MANGA SPOTLIGHT: GUNDAM THE ORIGIN #9 REVIEW
 

<a href="http://robotechcomics.50megs.com/_blog/gundam-9.jpg"><img src="http://robotechcomics.50megs.com/_blog/gundam-9t.jpg" align=left alt="Gundam The Origin #9"></a>
Reviewer: Jonathan L. Switzer, captainjls@animejanai.com
Quick Rating: Great!
Story Title: Ranba Ral: Section I & II

The Principality of Zeon ups the ante ...

Story and Art: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Mechanical Designer: Kunio Okawara
English Adaptation: Mark Simmons
Created by: Hajime Yatate, Yoshiyuki Tomino

Mobile Suit Gundam, this year celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, is easily the biggest franchise in Japanese animation history; its worlds and chronologies include nine TV series, four OVA (original video animation) series, ten theatrical releases, and a vast wealth of comics and novels that fill in assorted gaps and present new and original takes on the established animated canon. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's manga series Gundam The Origin, published quarterly by Viz in the English speaking world, falls into the latter category of print material, presenting a revised, alternative take on the original 1979 TV series filled with new additions to the storyline that improve the flow and drama of the narrative.

The overall storyline, of course, remains consistent with previous versions of this oft retold tale. It is the year 0079 of the Universal Century calendar. Mankind has made new homes for itself in space in the form of clusters of gigantic cylindrical space colonies called Sides. The colonies of Side 3, the ones furthest from planet Earth, have declared themselves the Principality of Zeon and, just eight months ago, began a war of independence from the petty and controlling Earth Federation. Having wiped out most of the Federation's space fleet and half the human race in terrible battle, the two sides declared a stalemate--but only after the Zeon had claimed a good chunk of the Earth's surface and rammed an entire space colony into Australia in a failed attempt to wipe out the Federation's military headquarters.

During this lull in the fighting, the Earth Federation worked to develop a new generation of weaponry in a recently competed colony at Side 7; under the blanket title Operation V, they built the first of their new Pegasus-class assault carriers, the White Base, and three models of Mobile Suits, humanoid fighting machines pioneered by the Zeon that were invaluable in their stake for independence. The centerpiece of Operation V was the Mobile Suit Gundam, equipped with a highly developed combat computer, a staggeringly powerful arsenal of weapons, and the toughest armor the Federation could possibly conjure up. Unfortunately, a Zeon recon team snuck into Side 7 during the testing phase of this new equipment and discovered what was going on there. The recon mission escalated into a full-scale attack that killed most of the senior staff of the White Base and forced the civilians of Side 7 to escape aboard the vessel, along with the surviving crew of junior officers and what weapons from Operation V they could salvage--including the Gundam, now piloted by teenage mechanical genius Amuro Ray, the civilian son of the Gundam's chief designer.

Since their escape from Side 7, related in the first two editions of Gundam The Origin, the young crew of the White Base has endured much hardship. They've had to do frequent battle with the Zeon's top ace, the "Red Comet" Char Aznable, return to the Earth to drop off the civilians and resupply, and eventually battle the forces of the ambitious and beloved youngest child of Zeon's ruling Zabi family, Garma Zabi. What nobody realizes is that vengeful Char Aznable led Garma to his death at the hands of the White Base's crew; as he revealed to Garma in the poor young man's dying moments, he is actually Casval Daikun, the son of murdered Zeon founder Zeon Zum Daikun.

We now reach a perfect jumping-on point. In the wake of Garma's death, Dozle Zabi sends Ranba Ral's forces to Earth to avenge his brother. Meanwhile, Dozle and his kin are reunited at Side 3 to hold a state funeral for Garma, one that gives the ambitious eldest son of the Zabi family, Gihren, a chance to make a rousing speech that serves as a major turning point in the story of the One Year War, the first sign that this will be a long, hard war, the first sounding of the rallying cry of the Principality of Zeon:

"Sieg Zeon!"

Back on Earth, the White Base, now fully resupplied, proceeds towards the Federation's headquarters at Jaburo. However, between them and Jaburo is a long stretch of desert and Ranba Ral's forces come to intercept them.

While there are a few new twists scattered throughout Gundam The Origin, there's no shaking the fact that this is a tale that's been retold in a variety of formats, even in the U.S market. If you want to watch the One Year War unfold on your TV screen, you can buy it as ten DVD volumes of the TV series or the three compilation movies on three discs. If novels are your thing, there's an English language adaptation of creator Yoshiyuki Tomino's three novels, published in 1990 by Del Rey and slated to be reissued in a single volume from Stone Bridge Press in late April of this year. And if comics are your bag (which I assume they are, since you're reading this), you can choose between Kazuhisa Kondo's adaptation (also available from Viz), which has nine volumes out so far, or this adaptation, which is up to as many volumes but is far, far behind in terms of the storyline.

So you might be wonder, why this adaptation? Certainly, the big selling point here is Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's craft. Having served as the original character designer for Mobile Suit Gundam a quarter of a century ago, his take on the cast of characters is masterful and definitive. Having done several well respected manga works in the intervening years, he's also quite adept rendering original Gundam mecha designer Kunio Okawara's nifty modern tweaks of the classic Mobile Suit designs. In the third volume, Yasuhiko made the stodgy old Zaku I look cool and menacing; here he has the far nastier Gouf to draw, and through very careful use of tones and inks, makes it look deadlier than it's ever looked before. His skills don't just lie with the simple rendering of the characters and their world; the pacing here is also perfect. Witness an early scene where Amuro is eavesdropping on Lt. Matilda Ajan, who he has a crush on, talking with Bright Noa, the White Base's flustered captain. The slow pacing of his nervous departure from the scene after getting a good chewing out by Bright and some complementary friendly encouragement from Matilda leads into his similarly carefully paced encounter with Fraw Bow, his neighbor back at Side 7, who's always had something of a protective crush on him, and is clearly jealous. The combination of the cinematic pacing and the characters' subtle expressions speak more about their relationships and feelings than any words could. Moments like this are scattered throughout: Degwin Zabi's sorrowful expression as he rewatches a video message from Garma over and over again, Gihren and his sister Kycylia's conspiratorial glances past their oblivious sobbing brother Dozle, and the mixed stunned and determined expressions on the faces of the crew of the White Base in the face of Gihren's bold and pandering political rhetoric.

Primarily, of course, Gundam is a mecha action series, and it certainly doesn't disappoint there; the bulk of the second chapter here, "Ranba Ral: Section II," is battle against Ral's forces, executed with the same sort of pacing aforementioned and crisp, clear artwork, toned for maximum clarity and impact. The grit, dust, and weight of mechanized combat all shine through, as well as the nerve-wracking tension; when Amuro first faces Ranba Ral, Yasuhiko keeps the Gouf off panel, only showing us its fearsome heat rod whip snapping at the Gundam. As the Gundam topples, the Gouf is left standing menacingly in the distance. Full and half-page shots of combat slow time down, holding on the moments in which the titans clash; this is Amuro's most dangerous fight yet, and Yasuhiko drags it out, illustrating clearly just how outclassed Amuro is as a pilot. Some might cry "decompressed storytelling," but that's the norm in Japan, a country where all comics work is destined for cheap digest-sized volumes. Indeed, to be able to read manga in typical U.S. comic book page size in the U.S. is a rarity these days; I applaud Viz for keeping at least one non-anthology publication at this size, and I'm even happier that it's one I so enjoy.

I almost forgot to mention the color pages. Twenty-four of the book's one hundred four pages are done in what appears to be vivid watercolor. This isn't strict, bordered color like you see in American comics; the colors here do often correspond as they should, but generally they are used for atmosphere and mood. Char nurses a drink in a dingy dive in Caracas, and the world around him is lit in fiery amber hues. Bright and Matilda speak in the light of the moon, and all is blue. Gihren's speech rolls along, and the lighting changes to fit the tone of his words; as his rhetoric fires up, the lighting goes from a cool turquoise to flaming red. The effect, especially in the last case, adds to the overall texture of the work.

As great as this all is, you might be wondering about value. This is an eight dollar book. For eight bucks, you get one hundred four pages, twenty-four in color, no ads. That's certainly a better value than most U.S. comics, which are three bucks for thirty-two pages, only twenty-two of which have story content; it's actually an even better value when you realize that what you're looking at here is a fairly stand-alone story chunk, possessing a beginning, middle, and end. It's a startling rarity to find such a thing in both single-issue U.S. comics and individual manga volumes these days.

Gundam The Origin is a rare find, a masterfully done adaptation of a groundbreaking classic work by a member of the original creative team, granted a four star presentation in the U.S. that combines class and value. My only quibble is that the cover stock is pretty darned flimsy and makes the book feel slightly disposable; however, that's just a minor quibble with a terrific package of first rate material. If you want to see what top notch military robot comics look like, this is for you.

ART:
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STORY:
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OVERALL:
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Check out Viz, LLC's website and buy this and other volumes online!