I was stoked for
the Gundam: The Origin OVA when it was first announced.
Obviously seeking to take advantage of the excellent Gundam
Unicorn's success, I looked forward to revisiting the franchise's
roots with the best effort modern animation has to offer. What I got
was a personal odyssey that began with crushing disappointment, grew
into anger, and eventually blossomed into a detached acceptance.
With the OVA three-quarters finished, I might as well reflect on
those mixed feelings.
To be perfectly
fair, this OVA truly fails in only one area: the characters. But in
that area it fails hard. Remember Casval Deikun, aka Char Aznable
from the original series?
He's the central
character here, and boy is he a bore. Revenge is on his mind, which
wouldn't be such a bad thing if there were other aspects to Casval's
personality, but there aren't. Even as a young child, when he should
be at his most active and expressive, I'm reminded of nothing so much
as the kid version of Rorschach from that Watchmen movie. He
says and does little for 80% of his screentime besides quietly watch
and wait as those around him fail to pick up the obvious clues that
this little bastard is a powder keg. Even when lashing out at his
oppressors, it can still feel a little hollow because, frankly, his
murdered father seems more like a raving lunatic than loving parent
whose death would inspire vengeance.
Not that Gundam:
The Origin doesn't try hard to make us hate the Zabi family
Casval hates. We're sure to root for our blond-haired little hero
after Kycilia Zabi beats his nine-year-old ass immediately after his
father's murder, right? Who cares if this departs from her character
in the original series, who was ruthless enough but would have seen
such an action as a stain on her honor and/or a waste of time! When
a childhood friend is killed in a failed attempt on Casval's life, it
cuts right from the explosion to her sneering face, because she's the
big bad guy, everyone.
Only Casval sets
it up so his friend will die instead of himself. Our hero, everyone.
Casval is a wildly
different character than the original series' Char Aznable, who at
least made you wonder if and when he'd stab someone in the back.
Anyone who could potentially stand in Casval's way in the future
(read: his “friends”) will die in Gundam: The Origin, no
exceptions. Except a stranded and defenseless Garma Zabi, one of the
few people he's actually sworn to kill, because he's alive in the
original series. Explain that one away.
But as I dwelt
once more on how bad a prequel The Origin was due to
inconsistent characterization, I finally recalled that this is normal
for Gundam. Remember the jarring tonal shift from Zeta to
Double Zeta Gundam, where characters that had gone through
hell were suddenly involved in cartoony hijinks? Remember how often
Char goes from hero to villain throughout the course of Gundam's
timeline, or even over the course of one show? How something as
hopeful as Gundam Unicorn and as bleak as Gundam
Thunderbolt can technically exist in the same universe? The
surest way to enjoy any entry in this franchise has always been to
focus on the story being told now, not what's come before.
And taken alone,
Gundam: The Origin works quite well as a straightforward
revenge story. Although I initially balked at how complex characters
were simplified into clear heroes and villains, it works here because
nobody really matters but the main character. Some bad guy done him
wrong, so of course he'll have to do shitty things and use people
like pawns to get his revenge; that's the whole appeal of revenge
stories! Even if I like the versions of characters I'm used to a lot
more than these, I can at least respect them if I stop trying to
figure out how some douchebag eventually turns into a badass, or how
someone's actions now do or do not line up with their actions down
the road.
So, look forward
to the upcoming final episode. Look forward to the
awkward-yet-not-terrible CGI and shoehorned-in giant robots. Look
forward to the gratuitous cameos and shout-outs. Look forward to the
inevitable betrayals as one boring asshole tramples countless more
boring yet likable characters in his overly-complicated plot for
revenge. This time, I'll be right there with you.
