i truly believe on the sub could convey that scream and not only that but shino missed and essentially it looked like his death flag was flying as well on the heels of his budding uhhh man on man relationship which didn't matter but seemed to play a part for shino but as well the plot twist of it all essentially one of last if not the last final fight that coulda ended it all and let's be honest rustal was and is a asshole who needed to die he played the villain well i can't honestly think anyone like the guy that cheating/sat on the sidelines / just was a dick etc etc :P
Lafter's death was probably the most out of nowhere "there's no way this just happened" moment in a Gundam series I've ever seen. It's the turning point for me where it solidified that there was gonna be no happy ending for anyone.
I wasn't surprised that someone died, or that it was Lafter. I was just surprised that she got put down like that. Space Guts revenge was bittersweet at the end though.
That one death is the scariest and saddest death I ever see in Gundam or even Anime in general. No glory nor fall. No build up nor fight. Just sudden assassination out of nowhere. It's also scary because it's also happening in real life.
I've rewatched 00, Build Fighters, and Seed (not sure on this one) several times but I've never rewatched the 2nd season of IBO because it's always hard for me to reconcile that things aren't going to end well for these guys and it's all because of the choices they make this season.
I get why people hate McGillis and love to dis on him after Iok, but I feel people inadvertently let themselves be distracted by all the things going wrong and miss the point of his arc from start to end. He lived a harsh life on the streets then was sexually abused by his adoptive father, Izanario Fareed, which (apart reading from up the legend of Agnika Kaeru) were 2 great focal points that formed the central gamut of his character and world views. He is basically a distillation of all human debris, having suffered extreme poverty, starvation, exploitation at high levels no one child should even go through together, yet these are the experiences he went thru as a child that informed all his decisions and actions as an adult. He is as short-sighted as Orga, and as morally-black & white as Mikazuki, which is why they resonated as allies in the first place. So even if he was an idiot who led our protagonists to their deaths, IMO he was cut from the exact same cloth as them. He was an iron-blooded orphan in all but name.
I love how insane the Second Season is! You basically are Rooting for McGillis and Tekkaden even though you know that their Recklessness is in the Wrong! And It’s clear that Rustal is a Smug, Yet Tactical Asshole who you want to see dead! This Dude is a Master Schemer that really has it out for both Tekkaden and McGillis!
this exactly, the entire theme of the story is that the violent language of the oppressors is the language that the oppressed learn to speak. McGillis's delusions and crazy behavior didn't come out of nowhere, he grew up in an environment that is essentially every character and concept combined and he is a culmination of those teachings. He grew up as a starving child who had to do what he did to survive, and then he was "lucky" enough to be adopted into Gjallarhorn where he suffered even more abuse, learned to speak the language of corruption in Gjallarhorn but also became enthralled with the idealism of the fairytale of original Gjallarhorn. He mindset of "do what I need to do" from his childhood persisted which is why he's so comfortable with the blatant contradiction of his ideal of Gjallarhorn with the fucked up things he does to achieve those ideals. He's the synthesis of the idealism of the reported story of Gjallarhorn's founding mixed with the corruption of the current Gjallarhorn and the desperation of the oppressed who must learn to justify "wrong" things to survive. He's like an amalgamation of literally every character and theme in the story. In short, McGillis is John Ironbloodedorphan
I have a silly theory that the 7stars Gundam’s are cursed and anyone who pilots them who aren’t blood descendant of a 7 star member slowly go insane. This is shown with Mcgillis and gundam Bael, but the exact same thing happens with Gundam Zagan and Lond Bron, an ace pilot who thinks he’s good enough to use a Gundam, but during the course of the IBO udru hunt app game he slowly become crazed with power thinking he’s invincible
He didn't "LOSE" his braincells, and I'm so tired of people thinking this. By Gjallarhorn's own law (on paper), his plan SHOULD'VE succeeded. The fact that Gjallarhorn denied McGillis and Bael is another example of the organization's corruption - They don't abide by their own rules and warp them if need be. This, on top of Gaelleo's claim that McGillis manipulated Carta's death made things worse, but the plan with Bael is clean and should've went without a hitch.
Activating Bael is kinda like the king Arthur pulling sword in the stone myth. Whoever can activate Bael or pull the sword from the stone has the right by legend should be king. However, in reality, people and especially powerful lords like the Seven Stars don't automatically give power and fealty to the person. So Mcgillis really was naive or just too obsessed with Bael to think it would work.
@@scarletrain6757 ALL of the Gundam Frames are cursed, why? Because they are the DEVILS. You can't expect to control a devil without any backleash as the payment.
The moment I finished IBO, I sat there with a feeling of bittersweetness. Even though they had no one in the end, Orga and Mikazuki never gave up on their ideals. I find it almost poetic when Mika dies, he’s at peace because he realizes that he created the world he wanted, and that Atra and Kudelia would continue his legacy. I think Galileo’s reveal was terrible, if they had did a Kingdom Hearts route and made his voice silent or even robotic, it could have hidden it better. But, I think he regretted what he had to do, and that he never caught the signs of MacGillis’ downfall when they were kids. It’s a worst end of Naruto and Sasuke, where Sasuke dies cause Naruto was forced to kill him.
Without Biscuit around to balance Orga's desire for more, Tekkedan is constantly dragged along as a pawn in an Icarus' journey too close to the sun. In the interest of their political influence, McGillis and Makanai dangled a seat a the table of the most influential men in the universe to children, who for most of their lives were considered space trash.
the pain and fury that Akihiro showed, finally finding someone he loved, finally moving on from being debris and the loss of his brother. i rate season 1 over season 2, but both are great in different ways
Not enough praise is given to IBO's soundtrack, but it stands out in the franchise for some truly poignant and beautiful pieces. Crescent Moon in particular is used to great effect, and anyone who hears it after having seen the series is immediately right back in the beautiful havoc of the battlefield. Great show.
I think there are some big things you missed about this series, particularly the context surrounding McGillis as mentioned by another comment. McGillis's upbringing was marred by the sexual abuse of the adults he should have been able to trust and the violence he had to participate in in order to survive. His inner circle was literally a sexually abusive father with a very specific taste for young blond boys (seriously go back and look and he almost if not always has a young blond boy next to him), woman so obsessed with him as to create a personal unit/harem of look-alikes of him, and a playboy who never seems to take issue with the system that would marry off his child sister to an adult. His only respite was the legend of Agnika Kaieru. It was inevitable that he saw the whole system as corrupt and that the only way to subvert it was through the raw violent power of the Gundams and Tekkadan. I think you mischaracterized him a bit in the first video. He doesn't go back and forth. He's just carrying out his duties as an official until he sees the potential and kindred spirit of Tekkadan at which point he switches sides and starts covertly supporting them. Here he was suffering for years only for a group of kids to be accomplishing what he wanted. The irony being that both their means only continued their respective cycles. The success of Tekkadan was explicitly stated as reason for the proliferation of human debris for military use at the beginning of season 2. McGillis ended up marrying Almiria even if he thought he was doing so to protect her. If he was as really as unreliable and disloyal as you say, I think we would've seen him try to sell out Tekkadan at the end but we don't. To the very end, he believes the Gundam's power will see him through and that was one of his fatal flaws. Due to his upbringing, he had a stunted psychological development. He literally saw the Bael as a sort of Excalibur only to be confronted with the fact that the government didn't actually run like they do in fairy tales. All this is why I think he's one of the most interesting, flawed characters/char clones in Gundam and a good distillation of this specific series' themes. Gundam has always been about how war affects children but this show detials the very specific harm it does. I think the series does a good job portraying Tekkadan and McGillis as flawed and misguided but well-meaning. It's not that we were meant to necessarily root for them but we wanted them to find some sort of justice for their circumstances. Although they both paid the price, the world did become better even if they did only have their immediate and not the wider global circumstances in mind. You're right, if McGillis and Tekkadan had won, things probably wouldn't have changed for the better. In fact they probably would've gotten much worse according to the cycle as mentioned earlier. Tekkadan would've proved the worth of human debris as soldiers leading to more child soldiers and governments that undergo coup d'état are more likely to undergo further ones in the future leading to further destabilization and the negative repercussions that arise from people who depend on the very stability that government provides. Having rewatched it a couple times to introduce it to friends, I definitely grew to understand the series more. I watched it with everybody else and it was definitely painful but I think that's to the series credit that it was able to get the audience to care about the cast. Rustal Elion was the very definition of the established institution and order of the society/state. He was unarguably an effective leader that both pulled unethical strings to get dirty work done but was also well meaning enough to agree to ban human debris and let democracy emerge. He also essentially adopted Julieta who was Mikazuki's foil and what would've essentially happened to him had he been brought up her circumstances and I do remember the look of pity and want to comfort the at the time recently adopted McGillis who he probably knew was being sexually abused but at the time had no power to protect. I don't think he would've done all that if he was just flat out evil. He was just more willing and able to play out the long game without rocking the boat too much in order to accomplish his goals. I think the only other nitpick was saying the Rebake only vulcans, a 90mm machine gun, and melee weapons. As the revamped Rebake it does get to dual-wield the smoothbore gun Barbatos often used in season 1 and quad-wield a longer version the standard graze rifle in season 2 on top of arm-mounted rockets and its notorious giant Scissor-Variable Rear Armor a.k.a. Giant Nippers. At the end of the day, those are less important details and you had a lot of cover. So other than that you did a great job covering the series overall!
This story demonstrates perfectly that even if a war is "just" or if that war brings about positive change, it will always become senseless at the personal level, and war always comes at horrific cost for the individuals affected, many of whom wont be fighters.
Really hit the nail here. So often big changes are done by the work and sacrifice by those just wanted to live better lives. Often they cant even imagine what those lives are or be there to benefit from it. Forgot the exact quote but i always remember the idea it. "be scared of those who want to lead, because they arent here for you". Stuff like this is always worth fighting for but its to create opportunities to open doors, door we often dont know where they go, just hope it goes somewhere better
IBO is my favorite non-UC modern Gundam series. People were disappointed with the ending but tbh it made sense considering how the characters are written. RIP Biscuit. He was one of my favorites
To clarify, at their battle between Vidar and BLR, it is expanded on the books that they were on equal grounds. Each time Mika accesed more of the potential of the frame, the stronger the unit became because the output he could access and control became greater. So after the Barbatos Lupus defeats the Hashmal, the Barbatos Lupus Rex is capable of somewhat matching the capabilities of that fight, thus Vidar with the system active only reaches a certain point. (Which seems to be on par with McGillis connection to Bael) The only time we have seen a true full release is in the app Gundam G tekketsu with the story in it, which is being made into an anime spin-off adaptation "Gundam Urdr Hunt". Where a Gundam frame named Marchosias took on multiple 200+ meter MAs at once outspeeding and overpowering them easily. (Seemingly the original pilots did not get the same backlash people do in the present)
You know, I actually prefer IBO’s ending over that of WFM. IBO’s ending was actually written in a way that makes sense, and you can still see the foreshadowing in every episode before the final arc.
@@lilbladeknight I think Guel is the only one that has good character development. Chuchu... she's just exist. Along with many other support character. Suletta and Miorine, they have decent character development but the relationship between them is barely built. They have few moments together and it's barely nothing more than business thing. The only thing happened between them that build up their relationship is just Suletta cheer up Miorine.
Also started in my thirties and have never touched an entry or PG. It's all RG and MG for me. When I started it took about a week to finish one. Then just a few days. Then just a day (if I spent all my time on it). Then I got into painting and scribing. Now it takes me over a month to finish one =/
Iron blooded orphans is my favorite gundam series, right after is 8th MS team, then third would be the Gundam origin series. Great job on both videos, keep on making great content!!
IBO was definitely one of the darkest gundam series I’ve seen. They writing staff really chose to go GOT with the amount of important characters that don’t make it to the end.
Thanks for this deep dive. What an incredible series. Surpasses most anything on American TV. Writers need to take notes. This series left an impact on me and your video brought that feeling back. Thanks
Barbatos runs on pure plot armor. Hate the thing "No you see, the magic radiation powered paint armor just means its immune to damage." Sides that, the mecha designs in the show are pretty cool
Ya wanna know the real irony? This is the “Good Ending” of IBO 😅 The director and a couple others originally wanted a much bloodier ending where everyone dies, nothing changes, and nothing was accomplished. But the main writer and the rest of the staff got him to change the ending, and thus the last 5 episodes were rewritten to have a more bittersweet yet hopeful ending where the major players died, but the smaller players got away alive and the world of IBO changed for the better So yeah, always remember people, it coulda been SO MUCH WORSE 😅
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched IBO, but I remember that missed shot like it was yesterday. If he hits that, the whole story changes, and it’s rare that a story conveys those kind of stakes that well.
I felt that at the end tekkaden was fighting for a higher ideal in that self-sacfrice for themselves. That in itself is a higher goal. But that so many were willing to die so that the others could escape- which the original plan was that everyone was going to die- was note worthy, even if the name itself is forgotten. Them being forgotten is prob the best thing that could happen for the survivors, allowing them to thrive
This by far was the greatest Commentary i've ever watch it truly captured the Deeper Sense of IBO the aspect which Dedicated FB Groups failed to perceived and was so insanely drowned in power scaling......
Honestly I really love this season. This show is my favorite Gundam show start to finish. I just feel this series and especially this season is all extremely well put together
Not even gonna lie, my two favorite Gundam Series are G Gundam and IBO in that order. I can respect and appreciate and love all kinds of stories, themes, designs, especially Gundam designs, and characters, but yeah, I actually love G Gundam and IBO best and second best. Also Gundam Build Fighters and Tri (despite being worse) are pretty hype SPIRITUAL successors to G Gundam in a way.
NGL, hearing this packed speedrun of the overall plotline (politics, factions, character arcs, etc) really helps me process what the hell was happening in S2, I watched the show back when it first came out but now I might give it a more measured rewatch again
The way I kind of look at it is that these were kids who for most of their lives knew only 2 things fighting and family, as a result of all of this they saw them as their only path forward even when some would tell them that was not the case and some members would leave they would continue on said path not necessarily because they were selfish or greedy but because most didn’t really know much else, a lot of these kids didn’t even know how to read and write in the first season
I don't prefer advertising but I like how your advertising is at least relevant 2. Your content in a way that doesn't feel offensive. Keep doing the good stuff bro, much appreciated
Man that Shino death still haunts me (for people that haven't watched it thats the Flauros pilot that was shooting with the railgun cannon trying to kill Rustal and end the battle but he got hit just as he was shooting making him miss). I love the Rysei-Go, the decals, the pink colour. He pimped out his gundam. He was a happy go lucky guy, always optimistic and perhaps a bit unassuming, missing on nuances but he was always there to help and protect his friends. The banter. Leading teammates to brothels to pop their cherries. He was as cool as a side character can be. He than through injuries and with a half-destroyed Gundam wanted to go out and try and end the war with one shot. He wouldn't let anything happen to his family. Then stupid Julia somehow shaked off Barbatos to hit Flauros just as Shino was making the shot. He missed and his scream after that was gut-wrenching. The most optimistic guy died thinking he let everyone he loves down. The way I see it that was the point of his charge after the miss. He thaught it was over, they were all dead and he couldn't handle it. He wasn't gonna let them down, he was gonna suicide bomb if he must, yet it was all futile. I never expected he'll get such a death. And seeing it relegated to the end text scroll and barely any reviewer even talks about him also saddenes me immensly. You name dropped fucking Chad and yet no word on Shino. Fuck man, this series was so good. Probably spent most of Season 2 crying but it was all deserved and the strong plot made it worth all the emotions. Yes there were some plot armor stuff protecting certain characters but still it was incredible! TBH the only thing I didn't really like is Gaelio's wrap up. He got revenga on the betrayal from his closest friend (and avenged Carta) and then nothing. It was iffy enough he somehow survived and in the end his purpose was just to completely ruing McGillis' plan and kill him. I don't even remember did he get anything out from it besides being a cripple. I will watch it again now since this review reminded me how much I love the series but as I remember it Gaelio's resolutions seemed weak. He didn't end up in a place of power, he didn't have personal goals (apart revenge) completed and he seemed to have no part to play in the future of this universe. If I remember correctly he didn't even end up with Julia (although it wa shinted if I remember correctly).
I absolutely adore how they subverted the protagonists into the antagonists and vice-versa by the end of the show. Season 2 was so good. Love this show. We need a prequel series set in the Calamity war
People complain about Tekidan losing their plot armor and the bad guys getting it instead... But the boys stopped being the good guys once they tied themselves to the villain... They stopped being Gundam protagonists and lost the plot armor that comes with it.
That yakuza relation hit for me. I felt the same way. Except I had thought about media like breaking bad and Scarface where you want the underdog to succeed but by the end you’re not sure if you should be rooting for them.
The wanted a better life but in turned wanted to change the system. In the end they may only be in the memories of the people that touched. Tekkadan represents those unknown people that unwittingly made changes to a society. Of all the series it is the most well thought since it's story was a year shy of a decade when they finished it.
I like McGillis and Gaelio. 1 was crazy and ambitious, while the other existed to prove those ideals wrong. The climax of this conflict resulted in the best duel in the series. Many downplay Bael as a trash suit, or McGillis as a trash pilot, but it for most of the fight, both MS were equal. Bael was only beaten when he was cornered on the hull of a ship.
Great video like this anime does talk about a lot of issues including war and child soldiers and politics but at the end of the day it is all about family and living better lives and not being relegated to an afterthought there are a lot of unsung heroes in American history that have been forgotten about due to other people being called the hero this is one of my favorite animes of all time thank you for making this video
i knew i wasn't crazy for liking this show. there were so many whiny losers who were upset they didn't get the stereotypical happy ending. you can really tell who the shallow shonen boys are and who are the people with actual brains who understand stories.
I FUCKING hate Iok Kujan. I will deny him being a good "character to hate" because that means giving him credit I had to stop between 20-29 few times to vent how much I hate him to a coworker
Now that I have watched both parts and have some time; yeah Iron Blooded Orphans. I knew about it but only watched a few episodes and never the whole show until 5 years ago. This is one Gundam season I can probably say this is one of my favorites. It's probably my second or third favorite season of Gundam but I can't remember.
This is one of my favorite, if not my favorite Gundam because of the story and the ending. It was a sad ending but with positive outcomes. Plus Barbatos is sexy as fuck
In gundam 00 we have no guy in a mask. Instead we have feints and power plays with organisations taking that literal instead of physical bearing metaphorical concepts to tie everything in a cohesive way.
@@skyefox Yeah, but His Identity could be seen a Mile AWAY! It’s was Just a The Man’s Thinking And Desires that have Changed Rather than his sense of Identity!
29:10 I like to think that the limiters stalling the Gundam is also due to the imperfect Alaya-Vijnana System they have interfering with limiters causing Mikazuki to lose body movement. If I was a perfect I think it like a big warning saying u need to turn off limiters and cause u lose feelings in ur arm or something for a short time unlike semi permanently
I'm pretty sure that a perfect AV wouldn't affect your limbs in such a way. The IBO Mechanics and World 2 book states the common AV implant is incomplete, compared to the one used during the calamity war.
As far as the happy ending season 1 vs the darker season 2 I generally prefer a story to not always be a happy ending. A good story is one that doesn't play it safe with a happy ending and is willing to kill off important characters in meaningful ways. That kind of storytelling is just so much more impactful and memorable. This is kind of why much of the shit you see coming out of hollywood is generally forgettable because hollywood is obsessed with always doing a happy ending. That said I don't mind a happy ending if its well written but I just hate when they do it simply because some executive or CEO demands it even if it goes against the artistic vision of those making it.
After this video, I pondered upon what this show made me feel and here it goes : I feel like we focused on the small group of individuals that we dealt with such a bad hand in life that through the episodes we found ourselves rooting for them despite the obvious bad choices they were taken because of the situation they were in that no choice, but we still wrote for them. in the grand scheme of things and especially in the series as dense both in characters and events as Gundam, we were only a part of Tekkadan For a small part of what constitute their entire life. They didn’t matter they were not even a major call, but just a small little cell in what constitute the entire story of this big world and history will not remember the name, but they actually managed to change something on the small scale but nonetheless changed something in this world. And I think that that is what I’m gonna take out from this show is that you might not affect the world as much as you would up to or aspire to but if you are able on the small skill, that is your ridiculously meaningless life then it makes sense then it matters. Because you’ll be able to leave on through the memories of those that being affected and they won’t forget you and then maybe they’ll pass your story to their children and their children to their children and in such a small skill you’ll be able to live on for not maybe forever but For a long time whereas if you did not take action, none of it would’ve been remembered. None of it would’ve matter I don’t know. That’s just what’s my conclusion about this story ended up being. I’m still not such a big Gundam fan, but I feel that iron blooded. Children was the perfect mix of a deep rooted stories with intricate storyline being weed throughout the show and also powerful and powerful action sequences which made this specific anime way easier to enter, when compared to other Gundam shows. So when I look at other Gundam shows, I can say without doubt that IBC AS NOWHERE NEAR THE COOLEST GUNDAM EXCEPT BARBATOS BUT NONETHELESS, IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING TO FOLLOW THE STORY OF TEKKADAN.
Rustal doest have or need a ton of development because he is the embodiment of the status quo. A slick politician and strategist that will ensure power is never diffused in a way that helps everyone.
This one is the first Gundam series that I legitimately did not like. The bad guy, or "gray" guy got away with framing Tekkadan using a "banned" weapon that he just so happened to distribute among his ranks during the same battle, wiped all of Tekkadan out and didn't suffer any repercussions for it. Meanwhile, all of the orphans are just killed, they never got a chance to get out of the war life and live a peaceful life.
The ending of the show and the whole show. Was just bittersweet ending and a fitting end for a group of child soldiers dreaming for a place in the world.
Amazing videos. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Very well structured and enjoyable. Very fair and agreeable takes. This series was dope but left me with that damn feeling at the end.
I hate the end of season 2 cause I want Tekkadan to survive, be the hero and sav the world. BUT this ending was legendary ! Best ending possible for this show. I just want to see more of the PD timeline.
Ive always wanted to make a video connecting Josiah Royce's philosophy of loyalty and Gundam: IBO. His ideas ar very apparent during the final episode, for example. Maybe someday?
I really loved IBO. It was so raw and animalistic after all the beam spammery and newtype/coordinator hijinks. That berserker fighting style and the political story telling where it paints things not in black in gray but in the gray morality and makes you question who was really right. Also the mech designs I just love it although a lot of people laughs at the exposed parts> Gundam Wing was my gateway and will be forever be one of my favorite especially all the Tallgeese versions, Epyon and Heavy arms! Deathscythe was my first gunpla ever and has a special place in my core memory. I also collected a lot of the IBO kits because their built experience and look was so different. So yes IBO may have divided the community but I myself love it.
