Universal Century 0069. As tensions between the Space
Colonies and the Earth Federation hit a fever pitch, Side 3’s leader, Zeon
Deikun, is assassinated. In his place,
the Zabi family rises and begins the push towards open hostilities with
Earth. As new weapons begin to emerge
and war seems inevitable, Deikun’s children are smuggled into the shadows but
will not remain there forever. His son,
Casval, knows the truth about his death and one way or another, he will have
his revenge. As the greatest conflict in
history, The One Year War, closes in, so to will one young man rise to change
the course of destiny forever. He is
Casval Deikun, or as history will remember him: Char Aznable, the Red Comet.
2019 is a year that bugs me for a number of reasons. Among that list of reasons is the bewildering
lack of original content for the Gundam franchise during it’s 40th
Birthday. To my knowledge the only
original piece of work this year is Gundam Build Divers Re: Rise. Everything
else is basically a compilation or a break down and the Hathaway’s Flash
Trilogy has been pushed to 2020. Which brings us here today to Advent of the
Red Comet, the TV retelling of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. At first glance, this isn’t any different
from how Gundam Unicorn was broken down for Unicorn RE:0096 a few years
back. That said, is this new version of
Gundam: The Origin necessary? Based on
the first episode…eh.
I’ll always be of the mind that the original version of
any work exists for a reason. Gundam:
The Origin was told across 6 feature length OVA features and all flowed like proper
movies. Breaking them down in this way
is odd (same as Unicorn). What keeps
Advent from suffering the same starting pains as RE:0096 though is the fact
that, well for me, I like The Origin better than I do Unicorn and part of that
is The Origin has a much better paced beginning than Unicorn’s slow burn
intro. Advent once again throws us right
into the lit fuse that will lead to the powder keg that is the One Year
War. Little time is wasted getting to
the death of Char and Sayla’s father and the aftermath that follows. It doesn’t feel like we’re rapidly jumping
around like we’d see in a compilation film…well after the first bits but then
things slow down and we can breathe a little and see Char and Sayla take stock
of the situation in their own way. The
same momentum from The Origin is there which might make binging Advent of the
Red Comet all the easier with decent cliffhanger points…or you can just watch
The Origin OVA but that’s just me.
Because this is a simple TV retelling, Advent doesn’t
really have much in the way of new animation.
Not a bad move really since the OVA looked pretty good. I do still have some issues with the handling
of some dramatic situations that somehow seem more comical than they should
given how some characters react. Jimba
Ral is still a raving lunatic who I’m surprised lasts as long as he does in
this story. And poor Ramba Ral getting a
secret mission to retrieve Sayla’s little cat Lucifer feels…eh. I’m all for levity in dark stories like the
ones presented in Gundam. But some of
the comedy of The Origin’s first episode and thus Advent’s debut, is borderline
Gundam ZZ cringe worthy (and yet I still love this story).
Personally, if for whatever reason you cant get your
hands on the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA, maybe Advent of the Red Comet
might not be as bad an alternative compared to Gundam Unicorn RE:0096. From the looks of things, each OVA will be
broken down into 2 episodes (maybe 3 for the longer last two episodes of the
OVA). So all of the good pacing and
impactful story beats involving Char and the Zabi’s are all there and still
very well done. The humor might feel out
of place and some characters are a bit too wacky for such a serious age of the
Universal Century. But idk, Advent of
the Red Comet might not be as much of a time waster as I thought. The Origin still stands as one of my all time
favorite entries in the Gundam mythos. Honestly,
OVA or TV, if you are a true fan of Gundam, especially the original series, you
owe it to yourself to watch this one in whichever format you can.
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