GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 12

ENCOUNTERS
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN’s final volume begins exactly where the last one left off: Char and Amuro have annihilated one another’s mobile suits within A Baoa Qu, but both escape the damage unscathed and Amuro pursues Char deeper into the fortress.

For whatever reason, the destruction of the Gundam doesn’t feel as momentous here as in the original animation. It’s not necessarily for lack of trying on Yasuhiko’s part; he certainly draws it well. But I seem to recall that the TV series (and subsequent movie adaptation) made this out to be the big deal one would expect from the destruction of the series’ title device. Here it’s just something that happens, and not even Amuro seems too shaken up about it.

Char, on the other hand, is quite shaken, though not due to the destruction of his Zeong. Amuro pursues him into Ghiren’s private quarters, glimpsed in the previous volume, and in short order, just as in the original animation, the pair begins a duel with a set of Ghiren’s antique sabers. But while Lalah’s death is certainly on both their minds here — Amuro wants to kill Char for causing him to inadvertently kill her while Char wants to kill Amuro because he believes the other is not worthy to speak her name — there’s much more to the fight in Char’s mind this time around.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 11

A COSMIC GLOW
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

The penultimate volume of GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN opens with the beginning stages of the Federation’s siege against A Baoa Qu, Zeon’s strategic stronghold in deep space. But as that war rages, Char meets in person with Kycilia Zabi and the truth comes out: she has discerned his true identity. But in true Zabi fashion, Kycilia decides to spare the man who sacrificed her brother as a pawn, in order to use him for her own purposes. She apparently buys Char’s story that desire for revenge against the Zabis has left him, and that his sole wish now is to see Newtypes rise to prominence in the universe. Kycilia welcomes Char back into her graces, a decision which — it should surprise no one — will come back to bite her in the near future.

And after this relatively low-key introductory scene, the battle of A Baoa Qu kicks off with a literal bang as Ghiren, commanding Zeon forces from the massive asteroid base, fires a laser his technicians have fashioned from a hollowed-out colony. The beam obliterates half the Federation fleet, including General Revil, as well as Ghiren’s own father, Degwin, who had just arrived to negotiate a cease-fire with Revil.

Revil’s demise has never really sat well with me, but I think that’s probably the idea. Throughout the GUNDAM saga, he’s presented as a stalwart leader with no time for politicking or other such pursuits. Revil wants to win the war and he has repeatedly recognized White Base and her crew as an integral part of that effort. Where everyone else sees them as expendable commodities, Revil seems to believe they’re destined for something greater—which is why his end hits so hard. He’s not your typical military bureaucrat; he actually believes in Amuro and company; perhaps to the point of being their sole remaining genuine supporter in the Federation, and certainly their highest ranking supporter. His end essentially means that, regardless of the war's outcome, the heroes of White Base will remain just another bunch of faces in the crowd, unrecognized for their integral parts in the war's outcome.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 10

SOLOMON
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s tenth installment in the reimagined GUNDAM saga begins with a large amount of wholly original material, as well as an original character. As White Base moves to join the main Federation fleet in an assault on Zeon’s stronghold of Solomon, Amuro and Sayla are left behind due to recent events on Texas Colony: Sayla due to her probation until the matter of her familial loyalties can be determined, and Amuro to recover from his fight with Challa Bull while the Gundam undergoes repairs.

Supervising these repairs is an abnormally tall technician named Doctor Mosk Han, who takes the opportunity to upgrade the Gundam with new magnetic coating. I’m not sure what need Yasuhiko felt he was filling with the appearance of Doctor Han, who comes across as sort of a comic relief character in his few appearances. But his part is over soon enough, and Yasuhiko’s story rejoins the original series’ continuity when Amuro catches up with White Base at Solomon.

The battle then plays out more or less identically to the TV series/movies’ version: Left hanging by siblings Ghiren and Kycilia, who believe Solomon is not tactically important, Dozle Zabi defends the base alone, piloting the massive Big Zam mobile suit and wiping out the flagship of Federation Admiral Tianem before he’s finished off by Amuro and Sleggar Law — the latter sacrificing his own life in the fight as well.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 9

LALAH
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

With Zeon’s forces driven from Earth following the Battle of Odessa, the war’s main theater returns to space, and White Base heads up to join the conflict. But before undertaking its first mission, the ship docks at the neutral Side 6 colony for supplies. While there, Mirai is reunited with her fiancée, Cameron Bloom, now part of the colony’s customs agency.

Also on Side 6, Amuro has an encounter with his father, presumed dead since Zeon’s assault on Side 7 in volume 1. But it turns out Doctor Ray survived, albeit with brain damage due to oxygen deprivation when he was blown out of the colony during the fight. Amuro spends a bit of time with his father, but eventually returns to White Base.

The final significant event to occur on Side 6 is Amuro’s meeting with Lalah Sune and Char, in person. It’s unclear whether Lalah lives on Side 6 or is merely visiting, but Amuro encounters her while out for a drive following a disappointing visit to his father. Amuro feels an unusual connection with the girl and the next day, as White Base prepares to depart, he goes out to find her again. But when he finally locates Lalah, she is in the company of Char. Thus Char and Amuro cross paths in person for the very first time, though Char is unaware the boy he’s speaking with is the pilot of the Gundam which has vexed him for so long.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 8

OPERATION ODESSA
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

With his three-volume excursion into the past complete, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko returns to year 0079 in the Universal Century, and to the crew of White Base as they travel across the Atlantic Ocean from Jaburo to participate in the Federation’s all-out assault on Zeon’s Earth headquarters at Odessa in the Ukraine.

White Base stops for refueling and shore leave in Federation-controlled Belfast, where General Revil himself pays them a visit to provide their new instructions. The ship is to continue its role as a “Trojan Horse” and proceed alone to Gibralter, where it will act as the vanguard of the Federation’s operation.

But White Base is pursued as usual by Char, now hooked up with the “Mad Angler” squadron, an amphibious Zeon unit led by Captain Boone. The entire first half of volume 8 is dedicated to White Base’s battles with the Mad Anglers. Kai deserts White Base (again) and befriends an Irish girl named Miharu (doesn’t really sound too Irish, does it?), who is secretly a spy for Zeon. But when one of the Mad Anglers stages an unauthorized assault on the docked White Base, Kai returns to his shipmates and helps fend off the attacker. In the chaos, Miharu sneaks aboard the ship.

Kai has to be one of my favorite characters in the original MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM. In general I tend to favor the clean-cut, stiff types like Bright, but while I’m a fan of his as well, there’s something about Kai which appeals to me. He’s a loudmouth, an occasional bully and a sometimes coward and deserter, but we’ve seen before and we see again here that he can’t stand by while his friends are in danger. And Yasuhiko is quick to remind us, as he returns to action, that despite his frequent bouts of insubordination and desertion, Kai is clearly the second best Mobile Suit pilot aboard White Base after Amuro.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN - THE FINAL ROUND

And so it begins again. In 2014, I reviewed the first four volumes of Vertical, Inc.'s GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN manga. Last year I covered the next three volumes. Now, with Vertical having completed publication of the full series this past December, I'll move along with volumes 8 through 12.

The manga was originally serialized in Japan for over a decade beginning in 2001, and was written and illustrated by the original GUNDAM TV series' character designer, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. Vertical began their translation in 2013 and I've picked up each volume dutifully as they've come out, one per quarter over the past three years.

The first four volumes comprised one "act", following the Earth Federation battle cruiser White Base as it journeyed from deep space to Federation headquarters in South America. The second act was a three-volume excursion into the past, filling in origins and backstories for key characters and scenarios in the storyline. Now we reach the third and final segment of the saga, which will follow White Base and her crew across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, and ultimately back into space for the war's final conflicts.

If you need a refresher on what's gone before, please feel free to check out my reviews of the first seven volumes. Then be back here on Friday for the beginning of the remainder of GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN.

Available now at Amazon (and highly recommended!):
Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 | Volume 6
Volume 7 | Volume 8 | Volume 9 | Volume 10 | Volume 11 | Volume 12

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 7

Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko closes out his long flashback sequence with a full volume dedicated to the opening act of the One Year War. We saw Zeon’s opening salvo, destroying a colony cluster loyal to the Earth Federation, in the previous installment, but we learn here that one of the colonies is kept intact, per orders from Gihren Zabi, with the intention of gassing its inhabitants to death and dropping the colony on the Federation headquarters at Jaburo.

This heinous plan leads to Ramba Ral resigning from the military, earning him the ire of Dozle, the one member of the Zabi family who had supported Ral after the fall of his house. Yasuhiko continues to paint Ramba Ral as the best of the Zeon characters. He has principles, unlike Gihren, and — unlike Dozle, who also recognizes the horrific nature of the plan but goes along with in anyway out of duty — he sticks to those principles. Unlike Char, Ramba Ral is honorable, and unlike the Black Tri-Stars, he is able to maintain his professionalism and not devolve into petty bickering and jealousy. Ral is the epitome of a noble antagonist, which would of course explain why he was killed off so early in the storyline. But his fleshing out is probably the best part about this long foray into the past.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 6

TO WAR
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN's sixth volume continues Yasuhiko's trip through the universe's backstory. This time we find ourselves following Char and Garma at the Zeon military academy, where we see them forge an unlikely friendship. Initially the stuck-up Garma feels Char is out to humiliate him, but when Char saves his life on a training exercise, Garma declares that from this day forth, they shall be friends. The story then skips ahead a few years to their graduation, amid a backdrop of growing civil unrest on Side 3. Zeon is mostly autonomous at this point, with their own military (overseen by Federation officials), but that's not enough for the Zabis, who want complete independence.

Things come to a head when a meteorite strikes Side 3, leading many citizens to believe the Federation allowed it to happen to put Zeon in its place. Char soon plants a bug in Garma's ear and, immediately after their graduation, the newest class of Zeon cadets stages an assault on the headquarters of Side 3's Federation observers. Dozle, the academy's commandant, puts a stop to the strike, but the damage is done; war is in the offing.

On the one hand, I like reading Yasuhiko's ideas as to how the war started and what political maneuvering led up to it. And I've enjoyed his handling of Zabi patriarch Degwin, who, despite his publicly aggressive personality, is adamantly against starting a war. But I find it a bit hard to swallow that the single act which began the conflict was the brainchild of Char. This is too hard to swallow. Not on the level of the unrelated identical twins we saw in the last volume, but it does stretch credibility even further. Not only did Char take his double's place to infiltrate Zeon, he practically single-handedly started the war.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 5

CHAR & SAYLA
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

The majority of GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN volume 5 is set in the past, showing us the tragic childhoods of Char and Sayla, and fleshing out several of the other major Zeon characters. But first, the volume opens in UC 0079, exactly where we left off last time -- with White Base still docked at Jaburo headquarters following the recently concluded battle with the Zeonic forces. As the ship’s crew goes over their newly upgraded ship, they're joined by a quartet of new recruits. This is, again, a welcome departure by Yasuhiko from the source material. Originally it was one single pilot, Sleggar Law, who came to White Base as a replacement for the deceased Ryu Jose. But here, Sleggar has three more pilots with him, which makes much more sense strategically. I'm sure we'll learn more about these guys in subsequent installments, but first there's a lot of ground to cover in the past.

And so, after that brief introductory framing sequence, Yasuhiko takes us back in time twelve years to UC 0067, to the colony of Side 3, which will eventually become the Principality of Zeon. Zeon’s founding figure, Zeon Zum Deikun, is assassinated and his wife, Astraia, and children, Casval and Artesia, are presumed to be targets as well. The house of Ral, led by Ramba Ral’s father, Jimba Ral, takes Zeon's heirs into protective custody. Yasuhiko does quite a bit with Ramba Ral in these flashbacks in fact, which is something -- as a big fan of the character -- I appreciate. We learn that House Ral was once a very politically strong entity in Side 3, but it seems to be their protection of Zeon's family which does them in. Soon after Zeon's assassination, the eldest Zabi sibling, the heretofore unknown Sasro, is assassinated. The Zabis frame the Rals for this crime and use that as an excuse to pry Zeon's family away from them.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN (CONTINUED)

Readers may recall that last February I wrote about the first four volumes of the GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN manga, which was serialized in Japan from 2001 to 2011. The manga is seeing an American release courtesy of Vertical Publishing, at a rate of one volume per quarter over the course of three years.

THE ORIGIN is an eleven-volume series, broken up into three "acts". Act one was the initial journey of the Federation warship White Base from the space colony Side 7 to Earth, culminating in the vessel's arrival at the Federation's headquarters in South American Jaburo and a fierce battle at that location.

Now we move into the second act, which is a lengthy flashback into the early days of mobile suit production and a lead-up to the war. This flashback covers a number of years over the course of three full volumes. After the flashback sequence ends, volume eight picks up again in the present day.

So the plan is to cover GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN volumes 5 - 7, the flashback portion of the story, this month. Volume eight is out, having been released in December, but in the interest of structuring this review series in the best possible way, I'll be holding onto it until 9 - 11 have all been released, then I'll cover all of them together next February.

To refresh your memory or get yourself up to speed if you haven't read any of these posts yet, please see the GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN review page.

Available now at Amazon.com (and highly recommended!):
Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5
Volume 6 | Volume 7 | Volume 8 | Volume 9 (pre-order)
Volume 10 (pre-order) | Volume 11 (pre-order)

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 4

JABURO
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

The first half of volume 4 is another fantastic exercise by Yasuhiko in rearranging and re-ordering events from the original MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM to form a more organic and cohesive experience. The White Base makes two stops on its way to Jaburo, one at a Federation base in Lima, and a second in the neutral territory of Cuzco. While both these stops are original creations of Yasuhiko, they incorporate some moments from the original series that had previously taken place aboard ship.

While White Base travels, General M'Quve recruits Zeon's ace pilots, the Black Tri-Stars, to join the upcoming attack on Jaburo. In an event created wholly by Yasuhiko, some of the White Base crew, including Amuro, bump into the Tri-Stars in a market in Cuzco. Much like Amuro's encounter with Ramba Ral previously, this encounter adds a personal element to Amuro's eventual battle with the Tri-Stars.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 3

RAMBA RAL
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

This is a heavy volume, filled with more drama and carnage than anything else so far in the story. It begins with the funeral of Garma Zabi and the introduction of his family: father Degwin (glimpsed briefly at the end of volume 2), the leader of the Principality of Zeon; brother Gihren, the commander-in-chief of Zeon's armed forces, sister Kycilia and brother Dozle (also seen previously in volume 1), admirals of the Zeon navy. Gihren uses the funeral's broadcast to give a rousing speech to the citizens of the Principality, reinforcing the revolution's purpose.

On Earth, White Base continues its journey to South America, now pursued by Ramba Ral, ace Zeon pilot. The politics behind Ral's situation are, I believe, new to the story. It is established that Ral served loyally under Zeon Zum Deikun, founder of the Principality who was overthrown by the Zabis. Out of favor with the ruling family, Ral and his loyal troops served in the reserve forces. But now, following Char's failure to seize the "Trojan Horse", Ral is called to active service by Dozle.

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 2

GARMA
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko continues his retelling and deepening of the original MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM SAGA in this second volume of GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN. The story picks up with White Base now on Earth, forced off course by Char's forces so that the ship is trapped in the Zeon-controlled North American southwest. The ship immediately comes under attack by Garma Zabi's forces, but with the aid of the Gundam, manages to fight off this initial sortie.

Yasuhiko borrows some cues from the GUNDAM compilation movies for his reorganization of this segment of the saga. The initial battle with Garma's forces is a combination of a couple separate events from the TV series, and it works much better this way. Rather than Garma ineffectively and repetitiously attacking White Base multiple times during its journey through his territory, he really only has one major initial encounter with the "Trojan Horse".

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN, VOLUME 1

ACTIVATION
Written & Illustrated by: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Original story by: Yoshiyuki Tomino & Hajime Yatate
Mechanical Design by: Kunio Okawara

GUNDAM: THE ORIGIN is part retelling, part reboot of the original GUNDAM saga. It keeps the major story beats and arcs, but adds some much welcome additional details to the characters and story.

The inaugural volume begins with a brief recap of the universe's backstory: it is the year 0079 of the Universal Century, and humans have lived for some time in space colonies. The furthest colonies from the Earth named themselves the Principality of Zeon and declared their independence, sparking a civil war between the terrestrial Earth Federation and the forces of Zeon. Both sides' weapons of choice in this war were massive humanoid tanks called mobile suits. In only one month of fighting, half the entire human population was wiped out, and a stalemate was reached.