Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 24, 2018

The famous old adage goes “mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow”, and there’s perhaps no better example, at least in the wild and wooly world of anime, than Mobile Suit Gundam, an almost insanely wide ranging and successful franchise that nonetheless began under less than auspicious circumstances. The first (of many) Mobile Suit Gundam outings began airing in Japan in 1979, but this arguably overconvoluted mecha offering wasn’t exactly met with either critical or general audience acclaim, and in fact its first (and only) season was cut short by several episodes due to less than thrilling ratings. It’s kind of interesting to put what happened next into the context of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, then still relatively recent and certainly still a major cultural phenomenon. While there are certainly subtextual tethers between the two science fiction creations, at least in broad general terms of epic battles taking place in outer space, what may really tie the two franchises together is a little thing called merchandising. As has been rather entertainingly documented in any number of books and/or articles, 20th Century Fox was so gun shy about releasing product tie-ins to their releases, after the debacle that was Doctor Dolittle, that they pretty much said to George Lucas, “Yeah, sure, go ahead — make some toys.” The rest, as they say, is history, as Mr. Lucas’ bank account may provide evidence of, but something at least a little similar happened when Gundam toys were released in the wake of the first series and kind of unexpectedly took off in the marketplace. That success, coupled with some at least decent returns on feature films culled from the original series, has led to an almost incredible outpouring of Gundam related properties, including anime (a brief listing is below), manga, videogames and (of course) lots of merchandising tie-ins. Mobile Suit Gundam UC Unicorn follows in what is by now a rather long list of Gundam productions. In an indication of just how mighty this particular oak has become, here’s a partial list of various Gundam entries (with links leading to domestic Blu-ray releases where available, and with only the first volumes of multi-volume releases shown):

Mobile Suit Gundam I

Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Part 1 Collection

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Collection 1

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory - Complete Collection

Mobile Suit V Gundam: Collection 1

Mobile Fighter G Gundam

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

After War Gundam X

Turn A Gundam: Collection 1

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

SD Gundam Force

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny

Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE

Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans: Season 1 Part 1

To reiterate: that long list above is only a partial accounting of the almost insanely huge Mobile Suit Gundam universe, and as such, this is one franchise where the uninitiated may simply feel overwhelmed. Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (there's an "AC" on the logo which is not included on the actual title credits) has itself already received standalone volumes of the seven episodes produced, and my colleague Dustin Somner's Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Vol. 1 Blu-ray review will at least give those without any undue knowledge of either the franchise in general or this iteration in particular a little bit of context. As such, I won't really be spending a ton on the plot mechanics of this series, since it's squarely in the template of the whole Gundam franchise, offering a young pilot (in this case the oddly named Banagher Links) who discovers an unexpected "link" of his own to a huge mecha. As with many other Gundam properties, there's a novelistic approach toward the storytelling, with a glut of characters, most of whom have their own convoluted back stories. The series is fairly remarkable in how it manages to combine pretty rote action adventure elements with a somewhat more "mature" insight into elements like how fighters cope with having to kill their enemies.

As Dustin points out in his review of the first volume, the show is so labyrinthine and complex that newcomers may find they’re (in Dustin’s words) “frustrated within the first 10 minutes”. I’d personally extend that timeframe out a good, long while, because even those who are relatively well informed about the intricacies of the Gundam universe still have to contend with this series’ patently convoluted verbiage, which includes everything from character names (just look at the supplements section below, in the “MS and Character Highlights” listings for just a few examples) to the expected high-tech elements. It’s an almost deliberately obfuscating approach that actually requires a bit of concentration, and (in my estimation, anyway) for much longer than merely ten minutes.

The series does have an appealing and at times even touching overall arc, though it is, as tends to be the case with Gundam properties, a kind of vignette driven enterprise, with epochal battles acting as interstitials between more serious character developments. The show is nicely designed and well animated, and this new compilation release also includes some enjoyable supplements, unlike some of the bare bones standalone releases of individual episodes.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Collection is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sunrise and Right Stuf with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Dustin gave the first volume released as a standalone several years ago absolutely top marks in the video category, but perhaps having to squeeze two episodes and supplements on to one disc presented some compression challenges this time around, since I noticed pretty prevalent banding (Bandaiing? — sorry, couldn't resist) in virtually every episode (even the seventh, which is on its own disc). It's especially noticeable in effects sequences where, for example, a brightly burning sun will emerge from behind a space object and suddenly light fills the frame. It tends to be more noticeable in the outer space material, perhaps because of the prevalence of largely black backgrounds, but the more eagle eyed viewer will also spot it, perhaps not to such a noticeable level, in sequences where things are more uniformly bright. With that arguably minor annoyance aside, this is, as Dustin mentioned in his review of the first volume, a really beautifully bright and well saturated presentation, one that offers a sumptuous accounting of the series' often extremely vivid palette. Line detail also is sharp and precise. The effects work is generally decent, and there's little softness in some of the more complex renderings.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Collection features LPCM 5.1 and 2.0 mixes in Japanese and English, replacing the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and 2.0 mixes that Dustin assessed in his review of the first volume (kind of weirdly, this is the first screener of Unicorn that Right Stuf deigned to send to me, so I can't state authoritatively if subsequent standalone volumes also had Dolby TrueHD audio or something else). In toggling between the English and Japanese versions, I noticed no discernable difference in general amplitude or the prioritization of the mixes in terms of dialogue, effects and score. As should be expected from a mecha outing, the surround track offers a glut of well placed effects in the many battle sequences, and there is agreeably forceful LFE when things like thrusters are engaged. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and is generally well prioritized, only occasionally tending to get slightly buried in some of the more boisterous sequences. For the record, the discs have been authored so that no subtitles are accessible if the English language track is played.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unlike some of the standalone volumes previously released, Sunrise and Right Stuf have provided supplements on this release.

Disc 1

• Episode 1 PV 01 (Long) (1080p; 2:06)


• Episode 1 PV 01 (Short) (1080p; 00:43)


• Episode 1 PV 02 (1080p; 2:10)


• Episode 1 PV 03 (1080p; 2:32)


• Episode 1 PV 04 (Navigation File) (1080p; 3:35)


• Episode 1 TV CM (1080p; 00:49)


• Episode 1 Recap (1080p; 10:19) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 2 PV 01 (Long) (1080p; 2:11) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 2 PV 01 (Short) (1080p; 00:32) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 2 PV 02 (1080p; 1>48) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 2 Trailer (1080p; 00:33)


• Episode 2 TV CM (1080p; 00:49)


• MS and Character Highlights

  Character Highlights: Banagher Links (1080p; 3:14)

  Character Highlights: Audrey Burne (1080p; 1:23)

  MS Highlights: Unicorn Gundam (1080p; 1:16)

  MS Highlights: Kshitriya (1080p; 1:01)

Disc 2

• Episode 2 Recap (1080p; 10:16) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 3 PV (Long) (1080p; 1:44) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 3 PV (Short) (1080p; 00:52) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 3 TV CM (1080p; 00:49)


• Episode 3 Textless Ending (1080p; 3:28)


• Episode 3 Trailer (1080p; 1:03)


• Episode 3 Recap (1080p; 12:52) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 4 TV CM (1080p; 00:49)


• Episode 4 Trailer (1080p; 00:39)


• Episode 4 PV (1080p; 1:20) is available in either Japanese or English.


• MS and Character Highlights

  Character Highlights: Daguza Mackle (1080p; 1:36)

  Character Highlights: Riddhe Marsenas (1080p; 1:55)

  MS & Character Highlights: Shambio and Loni Garvey (1080p; 2:51)

  MS & Character Highlights: Sinanju and Full Frontal (1080p; 2:39)

  MS Highlights: Zeon Remnants (1080p; 2:22)

Disc 3

• Episode 4 Recap (1080p; 11:13) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 5 PV 01 (1080p; 00:44)


• Episode 5 PV 02 (1080p; 1:47) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 5 TV CM (1080p; 00:49)


• Episode 5 Ending with Lyrics (1080p; 5:08)


• Episode 5 Recap (1080p; 12:42) is available in either Japanese or English.


• MS and Character Highlights

  MS & Character Highlights: Unicorn Gundam & Banagher Links (1080p; 1:39)

  MS & Character Highlights: Banshee & Marida Cruz (1080p; 1:49)

Disc 4

• "Story So Far" (1080p; 1:45) is an almost hilariously redacted overview of the plot.


• Episode EX: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (1080p; 25:01)


• Episode 6 PV 01 (1080p; 00:44)


• Episode 6 PV 02 (1080p; 1:31) is available in either Japanese or English.


• Episode 6 TV CM (1080p; 00:49)


• MS and Character Highlights

  Character Highlights: Nahel Argama's Crew (1080p; 1:42)

  MS & Character Highlights: Rozen Zulu and Angelo Sauper (1080p; 1:29)

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm sure some wag out there might be saying, "If you've seen one Mobile Suit Gundam, you've seen them all," and I'm not sure I'd be that prone to quibble with that assessment. This iteration has a wealth of interesting characters, and also provides a bit of "history" in terms of how the whole Universal Century stratagem even began, but in other ways it's a bit of a slog, or at least may seem so for those unwilling to wade through impenetrable terminology challenges. Aside from some recurring issues with banding, this set offers excellent technical merits, and the supplements, while generally on the short side, are enjoyable. Recommended.