Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Deluxe Edition – Volume 1

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin is, as you might expect, a retelling of the original Gundam series, though that might come as a surprise if you’re only familiar with the OVA series as that adapted the later manga chapters detailing events from before the original show started while this collection is nothing but adaptation from the anime. That being said, author and artist Yoshikazu Yasuhiko did decide to make a few changes to his version’s narrative, but before we get to that, let’s establish the setting for those who may have skipped over the 1979 original: 79 years prior to the start of the series humanity’s first space colony is such a success that a new calendar is introduced dubbed “Universal Century”, but sadly in 0078 UC tension between those living in the space colonies and those still on Earth reaches a boiling point and soon one of the colonies declares its independence from Earth control, soon dubbed the Principality of Zeon. This led to war between the two, one that ended with a third of all humanity being killed off within the first month or so thanks to Zeon gassing several pro-Federation colonies’ population to death and then dropping an empty colony onto Earth like a meteor impact. An accord was reached where both sides agreed not to use mass-civilian-killing methods and soon war both in space and on Earth began in a more traditional sense, with Zeon claiming whole regions of Earth thanks to their superior technology and use of Mobile Suits…

The story then begins in 0079 UC, deep into this more traditional war (ignoring the whole space-Earth thing and all the walking mechs…) It’s also here where The Origin begins to differentiate itself from the original anime, as in the original the Gundam was the Earth Federation’s first attempt at a mobile suit of their own, with the “Guncannon” and “Guntank” created to support it, but here not only is the Gundam one of two but the two Gun suits are referenced as “old tech” that the Earth Federation has been using for some time. So it’s implied that for most of what later becomes known as the “One Year War” both sides have had access to mobile suits, even if the Earth Federation is still outclassed. Apart from that, some location swapping and cutting out some of the less interesting scenes this first volume (which again is technically the first two volumes…) sticks pretty close to the original show. Amuro Ray is the young genius son of the genius who helped design and build the Gundam, and when a Zeon force, led by the famous “Red Comet” Char Aznable, arrives thanks to intel as to what was happening an attack happens that causes the colony to need to be evacuated. In the original, Amuro ran into the Gundam with only a found instruction manual for guidance as to how to use it, but in this he’s been sneaking a look at his father’s files and is already familiar with its systems when he climbs on board.

It also has to be said that some of the Zeon forces were taken out by the second Gundam piloted by an unknown test pilot before any of this happens, though it’s lost in the colony collapse. Amuro manages to take out a few Zeon Zaku suits while his friends evacuate on the equally experimental ship called “White Base” which, thanks to some high-ranking deaths in the attack, ends up being captained by the inexperienced young Bright Noa and a team that mixes officers and refugees who lend a hand. Amuro has a near-death experience fighting Char in his red mobile suit and then heads off with his friends in White Base. That’s the basic set-up; Char and his Zeon Forces chase the White Base across space and eventually down to Earth, all while Amuro has a hard time dealing with the pressure of having everyone’s lives on his shoulders as he pilots the Gundam under orders of Bright, who is similarly struggling with his sudden authority. A lot of the more fantastical Gundam lore, like Newtypes and their psi-powers don’t come along until later so this is all very much your “giant robots in a real war scenario” stuff that made Gundam stand apart from the Super Robot shows that surrounded it at the time.

As for the manga itself? It’s beautifully drawn, the characters still retain their 70s animation charm but are far more detailed, plus the more comedic facial expressions during lighter moments are retained as well, and the backgrounds are well realised. The new and returning colour pages are stunning, especially blown up to A4 size, with a great watercolour painted look that really makes some scenes pop, or give more gravitas to some quieter moments. It has to be said that in the original manga releases some cropping happened here and there, and while some of the cropping has been addressed and fixed with the new sized print, oddly occasional cropping at the top of one or two images has happened instead. It’s extremely rare and honestly I didn’t notice until I did a bit of research for this review so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. There are some lovely artwork pages at the back of the book as well as a bonus.

I think my only real gripe is with the outside of the book as it’s gone for a minimalist look. Beyond the imprinted Gundam picture on the front, it’s all dark blue and with plain white text, the spine looks more like an encyclopaedia than a manga. Compare that to the individual manga releases which had some of the great painted artwork wrapped around the whole book and the Deluxe Edition really looks quite dull in comparison, despite being bigger and featuring more stuff.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin is a great way to experience the original series if you don’t want to sit through a whole late 70s anime series or its three rushed compilation movies, as it gets straight to the point but doesn’t gloss over the side characters and it has great artwork to boot. There are differences in the story but nothing that impacts things too greatly, at least not at this early stage anyway. That being said, it might be better to track down the individual releases as this 800+ page behemoth is not super convenient to hold and read, and lacks in visual flare when placed on your (hopefully reinforced) bookshelf.

Our review copy from Vertical was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).

• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin © Yoshikazu Yasuhiko/Kadokawa Shoten