PinkuBentoBox

2004 was something of an unfortunate year for Gundam, once you think about it. On TV, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny debuted in October, and despite showing tons of promise and actually putting on a good show for about ten episodes, quickly deteriorated into one of the worst Gundam series of all time. In the theatres, the Zeta Gundam movie trilogy, planned as the pinnacle of Gundam’s 25th anniversary celebration, had its much-anticipated wide release pushed back by way of numerous delays into early 2005. And on the international level, the popularity of the Gundam franchise only continued to slip, prompting many concerns that Bandai might not keep their word on their promise to eventually release every major Gundam anime in some capacity outside of Japan. Despite all of this, however, there remained one good thing (well..more Astray aside) to come out of Gundam’s 25th year. Debuting right as details on Destiny were first going public, the series Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War began as a special theatrical trilogy screening at the Bandai Museum, before being extended to a six-episode OVA series later on. Animated entirely in some fairly high quality CG, it provides a radically different take on the One Year War (and Gundam in general) than that of its peers.

The central story behind MS IGLOO revolves around a Zeon officer, Oliver May, and the 603rd Tactical Evaluation Unit of which he’s a part. Stationed aboard the test ship Jotunheim, the unit is assigned to give test runs to various experimental Zeon weapons throughout the course of the One Year War and report the results back to the developers. This first episode, taking place literally only a couple weeks into the start of the war, covers the formation of the 603rd, as well as their trials with the prototype anti-ship gunnery platform, Jormungand. Literally the size of a spacefaring battleship, the cannon is assigned a position in Zeon’s plans for the Battle of Loum, and the crew is led to believe that their actions will play a deciding factor in the upcoming combat. Unfortunately, as it turns out, their presence is only used as a diversion, while the true stars of the Battle of Loum, the debuting Zaku mobile suits, prove to be the real difference makers in turning away the numerically superior Federal forces. Not one to be shown up, however, the Jormungand’s gunner, Alessandro Hemme, makes one last desperate attempt to show off the cannon’s potential, ultimately sacrificing himself in the process.

This first episode is actually a fairly tragic look at the rather vicious & rapid nature of Zeon’s arms development programs, which I feel will be a recurring theme throughout the series. Though it seems the military definitely had plans to construct some sort of gun placement system to combat the Federation’s navy, it was promptly scrapped soon after for the much more maneuverable and versatile mobile suit, seemingly without even a proper notification to those responsible for developing the Jormungand and its ilk. It’s unsure exactly how blatant the deception of the 603rd was, but it certainly seems that they were merely cast aside as something of a novelty or diversionary target for the enemy just prior to combat at Loum commencing. Hemme’s dying speech, about how he would be the one to bring the age of gunners to a close, was really quite touching, as it actually ended up proving very true in the long run.

But while this first episode proved to be quite a blow to the 603rd, it also proved to be one helluva treat for the Universal Century fans in the audience. Several major historical events from the One Year War that had gone virtually unseen in animation before, were finally presented here in full, visual glory. Seeing as the opening month of the war lacked much in the way of a Gundam to revolve the series around, it wasn’t until now that we actually got a look at such things as the preparations for Operation British—the colony drop that would turn the Sydney, Australia area into an inland sea—the first major naval battle between the Federation & Zeon at Loum, and the first major battlefield sortie of the mobile suit. In fact, more than just the mobile suit’s combat debut, we also get to see at least a part of the moment that would make one Char Aznable famous throughout the both sides for the remainder of the war and well afterwards. His quick leaps between two Federation battleships, destroying them with ease as he went, was just the start of the ultimately five-ship kill that’d earn him his monicker as the Red Comet. For those versed in UC lore, there’s much more than simply the ill fate of the Jormungand to marvel at, and hopefully this will be a continuing element of later episodes.

Character-wise, MS IGLOO manages to pull off an extreme rarity in Gundam anime, by creating a series that is not only devoid of the usual childish angst that plagues the franchise, but effectively stripping it of the teenage superheroes, altogether. The central protagonist, Oliver, is not some magical, psychic fifteen-year old that accidentally boards the advanced new weapon and turns the tide of war all on his own; he’s an officer abiding by the chain of command in order to gather data for the military and affect the war in his own way, well behind the scenes. It’ll be interesting to see just how Zeon’s rather strange way of handling their military takes its toll on him, as he has already expressed a rather vocal opposition to the tactic of dropping colonies, and seemed to make a rather composed, albeit clear-cut protest to his superiors in regards to the treatment of the Jormungand. I doubt we’ll see any sort of over-dramatic defection, but it’d be interesting to see how he changes over time, essentially being in control of Zeon’s no-doubt many unseen failures.

The other characters prove similarly interesting. Special Operations Captain Monique Cadillac acts as something of a female Oliver. An…extremely sexy female Oliver. Like a Zeon Christina Mackenzie. However, rather than being as openly questioning of Zeon’s tactics as Oliver, she seems to have placed much more faith in her superiors’ decisions, only to be rather cruelly let down in the end. The ship’s captain, Martin Prochnow, appears to be something of a humanitarian at heart, having formerly commanded civilian and cargo ships before being stationed aboard the Jotunheim, and at least in this episode, placing the safety of his crew above even the mission at hand. He’s willing the jeopardise the Jormungand’s retrieval, and later its trial operation, all to ensure that as few of his subordinates are lost as possible. Thus far, these seem to be the three most central characters in this series. The only others actually named and given any significant dialogue so far have been officer Hideto Washiya, something of a stumbling Japanese recruit, and the aforementioned Alessandro Hemme. I was sad to see Hemme go so early in the series, as he made for a fun character to watch. The boisterous, temperamental old veteran with enough experience to back up his loud mouth; he’s been the most active and outspoken character thus far, and seeing someone of his type stick around for at least a few more episodes would’ve made things very interesting.

Of course, aside from being devoid of teenagers and petty angst (and a Gundam, for that matter, seeing as how they won’t exist for another six-ish months), the big thing that sets MS IGLOO apart from other Gundam anime is its style of animation. The show is rendered entirely in 3D computer graphics. Rather impressively, I might add. It’s not quite up to the awe-inspiring level of Advent Children or The Final Flight of Osiris, but it’s still a considerably high-quality effort that trumps the good majority of Japan’s other CG animation attempts, regardless. The human characters can move a bit stiffly at times, and closeups reveal a bit of plasticity in the modeling, but all in all it’s a nice-looking little package. It really shines during the ship-to-ship and mobile suit combat; there’s this one top-down shot, in particular, of Char maneuvering his Zaku downward into the thick of Federal anti-aircraft fire that never ceases to just absolutely blow me away when I watch it (check the middle screenshot in the final set below for a bit of a taste). What’s also interesting is that the character designs are about as “un-anime” as you can get. The characters were deliberately designed to look more realistic, which actually suits the overall tone of the series a lot better than watery eyes and imposibly tiny mouths ever could. For the Gundam franchise, this series is a truly unique package that takes full advantage of the apparent practice Sunrise has had by way of the Gundam Evolve shorts in converting the franchise to computer animation.

The music similarly takes a brief step out of the usual Gundam mold in order to better suit this story in particular. Composed by Megumi Oohashi (whose work I can’t seem to recall hearing before), it has a very hardline military feel to it, as if you were hearing something more out of a World War II movie than a Gundam anime. Gone are the over-the-top melodrama pieces & cheesy 80s synth, replaced entirely with a more natural sounding score that fits MS IGLOO like a glove. The piece used in the show-stealing Zaku assault features a particularly powerful string arrangement that could potentially rival even the best of the Gundam battle themes featured elsewhere. And the opening theme song, performed by artist Taja (whom I also cannot place as having heard before), similarly suits the series, setting the melancholy, “historical” tone that carries on until the episode’s end.

Cast-wise, the OVA seems to have a reasonably high-profile collection of seiyuu voicing important characters, though their names aren’t going to ring as familiar as a Tomokazu Seki or Rie Tanaka. Hideo Ishikawa, the voice of Oliver, can also be heard as Naruto baddie Itachi Uchiha, while Monique’s voice, Miki Nagasawa, might better be recognised as Evangelion’s Maya, Vampire Princess Miyu TV’s Miyu, or even Judy, of Cowboy Bebop’s show-within-a-show, Big Shots (or for those of us Nadesico fans, as the bizarre poet and Aestivalis pilot, Izumi Maki). Shozo Iizuka, the voice of the good captain Prochnow, will be easily recognised by DBZ fans as the Saiyan thug Nappa, to those of us with better taste as Paranoia Agent lead character Detective Keiichi Ikari, and even as Guntank co-pilot Ryu Jose from the original Mobile Suit Gundam. And finally, Washiya’s seiyuu, Jun Fukuyama, can also be heard as Witch Hunter Robin’s Sakaki, Kiddy Grade’s Tweedledum, and in my personal favourite anime, Boogiepop Phantom, as none other than Masami Saotome (or rather, the Manticore Phantom).

All in all, MS IGLOO is like a breath of fresh air in terms of Gundam anime. No teens, no crying, none of the inane bullshit that Destiny’s about burned people out on. Rather, it provides an honest look at the backstage military antics of Zeon, by way of one little group of field testers. In particular, it provides a rather tragic look at the human consequences of Zeon’s hyperactive attention deficiency when it came to developing new weapons systems. To plan something as massive & elaborate (and no doubt extremely expensive) as a capital ship-sized gunnery platform, only to promptly scrap it and use it as a distraction while the mobile suit took over definitely serves as a prelude to the later indecisiveness in committing to the mobile armor concept, and constant reassignment of frontline mobile suit models (from Zakus to Rick Doms to Gelgoogs, with the Pezun Project lurking in the shadows, all within the last two months of the war). And the blatant disregard in terms of informing those in charge of the project of this change in plans displays a further failing on Zeon’s part when it comes to getting the proper information to those most in need of it. The military’s failure to properly handle the Jormungand results in some heavy losses—both in personnel & equipment, as well as no doubt morale—for the 603rd, so it’ll be intsrseting to see if that carries over to their next assignment.