Review by Chris

June 19, 2002

In UC 0079, the space colonies calling themselves the Principality of Zeon declare their independence from the Earth Federation. After dropping a space colony on Earth that destroys New York City, total war breaks out. After the Zeon invade Earth and conquer most of the surface, eight months of stalemate follow. Six Zaku mobile suits approach a colony under construction at the newly established Side 7. As the Zakus enter an area that is under construction, the Federation warship White Base enters dock at the other end of the colony. Young Lt. Bright Noa informs engineer Tem Ray that his presence is needed on the bridge. Bright sees a picture of Tem's son Amuro, and Tem says he is shocked that boys are fighting as guerillas. He hopes that if his Gundam can be mass produced that the war will end quickly. On the bridge, Tem meets with Captain Paolo Cassius and asks about the Zeon Musai ship following them. Paolo thinks they'll be all right since they have the cover story that they are resupplying the colony. In another part of the colony, Amuro Ray hacks into his father's computer files and is shocked to find Zaku specs and information about the mobile suit Gundam. His friend Fraw Bow runs into the house to tell him there is an evacuation notice. As Amuro gets ready, Fraw blames his neighbor Hayato Kobayashi for not telling Amuro about the evacuation. Hayato says that if it wasn't for military people like Amuro's father that they wouldn't have to leave.

In another part of the colony, Zaku commander Gene orders his man Slender to stay behind and sends Ash's squad ahead to investigate. They enter a darkened block of the colony and find wrecked Guncannon and Guntank parts. The Zaku pilots are shocked that the mobile suits have been cut apart by a powerful beam heat weapon. Suddenly, they are attacked out of the darkness by Werz's Prototype Gundam. Werz fires the Prototype Gundam's shoulder cannons at the Zakus and then destroys one with his beam rifle. The combat engineers ask Werz what kind of exercise he is doing, and he explains it is no practice battle because Zakus are inside the colony. One of the Zakus rushes Werz and attacks with a heat hawk, slicing off the shoulder cannon. As it holds him, Werz fires his beam rifle at the other Zaku and destroys it. The resulting explosion blows a hole in the colony wall, sucking out the Prototype Gundam and the Zaku into space. In the civilian block, Amuro and Fraw hear the explosion and seek shelter. As they drive, Amuro notices that the bulkhead is going to collapse. At the crippled command center, officers and the pilot for the second Gundam are all killed by Zaku pilot Gene. Against Denim's orders, Gene attacks the colony to get revenge for Ash. He says that Commander Char got where he is by distinguishing himself in combat.

Elsewhere, workers try to evacuate the second Gundam so that the Zeon don't destroy it. Paolo orders most of his crew to go into the colony to help in the fight. Bright asks about the civilians in the colony, and Paolo asks him to supervise their evacuation as conditions permit. As the attack continues, the rail car holding the Gundam goes out of control and crashes into the civilian block. Amuro swerves on the road to avoid falling debris. He stops at Fraw's house so they can pick up her family. On the Zeon Musai class ship, Commander Char Aznable and first officer Dren are informed of the battle inside the colony. Char tells Slender to return immediately and give a report. He orders Dren to move the ship towards the colony and says he's justified because the Federation violated the agreement and will have to pay the price. Amuro finds that the road is closed to civilians and sees his father nearby with the Gundam. He asks if mobile suits are more important than people's lives, and his father tells him to escape to the White Base. Following an explosion, Gene enters the civilian are and spots the Gundam. Mobile artillery begins firing at Gene, but he dodges their shots and destroys them. The Gundam's trailer is knocked around in an explosion, and Tem is knocked away. Amuro gets up and sees most of the civilians around him are dead. The Zaku continues to attack, and Amuro runs away to avoid being killed by the machinegun's shells. He sees Fraw running towards him, and another explosion kills her mother and grandfather. She cries over their bodies, and Amuro slaps some sense into her and tells her to escape. As Fraw runs away, Amuro sees the Gundam and looks up at the Zaku with anger.

So here we have yet another adaptation of the story from the original series. Unlike Kazuhisa Kondo's earlier adaptation, this one plays around with the story a bit. Some noticeable differences include six Zakus attacking Side 7 instead of three, as well as this new practice battle zone and Werz's Prototype Gundam. Another noticeable difference is that Amuro already knows about the Gundam in advance because he hacked into his father's files. This makes more sense than accidentally finding the instruction manual a few minutes before piloting the Gundam. Since Yas designed the characters for the original series they have their classic design here, but they seem more detailed and slightly more advanced to match the times. It'll be interesting to see what other changes Yas makes to the story.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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