1. RX-78-2 Gundam
Not much to say here, it's a glorified clip show.
2. RX-178 Gundam Mk. II
Nice to see the good 'ole Mk. II back in action with angry Kamille. Seriously dude, the camera pod was your own damn fault.
3. GF13-017NJII God Gundam
As nice as it was to see the G Gundam and the Rising Gundam back in pretty good CGI, I really don't think that Rain could beat Domon in a straight fight. What really would have been fun would be in the Nobel Gundam had shown up and Allenby and Rai started duking it out with Domon in the middle.
4. RX-78 GPO3 Dendrobium
This one was pretty interesting. We see why the GPO3 was on lockdown and it's not 'cause of milquetoast Kou. Seems like 'ole Jamitov was trying to keep the GPO3 out of the picture so his plans for the formation of the Titans could go ahead.
5. RX-93 Nu Gundam
Now this was pretty darn awesome. I've always like the Nu Gundam and to see it in such glorious CGI was a real treat. I also like how Tomino actually came back and rewrote a part of Char's Counterattack to give it somewhat of a more hopeful ending... even if I actually do want Quess to die horribly. I just wish a little more focus had been put on the Gundam, instead of the Alpha Azeiru.
6. YMF-X000A Dreadnought Gundam
I'm not at all familiar with the SEED side stories, so I didn't have a single clue what was going on here.
7. XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam ZERO
Ah, good 'ole Wing Zero, blowin' crap up and Heero doing his Solid Snake thing. And even brief cameos of Dr. J and Relena to boot. (Just to be clear, I like Relena Darlian, not the Peacecraft version). Now, I hear tell that this Evolve has actually been added to the story of Wing and takes place in Spring, AC 196. I don't see how that would work as Dr. J would have been dead by then...
8. GAT-X105 Strike Gundam
As much as I love the frak outta the Strike, Matrix bullettime-ing it just looks lame. I wonder who was piloting it, Kira or Mu. Probably.................................. Mu.
9. MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam
Technically the last and the best of the Evolve shorts. Not just one but three Zeta variants show up here, with one being piloted by 'ole Amuro Ray and another being piloted by MSV icon Shin Matsunaga. The girl Yurii was also pretty interesting for having just this one short to get to know her, although I thought it was just a little cliche that she had a childhood encounter with Amuro. The Psycho Weapon was pretty awesome and I loved how it took all three Zetas to take it out. Take that Titans!!
10. MSZ-010 ZZ Gundam
The ZZ's new backpack looks pretty cool here and since I haven't seen ZZ yet, it was kinda of cool to see Judau motherfrakin' Ashta in animated action. Nice of Judau's old friends to get a new top for his ZZ but I wonder how they paid for that? And I wonder who that Qubeley pilot is? A surviving Puru clone?
11. RB-79 Ball
Nice to see something as lowly as the Ball get some love. This short was done particularly well, as the Ball is stalked through the shadowed recess of A Boa Qu by the lone Zaku and the surprising revelation that the Zaku's pilot was a girl not much older, I think, than the male Ball pilot. Also, I think this one of the extremely rare times that Gundam has strayed towards the horror genre.
12. RMS-099 Rick Dias
You know they had to include Char at some point. The action was pretty good with Char's Rick Dias facing off against his old Zaku II and the Hyaku Shiki versus the RX-78-2 but I'm not sure what the point of the scene in the bar was. And was that Ikeda doing the VA?
13. RMS-108 Marasai
This was also very well done; we get to see the AEUG's Jaburo drop operation from the eyes of a Titans pilot and why am I not surprised he has issues. Just about every Titans member seemed to have issues except Emma. Still, it was pretty well done and that Johnathan kid better be grateful that he missed the nuke.
14. Rekka Musha Gundam
I've never seen any of the SD Gundam stuff so this was sort of surreal. I take it that it was based on old Samurai and Kurosawa movies?
15. Newtype Challia Bull
Since I'm in the middle of reading the MSG novels, this was pretty interesting to see the redesigns of the Gundam, Braw Bro and White Base flying around and blowing stuff up. The Braw Bro looks much more intimidating than the original but I wish it did a little more than fire all-range attacks that the Gundam constantly dodged.
So that's Gundam Evolve. For a buncha shorts, it was pretty darn good. 4/5
