Gundam Universal Century - Tumblr Posts

RX-78-2 Gundam illustrated by Kazuhisa Kondo

Oh hey, another Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance trailer. Knew I should’ve staggered talking about the Full Armour stuff.

Anyway, given that I’m fresh out of RX-78’s to talk about (at least until we get some more information on the RX-78 Gundam Ex), I’ll have to do something drastic - actually discussing the trailer itself.

Gotta say, it is nice that we can finally get a good look at the mobile suits themselves now that they’ve got models. Regular, non-special Zaku II’s look nice, I’ll be interested in seeing how the proportions stack up. Also, those Gouf Custom’s near the end? Gorgeous. Really hope we get a HG of those (though I’m personally hoping for some unique accessories). I really, really hope we see Doms in this since they’re going to look absolutely beautiful.

I briefly misread the “11 months into the war” bit at the start as just 1 month into the war, and I had to go back and double-check. If it’s 11 months in then that basically allows for all kinds of great tech in place, and it also means that Zeon’s fortunes are going to change very quickly. Depending on precisely when it’s set, it’s either just before or after the Battle of Odessa, which is usually said to be the big turnaround of the entire war, and the beginning of the end for Zeon on Earth.

Character designs look good, I keep seeing the main character (I think it’s Illiya or Elise or something) as Nimona though, but that’s probably just me. It’s really interesting how much like a game it looks, it reminds me a lot of Gundam Igloo, but time will tell if it’s got that series’ charm.

“It’s the Red Wolves! They took out three fleets at Loum!” - The Battle of Loum is one of those things in Gundam where absolutely none of the information we are given about it matches up, so maybe take this with a grain of salt. I should note that Loum is the fight which made Char famous, as he was able to take out five ships single-handedly. The Black Tri-Stars also achieved great fame with their capture of General Revil. There are numerous other noted Zeon aces who made their name at Loum (or during the Earth drop operation), so there’s no harm in the Red Wolves being another. However, three fleets feels a bit implausible.

EDIT: Apparently this is a translation flub, and the intended line was “they took out three ships at Loum”, which makes sense.

(It’s likely emblematic how early UC was typically rather “realistic” with its numbers - a tally of three ships would be very respectable for any ace, and the title of ace itself was awarded after five kills - it sounds low, but speaks to how deadly these fights really were. But as time passes, it’s not unusual to see these numbers exaggerated in fiction. The absolute top aces of the One Year War have just under 200 kills, which would be on par with real-life fighter aces from the Second World War, which gundam’s aces draw heavily from).

Lastly, based on the general tone of the trailer, I’ll assume it’ll be shooting for a grittier take on the one year war a lá Gundam Thunderbolt, so it’ll be interesting to see how that all goes.

Okay, I have been wanting to ramble on about the Jupiter Energy Fleet and Mars Zeon for ages.

Right, so the “World” of Gundam Universal Century can be divided into roughly three sections:

The Earth Sphere, where pretty much all of the shows and main events of “Early UC”happen, including The One Year War, The Gryps Conflict, both Neo Zeon Wars etc. This is essentially the Earth Federation’s backyard, that they don’t take care of at all (hence all the wars).

The Jupiter Sphere, appearing mostly in Crossbone Gundam. They’re present and active in pretty much every series, just typically offscreen. They only really get themselves together militarily around the time of F91, in Universal Century 0123.

The Mars Sphere, who are also there. They’re essentially just a fairly quiet (though massive) colony, until they receive several fleeing Zeon loyalists in the wake of the One Year War and Operation Stardust. They’re the big villain of Gundam F90, the prequel manga to F91.

Earth Sphere

Which means I get to use this rad graphic again.

The Earth Sphere encompasses Earth (obviously) and the 7-8 Space Colony “Sides” in various places in the Earth Sphere. The Sides are essentially clusters of multiple colonies (which are largely self-sufficient). It’s not listed how many were at each side, but we know Side 3 , Munzo aka Zeon, had a lot (at least 40, and that’s just my conservative estimate), whereas Side 7, Noa (later known as Green Oasis) only had one at the outbreak of war. Side 8 was added postwar, and a good deal of the colonies present in each side were shuffled around in the Colony Reclamation Project in UC 0084 (below, also several new colonies were built postwar, both to replenish near-destroyed sides and ease overcrowding).

The Earth sphere typically plays host to various wars of independence (i.e. Zeon), simply because they’re in close enough proximity to the Earth Federation Government for them to realistically claim ownership of the colonies. It’s that sweet spot where they’re close enough that independence is an actual affront to the Earth Federation, but it’s also economically attractive for the secessionists (since there’s actual other entities about).

The above graphic depicts the sides in roughly the arrangement they were at the outbreak of the One Year War in UC 0079 (though obviously their position relative to the Earth would change). The precise organisation changed later, and we have another, absolutely gorgeous in-universe graphic from UC 99 indicates how things were changed:

Side 7 (Noa), 1 (Zahn) and 2 (Hatte) have stayed roughly the same. Whereas the remaining sides have all moved, with the exception of Side 4, Moore, which was devastated in the One Year War. Moore does still exist by the time of UC 0099 (it should be around the L1, or Lagrange Point 1 on the map), but it would be reconstructed into the Frontier Side by/around UC 120. Its omission is likely due to there just not being much there at the time. - Industrial 7, home of Unicorn Protagonist Banagher Links, was located at Side 4 however it’s status as an independent colony under the control of Anaheim Electronics, and it’s under construction status in UC 0096 seems to suggest that reconstruction efforts in the Side are underway, and thus there isn’t much business there. It’s also possible that AirUNA just doesn’t stop there, with Anaheim directly managing the shuttles to and fro.

(Looking at all this though, I do wonder if the “air fare” was cheaper to certain colonies depending on the time of year, since it’d take less time and fuel to get there).

I should mention that the Colony Reclamation Project in UC 0084 is only the largest restructuring we know of. It’s quite likely that there were several smaller changes over time, and we know that several colonies were relocated from Side 2 (Hatte) to Side 5 (Loum) either during or just prior to the Zanscare War in UC 0149. There are also Two independent colonies that exist outside of the Sides - Moon Moon (as seen in ZZ) and Magallanica, a colony builder structure owned by the Vist Foundation (though it would be moved to Side 3 Munzo/The Republic of Zeon) by UC 0097).

It’s also worth noting that the reason for the mass dominance of megacorporations like Anaheim Electronics, Luio&co and the Colony Public Corporation is due to the fact that they build the Space Colonies. The Earth Federation is dependent on them to construct the various sides and prevent an overpopulation crisis since they’re the only ones that can leverage the skills and material to do so. While the space colonisation plan was certainly spearheaded by the Earth Federation government (and seems to have gone impressively well, all things considered), it seems that at least a good chunk of colony construction was privatised, as evidenced with the massive power these corporations wield and how not all sides were created equal (IE, Side 3).

Lastly, I should mention that in UC 0169, the overall structure of the Earth Sphere is completely upended due to the Earth Federation weakening enough that it’s completely unable to impose any sort of order on the Earth Sphere, leading to the “Warring States of Space Period”, which I know very little about.

Jupiter Sphere

The Jupiter Sphere is typically depicted as the immediate area around Jupiter, with it stopping at the asteroid belt. Jupiter is best known for for the Jupiter Energy Fleet. See, in Universal Century, (mostly) safe and effective power is available through thermonuclear reactors, such as the Minovsky Reactor. The catch? These reactors run on a rare isotope of Helium-3, which has to be “mined” from Jupiter, and transported back to the Earth Sphere in massive helium-3 supertankers, like the Jupitris (below).

Because of this, the Jupiter Energy Fleet wields considerable political power, and attacking their ships in wartime is considered forbidden by treaty (Zeon remnant groups break this treaty postwar). The consequences of attacking Helium-3 supertankers are depicted in Gundam Narrative (though technically that’s an extreme case). They essentially provide the fuel that the rest of the setting runs on. It’s also noted that the Jupiter Fleet has a higher-than-average number of “psychic’s” among their ranks (it’s unclear how much the Jupiter Sphere buys into the Newtype theory, so they’re often just called psychics, despite being especially strong newtypes for all intents and purposes). Indeed, both Challia Bull and Paptimus Scirocco are Jupiter Sphere natives.

The Jupiter Sphere eventually gives birth to the Jupiter Empire in U.C. 0120, lead by Crux Dogatie, who really hates the Earth Federation for basically leaving the Jupiter Colonies to fend for themselves, then trying to win him over with a political marriage. The Jupiter Empire Functions as the Big Villains of the Manga, Gundam Crossbone, but they are also backing Cosmo Babylonia, the Big Villains of Gundam F91.

Slight sidebar on Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: read it. It’s really good. You don’t have to read every sequel series or anything, just read the original all the way through. It’s essentially a Gundam series as a manga, but the mobile suits didn’t have to have really toyetic designs, so they can be a bit weirder with it. They have a bunch of really good designs, like the Pez Batalla, Zondo Gei and the Divinidad. It’s really, really good.

The Jupiter Empire is opposed by the Crossbone Vanguard Space Pirates, remnants of the old Cosmo Babylonia forces united under Berah Ronah (as well as elements from the Earth Federation and some independent forces) operating from their mothership, the Mother Vanguard. They operate under the banner of space pirates, both as camouflage amongst other space pirate groups and in order to allow assets to be funnelled to them with some sense of deniability “Oh, those dastardly space pirates, they stole four three of our newest prototypes!”. Also they just look really cool.

The Jupiter Sphere really doesn’t have much of an economy compared to the Earth Sphere, which eventually causes enough resentment to lead to war (and the Jupiter Empire’s impending bankruptcy). It’s also notable that the Jupiter Energy Fleet took in several remnants from both Zeon and the AEUG post OYW and Neo Zeon War, respectively. The Jupiter Empire as an entity is technically still a thing up until the most recent date in UC (0169), so other than the Jupiter Sphere being the little-mentioned backbone of UC and its eventual resentment leading to the Jupiter Empire (and in turn the Crossbone Vanguard), there’s not much more to say.

Mars Sphere

Okay, I both only know the absolute basics on the Mars Sphere, and have an incredible personal bias against it, so this is going to be a lot more opinion than fact.

The Mars sphere really only shows up twice in Universal Century however, both times quite different. First, in Mobile Suit Gundam F90 (which takes place around UC 0111) the prologue to F91, in which Mars Zeon, Zeon remnants that fled to Mars, are the big villain. Second, in Advance of Zeta Re-Boot: Black Rabbit had a Dream, which takes place around UC 0091.

Slight sidebar again; F90’s pretty good. It’s not amazing or anything, but it’s a fairly solid self-contained story that reads like one of the Side Manga to an AU. The fight scenes are pretty good as well, if memory serves. The only real issue is that it kinda doesn’t make the most of Mars as a setting, reducing it to “just” a Zeon remnant holdout.

Which kinda just leads to my main criticism of the Mars Sphere in Gundam - it’s essentially just another Zeon Remnants base. Both series do interesting things with it, but it’s just not that different from the usual Zeon Remnant modus operandi.

The Mars Sphere was colonised early in the universal century, with the various settlements eventually uniting into Side A (Arcadia). A spaceport was constructed on Phobos, Mars’ moon, and became the primary point of entry into Mars. Mars is essentially remnant groups a-go-go. There was the usual wave of Zeon Remnants in the wake of the One Year War, who would form Zeon Mars. More Zeon remnant groups migrated to Mars after Operation Stardust in U.C. 0083, and formed the organisation ReZeon, who proceeded to wage a civil war on Mars against Mars Zeon in U.C. 0088. Zeon Mars was specifically made up of Gihren Faction Remnants, whereas ReZeon was comprised of Kycilia Faction Remnants, hence the two groups animosity. Mars also played host to Titans remnants after the conclusion of the Gryps Conflict. Members of Zeon Mars (The Chester Fleet) were dispatched to aid Neo Zeon during the Neo Zeon War, with ReZeon taking advantage of the enemy force’s absence.

I don’t actually know how the civil war shaped out, but by UC 0120, Zeon Mars (which could’ve been original Zeon Mars, Supplanted by ReZeon or something else) constructed the Olympus Mons Cannon (sometimes called the Olympus Cannon) which Zeon Mars planned to use to commence long range bombardment of the Earth. They also stole the prototype Gundam F90 unit 2, and planned to use it as the flagship mobile suit of their fleet. The Earth Federation dispatched the 13th Autonomous mobile fleet and F90 unit 1 to Mars in response in order to recover the stolen unit and destroy the Olympus Mons Cannon. This iteration of Zeon Mars was also known as “The Oldsmobile Army”, due to their mobile suits appearing similar to Zeon mobile suits from the One Year War (though internally they were actually derived from the notably excellent Geara Doga).

Notably, elements of Mars Zeon were the absolute last group of Zeon Remnants to be active, acting as a diversionary force for the Crossbone Vanguard in U.C. 0122, drawing Earth Federation forces away from the Frontier side by once again attempting to bombard Earth using a mass driver on the moon, before being wiped out by the Earth Federation forces. Led by Charles Rochester, they were cut down to the last, with the dream of Zeon dying with them. Mars basically settles down afterwards.

And that’s basically all the “Spheres” in Universal Century. I miiight do a follow up about the various Zeon remnant groups later.

Gundam's Universal Century be like

The Zeong illustrated by Mecha Designer Kazuhisa Kondo

Char and Sayla reuniting at Texas Colony. Illustrated by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

I haven’t seen much in art of Cecilia Irene (I think she appears in MS Era Pictorial), which is odd for somebody so close to Gihren. This piece is a delight, however.

Gihren Zabi with his secretary (and rumored mistress) Cecilia Irene. Illustrated by Hirotoshi Sano

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam poster featuring Kamille and Fa in the March 1986 issue of My Anime.

Illustration by Naoyuki Onda and Kouichi Mikami.