A manga web Series by Bandai in the Gundam Franchise, manga by Atsushi Soga and SOW

When we last left the members of the ODR, they were trying to figure out the cause of the mass proliferation of cheap military-grade equipment to small military groups in remote areas. People on the ground had no idea where the money was flowing from, and the entire thing was seemingly just sowing chaos for the sake of it. They had ideas of who the puppet master was, but had no way to prove it. What exactly is a peacekeeping outfit that is not allowed to act in a proactive way in any matter suppose to do without breaking neutrality? Miyabi, who is presented as the “brains” behind the ODR Gundam team, concocts a plan to purposefully get captured near one of these back-alley arms deals causing an intervention from the Gundam Eclipse necessary.

“C.E.72, a unique era which would later be called the “two blank years.” Some also call it “the time of peace on thin ice”, and others call it “the break before the oncoming frenzy.” This is the story of an interval. A story that takes place between two large wars in which members of a hollow unit known as ODR risked their lives.”

While episode three, part one was the expositionary information dump I was expecting, part two is the character building chapter. We find out a lot more about the main three characters here, how their relationships work, and why they appear to work well together. As stated, Miyabi is a strategist of some nature, and possibly a runaway Princess in secret! Tatsumi, The pilot of the Gundam, lives a carefree life despite the severity of his job. He is a pacifist, and his desire to not kill anyone is butting heads with the very nature of their clandestine organization. Ken is almost like a “big brother” to him, in that he’s trying to look out for him and keep him on the right track, but doesn’t want Tatsumi to follow along in his footsteps, as he feels like an emotionless killer.

There’s an interesting segment where we discover Ken is a gifted Mobile Suit pilot, capable of learning to pilot anything in mere minutes. he is given a heavily modified ZAFT BuCue to which he is expected to run at optimum capability without ever setting foot inside. They make the distinction that he can pilot anything, but Tatsumi is the “only one” that can pilot The Gundam. Interesting….wonder why? My guess is that Tatsumi is a Newtype, which is vaguely like a Jedi in Gundam terms if you are unaware. Finally, we get a brief glimpse of a young woman that I assume is going to be one of the antagonists of the series in this chapter.

This was a short chapter, but had some of the better character building in the series so far. I really enjoyed the interactions between Tatsumi and “Kenny” and can’t wait for Miyabi’s backstory to be leaked. Now the question is – who is this shadowy young woman that appears to be selling Mobile Suits? I bet we are soon to find out. Keep checking back for more, as we look at more chapters of this interesting project from Gundam.info and YouTube! This is going to be a Gundam-filled week here at my blog, I will try to explain why sometime this weekend if you are wondering. It has to do with my issues with holidays and my association of Christmas and Gundam.