I will keep this brief. Victory Gundam is one of my favorite series. I watched it about a year and a half ago after returning to watching anime after a nearly decade long hiatus.I was a huge fan of the series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (and some of the earlier alternate universe stories in my middle school years before that). I've finally gotten through almost the whole Universal Century series of Gundam, and Victory most definitely stands as one of the strongest Gundam series out there. It is certainly the darkest of the Gundam series (more grim than Zeta overall in terms of named character body count at the very least). Where it succeeds is the relationship between Uso and the rest of the cast. I feared disliking Uso based on his age of only 13, but he turns to be one of the most level headed and normal protagonists in series history.He approaches things as they come and actually shows joy/excitement when its relevant, and fear/anger/sadness when you would expect. We experience less of the instability and angst present with many of the series early protagonists and get someone you can really root for in almost every situation. He also is unique in that while certainly the same wunderkind (newtype!) as the rest of the main series leads we get to see Uso struggle and learn to adapt to situations more than others.From an action perspective the series is a bit of a mixed bag. While the latter action scenes with the V2 and many of the main antagonists custom suits are spectacular, the early scenes on earth are admittedly less exciting. Not bad in any regard, but I would say Mobile Suit Gundam, and Zeta Gundam both have a more exciting start over all. The animation is a bit of a mixed bag as well. While some scenes look very nice, the over all animation has somewhat classic almost American style with its characters and palette. I still can't definitively say it looks better than the premier 80s gundam series which is a bit disappointing. All in all I very much enjoyed MS Victory Gundam, and would highly recommend it to any UC Gundam fan though I believe this a show that can be enjoyed by all.

Victory Gundam was the first gundam series in 6 years after ZZ Gundam came out and it was directed exclusively by Tomino himself. Tomino was going through depression when this was being created because things, at the time, were not going his way. He had to rearrage the first 4 episodes to go in this order that Episode 4 became Episode 1, Episode 1 became Episode 2, Episode 2 became Episode 3, and Episode 3 became Episode 4. All that rearranging so he could introduce the V Gundam first. Tomino didn't want to do that but had to anyway. Even though the first 4 episode order is confusing it was actually done marvelously and makes sense out of the story. I guarantee that if you watched the original way the story would make less sense.This series becomes as dark as Zeta Gundam and surpasses it at some points but, though this it is dark it becomes really comical toward the middle of the series to the end to let up on the depressing moments. This series has some of the best action I have ever seen in a gundam series far surpassing Wing, and even the newer Seed and Seed Destiny. The maneuvers that characters pull of to fight are simply amazing not to mention there is a lot of team work. People don't win battles by themselves but with the help of others, which is rarely shown in a 50+ type gundam series where there are newtypes, but there are still one on one duels abound.This is the only gundam series where No one, the main characters and the minor characters, are in that "safe" zone from death as many many people die at one point and time I asked myself, "Are they so bold to really kill off the likable people of this show". Every character in this show is likable except one. If you've seen Zeta Gundam and thought that the death count was high then you're dead wrong as Victory surpasses it. That's another aspect that should be noted, The Victory Gundam is not a super powered Gundam that you'd see in Wing or Seed but it's essentially a mass production unit and can even be beaten by conscript mobile suits if the pilot is not careful and the Victory gets destroyed a lot. Another gundam the V2 comes around and it's the "one of a kind" gundam of the series and while it's still easily destructible the V2 becomes cheap as the series goes on, but it's not a stupid, "that's so cheap" but and awe inspiring, "that's so cheap" but they add more parts to the V2 first the assault parts, then the buster parts, then a shield that has a cheap mega particle cannon. Oh, one more the the opposing side does not have a gundam but there own mobile suit that are strong enough to beat the gundams of this show. Newer gundam series should take a hint at that, "Don't make main characters on both sides have a gundam" The only bad thing about this series is that it starts off so slow. I felt that I really wasn't going anywhere until about Episode 22, but for me that slow beginning made the ending so much better, the last 15 episodes are all 5 star quality. And this series has the most hated character in gundam. Think of the stupidity of Yazan and Reccoa, from Zeta Gundam, mixed in with Char's cunning from Char's Counterattack, and you've got the most hated character of all time.Find someway, anyway to watch Victory Gundam it's the second best UC gundam show next to Zeta. It stays true to the source material of the UC and adds more to it. You can't go wrong with watching this.

Possible spoiler, but I wanted to be safe.In the time that I have owned this series I believe that it is w/out a doubt Yoshiyuki Tomino's second best Gundam (after Zeta Gundam)for a variety of reasons. This series of Gundam may very well contain some of the most beautiful background music ever as every piece is done by orchestra. The animation is not bad at all considering that it is 13 years old. The series starts out in UC (Universal Century) 0153 and stars Uso Evin the youngest (13 years old)of all the Gundam pilots ever and in this series he is dragged to the forefront of a conflict raging between the very much weakened Earth Federation and the ruthless Zanscare empire who have brought the guillotine in to cut down dissidents and anyone else against them. On top of all that Uso doesn't know what has become of his parents so he has hands full fighting to keep the Earth Federation alive and to seek out his parents. The story although confusing sometimes, is very well paced even if you have the not very accurate "Hong Kong" subtitles like what is on my copy. The characters are wonderful and losses on both sides are heavy and cringe-worthy when they die *POSSIBLE SPOILER* especially amongst the Shrike Team (it makes me cringe when they are introduced which happens just after the 10th ep. I believe), leading to the obvious conclusion that this is not kiddie Gundam (see ZZ Gundam the previous entry in the series). IMHO this is the darkest Gundam due to the way that people die and the amount of people that die. In one scene for example there are human beings (not in mobile suits, but enemy foot soldiers)that are vaporized by a beam saber something not seen in any other Gundam series as far as I know. The characters are very good in this series they are very likable and for the most part will have your attention when seeing them in action. In conclusion this is a wonderful series that fell through the cracks into obscurity due to it not being popular in Japan the only place where it was officially released which is a shame . I read that Yoshiyuki Tomino was very depressed during this time which led to this very dark series. Now that that time is over I would gladly ask Tominosan (if I could)to look back at this wonderful series and pat himself on the back even though he was going through a tough time.

Gundam animes tend more towards good than bad, but V Gundam is one of the better TV series--and arguably the best of the UC timeline. Although it is slightly confusing in the beginning, as the episodes go on, you get a better idea of what's going on and the characters really start to grow on you. Although there are a few obvious red-shirts, a lot of these characters are killed in a messy and upsetting fashion--just like in real war. There are lots of noble sacrifices, but perhaps even more pointless deaths, failed attempts at making a heroic sacrifice, and most of all, an overarching sense of dread throughout the entire series. This is one of the only Gundam stories where it was really hard to tell who was going to come out on top when the dust had cleared.A true epic spanning over fifty episodes, V Gundam doesn't necessarily tie up all the loose ends, or explain everything perfectly. But that's part of the point; in a real war, so many people are involved, it's nearly impossible to fully understand what is truly going on. The gamut of characters here is staggering. Some fall into typical anime stereotypes, but most of them are refreshing and interesting in their own rights.Quite a few of the scenes were shocking, and it isn't for the faint hearted. This is certainly the most downcast of all Gundam series, save perhaps Z Gundam. War crimes are the norm; the body count consistently rises; children, even younger than usual (the main character is 13) are thrown in as cannon fodder; and a general lack of ethics is displayed at pretty much every turn by all sides of the conflict. But this makes the series all the more compelling. It doesn't rely on cheap over-use of gore and violence, but instead real drama.If you like any Gundam, and have a familiarity with the UC timeline, I highly suggest V Gundam.