I rewatched Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team a few months ago because Get Played, a podcast I occasionally listen to, covered it. Unsurprisingly, it’s still fantastic — beautiful to look at, and refreshing as a smaller-scale, relatively self-contained Gundam story (clocking in at only 12 episodes). Every aspect of the show’s animation is impeccably crafted (the fun end credits are especially a delight), but on this rewatch I was specifically captivated by the colors and outfits, particularly Aina’s design.

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Just cool hair and cool fits and all-around cool color palette 🎨

Despite a lifetime of fascination with and love for the medium, I feel like I’ve been pretty myopic about how animation provides artists an infinite canvas to experiment and express themselves creatively in the world of fashion. Drawing clothes is so cool! Bryan Lee O’Malley, the artist most famously known for Scott Pilgrim, is an artist whose work I enjoy greatly and it recently clicked for me how much of the appeal of his work is the design of memorable outfits that makes his characters feel effortlessly cool. Anyways, go watch The 08th MS Team, currently on Hulu. Come for the mechas, stay for the lewks.