Sinanju Stein - Tumblr Posts

Alright so I finally got around to rewatching Gundam Narrative about a week ago, and I’ll have a post about the movie itself forthcoming soon (EDIT: at some point, because hoo boy do aspects of narrative not stick in my head well). However, I thought I’d do a mechanics post now, since Narrative doesn’t add a whole lot of new suits so they’re easy to talk about.

First up, The RX-0 Gundam Unit 3 “Phenex”. I’d like to stress that this is just its appearance in the movie, the Phenex apparently shows up in a lot of other media that I haven’t seen. Anyway, Gold Unicorn. It’s pretty good. I like the Unicorn’s design anyway, and this just has a fancier V-fin and some Armed Armour DE’s to look like wings. I like the trailing parts added here, since it ties in with the bird theme. However I also get why it doesn’t have any weapons besides those though, since it can’t restock and it’s just overflowing with Newtype energy, so it doesn’t really need them. And it again ties in with a lot of what Michele says about gods, since the Phenex is very godlike in its mannerisms (gold, impossible to catch, otherworldly, makes things happen with a wave of the hand).

Next, the Narrative itself. Specifically the base form (top), A-Packs and C-Packs (I don’t really have much to say on the B-Packs). Again, I like it overall, it’s a Nu Gundam Prototype that was hastily pressed into service since they need a suit that can mount the psychoframe necessary to effectively fight the Phenex. That’s a good angle, especially for a Gundam (though I’ll admit it’s a bit weird about how every Gundam ties into another, there’s no real organic development, it’s just prototypes and variant units). The base unit is pleasingly skeletal (as one character calls it “a scarecrow”), and I like the plainness of it, really makes those smooth lines pop. The cockpit is exactly what you’d expect a prototype Nu to look like, and the head’s just nice and simple. Presumably this is to contrast it against the bling-covered Phenex and Embellished Sinanju Stein. Though I’m typically not a fan of overbuilt units with weapons and systems just bolted on, it works with the Narrative A-Packs since a) that’s its entire aesthetic, and b) it’s put together specifically to capture the Phenex in this one environment, so it’s cobbled-together nature and it essentially being a sled full of weapons and thrusters makes sense. I also love how plan A was essentially “okay, so get close and grab it with these special claws that will totally work”. The Narrative B-packs is just fine, no real opinions there. I absolutely applaud the Narrative C-Packs for just going “fuck it, we Unicorn now” by just strapping a bunch of psychoframe to the thing, and I think it’s utilised well in series.

The Silver Bullet Suppressor. The Silver Bullet has a fascinating lineage I might talk about at a later date, with the Suppressor just being the latest. I really like the bulk it brings to the table - it doesn’t even look that big until you see it next to something. The muted colours give it this…… I don’t know, phantasmal? vibe, like it’s the ghost of something, and the arm replacement mechanic is wonderfully silly. Unfortunately I don’t have an awful lot to say about beyond that- the shuffling around of silver bullet features is fine, and the new head further ties it into the pilot’s prior suit. I’d like to call out it retains most of the original Silver Bullet’s weaponry, so it’s not like it only has five beam magnum shots and then nothing (hey, remember when handheld beam cannons were a big deal back in the OYW? That was wild).

The Sinanju Stein is actually two mobile suits. In one of the few examples I know of an out-and-out retcon in Gundam, it was established that there were actually two Sinanju Stein units stolen by The Sleeves. Unit 1 (shown above, right) went on to become the Sinanju used by Full Frontal, while Unit 2 (above, left) was used by Zoltan Akkanekan, and thus appears in Narrative. I figured I’d discuss them both at once, since they’re largely identical.

Alright, to get this out of the way right now; The Sinanju is one of my favourite suits in the entire Gundam Universe. I don’t have an out-and-out favourite, but the Sinanju definitely makes it into my top 5 (maybe top 6). I’m also typically a sucker for prototype units, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I really like the Sinanju Stein. I love how it moves, how it acts, how it’s armament is deceptively simple, how it’s agility makes it a match for literally anything in the right hands.

But let’s walk it back a little. What, exactly, is the Sinanju Stein? The Sinanju Stein line was built as part of the U.C. Project at around U.C. 94. It was intended as a material test unit to examine the use of psycho frame material in the suits inner frame, since the only units that had psycho frame prior to this were either Char’s Neo Zeon Forces (which were few and far between), or hurried integrations like the Nu Gundam, leaving little time for the Earth Federation Forces to actually study the technology. Lessons taken from the Sinanju Stein would eventually be applied in the development of the RX-0 Series, making the Sinanju Stein the precursor to the RX-0 series. I can’t quite find a reference for this next part (so take it with a grain of salt) but I’m sure I recall somewhere that the Sinanju was intended to be a fusion of recovered data from the Nu Gundam and Sazabi, making it a combination of the two suits (which makes sense for a psychoframe test unit, since psychoframe and the data therein was rather rare). I * might* do a post trying to make sense of the U.C. project at some point (if I can get through my backlog) because on paper it sounds fucking stupid (at least prior to it being hijacked, which is the whole plot of unicorn). Both Sinanju Stein units were “stolen” by Neo Zeon Forces on June 14th, U.C. 0094 (really secretly transferred to Neo Zeon under the guise of a robbery), with Unit 1 being converted to the Sinanju used by the Organisation’s leader, Full Frontal.

(Like, the federation wanted to destroy all elements of the “Newtype Myth”, so in order to do that they built Four dedicated Newtype suits (The two Sinanju’s, the Unicorn and the Banshee, which was somehow extended to Five with the Phenex) and then supplied two of those to Neo Zeon Elements, in order to empower Neo Zeon, enabling them to be swept away along with the Newtype myth, even though Zeon officially relinquishes its independence in a few years, which’ll greatly reduce the amount of remnants anyway. Why would you arm them with technology equal to what you intend to deploy against them? What if they have better newtype pilots than you? I doubt that the Federation expected “The Second Coming of Char” but…… why would you arm them? I dunno, you “use the newtypes to destroy the newtypes who we just gave cutting edge tech to.” s’just weird to me.)

Anyway, the Sinanju Stein. It’s honestly just gorgeous, I like how it’s weaponry (mostly rifle and bazooka) is chunkier than the Sinanju proper, since it creates the sense of a) a prototype, since it requires a better cooling system and b) gives it a much different silhouette, making it feel balanced compared to the stripped-down regular Sinanju. I like how it can carry it all in its shield. I like how smooth and functional the original lines feel, before being embellished with the Sleeves markings. I like how close it feels to a Gundam, without being a Gundam. It’s just this delightful combination of traits that I like.

Notably, the name “Sinanju Stein” refers both to the suit being “a diamond in the rough” and also to it being “the stone from which Full Frontal’s Sinanju was hewn”, which is neat, since Stein is German for stone (Though it admittedly suffered from your main suit having a cool name and you having to give the prototype something adjacent).

Note: I talked about the Neo Zeong and Neo Zeong II in my post about the Great Zeong, so it’s not in this post. That and I ran out of pictures.

Right, that’s the main suits out of the way, what about the grunts? The Jesta (Shezarr type) just misses out having a picture here, since I just haven’t that much to say on it. I like the Jesta, and the units used by the Shezarr team just have some add-on equipment to make them look cooler. I think it’s another good example of “tacticool” done right, since it doesn’t go overboard (sight, net gun, beam launcher with tripod). The Dijeh’s used in the opening I’m of two minds about. On the one hand, I like the new colour scheme, and I think the new rifle’s rad, since it actually looks like it was designed for the Dijeh, as opposed to the AEUG being cash-strapped so only making one (very good) rifle design. The searchlights are also fun. On the other hand, I miss the original Dijeh’s aggressively 80’s colour scheme (it looks like it should be on a beach somewhere parked next to a surf van, and I like that vibe in a mobile suit) and in the novel it’s stated that “the mobile suits used by Luio&co had their serial numbers removed prior to sortieing, making them untraceable” which is stupid. Because yeah, that happens with rifles in the real world, but I feel like a 20-meter tall mobile suit being “untraceable” stretches credibility a bit, especially one prominently associated with a particular group (the AEUG). It just feels like it wasn’t thought through. I do kinda like how it seems everyone remembered about the Dijeh at the exact same time though - Amuro gets on in Moon Gundam, Char gets on in MSV-R (and it’s retconned into being one of the inspirations for the Geara Doga) and Luio&co use some in Narrative.

Anyway, on to the suits I actually have opinions on - The Jegan D type (Escort type) is one of a bunch of Jegan Variants in universal century, presumably because they’re an easy thing to make models of. However, the new chest and faceplate are pretty nice, and they actually make it feel up-armoured. I tend to look at Gundam in a case-by-case basis when it comes to it taking influence from real military hardware in its designs, but overall the Jegan Escort type gets a pass and the purple visor really makes the rest of the suit pop. Next we have the Geara Zulu Guards Type (Erika Yugo/Ellic Hugo custom). I know I complain about p-Bandai a lot, but I would’ve been genuinely tempted to buy this thing had they made a kit of it. I like the Geara Zulu anyway, but a blue commander custom with a fancy machine pistol and front skirt? Oh yes. Though I’ll admit this probably ties in to me wishing we saw more of its pilot. (And I’m totally not bitter about it constantly murdering me in GBO2 while I’m just trying to snipe in my Gelgoog Cannon 1A)

My it sure is nice how, because I clearly tag things, tumblr has no problem with finding my old posts, isn’t it?

Sure is great when you want to return to an old topic, you can easily reference an older post, isn’t it?

Anyway, I was thinking about some of my favourite mobile suits recently, and more specifically how they fight.

The Sinanju and Sinanju Stein (strictly speaking that’s unit 2 above, but the Sinanju Stein Unit 1 only shows up physically once anyways, so I tend to conflate the two) from Universal Century, and the Gundams Bael and Zepar from Post Disaster. The Bael and Sinanju’s are thematically and functionally similar, if not so much visually, since they’re piloted by the series resident Char Clones, Full Frontal and Mcgillis Fareed respectively, and thus have a similar fighting style - high mobility and very flashy, typically dodging with minimal effort and taking out scores of foes near-effortlessly. The Sinanju Stein (Unit 2) certainly could fight like that, but its pilot Zoltan Akkanekan is…… not in a great place mentally, and as such he tends to be more brutish, always pushing the attack and closing ranks with his enemy very quickly (we only see him fight once in the Sinanju Stein before it docks with the Neo Zeong II, so it’s possible that his aggression is more due to the enemy being a Gundam, as opposed to any real strategy). The Gundam Zepar we have even less information on, but since we know both that it doesn’t have any ranged weaponry, and that most of the emphasis seems to be on the shield, we can guess it would want to get close fairly quickly, and would be well-prepared for a reprisal.

And this reminded me of something I mentioned previously when discussing non-Gundam Mecha series - I like when we know the “thesis” of the mecha. I like when we know why they were built and what the in-universe theory was in their construction (Or at the very least, we can guess, as with The Big O). It makes the world feel realer to me, and don’t get me wrong, I love giant robots, but it feels wonderfully cohesive when there’s an in-universe justification. I don’t typically forget the out-of-universe justification “to sell toys” but it feels less “Johnson, quarterly earnings aren’t looking good, make a property we can merchandise things out of” and more “Hey, this guy’s got an idea for a cool show about robots, maybe there’ll be a market for cool toys there?”.

Weird tangent on the relationship between entertainment and merchandising aside, I like Universal Century because it’s got a strong “thesis” - mobile suits were designed primarily as an anti-ship weapon that would engage at visual range, due to the effects of Minovsky particles rendering most long-range weapons difficult to aim. They’re fast, and carry handheld weaponry both for ease of use, maintenance and operability and they’re an extension of “armoured space suits”. There’s even the military angle of “a secret weapon to to win us the war against a foe that could beat us conventionally”, and I’d assumed that, with a few exceptions like Wing and G Gundam, most of Gundam followed that same thesis.

However, I realised that’s perhaps not quite true with Iron-Blooded Orphans (or at least it’d be interesting to consider why it might not be true). The above graph is an illustration of the breakdown of forces used in the calamity war, and how they were deployed depending on the field. Quote: The unit formation deployed against the mobile armors depended on where the battlefield was. On Earth and Mars, the Gundam Frames served as the main fighting units, and they destroyed the mobile armors one by one with assistance from other mobile suits and supporting units. In space, the Dáinsleifs were used as the main weapon, and were assisted by mobile suits, including Gundam Frames, and other supporting units. On the Moon, mobile suit teams like the one deployed on Earth and Mars were also used in addition to the aforementioned use of the Dáinsleif.

So I got to wondering if Post Disaster (or I guess Current Disaster) mobile suits had a different development ethos, since they were deployed largely terrestrially.

Mobile suits were only used during the Middle and Late stages of the war, which implies they were developed during it. The above Rodi and Hexa Frames were developed first, with the Gundam And Valkyrja Frames following in the later stages of the War. It’s also stated that, quote: The beginning of the Calamity War was the result of AI-equipped, self-sustaining weapon systems going out of control. Before the outbreak of the Calamity War, automated machinery was a symbol of wealth and abundance, and humans were actively promoting the automation of wars. With the risk of losing valuable soldiers reduced as the weapons were AI operated, and the introduction of the semi-permanent Ahab Reactor as a power source, mobile armors became the ideal weapon that can fight efficiently and persistently. So, it’s possible that after the Mobile Armours were unleashed, there was a rush to adapt previously autonomous weaponry into something human-controlled, with the Rodi and Hexa Frames representing these early steps. Furthermore, it’s stated that Mobile Armours acquired Nanolaminate Armour, so beam weaponry would presumably have been used in the early stages of the war.

So, could Mobile Suits in IBO be autonomous weaponry adapted for human use, as opposed to the Universal Century’s “Armoured Space Suits” line of thinking? We know that Alaya-Vijinana works best with forms closer to the human form - hence the Gundam Frames being constructed as close to the human form as possible. Another angle might be that of upsized Knights, here to slay the mechanical monsters that threaten humanity.

So it’s an interesting angle compared between the series - in one, mobile suits were built for wars in space, fought between nations. In the other, mobile suits were built to be used terrestrially, in response the threat of extinction by mechanical foes humanity unwittingly unleashed upon itself.

(Also, it’s interesting to look at how common mobile armours and automated weaponry were in the pre-post disaster setting, since I just imagine Treize Kushrenada from Gundam Wing being distinctly unhappy)