In light of recent news surrounding the final episode of Gundam Unicorn, I thought I would take the time to dust off an old translation I started in 2012. The following is a translation of the prologue to the story as penned by Yoshiyuki Tomino. Please, enjoy this and look forward to what we have in store. On that note, if anyone is interested in editing, please contact me.

Who was it who wrote that time leads us to forget?

The only ones who have dared to utter such words have been either optimists, or those who have glimpsed the truth and are familiar with utter despair. In either case, one would do well to remember that words are both vague and multifaceted, and so rarely tell us the truth. Nevertheless, the story which I am about to spin in those same words is one that has been told throughout countless eras, and one which deserves to be handed down until the end of time.

The sadness of our mortal world. The pitiful sorrow born out of the very existence of said world… These things which so assail us are born of something as frightfully simple as our own existence. Constructed in a way that means that we continually let slip the happiness that we so crave, we humans are creatures of sorrow. And when one considers that the only freedom granted to the protagonists of this story is the wild hope that there may come a day when they are freed from that cycle, one is bound to cry out with shock and sorrow that this is the tragedy of mankind.

Countless generations have passed since the dawn of the Universal Century, and mankind has expanded his territory to colonies between the Earth and Moon… Initially, it was believed that this increase in living space might open up the opportunity to save the Earth, which had long since been polluted by mankind’s hand, or at very least the chance to extend its lifespan. Yet though the new territory represented only a pathetically tiny portion of the vastness of space, mankind’s continuing adherence to petty divisions and classifications meant that wars of class, race, and territory did not come to an end. Rather, it appeared that the expansion of territory only fanned the flames of conflict between those of different classes, different regions, and different lines of thought.

Naturally, a shared awareness of the critical lack of living space in the latter years of the Earth Age meant that mankind had temporarily ceased its conflicts. And for a while, at least, there had been an era of frustration where the various disparate elements of mankind had managed to coexist. However, once space had been colonized, mankind appeared to recall its natural instinct toward oppressive conflict and war. One could well say that the expansion of territory only provided seeds for new conflict. When mankind took to the stars, he may have discovered yet more space in which to act out his primal instincts.

History, it appears, has run backwards…

It may be the case that mankind is destined for such folly.

There is a theory that when frustrations peak, we naturally create enemies, and that acts of terrorism which serve to fan the flames of aggression are simply the natural outcome of such a situation. It is easy to decry such reactions as irrational, but such words cannot quell the tide of human frustration.

For words are so often lost in the void of space…