Monday, February 13, 2017

My Life in Fandom: Gundamofficial's Free Streaming of "Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt"

I love Mobile Suit Gundam, and have for years. I like most of the franchise, especially the core of it: the Universal Century timeline. So, when I got a chance to watch Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt last year I took it. I had to resort to much the same sort of thing I do to watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes, so eventually I knew fan-hosted sources would get nuked for legal reasons. Then I saw that the official Gundam channel on YouTube began putting up playlists for various Gundam series and movies (seasons 1 and 2 of Iron-Blooded Orphans are there), and eventually Thunderbolt would get there.

That day has come.

The catch is that this is available for a limited time.

This isn't the first time they've done this. The original series compilation movies got this treatment, and they are not available on the channel now. I expect this thing with Thunderbolt to go the same way. That said, this is a good installment to the franchise and is worth seeing. It's not a deviation from the brand's general identity--heroes and bastards on both sides, leadership on both sides are utter shits, lots of tragedy, victory and survival are not synonymous, etc.--but it does change up the formula enough to refresh it. This side-story stands alone; the tie-in to the main sequence at the end is an epilogue that you can skip without losing anything.

Knock yourselves out, folks.

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