So I'm a huge UC Gundam fan but I've only chronologically watched up to F91. Should I continue with Victory, bearing in mind I don't like young kid protagonists very much? I've been holding off while dabbling in AUs for the most part.
Hmmm, I’m seeing if I can figure out, considering personally I love young kid protagonists so that may bias my opinion.
I think it’s worth it still, though a large thematic part of Victory Gundam is the ages of the characters. The series manages to play into the child soldier element a lot more than even other UC series do. Uso Ewin… is not nearly as emotionally prepared for the things he has to do as even other pilots are, his loss of innocence and the consequences of it are a major central piece to the story. And in my opinion that part is really well done.
But I would definitely call it one of my favourite UC series, in all honestly. It feels like it drives home a lot of the ideas of the Universal Century, and acts as a really good (and really, really, really sad) finisher to the timeline. The decay of the Federation and the Earth Sphere as a whole that was visible in F-91 is even stronger; Zanscare acts as a sort of alternative faction to Zeon or the Crossbone Vanguard in an interesting way (with sympathetic elements and humanized soldiers, but the Empire as a whole being horrific in a complicated way); and the state of Newtypes in this end of the timeline is both sad and interesting (which I have SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT).
Boy is it sad though. Sad and cute in a way feels like they complement each other. Like the sad scenes make the cute scenes feel cuter, which makes the sad scenes feel sadder, and the both scenes feel bother. The series drives home the feeling of children wandering through the last death throes of an entire planet; like the final words in a tragedy before the curtains close, and all the melancholy therein.
Oh and it has fuckin Bike Mechas that do sick wheelies like holy shiiiiiit
