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Revisiting G no Reconguista, And Looking Back On 'Happy Tomino'

Why is it, then, that shows like Turn A, Overman King Gainer, and Gundam ZZ have been widely enjoyed while G-Reco remained the proverbial black sheep of the movement?

?? Turn A is one of the least popular stand alone gundam entry, king gainer is virtually unknown even in mech circle and ZZ is probably the least liked UC entry.

The idea that the show is supposed to make no sense to show the foolishness of war is a good figleaf excuse, but it fall apart upon even the smallest amount scrutiny. Nothing makes sense in the show, regardless of if it's about war/military or not. For this idea to work, you'd need every character to behave like functional, realistic human up until war get involved, at which point everyone would act in a non sense fashion, that way you'd get a strong contrast between the two context. But, as is, it's just non sense throughout, so the non sense of war gets lost in the general non sense.

Also no idea what he has against space elevator, solar panel work much better in space and the environmental impact of covering large portion of the earth in solar panel is non negligible. If space elevator could work (a massive could) they'd be a really great idea.

Have you seen Narrative? ZZ is definitely not the least liked UC entry.

And Overman King Gainer is definitely more popular among mech fans than you think. The problem with it is that like many other shows, more people claim to have watched it than actually watching it.

Using absurdity in an anti-war message is not a new thing at all, for example, many of Picasso's words. Also, you are presuming that war is the catalyst which bring out the nonsensical in men. Have you considered that war is started and ran by nonsensical men? I recently read about the backgrounds of a few historical figures involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade and Italia's war efforts in the WWI (you should look up Luigi Cardona), and these people would be considered comically stupid, greedy, and bloodthirsty even if the wars hadn't happened.

As for space elevator, I think Tomino's idea about it is formed from two parts: Whether any nation or international organization be able to embark on such a gigantic project without making a mess; and if they can, then how will geopolitical power be distributed in the world afterward. 00 made a similar point in the background--the construction of the space elevators were the cause of many conflicts, and after they had been completed, the elevators did not lead to a fairer world and instead acted as another leverage of power to the superpowers.

I actually tried looking for mech show on myanimelist and ANN encyclopedia that had lower number of votes/popularity from around the same airing time. I barely found any. Even stuff like Flag or Kannazuki are better remembered. The only one I found was blue gender, and blue gender was total crap.

Again, everyone was nonsensical in the show, whether they ran the war or not. And why bring up the fact that some people would be comically stupid even outside war? That just undermine the idea that the show is about showing how war make people act comically stupid.

As for space elevator, well obviously they built it and didn't make a mess, so that's clearly not his point. As far as geopolitics, no reason for it to change geopolitics. If other people don't want to use the space elevator, they don't have to. A space elevator isn't going to prevent people from building they're own solar panel on earth, like Aida said (or is this another case of everyone in the show is acting like an idiot to show the foolishness of war?) nor does it stop them from making their own space elevator, like 00 did.

I really appreciate this article. The first time I watched G-Reco, I got 3 episodes in, then dropped it. When I went back, I marathoned the thing....