Universal Century 0072.
Casval enters Zeon’s military academy under the alias Char Aznable and begins
his meteoric rise through the ranks. As
he and another promising recruit, Garma, the youngest of the Zabi clan, enact a
bold operation that will cement their names in history, other developments are
progressing across the stars. Zeon Mobile
Suit development edges closer to completion and a lone Federation scientist,
Tem Ray, begins a secret project to counter these advancements. And elsewhere, Char meets Lalah Sune, a
beautiful and ethereal girl with powers beyond his understanding. The curtain soon rises on Universal Century
0078 and the final moments before the conflict that will change history
forever.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin continued fairly strong
with it’s second act. We got tons of
backstory tidbits, some impressive Mobile Suit action and the birth of the Char
we all know and love. Originally, this
was only supposed to be a 4 Episode OVA but after watching Episode 4, I’m glad
things didn’t end here. Sure I’d love to
see more but I also think that where these couple of episodes end might not
have been a good stopping point.
The first half of this set, Episode 3, has a couple of
big jobs: Cementing the final touches on Char’s beginnings in the Zeon military
and establishing his friendship with Garma Zabi. Oh man, a lot of this early episode gave me
chills. The smile on Char’s face when he
set up the young man whose name and identity he took to die was classic Char
Aznable and it wouldn’t be the last time that wicked smirk popped up in the
same episode. More chilling was that in
all of their interactions, I could see at least 2 or 3 instances where Char
could’ve just killed Garma outright. You
can see the wheels turning in his head and he probably could’ve gotten away
with it too cause…well it’s Char, he just could. But no, we got Garma and Char eventually
bonding and becoming the fuse that spark Zeon to begin the last push towards
independence and the One Year War. The
Dawn Rebellion that was all their baby (Char’s plan, Garma’s command), was a
very exciting sequence. For a Gundam
show, theres an understandable lack of Mobile Suit combat so far. So it’s great that the action can still
thrill in a well paced and well executed battle. Heck, Char even got the first version of his
famous mask and his appreciation for the color red thanks to this event.
Episode 4 is where things got a little clunky and crowded. We slowly moved away from Char’s story and
onto other aspects of the lead up to the One Year War. In fact there were three concurrent
storylines: Char and his meeting with Lalah Sune; the first Mobile Suit Battle
on the Moon featuring Ramba Ral and the Black Tri Stars; and Amuro Ray’s lonely
life on Side 7. Each one gets an equal
amount of screentime but, ill be honest, while the Moon Battle is awesome, the
rest of the story does tend to drag and doesn’t pack the same punch as the
focus on the Zeon siblings. I get that
there were a ton of moving parts in the build up to war but somethings seemed
out of focus. I also have to note that
there are a couple of retcons presented in Episode 4. I thought that the Federation didn’t have
Mobile Suits by the time the original series came about. They were testing some sure but I thought the
Gundam, Guncannon, Guntank and GMs were the first of their kind. On top of that, Amuro discovers the Gundams
blueprints in his fathers office, yet he doesn’t recognize the Mobile Suit when
he first gets into it in the first episode of the original series. It’s one of the first times I feel like The
Origin is reaching a bit when it’s already grasped goodness plenty. Oh and if you hated Amuro in the first half
of the original series, you’re really gonna hate him in The Origin cause he’s
arguably a worse human being here: a lazy, bratty shut in…God this is the kid
who’s going to save the world one day? Go figure. I’d argue his father, Tem Ray, is even
worse…but I’ve never liked him anyway so moving on.
Right, I haven’t talked about the animation yet. Wow, the CG and Anime fusion works
brilliantly in this OVA and the battle outside of Granada is proof of
that. Mobile Suits are moving much more
like I figured they would in a real world situation and even a bit faster thanks
to the fact that we’re seeing this in 2016 (when Episode 4 came out) as opposed
to 1979. It’s also a treat to see Char,
Ramba Ral and the Black Tri Stars all in the same fight together and showing
why all of them are considered legends in the history of Zeon Mobile Suit
pilots. Even their Mobile Suits, while
feeling slightly incomplete, feel menacing and bad ass. Now that I think about it, the suits even
sported the colors of their respective pilots (Red for Char, Blue for Ramba,
and Black for the Black Tri Stars), nice touch.
Much like Gundam Unicorn, this continues to feel like this is how Mobile
Suit Gundam was always supposed to look.
That’s not a knock against the original series or its animation at all,
things just look hella perfected in this OVA.
Episode 4 closed things out at the very beginning of
Universal Century 0079 which means we’ve made it to the One Year War at
last. And yet, as I said above, with how
jam packed the episode itself was, it didn’t feel like a proper ending, though
ending it at the beginning of the war sounds like a good place to do so. Fret not, turns out Sunrise wasn’t done with
this little project just yet. Tomorrow
we finish off Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin with the battle that changed
everything and takes us past the beginnings of the One Year War…and to the very
start of Mobile Suit Gundam itself. See
ya tomorrow everyone.
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