Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin I

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English Dub


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In case anyone's not sure of what this is, this is the story of how Casoval Lem Daikun and Artesia Sum Daikun became Char Aznable and Sayla Mass. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the writer and artist of the amazing Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin manga and also the original character designer and animation director for the first TV series, is serving as the director of this production as well. I can't think of anyone better to handle this project: Yoshiyuki Tomino may have created Gundam, but Yasuhiko has always been the more coherent storyteller between the two.

Watching this clip, I feel that it's a bit heavy in CGI, but that is just the old anime fan in me grumbling. It won't go back to the way it used to be, and if this is what we can expect out of anime now, I will just have to take it. WIth the right people helming the project, it will be thoroughly entertaining. And I can't fault the production values of this clip. It looks stellar. And after having watched Gundam Unicorn, I know it's going to look as good as they can make it look given the current state of the industry.

I was a little put off by some of the english voice actors too, but not because it's a dubbed clip. Char, in particular, never sounded right to me in the english production of the Mobile Suit Gundam TV show, and the voice they chose for the younger version of Char just feels off to me.

It sounds like Bang Zoom! Is handling the dub. Shame, cause the Ocean group did great work with MSG, G, Wing, Seed and the fantastic 00.
Unicorn was one of the only series that I kept up with every release. It looks just as gorgeous. End of the month can't come soon enough!

My favorite parts of Unicorn were all the fan service nods, like using the Ples, Bright Noah and Kai Shiden and so forth. I couldn't have cared less about Banagher Links, the Unicorn, the Banshee or any of the new shit they introduced. I will admit that I enjoyed the show but found the new elements to be uninteresting. It worked best when it was ignoring all the Unicorn specific stuff lol

This new production has me so much more stoked because it's adapting a Yasuhiko work and is directed by Yasuhiko himself. He knows how to craft the story without indulging in too much excess. He knows how to tell war stories and understands that at the end of the day, it's the humans fighting it that matter.

All of that said, this is why I have always wanted them to remake the first show. Yasuhiko has given them the template with the Gundam: The Origin manga. Just adapt that. Don't change anything. Bring back all the voice actors that are still around. Just a straight adaptation is all I want. Can you imagine the dogfights between Amuro and Char using the techniques available to them as shown in the beginning of this video? Amuro's duels with the Black Tristars? With Ranba Ral? At Solomon? A Baoa Qu? Texas Colony? The Lalah Sune fight?

It is screaming to be made.

I need to sit down and watch the original one day. I have the 3 movies released in the states, but the the dvd shows of the original.
Khashatriya (sp?) was beastly though. It sounds like Taiso the original is your favorite. The nod in Unicorn with Amuro's picture was pretty cool. 0083, was my favorite with the Universal Century story line, with MS 06th following not far behind it. I own Zeta and need to watch it when I finish school off for good.

00 and 0083 are my all time favorites.

Ill try to check out MSG so I can keep up with you 100% lol

StaticX said:

I need to sit down and watch the original one day. I have the 3 movies released in the states, but the the dvd shows of the original.
Khashatriya (sp?) was beastly though. It sounds like Taiso the original is your favorite. The nod in Unicorn with Amuro's picture was pretty cool. 0083, was my favorite with the Universal Century story line, with MS 06th following not far behind it. I own Zeta and need to watch it when I finish school off for good.

00 and 0083 are my all time favorites.

Ill try to check out MSG so I can keep up with you 100% lol

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My affection for Gundam is a little more complicated than that.

Favorite Gundam series: 0080 War in the Pocket
Favorite characters/drama: UC era characters Newtype saga (0079-0093, Gundam, Zeta, Double Z, Char's Counterattack)
Favorite era: Universal Century (I don't like any other Gundam-can't get into them)

As for the original show, watch it as a curiosity. The important stuff is covered in the movie trilogy, but the TV show has a lot of cool episodes that give closer looks to some of the characters but also have a lot of silly and monster of the week episodes. Mobile Suit Gundam is still very much an anime from the 70s, so expect a lot of 'monster of the week' episodes, as well as stupid kid sidekick misadventures. It's just because of the roots of the series. Still, even for all the weirdness of Japanese anime in the 70s, the show has some really serious and dark storylines, Amuro was anything but a typical character and it's a surprisingly grim view of warfare for a kids' show.

I still haven't seen all of the original run of the 70's series. I was so pissed off when Cartoon Network immediately canceled the show on 9/11 and never showed it again, even on Adult Swim. I'll check this one out for sure. With Gundam, I like the smaller OAV's better then most of the longer running series. Give me Stardust Memories and 08 The MS Team over anything of Seed.

Moon Jump said:

I still haven't seen all of the original run of the 70's series. I was so pissed off when Cartoon Network immediately canceled the show on 9/11 and never showed it again, even on Adult Swim. I'll check this one out for sure. With Gundam, I like the smaller OAV's better then most of the longer running series. Give me Stardust Memories and 08 The MS Team over anything of Seed.

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Seed is another Gundam show I just couldn't get into.

I just like the Universal Century era more than anything else. Even the stuff from F91 and Victory Gundam. I like when the series inhabit and are informed by the same fictional geopolitical and historical space.

And yeah, I've heard that 'it's all connected' and separated by thousands of years or whatever but I really don't care much. I just can't get into it.

The one thing I loved about this clip they showed is even though all the mobile suits and ships are all new CGI style so it looks really smooth, they kept all the characters looking like they did in the 70's. I really wish they would have done that with Sailor Moon Crystal where they kept the character designs from the 90's instead of making them look flat, thin and shitty like newer shows out there.

00 and 0083 were the 2 gundams that I loved the most.
Rightstuf doesn't have this for preorder. Amazon has it for $85. Is Bandai or Honeamise handling the distribution?

Moon Jump said:

The one thing I loved about this clip they showed is even though all the mobile suits and ships are all new CGI style so it looks really smooth, they kept all the characters looking like they did in the 70's. I really wish they would have done that with Sailor Moon Crystal where they kept the character designs from the 90's instead of making them look flat, thin and shitty like newer shows out there.

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That's because of this guy:


He walked from the anime industry a long time ago but came back for this project because demand was high for the anime adaptation of his Char story. He walked away from animation because it changed too much for his liking. But he's directing this and after reading both Venus Wars (years ago) and Gundam: The Origin, I am 100% confident he is capable of telling a new story in a universe he helped create that is well paced, fits into the continuity and has compelling characters. And the characters don't need to be updated, they don't need to be modernized, they don't need to be changed.

As with comics and everything else, these characters endure for a reason, and the best stories can still be told with them, and not with new characters replacing them or with new versions that are 'thematically similar.'

TAISO WHO WAS THE GREATEST GUNDAM PILOT

As far as I know, this backstory hasn't been explored yet. But Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's Origin Manga is his own take on 0079, right? There are major differences compared to the anime. I'm wondering if this will have any effect on the backstory - if he's trying to link Char's and Sayla's stories to the 0079 anime or the Origins manga. Either way, this is the first Gundam produced beyond the mid-90s that I've even considered watching. I'm a strictly UC guy, and don't bother with Unicorn or any of that newfangled stuff.

Taiso, how did you watch Double Zeta? I've watched all the localized UC stuff from mid-90s and prior, but haven't watched ZZ, F-91, or Victory, though I'd love to watch them if the fansubs do them justice.

EDIT: One of my few complaints about the UC story is how the tension between the Federation and Zeon began. They're pretty vague about it. Maybe this will explain a bit more?

Theres still a lot of Gundam i need to catch up on. But 0080 War in the Pocket, has been my favorite so far. This looks to be interesting as well.

LoneSage said:

TAISO WHO WAS THE GREATEST GUNDAM PILOT

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This guy.

Anybody that says otherwise doesn't know Gundam.

fakexsound said:

As far as I know, this backstory hasn't been explored yet. But Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's Origin Manga is his own take on 0079, right? There are major differences compared to the anime. I'm wondering if this will have any effect on the backstory - if he's trying to link Char's and Sayla's stories to the 0079 anime or the Origins manga. Either way, this is the first Gundam produced beyond the mid-90s that I've even considered watching. I'm a strictly UC guy, and don't bother with Unicorn or any of that newfangled stuff.

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Gundam: The Origin is a more mature take on the original TV series, with certain events put in a different order to make more sense geographically and for the timeline and with a greater degree of character exposition. Everything in the TV series is represented in the Origin and nothing is really changed but it's a more detailed presentation. So far, the only differences between the Origin and the TV series that is substantial is that they go to Jaburo before they go to Odessa, something that makes complete sense if one puts reason to it. At Jaburo, you find out Sleggar Law and a few other pilots get assigned to White Base, but these are really minor changes that don't really affect much. I don't believe these changes significantly alter the narrative much, they are mostly helpful in making the narrative more robust and are, in my opinion, give the story a more realistic military feel.

The GMs were already being produced full swing at Jaburo but they needed the Gundam's battle data to complete the assembly. The GMs would have been very useful at Odessa, and is a perfectly acceptable alteration to the timeline. Other than that, it's minor stuff that in no way affects the narrative of the original story (such as a second squad of Zeon Zaku IIs encountering the Prototype Gundam in Side 7 in the bowels of the colony where the testing for Operation V is taking place).

The Char and Sayla origin was a part of the manga when those chapters came out years ago. This is an adaptation of the chapters from Gundam: The Origin and is considered canon. The flash back occurs after Zeon's failed attack on Jaburo and the second chance meeting between Char and Sayla. After Char threatens to kill her if she doesn't leave the Federation, Sayla begins to remember the boy she once knew who has grown into the fearsome 'Red Comet.' It's the most natural place for this flashback to occur, all things considered.

Yasuhiko stated that his inspiration for writing this story is because of the guy that was pining for Hamon Ral in the TV series after Ramba died. He asked himself what it would be like to tell a story about the guy that mopes and follows Hamon Ral around like a puppy dog. He felt that the character's story was a compelling one, as the romantic triangle had a foundation that had never been adequately explored. Once he started thinking about the back story for it, he considered the back story for the three characters and realized that because House Ral was directly responsible for getting Casoval and Artesia off of Side 3 after Daikun's death, he couldn't just tell a side story without dealing with those much larger issues. Then the story just morphed into a Char and Sayla origin story and the love triangle (which is really more like Ramba, Hamon and the third guy that Hamon never really views affectionately except as a loyal friend and companion) just became a side story of that.

And dude, do yourself a favor and watch Unicorn. It's a story taking place in UC 0096 and as a lot of great fan service for fans of the original, and best, stuff. It's not perfect, but Unicorn is miles better than the non UC stuff. Trust me.

fakexsound said:

Taiso, how did you watch Double Zeta? I've watched all the localized UC stuff from mid-90s and prior, but haven't watched ZZ, F-91, or Victory, though I'd love to watch them if the fansubs do them justice.

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I have indeed watched ZZ and the first half is ALMOST unbearably bad. The second half recovers quite nicely. It's not enough to completely salvage the show but the first half is worth watching just so you have a better frame of reference for the second half.

The fansubs I have for ZZ are generally pretty good. They're better and easier to read than a lot of the official translations, which I sometimes feel are too literal and often don't effectively translate the essence of the dialogue. F-91 was officially released and it's out there, but ZZ and Victory remain unreleased in the states.

Yes, I have all of these series and movies on my HDD.

fakexsound said:

EDIT: One of my few complaints about the UC story is how the tension between the Federation and Zeon began. They're pretty vague about it. Maybe this will explain a bit more?

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The tension existed long before zeon Zum Daikun preached colonyism, or contolism as it was originally called back when the first official english translations of Gundam source material were making their way over to our shores.

By the time Zeon Zum Daikun is (most likely) assassinated, Side 3's capital of Munzo was already on the brink of rebellion. As much of the source material has illustrated, colonyism had taken root in the hearts of the people of Side 3 and they felt that the Federation had no right to dictate to them or hold any authority over them. Daikun (or Deikun, if you prefer that spelling) had long since whipped the people into a frothing rage, and House Zabi and House Ral both were solidly behind Daikun's movement. Ral was loyal to Daikun himself, Zabi not so much.

Zeon is colonial America and the Federation is Britain, duh.

(except the federation are the good guys)

LoneSage said:

Zeon is colonial America and the Federation is Britain, duh.

(except the federation are the good guys)

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Sort of.

Zeon's struggle for freedom is certainly a colony's fight for independence, but they share more than a little in common with Nazi Germany in terms of their jackbooted zeal and their experimentation with innovative military technology.

The Federation, on the other hand, isn't really a clean cut heroic organization either. Even in the very first series, there are numerous instances of factionalism, opportunism and ignorance. The same could be said for Zeon, with honorable soldiers like Ramba Ral and Dozzle Zabi.

I recently watched the first series with my nephew and his friend, and they are in their mid 20s. They were surprised by the realistic portrayal of both sides, which had good people and bad. And the kids on the White Base are caught in the middle, forced to fight a war that adults made.

Looks like i'll have to pre-order this To me gundam are the shows set in the uc time period.

Went ahead and pre-ordered. I use to watch Gundam back in high school. Had 0083 and the original movie trilogy on VHS. Picked up the first couple of Wing VHS's when they came out. Watched Endless Waltz DVD with the kids the past couple of nights. They seem to like it, although a lot of the content was over their heads. Anyone know when the re-releases are going to be announced with a release date? Was looking online for some of the older series and damn they're expensive. Then again I remember paying $20 to $30 for just a few episodes on VHS back in high school.

THANK YOU FOR THIS THREAD! I'm really only about the UC era except for Gundam Wing, I liked the way they did that series and it was for my generation but hands down UC era is where it's at. I watched the trailer with the subs as I prefer ALL my anime to be viewed this way. I can't stand American voice actors, it ruins the experience for me. I'm considering that pre order too.

Taiso said:

Gundam: The Origin is a more mature take on the original TV series, with certain events put in a different order to make more sense geographically and for the timeline and with a greater degree of character exposition. Everything in the TV series is represented in the Origin and nothing is really changed but it's a more detailed presentation. So far, the only differences between the Origin and the TV series that is substantial is that they go to Jaburo before they go to Odessa, something that makes complete sense if one puts reason to it. At Jaburo, you find out Sleggar Law and a few other pilots get assigned to White Base, but these are really minor changes that don't really affect much. I don't believe these changes significantly alter the narrative much, they are mostly helpful in making the narrative more robust and are, in my opinion, give the story a more realistic military feel.

The GMs were already being produced full swing at Jaburo but they needed the Gundam's battle data to complete the assembly. The GMs would have been very useful at Odessa, and is a perfectly acceptable alteration to the timeline. Other than that, it's minor stuff that in no way affects the narrative of the original story (such as a second squad of Zeon Zaku IIs encountering the Prototype Gundam in Side 7 in the bowels of the colony where the testing for Operation V is taking place).

The Char and Sayla origin was a part of the manga when those chapters came out years ago. This is an adaptation of the chapters from Gundam: The Origin and is considered canon. The flash back occurs after Zeon's failed attack on Jaburo and the second chance meeting between Char and Sayla. After Char threatens to kill her if she doesn't leave the Federation, Sayla begins to remember the boy she once knew who has grown into the fearsome 'Red Comet.' It's the most natural place for this flashback to occur, all things considered.

Yasuhiko stated that his inspiration for writing this story is because of the guy that was pining for Hamon Ral in the TV series after Ramba died. He asked himself what it would be like to tell a story about the guy that mopes and follows Hamon Ral around like a puppy dog. He felt that the character's story was a compelling one, as the romantic triangle had a foundation that had never been adequately explored. Once he started thinking about the back story for it, he considered the back story for the three characters and realized that because House Ral was directly responsible for getting Casoval and Artesia off of Side 3 after Daikun's death, he couldn't just tell a side story without dealing with those much larger issues. Then the story just morphed into a Char and Sayla origin story and the love triangle (which is really more like Ramba, Hamon and the third guy that Hamon never really views affectionately except as a loyal friend and companion) just became a side story of that.

And dude, do yourself a favor and watch Unicorn. It's a story taking place in UC 0096 and as a lot of great fan service for fans of the original, and best, stuff. It's not perfect, but Unicorn is miles better than the non UC stuff. Trust me.

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Hmm, so do you think reading the manga would give me a more thorough understanding of everything that happens in 0079? If so, I'll definitely read it, though I'll probably wait for it to be collected into a single book because that shit's expensive.

Yeaaahhhh. I dunno. I freakin' LOVE Gundam, and most of it is for the story, characters, and mechanical designs, but it's also because of the fact that it oozes 80s. And I'm afraid a modern take would kind of ruin that. I want to watch Unicorn, but I'm scared to.

Taiso said:

I have indeed watched ZZ and the first half is ALMOST unbearably bad. The second half recovers quite nicely. It's not enough to completely salvage the show but the first half is worth watching just so you have a better frame of reference for the second half.

The fansubs I have for ZZ are generally pretty good. They're better and easier to read than a lot of the official translations, which I sometimes feel are too literal and often don't effectively translate the essence of the dialogue. F-91 was officially released and it's out there, but ZZ and Victory remain unreleased in the states.

Yes, I have all of these series and movies on my HDD.

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Ah, of course - I own F-91 and have watched it. Doh. It's just ZZ and Victory I haven't seen. IIRC STK does recommend ZZ so I'll give it a shot.

Taiso said:

The tension existed long before zeon Zum Daikun preached colonyism, or contolism as it was originally called back when the first official english translations of Gundam source material were making their way over to our shores.

By the time Zeon Zum Daikun is (most likely) assassinated, Side 3's capital of Munzo was already on the brink of rebellion. As much of the source material has illustrated, colonyism had taken root in the hearts of the people of Side 3 and they felt that the Federation had no right to dictate to them or hold any authority over them. Daikun (or Deikun, if you prefer that spelling) had long since whipped the people into a frothing rage, and House Zabi and House Ral both were solidly behind Daikun's movement. Ral was loyal to Daikun himself, Zabi not so much.

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I see. Am I an idiot or did that not really explain that in 0079? Or maybe it's because I watched the movie trilogy and not the full series.

fakeXsound said:

Hmm, so do you think reading the manga would give me a more thorough understanding of everything that happens in 0079? If so, I'll definitely read it, though I'll probably wait for it to be collected into a single book because that shit's expensive.

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There is way too much for it to be collected into a single volume. At present, it's 12 volumes, hardbound, 8 of which are out in the US translated with the remaining four to come by the end of the year, and each volume is over 400 pages at $29.95 apiece (although you might find it cheaper on Amazon or something like that.) The only way you'll get it cheaper is if you get a GREAT deal on it or if you find some scanlations.

Even at this price point, it's worth it.

And yes, you will have a deeper understanding of the intrigues of the One Year War if you read it. It is the Gundam series every fan of the original TV show needs to expose to themselves. The story is a more mature, aged version to match the people we've become today. And it loses nothing of its original potency, even with the minor changes here and there. In fact, it's a much stronger version.

fakeXsound said:

Yeaaahhhh. I dunno. I freakin' LOVE Gundam, and most of it is for the story, characters, and mechanical designs, but it's also because of the fact that it oozes 80s. And I'm afraid a modern take would kind of ruin that. I want to watch Unicorn, but I'm scared to.

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Lower expectations for the new stuff introduced and appreciate the excellent fan service nods to the older material. They really handle the old stuff quite well IMO.

fakeXsound said:

Ah, of course - I own F-91 and have watched it. Doh. It's just ZZ and Victory I haven't seen. IIRC STK does recommend ZZ so I'll give it a shIfot.

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In my opinion the first half of ZZ is almost unbearably bad. It starts to improve around episode 16, but remains rather tongue in cheek until about episode 25 or thereabouts. If you were to ask me 'First half of ZZ or Unicorn', it'd be Unicorn 11 times out of 10.

fakeXsound said:

I see. Am I an idiot or did that not really explain that in 0079? Or maybe it's because I watched the movie trilogy and not the full series.

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You're not an idiot at all, bro. The original series is really vague and presents House Zabi's takeover only through the eyes of Char Aznable. The movie trilogy barely shows any hints of the origins of the war and the spacenoid movement. All the series said was 'Char's dad was the real leader of Side 3 until he was assassinated by Degwin Zabi and they took over when they lied about Daikun's last wishes.' There is really nothing else there. But if you read The Origin, or watch the anime, you get a really good amount of detail on the intrigues. But as for the Spacenoid independence movement, it isn't shown in a timeline fashion. You're just seeing Daikun getting ready to demand independence from what he feels is an oppressive Federation regime and it's a sentiment most of Side 3 shares.

Awesome thread. The original Gundam series is the only one that I'm super into. I've watched it a few times and dug the hell out of those Capcom arcade games on Naomi. I've read the first few volumes of the comic of Origin and loved it.

Any news on how to watch this stuff legally? (Sorry if it was already mentioned in the thread.)

What's the best way to watch the original Gundam again? I was thinking about getting the DVD boxed set.

Man...no love for G Gundam?

I mostly fell out of the anime scene years ago but I'd pick this up on Blu-Ray.

RBjakeSpecial said:

Awesome thread. The original Gundam series is the only one that I'm super into. I've watched it a few times and dug the hell out of those Capcom arcade games on Naomi. I've read the first few volumes of the comic of Origin and loved it.

Any news on how to watch this stuff legally? (Sorry if it was already mentioned in the thread.)

What's the best way to watch the original Gundam again? I was thinking about getting the DVD boxed set.

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http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/h6zN0dI04tErvvRE9v/browse/item/104863/4/0/0

As for the best way to watch the original series, it could be hard to get them now but there are two compilations that have all the episodes either subtitled (recommended method) or dubbed. Bandai released them a while back. They're probably going to be super expensive though. I'd check Amazon and eBay, but be prepared to pay through the nose.

Taiso said:

http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/h6zN0dI04tErvvRE9v/browse/item/104863/4/0/0

As for the best way to watch the original series, it could be hard to get them now but there are two compilations that have all the episodes either subtitled (recommended method) or dubbed. Bandai released them a while back. They're probably going to be super expensive though. I'd check Amazon and eBay, but be prepared to pay through the nose.

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Isn't Sunrise partnering with The Right Stuf Inc. to distribute the Gundam series starting this spring? Heard they're starting with the original series and Turn A Gundam. Then the others to follow if I am not mistaken. Looking forward to grabbing some. Hoping they come out on blu-ray if possible.