Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: Blue Destiny

Review by Chris

Original Review: October 8, 2000
New Review: March 18, 2006

In UC 0079, the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon begins to take a turn when the Federation introduces its own mobile suits. In space, the soul of Marion Welch cries out for someone to destroy a blue mobile suit. On Earth, Yu Kajima, Philip Hughes and Summona Fulis prepare to launch in their GMs from a Medea transport plane. After being briefed by operator Maureen Kitamura, the three drop from the Medea and open fire at Zeon gun turrets and Zaku II mobile suits. A Zaku suddenly attacks Yu, but Philip rushes in and destroys it. Yu warns Philip about being so reckless, but he's interrupted when Summona calls for help. Knocked to the ground, Summona is about to be destroyed by a Zaku when Yu saves him at the last second. Together, the three begin clearing the base of Zakus as they encounter them. Nearby, a test pilot tests out the Blue Destiny Unit 1 under the supervision of Alph Kamra. The test pilot hears Marion's voice and tells Kamra that he thinks the cockpit doesn't like him. He asks if he needs to join the battle, but Kamra tells him their orders are simply to wait. Yu's team continues to destroy Zakus, and Philip tells Summona he wants to fight against a skilled opponent like the Red Comet. A ground soldier fires a bazooka at Summona, and Summona returns fire. Yu orders Summona to stop and says their orders aren't to commit genocide. A Zaku suddenly rushes into Summona GM, causing him to fall back and crush the soldier. At the test site, the test pilot's helmet is overloaded with strange images, and the Blue Destiny begins moving on its own and dragging along Kamra's truck. The EXAM system activates, and Kamra cuts the cable connecting the truck to the Blue Destiny. An assistant asks Kamra if he should shut down the Blue Destiny, but Kamra tells him he's been waiting for it to go out of control. Yu's team completes its mission, and Yu tells Summona not to worry about the crushed soldier. A group of GMs close by send out a distress signal as the Blue Destiny attacks them. The Blue Destiny destroys both GMs and then rushes toward Yu's team. It smashes the head of Summona's GM and rips the left arm off Philip's unit. Yu fires at the chest to hit the cockpit, but the Blue Destiny protects its head from his fire. The research assistant asks Kamra if the Blue Destiny, but Kamra is sure it won't lose. With the test pilot dead, Kamra thinks to himself that he'll need to find another pilot. The Blue Destiny damages part of Yu's head, and Yu wonders if the pilot is even human. Philip grabs the Blue Destiny by the leg, and Yu uses a Zaku's heat hawk to slice into the Blue Destiny's cockpit. Yu sees strange images of Marion, and he snaps out of it when Philip and Summona open his cockpit. They tell him that the Blue Destiny escaped after Yu attacked it. Elsewhere, Zeon pilot Nimbus Schterzen is brought photos that show Zeon scientist Chlust Morses developing the Blue Destiny for the Federation. He returns to his Gallop and tells his men they'll be hunting down the traitor Morses.

Kamra examines the damage to the Blue Destiny and can't believe it took such a beating. He wonders if he made a mistake in his calculations, and a technician tells him the damage to the cockpit was from a heat hawk. Kamra laughs maniacally and says he wants to find the person who damaged the Blue Destiny because they'd be the perfect pilot for it. Marion calls out to Yu and tells him she will judge him and free his heart. Yu asks her who she is because she's the one asking for help. He wakes up on the Medea, and Maureen asks him if he's ok. Kamra returns to a Federation base with the Blue Destiny and notices Yu's team unloading their units from the Medea. He asks as soldier if they're assigned to the base, and the soldier tells him they're an experimental unit. Yu reports the Blue Destiny in a video conference to Colonel Park, and he asks for permission to investigate. Park is hesitant, but Yu promises to provide him data by the end of the day. Yu then orders Maureen to find as much data as she can because they only have three hours. On a nearby hilltop, a Zeon soldier named Abraham and his two wingmen perform surveillance on the Federation base. Nimbus arrives in a jeep and asks for a status report, and Abraham tells him the base is receiving new GMs. He asks if they should deploy and attack, but Nimbus decides to leave it to the sea forces. Yu signs off on the receipt of three new GM Cold Climate Types and tells Philip and Summona that he wants to test them immediately. Two other pilots complain about not having new suits and say they wish they were guinea pigs. Yu holds back Philip and tells the pilots his team had a 55% turnover rate yesterday. Yu returns to the computer room and is informed by Maureen that their files have been hacked. Someone on the outside deleted all data relating to their observation of the Blue Destiny. Yu realizes his team was used as guinea pigs twice over, but he's interrupted when a battle alert is sounded. Several Hygoggs emerge from the ocean and attack the GM forces. Yu wants to sortie, but Philip says their new units haven't been properly tested. Yu insists on deploying and receives a call stating that if the Hygoggs destroy the fuel tank, the entire base will blow up. As the team moves out, Philip asks Yu if he has a death wish to fight the Blue Destiny again. The team begins a frontal attack on the Hygoggs, and Abraham 's men are impressed by Yu's team. With the Hygoggs destroyed, only one Gogg remains. Yu closes in to destroy it, but Philip fires a missile at it. Yu then slices into the Gogg with his beam saber and criticizes Philip for firing the missile at close range. Nearby, Abraham and his men prep their Doms for attack.

Abraham and his men begin their assault and hope they can lure out Yu's new GMs. Yu's team prepares to launch and is briefed by Maureen. Philip doesn't think they need to sortie because only three units are attacking, but Yu realizes they're Doms. Rayburn stops moving for a moment, and his right arm is blown off by Philip's 180mm cannon. The Doms spread out to attack, and Abraham knocks Philip down. Yu jumps and attacks Abraham from behind, but a Dom on his right blasts him and knocks him into a building. Philip warns Yu that Abraham is an ace, and Yu orders him and Summona to attack the other Doms while he takes on Abraham. In the air, Amy Bauer-Meister escorts a Medea with her fighter plane. She hears that the base is under attack and decides to provide back up. On the ground, Philip and Summona continue to engage the Doms, but they're running out of ammo. Yu realizes how skilled a pilot Abraham is and pulls out his beam saber to counter Abraham's heat saber. Abraham rushes in to attack Yu, and the other Doms encircle Philip and Summona. Philip realizes that the Doms are also low on ammo, but their GMs are running low on fuel. They attack one of the Doms, but it tosses its weapon at them, and the explosion destroys Summona's camera. The Doms prepare to attack with their heat sabers, but Rayburn's unit is suddenly destroyed from behind by Amy's fighter. Philip uses his beam saber to destroy the remaining Dom. Philip asks Maureen if Yu is ok, but she says she can't get a response. Amy overhears and wonders what Yu is doing there, so she flies over to help him. Abraham slices off one of Yu's arms, but Yu slices into the cockpit and destroys the Dom. At the Zeon base, Nimbus regrets Abraham's death, but he prepares to launch his Efreet Custom. Nimbus recalls being shown the Efreet Custom by Morses, who told him it would make him powerful enough to defeat Char Aznable. Nimbus asks about Marion, and Morses explains that she will be the EXAM navigator and control the Efreet Custom's limbs. Nimbus wondered how a girl like Marion could support him in battle, and she listed several emotions such as paranoia and egomania, saying that Nimbus was a sad man. Nimbus launches in the EXAM-equipped Efreet Custom and says he doesn't want Marion to feel sorry for him.

A technician working on the Blue Destiny is frightened when he believes the suit's eyes activated by themselves. Yu examines the area where the battle was fought and finds a briefcase filled with photos of Abraham and his family. At the base's hangar, the ground crew tell Amy she did a good job destroying the Doms, but she says she was only providing back up. Maureen asks who Amy is, and Philip tells her that Yu knows Amy. Amy asks Yu if he's used to piloting a mobile suit and tells him she wrote him many letters. Yu tells her she's a liar and a bad actress, but he thanks her for saving Philip and Summona. Amy tells Yu that she's been lucky up to now, but she thinks she's reached her limit. She says she understands why Yu switched over to piloting mobile suits, and he tells her she should do the same. Amy says she loves flying because when she reaches a high speed, she feels as if Frank is up there with her. Kamra tells Park that he wants to have Yu transferred under him, but Park is hesitant because losing Yu will hurt the strength of his forces. He asks what he gets in return, and Kamra promises to give his soldiers the EXAM system once it's completed. The next morning, Amy says goodbye to Yu and takes off in her fighter. Kamra takes off in the Medea and says he has high hopes for Yu piloting the Blue Destiny. Philip asks Yu if he's involved with Amy, but Yu says they're just friends. Maureen breaks in with news that Amy's fighter has been shot down. Yu's team launches and heads for the coordinates where Amy's fighter was shot down. Yu halts their advance when he hears six Zakus in the area. The Zakus surround the crash site, and Amy enters the Medea and finds Kamra emerging from the Blue Destiny's cockpit. She notes that the suit is blue, just like the enemy suit that shot her down. Kamra wonders if it's the Zeon EXAM unit, and when Amy asks for more info, he tells her he can't say anything. The Zakus spot the Blue Destiny and prepare to seize it. Nimbus hides behind a nearby dock and decides that he can't let the Zaku pilots know about the Blue Destiny or Efreet Custom. Yu destroys a Zaku from a distance with his 180mm cannon, and they move in to attack at close range. Yu slices a Zaku Cannon apart, and Kamra tells Amy he's impressed by Yu's abilities. He asks for her help activating the Blue Destiny, but Amy asks what the point is when Yu's team is destroying the Zakus. Kamra says the Blue Destiny is the only way for them to survive because the Zakus aren't the real problem. Two Zakus and a Zaku Cannon escape and spot the Efreet Custom. Nimbus calls them cowards for running away and destroys them. Yu is shocked that Nimbus would kill his own men and notices that the Efreet Custom is blue.

Nimbus rushes in, slices off both of Philip's legs and knocks Summona aside. Amy asks Kamra if the Blue Destiny is ready to launch, but Kamra thinks it's refusing to activate. Amy runs off and tells Kamra she has to help Yu. Nimbus attacks Yu and notes that Yu is a skilled pilot. Yu jumps back and avoids a slash from Nimbus' heat saber. He fires while jumping, but Nimbus attacks him from the side and slices off his left arm. Yu fires his vulcans, but Nimbus presses the attack and knocks Yu to the ground. Nimbus moves in to kill Yu, but Amy attacks with her damaged fighter and rams Nimbus. Yu shouts out Amy's name, and flashes of memories about her activate the Blue Destiny. Nimbus again tries to kill Yu, but the Blue Destiny fires its vulcans from inside the Medea and breaks out. The Blue Destiny attacks with its machinegun, forcing Nimbus to fall back. He realizes the Blue Destiny is the Federation's EXAM machine, but he's ordered back to base just as he's about to engage it. Kamra realizes that the Blue Destiny was being remote controlled, and he wonders what Morses is up to. Yu searches for Amy, but Philip doesn't believe she could've survived the explosion. Maureen hates herself because she feels happy inside, but she finds Amy alive and injured. Amy is taken away in a medical chopper, and Kamra introduces himself to Yu. Later, Yu performs a test run inside the Blue Destiny's cockpit, and Marion says she's been waiting for him.

As the war continues, the Federation attacks Zeon's California base to drive their forces off Earth. Yu is participating in the battle with the Blue Destiny, and he wonders why he keeps seeing images of Marion. Kamra asks Yu what he thinks of the Blue Destiny, and Yu says he thinks it's a perfect killing machine that would kill its own pilot. Kamra tells Yu he can stop being the Blue Destiny's pilot, but Yu says he wants to push it to its limit. At the Federation's staging ground, Maureen reports to Philip and Summona that Yu destroyed a Zeon missile launcher. Philip tells Maureen he's worried about Yu because there's something he doesn't trust about the Blue Destiny. Their units join the battle, and Yu destroys a Zaku that Philip was about to attack. Philip calls Yu, but Yu tells him and Summona to stay back because he might attack them. Philip asks Yu what he's talking about, and Yu says the Blue Destiny is classifying them as enemies. Yu hears Marion screaming that the enemy troops must be punished, but he says Philip and Summona aren't enemies. Nimbus appears in his Efreet Custom at the top of the base's mass driver and asks Yu if he's able to control the power of EXAM. Nimbus jumps down to attack and says that Yu doesn't deserve to have the power of EXAM. Yu jumps back to avoid Nimbus' heat sabers and fires his machinegun. Nimbus gets to his feet quickly and fires leg missiles, but Yu destroys them. Nimbus attacks again with his heat sabers, but Yu blocks with his beam saber. Yu suddenly sees Marion's memories, starting with Morses telling her that he needed her help to end the war. Marion believed in what he was doing, until she realized that he feared and hated Newtypes. Morses feared that Newtypes would dominate Oldtypes, so he wanted to exploit their power by locking Marion's soul inside the EXAM system. Marion calls out to Yu and asks him to destroy the EXAM systems, but he says her soul won't survive. He comes to his senses and barely dodges a killing blow from Nimbus. Nimbus tells Yu that he's too stupid to appreciate EXAM and rushes in to attack. Marion calls out for Yu to set her free, and he decides to fulfill her wish. Yu slices into the Efreet Custom with his beam saber just as Nimbus fires a missile at the Blue Destiny. The damaged Efreet Custom is knocked away in the explosion, and Yu's damaged Blue Destiny falls into the water. Marion appears before Yu and thanks him for destroying two EXAM units. Yu tells Marion not to give up because he wants to find a way to save her. Yu realizes that he has a reason to fight now because he has lots of work to do.

The Blue Destiny is one of many Gundam side story games to receive a manga adaptation. In this case, Mizuho Takayama's manga is based on a three-part Sega Saturn game that was released from 1996-97. Unfortunately, the manga adaptation only covers the events of the first two games, which is why the story feels incomplete. In the third game, Nimbus goes on to steal Blue Destiny Unit 2, and Yu follows him into space with Unit 3 for their final confrontation. Although it would be nice to see that game adapted, it's been far too long for that to happen. The story is interesting as it is, but I would've liked for it to go into more detail about Yu's teammates, as well as his friendship with Amy. Her character is introduced, and it's not too long before she's already out of the story. The manga is a good read for fans of One Year War side stories, but unfortunately TOKYOPOP's release of it is now out of print.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

<<back to Gundam