Enyclopedia of Gundam: U.C. Edition

[toysdream]

I just picked up a new book which I found rather interesting, and I thought I'd make mention of it here.

Titled "The Encyclopedia of Gundam: Gundam World U.C. Edition," it's labeled as part of Kodansha's "G-Legend Comics" series, but it's actually a text reference book that just happens to be about the size and shape of a manga volume. It's written by Yuka Minakawa, the author of the Gundam Officials encyclopedia, but unlike that earlier work it covers the entire Universal Century saga rather than ending with Gundam 0083. Like Gundam Officials, it was compiled under Sunrise supervision, and it provides a lot of information concerning what Sunrise considers "official" and why those decisions were made. (For example, the commentary on its U.C. timeline confirms that the AD dates were dropped because the course of real-world history had rendered them obsolete.)

I'm still going through the book, but so far it seems like a pretty thorough (and relatively concise) overview of U.C. history and technology. The marginal notes concerning real-world sources and continuity conflicts are a particular highlight, and I think any obsessive Gundamaniacs with Japanese reading abilities will find them fascinating.

-- Mark

[Dean_the_Young]

Is it just history/technical details, or does it cover character biographies to?

As in, can it finally tell me anything about Jerid, even just where he came from?

[toysdream]

It mostly focuses on history and technology, and it only mentions the most major characters and political figures. So I'm afraid you're out of luck where Jerid is concerned.


However, since you asked, I consulted the "Data Gundam" column on Jerid which appeared in issue 024 of Gundam Ace. According to this column, he was born in "southern America" in U.C. 0063, although judging from other parts of the column I think they may mean the southern part of North America. He comes from a long line of career military, possibly of elite social status given their residency on Earth.

The column goes on to say that Jerid became a Federation Forces officer in U.C. 0085 (presumably after graduating from military academy), but his desire to join the elite Titans wasn't granted until August of the following year. After half a year of additional training, he formally entered service as a Titan just before the start of the Gryps Conflict.

That's actually a surprisingly extensive biography, although the column doesn't say where the information comes from. Perhaps it's cribbing from that choose-your-own-adventure novel.

-- Mark

[Phantomexe87]

Does it give any information about the less covered subjects? Like, the geopolitics of things outside the Earth Sphere, e.g. Jupiter, Mars, etc?

[Dean_the_Young]

It mostly focuses on history and technology, and it only mentions the most major characters and political figures. So I'm afraid you're out of luck where Jerid is concerned.

-- Mark

Ah well, can't blame a man for trying. I keep wanting to say he's from Central Europe, Germany or aroundbouts, but...

So does it shed much light on the pre-UC calender, other than the "rich country club form the Federation and colonize space"?

[toysdream]

Does it give any information about the less covered subjects? Like, the geopolitics of things outside the Earth Sphere, e.g. Jupiter, Mars, etc?

Not so far, but I'm still on the One Year War section of the book. I'll keep you posted.

Ah well, can't blame a man for trying. I keep wanting to say he's from Central Europe, Germany or aroundbouts, but...

Actually, if you look a couple posts above you'll see I amended my earlier comment to include a fairly detailed biography from Gundam Ace's "Data Gundam" column. Ta-dah!

So does it shed much light on the pre-UC calender, other than the "rich country club form the Federation and colonize space"?

Nope, it pretty much hits the ground running with U.C. 0001.

-- Mark

[Lans]

So, the book covers from UC 0001 to what era? Any additional Gundam or UC world data thats really new in this book or it's just another compilation about UC Gundam Universe?

[Koshernova]

I suppose my question is, in the post-Victory era, what is considered canon and what isn't? Because we have Gaia Gear, which is simply odd, and G-Saviour, which was written out... Does this book say what is the last known UC date?

Interesting info about Jerid, by the way, I was always a bit curious about his character. I never felt he was European though, and "Mesa" sounds like an intentional reference to the southern United States, so the information fits. Not that Gundam is known for proper national characterisation, but in these situations I always think about how phlegmatic Captain Noah generally is, and how this matches the English stereotype ^^

[toysdream]

I suppose my question is, in the post-Victory era, what is considered canon and what isn't? Because we have Gaia Gear, which is simply odd, and G-Saviour, which was written out... Does this book say what is the last known UC date?

It ends with Victory Gundam, and at first glance it looks like it doesn't mention G-Saviour and Gaia Gear, even to disown them - a surprising omission in an otherwise comprehensive book.

Not that Gundam is known for proper national characterisation, but in these situations I always think about how phlegmatic Captain Noah generally is, and how this matches the English stereotype ^^

Now that you mention it, Jerid does seem like a stereotypical "Yankee" of the sort one sees in anime, along the lines of Roy Fokker or Sleggar Law (I don't think Sleggar's nationality was ever specified, but c'mon).

Actually, comparing Sleggar to Jerid makes me wonder if Kacricon might have been modeled a little on the Jaburo officer Woody Malden - he has the same kind of burly big brother persona...

Any additional Gundam or UC world data thats really new in this book or it's just another compilation about UC Gundam Universe?

Quite a lot of new info, actually - more than I've seen in a U.C. Gundam book since the Gundam Historica series - and since it's Sunrise-approved, we can feel pretty confident that it'll stick. Here are a few of the tidbits I've noticed so far, some of which may have been in Gundam Officials too, but if so they were much harder to find.

Story versions: As per Sunrise, the First Gundam movies "take precedence" over the TV series version, partly because we see Hayato's Guncannon in the space museum in Zeta Gundam. On the other hand, the Zeta Gundam TV series takes precedence over the movies, because it's compatible with Gundam ZZ. The other versions are still "official" but slightly less so than the preferred ones.

Minovsky physics: The book claims that the Minovsky particles inside the Minovsky-Ionesco fusion reactor are magnetically compressed to form a "super-cubic lattice structure" and that the energy released by the fusion reaction is converted to electricity via this lattice. The brief entry doesn't offer any more details, but it's an intriguing tidbit. Later on, there's some discussion of detection systems such as "Minovsky radar" (which locates enemy ships by calculating the origin point of Minovsky particle dispersal) and "Minovsky interference waveform analysis tracing" which detects the ripples caused by conductive objects moving through a Minovsky particle field.

Beam weapons: The primitive mega particle cannons of the One Year War era are said to have an effective range of less than 20 kilometers (compare against the 28-kilometer range cited in Entertainment Bible 39's account of the Battle of Loum). This can be almost halved by the use of beam-disrupting particles. Apparently the Zeons originally hoped to use mega particle cannons as anti-ship weapons for their mobile suits, but resorted to bazookas as a fallback plan. They began reevaluating the use of beam weapons after the Antarctic Treaty prevented them from using nuclear warheads.

The Zaku: The book resurrects Gundam Century's claim that the Zaku's trademark power pipes contain cooling ducts as well as power transmission tubes. It also addresses the pre-war overconfidence of the Federation Forces, saying that they believed the scattering of Minovsky particles would only disrupt the Zeons' own electronics, and that the mobile suit was impractical since it was easy to detect with radar and had no built-in weapons.

Warships: It's now claimed that more than ten ships of the Gwazine class were constructed. They must be breeding!

Federation mobile suits: The Federation began deployment of pre-production mobile suits in Southeast Asia in late September of U.C. 0079. (I note this timing ensures that the battle at Side 7 remains the first battle between mobile suits.)

Zeon mobile suits: The YMS-08A High Mobility Prototype from the MSV series is described as a failed competitor to the Gouf, as usual. But the MS-08TX Efreet is described as a failed competitor to the Dom when a successor was being sought for the Gouf. The Rick Dom's nuclear thermal rockets use a new "Saturn engine" which is an improved version of the "Jupiter engine" used in the Zudah. The Gelgoog's powerful generator is based on those of amphibious mobile suits, and can be switched between air and liquid cooling. And the "Agg series" of specialized mobile suits were developed after the failure of Zeon's first assault on Jaburo in September of U.C. 0079.

White Base: The book includes a White Base route map which has a marker for the White Base's detour to Turkey, as seen in the TV series. The White Base's ambush by M'Quve and battle with the Black Tri-Stars apparently takes place near Ankara in the TV continuity. (This is also shown on the route map in Gundam Officials, but I never noticed it before.)

Newtypes: As suggested by Tomino's novels, we're told that Gihren Zabi used the Newtype concept for propaganda purposes but believed that they wouldn't actually appear until the distant future. Kycilia, on the other hand, concluded that they had already emerged after examining combat data from the early stages of the war. Following up on Gundam Century, the book describes the kind of telepathic communication achieved by Amuro and Lalah as a "resonance phenomenon" made possible by the psycommu system, and notes the irony that the "meeting of the minds" predicted by Zeon Deikun didn't stop Newtypes from fighting each other.

Beam-resistant coating: Is apparently a development of the critical semi-permeable coatings used to defend against laser weapons. (These coatings reflect laser beams below a certain energy level, and simply become transparent when the beam exceeds that level.) Although it can't survive a direct hit, beam-resistant coating is somewhat effective against long-distance beam fire that impacts at shallow angles. This coating was used on the Gelgoog's shield at the end of the One Year War.

The postwar era: The book echoes the February 18, U.C. 0080, date for the Granada Treaty given in the old Entertainment Bibles, and discusses some of the treaty's provisions. Its timeline also mentions the imposition of a system of identification numbers for spacenoids in September of U.C. 0082, which may be related to the controversial family registry system mentioned in Tomino's Zeta Gundam novels. The timeline also includes some events from Advance of Zeta and Char's Deleted Affair, although it moves the departure date for the Axis Advance Fleet forward by a full year from what we see in CDA (to February 11, U.C. 0082), allowing for a more realistic travel time. But there's no reference to Char's and Haman's journey back to Side 3, so perhaps Sunrise feels the current CDA storyline has diverged from regular continuity.

Postwar mobile suits: Apparently the Hizack and GM II didn't originally have linear seat cockpits, and these were installed as later upgrades (as per Advance of Zeta). The Galbaldy Beta, on the other hand, had one from the outset, and this is apparently the main difference between this version and the original MS-17B. As for the deleted Gundam Development Project, its data is reflected in Anaheim's mobile suits but not in those of the Titans.

Whew! That's quite a lot of info, and we haven't even gotten to Zeta Gundam yet. Let's stop there for now, and cover the rest later.

-- Mark

[Wingnut]

Story versions: As per Sunrise, the First Gundam movies "take precedence" over the TV series version, partly because we see Hayato's Guncannon in the space museum in Zeta Gundam. On the other hand, the Zeta Gundam TV series takes precedence over the movies, because it's compatible with Gundam ZZ. The other versions are still "official" but slightly less so than the preferred ones.

As it should be IMO.

Minovsky physics: The book claims that the Minovsky particles inside the Minovsky-Ionesco fusion reactor are magnetically compressed to form a "super-cubic lattice structure" and that the energy released by the fusion reaction is converted to electricity via this lattice. The brief entry doesn't offer any more details, but it's an intriguing tidbit. Later on, there's some discussion of detection systems such as "Minovsky radar" (which locates enemy ships by calculating the origin point of Minovsky particle dispersal) and "Minovsky interference waveform analysis tracing" which detects the ripples caused by conductive objects moving through a Minovsky particle field.

An interesting tidbit indeed. The "Minovsky radar" is also a logical advancement. Find the highest concentration of particles which should be the enemy ship and shoot there.

The Zaku: The book resurrects Gundam Century's claim that the Zaku's trademark power pipes contain cooling ducts as well as power transmission tubes.

Having read your article on the Zaku, I have to go WTF are they doing there? It just doesn't make any sense.

Warships: It's now claimed that more than ten ships of the Gwazine class were constructed. They must be breeding!

It does seem that with every new Gundam game, manga side story, or other publication we see another one of those ships that didn't exist prior to said publication doesn't it?

Federation mobile suits: The Federation began deployment of pre-production mobile suits in Southeast Asia in late September of U.C. 0079. (I note this timing ensures that the battle at Side 7 remains the first battle between mobile suits.)

Excellent. Sorting out just when the first GMs and such came out has been a bit troublesome ever since the 08th MS team came along.

White Base: The book includes a White Base route map which has a marker for the White Base's detour to Turkey, as seen in the TV series. The White Base's ambush by M'Quve and battle with the Black Tri-Stars apparently takes place near Ankara in the TV continuity. (This is also shown on the route map in Gundam Officials, but I never noticed it before.)

Cool. Now we can see just where they went with some degree of precision.

Beam-resistant coating: Is apparently a development of the critical semi-permeable coatings used to defend against laser weapons. (These coatings reflect laser beams below a certain energy level, and simply become transparent when the beam exceeds that level.) Although it can't survive a direct hit, beam-resistant coating is somewhat effective against long-distance beam fire that impacts at shallow angles. This coating was used on the Gelgoog's shield at the end of the One Year War.

Given how we saw the Hyaku Shiki take beam hits in Zeta, it seems to back up this statement about the OYW anti-beam coating and that it didn't advance too much over the years.

Postwar mobile suits: Apparently the Hizack and GM II didn't originally have linear seat cockpits, and these were installed as later upgrades (as per Advance of Zeta). The Galbaldy Beta, on the other hand, had one from the outset, and this is apparently the main difference between this version and the original MS-17B. As for the deleted Gundam Development Project, its data is reflected in Anaheim's mobile suits but not in those of the Titans.

That makes sense for the GMs as they were refitted frames anyway, but the Hi-Zack not having one seems a little odd, especially seeing as the Galbaldy Beta had it from the start. Time to update the profile again I guess.

[Dean_the_Young]

Great fact finding as always, Mark. And thanks as well for looking for the Jerid data for me; it gives me more to think about in regards to my favorite character and villain faction. Comparing the Titans to individual, "nicer" EF officers is an angle I didn't thing of before. Could Bask be thought of as "General Revil gone dark"? Both were held as POWs by Zeon, but where Revil escaped Bask didn't...

Hm. Bears thinking about.

Oh yes. While you go over the Zeta era, could you keep an eye open for the myserious Alaska incident? That's always been a vague Titans event of somesort.

[toysdream]

Having read your article on the Zaku, I have to go WTF are they doing there? It just doesn't make any sense.

Well, in theory coolant and propellant are functionally identical when you're using nuclear thermal rockets, since both are just mediums that carry heat away from the reactor. So reinstating the Gundam Century explanation is at least a baby step towards my own pet theory.

That makes sense for the GMs as they were refitted frames anyway, but the Hi-Zack not having one seems a little odd, especially seeing as the Galbaldy Beta had it from the start. Time to update the profile again I guess.

According to Gundam Officials and this new book, the high performance of the original Galbaldy put too much stress on the pilot. It was only with the adoption of the linear seat that its full potential could be expressed, and this change alone increased the Galbaldy Beta's maneuverability by 30 percent. In this case, it may simply not have made sense for the Federation to produce its own version of the Galbaldy until the introduction of the linear seat made it safe to unleash its full performance.

The Hizack, on the other hand, is a cost-cutting mass production model based on existing technology. Advance of Zeta suggests that the use of a traditional cockpit was a Titan policy, since they didn't trust Anaheim Electronics and were suspicious of the new technology, but the Encyclopedia of Gundam claims that the linear seat "wasn't standard equipment at the start of mass production, and was adopted later."

Could Bask be thought of as "General Revil gone dark"? Both were held as POWs by Zeon, but where Revil escaped Bask didn't...

That seems like a bit of a stretch; I don't think I've seen any confirmation that Bask was ever a POW, and for the most part he seems to have been assigned to staff headquarters rather than fighting at the front lines. In other words, a desk jockey rather than a Revil-style "fighting general." If anything, his imposing build and the odd loyalty he inspires in his underlings remind me of Dozle Zabi.

While you go over the Zeta era, could you keep an eye open for the myserious Alaska incident? That's always been a vague Titans event of somesort.

I don't think it's mentioned in this book, but I could probably dig something up from other sources. I have a vague recollection that it's connected to that choose-your-own-adventure book.

-- Mark

[Recon 5]

Beam-resistant coating: Is apparently a development of the critical semi-permeable coatings used to defend against laser weapons. (These coatings reflect laser beams below a certain energy level, and simply become transparent when the beam exceeds that level.) Although it can't survive a direct hit, beam-resistant coating is somewhat effective against long-distance beam fire that impacts at shallow angles. This coating was used on the Gelgoog's shield at the end of the One Year War.

Given how we saw the Hyaku Shiki take beam hits in Zeta, it seems to back up this statement about the OYW anti-beam coating and that it didn't advance too much over the years.

I thought the the Hyaku Shiki had beam reflective coating, and that it was a different thing altogether- I haven't seen any Gelgoogs with golden shields yet .

[toysdream]

I thought the the Hyaku Shiki had beam reflective coating, and that it was a different thing altogether- I haven't seen any Gelgoogs with golden shields yet .

It's a bit confusing. The book says that previous anti-laser coatings reflected incoming attacks, but beam-resistant coatings vaporize when particle beams hit them, thus reducing their destructive power. In other words, they're ablative rather than reflective, and the same is supposedly true of the Hyaku Shiki's coating.

In this case, there's no particular reason why the Hyaku Shiki's coating should have to be so shiny, and as far as I know it could just be a side-effect of the materials they happened to use.

-- Mark

[AmuroNT1]

Now that you mention it, Jerid does seem like a stereotypical "Yankee" of the sort one sees in anime, along the lines of Roy Fokker or Sleggar Law (I don't think Sleggar's nationality was ever specified, but c'mon).

Of course he's not a Yankee. You said it yourself, he's a Southern boy.

[Dean_the_Young]

Now that you mention it, Jerid does seem like a stereotypical "Yankee" of the sort one sees in anime, along the lines of Roy Fokker or Sleggar Law (I don't think Sleggar's nationality was ever specified, but c'mon).

Of course he's not a Yankee. You said it yourself, he's a Southern boy.

Yet another, frightening, likeness to yours truly.

It's rather funny, actually. I have the same skin tone, hair color, and height, and similar body proportions. I'm in the ROTC and have been in the JROTC since beginning high-school. Except for the voice (not thugish like the English version made him), (thick) glasses, shorter jaw, and hair style (buzzed, not 70s), I could pull off Jerid rather well if I ever cosplay.

Oh, and I got over my power-is-best, history-is-written-by-the-strongest phase. But other than that...

[toysdream]

Of course he's not a Yankee. You said it yourself, he's a Southern boy.

I'm not sure if the folks in the Japanese anime industry appreciate these subtleties. Now I'm trying to imagine how you'd explain the Southern mystique. "See, it's kinda like being from Osaka."

-- Mark

[Zero Revenge]

Now that you mention it, Jerid does seem like a stereotypical "Yankee" of the sort one sees in anime, along the lines of Roy Fokker or Sleggar Law (I don't think Sleggar's nationality was ever specified, but c'mon).

Of course he's not a Yankee. You said it yourself, he's a Southern boy.

What's wrong with being a Yankee/Northerner?

[Dean_the_Young]

What's wrong with being a Yankee/Northerner?

Ahem.

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.


- E.B. White

[Deacon Blues]

Mark,

Do you happen to have the Japanese title (or if this is in English) or an ISBN for this? I'd like to snag a copy of it.