This is a life-sized, 1:1 model Gundam (making it going on 60 feet in height) that exists in real life in Japan. Gundam was Japan’s first “realistic” (that is, realistic style) leading robot in Japanese animation (i.e. anime). You can see a lot more pictures of this by following this link. I’m raising awareness and spreading the word, not trying to steal their thunder, so get the rest of the nice, big images over at Gunjap. – J

The Virgola is a fictional machine designed as a video game original for the crossover mecha game Super Robot Taisen Z (Super Robot Wars Z). By “original,” we mean that it does not appear in any anime. So far, this includes Original Generations anime seasons 1 and 2.

The Setting

The Virgola is first presented as a series of three prototypes being flight tested to gather data for eventual adoption as the Earth Federation’s next generation mass-produced humanoid weapons system.

SRW Z is not only a cross-over of mecha, but of dimensions. Consequently, this Earth Federation is merely the one in which Mobile Suit Gundam Z: A New Translation (i.e. the three-part movie version) takes place. During an AEUG attack on a lunar base, the only force deploying fast enough to respond is Glory Star, the test pilot group responsible for testing the Virgola units. However, time and space bend and warp, and the members of Glory Star are warped into another world… where finally, a “Dimension Bomb” (from the sci fi series Orguss) leads to a strange new world mixing many worlds at once…

The Virgola

Full Height: 19.8m

Full Weight: (Reference) 51.4 metric tons for Unit 1

Power Supply: Minovsky Reactor + “Sphere”

Armor Composition: Unknown

Mechanical Designer: Mika Akitaka

Mysteriously, the Virgola itself was as astonishingly general purpose machine. Amuro Ray calls it a “Shoe-Fitter” in that it will suit the style of any pilot at any skill level, while providing a high level of offensive power through the use of its primary weapon, the Gunnery Carver (above, right side).

In the original test machines, the three Gunnery Carvers were used for firing high velocity slugs (“Straight Turret”), blunt physical attacks, and three entirely distinct modes of special attack unique to each unit: a “Jack Carver” (a giant jackknife), a “Barley Scythe” functioning as a beam weapon that reaps the harvest, and a “Ray Straight Turret” beam attack capable of straight line mass destruction. In addition, each unit carried a “Ray Pistol,” a hand-held beam weapon used only for rapid fire assault purposes or as an emergency weapon.

This reinforced the Virgola offensively, but was of no assistance defensively. While enjoying broadly high specifications, the Virgola was not equipped with either a shield or a sword for use in close combat, and its armor was not especially resistant to enemy attack. As such, the Virgola units could be one-shotted by a powerful enough attack…

Glory Star

Stepping back from the setting, Glory Star’s concept was mixing military trappings with a college sports team. As such, the uniforms look like dress uniforms (we never see any representations of spacesuits for any member, though we should not take this as meaning they don’t exist but rather as a style decision by the developers). Numerous battle phrases are like cheer phrases motivating the team on to victory. Pride, in particular, is a theme. For that matter, the name just begs these comparisons.

Go, Glory Star! Go! – Denzel Hammer

The members are Denzel Hammer, a veteran squad leader and instructor with a gift for gunnery, originally piloting Unit 1; Toby Watson, a usually happy-go-lucky pilot whose attitude screams “jock” but with a hard, serious edge in the midst of battle, specializing in melee with Unit 2’s Barley Scythe; and Setsuko Ohara, a relative greenhorn whose lunar base sortie was her first actual combat. While having an extra affinity for gunnery, her future is wide open, and she is one of the most player-customizable pilots in Super Robot Wars gaming history.

Left to Right: Toby, Setsuko, Denzel

Tragedy and Awakening

Just before the Dimension Bomb sends a number of worlds smashing together and fusing into one strange Earth, the mysterious Asakim Dowen appears and murders Denzel, who had swapped machines with Setsuko due to damage to her Unit 3 (which the veteran could handle better than she could).

Following a time when she was blown into Paradigm City (of “The Big O“), Setsuko recovers her own (quite bitter) memories and travels across the world, searching for Toby. At the end of her journey, she finds Toby – in pursuit of Asakim. Joining together, they fail to deal a decisive blow – apparently something Toby has failed at a number of times while on Asakim’s tail. Together, the two pledge to continue Glory Star, no longer as paid members of a formal military, but helping those who strive to put the world right (which by now has long included the AEUG people, since the Titans are, well, jerks!).

Of course, they also pledge to avenge Denzel (a.k.a. “Chief”).

Instead, Asakim lures the two away from the main force (which by default becomes named “Zeuth”) and even though reinforcements appear on both sides, Asakim fakes his own defeat only to turn around and wreck both remaining Virgolas, slaying Toby and instilling fear and terror into Setsuko with a physical beating in the flesh, until a “savior” named Raven arrives to save Setsuko… for now.

And so, Setsuko is alone.

Setsuko Ohara

Setsuko is young, well-meaning, very earnest and sincere… and is left with deep emotional scars after Toby’s death, which came a short while after Setsuko had finally shared her budding romantic feelings for him. He was fond of Setsuko as well, in a way that wasn’t quite as, well, teacher-student as with Denzel before his own death.

Virgola Unit 1, having already incorporated the remnants of Unit 3’s Gunnery Carver, was now infused with Toby’s Barley Scythe and his combat data. This Virgola Kai (Improved Virogla) could accommodate a 20% increase in pilot skill from Setsuko before maxing out. Thus, the onus was on her to break through the “wall” as she followed the half of Zeuth that allied itself with PLANT (in the Seed Destiny plot), which was then allied with the Diana Counter (from Turn A Gundam), which proved to be only one Moonrace (lunar dwellers) faction, and the Super Robot forces with less of a problem with military methods of operation and devoted to fighting alien threats.

Thus, there would be no lack of hard, bitter fighting for Setsuko. Slowly, she improved, but when it was time to test her spirit against Asakim and his succubus-like minion Xine, Setsuko broke down, her spirit still filled with fear. Yet mysteriously, Toby Watson – not dead?… – appeared to save her from being finished off by Xine, before disappearing again to pursue the enemy.

Finally, she answered the call to face her personal demons alone, and while Raven returned to support her against an assault in force by Xine (using AI-controlled machines to back her up), the entire Zeuth detachment showed up to provide support. Knowing she was not alone, Setsuko found new reserves of strength and Xine was once again driven off.

While stopped at a base belonging to Chimera, Raven’s force (part of their “enemy” the Earth Federation, but secretly aiding Zeuth and claiming to be dedicated to improving the world), a truly mad (as well as ugly) scientist belonging to Chimera offers to overhaul the Virgola. Setsuko ignores entreaties to turn the skirt-chasing geezer’s offer down and wants to become stronger however she can.

The resulting Virgola Glory was, externally, simply fitted with a wing system that allowed non-transforming flight in an atmosphere and overall improved agility. Armed with this unit, Setsuko once again answered a call to do battle with her personal demons, this time from “Toby.” But mysteries remained.

As the scientist explained to Zeuth’s members, such as Amuro and other interested pilots with high technical aptitudes, the Virgola in and of itself was nothing special… but the Gunnery Carver was, with parts that were “black boxed” and could not be externally analyzed. Furthermore, and this was the big mystery, the Virgola was over-specced to the point of being able to handle 200% of its own internal reactor’s power output.

What was the mystery of the Gunnery Carver? How could its secrets be accessed? Perhaps by something that could not be compelled by science, such as reacting to a human emotion? Love, perhaps? This was dismissed at the time, but in short order, these questions would be partially answered… in the worst possible way.

The Valkyrie of Sadness

Setsuko after Toby’s death. “For today only… let me cry…”

While the Virgola’s maneuverability had been greatly improved, the heartened Setsuko underwent a breakdown in the Gunnery Carver, rendering it inoperable. Forced to rely on the Ray Pistol, Setsuko engaged the mysterious black crow machines that seemed to work with Asakim everywhere, along with a mysterious ally of Asakim, Rand the Wandering Mechanic, and his construction machine colored, giant wrench using, super robot style Gunleon.

Even though the Virgola dealt with the crows entirely adequately with only the Ray Pistol, the Gunleon and its pilot, Rand, had great reserves of strength, and enormous power. The Virgola was nearly destroyed in a single blow. On the verge of death, Toby once again emerged to knock back the Gunleon. Finally, both turned to face the Gunleon together…

…and “Toby” shot Setsuko’s machine in the back.

The mysterious powers at Asakim’s command allowed him to temporarily borrow the illusion of Toby, down to his voice and tiny mannerisms, to fool Setsuko… and to truly crush her spirit once and for all, for that was the path that rested between him and his objective.

And so, “it” happened.

The Sphere

The central part of the Gunnery Carver was a second power source, but what called to it was not love, but sadness – true, soul-crushing sadness. Setsuko had found the depth of despair, and now, the Sphere awoke.

The Gunnery Carver lost its false shell and took on its true form, the Nautilus Carver, a weapon that seemed to pulse with its own life force, with a “barrel” that resembled a nautical creature.

Doing great damage to Asakim’s machine with her new power, the emotionally shattered Setsuko learned to turn her despair against her enemy, and strike hard.

Forgive the horrid resolution; it was hard to find a pic. – J

Setsuko would continue to pilot what would now be known as the Virgola Glory until the end of the game, though it later underwent a later evolution as the further betrayal of Raven – secretly one of Asakim’s comrades – further sent Setsuko into the depths of despair, beginning a process of transformation of her body. First, loss of taste; then, temporary blindness… but her sight returned, and she was able to continue fighting until the conclusion.

The Virgola Glory

Aside from the wings, the Virgola Glory gains special weapons from the Nautilus Carver:

– A straight line MAP weapon (that is, affecting a bunch of squares in a row) with two “ammunition” shots. That is, once clearing the relatively low morale requirements, she can fire the MAP weapon twice and not suffer any depletion of her machine’s “Energy” reserves, but will then be unable to fire the weapon until resupply or, more likely, until the stage ends, you go through intermission, and sortie for the next battle.

– A “Nautilus Carver” Attack that combines the blunt strike, Barley Scythe, and Jack Carver style attacks into a single high powered attack that will penetrate any “barrier”.

– An improved Ray Straight Turret style attack that has the best and most satisfying attack animations on Setsuko’s side. It’s long ranged, it hits hard, and it leaves stardust behind. It is called, “The Glory Star“! I consider it completely worthy of the name.

Character & Mecha In Game Terms

As mentioned earlier, Setsuko is one of the most customizable characters in SRW history.

In actual gaming terms, she receives all of the “pilot points” (which can be used to purchase skills or raise parameters of pilots) that Denzel and Toby received until the moment of their deaths. Thus, she truly does inherit the spirit of Glory Star. How you use that advantage is up to you.

For fully half the game, Setsuko is, put bluntly, a below average pilot in an above average machine. In particular, her “Skill” rating – which governs critical hits, how easily others critical or use special skills against you, etc. – is low. She is adequate, and handles her weapons well, but she is nothing special.

After her personal awakening, she gains a bonus to all of her parameters across the board. This still doesn’t make her an Amuro Ray, but it’s a start.

Remember, her main characteristic is that she gets a huge load of Pilot Points earlier than other people. She can use whatever high end skills you prefer to purchase with all this at a much earlier stage than others. Later, she just piles on, because, well, the MAP weapon combined with her The Glory Star attack and a high overall attack ability means she’s wiping stuff out left and right, earning more Pilot Points in the process.

Personal Quirks

Setsuko’s default tendencies are as follows:

• Heavy support attacker. Her “native” Support Attack skill rises to level 4, meaning she can follow up one unit’s attack with her own up to four times in a row, provided she is adjacent and not ineligible for some reason (can’t support an air attacker from the ground). This is her only true “starting” skill.
• Unlocked: SP Regen. This means, once she awakens, she is one of the precious few characters in the game to restore ten “Seishin Points” (often called Spirit Points, at any rate, what’s used for in-battle power-ups that are unique to every pilot) at the start of every Player Phase (player turn). This is a huge help over the course of a long battle…
• Platoon Leader Bonus: +10% Damage With All Shooting Attacks. This is just gravy, but still, it comes up. This means The Glory Star, the MAP weapon, and the bread and butter Straight Turret attacks will get a +10% to damage until the end of the game.

Another thing anyone wanting to use her might want to think about is, the Virgola is not inherently high defense, but Setsuko has a higher Defense stat than typical “real robot” pilots (i.e. Gundam series pilots). While any sane player is using special equipment to combat the Virgola’s defensive deficiencies – barriers, armor enhancements, maneuverability enhancements, plus my favorite, throwing money at the problem and upgrading – it’s not a complete package.

While I tend to prioritize skills that help me destroy the enemy faster and easier, at least early to mid game, giving Setsuko the skill that boosts defense, accuracy, and critical hit rates the closer your mecha’s HP get to 0 may not be a waste of time at all. Take the attitude that, in this game, you will get hit; it’s just a matter of time, and how bad the enemy wants it. And barriers aren’t foolproof; Tri attacks (squad team-ups) and weapons like the Nautilus Carver itself (though that’s yours…) will breach a barrier and go straight to HP damage.

But oh well. The bottom line is, early on, the extra pilot points are an offset for Setsuko being raw; later, there are few truly bad choices. You stock her up on whatever skills make sense for you. I’ve tried lots, such as giving her an S rating in Air and giving her a Minovsky Craft to boost the Virgola’s own rating to S, meaning it’s better than C, B, or A. That makes her take less hits too. Combined with the SP Regen and Seishin skills like Concentrate, you won’t be hit much like that, either.

And That’s A Wrap.

Some may wonder why I bothered to do this. Well, basically… I wanted to, and things flow a lot easier when I’m writing about something I personally like. That’s kind of why, even though the blog stats say Gundam 00 still brings people in, it’s hard to write about that because I was never a fanboy, just a viewer. Really loved the visuals, and the machines were pretty good, but I hated the humans ^^ Relatively speaking.

Setsuko, though, I like, on a gut level and many others. I like a lot of main character candidates, but this one is the antithesis of spouting taunts at the enemy and laughing at the opponent’s demise. (You know, like Asakim…) No, she’s doing this because she cares, and because she doesn’t want other people to have to go through the suffering she has.

More importantly, she becomes able to back it up – and in force, becoming a true Valkyrie avenging the souls of the dead, cutting a path through the battlefield, laying waste to those who deeply and richly deserve wasting.

By the way, Setsuko is a nice girl, fundamentally, and that’s not something you can teach. It runs deep. I find myself plenty willing to cheer her on.

By the way, Rand is the other potential main character, and their roles flip somewhat if you play him instead. He’s actually awesome. Rough around the edges to say the least, but even though he goes through his own challenges, he forces a more positive experience… and his machine is just a lot less likely to blow up than the Virgola. So there.

Nonetheless, Setsuko’s devastating in late games, and that’s how I like it. – J

This Blog Is About Art.

When you really get down to it, art is what this blog is about. Art is an expression of culture. Culture is my broader subject, but art is how I can best focus attention on that subject. For its part, art takes many forms, including anime and video games. These, too, express culture.

Recently, Gamespot had a “Why It Matters” feature on storytelling. Gamespot was eager to point out that this is not the same thing as “the plot.” Rather, a story in a video game is told through how the player experiences the game. This is a good observation, and one I wish to build on here.

In anime, the plot is not the entirety of the story. Nor is the script the story itself. Anime, built upon manga roots, is partly a visual medium; it is also heavily reinforced by sound, not only from the veteran-packed domestic voice acting (声優、seiyuu) industry, but by the wide varety of sound effects and music used to dramatize the experience. While sound effects and music are crisper, the experience has changed due to changes in visual technology.

Gundam 00 (double-o) is an excellent example of this. This was the first mecha show to really show us what could be done in full HD, though a great deal of praise must be given to Macross Frontier. While HD is something accomplished with extremely detailed, computer assisted backgrounds, older examples of inserting computer graphics into anime had spotty success, and felt jarring and unnatural much of the time. Comparing Gundam 00 to, let’s say, the original season of Aquarion, would result in amazement at the difference.

Put another way, Gundam 00 seems at home with an extremely high degree of technical wizardry. This is part of the story of the show, and a great deal of the artistic value of the show can be measured by how the story is told visually.

Now, I am well known among my friends for not being a great fan of the writing of Gundam 00, which I found to be far too mechanical for my tastes. Meant to be two seasons from the start, numerous events had to happen as scripted without any meaningful variation or the whole project would have been thrown off. Many characterizations were meant to be pretentious in one way or another. Overall, the whole show suffered from issues with creative genius… at the episode and show scripting levels.

Unlike some of my friends, I did watch the entire show and suffered through its difficult parts to see all the spectacular mecha in action. The mecha were absolutely not lacking in creativity; the designers did a lot of serious thinking, much of which is appreciated by serious fans who do a lot of chatter about the pretend physics details that interest them and draw them in. There’s a large “wouldn’t this be cool?” factor to it.

So, my personal feeling is that what success Gundam 00 has had – and certainly, it is considerable success – is thanks more to the creativity put into the machines portrayed in the show than the sense of grim inevitability of mankind’s sucking dragging down the present and the future which completely pervaded the script.

Put more bluntly, the experience that a great deal of people felt from Gundam 00 was better than the plot that they had to deal with. Therefore, they found Gundam 00 to tell a very compelling story as a whole. Certainly it is an epic story, but ultimately it’s all about touching upon possibilities and the what-ifs of the future, and if humanity can truly become ready for greater things (or will strangle itself to death first).

Well, the result is nine-tenths pessimism and one-tenths hope, which is not the ratio I go for when I watch a show, but that’s how it is.

In video games, many designers work hard to see that the story is told by the experience of the game much more than the plot. Now, let’s be honest here: sometimes designers go overboard and the plot feels thin as a result, too thin. However, let’s also not fault the reason for attempting such lofty goals; the sense of discovery of an unknown world, a world which we do not yet know, is a powerful motivation for playing any immersive game.

Properly accomplished, a video game draws a player into its world and uses interactivity and proactive player behavior to provide an experience that is more compelling, and more treasured, than passive artistic mediums where we are recipients of some kind of broadcast.

In this sense, we don’t play the game; the game plays us.

What I mean by this is, a video game is a structure and a system, but it is only the human element – the player – that makes it into entertainment. The game uses us to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, and far greater than a passive experience using the same components could provide. The game provides the player with input, but the player’s reactions, thoughts, and plans are the output that is required for the creation of a real experience.

Of course, we’re the ones who enjoy the result. That is good.

The Persona 4 Case

Now, this is more of an afterthought for me rather than the thrust of my point (the point being that anime and video games are art mediums for providing a vivid experience in their own ways), but the announcement of an anime directly based on the video game Persona 4 resulted in a very ambivalent reaction among Japanese people.

Apparently, it’s not really the issue of “the game has been done already” and the story has already been told; rather, it is that the story was designed to be told at the pace of a video game, with the intensive involvement of the player, creating an experience that cannot be simply replicated by an animated show.

This has little bearing on whether or not the anime will be good on its own. It is simply a natural concern that the comparisons can only be harsh because, as vivid and entertaining as anime can be, there are things that video games are likely to do better.

This simply reflects how powerful video games can be as a medium. This isn’t your old radio -> television -> broadcast style internet. This is true interactivity. It’s a different animal. It is not just art – it is direct transmission of culture.

In the case of Japanese video games, there’s a lot of Japanese culture – or at least cultural ideas and biases – that are overtly and covertly transmitted.

But, enough general talk. Sometime in the future I’ll do posts on far more specific things. I just thought I’d cover the big picture while I had some time. – J

Literally Action-Packed

Episode 2’s last part was a lot of foreshadowing for an explosion of violence punctuated with mobile suit combat in space. Episode 3 is that explosion, with very little character-to-character time away from mobile suits. This reflects a transition as the plot thickens, with nothing resolved, but with a lot of beautifully animated action.

Frankly, there’s no point in a long review. You cannot legitimately watch this episode without having seen eps 1 and 2; there is absolutely no hand-holding and you are plunged directly into the action (which I find somewhat refreshing). Having watched eps 1 and 2, you know that there’s a big picture plot afoot, the main character has some connection to it, but he doesn’t understand what that is. He is a pawn in a larger game, trying to do the right thing in a world that does not support such a principled, neutral choice.

And so, he is drawn into more and more conflict, and makes a mistake he cannot take back. That should have a familiar ring to it. Even so, a fair viewer can’t exactly blame him. He is trying to navigate an impossible situation where there is no right or wrong clearly announced by the proper road signs, and either way, people are going to die.

However, I can unreservedly praise the quality of the action, the outstanding animation, and the pure thought and attention to detail that went into all this. The moral ambiguity is not preachy, and is a lot more “real” than most of what we get to see in the franchise, and more to the point, we are given a gripping experience that does nothing to detract from the future plot.

I have not read the novels, so I have no idea what will happen. I’m cool with that. I’m enjoying this at the pace it is coming out, and I think you should, too. – J

Go to this blog for full details on the announcement of Gundam Memories ~ Tatakai no Kioku. One small quibble: Japanese usually leaves singular and plural undefined. We silly Westerners default to singular when we shouldn’t. This could easily be read as “Memories of Battle” (as in, battle in abstract, indicating numerous battles) or “Memories of Battles.”

What caught my eye immediately is the very heavy similarity to Warriors Orochi (in the Dynasty Warriors family, a cross-over between that and Samurai Warriors games) in that mobile suits are separated into Melee Type, Sniper Type, and Speed Type (whereas Orochi was Power, Technical, and Speed). You are able to pick three mobile suits and, like Orochi, you can hot swap between these three while in a game stage.

This system was one of, if not the, best features about Warriors Orochi. Using this with Gundams seems to be a very interesting and promising idea from a gamer’s perspective.

Full series list below:

Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Z Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam Char’s Counterattack
Mobile Suit Gundam X
Gundam W Endless Waltz
Gundam Seed Destiny
Gundam 00 (including 2nd season)
Gundam 00: A wakening of the Trailblazer Movie
Gundam UC (Unicorn Gundam)

…Now personally, there’s nothing in here not to like. Even when I have my issues with a television show, I often find the mecha and even the characters refreshing when used in a video game.

Also, the more they stay away from retreading anything in existing Dynasty Warrior: Gundam games (or as I say it fast in loving Japanese, Gundam Musou) , all the better.

So, this actually makes me curious about how it’ll work out. The gameplay system is an immediate draw. We’ll have to see how it goes. – J

This Picture Says A Lot

Bandai’s “Real Grade” line of Gundam models has a very young history. There’s the original Gundam, a Char’s Zaku, and  now a beautiful Aile Strike from Gundam SEED. Based on these images, I think you will agree that Bandai has truly outdone itself here. This is one hell of a model.

For an insanely large and highly detailed version of the above, click here. For the thread at the Animesuki forums, go here.

One thing to mention in passing is that so-called gunpla is originally a portmanteau for Gundam Plastic Modeling. It has come to mean the act of building Gundam models, with “models” themselves being the, well, physical models i.e. toys.

It’s not that you cannot buy figures in the sense of something pre-packaged, but beauty like this can only be hand-assembled. That or you buy something assembled by someone else for a big price premium. Most people wouldn’t do this; they take pride in their work.

Alas, it is a forbidden art to me. I just don’t have the money, space, or time to be messing with them. I have a good number of friends and acquaintances who have assembled a fair bunch of them; I got this news from Velocity7, who I have mentioned in some posts here.

Anyway, back to the pictures!

If you’re wondering, the Japanese says, * Stand not affixed. …I think that means, the model is not permanently connected to the stand; you can take the model off at will. But not having personal experience in this area, this is merely my guess.

An unpainted prototype:

Now, I’m playing Paul Revere, not trying to steal anyone’s thunder, so by all means, go visit the original post regarding these lovely prototype images at www.gundammodelkits.com . I have no affiliation whatsoever; I just caught them off Google when looking for the purposes of this post.

Update! Here’s another image. Full version here. It’s large.

I’m starting to make use of my Gundam search category for this blog for things like this. – J

Savvy followers of mecha anime have long been aware that “bad guy” machinery is often built to be more interesting, both conceptually and visually, than the protagonist side’s machines. This trend did not invent itself. In many ways, it was begun back in the original Gundam series with the lowly Zaku.

Suspiciously close to the pronunciation of zako (雑魚）、Japanese for “small fry” (a term very frequently used in video gaming to describe anything not in the “boss” category; i.e. normal, regular enemies), the Zaku is the first, and most prolific, of the robotic behemoths called Mobile Suits (as opposed to Normal Suits, the Gundam series term for spacesuits) faced by the protagonists in the original series, Mobile Suit Gundam.

The Zaku is the Republic of Zeon’s first, and primary, mass-produced Mobile Suit during the conflict known after the fact as “The One Year War.” (Acronym: OYW) Having a mere one thirtieth of the on-paper production capacity of the Earth Federation, which dominated not only Earth but the vast majority of space colonies at the start of Mobile Suit Gundam (Acronym: MSG), what Zeon needed was not a single super-weapon, but a mass produce-able general purpose weapon that could dominate space combat. The “MS-06” Zaku is the 6th generation of development, though the first to see mass production.

Mobile Suits broadly share certain fundamental traits, so this applies to the Zaku as well as more advanced suits that came later:

• Computerized, automated balancing using the arms and legs as counterweights to assist maneuvering thrusters, i.e. verniers, to rapidly turn, and then stabilize, the Mobile Suit, giving it turn-on-a-dime capability (as well as “jinking” capability)
• A “main camera” housed in the head (the Zaku’s is the ubiquitous mono eye visible on the “face”)
• Secondary external cameras that endeavor to give a pilot a good view of what is around him
• Computer interpretation of pilot input, translating this input into physical actions by the mobile suit

This last part requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer, rendering this firmly science fiction rather than pure speculative science. The idea that a Mobile Suit can move in human-like movements, however clumsy they may be shown as, is a stretch that we need to process to be able to just sit back and enjoy the show. That’s how it is.

The Zaku’s Characteristics

Beyond these basic features, the MS-06 Zaku has distinguishing characteristics that stand out even after 30 years of animation history.Technically, it’s the MS-06 Zaku II, because an earlier model that saw very limited mass production, the MS-05 Zaku I, existed and was combat ready, but only in extremely crude terms, and was markedly inferior in all respects. Any Mobile Suit might be considered better than none, but still.

Green Coloration

Zakus are green. That’s the way it’s always been; that’s the way it always will be. This holds true for just about everything but ace models with personal color schemes, such as the legendary One Year War ace Char Aznable, chief antagonist as regards the main protagonist of the series, 15 year old youth Amuro Ray.

Notwithstanding this, the basic model of every major variation is some sort of green. Minor variations, such as versions tuned for desert warfare (complete with desert camouflage), come in colors deemed appropriate to their purpose.

High Reliability

Considering that we are talking about futuristic machines here, the Zaku II is absolutely retro in concept. While it does employ a miniaturized fusion reactor made possible by Mobile Suit Gundam’s Minovsky Particle -based super-science, actual limb mobility is through hydraulic power, as basic and low tech as you can get. Thrust is provided by the use of super-heating a fixed supply of propellant; that is, gas that isn’t actually burning when it exits the thrusters. As you might imagine, this is far more effective and dramatic in space than on Earth, where limited rocket boosting and physical walking renders the Zaku II overwhelmingly earthbound.

Ease of Use

While it would be an exaggeration to say that anyone can pilot a Zaku, it’s like this: a normal pilot can put it through an incredible amount of abuse without breaking the machine. The Zaku may not be the thickest skinned machine when it’s being shot, but short of flying it into the side of a ship, you’re probably not going to total one through piloting alone.

This ease of use and low degree of sensitivity makes the Zaku an ideal training platform. Amazingly, even years after the One Year War, the victorious Earth Federation employed Zakus as “Red Team” units for training purposes, as seen in Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. Not only did this create an unmistakable “enemy feel,” it was cheap; the Zaku is easy to maintain (relative to giant robots!) and hey, a few refurbished models beat having to manufacture your own stuff to get plastered by paint rounds.

Ballistic Weaponry

Here we get into the heart of the Zaku’s charm.

The Zaku, being essentially a giant infantryman, uses good, old fashioned bullets for its best known weapon, the Zaku Machine Gun, so named because its reliability and ubiquity was so great that it was employed by non-Zaku suits (particularly transitional prototypes).This is essentially a robot version of a Tommy Gun, the drum-fed .50 caliber machine gun used in the Prohibition era by Al Capone’s gangsters.

For the uninitiated, a machinegun fires bullets, i.e. slugs; inert metal rounds. A cannon, no matter the type, fires explosive rounds.

Zaku II’s typically employ bazookas for heavy work; these were used for attacking warships as well as early attempts to destroy the Federation’s Gundam mobile suit, which had special armor that simply was not being defeated by machine gun rounds.

Both weapons were employed in space and on Earth (or inside air-filled colonies) indiscriminately.

Zaku type mobile suits tend to have at least some kind of variation of the Heat Hawk, a tomahawk with an edge that is superheated via the nuclear reactor’s power a moment before being employed in actual combat. It’s crude, and no Zaku will ever be accused of practicing swordsmanship, but that’s part of the point: all the pilot has to do is hack and chop and this reliable, brute force weapon will chew through normal armor like a hot knife through butter.

Structural Strength

The Zaku is not a light machine. As a consequence, it is vastly over-engineered for structural strength (which is not the same as thick armor). The Zaku can accommodate extra-heavy backpacks, heavy weapons, and so forth, with no trouble at all. One might think of it almost like a pack mule, but it was a combat machine, so using it for mere transportation of supplies would be silly.

Numerous Variations

One of the biggest reasons for the lasting impression the Zaku made is the sheer number and weight of variations. Many of these were promoted as toy variations, with ace models receiving custom color schemes complete with pictures and biographies of their ace pilots, who existed completely outside of the original animated show, but who live on in video games such as G Generation Spirits.

The basic mass-produced model was the MS-06 Zaku II F-Type, which was the main model used for space combat early in the war. An even earlier C-Type had been used as a nuclear bazooka carrier during the first days of the war, when a huge amount of humanity’s population (most of which was in space colonies) died in the crossfire between Zeonic forces and very much not picky Federation Navy forces. This type introduced the distinctive “shoulder spike” look, used for ramming, and the opposite, limited shoulder shield, providing some extra protection.

The J-Type was customized for ground surface warfare, and consequently, boosting through an air-filled environment. While the F-Type could do this, it wasn’t very good at it, and the J-Type – equipped with leg-mounted missiles and using tank cannons as alternatives to bazookas – became the face of the months of grinding ground warfare.

The High Mobility Test Types (there are different flavors) were essentially the F-Type with souped up thrusters and verniers. These preceded later non-Zaku mobile suits but, in good hands, these machines performed exceptionally in the skirmishes against Federation forces that dominated space combat until the Federation blitzkrieg that ended the war.

Numerous types of Zaku had commander type variations, which consisted of tuning up the machine, which was not externally obvious, and adding a vertical fin to the forehead, which absolutely was obvious and provided a simple measure of who you should be following in a confused combat situation.

A very wide number of minor variations exist, such as for desert warfare, camera reconnaissance, underwater use, and so on. These exist because of the aforementioned virtues of the Zaku: such a fundamentally sound and rugged design that you could do these things and not lose basic functionality.

A Deep Influence On Mecha

Even though there have been numerous Gundam series, movies, OAV’s, and so on and so forth, Gundams can only be used to their full potential by ace pilots with exceptionally rare levels of talent.

To the contrary, anyone can picture himself in a Zaku, and a Zaku, in the right hands, is plenty powerful enough to do a lot of damage. Consequently, the Zaku is a more approachable concept that is easier for people to actually imagine themselves in (provided they were born in a dark science fiction future).

The Zaku is really the start of the idea of grunt mecha, i.e. mecha used by “grunts,” infantrymen fighting in the proverbial or literal trench warfare that dominates real warfighting. This is the concept, and the implementation thereof, that provides the realistic, gritty “war” feel to Mobile Suit Gundam, where even the lowliest machine is piloted by a human being, meaning that every victory comes with an extension of the terrible casualty rolls of war.

So, in many senses, the Zaku is where the gritty, realistic trend began. To this day, the Zaku is a standard by which all other grunt mecha are compared. Is it cool? Is it gritty? Does it have the right feel? Always, we look back to the Zaku and ask, is it like that? Is it distinct, but with its own feel that measures up?

In those senses, these are big, mechanical shoes to fill. – J

“Sighted” Via Twitter

Some fans of Gundam 00 had wondered if Gundam Exia had even survived the end of the second season in some form, or if it had been completely destroyed, never to be utilized again in any way.

Apparently, it had survived in some form, though details are not particularly clear. Exia did not appear in the Gundam 00 movie whatsoever, and I can only guess, but this is likely because it was not combat worthy whatsoever; possibly the all-important GN Drive had been lost, but some other capabilities would have survived.

Namely, stealth camouflage.

What we do know is that Setsuna’s use of Gundam Exia to covertly travel around Earth was revealed on a Twitter account officially used by Gundam 00 staff. (It’s in Japanese, by the way!) This was relayed to me by all-around Gundam 00 super-fan Velocity7. His efforts are appreciated.

I try not to get too too deep into the super obscure fan stuff, but the survival or non-survival of a main character mecha of a major anime is absolutely worthy of mention here.

Due to Velocity7’s efforts, information on this page regarding the repaired Gundam Exia used at the end of Season 2 was properly updated. That’s how you increase your cred as a mecha fanboy, people. Get to work.

Depiction: The Gundam 00 qan[t], shortly after entering the quantum portal in the Gundam 00 movie. No spoilers – watch the movie if you want to see where the destination is.

Pretty, isn’t it? This just underlines how Gundam 00 is the hardest core “science fiction” Gundam ever made. That is, there’s more elements that could fit comfortably into Star Trek (besides the Gundams themselves) than in any other part of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise.

A Naive Idea, Often Repeated

An idea advanced by Japanese writers, directors, and thinkers in general, goes something like this: if we only understood what was in each others’ hearts, war would cease and we would become a better, more advanced race with eternal peace among ourselves.

This is naive.

Let’s get right to the point, and take Japanese society as an example.

In Japanese society, humans are packed like sardines as a matter of course. One of the key reasons this society has a low incidence of violence in spite of the crowding is that offenses are apologized for instantly and with the veneer of sincerity. Profusely apologizing as a signal of heartfelt contrition defuses innumerable situations, avoiding a vast amount of violence by stopping incidents mid-way.

Now let’s add the psychic ability to understand that the other party’s apology is completely insincere.

There would be rivers of blood.

The Gundam View

Now, if you take a franchise like Gundam, especially Gundam 00 (leading up to the Gundam 00 movie), you essentially have this idea, writ large, punctuated by large robots and mass violence to show us what we need to evolve away from.

Essentially, the metaplot is that an incompletely evolved human race, taking small steps or even large steps towards enlightenment, but not all the way there, is condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past until humanity all becomes newtypes, i.e. a new type of human being. This has become invariably associated with psionic insight, culminating in “resonance” between two psychics that puts each into the other’s head (with the individuals represented naked on-screen to visually punctuate how the walls are down).

In Zeta Gundam, an incident like this between one of the villains (a woman) and the main character resulted in the woman taking vicious offense to what was, unintentionally, but still vividly in her own mind, a violation of the armor she put up around herself to keep people out. Rather than finding enlightenment, she reconfirmed in her own mind that politically oriented violence was a far better way of getting people to do what you want than trying to appeal to their better selves.

Also, more to the point, stopping war when you haven’t won makes defeat permanent and she wasn’t going to accept that at all.

For this, said main character considered her one of the sources of evil poisoning the world. And I’m not saying that she wasn’t; rather, the world itself had a lot of issues, so believing that weapons are one way to change it isn’t crazy. One can call it evil, but it certainly isn’t the stupidity people claim it to be.

In other words, that’s an example of the negative view: psychic ability won’t save us until we change ourselves so that we are worthy of this kind of connectivity with each other.

But there are problems with that.

As for Gundam 00, my reviews of the movie (non-spoiler, spoilers included) should be instructive.

The Cyborg 009-1 Hypothesis

In Episode 2 of Cyborg 009-1, a show featuring a shapely and intelligent lady/ secret agent/ cyborg, a psychic girl is pursued by agents because the ‘Western Bloc’ powers deem psionic mutants to be a threat that has to be rooted out. Agent 009-1 (9-1 for short, goes by Mylene) is sent to confirm the killing of this child after four intelligence agents died in the process, the last of which was filmed shooting himself in the head with his own pistol.

The actual killing was meant to be done by a special forces unit or something of that ilk, but it goes terribly wrong, with the parents dying to conceal (at first) an underground escape route that the girl uses to get away. While pursuing, the men of the unit start fighting and killing each other left and right. Finally, the captain hunts for her with Agent 9-1 watching with some horror as the man is forced to shoot himself as well.

She sees the girl, clearly created to resemble a younger version of herself, alone behind a tree, looking out. The girl finally shrieks and runs off.

Agent 9-1 realizes that the girl is like a mirror. The only power she has, one she did not choose, was to use the violent urges and intentions of other people against themselves. Agent 9-1 wasn’t there to kill her, nor was she inclined to do so, and therefore nothing affected her. (Quick note: Psi wave blocking devices were not powerful enough to stop her. This includes 9-1’s own, the same kind as the captain’s.) So, the captain’s wanting to kill the girl so badly, and resisting all efforts to stop him from doing so, is what led him to shoot himself in the head.

Agent 9-1 ponders if the girl is a new kind of humanity, and if humanity would get along with each other if people knew what lay in each other’s hearts. At any rate… who was the real monster in this whole story?

What I like about this is, Agent 9-1 (Mylene) may have an opinion, but there’s no attempt to force the viewer to agree. It is all too easy to argue that there are no heroes here, and that is the tone the show takes in general. It’s a thinking man’s ambiguity.

I happen to think it’s a surprisingly good show in general.

The Ultimate Groupthink

The problem I have with the newtype awakening concept isn’t so much an issue of practicality.

It’s an issue of morality.

If we were able to peer into the heads of others and know for real what they were thinking, and not just what images they learn to project for deception purposes (a logical step), we would then have the ultimate tool for enforcing pure conformity of thought. Whatever thoughtcrime people commit would be evident, and could be punished. The perpetrator could be eliminated altogether, leaving an ideologically cleansed people behind.

So yes, maybe in the end we’ll all get along… because those who think like we do will be the only people left standing.

Personally, I think we need our individuality. We need our mental distance. Like the director of Paprika tried to convey, albeit in an overly psychedelic manner, we need our dreams as refuges from other people. The more these sacred boundaries are trampled on, the less we can call ourselves individuals.

Even in Japan, people have their individuality. There may be great social pressures to subsume that individuality for the greater good, but it’s still there, and there is arguably no deeper need for a Japanese person than to have that individuality respected, especially because they’re afraid to show it without knowing it’s OK first.

Mutual mental invasions make the world smaller. Too small. We wouldn’t be able to live with each other. The human race could even have a hard time surviving. We’re social creatures, not a hive mind, and there’s no reason we should be a hive mind. Because that’s the only way mass thought swapping could wind up, really. A collective thought entity that eliminates complexity and individuality because it isn’t… convenient.

I’ll take this world as it is, rather than go for that ideal, which is, well… people just refusing to look at the other side of it.

This is where I think the old Star Trek with Captain Kirk would’ve had an advantage over others. The show’s writers had a deep, fundamental respect for humanity, and didn’t think we should be in such a rush to discard that humanity, even after meeting races many people would – and if nerd enough, do – laud for having “superior” methods of thought sharing, social organization, or even that fanatical devotion to logic thing. Often, a show would have a simple message in the end: there is too much of a good thing in this universe. Progress must be natural and not forced, or we lose something precious.

I understand that there is a Japanese wish for war to just magically go away forever, but losing the peace through surrendering our individuality and humanity is no victory for the human race. – J