My thoughts on this series as a whole are that it clearly takes some very heavy cues from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. If you've read the books and seen this series the parallels are inescapable. In saying that this series does not follow so closely that it is in any way unwatchable or even unenjoyable in its own right.
This series takes place some three hundred years in the future, and the world is split mostly into three large factions. North and South Americas, Europe and Africa and Asia. I think that Japan is neutral in this particular show, and I can't remember which side Australia is with. There is a ring of solar satellites around the Earth and three space elevators. Each faction controls the power output from a third of the solar ring, and one elevator each.
With the shift from fossil fuels to solar energy the countries whose economy is entirely based on oil have collapsed, and war broke out. That particular war is over, but the three factions still see each other in the way North America sees North Korea.
Two hundred years prior to this series ( one hundred years from now for those keeping score) some scientist dude of some renown goes missing with a bunch of other scientists, and no one really seems to question it at the time. Two hundred years later wars are fought with solar powered giant robots (of course). Enter the Gundams. The Gundams are different than the other mobile suits in their power systems. They don't go into the science of it, but it seems to give the Gundams longer run times, make them capable of using more force, and have a side effect that jams communications. They come in, trash the unveiling of a new mobile suit model, and announce to the world that they are there to end war. They then spend the next several months stepping in to armed conflicts, wrecking the place, and then disappearing.
The side of the Gundams seems to rely fairly heavily on predictive capabilities of their computer system built just for that task as well as their tacticians.
This is a pretty big departure from any Gundam series I've seen prior to this one as they've all had very similar themes of man colonizing space, subjugating the space-bound, and the space-bound revolting. This time around there is virtually no one living in space. It's refreshing.
Spoilers after this point. Just saying.
Four months or so into their campaign of ending war with violence, the Gundams are captured by a semi-unified effort of all three earth-bound factions. Then three new Gundams show up and save the day. Huzzah! The new pilots meet with the old crew and proceed to threaten, make out with, and be idolized by the support staff of the Gundams. They then say that they're an independent operation, and begin a campaign that doesn't seem to acknowledge the difference between military and civilian. As far as the Earth is concerned the seven Gundams are all on the same side, though. So everyone is hunting everyone else. Hi-jinx ensue.
A recurring warmonger just offed two of the three pilots of the new Gundams crippled the third, and was accidentally driven off by our emotionally devoid young protagonist who was actually hunting the three, himself.
That takes us pretty well current. I expect to keep watching this series as it is good enough to keep my interest.
This is Dave, and this has been your virtual reality check.
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