i guess i'm a gundam fan now

A friend recently convinced me to check out the Mobile Suit Gundam series, and it seems to be a great time to do so as there is a highly anticipated movie coming out soon, the second in a trilogy. We got to go see the first movie at a re-showing in a major cinema here, and I had an awesome time. I was concerned that it would be quite childish or heavy on the anime tropes (I really cannot stand most anime TV shows, even if the story is great it often comes with a buttload of cringe), but it ended up being way more compelling than I thought.

The movie had some great personal drama, a super interesting world, and felt really grounded for a sci-fi franchise about robots with laser swords. Our protagonist being a leader of a guerrilla faction performing acts of terror against a bureaucratic state was not at all what I expected, nor did I expect to see him facing the consequences of his actions in very direct and visceral ways.

And I have to say it, the giant robots fighting with laser swords was awesome. The ten-year old boy that still lives in my brain stem somewhere was absolutely thrilled during every action sequence, which I hear there are way more of to come in the upcoming releases.

After the movie I was chatting with the new friends that I went to go see it with and they mentioned that a big part of the fun was that now I could purchase and build the plastic model kits for my favourite mobile suit (turns out they aren't all called Gundams, as I was informed after making the same mistake as your grandma that calls every game console a Nintendo). I brushed this off to start with. I'm not exactly anti-materialistic but I do draw the line at figurines that sit on a shelf or in a drawer, taking up space and collecting dust.

However, that pesky boy in the brain stem was whispering away and I found myself on hobby store sites looking up Messer Type-F01 model kits and the required tools to get building. I justified it to myself as being more than just a figurine, you have to sit and focus to put them together, which is a kind of pastime I've always found very satisfying.

I'm excited to jump into this world more, I've already started watching the compilation movies for the original series and am excitedly checking the mail each day for my first model kit. Most of all I'm excited to have a new interest, to share with new and interesting people.

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