As promised, here is the deep dive on the Moon Gundam and how it came to be.
Oh, and just in case it wasn’t obvious …
Spoiler Preface!!!
This post contains some major spoilers for the Moon Gundam manga.
About My Research
Bad news - the Moon Gundam manga does not have an official English release.
Semi-good news - Most of the volumes that have been published have been translated by Zeonic Scanlations, a site which has translated a boatload of written Gundam content over the years. The only problem is that, well, it’s not exactly on the up and up.
Good Good News - Moon Gundam is published by Kadokawa, and their online store, BOOKâWALKER, is … interesting. They have a “global” site where you can buy translated manga, but they also let you buy raw, uncut, untranslated books directly from the Japan store. They even have a handy guide that tells you what buttons to click to make your purchase without having to understand the language.
It took me a couple of tries, but eventually I found a payment method that worked, and I am now the proud owner of all fourteen volumes of Moon Gundam that have been published so far.
I did this so that I could read the English translation without any guilt, but also to ensure that any screen grabs of the manga came from my own legal copies.
I know what you might be thinking - “Does that mean you spent over $50 in manga just so you could write this blog post?”
About the Manga
Moon Gundam is a long running and still ongoing manga written by Harutoshi Fukui. If you’re a Gundam fan you might be familiar with that name, and for good reason. Fukui is the same guy that wrote the original Gundam Unicorn novels.
In fact, according to the Wiki (and backed up by this translated interview), the basic concept of Moon Gundam was proposed as the first draft of sorts for Unicorn, before Fukui shelved it and went back to the drawing board. As a result, the stories have quite a bit of overlap.
They both involve a young, relatively pacifistic Newtype who gets his hands on an extremely powerful mobile suit. He bounces around, spending time with both the Earth Federation and Neo Zeon, learning about their beliefs (and their flaws) while trying to figure out his own place in the world. He tries to avoid fighting, preferring to use his MS to protect and defend rather than to attack.
Oh, and he ends up having a very strong, Newtype-fueled bond with Mineva Zabi, who in both stories is trying to create a better version of Zeon (all the while people all around her are trying to use her for their own purposes).
That’s pretty much Moon Gundam in a nutshell.
There’s one more important factoid about the manga - it’s new mecha designs, including the Moon Gundam itself, are done by Ippei Gyoubu, who has quickly become one of my favorite mecha artists (and yes, it is one of the big reasons I was attracted to this Gunpla).
Is it Worth Reading?
If Moon Gundam is so similar to Unicorn, is it still a story worth reading?
I won’t pass final judgement until the story is complete, but I do have a few thoughts. First, while the stories do have some wild similarities, they’re also different in meaningful ways. The biggest one is that Moon Gundam takes place between the events of ZZ Gundam and Char’s Counterattack, while Unicorn takes place later on.
This of course means that during Moon Gundam, both Amuro Ray and Char are alive, and lo, they both show up!
This is important, and not just because it’s easy fan service. It allows Moon Gundam to give us a peek at what both men were thinking and doing leading up to the events of CCA, which (in my opinion) is something worth exploring.
The other thing I like about Moon Gundam in contrast to Unicorn is that it is much smaller in scope. Indeed, since it precedes CCA it has no choice but to be, since it can’t really do anything to rock the boat before the start of that film.
What this means is that Moon Gundam doesn’t have to be this epic adventure with the fate of the Earthsphere at stake. It also doesn’t have to be a giant fanservice machine that jams in as many references to old mobile suits as it possibly can. And interestingly, it isn’t nearly as preachy as Unicorn
Instead, it is highly focused on its characters. It has the time to make them all rich and deep and interesting. Some are flawed in the ways most humans are, and yes, a few of them are just plain evil. But pretty much all of them are interesting in their own ways.
I’d even go so far as to say that it’s a different - and better - treatment of Newtypes than in Unicorn. Sure, both stories have some crazy Newtype space magic, but Moon Gundam is much more interested in showing people trying to connect to each other and convey their feelings. It even shows Newtypes conveying feelings to Oldtypes.
You know, the good, hopeful stuff that Newtypes are supposed to be about, rather than just turning them into Space Jedi (or even worse, Space Ubermenschen).
* Ahem * … This is all a roundabout way of saying that for my tastes, it’s absolutely worth reading. But if you prefer the bombast and fanservice of Unicorn, Moon Gundam may leave you wanting.
About the Mobile Suit
I’m not exactly in love with the descriptive blurb found in the kit’s instruction manual. Technically everything it says is accurate, but it’s missing a ton of important context. It’d be very easy to walk away with a mistaken idea of how the Moon Gundam comes to be, and how it is used.
Here is the blurb:
The Earth Federation Forces caught information that Char Aznable, who went missing after the Gryps Conflict, was plotting an armed uprising against the Federation and deployed search forces to various Sides.During this patrol, Amuro Ray's platoon of the Londo Bell encountered remnants of the Titans in a certain area and engaged in battle against a Gundam-type MS equipped with a new Psycommu armament. The MS was show down by Amuro, and its head and Psycommu armament the (Psycho Plates) drifted to the Moon Moon colony a year later.
At the same time, Neo Zeon's ship Atalante 3, which was disguised as a cargo ship, was in a battle near Moon Moon against Londo Bell's Ra Gillis cruiser and entered the colony. The Gundam-type's head and Psycho Plates salvaged from outside the colony's walls were attached to the AMS-123X Varguil, an MS that became the prototype for the MSN-04 Sazabi, which was stored in the Neo Zeon ship, creating the Moon Gundam.
Let’s try and unpack this all.
About the Varguil
As stated in the blurb above, the Varguil is a prototype Neo Zeon mobile suit, developed in part as a way to experiment with some of the weapons and tech that would later go into the Sazabi (which is one of the reasons why the two of them look vaguely similar):
Here is some more detail from the Wiki:
The Varguil was a prototype MS that incorporated next-generation Psycommu technology. However, this technology was later stripped and replaced with a more conventional Psycommu cockpit. It uses a generator 1.5 times more powerful than a Geara Doga's and has Gundarium alloy armor. Multiple thrusters are arranged across the body to make the MS more maneuverable. While boasting higher speed and maneuverability than other experimental mobile suits, it could not compete with the Jagd Doga and its Psycho-Frame cockpit.
From the sounds of it, the Varguil was a victim of bad timing. Had it been finished earlier - or if the Psychoframe tech had taken a bit longer to complete - then the Varguil may have some time in the spotlight as one of Neo Zeon’s Ace Customs. Instead, it seems to have been treated more like a real life prototype; something to use to test stuff out, but not taken seriously for real combat.
That explains why it was assigned to the Atlante 3, which the manga portrays as being a crew of misfits who at least some folks in the Neo Zeon brass expect to fail in their mission.
It also explains why it was assigned to a defective Cyber Newtype who isn’t even able to activate the Varguil’s funnels.
So that’s the Varguil. We know that it will form the body of the Moon Gundam. But what about Moon Gundam’s head? And those crazy Psychoplates? The blurb in the instruction manual only describes it as a “Gundam-type MS equipped with a new Psycommu armament”, but it does have a name, and it is quite a mouthful.
About the Psycho Gundam Mk-IV G-Doors
Yeah, I’m just going to call it the G-Doors for short.
Here is what the wiki has to say about it:
A prototype psycommu mobile suit developed by the Titans remnants, the MRX-013-3 Psycho Gundam Mk-IV G-Doors' most unique feature is the sixteen Psycho Plates equipped on its back. These Psycho Plates are new psycommu units that can be remotely controlled by the pilot's brainwaves, and due to their door-like look when stored on the back, the mobile suit was named "G-Doors". The design of the G-Doors' main body was simple and it was designed to display its full capabilities when partnered with heavy firepower-type mobile suits from the same series.
The MRX-013-3 Psycho Gundam Mk-IV G-Doors was Unit 3 of the Psycho Gundam Mk-IV units, which were completed with the help of a mysterious figure named "Mr. Enkidu". the Psycho Gundam Mk-IV G-Doors was then given to the Titans Remnants. In U.C. 0091, a group of Titans Remnants engaged Londo Bell at Side 1, apparently having been betrayed by Mr. Enkidu. The G-Doors was deployed during the battle as the Titans' ace in the hole, and engaged Amuro Ray's MSK-008R Rick Dijeh. Though it surprised Amuro with its Psycho Plates and caused damage, Amuro was able to destroy it.
Side note - I wanted to highlight Amuro’s mobile suit, the Rick Dijeh, which is a fusion of the Rick Dias and the Dijeh, two fantastic mecha designs:
Say what you will about the guy, but his taste in mobile suits is impeccable.
Anyway, we actually get to see Amuro’s fight with the G-Doors in Moon Gundam, and it’s deceptively simple. It ends fairly quickly and very decisively:
But Amuro’s dialogue implies that we was a bit spooked by the power of the Psychoplates, almost as if he acted quickly and aggressively because he knew he’d lose if the fight drew out too long.
All of which is to say that there is something weird and special about the Psychoplates, something that will make the Varguil far more powerful once it becomes the Moon Gundam, and which the manga will (hopefully) reveal before it ends.
Anyway, after the battle, both the Pyschoplates and the head unit of the G-Doors float away from the battlefield. And they float. And float. And float for a year, until they wind up crashing into the exterior of the Moon Moon colony:
Moon Moon
Oh Moon Moon. The notorious location of what many fans consider the worst story arc in ZZ Gundam, if not the worst story arc in the entire metaseries.
Well guess what? - it is an extremely prominent location in the manga, and you get to learn a hell of a lot more about it. And honestly, I think it works. Some of the explanations for why there’s a primitive, tech fearing society living in an overgrown colony are a little bit ridiculous, but I appreciate the effort.
For example, we learn why it looks the way it does - it was at once point meant to be a Disney-esque, themed resort colony. All the temples and forests were put there originally for the sake of the theming.
We also learn why the society is the way it is - in short, it was populated by Space Hippies and Space Amish who wanted to get away from everything.
We even learn why it’s been left alone for so long, without anyone trying to clear them out. Basically, they grow and sell Space Cocaine to outsiders, in a world in which regular cocaine no longer exists.
This has nothing to do with the Moon Gundam mobile suit; I just wanted an excuse to write the phrase “Space Cocaine”.
We’re Still Not Done Yet
I’ve already written at length so far, but I’m still not even close to done. That said, I think this is a good stopping point. In the next post we’ll see how all of these pieces come together to create the Moon Gundam, and then take a closer look at all of its weapons and abilities.
See you then.