Gundam Requiem For Vengeance Then. I Dont Really Have Anything To Say On The New Trailer Other Than It

Gundam Requiem for Vengeance then. I don’t really have anything to say on the new trailer other than it reminds me of a trailer I once saw for Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children.

However, given that I did a post on the Gundams in the one year war last time, I figured I’d go over the Full Armour units that I skimmed over this time around.

First up, the PF-78-1 Perfect Gundam. Now I usually try to use fairly neutral pieces of art for these, so they best illustrate the mobile suit in general, but this thing…… well.

It’s a bit of an odd one. First originating in the 1982 Manga Plamo-Kyoshiro, it was built by Shiro Kyoda (the kid in the bottom left of the above picture). Note how I said built. This manga is essentially the earliest permutation of what would eventually become the build series, where the focus is shifted from War to Modelling. Now normally this is where I’d earmark it as a build kit, except that it’s canon to the Universal Century as well. It was apparently a planned upgrade plan for the original Gundam, but was never built, with its data being carried into the Full Armour Gundam, being canonised in MSV. Its armaments are much the same as the original, only adding a built-in 2-barrel beam gun to the arm, four drop mines to the shield and a Shoulder Cannon to the backpack. The shoulder cannon is notable because it’s nature is different in each work - it’s a high pressure water gun in Plamo-Kyoshiro, a 360mm Rocket Gun in MSV, and a high-output beam cannon in Build Fighters.

I admit I was looking forward to talking about the Full Armour Gundam here, but its position in canon is just difficult. Officially, it was never built and existed only as simulation data, because the excess armour and weaponry would have slowed it down too much. Unofficially, it shows up damn everywhere, typically as a foe of either Johnny Ridden or the Perfect Zeong. I’m going to call out two examples here and then move on, primarily because they actually name pilots of the thing. In the videogame Spirits of Zeon: Dual Stars of Carnage, a blue Full Armour Gundam is piloted by Earth Federation Fighter Ace Takashi Kitamoto during the Battle of Solomon. Meanwhile in the manga Mobile Suit Gundam MSV Battle Chronicle Johnny Ridden, a Full Armour Gundam is piloted by Heinz Baer against Johnny Ridden’s Full Bullet Zaku (honestly I mention this because I absolutely love Heinz Baer’s character design, shown below). Armament wise, the Full Armour Gundam retains the Vulcan Guns and Beam sabers of the original Gundam, but carries a twin beam rifle as opposed to the original’s single-barrelled model. In addition, it gains a 360mm Rocket Cannon on its back and four missile bays, built into the knees and clavicles. As a design, I really like the thing, but I’m unsure why. Maybe it’s the simplicity of it being an up-armed and armoured version of the original Gundam, or maybe it’s that there’s some really nice art of it, particularly it’s Debut in Mobile Suit Variation (MSV).

C’mon, Look at this guy. A flying ace who wears a sweater under his pilot suit.

Next up, the FA-78[G] Full Armour Gundam Ground Operations Type, originating in MSV-R. Nice and simple, now. It’s essentially a Full Armour Variant that’s designed for ground combat, using the RX-78-1 Prototype Gundam as a base. It was designed, but never built (whether due to costs, practicality or the lack of the RX-78-1). Design-wise, yeah, it’s nice. Critical areas are up-armoured, and some new weapons added, but it still looks fairly agile, and the Prototype Gundam features make it stand out a little more. It’s armed with Vulcans, Two Beam Sabers on the left arm, a twin beam rifle on the right arm, a 360mm Rocket Cannon on the backpack and a missile launcher. Not much more on this one, it’s just neat.

The FA-78-1B Full Armour Gundam (Type B). Oh, I love this thing. Also originating from MSV-R, it was developed from the G-3 Gundam, rounding out the three full armour units. It was designed primarily for anti-fleet combat, with the assumption that it would be piloted by a Newtype. MSV-R keeps things vague on the details, but given that it seems to have been developed in response to The Battle of a Baoa Qu, the general theme of Full Armour Units and that it was intended to be used with a Newtype Pilot (which the Federation really didn’t have a lot of), it feels a safe bet to say that it was probably never built (honestly, Zeon went big on Newtype research and even they only had about five combat-ready examples). Armament wise, the Full Armour Type B is rocking Vulcan guns, a 360mm Rocket Launcher, a Triple Beam Rifle, upgraded missile launchers in the knees and clavicles, two beam sabers mounted on the left arm and a large missile launcher on the back, which is loaded with two large anti-ship missiles on the front and twenty along the back of the launcher, designed to counter any anti-beam defences employed by its victi- targets. Employed by its targets. Design-wise, gorgeous, I love the patterns on its armour and the simplistic colour palette of blue, grey and golden-yellow for the details is just wonderful. It’s heavyset yes, but it doesn’t feel excessive since it’s designed for anti-fleet work in space. The box-style beam saber adds to this, since it gives the idea of a quick weapon primarily to block attacks, as opposed to its primary armament. I’m not typically a fan of the G-3, but the Full Armour Type B blends its aesthetic so wonderfully.

Next up, the FA-78-2 Heavy Gundam. Another simple one. Three-Four units built postwar, with at least one of them being piloted by one Den Berserk. Apparently one unit was lost during atmospheric entry tests. Essentially a second go-around at the full armour Gundam concept, only a brand new mobile suit as opposed to an add-on. It is armed with: A shoulder mounted Beam Cannon, a singular beam saber, a frame launcher (essentially a composite weapon combining a Gatling gun with a 4-tube missile launcher) and an optional Beam Rifle. Again, just a lovely design, really liking the added bulk on the chest and the visor emphasises its ranged speciality.

The second unit (right) is equipped identically to the regular Heavy Gundam and appears in the Manga MSV-R: the return of Johnny Ridden, where it’s repainted and piloted by Ingrid 0. Due to the series being set in U.C. 90, Unit 2 is somewhat upgraded when compared to the original, being equipped with a bio-sensor for use by newtypes and a set of Dummy Launchers not dissimilar to those found on suits around the time of Char’s Counterattack. These were pretty clearly later additions, however. It was also equipped with a bazooka, patterned off the original Hyper Bazooka used by Gundam units in the One Year War. EDIT: I’d like to note that we don’t know which unit was lost during atmospheric entry tests, so it’s possible that the “lost” unit was Unit 2, so it could be employed “off the books”, as it were.

The RX-78SP Gunner Gundam was designed shortly after the end of the One Year War, during a review of captured Zeon materials. It’s essentially a sniper Gundam, featuring an improved sensor pod and specialised beam rifle in addition to the standard Gundam armament of Vulcans and beam sabers. I say designed because it was never built, development began and a mock-up unit was built from a GM, but it was deemed that the G06 Mudrock Gundam was able to perform the same role. A Full Armour variant appears in the Shin Matsunaga Manga however (MSV-R: Legend of the Universal Century Heroes: Rainbow’s Shin Matsunaga).

Some big boys for Interpoint Station's upcoming Lancer module.

*the following contains spoilers for Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt*

Alright, so I’ve finally finished Gundam Ibo Urdr Hunt, and I’ll be doing a proper post on it momentarily, but I do want to get one thing out right now.

I kind of really love the Hajiroboshi Second Form.

Which is a little odd in isolation, since it’s not actually that different from the original Hajiroboshi.

It’s really just got new shoulders, the new boosters on its backpack (the head might have been reworked slightly, but I think that might just be me) and a new sword. However, two of these features (the Boosters and Sword) bring it closer to its original form.

Just looking at its armaments on their own, I like them. I will admit I have a weakness for suits that are “We have a sword, let’s just use that really really well”. I like both the Destiny and the Throne Zwei for those reasons. But the Hajiroboshi second form has some points in its favour that those two don’t- it’s in Post Disaster 324, a setting where that is a very viable strategy, and it’s got those lovely thrusters on its back that seem to primarily serve to get it into melee range (not to mention the harpoons). I also like the shield -it’s streamlined, but not to the point of not being protective, and while I like how it’s got the claw tips for thrusting, it’s nice how there’s so little emphasis on them (though that might just be from the last protagonist suit I looked at being the Lah). But the Cross Mace hearkens back to the main sword of its original armament and the thrusters also bring it closer to the original silhouette of the Marchosias

So it kinda just feels like the ghost of the Marchosias.

Which is great, because both the Hajiroboshi and Barbatos seem to have something going on in that regard. Mikazuki talks to the Barbatos during the battle against Ein in Edmonton as if there’s some last vestige of its former pilot present, while the Hajiroboshi seems to react on its own when encountering mobile armours. Based on what we know about Gundam Frames from the original series, it’s typically some form of interaction with the Alaya-Vijnana (like when the Gusion Rebake gets shut down when attempting to engage the mobile armour, since Akihiro gets overwhelmed by the feedback). The Barbatos’ connection is obvious - Mikazuki’s in a high stress situation when using the Alaya-Vijinana, and presumably he’s doing something similar to what the original pilot did - using the sword to fight an enemy not too dissimilar to a mobile armour. However, the Hajiroboshi’s is considerably less clear. It seems to either lock up, as the Gusion Rebake did, implying it’s fitted with a limiter; or it seems to “flash back” to a similar fight from the calamity war (at least that’s my read on it versus Harael) and from there act as if it has the “True Alaya-Vijinana” installed (it’s only in speech marks because I don’t really have a better term for it). It’s honestly a little unclear on whether it’s Hajiroboshi, the Mobile Armour or both that has the flash backs, since it’s from Harael’s perspective but Wistario mentions seeing them.

So presumably, the Hajiroboshi’s fitted with some kind of system that mimics Alaya-Vijinana, but I would like to offer another suggestion; What if, on some level, the pilots are still in them?

Now, we know that Alaya-Vijinana is a man-machine interface developed prior to the calamity war, but there’s two specific pieces of information that we’re told about it I want to focus on;

“The Alaya-Vijinana creates a Pseudo-brain lobe in the pilot’s body using nanomachines, allowing the pilot's brain to directly process mobile suit data fed through the physical connection.”

“Furthermore, this continuous link can cause consciousness to be forcibly maintained even in situations where the pilot is supposed to faint or even die instantly.”

So, an extra brain lobe to process the information and the system will keep the pilot alive even in situations where they shouldn’t be. So, is it possible there could be some sort of feedback loop or that the mobile suit could retain some of the pilot’s habits (the Barbatos telling Mikazuki how to use the katana through a sort of frame-wide “muscle memory” of its previous pilot).

It’s also interesting that this seems to happen during moments of great stress for their modern pilots - at those points when the greatest amount of data would be moving from the person to the mobile suit. So, if, say for example, a pilot was regularly facing strong enemies in life-or-death situations, might the system retain that data too? The heightened reaction speed, the chemical reactions leading to emotional output, the movements of the pilot to resolve the situation. The Calamity War was a time when humanity was desperately pushed to the brink by the mobile armours, it’s very unlikely that they would have taken the time to work out all the bugs in the system (heck, if they were taking high pilot losses, it might have been seen as a bonus).

So yeah, the Hajiroboshi might be haunted.

As the Hajiroboshi appears as a ghost of the Marchosias, there might also be another ghost in the machine.

I just thought that it’s a rad connection.

Still alive, and will try more stuff soon. Randomly remembered this dude exists

*The following is both a spoiler for Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans Urdr Hunt, and my immediate reaction while watching it*

ZAGAN NO YOU WERE SO COOL

In rough order;

The general plots, themes and who’s actually important to the plot in Wing only really coalesce towards the end, and even then there’s a movie (Endless Waltz) to cap everything off, but I’ll admit it does get a little meandering around the 2/3rds mark.

The pilot’s backstories were *supposed* to have an entire episode of the series dedicated to them, but it got cut from the series and was never dubbed (though some editions of endless waltz include it). This is commonly known as “Episode Zero”. I haven’t seen it, personally, so I don’t know how effective it is at that.

To my understanding, Wing had a very tight production schedule. Read: was basically written and re-written as they went along. As such, it can read a little disjointed when taken as a whole.

Lastly, regarding Gundam Wing being put together to sell toys - kinda, yes. Gundam in general’s game plan is to make a cool story with cool robots in the hope that you like them enough to buy the robots, the original series only became as big as it did through re-runs and toy sales. I can’t remember the source right now, but I remember reading that the mecha designer (presumably Kunio Okawara) had to design one toy with a transformation gimmick (what would become Wing) and one toy with an extending arm gimmick (what would become Shenlong). In addition, 4/5 the designs were recycled/unused from the previous series, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, leading to a multinational theme (Deathscythe’s European, Shenlong/Altron’s Chinese, Sandrock’s Middle-Eastern and Heavyarms is American).

I’ll admit I haven’t seen the series in a good while, however, so I can’t speak for its overall quality.

Gonna vent about Gundam Wing here because FUCK

I know people like this show, and I can see the appeal in the angst between the pilots and the cool robot fights (when they actually happen and aren't just one-sided ass-beatings) and all that jazz. And i just want to say, I'm not gonna stop you from enjoying Gundam Wing. Hell, maybe someone can spell this show out for me and help me get it.

In the meantime, with that out of the way, I want to talk about my feelings regarding Gundam Wing as somebody actively watching through it.

I'm writing this review of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing in the middle of episode 34 (almost 10 episodes away from the end of the show), and I'm left questioning what the point of all this even was. Gundam Wing's upfront pitch was simple & sweet: Heero Yuy & other Gundam pilots go down to Earth and it's pretty straightforward: smash shit up for the larger United Earth Sphere Alliance folks, and is OZ & Zechs were there and sometimes Trieze would show up and say some shit and feel like a solid fit for a complex main villain. Then the Gundam pilots have to go back to Earth and now everyone is kind of meandering about. God, and then a few of them reunite under the female lead Relena's flag. But that kind of fizzles out when lo'-and-behold Heero Yuy runs off in a Gundam yet again while Quatre stands by? Who even is the main villain anymore? Because Trezie said his fight was "over" like his ass gets to say that when his soldiers are out there still clawing for relevancy now that a faceless main villain has invaded the story. It is impossible to feel any sort of way about anyone, nobody important ever actually dies and, again, the role of the antagonist has shifted between two or three different old guys. They really only did one pilot's backstory adequetly. I don't care about any of these people and at this point I'm just watching this to figure if the Gundam Wing Zero & Epyon doing weird mental stuff is going to go anywhere. But if that element is anything like the conflict, it's fizzle out right before it does anything worth discussing.

I don't understand any of it, none of these little bastard Gundam pilots can stick together and it totally underminds the squad dynamic set up from the start. Half of them don't even do anything for most of the series. It leads me back around to my first question, what was the point of this show? Was ALL of this really slapped together to sell toys? (I mean, it was then it worked. I want a model kit of the Mobile Dolls and I own kits the 5 Gundams + Deathscythe Hell) Who is even the brainchild behind Gundam Wing? Who is to blame for this whole thing to begin with? Give me a name, if there even is one.