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Curious review, especially given the last two paragraphs seem to wholesale misrepresent pretty boilerplate aspects of the narrative.

The ever readable Matt Lynch sums up my own take away (with a few derivations, of course) better than I actually could.

Wan centrist hand wringing. Seen arguments being made Garlands unwillingness to make any sort of socio-political statement is the point but...NOT making a statement is still making a statement. Make some sort of argument one way or another on binary political Pidgeon holing at least, lest all you're left with is what we got. Vague, hollow gesturing in the general direction of demarcations and echoing 'really makes you think, huh?'.

Craven in its cowardice, ugly in its mediocrity. Stank.

Well. That was fucking wank.

Keeping the Universal Century wagon rolling (sorry folks, this shits too good) with a first time viewing of Gundam ZZ.

Can see why this was considered the black sheep of the series for years, the hard swerve from the devastating finale of Zeta to the light shenanigans of ZZ would have been jarring with only a two week buffer between shows.
That being said, ZZ IS very funny and endearing and the high bar of animation direction carries over from show to show. 35 years on and ZZ still LOOKS the bomb, excited to work through this one.

Been trying to mount a TV in the living room ...

Maybe buy it dinner first...?

Been trying to mount a TV in the living room of the flat for about a week now. Established where two wall studs where located either side of a trio of outlets (four times three pin, ethernet etc), confirmed cables did not run up the studs and said studs where in fact concrete (external wall) courtesy of the property developer. Even got a few t-bolt wall anchors to help carry the distribution across the rest of the frame.
Started drilling...NOT CONCRETE STUDS! Steel ones instead! I wont trust hanging solelely on dry wall anchors so that was a huge waste of my time and money. Fortunately nothing a bit of wall filler and a roll of white paint wont set straight but properly soured my mood nonetheless.

Outside of that, well it gets more complicated

Seriously?! I think I suffered a minor aneurysm halfway though the first paragraph...

Welcome to the wicky-wicky wild world of mecha shows, Jim.

Don't get me started on VOTOMS.

I always assumed other series had different characters, or different portrayals and perhaps explored different ideas and attitudes.

It's...belaboured and complicated.
Basically the Universal Century is the 'prime' timeline. MSG, Zeta, ZZ and Chars Counterattack are basically one long story spread across a decade in universe and the cast is in constant flux.
0080: War in the Pocket, Gundam F91, 0083: Stardust Memory, Victory Gundam, 08th MS Team, Gundam Unicorn, Gundam Narrative and Gundam Hathaway (as well as the IGLOO series of event films) are all within the UC also but with different casts, though overlap does occur. Some of these are better than other but 08TH MS Team is genuinely fantastic and entirely self contained so maybe give that a shot if you're really interested? It's only 14 episodes long too.

Outside of that, well it gets more complicated (ESPECIALLY with Turn A Gundam and Reconguista in G, both of which take place within their own time lines but reference events of the UC...it gets weird, I'll leave it there).

Of all the alternative timeline entries I'd absolutely recommend the most recent, Witch from Mercury. It's super short at only 24 episodes across 2 seasons, super fun and charming and just...a lovely time really.


Oh and ah, one more thing.

Avoid Gundam Wing like the fucking plague.

Maybe not the optimal solution (and where not for your clear distress most would consider an extreme solution) but have you considered adding acoustic foam panels to your ceiling? The same kind used in studio recording, they're designed to keep external noise from intruding during recording so if you get the right sort they could do the trick at least for now?
You don't even have to go crazy and go corner to corner, there's specific models you can get that function as sound sinks.
Place a section in the most offending of areas and that could dampen most of the noise, maybe? Please note, I'm absolutely no expert in any of this, it just occurred to me that if these work well enough in an semi-industrial setting for dividing walls maybe they would work to dampen noise leaks from upstairs neighbours. Maybe this is all bollocks and I've wasted your time by having you read this, but any idea seems better than homicidal thoughts

If the original MSG didn't gel with you, just forego anything else in the UC. No matter what decade, look or medium, it's all under the same general philosophical umbrella.
That being said if SDFM didn't work for you either it's tough to recommend any other entry under the Gundam banner, and maybe the 'Real Robo' genre just isn't for you. It's a pity but we can't all like the same stuff, and a 50 odd episode show commitment when you're just not feeling the vibe is nothing short of a folly.

Aura Battler Dunbine might be worth a shout, it's certainly an atypical entry in the pantheon but one of the very best and is pretty much entirely self contained.

[GUNDAM SEED PREEDOM]

GUNDAM SEED PREEDOM

So went to go see Gundam Seed Freedom last night with one of my best mates. He's a big Gundam head and I'm working my way through the Universal Century series over the last 6 months (banger after banger) but neither of us knew a single thing about Seed other than its reputation being kinda poor among western fans, but wanted to go for the hell of it. Seeing a victory lap movie for a series that ended 15 years ago, what could possibly go wrong? Nothing, actually. Had no fucking clue what was going on but shit went hard, turns out Seed might actually be a good show and anime fans are just pissy losers.

.... Which makes me wonder if Usagi Yojimbo will be on this list, and where it will be placed now we know it's ranked.

I've already, rather obliquely ... well very obliquely...mentioned that Usagi Yojimbo will be appearing in this list. In a way that no one here has any reason to have spotted. Suffice to say I've only read a very small proportion of the Usagi Yojimbo I now own BUT its so good it will be appearing. Where... well you'll have to wait a wee bit to find out. I do wondered how much higher it might have been had I read more of what I now own?

You love to hear it, one of the very very best. :,)

[MOBILE SUIT ZETA GUNDAM]

MOBILE SUIT ZETA GUNDAM

Nigh on impossible to condense such a dense 51 episode saga down into a few concise words but here we go.

It's good. Very good. Perfect? Not quite. But very goddamn good. You will believe a space opera can make you well up.

The child supporting duo could get jettisoned into the sun though, faaaack off.

Tyrion: 'Is faced with a supernatural force he knows is capable of raising the dead.'

Tyrion: Everyone! Lets hide in the crypts!

-

In my personal estimations GoT fell off way before anyone was willing to acknowledge it, Seasons 1 through 4 are all excellent but you can basically time the entropy of the shows shelf life in direct correlation to how cold Tywin and Oberyns bodies got.

TLDR version: Its all fucked, I'm going to the pub.