FIF#34-Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis

UC0096.  It’s been three years since the event that closed the second Neo Zeon Rebellion and saved the Earth from total destruction at the hands of Char Aznable.  But a lingering mystery has remained: whatever happened to Axis following that fateful battle?  Two former Zeon officers, Arlette and Danton, are hired by the Earth Federation to head to the derelict asteroid and investigate.  It should be a simple mission, until an unknown Gundam appears to shake things up.  Where did it come from and what other secrets are waiting for Arlette and Danton on this piece of Zeon history?

The summary I just typed up I had to paraphrase from the official synopsis…because without it I would have no freaking idea what was going on in this story.  As the first of six parts to be released as an online series, the first episode of Twilight Axis plays more like a cryptic trailer than attempting to explain anything we’re seeing on screen.  Why are we going back to Axis now after all this time?  Why is Arlette so desperate to get there and what’s her connection to Char and Lalah?  Why is there a Gundam attacking the Investigation Team and where did it come from?  What’s more, these online episodes are only going to be extremely short in length, like 3mins each probably.  That’s hardly any time to tell anything, especially if it’s going to be told in such a jumbled and confusing manner. 

It’s sad to harp on all of this because this is might just be a setup im really excited for.  Much like the end of Gundam Unicorn, I have always been anxious to see how the Universal Century adapts to the game changing events featured there and in Char’s Counterattack.  Also, we still have no definite answers as to what became of Amuro and Char during the Psycho Frame Wave event that moved Axis away from Earth.  This could be the motherload of answers we’ve been waiting to see for almost thirty years (Char’s Counterattack came out in 1988 remember).  And yet, we’re following a new character we barely know, through events tied together through rapid fire editing and some very cryptic, but familiar, imagery.  It’s almost like watching a Robotech feature and somehow knowing you aren’t going to get any updates on the fate of Rick Hunter and the SDF-3.  Twilight Axis has 6 episodes, 3 minutes each to work with, and I think it’s going to try and do more than it can with such a short window of story time.

 

Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis will be popping up from time to time throughout the rest of 2017 and probably early 2018, so I guess I’ll check up on it every couple of episodes or so.  I feel like this is one to wait and see and also marathon in full when it’s all released.  After all, it’s only going to be 18mins in length at minimum.  I should be more excited for this.  However with new additions to Gundam The Origin and Gundam Build Fighters (NOT FOCUSING ON BUILD FIGHTERS TRY) coming later this summer, this new chapter of the Universal Century era might take a back seat.  I guess if anything, Episode 1 got me asking the right questions…but also wondering about the harsher ones as well.