THE JOURNEY & FUTURE OF UNIVERSAL CENTURY GUNDAM ②
Interview and Text by Shino Kokawa

I Think First Gundam Was Also a Work of Shojo Manga-esque Sci-Fi and Romance

――Watching Light of Life, I felt like it was a process of renovating the Universal Century Gundam, stripping off the surface paint, and re-fleshing out the original Gundam in its purest state once again.

Fukui: You might be onto something there. How should I put it… The 70s were right when the sci-fi boom took off. A huge factor in Gundam’s popularity was that it attracted not only boys who were into military stuff but just as many, if not more, girls. And what drew those girls in? These days, you might say, “It’s the characters, right?” But does that really start just from a handsome guy being drawn in a single illustration? No, that’s not it. There has to be a world where those characters live, and I think women are captivated by the romantic elements that emerge in that setting. In that sense, in the 70s, you had Space Battleship Yamato, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Wars… But alongside that context, you also had shojo manga artists like Keiko Takemiya and Moto Hagio doing really hard sci-fi, using the techniques honed in shojo manga to portray people and worlds. Gundam actually has a fair bit in common with that. I think it undoubtedly had one foot firmly planted in that realm. And then it had the other foot in what appealed to men. It called back to the romantic side and gave it a foothold there as well.

――With facets like Amuro’s adventure tale and Char’s Hamlet-esque story, First Gundam was certainly brimming with romance.

Fukui: Yeah, it was brimming with allure in every nook and cranny. That was probably intentionally stripped away after Zeta, but that was the flow.

――Stripping away Gundam’s allegorical nature also revealed the darker aspects in the works.

Fukui: That’s right. Zeta was probably a retort to having gone through the Gundam boom, even more than being a sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam. And that ended up having its merits, too. Essentially, conversely, it avoided becoming purely fictional. Normally, creating a story begins with “There’s this kind of protagonist, and we’ll depict this kind of world.” But Zeta bypasses that process and bluntly declares, “This is reality!” But consequently, that allowed Gundam’s history to unfold without feeling contrived, which is a major factor in why Gundam is still alive and well even now.

0083 Was a Story of New Hires, and It Hit Close to Home for the Gunpla Generation Who Entered the Workforce on the Eve of the Bubble Collapse

――Among the so-called spinoff works centered on the One Year War, which ones do you find interesting or meaningful even looking back now?

Fukui: Personally, I’d recommend 0083. There’s no doubt it’s the pinnacle of Gundam as a military work. And the thing about 0083 is that it meshed incredibly well with the times… I know because I’m from that exact generation. The protagonist isn’t a kid who happens to climb into a Gundam like before, but a newly commissioned officer. He’s an adult and a professional soldier from the get-go. In other words, he’s a new hire (laughs).

――(Laughs)

Fukui: 0083 came out in 1991, which was the very year the generation directly hit by Gunpla entered the workforce. Basically, the reality of Gundam fans as new hires synced up perfectly (laughs). I mean, 0083 is a tale about a rookie employee getting thrown into an unexpected situation and having to compete against a super-elite veteran from a rival company, right? (laughs) And the fact that it didn’t turn into a success story made it incredibly realistic. Another factor is that 1991 was right when the bubble burst. They entered society as new hires and joined companies when things were good, but then it all went to hell right after. They faced defeat right off the bat. In that sense, that generation’s experiences paralleled the story of 0083. That’s one of the reasons it didn’t end up as mere playing soldiers. There was something relatable about it, you know?

――Plus, 0083 essentially made Newtype-esque things a forbidden move.

Fukui: Yeah, it’s a story of ordinary guys without special abilities. It’s actually a narrative that tied in closely with the times, which is why looking back on it now… this might be just me, but it’s so embarrassing I can’t bear to watch it (laughs).

――(Laughs)

Fukui: It hits way too close to home, like, “I made mistakes like this back then, too…” Zeta is actually the same way. Kamille was 17, and I was also exactly 17 when I watched it. I had no trouble identifying with it back then, but watching it now is unbearably embarrassing.

I Think Char Knew From the Start That the World Would Only Become His Enemy

――Circling back to Zeta, another significant difference between First Gundam and Zeta is that it showcased the negative aspects of Gundams and Newtypes. Gundams are a superpower that can save humanity, but also a weapon. Newtypes are the hope of humanity but also a threat, and they began to be shunned. In that sense, as highlighted in Light of Life with scene excerpts, I feel like Zeta might be the starting point for Newtype perspectives.

Fukui: Oh, that was hammered home relentlessly. I totally agree. Basically, the people on Earth are the winners and the wealthy, while the folks in space are the losers, the abandoned ones. No one says it out loud, but that structure is undeniably there. And the Zeons are pushed to the farthest reaches, the far side of the moon, where they can’t even see Earth. When people in those circumstances come back saying, “To hell with this,” it feels justified, doesn’t it? When you have that dynamic, if the idea that humans in space can become more evolved is put forth, it would shake the Earth Federation government to its core. So they would thoroughly stamp that out in school education, and as we’re currently depicting in Moon Gundam, from the viewpoint of average soldiers in this era, Newtypes were nothing short of terrifying. After all, you can’t hit them no matter how much you fire, and they shoot at you from out of nowhere… Even if you made it out alive, I bet there were loads of people whose comrades and subordinates were slain by Newtypes in this time period. For them, Newtypes might be dependable aces if they’re on your side, but if they turn against you, they’re trouble. So I’m certain there was a general, widespread sentiment of “Those freaks are…”

――I wonder if Char felt betrayed and retaliated because he witnessed the Newtypes, the hope they had begun to uncover in the One Year War, being crushed from the Federation side that was doing the crushing.

Fukui: Hmm, I think he (Char) probably knew from the start that the world would only become his enemy. As someone carrying on the Zeon bloodline, even if in a roundabout way, he returned to Earth with the grand ambition of figuring out how to confront and change that world, striving to accomplish something once more. But his despair towards his own inability to achieve anything was so immense that he ended up the way he did. Rather than despair towards the world, I believe it was despair towards himself.