I do not know about y'all but I am tireddddd. By the time you read this it will be March and so much has happened in between. TPO birthday will be arriving when I first created this online community and persona of myself surrounding Anime, manga, and Japanese culture. But to be honest with everyone, I have so many interest such as traveling, food, films, art, diys, and beauty. I would like to share other parts of myself beyond my Snapchat. So sooner than later the new features I created on this site will be made available to my readers to share this adult, after college journey with me since it has been two years since I graduated and have been working full-time doing virtual conventions and convention management.
Also big news me and my puppy son have moved by now as well. So you may receive more anime commentaries from boredom lol.
Back in January I watched this movie with my brother. I will say I slightly liked this installment of Gundam (which is rare).
Side note: He loved his gundam sweatshirt I bought her from Crunchyroll for Christmas! (hand me my best kid sister award now!)
But anyways, I really liked this installment. It was a compilation of a two part series and edited into a movie. Which I appreciated because I find many Gundam series to be dry, long, and just an overall dragged out plotline that is a continuation from the previous installments or a side battle OVA in a different setting of space in the same timeline at other installments.
This particular movie is the compilation of season 1 of Thunderbolt (2016). So I still have to watch the second movie, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower (2017) for the final conclusion.
During the One Year War (the first series reference) The Earth Federation and Zeon are battling within the Thunderbolt Sector, which is a shoal zone near the former Colony, Side 4. The Federation during their first battle was able to infiltrate Zeon's sniper field. Please keep in mind the technology difference between the two sides. The Feds had Gundams and the Zeons had generic mobile suits.
The pilot who was able to make the infiltration successful was Lo Fleming. I must admit he was fineeeeee. Plus he loves jazz music too. It was evident that he does have daddy issues because he found his father dead in his office when Lo was a teenager. It can be assumed that his father committed suicide to rid himself of the guilt of war.
What is so special about Lo, is that he is able to pilot the latest Gundam prototype.
He is also childhood friends and dating the captain of his ship, Claudia Peer. She did not have much of a backstory beyond the fact that they were friends at the military academy and apparently has some type of privilege because of her age and or beauty (misogyny is a bitch) but also because of who her father is, as why she is the captain of this mission.
She also was overcome by guilt and became to cope with the use of drugs during the war. The guilt began to get heavier when she was literally delivered a new crew of men which were actually children that can be assumed to be between the ages of 14 and 17-years-old to pilot the feds mobile suits in the final battle.
On the opposing side, the Zeons, Daryl, the one that rubbed Lo the wrong way (Lo was not able to bet him although Daryl was handicapped).
This Zeon unit in particular was formed by handicapped and injured veterans, who were provided prosthetics and different handicap access in order to pilot mobile suits to participate in the war. This division was known as the Zeon's Living Dead. Daryl was a grade-A sniper commander who lost his legs in a previous battle on Earth in traditional ground combat.
When Daryl is in his second battle with Lo, he loses his right arm. Now I feel as if he was cheated his left because his commander instructed that his left be removed so he could pilot a special mobile suit, the MS-06R Zaku Type (Reuse "P" Device). The suit was designed to use 4 input plugs which happen to be 4 body limbs, 2 arms and 2 legs. Basically turning Daryl into a human USB plug for the Zaku.
Now Daryl is not necessarily fighting for Zeon alone. He is fighting for his fallen troops, the woman he loves (who cut off his arm), and respect (because Lo disrespected him as a handicapped person in general and is very discriminatory).
Although Lo and Daryl, have one thing in common, their love for music and how it both calms and prepares them for battle.