Masamune Shirow

Masamune Shirow

Ahhhh, I forgot about House Baklazan and House Falk, I love those guys.

I do absolutely enjoy the fact that we know bugger-all about them (and I really like their designs, Nemo’s a very striking old man and Elek’s got that pudgy nobility vibe that feels like they could be cast in a heroic or villainous light without much difficulty). They’re essentially (narratively) just seat fillers to provide some weight for Gjallarhorn to throw about to show division. Though I really do want to call out house Falk since their family Gundam is the Gundam Gamigin

Which, yeah gorgeous design and all that, but it’s armed with a freaking GUN HAMMER (/axe….thing) which is just absolutely wonderful.

Rustal tracks. Quite oddly actually, given that he reforms the corrupt Gjallarhorn into (presumably) an actual merit-based system, which is how Gjallarhorn was originally formed post-calamity war. Hm. Though I’ve talked about this before, it really sells him as the realist versus Mcgillis’ romanticism of the past. Then again, he’s explicitly doing it in service to his own interests, as opposed to Mcgillis playing hero as Agnika Kaeru.

I really should go back and properly read IBO Gekko, everything I hear about Zadiel Zalmfort/Zaza Fossil makes me want to read about him (the Dantalion looking as it does also helps).

So I realised something - two things in fact, today when thinking about Iron Blooded Orphans again.

So, Gaelio, having realised that his Schwalbe Graze isn’t enough, pulls out the Bauduin family Gundam, the Kimaris, with which to fight the Barbatos. Mcgillis (as Montag) expresses amazement that Gaelio did this, and surprise that Gundam’s are fighting one another. However, his tone is rather dry, suggesting that, while surprising, such a situation is not an unthinkable one.

So, could there have been other fights between Gundam’s post-calamity war?

The other thing is that, while we’re told that there’s 26 Gundam’s known to still exist in P.D. 323, at the start of the series (I *think* it gets pushed up to 31 by the end, since Flauros, Gusion, Vual, Asmoday and Hajiroboshi get unearthed or revealed over that timeframe, but I might have forgotten one), we don’t know for certain that all of the missing ones were destroyed during the calamity war. It’s possible some were destroyed in the intervening 300-ish years, whether by politicking (think the Warren’s and Nadira’s being shoved out along with their gundam’s) or by some other conflict (it’s of course possible that not everyone was completely willing to accept Gjallarhorn’s rule postwar, no matter what the state of things).

So it’s possible that other Gundam’s have been discovered or lost since the calamity war, and they could have intervened in numerous other conflicts in that time. Mcgillis himself notes that Gundam’s “have appeared numerous times at historical turning points and have been a great influence on the history of man”. Not “the machines that won the calamity war”. It’s of course possible that Mcgillis’ romanticism makes him a biased source, prone to flowery descriptions. But. It does seem to indicate that the Gundams have had influence beyond the Calamity War already by P.D. 323, thus implying other conflicts they’ve been involved in.

I don’t know, it’s just cool to think about (and possible fodder for sidestories set prior to tekkadan’s formation in 323).

With all the things you've posted looking at the mobile suits of various series, I wondered if you had any specific tastes in mecha design. Are there particular details or design cues that you're especially fond of?

@wordsandrobots, I fully expect to follow this up at sone point (and likely run out of pictures/want to ramble even more), so I’m going to pull it out as a proper post:

That is an *excellent* question, actually, since I hadn’t considered my tastes in such a broad scale before (and well-timed too, since I’ve got a post talking about Gusion in the works). It’s why I typically like talking about design series, since I can compare and contrast within that scope.

I typically focus on Gundam, since I generally like it as a series and there’s a massive variety of designs to appreciate, with a broad range. I’m largely influenced by the Anime, model kits and occasionally videogames, though in a lot of cases I can like a character, and that can lead to a greater appreciation of their mobile suit.

Specific design notes…. I tend to notice them more in the context of an artist - I adore a lot of Ippei Gyoubu’s design touches, from the bright colours to the detailed hands to the panel lines and little touches that you’d never notice. Kazuhisa Kondo has the organic shape and uniquely rounded weaponry and it’s styled in such a way as to apprear blurry, almost ephemeral, like you’re glimpsing it through a haze of smoke and gunfire and dirt, while frantically turning to get away, get away from the conflict. And yet the designs are still recognisable, and in a lot of respects draw from contemporary sources.

I’m similarly fond of Makoto Kobayashi and Kuino Okawara, though I typically struggle to explain how (Makoto Kobayashi tends to have really good composition? I think. So they look simple and detailed all at once, and they’re part of a scene, so it’s what you choose to focus on? And Okawara just makes it look so…. Effortless)

Hajime Katoiki I do like as well, I just struggle to nail down why. I suppose it’s because of how clean his designs look.

Moving away from the preference of artists (and honestly, it’s only that some of their design hallmarks are very distinct), I often have a preference for specific “types” of mobile suit. I talked about this a little in regards to the Code: Fairy designs, but I often find myself drawn to specialist mobile suits over generalist ones. From a modelling perspective, I often like each one to be distinct in a lineup in some way (unless they’re similar models, then I just put them together so the differences show). Often this can just be a distinct weapon, but it’s just as often the form of the mobile suit (the Gusion’s a good example here, since it draws the eye due to its heavyset build, understated colour scheme and giant hammer) or even the colour (see: the Infinite Justice being bright pink). This tends to encompass a lot of close-quarters units (like the Pixy and the Efreets) simply because there’s a lot of ways to do that well. Another reason is that whereas generalist suits tend to show up in large roles throughout the series, specialist ones tend towards “monster-of-the-week”, typically being an obstacle to be defeated or just having one or two cool scenes (like the Efreet Schneid). So I find they stick in my head a lot better.

I can like a lot of designs from a series as well, but of course I tend to have a lot of different criteria as to what designs I like, depending on the suit’s billing and purpose (what makes a great grunt suit and what makes a great protagonist suit are quite different after all). I do very much like a lot of the UC Grunt suits (though I’ll probably touch on that in more detail at a later point), for example, but I only really like one from Anno Domini, the Tieran (since it looks so much like a walking tank as opposed to the spindly nature of the Flags and Enacts). That said, I don’t think that the Flags, Enacts and GN-X’s are bad designs, they’re just not really the sort of thing I like.

In fact, I reckon that’s why I’m particularly fond of Iron-Blooded Orphans’ Aesthetics, since a lot of the units from that series would be close-quarters specialists in any other series. But because melee is so common in Post Disaster, virtually everything carries a nice solid sharp stick. The only exceptions I can think of are Gusion Rebake (which is more of an all-rounder), Flauros (and even that has hatchets that leave cqc a viable option) and Dainsleif Grazes (which only have one arm, so….).

There is a problem with looking at so many mobile suit designs in that you can wander quite far sometimes. Sometimes to odd places. For instance, I’ve been wanting to watch Gundam Narrative recently, but ended up watching Gundam Twilight Axis instead (they have a similar plot to me). Twilight Axis has the Tristan, a derivative of the Alex. Another derivative of the Alex would be the Full Armour Alex, which appears along with the Striker Custom in Mobile Suit Gundam Katana.

I’m gonna get two things out of the way first: I haven’t finished reading Gundam Katana, because I don’t like Gundam Katana.

Oh, the arts wonderful and I like a lot of the original mechanics, but I absolutely despise the protagonist (the plot’s not great but it’s essentially a blip compared to how much the main character bothers me).

I don’t want this to be just a rant post so I’ll be brief; The Protagonist of Gundam Katana, Ittou Tsurugi, is a prick. In that way that only a brat with a silver spoon in their mouth (on in this case, at their side) can be. He’s handed a super custom ms and a force of followers that follow him absolutely, despite the fact that he has no experience with command (and more to the point, no experience with failure). In addition, he’s also got those bad reader self-insert characteristics (always in the right, excels at everything he strives to do, knows things that he probably shouldn’t at that point in time). Two examples I just want to call out, the first being when he gets mugged at the docks by a group of five. The muggers attempt to justify their behaviour because of the ongoing economic depression and the claim that the Earth Federation spends more on its military than on other things. Ittou defeats them easily (fair enough), but then has the gall to turn around to them and say that they should work harder because of the recession. Ittou, a military brat, heir to his household and with a legion of followers to cater to his every need. The second example is that after fighting Zeon Remnants on the Moon (which is a whole other thing), Ittou has a chance encounter at the flight terminal with none other than Quattro Bajeena, who’s on the moon on business. Now, Quattro’s real identity in Zeta eventually became an open secret within the AEUG until Char’s Dakar Address. However, many members of the AEUG suspect Char’s real identity (Blex), fought against him in the OYW (Bright) or eventually hear enough rumours that they suspect anyway (everyone else). Ittou has never met Char, never seen Char so there is no reason as to why he should be able to recognise someone who fought with a mask throughout the entire One Year War. But he does, because he’s apparently just that good. (As an aside, the whole deification of Char post-OYW as this ace of aces bothers me a little, since he’s only really relevant to the White Base crew and there were plenty of other aces running around. It makes sense post-Dakar and post-Gryps, but prior he should be just another ace).

Anywho, the reason I wanted to talk about Katana is because I like quite a lot of it’s original mechanics. I say original, because it uses a lot of units that were originally from videogames, so I’m only going to be talking about the Striker Custom, Full Armour Striker Custom, Full Armour Alex and GM Striker Custom.

The Striker Custom is the main mobile suit of the series (and yes, I did choose that second picture to show off its weaponry). It’s probably my weakness for close-quarters suits talking, but I really like it. It is essentially a GM Striker with a Gundam Head and new backpack, but as custom units go I find that honestly quite charming. Despite the two pictures shown here it’s actually quite well-armed, starting with the standard Vulcan guns and twin beam sabers. Following this it has a further two beam sabres, snazzier ones with a longer blade, that can be combined into a beam naginata. It is also armed with a set of Knuckle Daggers, mounted on the backpack when not in use, which are essentially a sort of axe-shaped beam blade mounted in the hands (they can be seen in the second picture). It can also be armed with the Spark Knuckle (essentially an electrified, handheld brass knuckle, based on the electrical weaponry Zeon used) and the Burst Knuckle (punch to attach mine, punch again to detonate, because there’s totally no way for that to go wrong). It can also be armed with a 100mm machine gun (or as GBO2 is wont to, a GM II Beam Rifle), but typically isn’t, because Ittou’s a lousy shot. I really like the knuckle daggers - I don’t really think that they’d be more practical than a beam saber (longer reach and all), but they are cool as heck, giving the suit a boxing vibe that I quite enjoy. The Spark and Burst knuckles are typically used sparingly, which helps my opinion of them - the spark knuckle’s lovely, but there isn’t much defence against electric weaponry other than range, so it’s good it doesn’t get overused. The Burst Knuckle…. I don’t dislike it, it just seems horribly impractical. That said, I can only really recall it being used once, so it’s not like I typically remember it. The Striker Custom is also fitted with a “Demon Blade” AI System, a derivative of the EXAM system (*shot*), whiiiiich…… is fine? It’s probably the fact that I stopped reading before it became a major factor (I remember it being introduced, but little else) but I don’t really have a big opinion on it. It makes sense for a close-quarters suit to have it, especially as a trump card to pull out in dire situations. It’s more of the “can be mastered” system than the “WILL mess you up” one though (the original EXAM system was pretty harrowing, as I understand it and the HADES aren’t exactly a nice walk in the park either).

Form and armour wise, it’s pretty good. A large part of that is going to be inherited from the GM striker, yes, but the Striker Custom feels very agile, and light on its feet. It probably is the boxer influence (even the head looks like it’s got a head guard on), but I like it because it feels like a very straightforward design - get close and hit things. Specifically, I like how it feels like a “gundam-ified” version of the GM Striker in the same vein that the Gundam Marine Type “Gundiver” is to the Aqua GM. It really sets your mind going as to what other “upgraded GM’s” there could be (like a Gundam Night Seeker, or Gundam Guard Type). I’m fine with the colours - I typically dislike it if a protagonist suit is “just” white and blue, but in this case it’s actually got a purpose because the main rival suit, the Full Armour Alex, is Red, so it shows the contrasting personalities of their pilots (and it works pretty well with its pink beam weapons). I will admit that I’ve repainted it to Titans Colours in GBO2 though - it’s about the right time period for them to be around (some even show up in the early chapters) and honestly I like imagining the AEUG stealing one (plus, I think it looks really nice).

Now if only it had a better pilot.

It’s upgraded form is the Full Armour Striker Custom, build with spare parts from the Full Armour Alex. Cards on the table, I haven’t read up to the part in the manga where this shows up, so this is purely on the design and it’s weaponry (as seen in GB02). I do like the bulkier look (the original has a nice agility to the design, but I don’t mind the additional weight), however I do think that it’s overarmed. This is a common problem I have with Full Armour upgrades - they just cram a bunch of additional weaponry on for the sake of it. I like heavily armed suits, but just adding bulk to an existing design doesn’t work for me because the end result just ends up looking sluggish. Speaking of those armaments, let’s run down the list, shall we? The Vulcan Guns remain, as per usual. As do the twin beam sabers, though one of them has been moved to the front of the right shoulder. The Knuckle Daggers are now mounted in the…. What is a apparently supposed to be a shield, but looks to me more like a weapons rack on the left arm. There’s an EXAM unit 3-style double beam cannon as it’s primary ranged armament on the right arm - that’s essentially standard armament for FA (Full Armour) Units, so absolutely no issues there. It’s also got a back rocket cannon and chest missile bays, likely modelled after the regular FA Gundam, and rounding out the loadout is a set of missile pods on the legs. In addition to all this, it’s armed with a brand new sword weapon called Fukusaku - a long sword roughly three-fifths the size of the mobile suit itself. I find it to be a textbook case of a mobile suit being overarmed. I can see how - the striker custom brings its close quarters weaponry and the FA Gundam Brings its long-range weaponry, but it just seems to be fighting for space on the suit - the Beam Saber on the front armour (a very dangerous position, given what happens to beam sabers when they’re shot) and the “shield” that’s essentially mounting two especially large beam sabers on the left arm are just the most obvious examples. Fukusaku is odd, because it looks completely unique, and all the sources I can find state that it’s a cold saber - essentially an electric saber, typically used when stealth is required, such as on the Efreet Nacht. Thing is, it looks to be an mobile suit sized Katana, meaning it was forged, but it still has beam effects over the…… Hamon? Of the sword (that wavy bit on katanas that’s formed as the sword cools). Oddities aside, it makes sense that the main suit in “Mobile Suit Gundam Katana” would recieve a fancy katana, but it doesn’t exactly help with the suit having two other paired melee weapons already. I do like the bulk added by the additional armour to the Full Armour Striker Custom, it creates the sense of a slower, more methodical fighting style (“one strong cut” to the striker custom’s barrage of punches), but I think the weapons weigh it down too much, especially since I know it’s going to be used in space. Honestly, I feel like if you took off the Knuckle Daggers and Chest Missile Bays, maybe moved the saber mountings around, it’d look much better. I like the splash of purple added in the paint scheme, but I don’t notice it’s absence much in GBO2. The Full Armour Striker Custom’s design is busier (especially around the chest), so it doesn’t look quite as good in Titan’s colours, but there’s some lovely details on the back (like the leg thrusters) that really pop.

The GM Striker and GM Striker Kai are largely identical, save for the backpack. Indeed, the Striker Custom is essentially a modified GM Striker Kai (with perhaps a little of the blue destiny units sprinkled in). They are armed differently however, with the GM Striker Kai being armed with beam sabers like the ones the Striker Custom has, and the regular GM Striker being armed with a twin beam spear that can convert into a scythe. I like the regular GM Striker, I think it’s an excellent up-armoured version of the GM, with the twin beam spear being an appropriately imposing melee weapon for it. I very much like the colours as well, with a lovely green, yellow and blue-grey scheme. The blue visor also draws attention nicely to the head. The GM Striker Kai is the space-use version, having the backpack of the Striker Custom in addition to its weaponry. Overall, I think it’s a nice GM unit with the additional armour doing a lot to distinguish it from the pack.

Lastly, the Full Armour Alex. I found it quite difficult to find a decent picture of the Version seen in Gundam Katana. The Full Armour Alex is…. a little of an odd one for me, because though I know it’s just differing artist interpretations, I tend to consider the original (Green and White, right) and the version seen in Gundam Katana (Red, Left) as separate designs (for the most part). I’ll go over the one seen in Gundam Katana first. It’s piloted by Kotetsu, a cyber-Newtype of True Federal in the series (True Federal have a vested interest in having as many newtypes on their side as possible, but they don’t seem to be going for the inhuman experimentation that the Titans did.) who functions as an early, personal foe for Ittou, here to drop subtle hints about the organisation and provide an actual challenge. The Full Armour Alex is essentially a brute - it’s got the strength and power to easily match most anything else in one-on-one combat, and functions as True Federal’s one-man clean-up crew. I think it’s used well in the series - it’s a FA unit, with lots of weaponry that’s geared towards ranged combat - a natural counter to the Striker Custom, which focuses on close-quarters. It spends much of its initial appearance holding Ittou back by sheer volume of fire alone - he’s forced to do little else but dodge. But it’s meaty firepower never allows it to feel unthreatening.

Design-wise….. it’s just fine. I like the red colour scheme in the context of their pilots - Kotetsu’s far more emotion-driven than Ittou, so it makes sense for their contrasting personalities. But in the context of red mobile suits in Gundam….. it doesn’t work. Red is a signifier of Char, or something related to Char (or a char clone), but the Full Armour Alex is neither. I have been seeing some “regular” rivals using it as of late (see the Pixy (LA), but in those cases it just comes off as forced. It’s just red because it’s a rival and rivals are red. The form and body’s fine - it’s a good example of the artist’s style and the muted colours really mean your attention’s drawn to the knees, skirt, head and gun. As a full armour unit, it doesn’t get many dynamic melee shots, so it’s imposing and weighty stature helps it look imposing, particularly the back rocket cannon and it’s targeting camera.

However, I must confess I completely prefer the Original (Green and White) design, as featured in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 MSV. It just feels so much sleeker and faster, selling that the NT-1 is an improvement over the original Gundam. The green and white colour scheme is still eye catching, clearly drawing a distinction between the original and its additional parts, while helping to sell just how protective the armour would be, since the parts of the original Alex peeking through help emphasise just how beefed-up it is. Furthermore, you can easily believe that there’s space in the armour for the chest missile bays, without significantly compromising its protection. It’s only got two other integrated weapons - the back rocket cannon and the twin beam cannon, but it feels like an appropriate amount of additional firepower. It feels significant, since they’re both clearly visible on the design and the grey plays off the rest of the colour scheme - there’s only a few other small details, like the collar and “ribs”. The Full Armour Alex does retain its built-in arm gatlings, but they cannot be used since the armour covers them. I think the fact that the armour doesn’t cover the leg thrusters, and has dedicated gaps for the AMBAC system are why it feels so much sleeker to me - the Full Armour Alex was intended to be a backup plan for the Chobham Armour, and looking at it it might have even been more agile. I also very much like the head - I assume it was just artist interpretation, or perhaps the NT-1’s design hadn’t been finalised when it was made, but the yellow eyes, red forehead jewel and sleeker face really appeal to me, while helping it have its own identity other than “just the Alex, but bigger”. It’s just really rather neat.

Alright, so given that I accidentally deleted the original prior to posting (call it queued posts or call it scheduled posts, not both), I might as well do this again

Given that I’ve been talking about it a lot lately, what do I think of the Gundam Gusion’s designs?

First up, the “original” Gundam Gusion, as it appears when being used by the space pirate organisation Brewers. Honestly, I love this thing. It’s one of two High Grades (the other being the Kimaris) that I bought when season 1 was coming out (a practice that I regrettably didn’t have the opportunity to repeat with G-Witch). But yeah, a big chunky, round, frog-looking Gundam, it really stands out in a lineup, but without being too flashy. Another part of it will be my preference for specialised suits over generalists - the original Gusion’s armed with a hammer, submachine gun and grenades (and an axe if you read the manga) in addition to the built-in anchor cannons. I really like how tight it’s loadout is - it can carry it all, and still retain its mobility for fighting in the debris zones. It’s a superheavy raid suit designed for very-short range anti-ms and anti-ship combat - tailor made for a space pirate outfit. All that said though, I think it’s good that it’s essentially just a brief foe to Tekkadan and doesn’t outstay it’s welcome - it’s a unit based on Kudal’s style of excess, so once he’s dead, it shouldn’t hang around long enough for it’s flaws to become apparent and it’s a memorable foe nonetheless.

Next up, the Gundam Gusion Rebake. Honestly, I didn’t like this one so much when it first appeared. Partially because there’s so little fanfare, but I thought it looked too similar to the Barbatos (especially compared to its predecessor and the Kimaris). Not helping matters is my understanding that both Gusion Rebakes were shafted from a High Grade perspective (The Axe is in an option set, and they both contain a lot of white wraparound colour correcting stickers in addition to requiring further colour correction - I try to paint instead of using wraparound stickers, but white can be a struggle). With the reveal of the Gusion Rebake Full City, I went back and reevaluated it. I came to appreciate the smoother form, the rounded lines. I like how it clearly retains some elements of the original Gusion (the shield and the backpack being made from Gusion’s back and legs, respectively), while taking some from the Barbatos (along with some spare armour). It makes a nice halfway house between the two designs, while still having its own unique elements. I do like its head very much, it’s sleek and rounded and the long-range emphasis helps it considerably. I’m quite fond of the rounded legs too, they remind me of the Gundam Ground type, another unit that was equally comfortable at range or close-quarters.

Finally, the Gundam Gusion Rebake Full City. Given that I said that this caused me to reevaluate the Gusion Rebake, I mustn’t like this one so much? Not so! The Gusion Rebake Full City has a wonderfully blocky design that lends it much more weight than the original, even though it’s overall mass doesn’t increase that much. The aforementioned unique elements of the Gusion Rebake have blossomed wonderfully, fully divorcing it from the Gusion and Barbatos. It’s new, more inhuman design plays into Tekkadan’s reputation as “the devils of Mars” and this is very apparent during its fight with Galan Mossa (the bearded gentleman). Armament-wise, it’s not too much over the Gusion Rebake. I do like it’s arm rockets, but the Variable Scissor rear armour….. okay, yes it is silly, because I alway think Akihiro should get shot in the middle of using it. However a) if any suit can multitask it’s probably the Gusion Rebake Full City b) it’s typically only used against single/armoured enemies. And c) it is essentially the last word in anti-armour weaponry, so it being unwieldy is perhaps an acceptable trade-off. I have a habit of considering a lot of IBO’s weaponry as silly until I actually consider the setting (Mobile suits have a *slightly* different origin in IBO when compared to other settings), so I’m perhaps lenient on it. The Gusion Rebake Full City also has the distinction of being in one of my favourite scenes in Iron-Blooded Orphans, which gives it brownie points (though to be fair it’s hardly unique in that regard, with Flauros and Bael also having similar honours).

Moebius