Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin 01 Review
機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN episode 01

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The leader of Side 3 colony Munzo, Zeon Zum Deikun, dies allowing Degwin Sodo Zabi and his family to rise to power on public sentiment.  Deikun’s friend, Jimba Ral, knows the the Zabi had Deikun killed for their own political powers and realizes Deikun’s children Casval and Artesia are in trouble. As such, he recruits his son Captain Ramba Ral to take them to the Ral home for safety. When a mob swarms Ramba’s convoy, they are aided by Kycilia Zabi and her troops, which leads to her being punished by her older brother Sarso for letting the kids escape. When Sarso dies after his car is bombed while returning from Deikun’s funeral, the Zabi implicate Jimba and the Ral family. causing their compound to be effectively under siege from angry mobs.

Ramba heads to a nightclub to recruit his girlfriend and (apparent) fellow officer Crowley Hamon, who also works as a hostess at said night club along with Lt. Tachi, who works as a bouncer. He recruits Hamon to help him smuggle his father and the kids to Earth while Kycilia has a “chat” with Casval at the Ral home. Deikun’s legal (and barren) wife, Roselucia, is given custody of Casval and Artesia, whom were born to Deikun’s official mistress, Astraia. Roselucia, who despises Astraia for being a mere hostess girl at a club who bore Deikun’s official heirs, has her confined to a tower on the estate, but gives her one final night with her children. As such, Astraia briefs her children on how they are going to be taken to Earth. The young Artesia doesn’t want to go, but eventually makes a promise with her mother.

Hamon arrives in a Guntank under the guise of the Federation coming in to take custody of the kids. In the confusion, she gets away. While Ramba’s people block much of the troops headed to stop Hamon, they don’t get all and Hamon runs into a road block of Guntanks. The angry Casval uses the Guntank’s turret to attack the roadblock Guntanks. The surprise of the attack gets them through, but the frightened Artesia brings Casval back to his senses. Gihren Zabi orders his brother Dozle to have the Guntank destroyed. Hamon and the kids escape the damaged Guntank before it is destroyed and are rescued by Ramba. They make it to the docks, where Jimba, Casval, Artesia, and her cat Lucifer are put in a cargo container and waved through inspection by Lt. Tachi. Kycilia and her troops nab Hamon and Ramba, but allow the ship carrying the human cargo to leave for Earth.

Thoughts/Review:

I’ve been aware of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin manga for a long while, but I’ve never read it. I assumed it would be just a tighter retelling of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime story, and based on the opening scene of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin 01, Char attacking Federation ships in his mecha unit seemed to confirm that. Boy, was I ever wrong in my impression, and delightfully so.

Having become of fan of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, one of the things I liked was Char’s and Sayla’s story — a brother and sister who were separated after their father was assassinated, who are then reunited many years later on the opposite sides of a war. So I loved how this episode showed the young Casval (Char) and Artesia (Sayla) from the time their father died until they are whisked to safety on Earth.

One of the surprising element of the Deikun story is that the mother of Casval and Artesia was only an official mistress, not the wife. And yet in public, as the mother to Deikun’s heirs, it was as if she were the official wife. Pretty good for a former club hostess.

I also enjoyed seeing how the Zabi family rose to power. I didn’t remember Sarso from the original Gundam series, so I’m guessing he was retconned in.

It is also interesting seeing how Kycilia comes off here. She is trying to be a good, loyal soldier for her family, but she gets little respect for it. The episode implies that she was the one who actually had Sarso killed. It also provides an insight into what I remember her actions being in the Gundam series.

Another element of the episode that I really liked was Ramba and Hamon. I knew of their involvement in getting  Artesia out of the Side 3 colony and to Earth. I didn’t remember them being involved with Casval, but it makes sense.

With Kycilia having figured out that they were the ones to have spirited the kids away, I’m surprised that both characters go on to become important people in the Zeon military. Hamon is loyal to Ramba, so I can see that where he goes, she goes. However, how does a nightclub hostess become as skilled as she does later on? Is she an officer in the military? That aside, I did like her a lot in this episode.

As for Ramba, with his family opposed to the Zabi to the point of getting Deikun’s kids to Earth (and his own father), it makes no sense to me that he’d then (1) be allowed to fight for Zeon and (2) that he’d want to fight for Zeon. I hope this gets explored in future episodes.

Finally, while I couldn’t help but be amused by most of the current day styled vehicles in the episode (though very well animated and visually appealing), I did like how Guntanks were shown. In the original anime, they were just a toy and never really seemed like a real weapon platform. Here, I actually could believe these to be a weapon platform. I liked that.

In the end, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin 01 was a very enjoyable episode that was very character driven in helping to define how some of the characters we know from Mobile Suit Gundam became what they are.