I don’t have as much to say about Tomino in this post, so lets discuss some meta elements. Even if they came out of nowhere, I am really glad these two Gundam Reconguista films appeared legally on YouTube. Specifically, the Gundam Info channel. Why? I am honestly running out of content that I can immediately talk about. Watching a lot of shows to prepare for a special month of anime content ahead of time takes a lot of work. Do you know what its like to do it for two special months that are only separated by two months? Yeah…I can’t believe that I am actually doing this. Without the appearance of a lot anime movies on various anime streaming services, I would have to pull out some other things to keep the content going until then. Thank you for these beautiful Tomino films to check out, Sunrise. Let’s discuss the second film now.
The oddly chosen title of Bellri’s Fierce Charge takes place immediately after the first film’s fight in space. That combat moment with Bellri killing his former teacher Dellensen still rings in his mind as he and many other people fall into the Earth’s atmosphere in a fight for survival. Bellri still saves the life of the self-named genius Klim Mick regardless and luckily, the Megafauna and its entire mecha battle contingent land around the same area. This was the moment that shaped Bellri’s point of view. Before, he was trying to escape back to the Capital Tower. While that is going to happen in the future plot wise, Bellri Zenam, Noredo Nug, and Rairaiya Monday steal themselves with the new goal of stopping the Capital Army’s technological expansion and army build up against Ameria and all other forces from Earth and Space to stop the next tragedy from occurring.
If there is a main plot or thought behind Bellri’s Charge, it’s to bring out how complex the situation in Reconguista in G really is. The first happens with the meeting between Bellri Zenam’s mother, Wilmit, in displaying how the Capital Guard and the Capital Army are two very different entities. This revealed in the middle of this film as the Megafauna moves closer and closer to the tower itself. While Bellri, Noredo, and Raraiya are returning to their home, everything about their lives has changed in such a short time. We also meet Aida’s father, Gusion Rayhunton, who is against Ameria’s build up . A build that is being lead by the, once again, self proclaimed genius Klim Mick. Gusion and Wilmit have a meeting with the pope at the tower which leads to nothing. He’s already in the Capital Armies hands. There is also that fragilty of these two leaders flying around unarmed and it’s kind of frightening.
There is a lot of small things that occur the film like the battle with the Megafauna in the ocean in the early parts of the film. Same with the cast just interacting with themselves in some quiet moments. Klim Mick continues to show how dumb he is as he puts everyone in danger when he puts the still suffering from oxygen deprivation, Raraiya, into the G-Self when Luin Lee (Captain Mask) launches his strike in the ocean. A failed attempt after Bellri undoes all the craziness while its in motion, but I suppose that dumb people like Mick will never really see the flaws in their plans because their egos won’t let them. Especially since the Megafauna once again holds its own in combat in space later on in the film and Klim Mick (with his hot assistant Mick Jack) supposedly tried to put the protagonist ship into a spot that they would fail and be destroyed. When the ship isn’t destroyed, they come up with excuses. Once again, there is many sides to this fight.
Luin Lee’s own plot guys by pretty quickly in this movie because he is only given a few short scenes. Some are his multiple failure at combat, some are at him working hard as a Kunala (former slave race) to earn his place and prestige by defeating Bellri. There is a lot of good ideas and characters that can’t be explored as they could be becaue these are things I am spelling out that don’t have much impact to the story besides the one other member of the Cheer Leading squad, Manny Ambassada, questioning Captain Mask/Luin Lee’s ambitions. There are some quick interactions between the two same with Luin Lee having quick interactions with his second in command Barara Peor. You know, some mystery woman we don’t know yet but can assume she is special in some way. I am saying this thing because I’ve watched enough Tomino anime to at least guess the tropes he’s using.
The best and bigger things for me in regards to these films were the continued growth of the relationship between Aida and Bellri. While some of it is forced between Tomino dialogue that feels unnatural, there is some movement of Bellri crushing on her a little more and Aida at least learning to knowledge Bellri’s existence and skill as a pilot. Some small flirting between Aida and one of Bellri’s teachers Kerbes Yoh in the Capital Guard, but that doesn’t amount to much. If anything, it means another person for Bellri to save. Something that keeps getting larger since Aida continues to be a brash and bad pilot who refuses to understand what the role of the sniper is. There is also a lot quieter moments of pause that lets the Regild era live and breathe and small moments of the mecha being used to fix a ship instead of combat. Tomino’s vision of these suits being more then just for combat.
I honestly don’t feel like I have to talk about most of the visuals and Tomino-isms that persist in Movie 2, because I already discussed them in movie one on Wednesday. If you want to know more about that personally, read what I wrote here: link. The most interesting thing about Movie 2 that is worth discussing is the continued development of G-Self’s back pack sets. There is a lot of unique combos that the G-Self has. The first is the very powerful, green ground unit that is nearly unstoppable. There is also the screen pink backpack unit that has a lot of thrust, but has lots of weird parts to it that haven’t been explored yet. Of course, there is also the space back pack that gets used in the last battle of the movie itself.
Overall, Movie 2 is a stronger film then movie 1. Has a lot more ideas in play, some fun bits of dialogue, good ideas, some playing of mecha designs. It also has defined arcs that greatly shape the world around all of it, some feelings of character motivations, a good since of the conflict at hand with all the complex parties in motion, Regild Century politics that are doomed to fail, and a lot of other things. That’s why I am going to give it a good. If there is something that I find lacking, it’s the conclusion of this film. It doesn’t have a strong one. Instead of the death of Bellri’s teacher in the first movie, we are left with the antagonists retreating in shame and wishing to pursue more drama in the future. Not a death or anything to seal off the film for more next time. I suppose we can focus on Luin Lee/Captain Mask ironing his will to take down Bellri in the future. It just lands flat because he’s only in the film for what feels like ten minutes.
Mechanical Anime Reviews 
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