Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance – The Best Gundam in Years

Key Takeaways

• Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance focuses on a team of Zakus defending a Zeon base, showing the human side of war.
• The series emphasizes following orders and the personal toll of war on soldiers.
• The show offers a true front-line experience, showcasing chaos, desperation, and the terror of facing the Gundam.

The Gundam franchise is no stranger to CGI animation. They especially like to use it to render Mobile Suits and other machines or mechanical objects, like weapons or aircraft. However, they rarely use CGI animation on the characters and the landscapes/backgrounds. The last time they rendered everything in CGI was with a 2004 mini-series called Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO, and the result was rather disappointing.

That’s why when the news about a new fully CGI series called Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance came up, the fans were rather skeptical of it. Sure, the fact that it would be made with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 was encouraging news, but still, let’s just say that excitement was not in the air. And then Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance came out on Netflix and it turned out to be the best Gundam series in years.

A Human Story

Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is a story about a team of Zakus called the Red Wolf Squadron as they try to defend a newly established Zeon base in Eastern Europe. However, things proved to be harder than they thought when the Federation’s new type of Mobile Suit, known as Gundam, entered the fray. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that they are now the ones who are being hunted. The wolves have become the prey.

The first episode of Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance establishes that underneath the fancy aircraft and the state-of-the-art mobile suits, this is a story about the brutality of war, told from the perspective of those fighting right in the middle of the firestorm. That’s why at its core, this is a story about humans. It’s about people who fight to gain their freedom against people who try to defend their homeland.

Shut up and Follow Your Orders

Most Gundam series and movies set in the Universal Timeline often look at the bigger picture, with stories that focus on key figures from both sides that can change the tide of war. Meanwhile, Requiem for Vengeance is a highly personal story. It focuses solely on the members of the Red Wolf Squadron, particularly its leader, Iria Solari. While Iria and her squadron deeply resonated with the idea of a Principality of Zeon that is free from the tyrannical hands of the Earth Federation Forces, there’s nothing that they want more than to go back to their old life.

The Red Wolf Squadron, like most Zeon soldiers, doesn’t like the idea of going as far as invading the Earth. In fact, they don’t even like being on Earth in the first place. “Damn gravity! I hate this planet, ” says Chubs while free-falling in his Zaku. “It’s freezing. Weather control system broken?”, asks LeSean when he sits outside with his teammates. “The cold I can live with, but I’m never gonna get used to this lousy field rations”, says Zavaleta. And yet, despite all of their complaints and hardship, they are still there, risking their life fighting on the frontlines. Why? Because they are soldiers, and they have orders to follow.

It’s Not Personal Until It Is

The characters try their best to maintain a single frame of mind. We are soldiers, and we have to follow orders. It’s nothing personal, we’re just doing their job. But as this series marvelously showcases throughout its six episodes, the moment you enter the battlefield, everything becomes personal.

When LeSean saw Chubs and Zavaleta, his brothers-in-arms, lose their lives in the hands of the ruthless Gundam, everything became personal. Forget Zeon, forget the Federation, forget the war, you just killed my brothers and I won’t stop until I take your life. That was the only thing on his mind at the time. So the cycle of bloodshed continues.

The writers, directors, animators, sound designers, and everybody involved in this project did a great job of expressing the anger and frustration experienced by the characters. We can see their dilemma, their frustration, and the pain brought upon by the senseless war that they are forced to fight. Marvelous work!

A True Front-Line Experience

As mentioned earlier, most UC Gundam series and movies tend to go for the big picture. They tell the story of the war from the perspective of key players in the conflict. That is the case in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, the Char’s Counterattack, the Mobile Suit Gundam Origin, and Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn as well, just to name a few.

The only one that truly stepped away from the big picture and focused on the struggle of the common soldiers fighting in the frontline was a miniseries called Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. It’s about Earth Federation’s small ground unit that engaged in guerilla warfare deep in the jungle of Southeast Asia. It was one of the best Gundam series ever made. In many ways, Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is the spiritual successor of the 08th MS Team, because this series also focuses on delivering a true front-line experience.

The Chaos and the Desperation

So what does a true front-line experience entail? Death, chaos, and desperation, that’s what. Both the 08th MS Team and Requiem for Vengeance perfectly capture those brutal elements of war. Take the opening scene of the Requiem for Vengeance for example.

Zeon’s ground forces are being pushed back hard by the Federation army who outnumber them significantly. Zeon’s tanks are destroyed by the Federation’s fighter aircraft while the ground troops continue to unleash suppressing fires onto the panicked invaders. Bodies drop like flies on the Zeon’s side. Explosions, muzzle blasts, and agonizing screams filled the air. Those who are not critically injured are desperately crouching behind anything that might spare them from the Federation’s bullets. It’s utter chaos!

This scene only lasts for a couple of minutes, but it successfully showcases the chaotic and brutal nature of war. Interestingly enough, the beautifully rendered CGI animation takes us back to those exhilarating urban warfare missions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Everything Goes Wrong

Another realistic depiction of what happens on the frontlines is the good ol’ Murphy’s Law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Those guns will jam, the trucks and tanks will stuck in a ditch, and the carefully crafted mission will fail. In one minute, Iria gets to enjoy a nice and wholesome afternoon with her fellow soldiers. The next minute, she frantically runs to save her life as the enemy ambushes their base. Everything certainly went wrong.

Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance does a great job of showcasing the fact that there’s nothing fun or romantic about war. The Zeon soldiers lose their lives trying to gain their freedom, while the Federation’s soldiers lose their lives trying to defend their homeland. The young and powerless die at the frontlines as the old and powerful wage war from their safe chambers.

A New Perspective

What makes Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance so fascinating is the fact that it can instill some new perspective on this old franchise, especially in the Universal Century timeline, in the span of only 6 episodes. The first one is about the true reality behind the One-Year War. The second one is about how terrifying the Gundam actually is, especially at the early stage of the war.

It’s More Than Giant Robots

The One-Year War is more than a conflict between the Zabi family against the upper echelon of the Earth Federation. It’s more than a battle between Amuro Ray and his Gundam against Char Aznable and his Zaku. It’s about regular soldiers and civilians who have to suffer and lose their lives on the frontlines. Unlike the aforementioned key figures, the soldiers in Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance will not have their names immortalized in the pages of history, but it is actually their hard work and sacrifice that enables the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon to be as powerful as they are.

“There’s a new Federation Mobile Suit out there, attacking our forces as we speak. It’s got orders to keep fighting until every one of us is wiped out. It’s got armor we can’t scratch. It’s got beam weapons that cut right through our Zaku, and it’s faster than any mobile suit out there right now.”

—Iria Solari, Episode 3

The Terror of Gundam

The original Mobile Suit Gundam has explained that the mobile suit known as “Gundam” is the most advanced mobile suit ever made. That being said, we as viewers rarely appreciate how powerful it actually is. After all, we usually see everything from the perspective of the Gundam itself. Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is the first one that properly shows how much of a menace the Gundam actually is to the Zeon soldiers. It is a walking terror. No wonder it receives the nickname the “White Devil”.

Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance represents a major shift for the Gundam Franchise. It proves that a Gundam series with full CGI anime, when done properly, can be as good as traditional 2D animation. It also proves that there are so many stories that deserve to be told even though they may not involve key characters in the franchise or may not affect the tide of war as a whole. That’s why we boldly claim that Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is the best Gundam story in years.

Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is available to stream on Netflix.