How To Do Backstory Right - Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orhpans

Having a rich sense of history is one of the fastest ways that any story can get me invested in its world. However many Anime, movies, TV, etc often do it in the clumsiest ways possible. The worst of which is when a large chunk of the story’s intro is an exposition dump giving out backstory that ends up killing the tension in the early part of the story while we wait for the  characters who weren’t part of the back story to learn what we already know.

Meanwhile, Iron Blooded Orphans takes the opposite approach. It starts us off by showing and cementing the most important relationship in the show, between Orga and Mikazuki. Young Mikazuki has just shot a man while a young Orga leans against a wall from behind with blood on his face. Some kind of paper currency is scattered all around the body of the dead man and just like that we know the most important thing about this story, that, it takes place in a world where there are children that have to kill in order to survive. Soon after that were shown that this is taking place on Mars, instantly informing us that this is far into the future, even though a specific date is never given.

(The First Episode of Iron Blooded Orphans on the official Gundam Youtube Page)

By far though, IBO does most of its world building through near constant reference to “The Calamity War” a conflict that occurred 300 years ago. Now just by hearing the name “Calamity War” we can be pretty certain that it was a very bad time for all of humanity. So bad in fact that during the flashback to Kudelia’s speech in episode 2, we learn how the war was ended by a truce that had several groups divide up governing rights for Earth and its colonies throughout the solar system. It's heavily implied that humanity was so desperate for peace that the hasty formation of new governments sowed the seeds for a poverty stricken Mars and a near serfdom like existence for the working class on Earth’s colonies.

We learn early on that Gjallarhorn is responsible for a good deal of the turmoil on Mars. In the very first episode we're shown that they are a corrupt, brutal organization, filled with people who will do anything to hold onto the power they have. As viewers were made to hate Gjallarhorn in the very first episode when its soldiers are shown to have zero hesitation when sniping the those poor kids on patrol around the bass. Then these assholes are being led by an even bigger asshole, who strait up disrespects his sensei. Not cool man not cool. If it wasn’t for Sensei Crank, Gjallarhorn would look even more like the Galactic Empire.

But just when we really start to hate Gjallarhorn, we’re told how they are the ones who banded together and put an end to the Calamity War 300 years ago. Their founders WERE the heroes, and probably could have been the main characters in their own Gundam series.

To top it all off, we get Barbatos. Pretty much every other Mobile Suit in the series is very practical, drab, and militaristic in its design, even the ones piloted by the flamboyant Turbines are all one color and still look designed for function first. But Barbatos is shining white, with blue, red and gold accents and an intricate headpiece. While every other mobile suit looks like it just walked off an factory assembly line, Barbotos looks like it just jumped out of a piece of ancient Japanese art. It looks mythical, almost magical, like it made to be a suit of armor for a god, not to be puppeteered by us tiny humans. And when were told that Barbatos is one of the 72 Gundam Mobile Suits that Gjallarhorn built, and which allowed them to end the war, were left to imagine just how epic and disastrous the Calamity War must have been if it took dozens of  Mobile Suits as heroic and mythical looking as Barbatos in order to finally bring the war to an end.

(The mythical looking Barbatos (Left) compared to the drab, militaristic design of Gjallarhorn's Mobile Suits (Right) )

Were left with the feeling that this is a world of remnants, of faded glory. A world that humanity has had to rebuild with scraps, and which has left most people living in the dirt, where the saviors of the past, are the oppressors of today, a world whose only hope for heroes, is a bunch of kids who are forced to kill for every meal.

Daredevil Season 2: A Tale of Two Thousand Ninjas

Daredevil Season 1 was eagerly anticipated by all fans of the Marvel MCU and it was pretty damn good. It had some cool action, a great villain and some likable protagonists. But without Kingpin, the show had to fill the void with something other than more tonal references to Batman Begins, while it waits for the inevitable Defenders team up series. Their answer is The Punisher, and he manages to fill that void....partially.

Jon Bernthal is surprisingly good as Punisher. He impressed me in Fury (A Move You Need To See) and now he's really proved himself to be a genuinely great actor here. Now whether or not there is range in that greatness is still unknown, because if they really do give Punisher his own series, he's gonna need to show a lot more than what we see of him here. That, or he might end up being the Hulk of Hell's Kitchen, great in a supporting role, but not always the main focus (For the record Incredible Hulk is one of my favorite MCU films hands down like...top 5 maybe 3).

BUT, something that really subtly irked me in Daredevil season 1, and has now really come to fruition in season 2, is that neither really feels like they are part of the MCU. Sometimes it almost feels like its embarrassed that it is, and wants to pretend its in its own (Totally Not Batman) universe. And the problem isn't the violence. The mind blowingly good Jessica Jones has many scenes of horrible violence and still feels like its taking place in the MCU, but down on the streets of New York from the perspective of everyday people.

Meanwhile even though he lives in a city that got attacked by Aliens a year ago, and lives in a world where a Nazi Cult almost took over the USA, and a city in Europe got lifted up into the sky, Matt Murdok continuously rolls his eyes in disbelief, when he's told that two Ninja Clans that have been fighting for centuries are about to duke it out in his city for a super natural power. "That's just a fairy tale" He says

Really????

Its all contributes to this weird sense I get that the show doesn't want to acknowledge the fantastical world that its characters live in, and instead is more interested in trying to replicate the successes of other popular TV shows from the past few years. Game of Thrones, other violent crime dramas, and even a little bit of Arrow.

One thing is for sure, its gonna feel REALLY weird if the Netflix MCU shows that come after the release of the new solo Spiderman movie, don't acknowledge or have camoes with Spidey or some of his villains.

Think about it. How cool would it be if Daredevil had to fight Mysterio In their first encounter DD wipes the floor with him because he can "see" through all of Mysterio's illusions with his super senses. But then in the next fight, Mysterio uses illusions based on Sound and Smell instead of Sight, and Matt really has a hard time determining what is real and what is fake.

Ok enough of that. Good Night All! May your dreams be filled with Ninjas.