Gundam Unicorn – Spring 2010

Earlier this year it was announced that Gundam Unicorn would be animated in some form or another for our viewing pleasure, much to the enthusiasm of Universal Century fans like myself. Since then, a small amount amount of new footage has been released (see here) and websites, both in Japanese and English, have been launched.

You can check out the English language website here. It contains the standard information on characters, mechanics and factions. At this point it’s not entirely clear to me what form the anime will take – full scale series or six eipsode OVA – but in any case, a general release date has been set for the Spring of 2010.

At this point I’m tentatively optimistic. The animation looks great (except for that rather lame CGI used when the Unicorn “transforms”), the mechanical design have been making me salivate since the beginning of last year, and the character design looks promising as well.

I’ve got my fingers crossed over here, don’t let me down U.C.!

“Only the Beginning…”

A Mobile Suit Gundam F91 Review and Commentary

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The year is U.C. 0123, 30 years after the events of Char’s Counter Attack. Relative peace has settled on the federation since the final Neo-Zeon movement and military mobile suit development has been slowed to a crawl. Without warning, a group calling themselves the Crossbone Vanguard attack Frontier Side, the federation’s newest set of colonies. The Federation navy decides not to bring its full force down on the Vanguard and instead lets Frontier Side’s garrison slug it out with their mysterious attackers.

A ragtag group of civilian adolescents, led by Seabook Arno (strange name isn’t it?) fight their way out of Frontier IV, and attach themselves to an outdated warship piloted by a rookie crew. Frontier IV is one of the Federation’s newest colonies and the first target and then operational base of the Crossbone Vanguard.

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 is a heavy, confusing attempt at a completely new Gundam story set within the Universal Century time-line. It was intended to be a full fledged series, but the 50 episodes were scratched and instead condensed into the two hour film that we have today.

What we’re left with is a Frankenstein’s monster of a film, with characters and plot events being stitched in wherever and whenever they can be. New characters come out of nowhere as others die suddenly, allegiences change without notice and Seabook quickly skips from angsty teenager to a fairly stoic veteran.

The tried, tested and true Gundam formula is followed, as our civilian protagonist Seabook is thrown into battle, along with his group of friends and refugee children, piloting the local ‘feddie forces’ only real chance to end the conflict decisively: the prototype F91 Gundam. And you guessed it, he’s a Newtype.

Mobile Suit Gundam in general can often be a melodramatic experience, but F91 takes it all to a new level. Everything about this movie is depressing, harsh and violent. It’s a non-stop barrage of cold-sober struggle and hurt, and somehow the crushing seriousness of it all never crosses over into the realm of unintended self parody or over-exaggeration. There’s no relief from the grim reality of a meaningless war in this film, and over time we gain no immunity to it.

The Crossbone Vanguard conflict is a particularly harsh and unlikeable one and neither the Federation nor the Vanguard are likely to win your heart. This is no war of independence, no desperate battle over resources and no selfless defense of ideals. The Cross Bone Vanguard is simply an elitist group in imitation of royalty who use brute force to carve out a small colonial kingdom, more fantasy in their minds than a reality. It’s the kind of war that the aggressors can’t effectively justify and both sides want desperately to end as soon as possible.

There’s very little about the Crossbone war that comes off as artificial or fake, and it is probably the conflict’s meaninglessness and stupidity that lends it a feeling of reality.

Unfortunately most of the characters are as unpleasant as the war itself, in their own way, and all but Seabook and his younger sister leave a bad taste in your mouth. It’s not that they’re poorly constructed, or slapped together cliches, as was the case with ‘IGLOO – they’re simply frustrated and angry men and women fighting for their lives on one side, and insane psychotics or egomaniacs on the other.

There’s simply no one to root for in F91, and that’s a big problem from an entertainment point of view. No sympathy is cultivated by either side and all one feels for Seabook, our hero, is sorry that he’s been forced into a war without reason and surrounded by jerks and psychopaths.

There’s an “opposite sides of the war” love story at work that recalls to mind Shiro Amada and Aina Saharin from 08th MS Team, though it’s not as mature nor as interesting. Neither is it developed as much as it needed to be, no doubt another symptom of the 50 episodes into two hours compression.

The mobile suit design is probably the major triumph of F91 in this reviewer’s opinion. The Crossbone Vanguard mobile suits manage to be truly intimidating and distinguishable without being complete derivatives of Zeon designs. The hulking, armoured-up look they have is reminiscent of a Zaku but the helmeted faces, with two huge eyes, is a feature all their own. They function fantastically as antagonist suits and you’ll never confuse them with anyone else.

The Federation rank and file suits are the familiar Jegans and the F91 unit is a fairly typical Gundam design, with some distinctive shoulder “fins” that set it apart.

F91 is animated in beautifully painted cell animation but the film hardly takes advantage of it. We get fleeting glimpses of some stunning colour, movement and detail that outdoes any Gundam production before it. The trouble is, most of the film is made up of budget animation that, while still decent, was obviously intended for a full length series and not a budget busting two hour movie.

Most battles, including the final one, are poorly staged and a mess on screen. Things are cluttered and only a handful of mobile suits is ever shown at one time, making what should be a large scale battle appear more like a small skirmish. Establishing shots are rare, the point of view always focused on the F91 Gundam. It becomes impossible to tell where exactly anything is in relation to anything else.

We fail to get that sense of vast open space, as the “camera” is so tight and claustrophobic, insisting on focusing on the F91 and Seabook from awkward and uninteresting angles.

The soundtrack is tasteful and works well in the film, though most of it is an undisguised rip off of Star Wars themes.

Certainly the ghost of a full length series that will never see the light of day haunts this movie, as we’re subjected to abrupt plot and character movements without warning and a high contrast battle of quality vs budget animation. It’s a shame that F91’s promising mobile suit design, animation and over all serious tone were mashed together so bluntly.

The conclusion of the film proclaims “this is only the beginning”, but F91 was the Gundam that never was, the series that never had its chance. It’s impossible not to wonder what it could (or maybe should) have been, but as we have it today, it just doesn’t work as a two hour film.

Gundam Unicorn to be Animated!

It seems to be official, a Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn series or OVA is set to be in production and animated for “this winter”. The official announcement was made via Gundam Ace magazine. Check out a few nice scans of said magazine here. Whether this is the Gundam Unicorn movie previously announced in Italy or something completely different isn’t quite clear at this point.

Dare we hope that Gundam Unicorn will be the next full series? It’s been a long, long time since Universal Century was the main attraction, I think it’s time for a come-back. For someone who ignored both Gundam Seed and 00 in their entirety, I’m ready to jump back into the action.

I still don’t have much information on Unicorn’s story. It’s set a few years after Char’s Counter Attack and I’ve heard some whispers about yet another Neo-Zeon Movement. I can’t say I’m surprised at that, but I do hope they’ve got something more interesting than Zeon remnants for us. I mean, at this point they’d be remnants of remnants of remnants wouldn’t they?

In any case, I have faith in Universal Century’s ability to keep the same conflict fresh time and time again and, as I mentioned in my earlier Unicorn post, the mechanical designs look very promising.

Life in an IGLOO

Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO (series 1) is a six episode OVA animated entirely with CGI. It follows a team of Zeon soldiers during the one year war whose assignment is to test experimental prototype weaponry against the Federation. Each episode introduces a new weapon and often a new operator. The series gives us a fairly detached bird’s-eye-view of the one year war from the Zeon perspective and a glimpse at some of its less influential and successful engineering experiments.

I usually stay well away from anything done with computer generated graphics, both because the quality is so far below cell animation and because all CGI productions somehow seem to always be the bottom of the barrel in terms of story telling. I’d known about ‘IGLOO for some time and had ignored it until I read a post at The Animanachronism that caught my eye. It was the format – six interconnected yet separate episodes – and the subject matter – experimental weapons testing during the one year war – that pushed me to give MS IGLOO a chance.

Although I have yet to cross paths with the computer animation that can compete with the old pencil and paint style, ‘IGLOO is about as good as it gets. Facial expressions don’t appear entirely unhuman, the physics of mobile suit movement are convincing and explosions look great. I suppose the days of beautifully perfected cell animation are all but done with anyway, and if I had to choose between this and the flat, cardboard cut-out style used in ‘Seed, I’ll go with this.

The Zeonic prototypes we get to see in action are notable for all being failures in one way or another. They’re either rendered obsolete by the circumstances of the war or are simply poorly conceived, impractical constructions. It was interesting seeing these half-baked ideas being put to practice,a change from the usual Gundam attitude toward experimental weapons, where the word prototype is apparently a synonym for unstoppable god-machine.

The sheer novelty of some of the designs were enough to keep me watching even if the mobile suit battles weren’t always spectacular.

For me, one of the most attractive features of any Mobile Suit Gundam series is the pseudo science and engineering. Hearing about the weight, thrust or reactor power of a given mobile suit grounds the show in that hard science fiction category and keeps things from getting too G-Gundamish. MS IGLOO carries on this tradition, as we see totally impractical weapons, such as the Mobile Diver System, fail in the face of simple Federation countermeasures.

The major failure of this little series are the painfully melodramatic characters. Any kind of believability or realism in the personalities and actions of the characters seems to have been thrown out the window in favour of caricatures and soap-opera style acting. Mobile Suit Gundam is nothing if not an exaggerated drama, but ‘IGLOO often goes too far.

There are times when the adult military cast of characters have more in common with a pre-school class than soldiers. There’s at least one point in each episode where one or more characters will go on a meaningless emotional tangent dripping with unconvincing angst – usually about such abstract themes as war, death and duty. But none of it seems to fit and it all ends up being a jumbled mass of raw emotions that crop up at seemingly arbitrary points. This was a surprise, considering MS IGLOO was directed by the same man who oversaw Stardust Memory, a fairly serious and adult production by Gundam standards.

But aside from the annoyingly childish characters, MS IGLOO isn’t half bad. Decent animation, some interesting weapons concepts, and a format you don’t need to get invested in. Not a bad deal, especially considering this is the first Universal Century offering since The 08th MS Team.

Turn A – My Thoughts So Far (Part 2)

Preface

It’s been a while since I last spoke about my impressions of Turn A Gundam. I said in that first post that it was the beginning of a series of three. I had almost forgotten about Loran Cehack and the Moon Race and was ready to move on when I happened to come across a model kit for the White Doll in a local shop, and it all came crashing back.

So, after nearly a year, I’m pleased to finally be able to continue with my thoughts on Turn A Gundam.

Turn A So Far – Episodes 06 – 25

They say no news is good news. Since we last left Turn A Gundam, 20 episodes ago, not much has changed. A few new mobile suits, a few new characters, but essentially it`s all the same.

First, the mechanics. A few new (and I use that word very loosely) mobile suits have been added to the roster. Most notably, the MS-06 Borjarnon, identical to a Zaku II, and the AMX-109 Kapool, a mobile suit that originally appeared in Gundam Double Zeta. I was somewhat relieved to see the more traditional mobile suit designs appear. I said in my first Turn A post that the strange new MS we saw in the initial episodes were a welcome change. While this is still true, after 25 episodes, the novelty has worn off.

As of yet – half way through the entire series – not a single battle has taken place. A handful of skirmishes here, a half-hearted duel there, but no battles. Even as the 25th episode closes, Loran is still barely able to use his gundam. The Earth militia mobile suits literally hurl explosive devices with their hands in a desperate attempt to scratch the enemies’ paint jobs. They’ve just discovered the machine guns built into their Kapools.

The show’s major disappointment as of episode 25, for me, is the total lack of mobile suit combat so far.

In contrast to the grand campaigns of Zeon or the epic battles of operation meteor, the Moon Race`s invasion of Earth is something like a tea party, or a fencing match. Each side moves its tiny forces around, neither one really intending to do harm to the other, both obeying the gentlemenly rules of war.

The skirmishes play out like a children’s game. One side actually manages, in spite of their own incompetence, to damage or kill an enemy and both forces go running in opposite directions because some one got a booboo.

That new and refreshing Earth setting is getting old fast. The same forest and desert backdrops are being used over and over again. They seem to blend into each other, making Earth just one large, dull, over-simplified parody of itself. And the grounded gundam action is like a shuffleboard match in comparison the aerial combat we’re used to watching.

It all makes for some very dull visuals. I suppose if I was a 14 year old girl, I might be more interested in the various relationship triangles, but that’s not the case.

That being said, if I really wanted to stop watching, I would have. There’s something quality at the heart of Turn A. No one could deny the sub-par action sequences but neither should one fail to recognize Turn A’s strengths. It’s innovative in just about every way, from mechanical designs and setting to pacing and plot.

The problem is, the initial novelty of these innovations has passed. Without the action typical of most gundam animations and a stagnating plot, what meat is there in this show? What exactly am I watching here?

After thinking about it, a realization began to creep up on me. I wasn’t really watching a Gundam series, but some kind of anime drama that happened to include the odd mobile suit. The main event, thus far, has been the slightly gender confused characters and the various doppelganger situations at work, not mobile suit warfare.

To be fair, it is suggested in the 25th episode, that Loran’s calm and kind personality could change some time in the near future. Lilly Borjarnon, the lady for whom the MS-06 Borjarnon is named, comments that he (Loran) is like a panther, who will turn his claws against his keepers sooner or later. That little teaser got me excited, but should this kind of development only be a speck on the horizon or something more by now? We’re now half-way through the series and plot development is just a possibility?

Ms. Borjarnon’s hint at something darker on the horizon makes me wonder if the second season of Turn A will be a different ball game that the first. For now though, this Gundam series sticks out from the rest like a thumb among four fingers. Turn A is slower (to the point of stagnation), more feminine, more innovative, less heavy and dials down the intense seriousness most Gundam narratives live on.

Gundam Wing – The Appeal

Hate it or love it, Gundam Wing is the series that brought a significant number of North Americans to the Mobile Suit Gundam world. Not long  ago, ‘Wing was a big talking point and for many, their first exposure to Gundam. It has since been eclipsed in popularity (and greatly surpassed in field of pervasively annoying fans) by ‘Seed. With Gundam 00 well and truly here, I wonder, does anyone remember ‘Wing? Well, I do.

First things first, I completely understand and respect your position if you’re a Gundam fan with no taste for OZ, Wing Zero and plastic hair, but hear me out.

We’ve all read rants about how or why Gundam Wing was such a poor series. Let me try and show why, for me, it was actually such good one.

Where to start? How about the over-the-top political banter, in the middle of a battle no less, or the ridiculously extreme characters. How about the over-blown, godlike power that the Gundams in ‘Wing possess.

Some of the most memorable dialogue in the whole of Gundam Wing is, on the surface, just laughable. You can paraphrase just about all of Heero’s dialogue, for example, with phrases like “I’m going to kill you”, which would be delivered completely dead pan.

I seem to remember a scene in which Quatre becomes engaged in a fencing duel against Dorothy Catalonia, inside some space station, outside of which a battle is raging. The two are in a heated fight, all the while their respective friends and peers are fighting and dying outside, and they start debating about the nature of war and peace. In between sword clashes they yell lines like “Is peace attained through war truly peace?!” or “How can you deny soldiers their right to fulfill their destiny, will they be simply cast aside when peace comes!?”.

It was ridiculous. Amuro would have been way over his head. But that was Gundam Wing for you — 17 year-olds debating for their lives about sweepingly grand ideologies and life philosophies.

I may be in the minority here, but I enjoyed the philosophic banter in ‘Wing. It was often injected into scenes where it clearly did not belong, but that was part of the fun. The abstract subjects that were touched on (in very simplistic ways of course) were really food for thought as a young viewer. It was a pleasure to hear two or more somewhat sophisticated political view points instead of the usual “Ah, war is bad, I don’t wanna fight. Oh but I have to.”

Unlike U.C. protagonists who are dripping with angst, After Colony people behave as if they don’t have any emotions at all. You might describe the cast’s over-all vibe as professional in the extreme.

Mechanically, the series had obvious attractions. The animation was, from what I recall, excellent if a little over stylized. The mobile suit designs were fantastic. You have the Gundams, which are all extremely flamboyant looking, highly personalized and given wildly powerful weapons. And then there were the everyday workhorse mobile suits used by militaries and organizations such as OZ. They captured that mass-produced, inhuman sensibility towards design that began with the Zaku way back when. You could not have two more opposing approaches to mechanical design in the same show.

I feel the music is also worth mentioning. Most of the J-Pop they throw on as intro and outro music to various anime isn’t exactly up my alley. That’s a nice way of saying it’s garbage. The Two-Mix tracks that made up most of the series’ musical material seemed like calculated choices, as opposed to random insertions of whatever the producers could get. The two songs (Rhythm Emotion and Just Communication) felt as if they fit the mood of ‘Wing. Perhaps though, it was a fluke.

The wardrobe was another distinctly odd thing. In a show about space colonies and mobile suits, watching people in theatrical looking clothing from the 18th century ride horses at their private prep school is a hell of a trip. For Gundam Wing, a little juxtaposition went a long way.

Gundam Unicorn – Here’s Hoping

Gundam Unicorn – the great white hope of Universal Century? If you don’t already know, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is a serial novel by author Harutoshi Fukui and (as far as I know) is currently in its thrid chapter.

This thing has me excited, about what I’m not entirely sure. I have not personally had a chance to read any of ‘Unicorn, and the information I have on it is pretty scarce.

It’s set three years after Char’s Counter Attack and continues the core U.C. storyline (apart from Victory Gundam and the like, which are set significantly far into the future). Already, that’s a damn good start for those of us who’ve been waiting years and years for something bearing the Universal Century flag.

Looking at the main mechanical designs – there’s yet more encouragement. The Unicorn Gundam its self is a perfect representation of what a U.C. Gundam should always be. Its design, with the nearly pure white colour motif and simple, strong lines brings us back to the RX-78.

Then there’s the NZ-666 Kshatriya. An absolute beast of a mobile suit. As much as the Unicorn Gundam personifies the spirit and power of the Federation, the Kshatriya’s design does the same for Zeon. And when I say Zeon, I mean the Principality of Zeon. I’m talking about green, not red. This suit has nothing to do with Char, the man is an opportunist, never a true believer. It’s like a Zaku II elevated to god-status.

For a little serial novel, ‘Unicorn has grabbed a lot of attention in the last year or so. Check out this Promotional Video released earlier this year. Notice the new footage.

So, here’s the million dollar question: will they make an OVA?

Did they go through all that trouble just to promote some books? Hopefully not. I know not every novel or little manga series can have its own OVA or series but Universal Century just has so much potential. There’s Hathaway’s Flash, Gundam Unicorn, Gundam Sentinel, even Advance of Zeta. I’d love to see some of these animated.

For now though, all we can do is wait. Best case scenario – we get an awesome OVA or feature length proudction. At worst, Unicorn bleeds out and never gets to our computer screens.

Just for fun, check out this fan made opening for a hypothetical Gundam Unicorn animation. Nice editing, what with the footage from ‘Counter Attack and the Unicorn PV used together.

Here’s hoping a Gundam Unicorn production isn’t as allusive as it’s namesake would suggest.

Gundam Oldboy

I’d like to explain my position in the Gundam fan universe and give a few disjointed thoughts on fandom in general.

Generally Speaking…

Within something as old, as large, and as far reaching as Mobile Suit Gundam, there are bound to be separate groups of self-described fans within the whole. Groups can be formed and divided by many factors. We have old Gundam fans, new Gundam fans, U.C. Gundam fans, ‘Wing fans, etc.

Two of the most absolutely basic groups, in my view, are the unconditional fans and the conditional fans. Unconditional Gundam fan(atic)s accept and approve anything coming off the assembly line with the word “Gundam” slapped on it.

Whatever the new offering is, they’ve just got to start watching it and loving it. Before they’ve even downloaded that first fan-subbed episode, they’ve made up their minds that it’s great. I mean, it’s Gundam so it must be praise-worthy, right? And surely each series must be better than the last, that’s just how things work.

The conditional fans are simply those who judge a new series, OVA, mechanical design, etc. by it’s qualities alone. They know you can still love a thing as a whole, while disliking or hating a part. Personally, I’d say I fall securely into this category of conditional fans.

Frankly it’s hard to understand how some one can be anything but conditional given the enormous differences in style, animation and direction between each new Gundam universe and series.

As For Me…

I’ve talked about how unconditional fans worship anything branded as Gundam, and maybe you can sense my disdain for that attitude. I can’t say I have any love for people who automatically accept something. Often it seems they’re part of some community which identifies its self with that something. I said that I fit into the conditional category, but I admit only because it’s a better and not a perfect fit.

I guess you could call me a grumpy Gundam fan, with a touch of elitism. I like the good old stuff – Amuro and Char, Zeon and the Feddies. I like my time lines to read “U.C.” I freely admit to having a strong dislike for Gundam Seed and I haven’t yet given ‘00 the time of day. Tomino could have gone on with the U.C. time line forever and a day as far as I’m concerned. But I suppose we’d be missing out on ‘Wing and Turn A (well, that’s arguable isn’t it?) if he had.

I have my own biases. Rather can automatically accept, I reject. Like the fanboy who loves anything new, I, the oldboy, have a tendency to ignore anything new and favor (most) anything old.

I use this term, “oldboy”, as an alternative to that hated stereotype of “fanboy”. In general, a fanboy would be your foaming at the mouth unconditional fan, an oldboy, your jaded and snobby conditional one. I find the term appropriate.

The oldboy attitude can protect you, but also hurt you. It can save you the ordeal trudging through an entire 50 episode series you knew you’d hate from the start and it can keep a surprisingly good one off your radar for years.

So, that is how I define myself within the Gundam “faniverse”. I’m no fanboy but I like to think neither am I a completely hopeless U.C. elitist. I mean hey, I like Gundam Wing, that counts for something, right?

“Zeon Alive!!”

Well, it’s been a while. Long story short – my laptop conked out on me and for the last two months I’ve been dealing with the manufacturer and trying to get it fixed. Finally, they sent me a new one. Yeah, that’s my excuse.

I’ve made it a rule of mine never to post anything that doesn’t have to do with Gundam, so here’s a screen shot of my desktop.

Notice the awesome Gundam 0079 wallpaper. You can get this wallpaper, and many other fine anime inspired wallpapers and scans, at http://www.animepaper.net/.

Blue Destiny – It Wasn’t Meant To Be

Mobile Suit Gundam: Blue Destiny is a one volume manga written and illustrated by Mizuho Takayama and published in English internationally by Tokyopop. Blue Destiny is one of those certain Gundam side stories, those seldom told tales that I’d always wanted to read or watch. I have tried not to give away any major spoilers.

The story is set during the One Year War, on Earth. Our hero, Federation pilot Yuu Kajima and his “Marmot Team”, are a special unit whose purpose is to test new mobile suit modifications and additions. After they are attacked by a mysterious Blue mobile suit not of Zeon origin, a series of events brings Yuu closer to both the Blue mobile suit and an unknown Newtype girl reaching out to him. Yuu becomes the pilot of this Blue suit and while trying to understand its secrets, confronts a Zeon officer piloting a similar weapon, the “Iflyte” (alternatively, “Ifreet”).

Overall Mobile Suit Gundam: Blue Destiny was an enjoyable read. Had it not been for its sub-par ending and a few small annoyances regarding the exposition of the key concepts, Blue Destiny would be as memorable a side story as War In the Pocket or 08th MS Team.

In terms of mech designs, the two new units (Blue Destiny and Iflyte) are excellent. The Blue Destiny rides a line between average GM and elite Gundam that parallels the way its pilot rides one between average soldier and all out ace. The Iflye has the distinct feel of a Zeon mobile suit that pushed the limits of the current technology while not making any significant technological breakthroughs. In short terms, it’s closer to a Gouf than a Dom or a Gelgoog. This is of course ignoring its unique “EXAM System”. In addition, the Iflyte resonates a kind of Samurai warrior look with its heavy armour and two heat sabers at its sides.

The mobile suits we all know and love which appear in Blue Destiny are for the most part, very well rendered. The GMs retain their unmistakable look while losing that thin, weak aspect they always seem to have in older Gundam visuals. The Doms look better than I’ve ever seen them. They’re strong and tall, without the fat, round (and consequently unintimidating) appearance they started out with. My one gripe in this category are the Zakus. They just don’t look themselves in Blue Destiny. It’s difficult to point my finger on exactly why they look “off” but I think it may be something to do with the way the head is drawn, or perhaps the proportions. In any case the ‘Zaks just aren’t as striking or recognizable as they should be.

The actual level of the art in Blue Destiny is quite high. There is detail, excellent definition and consistency. Rather than appearing flat, the action almost pops of the page and brings battlefields to life. I rarely read manga and admittedly prefer animation but the art in Blue Destiny was extremely satisfying and, to my surprise, the battle scenes made exciting and fluid by it. There’s nothing worse than a confusing layout or an artist trying to convey some type of movement or quick sequence of events with poor execution, leaving you to stare up and down the page and strain to work things out. Blue Destiny flows with ease, style and clarity.

The Blue Destiny unit holds the soul, or at least part of the soul, of a young Newtype (who strangely enough is still alive and well despite apparently having no soul) and consequently, in a style reminiscent of Evangelion, is occasionally prone to go berserk. One of the problems I came across while reading this manga was the lack of clarification when it came to this situation and the EXAM System its self. How exactly was this newtype’s soul imbued within the Blue Destiny when she still functions as a normal, and very much alive, human being at the same time? If a Newtype soul is the key to the EXAM System, how does the Iflyte utilize it as well? And, if they both posses the same soul or part of the same soul… how does that work?

The lack of illumination on this subject was a negative, but in the long run, expanded technical information is not essential to the story telling and I can pass it over.

The characters in this book are excellent and given as much depth as could be possible in a single volume. The protagonist, Yuu Kajima, is a young, above average pilot with plenty of experience who’s been with the ‘Feddies since day one. He has a past, he’s seen things – he’s not the angsty idealistic 15 year old. But neither is he the grizzled veteran from “back in the day”. I feel like I believe in his character. That is, the plausibility of his personality and situation. Our standard Zeon rival/bad guy, Major Nimbus Schterzen (what a name huh?) isn’t particularly fascinating, but a good old fashioned enemy ace to fight at least.

Of particular interest to me was the leader of a Zeon Dom team named Abraham. He doesn’t have a major role outside of the two or so chapters he appears in, but makes a lasting impression. He seems to regard the Earth with an understated love and is remorseful yet accepting of the fact that Zeon will soon be pushed back into space. This is a much needed step up from the the way average Zeon soldiers are sometimes portrayed; hating Earth for no other reason than their space birth and regarding it as rotting garbage that needs to be sterilized (we could call this the Aznable way of thinking).

After Abraham’s death, near the wreckage of his Dom, we are shown a picture of his family (a wife and three children). It’s these kind of little windows into a character that, while taking very minimal time and space to display, make all the difference between forgettable and memorable. Personas such as Abraham help greatly to give Blue Destiny some depth.

Most of the lesser characters are simple but effective, and given the fact that the entire story is one volume long, I think that’s all one can expect.

There are a few very small quality issues I encountered while reading this manga, which I’ll just lightly touch on here. Sometimes in a particularly small sound bubble or on part of a cockpit readout or sign, the translation will be a scribbled, misspelled little mess. For example, early on in Yuu’s cockpit there’s a display that says “rear viewir” and seems to written by someone with a very shakey hand. So what, did they hire some Japanese kid with basic English knowledge to translate? Also, come on Tokyopop, can we please go with “kick ass” instead of the twice used “kick butt”? This seems reasonable, especially since they already set a precedent for light cursing with the use of the word “crap”.

‘Blue’s pacing and storytelling was a nice surprise for a non manga reader. As much as I wanted to read it, I was dreading some long drawn-out 10 volume thing. What I got for my money was a really fast moving story that was absolutely filled with battles. The breaks in the action are effective in establishing characters and situations, while wasting no time on internal dramas that go nowhere fast.

The ending however, is a different story. In just a few short pages the entire story is rapped up double time and given a slapped on conclusion that is unsatisfying at the very least. The final battle between Yuu and Schterzen is significantly shorter than the Iflyte’s first appearance and presented in what I feel is an anticlimactic way. The last two pages raised more questions about the EXAM System and its particulars as well as Marion Welch, the Newtype whose soul is bound to it. And to be honest, the whole tone of the conclusion was far more positive and sugar-coated than I had expected or wanted.

I could be imagining this, but I got the distinct feeling that the ending for Blue Destiny was whipped up and slapped on at the last minute. It simply doesn’t fit with the pacing or high quality of the rest of the publication. I’m impressed that they fit the whole story into a single volume but if it would fix this ending, I’d gladly read another book or two.

Overall, Blue Destiny is definitely a worthwhile read for the Gundam fan, especially Universal Century lovers. Barring the edning – it’s a great little side story.