Mobile Suit Gundam is currently perhaps one of the most widely loved exports of Japanese animation in the west.
Because the franchise is continuously being expanded and turned into different directions is one of the reasons that there’s a multitude of fans out there both young and old. The original show however that kick started an animation legacy that has lasted for the last 30 years wasn’t successful at all. As a matter of fact, the original run of Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979 got cancelled after having received bad ratings. It wasn’t until Bandai attempted to salvage the license by selling merchandise in the form of plastic models that the show started to gain popularity at an alarming rate.
It’s been a long time since Mobile Suit Gundam had finished it’s main storyline in the so-called fictional “Universal Century” (UC) era over a decade ago, and Sunrise had taken the show trough many new, bold series and movie spin-offs into other fictional era’s each with their own distinct problems and style to appeal to a wider fanbase throughout the last two decades Some might argue that these spin-offs were merely a poor basic imitation of the original Gundam storyline with cheesy, half-baked action or downright going into a bishounen path with Gundam Wing. Others will argue that these new directions all were welcome attempts at keeping the original imagination of the series alive.
It is now 2010 and fans rejoice with the dawn of a new morning in an old and familiar era. Gundam Unicorn; the latest Gundam production by Sunrise studios has finally been released with fans of the original time-line (yours truly included) rejoiced of the fact that this new six part OVA is a continuation of the UC era, the era the original series had kicked off so long ago. This OVA is in actuality an adaptation of a series of highly well received novels written by well known Japanese author Harutoshi Fukui whom you may know from the excellent military thriller Bokoku no Aegis and Shusen no Lorelei. Complimenting the brilliant mind of Fukui are in the visual design area are two very well known names. The mechanical designs have been done by none other than veteran Hajime Katoki (0083,V,Virtual-ON,Endless Waltz etc.) along with the character designs of the equally impressive Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (Crusher Joe,Brave Reideen,Venus Wars,Z Gundam etc.)
After the opening credits, Unicorn boldly starts out in UC001, the ending of an old era, and the start of a new after mankind has finally expanded it’s reach into space. Having built several (small) initial habitats around the earth that will one day become the much needed support for mankinds problem of global instability caused by overpopulation.
History has shown us that a great change comes at a great price, and such the tragedy of the Laplace incident occurs; the first terrorist attack in space that wiped out an entire colony, starting not only an era of space; but a time of turmoil, conflict and eventually the war.
Without delving too much into the past; Unicorn fast forwards to the present. It is now UC096, three years after the events that had unfolded in “Char’s Counterattack” We get to see a ship being pursued and engaged by Federation forces whom are quick to deploy their mobile suits. UC fans will instantly recoqnise these as the Jegan; which are the new equivelant of the GM as previously seen in the F-91 movie. The ship being persued isn’t as helpless as it first seemed and reacts by deploying a single, menacing mobile suit dubbed the NZ-666 Kshatriya which inherits the general looks of the Zaku, with the size of the Sazabi and a simular set of binders containing a plethora of funnels ala Quibeley. It’s here that the viewer is treated to some intense action choreography. Sure we’ve all seen funnels tear apart a mobile suit before, but never in this brutally detailed manner. The effect of the beam saber clashes pleasantly reminded me of those seen previously in Gundam 00; albeit realised more tighter thanks to some great cinematography where we visually get to see the pilot and the trademark linear-cockpit seat working in tandem throughout the struggle giving that same sense of immersion and revelation when you first saw the transformation sequence of Fokker’s VF-0 in Macross zero.
I’ve heard comments from co SMR author Brett that he felt the action throughout Unicorn; whilst awesome, ultimatly felt soulless to him. I think I’ve got a good explanation of that seeing as the Kshatriya is the primary focus troughouth the episode’s combat segments. It’s female pilot clearly being visible in combat scenes whilst at most all we get to see of the federation pilots aside from their mobile suits obviously are shots of their hands on the controls of their respective suits, or a first person views looking out of their linear cockpits a the Kshatriya. It agreeably detaches a bit; seeing as the Federation pilots are nothing but seemingly faceless minions in this regards, but I for one love it in the same way I love the documentary style action cinematography the new Battlestar galactica show was famous for. It adds a sense of realism in the way that the Kshatriya’s pilot wouldn’t know the faces of those she fought against if this were a real engagement either.
Inmeadetly after the initial short skirmish, our mystery ship docks at a yet unnamed colony which is still under construction, yet already populated; long-time Gundam fans can probably already figure out that this colony was used to secretly build and test a new mobile suit; a suspicion that the viewer quickly gets confirmed. Enter Banager Links, the apparent young protagonist of the show. Judging by the lack of interest he’s having in his class at Anaheim Electronics we figure that he’s smart beyond his years. We’re shown a brief glimpse in his seemingly mundane life before Banager senses a plea for help; following his instincts he ends up rescuing a girl who identifies herself as Audrey (tough doesn’t she look like .. 
?) Colony life in a Gundam show would never be this simple and this is hardly the end of the show when Audrey claims she’s come to stop a war from breaking out. Whether it was the fact that Banager is a sucker for a damsel in distress, Audrey being plain cute or a foreboding sense of danger ; he finds himself compelled to help and in the process of doing so; gets chased around the colony by a shady group of Zeon loyalists, all the while Londo Bell forces are closing in as well and with them the threat of war becoming more real by the minute. As you might’ve guessed already from my writing style; I’m trying to leave out as much of the details of the characters and circumstances as possible so that you may enjoy your first screening of Unicorn better.
During all this, Unicorn shines just as brightly as other OVA’s of the past decade in regards to showing more of the underlying technical details of the world. Macross Zero finally showed us just how the heck pilots could achieve the dizzying amount of lock-ons often required for the brilliant missile showers or how a transformation looked like from inside the cockpit. Unicorn shows us just how well the pilot works with the linear seat interface and the omni-directional displays (being able to completely obscure parts of a mobile suit from view using CG) and also how a colony is being constructed from the inside out; whilst residents are already populating the fully constructed areas. Whilst this might not be interesting to the casual viewer of Unicorn; it does however add a nice touch for long-time fans of the show because after all, the saying goes; it’s all in the details. It also has to be said, that the soundtrack received just as much attention as the mecha/chara designs and animation. The score composed by Hiroyuki Sawano absolutely fits the bill in every scene troughout the episode, and I couldn’t have imagined it better myself. It’s really up there with Kanno’s compositions; tough unlike Kanno’s work you wouldn’t be able to listen to the soundtrack as a seperate entity whilst passing time commuting to and from somewhere, it’s just that intertwined with the on-screen action. One might argue that such is the nature of Gundam soundtracks; being filled with bombastic compositions of large orchestra’s that they just do not lend to casual listening; but even with simularly themed sci-fi/mecha shows *cough* Macross plus *cough* Kanno does mention to compose her work in such a way that they for the most part do not sound out of place during a casual listening session.
In closing, Unicorn just blew me away. It absolutely felt like a lost anime from 1988.
The main protagonist looks and fights like Camille (Zeta Gundam) hell; even has his own haro.
Whilst the CG looks modern, the underlying tone and story was very oldskool with both Zeon and Londo bell forces portrayed in a dark light, making this feel like a Zeta/CCA era story. I will definitly be buying this at launch the 12th of March, seeing as for the first time ever Bandai has ensured a simultanious world-wide release on both Blu-Ray and DVD; which instantly negates the popular reason for downloading: “it takes to long to get to the West” Being a OVA, and thus directly making this incomparable to a TV episode, it’s offcourse going to be a single episode per volume; and do keep in mind a typical OVA has several months between episodes. The official Blu-ray release MRSP is set at $30, however I’ve never seen anime retail for the exact same MRSP price. You you will no doubt be able to get this for $20 to $25 tops trough retail. I have to say it’s very exciting initiative from Bandai.I sincerely hope that people won’t be making the mistake of waiting for a cheap box “somewhere” down the line, cause it will take a good year or two at least before Unicorn has finished it run, by then if _everybody_ had been waiting for a cheap box Bandai won’t see a reason anymore to do more of these simultanious releases, and nor would any other company looking up at Bandai’s every move.
Gundam Unicorn: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ! Not only to the existing fans of UC or Gundam in general, but everybody anime lover with an interest for sci-fi will definitly get their kicks out of this despite not having followed any of the previous shows.
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