After the completion of Char's Counterattack, which was believed to be the final chapter in the Gundam saga, fans were thristy for more. Creator Yoshiyuki Tomino decided to move away from the original cast of characters and conflicts, and create a new generation for the Gundam saga. Thus Gundam F91 was born. F91 was originally planned to be a series, but it was instead to be used as a pilot to a series. However, the movie didn't do as well as Sunrise had expected and the story was instead continued in a manga series written my Tomino himself called Crossbone Gundam.
Gundam F91 takes place in the year U.C. 0123, 30 years after Char's rebellion against Earth. On the peaceful colony of Frontier IV, a force known as the Crossbone Vanguard begins a full scale invasion, wishing to strong arm the colony from the Federation, and establish the capital for their future empire. Meanwhile on the colony, a young girl named Cecily is kidnapped by the Crossbone Vanguard. As it turns out, Cecily is heir to the idealistic Ronah family, and her enstranged father and charismatic grandfather are the rulers of this new army. They tell her of thier dream of establishing an aristocracy, and how noble rule is needed for mankind to live on. She begins her training as a mobile suit pilot under a young pilot named Zabine Chareaux. Meanwhile, Cecily's best friend, Seabook Arno, is fighting to survive the chaos on the colony, and ends up on a ship called the Space Ark under the hotheaded Captain Cosmo. Seabook and his friends begin assembling a prototype mobile suit designed by Seabook's mother called the F91. Since it resembles the legendary Gundams of past conflicts, it is given the codename Gundam F91. The F91 uses a biocomputer, practically giving the suit a mind of it's own. Since Seabook's mother programmed it, and due to the fact that he studies engineering, Seabook works on piloting the F91 and prepares to take on the Crossbone Vanguard.
The story in this movie is decent, it's not going to win any awards. For starters, it bears many resemblances to previous Gundam stories. For example, when Seabook and his pals get on the Space Ark, they have war orphans, a mother figure, an a charismatic captain figure. Gee sounds kinda like MSG doesn't it? Also, parts of it seem to take elements from Star Wars. For example, Cecily's father, Karozo Ronah, wears an iron mask. Sound familiar? Thought so. The movie is filled with small stuff like this that just bothers me. The storyline is also set at a gueling pace, and sometimes while you are watching, you end up thinking you missed something
The animation in this movie is perfect. I could watch this movie many times over and over just for the eye candy. The animation really shines the the F91 uses "after images" or fake apparitions of itself as it moves to trick the enemy. When the F91 shows up in battle, prepare for a visual feast for the eyes. Speaking of the F91, it is one of the most well designed suits in all of Gundam in my opinion. The thing looks great and is full of surprises. The other mobile suits look amazing as well. The Feddie Jaegans and the Crossbone Vanguard mobile suits look fantastic. The battle scenes are also intense, and are extremely fun to watch as well. Gundam F91's best feature is easily the gorgeous visuals, a delicious treat for mecha heads such as myself.
Overall I found this movie to be somewhat of a disappointment. While the movie is nicely presented, the storyline and characters are overall poorly developed. If this had been a series, it could have been great. The thing about Char's Counterattack was that we already had characters developed in previous stories, and the ones that were new we had a good feel for early on. I didn't get that feeling from this one. Usually when someone died in Tomino's previous Gundam tales, it was a powerful moment. When someone died in F91, I really didn't care. Characters would come in, and quickly be killed off. There was no time for the viewer to become attached to them at all, so when or if they died, it was no big deal, despite how elaborate their death may have been. This is not a Gundam essential, but if you are a die-hard fan of the Gundam saga, it is worth seeing. I have heard great things about the manga that continues the story, so if you plan on reading them, see this first. To truely enjoy it you have to be a fan, otherwise I wouldn't recommend watching it.
~THe uNKNoWN BeaT~