry fabrication.
I should have expected you to interpret Death as a yuri servant of the underworld, and I will not dispute this interpretation. Nazon is truly a Daughter of Hades now.
Here’s hoping for a second EFSF MS Igloo, as you say there are so many things that need delicious CG action love. Any sort of GM, the Guncannon MP, GM snipers, or maybe fighter craft like the Saberfish or Toriesu (not sure how that last one is supposed to be romanized.)
The combined tactics, the GMs and Type 61s, the really cool advanced Guntank concept, the music in that opening scene. This episode, let me count the ways I love thee…
There is a show called MS IGLOO ?
As you say story’s not IGLOO‘s strong point (and why should it be?) but I did think this episode’s basic plot was an improvement on the previous two, and I liked how it was tied into funding and weapons development at the same time. Very IGLOO. And the animators broke out all the best toys for the final episode — gotta love the land battleships.
It’s a sad thought that this might be the last dose of grittier Gundam we get for a while. Like ExecutiveOtaku, I’d like to see three more episodes about the Federation. The Federation experience in space hasn’t been covered yet (except, I suppose, by Mobile Suit Gundam . . .).
An improved version of the Guntank? Heck the version Hayato Kobayashi piloted was nasty in the Fed vs Zeon DX arcade game…
The scenario reminds me a lot of a Battletech game I once played, offboard artillery and air strikes, followed by tanks in defilade. The opposing player (me) never stood a chance…
Gundam UC (which I haven’t read) gives me hope, but remember that by the mid-90s UC, there was stuff such as I-fields, psychoframes, bits and fin funnels, not to mention mobile suits which could dock with missile spamming mobile armors (Plan 303E Deep Striker and GP03 Dendrobium Orchis). So, not much chance there of Real Robot on Real Robot action, unless everyone gets the same good stuff.
@ Kherubim
You should watch the original Gundam (or the compilation movies), 0080, and 08th MS Team. Especially that last one. I’ll agree that I’m not such a big fan of the later UC stuff, but the One Year War from the original series, MS Igloo, and 08th MS Team is great and not all riced out with super high technology. 0083 is like this too, except for the last two episodes when you have the aforementioned Dendrobium GP03, though at least it has an equal in the Nieu Ziel to fight with. Zeta, which is after 0083, starts down the road to the systems you mentioned, but is still very enjoyable on a technology level. Once you get to Char’s Counterattack (UC 0093) and later it starts to get to the stuff you mentioned. That’s why I’m suspicious of the Gundam Unicorn series being planned.
All that said, watching the entire UC timeline it is cool to see how all these systems developed over time instead of just appearing or evolving in a vacuum.
I have to hand it to Major Giggles (I don’t know his name). Despite looking bad in sending heroes to death, he manages to rally his troops somewhat effectively.
Awesome. Zeon scum got what they deserved.
I’ve always been a fan of the idea of land battleships. Yes yes, any modern military would make mince meat of them with precision bombing or art, but you have to admit seeing a tank the size of a godamn skyscraper coming at you guns blazing would be enough to make any soldiers hit the brown note.
Yeah finally! Mang I waited long for this too. While I don’t share your absolute antipathy for AE Gundam shows, this too is my preferred drink. Story, shmory, even with the lolwtf Shinigami I’d love this. Even with the Shinigami ex machina…
Mang, this series is tooo short. I want Jaburo dammit.
@ExecutiveOtaku
Indeed there was so much to love in this episode. I found it incredibly satisfying how after watching the Feddies getting slaughtered by Zakus and Zekes that now it was their turn to get sweet revenge. I was not disappointed at how creatively the Zekes were killed. When thing are even the Zeke cannot win in a conventional setting.
Personally I would like one on the GM and Big Tray, but that is just me.
@random passing dude
It’s a little known thing that they showed in the Bandai Museum and then released on DVD. Still it is the most recent thing UC related in our time.
@IKnight
I agree that overall it was better and very IGLOO it was very simple and as a result it ain’t going to be the best short story I have ever seen. At the very least there were no ass pulls or sudden upgrades that came out of no where as they took the extra step of animating ammo expenditure…
By far this was the one episode with the most variety in terms of weapons rolled out. I hope that there will be another round of Gritty Gundam (which usually means absence of Gundams) with the Feddie side of their weapons programs. Certainly it seems that in the end the Feddies were better at it…as they took the long view and took logistics into consideration.
Land Battleships are impractical weapons but still it would be a cool sight to see. If only the 4th Land Battleship Squadron crossed the Zekes T…
@Kherubim
As ExecutiveOtakus said UC is well worth watching as it has more gritty elements than most of AU combined. The tech levels are generally more even even in Gundam 0083 Kou and Gato were evenly matched and it wasn’t about beam spam. Bits and psychoframes were OP but at least both Feddies and Zekes had them. Again it was after 0083 in the continuity that things kinda went towards what they are now. 0080, 0083, and 8th MS Team were a short lived return to the real robot side of things, and the spirit of those times has at least found it’s latest expression in IGLOO 2.
@Dorne
Indeed Colmatta is a name that hardly does justice to his role as the over the top camp comedian that I have dubbed Major Giggles. In the end he is living part of the dream in that he commands so many weapons to kill Zekes, kill Zekes, and kill more Zekes.
@manwiththemachinegun
Indeed the Zekes finally got what was long coming to them after IGLOO 2 eps 1-2 now that things are moreorless even it is their turn to be hemmed in and wiped out like the colony dropping and colony gassing scum that they are.
The concept for Big Tray and Heavy Fork is quite impractical, but there was always something about BIG HUGE weapons that dwarfed everything that made the idea so very cool. Sadly the propulsion technology just never came about. Closest humans ever got were the Maus and Ratte, both of which wasted valuable resources for the Third Reich.
@ghostlightning
So it ends and on a very high note, Here is hoping for more IGLOO for the Feddies, and may you get your Jaburo too. Though I would like to see that feat of engineering that could have built such a base…
C-School barracks that sounds like Navy talk are you in the service?
“Order now and you get this free Itano Circus!”
ZOMG!!!! That’s it!!! Imma watching this series!!!
BTW…Yuri undertones in a U.C. Gundam? O_o
@Executive Otaku and Crusader: Yep, I like the early UC (OYW to Gryps) stuff, but sadly I haven’t watched the short run UC epics you recommended (do we get HOT BURNING PASSION, Hiyama style in 8th Team?)
Zeta Gundam is one of my favorites (not Real Robot enough, though) and was a turning point when both the Feddies/A.E.U.G and the Zeons/Titans/Axis started to use Newtypes as weapons. The A.E.U.G. and the Titans were also relatively equal (the final shootout of Z-Gundam/Hyaku-Shiki/Gundam MkII vs The-O/Quebeley/Pallas Athene), and it seems that the A.E.U.G aces routinely got their asses handed to them in the movie trilogy.
@grss1982: Yuri-overtones in UC Gundam? It’s about bloody time…
BTW…juts had alook over at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_MS_IGLOO
Arleen Nazon — Kikuko Inoue
Death deity — Kikuko Inoue
No wonder this show is full AWESOME. Her mere presence alone carries this show!!!!
@Alex
Yeah don’t get out until 2010.
@grss1982
Glad you watched it. Kikuko Inoue was just darling in both her roles though it seems oddly interesting that she was kind of flirting with herself. No wonder why Death was so attracted to Nazon…compatibility was incredibly high.
@Kherubim
You will be right at home when watching 0080, 0083, and 8th MS Team. No newtypes, no funnels, and both sides are more or less evenly matched.
To me it always seemed, the further Gundam went away from Earth, the less interesting it became. I couldn’t care less about V-Gundam or F91. Even though the final OYW battles took place in Zeon space, it still felt grounded to the human condition. Char’s Counterattack was great, because even though it had newtypes etc, it still felt grounded to the origional Earth vs. Colonies conflict that started way back in 0079. You could see Zeon reduced from a mighty force, to essentially a rogue high-tech fleet with the destruction of Earth in mind (for a ‘noble’ cause of course).
@manwiththemachinegun
Well I suppose things might change for once when Jihad-kun and his cronies start fighting against the Gundam SEED flying whales…
Gundam seems to be eternally contained within the Sol System with Jupiter being the farthest line of human advance. V-Gundam was declared a bastard by Tomino and F91 was supposed to get a full series IIRC, perhaps if things had gone differently they would have been more to your liking.
where do you find the sub version??? i can’t find it,oh i agree that uc79-80 is the best time
One Trackback
[...] idea that this kind of show represents the best of Gundam (action?) has its supporters (crusader [...]