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Mobile Fighter G Gundam, on TV Asahi
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Caution: spoilers

49 episode series made in 1994-95, set in the year Future Century 60. Sixty years previously, most people migrated to space colonies. Each country seems to have their own colony, and every four years there is a major Gundam Fight on Earth. Each colony sends a Gundam to fight in matches, and the last one standing wins the right for their colony to rule all of space until the next Gundam Fight in four years. (I'd like to say, one thing I enjoyed about this series was how incredibly varied the different Gundams were. There might have been some I had trouble telling apart, but mostly they were vastly different in appearance, which was pretty welcome considering how much trouble I could have in some other Gundam series telling the Gundams apart. And some of the Gundams on the show were just plain funny to look at...)

The series is set during the 13th Gundam Fight, and follows Neo-Japan's Gundam fighter, Domon Kasshu (aka "the King of Hearts"), and his assistant/mechanic/medic/possible love interest, Rain Mikamura. Domon pilots the Shining Gundam (whose special attack is "Shining Finger," if you don't count the "Super Mode," which is a whole thing I don't even wanna get into). The Gundam Fight basically seems to serve as a backdrop to their ulterior mission, which is to find and destroy Domon's brother Kyoji, who stole a very powerful new Gundam called the Dark Gundam, and wants to do some bad stuff with it. Or whatever. But the story starts out kinda weak, just a bunch of seemingly random Gundam matches. Although actually alot of Domon's opponents in the early fights will later return as either allies or enemies, involved in the larger plot.

Anyway, the story gets more interesting later, when the real plot gets under way. Apparently, Kyoji forms a Dark Army of Gundams piloted either by people who have been turned into zombies, or by people whose minds have been taken over and who have been given great powers of their own (by infecting them with DG Cells). One such person (though he seems to serve the Dark Gundam of his own free will) is Master Asia of Neo Hong Kong, Domon's former teacher of the martial arts, and winner of the previous Gundam Fight, who pilots the Master Gundam. Actually it really seems like he's in charge, because we never really see much of Kyoji at all, except to just stand around laughing a few times. Anyway, after the early matches, Domon meets his old master in Shinjuku, which is being attacked by the Dark Army. Domon defends the city for awhile, with the help of Master Asia (it's some time before his involvement with the Dark Gundam comes to light).

Later, Domon spends some time training to become stronger in the Guyana Highlands (where he had formerly trained under Master Asia), in preparation for his battle against Master and Kyoji. Four Gundam pilots will show up to help against the Dark Gundam, members of the Shuffle Alliance, of which Domon- the King of Hearts- is a member. (Master Asia was the former King of Hearts.) They'll end up being replaced by four of the guys Domon had fought earlier, who each get a Shuffle crest on their hands. One of them is Chibodee Crocket of Neo America, who pilots the Gundam Maxter. Another is Sai Saici of Neo China, who pilots the Dragon Gundam. Then there's George de Sand of Neo France, who pilots Gundam Rose. And finally Argo Gulskii of Neo Russia, who pilots the Bolt Gundam. There's also a mysterious Gundam fighter named Schwartz Bruder, from Neo Germany, who pilots the Shadow Gundam. He also advises Domon in his training and stuff, though Domon isn't interested in his help, at first. Another pilot Domon befriends is Allenby Beardsley of Neo Sweden, who pilots the Noble Gundam.

Anyway, eventually Domon defeats the Dark Gundam and Master Asia, and then everyone has to get to Neo Hong Kong for the final battles of the Gundam Fight. But Domon's Shining Gundam had been destroyed in the battle against Master. So it was replaced by the Burning Gundam, whose special attack is "Erupting Burning Finger," and super-mode is replaced by hyper-mode. You think that's weird, you should see some of the other Gundams from some of the other nations in the Gundam Fight (like I said before). But anyway, Master's back, even though he was defeated already (he's now piloting his old Gundam, the Haow Gundam). He has an alliance with Prime Minister Wong of Hong Kong, whose nation won the previous Gundam Fight four years ago. Wong wants to revive the Dark Gundam so he will never have to give up control of all of space.

Eventually we learn the truth about all the stuff that happened just prior to the start of the series, and I count a minimum of five different plans various people have had for the Dark Gundam, which gets rather complicated. So I'm not gonna try to explain it all, or tell you how it ends (although I will say that after all the battles finally ended, the series got way too sappy for my taste). Anyway... maybe I should mention that in the original version, Burning Gundam was called God Gundam (whence, I believe, comes the title "G Gundam") and Dark Gundam was called Devil Gundam. There have of course been other changes to the show, but I haven't studied it too deeply.


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