Requiem for Vengeance was meant to bring Gundam fans an intense, emotional war drama. But somewhere between the script and the animation studio, it feels like they hired a Dreamcast to handle the characters, and things got… well, stuck in the PS3 era.
The protagonist, Iria, is battling deep trauma from losing her child, and I wish I could say I felt that pain with her. Her nightmares are dark, gloomy, and definitely meant to tug at your heartstrings. But the character animations? They tug at your funny bone instead. Watching the humans move in this series is like watching a bad video game cutscene that refuses to end. It’s hard to connect with Iria or her team when their faces look like they’re just loading in – on a 2007 console.
To make matters worse, when characters die in battle, the emotional impact is as flat as the animation. You can almost hear the animators whispering, “Cue the sad music,” because that’s the only thing helping you realize, “Oh, I’m supposed to feel something now.” Without those jazz cues, you might as well be watching a training simulation.
That’s not to say all is lost! The mech fights are surprisingly solid. The battle scenes have a fluidity that makes you wonder, “Wait, why can’t the humans move like this?” It’s like the animators put all their budget into the Gundams and left the characters looking like cardboard cutouts in a world of CGI fireworks.
The voice acting actually isn’t too bad. You can tell the actors are trying their hardest to give life to their roles. Unfortunately, the animation holds them back, making it feel like a good performance trapped inside an awkward, clunky puppet.
There was real potential in the story, too—especially with the twist about a kid wiping out these hardened soldiers. That’s an angle that could’ve delivered some gut-wrenching revelations, but instead, we get six short episodes that feel like one long montage of “Oh no, Iria lost another team member!” By the time the credits roll, you’re less concerned about her trauma and more concerned about how much time you’ve lost.
Oh, and heads up: there’s a fair amount of mature language, so this isn’t for the kiddies. Not that they’d want to sit through what feels like a bad history lesson in mecha warfare.
In the end, Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance had the ingredients for something powerful, but much like the characters in the show, it never quite takes off. The potential was there—it just needed better animation, stronger emotional depth, and, well, fewer vibes of a dated video game.
Final verdict? Time is precious, and so are mecha fights. Watch those on YouTube and call it a day.
Did you enjoy this version of Gundam? Do you prefer anime or 3D models? Do you want another season? Did you see that twist in the end?
