Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Part 1 Episodes 1-2


Universal Century 0068.  The assassination of Zeon Zum Deikun, spokesperson for the colony cluster Side 3, plunges relations between the Earth and Space Colonies into turmoil.  With Zeon’s passing, the Zabi family steps in to take his place and being stoking the flames of an inevitable war.  In the background, two young children, the scions of Zeon himself, begin their first steps to a larger destiny.  For Artesia, it is a time of innocence lost.  For Casval, it is a time for vengeance against the family that killed his father.  The road to the One Year War and the Rise of Char Aznable begins here.

“The beginning is a very delicate time.”  While David Lynch’s Dune movie isn’t very well thought of, I love it and I love that opening line a lot too.  Because it’s correct: beginnings are important, delicate matters because they establish everything that is to come.  There’s always been a ton of backstory leading to the Gundam franchise’s latest conflict that’s just been begging to be explored.  Well today, on the Gundam Anime Corner, you’ve got it.  To kick off the blogs 7th year, I present to you Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin.  Finally, the history of the road to the One Year War is revealed and it’s both exactly what I expected with a few…embellishments I guess?

First off, yes, the is “The Origin”, going back a little over 10 years prior to Amuro Ray sitting in the cockpit of his legendary Mobile Suit Gundam.  However, The Origin is actually a Manga retelling of the original 0079 story.  This 6 episode OVA covers the middle portion of the Manga when we actually get into the secret stories of Char, Sayla, the Rise of the Zabi family and the birth of Mobile Suits.  While I doubt that means we’ll get the rest of the Manga as an anniversary title (maybe for the 50th at this point but who knows), this is still a good segment to cover because it’s been talked about plenty but seldom seen beyond glipmses.

At the heart of this saga is the big man of Gundam villany himself, Char…or Casval…or Edmound, God who knew the Red Comet had so many alias’ during his lifetime.  As it turns out, Char has kind of always been Char from the very beginning, a kid who is well aware of all the politics and deceit around him and is a power keg waiting to explode.  You get glimpses of that rage during the excellently staged escape from Side 3 and his kicking the crap out of a supposed Zabi spy.  There’s also that trademark Char craftiness that usually meant the end of some poor sap.  And it looks like one of those poor saps might be…Char Aznable?  Yeah, go figure there was an actual Char Aznable who just so happened to look like Casval Deikun…oh yeah that poor kind and idealistic soul isn’t long for this world now that Blue Eyed Casval has that look on his face.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is the future Sayla Mass and thankfully she only has one other alias right now.  Artesia Deikun goes through the toughest of character arcs in these first two episodes.  She is the innocence of childhood personified and while she at first seems oblivious to everything around her, being caught off guard by the deaths of both of her parents and her beloved cat shakes her up tremendously.  Some of her more cutesy moments meant for humor can be grating but I suppose that was the point.  In the original Anime, Char always said that his sister was a much kinder, gentler soul when they were growing up.  I wonder what else is going to shape Sayla into the bad ass woman who becomes the Comm Officer and Fighter Pilot on White Base. 

While these opening episodes are supposed to be the “Chronicle of Char and Sayla”, there’s a whole changing world around them that’s also getting screentime.  And man oh man is it a reunion for the ages, sort of.  There’s bound to be more teeny glimpses of the future cast of Mobile Suit Gundam beyond Amuro Ray and Mirai Yashima.  Here and now we’re focused almost exclusively on the Zeon side of things.  The entire scheming, backstabbing bunch of Zabi’s is present and accounted for…including an unknown 5th sibling I’d never heard of until now, Sassaro.  There isn’t a lot of time to get to know him because he is killed for “dramatic effect” as soon as he’s introduced.  I put quotes around that because the fact that Dzzle survives a car explosion (though gains his infamous scars from it) and busts his way out of a burning car is more silly than dramatc (and there are a few of those moments in the first two episodes but we’ll come back to those).  Garma doesn’t really do much but Ghirren and Kycillia haven’t changed a bit.  Ghirren’s still future Hitler and Kycillia will stoop so low as to assault kids to get what she wants (Seriously, as much as Char backtalking her is cool, stradling a kid like she doe is just plain wrong…she deserved that rocket launcher headshot).  But the biggest stand outs of familiar faces are Ramba Ral and Crowley Haman.  They were both MVP’s of the original series, antagonists who were impossible to hate or truly vilify and here they’re even better.  Not only do we get to see the start of their legendary romance but also their commitment to protecting Char and Sayla from afar.  These two have never been “Bad Guys” and I’m happy it’s always been that way, so much so that we even see some of Ral’s future teammates, including Clamp and Taichi, not hesitate to lend their assistance if need be.  Also, Ramba is a true hero if he’s going to risk going to get Sayla’s pet cat just to make her happy…I prefer him more with a chain gun myself but that’s personal preference.

I mentioned that it’s not all a serious march to war in the first two episodes.  The Origin does have some more light hearted moments for everyone…and then there are the downright silly and headscratching ones.  I find it hard to believe that Ramba Ral’s father, Jimba, had any kind of influence over anyone given how manic, paranoid and downright insane he is portrayed. Honestly, I wouldn’t trust my kids to a lunatic who would rather use them as pawns to strike back at Zabis with rather than keeping them safe.  His eventual death is more serious than I expected for him…but then again it’s at the hands of an assassin who wears an actual suit of armor…like I said, there’s some silly stuff here and it’s hit or miss.  I think Episode 2 had a more serious tone in this regard…besides Char dueling his armored killer, bad ass as that might’ve been.  But those more eccentric moments I mentioned feel a little out of left field since the original series never went for wacky antics (that was left to the first half of Gundam ZZ if I recall correctly).

The rise of Char and the march to the One Year War is here and for whatever mini flaws there are, this is still a great start to a story I never knew I wanted to know more about.  Seeing most of the Zeon cast back again is great and Char is…well he’s Char, even at his worst he’s the best and he’s definitely at his best here as a rising star.  You wont have to wait long to see what happens next either.  I’ll be going through all of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin this week so check back tomorrow for my review of Episodes 3&4, closing out The Chronicle of Char and Sayla, and then Friday for the final two episode covering the game changing Battle of Loum.  “Who will survive?”  Well we kind of know that already but I had to invoke that infamous catchphrase of the original Gundam episode previews.  See ya tomorrow for more Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.

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