Mobile Suit Gundam Walpurgis, then.
I figured I’d do a post about it because a) I’ve been looking to talk about more Gundam Manga and b) because some of the G-quuuuuuux stuff wants a bit longer in the oven, so to speak. I presently only have access to the first four volumes and I’m in no particular hurry to remedy that, so this’ll likely be more of a first impressions than anything.
*The following contains spoilers for the first four volumes of Mobile Suit Gundam Walpurgis*
The manga takes place in Universal Century 0089, approximately six months after the events of Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. Our protagonist, Masahiro Oaks, is a high school student on the Olympus Colony in Side 2. Masahiro is an utter savant, excelling at whatever he sets himself to, however this creates a strained relationship with his engineer father, Tonio Oaks, who repeatedly urges Masahiro to hide his true potential and “live as a normal person”. Masahiro is caught up in the fighting between a AEUG retrieval fleet and a Neo Zeon group (led by Haman Karn, who died in battle six months prior) when he is saved by a mobile suit resembling The O, the pilot of which refers to him as “Master Paptimus”. This mobile suit is shortly thereafter revealed as the Over.on, a Gundam.
From there, Masahiro is coerced into joining the AEUG by Raymond Mekynes, an Anaheim Electronics representative who seems to know exactly who or what Masahiro is (and repeatedly refers to him as a “young king”) and may or may not have killed his father. Meanwhile, AEUG Commander and deuteragonist Roxanne Rocks tries to make sense of an apparent conspiracy within the AEUG and Earth Federation that Masahiro appears to be in the centre of, along with several mysterious mobile suits referred to as “Grimories”.
Essentially the plot is one part Newtype awakening to one part conspiracy thriller, as Masahiro grows into his Newtype powers and Roxanne unravels just what is going on in the millitary. Meanwhile Raymond Mekynes sits around obliquely referring to prophecies and destiny. Other Dramatis Personae include:
Fiorina Feeley (the blue haired pilot on volume 1, image above) - original pilot of the Over.on and Newtype with sorta “barrier maiden/chooser of the king” vibes.
Thane Amadio - AEUG Mobile Suit Ace and pilot of the ZII V type. He’s nice mix of mentor to Masahiro and “man-on-the-street”, commenting on the events of the plot and setting up the conspiracy.
Frederica Herme - Another AEUG Commander with a grudge against Roxanne.
Alize Mateba - Newtype pilot working for Raymond Mekynes, pilot of the Hedgehog/Fafnir (it’s got two names). Very caustic.
Commodore Cristoph - AEUG/Earth Federation Bigwig and Roxanne’s Father. Heavily implied to be one of the conspiracy ringleaders.
Haman Karn and Ernardo Bat - Leader of Neo Zeon and her Adjutant, respectively. It’s established pretty early on that this isn’t Haman Karn from ZZ, but rather someone using her image. Haman pilots the Demeter.
Paptimus Scirocco - only appears via flash-back.
The plot itself is interesting, since it seems to be taking the “standard” Gundam Manga MO of “Zeon remnant group has some sort of conspiracy going on, Federation force with Gundam is assigned to stop that” and applying it to Titans remnants as opposed to the usual suspects. It does this by establishing that Scirocco had his hand in several other operations beyond what was shown in Zeta Gundam (similar to how Char is presented in Unicorn). However, it does fall short in several areas and I think this is the fault of some of the Character writing and general tone of the series. Roxanne isn’t much of a problem - I know she gets more focus in later volumes, and honestly the only criticism I have is a weak one - her characterisation that isn’t related to the conspiracy is a little colourless. She’s a dutiful and moral, though inexperienced AEUG Commander that seems to consistently be dealt bad hands. There’s just not really any bite there, so to speak.
Masahiro however - is a bit more interesting to talk about. His characterisation when he’s being coerced by Raymond is excellent - he reads very well as confused and scared and a lot of it is to do with the fact that his memories may be false - he’s very close to having a genuine crisis of identity and this is conveyed wonderfully. His relationship and frustration with his father is also well-written. However, it’s when Masahiro steps into a mobile suit that things become a little tricky. This is partially due to the Over.on itself being - to be frank - utterly busted, but Masahiro is able to pilot it quite effortlessly. Even assuming it has some sort of Newtype tech to ease the burden on the pilot, Masahiro is never really shown to struggle with piloting it. And this reflects on the rest of his characterisation - he’s excellently written when acting like a “real person”, but he seems to have massive amounts of unearned confidence in situations that just don’t warrant it, such as mobile suit piloting. It almost seems like the plot has an issue with Masahiro acting “uncool” and this leads into one of my main criticisms of Gundam Walpurgis:
It kind of just feels like an isekai.
No, really. “I thought I was just an ordinary human, but I’m secretly a reincarnation of an ancient king!?” Masahiro is a very smart, dark-haired high schooler who plays videogames and feels constrained by those around him, until one day a cute girl delivers him his very own uber-powerful mobile suit and reveals that he was secretly this amazing pilot all along. He’s got a hidden darkness within he struggles with, he goes on vision quests to unlock his powers, there’s a vast conspiracy he’s at the centre of…… so on and so forth. It all feels like that classic isekai setup, it’s just Gundam-flavoured this time around. I’m not saying this is an inherently bad thing, but if Masahiro is supposed to read as an audience-insert then I think it hurts his characterisation because it feels like he isn’t allowed to act in a way that might break that. Masahiro wants to be either an interesting character or a power-fantasy. I’m not sure he can be written as both. Though there are certainly worse Gundam protagonists than he.
I do find the Neo Zeon forces in this genuinely compelling - perhaps it’s my own love/tolerance for Zeon Remnants here, but I’m genuinely interested in what their angle in this could be - the conspiracy seems largely concerned with Scirocco and Titans remnants, so what Neo Zeon’s - much less Neo Zeon led by “Haman Karn” - angle would be is wonderfully interesting.
Though it is possible my interest in Neo Zeon is because I just don’t find the central conflict of people fighting over Masahiro that interesting. Gundam Walpurgis does struggle to make the mystery behind Masahiro in any way interesting simply because it’s pretty obvious what the mystery is - several characters refer to Masahiro as Scirocco in all but name, he gets regular flashbacks and at several points is essentially possessed by Scirocco. The fact that the manga takes place so close to Gundam ZZ makes it abundantly clear that Masahiro is a Newtype clone (because what else could he be?), so it makes it very difficult for the reveals to have any sort of gravitas. It also doesn’t help that the conspiracy in general can be rather….. thickly-spread. Raymond and Cristoph reference several aspects of it but because we don’t have any context they just read like a word salad (“It is I who shall laugh on Walpurgis Night!”). There’s a veritable cavalcade of reveals and twists regarding the conspiracy and main plot at one point, then shortly after it’s revealed that one character is another’s long-lost brother. It was rather hilarious in its delivery, because it felt like “by the way, that guy’s your brother”. Just throw another reveal on top, why not? However, the aspects of the conspiracy that aren’t Masahiro himself (such as Walpurgis Night and the Grimiores) are interestingly presented.
Alright, what about those mechanics then?
The AGX-11 Over.on continues the mythic/literature theming of certain units from Zeta Gundam by being named after Oberon, King of the Faeries, from a Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s essentially, a Gundam as designed by Scirocco - Scirocco passed the plans along to a trusted confidant in the last days of zeta gundam, whereupon it was manufactured and upgraded with the latest technologies as they became available. It somehow ended up in Fiorina’s hands, who then passes it on to Masahiro. It’s repeatedly referred to as “the white grimoire” in the story.
Design-wise….. ugh. If you were going to make a gundam, made by Scirocco of all people, you could’ve done a lot better than this. It’s just so boring and colourless - it looks like it’s taking more influence from the GP01 than anything. It’s *just* a side story gundam - there’s nothing to distinguish it from of the pack and I really detest its usage in series. Every single fight this thing’s in goes the exact same way - Masahiro Charges in, the enemy gets him in the ropes, the Over.on reveals some new weapon or super mode, Masahiro wins. It’s Every. Single. Fight. And it just kills all tension - Masahiro doesn’t win because he grows as a person or becomes a better pilot, Masahiro wins because the Over.on is busted beyond all belief. Also its backpack is just the one from the Hyaku Shiki Kai - why is for all intents and purposes, a titans gundam rocking parts from the AEUG’s lines? (Yeah, yeah, Anaheim but it still feels at odds.)
I do like how it’s clad in armour that makes it look like The O in its first appearance - honestly if that just was the suit, no gundam hidden inside, I think it would work a lot better. Because a prototype or second unit of The O would be a lot better symbol of Scirocco’s legacy than a Gundam.
Next up, the MSZ-008V ZII V Type. It’s a variant ZII with a shield, visor and a long rifle with integrated beam spear. This is around the time everyone and their dog was trying to mass-produce the Zeta Gundam, so I think a ZII variant works really well. Honestly giving it a beam spear is also excellent since it gives it a lot of good lunging shots and adds credibility to just how difficult this thing would be to fight against. It’s a very nice, very solid little design. It’s a pity it’s portrayed as out of its depth in most fights it’s in, because it really does deserve better.
Oh my, a mash-up of the ZZ and Gaplant, two of my very favourite designs from Zeta and Double-Zeta? Surely I will be completely unbiased here.
Alright so the MSZ-009H Fafnir/FAVNR/Hedgehog is, as previously stated a mash-up of the ZZ Gundam and Gaplant. In-universe it claims direct lineage with the ZZ and has some chobham armour that conceals its identity as a ZZ unit by making it look more Gaplant-like. It’s an absolute brute, and this works well with its position in the story. The Wing Binders give it a much larger presence and its reveal as a ZZ really does feel like the awakening of a sleeping dragon. I also like how it’s just utterly full of firepower, as a ZZ unit should be. I also like how the head and chest have been redesigned to be more rounded - I think it’s a nice subtle change that helps make the Fafnir feel like an iteration on the ZZ rather than a straight port. The wing binders also remind me of a snow-plough, which feels appropriate for a suit than can easily shoulder-aside any opposition.
However it’s kind of just….. weird in context. The ZZ Gundam (and the Zeta for that matter) are emblematic of the AEUG, the organisation which defeated both the Titans and Axis. Having both a ZII and ZZ in a story with both Titans and Axis remnants feels like it should be symbolic in some way, but it just isn’t brought up. I suppose it has the vibe of the dragon from myth? But that feels kinda incongruous with the rest of Walpurgis’ deal.
Honestly my only point against the Fafnir is that I absolutely cannot stand its pilot - Alize Mateba - she’s a Newtype brat who’s introduced sexually assaulting the protagonist and who get locked down immediately in her first fight with the Over.on. So she loses pretty much any tension the character had in the volume in which she’s introduced, and from therein only exists to be Raymond’s brute that we already know isn’t a significant threat to the Over.on.
The MS-11R Zaku Machinery is the main grunt suit for Axis Zeon in the manga, and is stated to be an updated Act Zaku. And yeah, it’s a Zaku: Machine Gun, Bazooka, Sturm Faust, Heat Hawk……
Wait. What.
This is 0089, ten years after the one year war and six months after the Neo Zeon War. Why the hell are these guys still using physical ammunition and heat weaponry!? You could probably salvage some Zaku III’s and get better results!! No wonder these guys are getting shot down like flies. Honestly I really like the design and everything, but reading through the armaments just makes these things seem like a cruel joke on the pilots.
And another thing; these things fight in open space- they don’t even have the excuse that they were designed for fighting in colonies.
Finally, the AMX-114 Demeter. I…. Don’t actually know a lot about Haman in this one, but I think that the Demeter’s probably the best design in the series (putting aside my bias toward the Fafnir). What better unit to represent the ghost of Haman than a skeletal Qubeley, shorn of its giant wings and with a far more aggressive funnel placement? The Demeter is appealingly spectral and while Demeter is the name of a harvest goddess (drawing links to the Qubeley’s namesake Cybele, also a harvest goddess), to be demented is to be driven mad, which seems to be Neo Zeon’s objective in opposing the Federation here.
The three wing binders imply great agility and they also function both as funnel racks and beam gun/saber mounts - it’s an appealingly sleek weapons complement which hearkens to that of the original Qubeley. There’s obvious design influence taken from the Kyshatriya yes, but the kyshatriya’s gorgeous so why complain? I do also like that this setup gives it five beam sabers/beam guns at any given moment - that’s a lot of firepower to contend with, and that’s still not including the funnels. It also has an appealingly thrown-together vibe - if it was later revealed this was a snazzed-up Qubeley prototype I would not be surprised in the least, which again feels appropriate for Neo Zeon remnants commanded by the Ghost of Haman.
I would also like to note that the Demeter is perhaps the only suit in the series to retain a sense of threat throughout - it handily outmanoeuvres most foes and rarely has a direct confrontation with the Over.on. Unfortunately this feels more like a happy accident than international - the Over.on chews through Neo Zeon quite happily, the Demeter just has the grace to rarely be around when that’s happening.
So yeah, that’s Mobile Suit Gundam Walpurgis: It lives and dies on the conspiracy angle, because the character writing isn’t really that interesting, and the Over.on itself starts to feel like the proverbial millstone around the series’ neck far too quickly.
