Iron Blooded Orphans was one of the Gundam series I was really looking forward to watching, as it's been touted as one of the best (if not the best) entries in the series since it came out 10 years ago. It's also highly regarded due to it's realistic and gritty atmosphere, which in my opinion, is disingenuous to many of the other entries and ticks me off a bit because it is reminicient of the "newer = better" mindset a lot of anime fans had around it's release and still do to this day. After making my way through all 50 episodes, I can say though that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the praise is well deserved.

The story and themes that IBO deals with are truly quite a bit heavier than previous entries. The first season largely revolves around the colony on the planet of Mars and "human debris" that are used as slave labor and disposable soldiers. Much like all other mecha, IBO has child soldiers, but they delve far deeper and into the cruel lives these children face; being subject to dangerous surgeries that reduce their status from human to monster (where the "iron blooded" moniker comes from), viewed on the same level as trash, their lives being cut short in battle is seen as a good thing to many. The story follows the protagonist, Mikazuki Augus, deuteragonist, Orga Itsuka, and tritagonist, Kudelia Aina Bernstein, alongside other "human debris" who worked with the former two in the company C.G.S., soon to be renamed Tekkadan after the human debris organize a coup against their wholly human oppressors. The latter is a pampered girl who contracts Tekkadan to escort her to Earth so that she may advocate for the rights of the Martians. The first season largely deals with the themes of human rights, discrimination, poverty, war, and the impacts it has on children (namely the members of Tekkadan). The second season is far more politically focused on the reigning parties in power \(Gjallarhorn, Teiwaz, and the beneficiaries that fund them)\, and tackling themes of discrimination in the business side of things, institutional power, grief and loss. I found that I enjoyed season 1 more than season 2, as the political turmoil of Gjallarhorn was not as interesting to me as the turmoil of Tekkadan and what it means to be human in a world where you are not seen as such.

The characters and their relationships with one another in this show are what makes it so engaging. While the main cast is largely children and young adults of 12-20, the adults behind the scenes who are both supporting and acting against the main cast drives home a theme that every Gundam series touches on, but doesn't quite reach the full potential of: children are paying for the sins of the adults. You can clearly see this with the implantation of the Alaya Vijnana system into many of our protagonists, a system that was designed by the ruling Gjallarhorn, but would eventually be seen as dirty and tainting, only to be used on those who are less than human. One of the main beneficiaries of Kudelia's altruism is a two-timing old geezer who would sell her out if offered the right price. Most directly, this theme is stated through Almiria, McGillis' 9 year old wife, who directly states that she will wait for McGillis and atone for his sins together. The amount of character death in this whole obviously drives this home as well. Children are killed left and right because a powerful few refuse to let go of their money or status.

Mika and Orga's relationship is incredibly interesting. It's established very early on that the two are in a highly codependent relationship; Orga relies heavily on Mika's view of him as a savior and that he has to live up to his expectations, and Mika will act out any order that Orga gives him because, as he describes many times, he was "born" the day he met Orga. It's a pretty good example of toxic yaoi, if you may. When I say any order, I mean any order. Mika would kill hundreds \(and has)\ if Orga told him to. The two feed off of each other's worst qualities, and it makes way for some very introspective conversations about how things might have turned out if they were a bit healthier. Of course, that would be no fun. Their relationship highlights how war-torn, abused, and outcasted children will grow up. And it's usually not very pretty, as we can easily contrast Orga and Mika to characters like Biscuit and Tamaki, characters with family outside of Tekkadan which allowed them to be raised in a stable environment and maintain a far more reasonable mindset.

Another interesting character dynamic is that between Kudelia and Atra. The two are both in love with Mika, but it's never portrayed as a love triangle. They have a deep love for each other as well, and it's quite refreshing to watch a show that isn't pitting two of its female leads against one another. In fact, the three end up in a sort of poly relationship by the end lol. Kudelia, despite her incredibly different upbringing, views all of Tekkadan as her family, and vice versa. Even though she is poised as being the "Maiden of Revolution", she never oversteps her role and doesn't take credit for the literal blood, sweat, and tears that her family poured into their work. I greatly appreciate how they tackle the idea of her, by her background, being the rich white savior of the underprivileged Martians and ensuring to the best of their ability that she doesn't become that. Atra is somewhat of her foil; a young orphan girl who, despite sharing in the pain of Tekkadan, feels powerless compared to them, sometimes even like an outsider, and finds solace in Kudelia who oftentimes feels the same. They love each other so much to the point that Atra tells Kudelia to also have a baby with Mika. That was a crazy scene.

Rounding off this section, I do want to talk about one last character relationship that really touched me, and honestly really surprised me. That being the relationship between Shino and Yamagi. I will try to steer clear of major spoilers, but their relationship does end in tragedy. A friendship is built up between the two since season 1, where Yamagi developed a firework show to honor their deceased family members. Shino, having a flair for the flashy, seems to strike up a bond with Yamagi following this, and eventually Yamagi becomes the dedicated mechanic for Shino's machines. Shino, from the very start, is set up as a bonafide lover of women and making lots of comments about boobs. No problem there, these are teenage boys after all. Yamagi is a far quieter character and keeps to himself, working closely with Mr. Yukinojo on the mobile suits. Throughout season 2, we see the pair together a lot, even from the very first opening, the two are paired together. Maybe I've just been around these parts for too long, but I was getting the inkling of a dedicated relationship between the two fairly early on, as Yamagi was often very close to Shino while working on his Ryusei-Go, oftentimes inside the pod on Shino's lap. Maybe it's not too unusual for guys who have lived together for years, consider themselves family, and shared solemn, intimate moments together to get this physically close. All the male characters in this show have a pretty healthy relationship with their masculinity, with the few exceptions being clearly defined as antagonists. The pair's relationship comes to a head when they're preparing for the "final battle", as Yamagi is helping Shino prepare his machine, they're both inside the pod, very, very close to one another. Multiple times during their scenes together, the two touch their helmets together and the other's face is reflected in their visor. Now, the helmet touch has been seen as a pretty homoerotic gesture since Char and Amuro started it back in '79. For Shino and Yamagi to do this upwards of three times, it feels pretty cut and dry to me. While Yamagi's advances are quite tame, Shino never rejects them, sometimes making pretty pointed advances of his own, and even during a flashback he states, "I like this place that has lots of different guys," certainly implying that he is not averse to Yamagi loving him. While Shino's sexuality is never canonized, Yamagi's is, with him being the 2nd canonically gay character in the entire Gundam series \(but probably the first good gay character, as I've heard about Turn A Gundam's character being... predatory at best)\. The tender scenes between the two are quite lovely and even though their relationship is never able to be fully realized, it is a great display of background characterization.

This is really the first area where I have my qualms. Especially in season 2, it's hard to tell exactly how much time has passed since the last episode, and you sort of have to guesstimate based on how long it took someone with a grave injury to recover in their slime pod. Especially when you're not watching a show weekly and instead usually two episodes per day, 4 days a week, like I do, it skews your sense of what place you are in the story, and everything feels like it's taken less than 24 hours apart. The last few episodes of season 2, to me, felt very poorly paced, despite this being one of the few times where events ARE taking less than 24 hours apart. No matter how good a show was up to that point, an ending that goes bam-bam-bam with its story points will always making the entire show feel sloppy.

IBO has some sick mobile suit designs. They all feel visually fresh while still paying homage to the original Gundam and Zaku designs. It's a nice change from SEED, where the designs were all certainly cool, but they really just felt like recolors of RX-079 (and each other) when you really sit down and look at them. Barbatos is a super cool take on the standard Gundam and it's various forms throughout the show ensure it never feels stagnant. The fights are all engaging full of action. I never really noticed too many fight scenes that were just camera pans or zoom ins; there was always some sort of substantial animation. I'm taking 0.5 points off because there are certainly some character designs that feel largely out of place. There is a huge amount of variety in the character designs \(you would have no problem doing a silhouette test with these characters)\, but some characters \(largely the female cast)\ lack the variety that the male cast does. We do see a large amount of female characters within Naze's Turbines, but if you asked me to sit down and play spot the difference with some of them, I'm not going to get very far. Meanwhile, the male cast has an incredible range of faces and bodies, while the female cast is largely cut from the same cloth. Their designs are visually enticing, for sure, but when your only plus sized female character is Ms. Cucubita who is really toeing the line of acceptable designs for a black woman, it doesn't feel too good.

Iron Blooded Orphans is a solid entry point into Gundam if you don't feel like 0079 would fit your style \(to which I say suck it the hell up and watch the show from the 70s)\. It doesn't require much exposition, and the story would definitely leave you wanting to continue with your foray into the universe. The characters are incredibly memorable, with each unfortunate moment genuinely making me feel something. I don't typically enjoy shows with constant character death because it feels like 1. shock value and 2. it exposes bad writing very quickly. I will and have dropped shows because they started killing characters who I could not even spell their name. IBO builds deep connections between you and the characters so that each gunshot or mobile suit explosion makes you feel a pit in your gut and a stinging at your eyes. If you're looking for a pretty substantial show and interested in the mecha genre, I would probably reccomend IBO. For all it's grit and grim, the whole show isn't like that, and you'll get some reprieve from the violence. Just don't get too comfortable with it.

Iron Blooded Orphans receives the vorepride stamp of approval.