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06:24compete to see which of us performs the best.
06:27So long, Tri-Stars.
06:28I will see you on the battlefield."
06:30Artesia, the girl who'd become Selah Mass, is also quite important to this.
06:35A sweet, gentle girl at heart, she is molded by constant sorrow and tragedies.
06:41Losing her father, mother, and, in many ways, brother, over a period of just a few years,
06:47Selah is forced to grow up fast and show grit.
06:49This OVA does a lot to humanize a character that, frankly, always kind of left me cold.
06:56You can understand Selah's later abrasiveness and occasional rashness in the original Gundam
07:00TV series.
07:02Unfortunately, she kind of drops out of the narrative at a certain point, until the very
07:07closing scenes of the OVA.
07:19Because it's a very important speech.
07:21I urge you to not overestimate Selah, because remember, with its limited human and material
07:28resources, there is no way Selah can continue fighting for that much longer.
07:37Another pretty big name in this series is Romba Raal, who was a big rival of the White Base
07:42crew while they were on Earth in the original Gundam TV series.
07:46Here, we see him emerge from the remains of his family's reputation, and come into his
07:51own as a soldier of Zeon.
07:53As in the original 1979 series, Romba Raal is an understanding, empathetic, honorable man,
08:00but is also a man of action.
08:02He is forced to ingratiate himself to the Zabi family, but never loses his dignity, as he
08:07becomes an early mobile suit pilot.
08:10Eventually, he refuses to take part in a colony drop operation, which results in his demotion,
08:15but he takes that with dignity, too.
08:18Romba Raal is a great character, and he's only lionized more in his OVA.
08:26Oh, wow.
08:26Bandage.
08:28You do what you need to do and don't worry about the mess.
08:31Thanks, Clamp.
08:32In that case, I won't hold back.
08:42Get in there!
08:43What are you doing?!
08:45Don't lose to some stinking colonist!
08:50Lurking behind many of the events in this OVA are the members of the Xabi family.
08:55An influential family on Munzo, they spearhead the effort to declare Side 3 a completely autonomous nation
09:02and go to war with the Earth Federation.
09:05The patriarch, Degwin, is clever and has great foresight, but is also exhausted.
09:10The oldest son, Kieran, is manipulative and dogmatic.
09:15He is a man of few scruples.
09:18Kasselia is likewise cunning and calculated, but more prone to reckless sudden decisions.
09:25Dozozabi is a hulking giant of a man, brutal but has spots of sensitivity too.
09:31Garmazabi, the youngest, is pretty spoiled and naive, but is eager to prove his worth to his father and siblings.
09:38The zombies also used to have another brother, Sothro, but, uh, things didn't go so well for him.
09:46Sothro, we're in it!
09:48It's...
09:48Garmazabi!
09:50Calm yourself down!
09:51Do not be rattled!
09:53Are you a zombie or aren't you?
09:55Get the horse!
09:57We have to pull it out!
10:00It's going to explode!
10:12There are plenty of other characters, too.
10:15Lala Soon, who becomes important to Char later on in the war, is shown as a girl whose rare gifts
10:20are being exploited by crooks.
10:23General Revel is the biggest presence from the upper echelon of Federation officers, a respectable leader among some not-so
10:30-respectable peers.
10:32He plays an important role in the final chapter.
10:35Tem Ray, the mobile suit designer behind the RX-78 Gundam, is a visionary engineer in the shadow of Manofsky,
10:42a complicated man and a neglectful father, but makes a big contribution to the outcome of the war.
10:47Then, there's the future White Base crew, characters like Amuro Rei, Fraubo, Kai Shiren, Hayato Kobayashi, and Mirai Yashima, who
10:57make mostly token appearances, though Amuro and Frau are given a little more to do.
11:02This OVA is mostly about Char, so these characters just fill up the world around him, but it does allow
11:08for good worldbuilding.
11:16Why do you have to be such a jerk?
11:18All you ever do is just sit in front of that computer!
11:22Do you even realize there's a war going on, and that tons of people are dying as you just sit
11:28there?
11:39There's a lot of great moments in this series, bits that elevate it over some of Gundam's other entries.
11:44There are scenes and sequences I'd love to share with my viewers here.
11:48Hopefully I won't spoil too much, but if you don't want to be spoiled, skip ahead towards the end of
11:53the video.
11:54Everybody set?
11:56Okay, let's get to it.
11:58In the climax of the first episode, a young Kasval and Artesia find themselves in a gun tank, piloted by
12:04Crowley Hamon, Rambaral's close confidant.
12:08When the Federation and Munzo's security forces try to prevent their escape from the colony, Kasval takes action, activating the
12:16weapons and firing on his enemies.
12:18Now, while this is extremely unlikely, it's still a great scene that gives you solid examples of the characters of
12:24Kasval and Artesia,
12:26where the former wants to fight and the latter just wants peace.
12:30If you are Artesia, you have to grow up too.
12:33Grow to be a nice girl.
12:35Then grow up to be a good person.
12:37Then you can make a lot of people happy.
12:40Okay?
12:49Copy, Castle!
12:56I really like this bit in Episode 3, where Char helps an injured Garma Zabi during a military hiking exercise.
13:02He's obviously getting close to Garma to get closer to the rest of the Zabi family, and thus carry out
13:08his revenge, but there's a little hint of genuine affection in the gesture.
13:12Char clearly thinks of Garma as the weak link in the Zabi chain, manipulating him through the Dawn Rebellion, but
13:19in this moment, he extends a hand of friendship that's more than just a poison pill.
13:24There are little moments between the two characters that are almost intimate, that make you question the nature of their
13:29relationship.
13:30Of course, Fujoshi fans helped save Gundam early in its existence, so it's no surprise that Yasu would continue to
13:37nod to them.
13:40Yes, I see them both. It's Char Osnabal and Garma Zabi.
13:45They're leaning on each other.
13:47They're waving.
13:48And they're both smiling.
13:52During the Colony Drop operation, the Colony citizens were optimistic that the Earth Federation would be in time to save
13:58them.
13:59Among them are Yuki and Feng Li, a couple in a burgeoning love, whose lives come to an unfortunate end.
14:06As the Xeon gassed the Colony to prepare it for dropping, Yuki hallucinates in his final moments.
14:12It's a sad scene that underscores the horror and tragedy of the beginning of the One Year War.
14:18Why is it so cold all of a sudden?
14:30It's snowing.
14:32I had no idea that it could snow in the colonies.
14:35I can't wait to tell Feng Li.
14:38She'll be thrilled.
14:42But why is it so cold?
14:46The Battle of Loom is more than a single scene.
14:49It's a 20-minute chunk of the final episode of the Origin OVA.
14:53It is a chaotic, large-scale fleet battle between the Xeon and Federation.
14:58While the Federation's forces are experienced and well-numbered, they are outmaneuvered and outpowered by the Mobusu forces.
15:05Pilots like Shahr and the Black Tristar show significant power and the Federal forces are quickly overwhelmed by the technical
15:12advantage MS units present.
15:15It's wonderfully done, though perhaps the CG is overused, and you can feel the battle's weight and the exhaustion and
15:21terror it brings.
15:46Now that we've got all that positive bullshit out of the way,
15:49And speaking of bullshit, let's get to the real overarching pattern of this OEA.
15:55That is, that Shahr is a little too aura-maxing.
15:59I mean, as a kid, he impresses Kasselia while in handcuffs.
16:04He fires a gun tank's weapons.
16:06He's clever enough to take on another person's identity.
16:09Is the best at all kinds of physical activities in the academy.
16:13He can hoop, helps lead a rebellion against security forces, rescues Lala from deadly criminals,
16:20is one of their early mobile suit pilots, takes out ship after ship in the Battle of Loom,
16:25and recognizes what Rebels' escape would mean for the war.
16:29Give me a fucking break.
16:31Are you telling me that this one guy is an ace in pretty much every facet of his life?
16:35To the point, to the point, where just a glance from him can send people into a complete breakdown?
16:43I half expected him to bet a dozen or so women, too, while he was at it.
16:47But I guess that would have been pushing it.
17:09This is why there's a fan theory that I'm quite fond of.
17:12Shahr is just bragging.
17:14He's bullshitting somebody about how cool he is.
17:18Yeah, Shahr is telling this story, probably to Camille Badon in Zeta Gundam,
17:23while in the guise of Quattro Bajina.
17:26He's just bragging to Camille about how great Shahr is, without letting on that he is Shahr.
17:31It's really the only way you can account for Shahr being so over-the-top great in almost every way
17:36in this.
17:37But notice he also makes himself kind of a psychopath,
17:40which means that Shahr doesn't even know that that's a bad thing.
17:44It perfectly squares with Shahr's later motivations and actions in later parts of the Universal Century.
17:50The stuff about Romba Raul being awesome, too, is just him being magnanimous to his fellow ace.
17:56Notice how the Black Tri-Stars are giant assholes.
17:59Dozel is an emotional wreck,
18:01Garma is a total embarrassment,
18:03and Kasselia is a complete monster.
18:06He has less to say about Ghirin or Degwin because he didn't know them.
18:10And of course, the Federation is incompetent,
18:13tripping over themselves except Tem Ray,
18:16whose Gundam was too revolutionary to beat.
18:19At the time of Zeta,
18:21Shahr was fighting the Federation's Titans group,
18:24so he had to exaggerate their incompetence and corruption,
18:27though not by much.
18:34There are no soldiers in Xeon!
18:36So we are certain to be victorious in this war!
18:41Now, don't get me wrong.
18:43I love Gundam The Origin.
18:44It's one of my favorite chapters of Gundam,
18:47and one of my favorite anime, period.
18:49I was always curious as to the build-up to the One Year War,
18:52and this OVA answers a lot of questions I always had.
18:56Sure, it's technically a flashback from the manga,
18:59which doesn't completely line up with the original TV series,
19:03but differences like gun tanks being available well before the Gundam can be waved off.
19:08It has character and thematic arcs,
19:11it complements the series really well and fills out some characters,
19:15and the production values are mostly excellent.
19:18Yeah, it glazes Shahr to a ridiculous amount,
19:21even to me, and Shahr is one of my favorite anime characters.
19:25However, I think it's an excellent OVA overall,
19:29and should be in the collection of every Gundam fan,
19:32especially those into the Universal Century timeline.
19:35Just be sure to also read Yasu's manga at some point.
19:39I'll have to finish it myself.
19:41I don't think that such words would come from my own father,
19:45Zeon Zoom Daikun's closest comrade.
19:47What was it that Daikun said?
19:50Did he not declare us the future of humanity?
19:52That space-noids would be the new species that will usher us into the next stage of human evolution?
19:58We have at our fingertips the perfect opportunity with which to make Daikun's ideals a reality.
20:04And that's enough Otaku Evolution for now.
20:07Expect me to take another look at Gundam sometime later this year,
20:10or early next year.
20:12Until then, that's the end of this long road of robot-related anime.
20:16It's time we get to a Shonen fighting title.
20:19But, which one?
20:22I wonder.
20:24Until then,
20:25See ya!
20:44The curtain is about to rise on a new act.
20:47A second act in which I guarantee there's no God.
21:24The curtain is about to rise on a new act.
21:39See ya!
21:40See ya!
21:55You
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