Gundam: Reconguista in G (Japanese audio) - Episodes 22-26 (Completed)
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 2 (Japanese audio) - Episode 17
WONDER EGG PRIORITY (Japanese audio) - Episode 3
Reconguista is a weird one. It's not a great show but neither is it bad either - it's basically a poorly executed but enjoyable enough of a mess to watch. The biggest issues comes from its story and characters. I have rough ideas on what is going on, but there's so many factions that keep swapping stances that it gets confusing as to who is the enemy or ally. Let's take Zeta Gundam for instance - that show had at least three main factions but unlike Reconguista, it was much easier to narrow down who's who and their motivations.
While I do like the main crew of the series, the motivations are not consistent and there's no real punishment involved for all of them. Characters quickly turn on the main crew for no reason or very stupid reasons. There's not even a proper villain out of all of this either. Heck there was a random plot-twist to explain how the MC could pilot his Gundam and I found that to be pretty out of place and was never really touched upon properly or made any big impact at all. Also, certain stuff happens and then gets either forgotten or shrugged over like it was nothing for the next episode/scene to then quickly skip to something else. Not to mention the biggest real issue in general from what I have heard is that Tomino, the Gundam creator, basically wanted to make a non-violent and kid-friendly Gundam series and this was the result. I don't mind that idea as this show does feel like the 1979 Gundam at times with its humour and tone, but I do think it could have at least taken some ideas from Zeta to make it more interesting.
That being said, the battle scenes were pretty good and some of the characters were again pretty interesting enough to watch as they go along. The pacing is certainly rushed but it did not bore me either. The art style is great and the animation is a frustrating one because the show is mostly 2D which is very impressive given the year the show came out but at the same time it keeps shifting from low-res MEGALOBOX style to proper high-res with the drawings so it feels incomplete or rushed at parts. There's also some weird editing here and there. Music is pretty good for Gundam standards though I keep thinking of that ZA WARUDO scene from JoJo Part 3 with a lot of the orchestra for this series.
Overall, Reconguista to me is at least a 5/10. Not great, but honestly watchable and you can get some enjoyment out of it. I'm curious to see if the five-part movie series will improve on the show but from the quick glances I have seen, probably not. Ending of the show wasn't that great either.
