When I was introduced to manga and anime in my pre-teen
years, I quickly latched on to a few favourite series. I’m still a fan of those
series to this day but that doesn’t mean I necessarily kept up with them.
That’s definitely the case for the Mobile
Suit Gundam franchise. I’ve only ever seen three series but I feel it’s
time to get back into the show and see if there’s anything left in the
franchise for me to enjoy. With something old and expansive as Gundam I’m sure there is.
In the next few days I’ll be rewatching one of my
favourite series, Mobile Suite Gundam:
The 08th MS Team and writing about it here. It’s one of the shorter series
(only 12 episodes and a condensed movie) and it seems like a good place to
start. It’s also set pretty early on in the in-universe chronology so that’s
also a nice fit. Before I start the first episode, I’d like to provide a quick
introduction to the series, particularly the era in which The 08th MS Team takes place.
At the end of the 21st Century, overpopulation
begins to affect the quality of life on Earth. Natural resources are being
overtaxed, a significant percentage of the population is affected by disease,
and food and living spaces are becoming increasingly scares. The world is in
crisis. The Earth Federation announces their plan to begin colonization space
in order to relieve the man-made stress on the planet in the hopes that it will
be able to heal. The plan is to build and man-made colonies that will be able
to house most of Earth’s existing population (roughly 11 billion). The colonies
are located in the five Lagrangian Points around the Earth and Moon. These
areas of space provide stable locations for man-made stations because the
objects are held in place by opposing gravitational fields. The construction of
the space colonies takes place in the first fifty years of the Universal
Century era and by UC 0050, approximately 9 billion people live in the
colonies.
While most of the construction of space colonies took
place during the Universe Century, it began at the end of the 21st
Century. Laplace, one of the first colonies, was the home of the first prime
minister of the Earth Federation, Ricardo Marcenas. While delivering a speech
in which he was to present the new charter of the Universe Century, Laplace was
attacked and destroyed by a terrorist group. It was a huge crisis for obvious
reasons but most important of all, it is often said that the destruction of
Laplace help to solidify the Earth Federation as the primary governing body of
Earth and the space colonies for the decades to follow. Despite the problems
that the Earth Federation help to resolve, there were still political factions
that fought the Federation’s authority, guidance and rule.
That’s the origin of the Gundam series. A lot of the series take place during the Universal
Century. The first series, Mobile Suit
Gundam took place during the One Year War from January 0079 to January
0080. The war began after an attack on the Federation colonies from the
Independent Republic of Zeon (also known as the Principality of Zeon) colonies.
These attacks, now known as the One Week War, resulted in incredibly high
civilian and military casualties. In just a week’s time, well over 1 billion of
the Federation’s population had been killed.
Soon after the Federation and the Principality of Zeon
met in the Antarctic to discuss the possibility of peace. The results of the
discussion, which many thought would end with the Federation’s surrender,
actually let to agreements that would limit the scope of devastation of the
conflict. Weapons of mass destructions, including chemical warfare and nuclear
weaponry, became forbidden. They also agreed upon the fair and humane treatment
of prisoners of war and the acknowledgement of the neutrality of the Side 6
colonies (a Side is an administrative cluster of several colonies) and the
Jupiter Energy Fleet (a fleet of ships that travel to and from Jupiter to
collect hydrogen, helium3 and methane to sustain the Earth Sphere’s
energy requirements). The result from these negotiations was that military
action was mostly limited to the use of Mobile Suits which gave Zeon the
advantage since their military strategy was already centered on the use of
Mobile Suits. Shorter after the Antarctic Treaty was signed, the Zeon army
invaded Earth with the goal of using the Earth’s resources to strengthen their
military power and attempt to supplant their authority with force.
Mobile Suit Gundam:
The 08th MS Team takes place roughly one month after the beginning of the
One Year War. Come back tomorrow for the rewatch of the first episode.
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