A new short animation entitled Good Luck Kingfisher Three has been thoughtfully done, channelling classic mecha anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam in the process.
Taking cues from the opening to Mobile Suit Gundam, Good Luck Kingfisher Three has two mecha infiltrate an O’Neill type space colony to discover a new weapon that could turn the tide of a war (video shown below).
Much of the setup and premise is very much out of classic Gundam, but there’s a lot else going on here. With the mecha being smaller and more compact, closer to those in Armored Trooper VOTOMS and designs more akin to something Kazuhisa Kondo would create.
Although the titular Kingfisher mecha do give off Xeku Eins vibes from Gundam Sentinel, and the enemy mecha the team encounter is weirdly High Streamer-esque, but I digress.
The art style is also entirely gorgeous and takes an almost pastel approach to the environments, with bright and bold colors acting as a very solid backdrop to the mecha action (show above).
There’s also a nice mix of 3D and 2D animation going on here, although the lower framerate animation does jar a bit, but I get why it’s there.
Even having the mecha called Man Machines being a clear Gaia Gear reference is great, so I genuinely love how all of this has been handled.
The other major and entirely positive aspect to this piece of animation was that it was done by current university students. That fills me with hope that kids these days are learning from what has gone before, at least from a mecha anime perspective.
So I look forward to seeing more from this team of animators and here’s hoping someone signs them up to make a new mecha anime series.
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