Revelations from the Zeta Gundam Novels

[toysdream]

Every now and then I pull out my copies of Yoshiyuki Tomino's five-volume Zeta Gundam novelization, and skim through them as best I can with my makeshift Japanese reading skills. Recently I decided to sit down and go through them in a more methodical fashion, taking notes and actually translating some of the denser passages, and I'm amazed to realize how packed they are with back story and explanation.

In no particular order, here are some of the things I'm finding out from this readthrough. I'll probably add onto this thread occasionally with more tidbits.


Char Aznable returned to the Earth Sphere aboard a half-destroyed Magellan battleship that had been missing since the Battle of A Baoa Qu, enabling him to pass himself off as a long-lost Federation Forces soldier. (I expect Kitazume will come up with a different method for Char's Deleted Affair.)

Tomino also lays out a rough timeline for the events leading up to Zeta Gundam. The AEUG began as a conspiracy within the Earth Federation Space Force four years earlier, and Char signed up with them three years ago, while maintaining his cover identity as a Federation Forces soldier stationed at Granada. Two years ago, the Titans struck against an AEUG-led gathering at Side 1's Colony 30.

Meanwhile, Blex Forer has been organizing his forces at the small Island 1 colony Sweetwater. (Tomino's High-Streamer novels hint at how this name was eventually transferred to the refugee colony seen in Char's Counterattack, but that's a whole other story.) As the novels begin, Char travels to Sweetwater to join the Argama crew, and this is the first time he's seen either the Argama or the Rick Dias. He is also introduced to Henken and Reccoa, and hears the name Jamitov Hymem for the very first time.


Blex Forer explains the motive for the AEUG's attack on Green Oasis. Blex believes that capturing the Titans' new Gundam and its technological knowhow will get the attention of the Earth Federation government, raising its awareness of the situation in space.


Amuro Ray apparently received a fair amount of press coverage in the year following the end of the One Year War, even discussing his Newtype experiences in interviews. (The novel provides some excerpts, which I haven't translated yet.) Then he dropped out of sight, and is now assigned to maintain an obsolete air defense command base in Cheyenne.


Buran Blutarch is a veteran of the One Year War who sees his pursuit of the Audhumla as a chance to impress the incoming Titans regime and secure a better position for himself. Ben Wooder, who shows up without explanation in the TV series, is introduced here as the commander of the mobile suit team dispatched from the Augusta Newtype Lab along with Rosamia Badam.


New Hong Kong is the site of a spaceport that was used to send people to the colonies during the era of space settlement. As a result, it was given autonomous status as a concession territory of the Earth Federation government, and thus escaped attack from Zeon during the One Year War.


Sarah Zabiarov was raised in an orphanage and was scouted by the Gryps Newtype Lab while she was working in a fast-food shop. She quit her job and began training as a pilot cadet about six months before she appears in the story, but she and her fellow trainees were sidelined when the Titans began sending pilots up from Earth, and they're only now being given a chance to prove themselves in combat.


Kilimanjaro, like New Hong Kong, was a major spaceport during the era of space settlement. During the Karaba assault on the Kilimanjaro base, it's mentioned that the Audhumla's armament has been upgraded, turning it into a stratospheric fortress. Tomino also claims that it can carry up to forty(!) mobile suits.


Dakar became the Earth Federation capital after the One Year War. Most of the major cities of the pre-Universal Century era were destroyed in the war, and the Federation government decided to mark the start of a new era by leaving the old cultural sphere and relocating to Africa.


The bio-sensor installed in the Zeta Gundam is apparently based on technology inherited from Kamille's father, Franklin Bidan. Perhaps it came along with those captured Gundam Mark II blueprints? In any case, this would explain why Scirocco and the Titans have access to it as well.


-- Mark

[NewtypeS3]

Extremely interesting stuff, Mark. Especially how Char got back to Earth and the Audhumla's... massive increase of everything. Dang.

[Zero Revenge]

Very cool! I always was confused about Sarah and wanted details on her background. And the whole backstory with Char, very interesting. And even for Buran, always new tidbits are welcome! Now all I want to know more about is Yazan! (Well, i'd love to know more about all of the characters, but Yazan [and Jerid] especially.)

And 40 Mobile Suits!? Sheezh!

[padre]

The bio-sensor installed in the Zeta Gundam is apparently based on technology inherited from Kamille's father, Franklin Bidan. Perhaps it came along with those captured Gundam Mark II blueprints? In any case, this would explain why Scirocco and the Titans have access to it as well.


-- Mark

So, that flies in the face of everything in this old discussion?

[Mwulf]

Slightly off topic, but damn. I'd love to see those novels get officially translated on this side of the Ocean. You think there's any chance for that, Mark?

[toysdream]

Now all I want to know more about is Yazan! (Well, i'd love to know more about all of the characters, but Yazan [and Jerid] especially.)

I don't think Tomino really tells us much about Yazan, or even Jerid for that matter. If he's going to info-dump about a character's backstory, he usually does it when they first show up. We did get some info on Emma, though - I need to go back and translate that bit.

As for the Audhumla's capacity, I think the animation generally indicates it's more in the range of 20 machines or so.

So, that flies in the face of everything in this old discussion?

Yep, pretty much. Wish I'd noticed this bit in the novels earlier! The biosensor is first mentioned during the battle over Dakar, and as usual Tomino mentions its back story the first time it shows up in the story. Oddly enough, it activates when Kamille is thinking of Four, and during the battle he actually hears her voice talking to him, although he's never entirely sure what's causing this phenomenon.

Slightly off topic, but damn. I'd love to see those novels get officially translated on this side of the Ocean. You think there's any chance for that, Mark?

Probably zero, I'm afraid. Which is a shame, because they're just as info-tastic as the Mobile Suit Gundam novels. While the TV series script writers laid out their world view in Gundam Century, Tomino generally seems to put all his background info in the novels.


-- Mark

[Dean_the_Young]

Now all I want to know more about is Yazan! (Well, i'd love to know more about all of the characters, but Yazan [and Jerid] especially.)

I don't think Tomino really tells us much about Yazan, or even Jerid for that matter. If he's going to info-dump about a character's backstory, he usually does it when they first show up. We did get some info on Emma, though - I need to go back and translate that bit.

Oh man, nothing about Jerid? But, he was like Kamille's big rival in the series. Not even where he's from, or anything like that? I always keep thinking of him as Central Europe, and for artistic license somewhere around Odessa, which would have put him in (bad) contact with Zeon in the war and may have let him meet MQuve and start to develop that peculiar power complex he has.

Granted, I could always write that up myself, but...

Slightly off topic, but damn. I'd love to see those novels get officially translated on this side of the Ocean. You think there's any chance for that, Mark?

Probably zero, I'm afraid. Which is a shame, because they're just as info-tastic as the Mobile Suit Gundam novels. While the TV series script writers laid out their world view in Gundam Century, Tomino generally seems to put all his background info in the novels.
-- Mark

Out of curiosity, what Gundam novels are translated and available out in the US?[/quote]

[Ascension]

Only the MSG Trilogy has been translated, and even it isn't easy to find. For whatever reason, probably the sheer bulk of text that would require translation, Japanese novels are translated much less frequently than manga and anime. If you look at the Read or Die franchise, for example, all the anime has been translated, the last of the associated mangas is currently being released in English, but the light novels that started the whole series have not been and probably never will be translated.

[Koshernova]

It's only rare that light novels get translated but it happens: look at Welcome to the NHK. Then again, the light novel was extremely popular and is considered an important piece of modern urban Japanese literature, so it makes sense that in the build-up to releasing the anime they would translate it alongside the manga. But I digress.

Interesting info on the Zeta novels there, Mark. I am a bit thrown by the fact that Tomino decided not to continue with the original novel's continuity, as a fanboy I'd have preferred his novels to create a parallel UC instead of being so scattered. Do the novels follow through simply from the TV series/movies of 0079, or does it take in details from the novel trilogy?

[Chris]

It's not just the MSG trilogy. The first three SEED novels have been released by TOKYOPOP, although their license strangely doesn't include the last two novels.

[Imperial]

Char Aznable returned to the Earth Sphere aboard a half-destroyed Magellan battleship that had been missing since the Battle of A Baoa Qu, enabling him to pass himself off as a long-lost Federation Forces soldier

Now that's just silly. Even if Char was only on Axis for a few days, it would take months or even years for him to make the round-trip. How did he explain that? Did he go all Cast Away on us and find a way to survive in a harsh environment with only his volleyball sidekick to comfort him?

Of course, what's true for the series doesn't always hold true for the novels. For all I know, he never went to Axis in the novelization.

Tomino also lays out a rough timeline for the events leading up to Zeta Gundam. The AEUG began as a conspiracy within the Earth Federation Space Force four years earlier, and Char signed up with them three years ago, while maintaining his cover identity as a Federation Forces soldier stationed at Granada. Two years ago, the Titans struck against an AEUG-led gathering at Side 1's Colony 30.

Ah, this makes sense. I figured Colony 30 was simply a vulgar display of power, but if the Titans knew of the AEUG conspiracy in advance, then it was politically motivated.

He is also introduced to Henken and Reccoa, and hears the name Jamitov Hymem for the very first time.

This really caught my interest. With all this talk of conspiracies and Hymen's name only coming up now, one gets the feeling this is some sort of shadow war being waged by Illuminati-like entities. What makes this all the more confusing is the claim I saw from someone (I think it may have been you, Mark) that the Zeta novels characterize Hymen as controlling gambling, equating him to a mob boss. Looking at American history, it's the leaders who get all the attention--look at Grant and MacArthur. How did Hymen go under the radar when he's supposed to be the head of the EFF's big, new elite task force?

Amuro Ray apparently received a fair amount of press coverage in the year following the end of the One Year War, even discussing his Newtype experiences in interviews. (The novel provides some excerpts, which I haven't translated yet.)

I'm sure he meant well, but I have to wonder if embracing the publicity only fueled the Titans' desire to create Newtype bioweapons...

Then he dropped out of sight, and is now assigned to maintain an obsolete air defense command base in Cheyenne.

With Amuro at Cheyenne and Hayato at the Kennedy Space Center, I'm surprised the Feds didn't assign Bright to a trivial air strip, just to complete the set.

During the Karaba assault on the Kilimanjaro base, it's mentioned that the Audhumla's armament has been upgraded, turning it into a stratospheric fortress. Tomino also claims that it can carry up to forty(!) mobile suits.

That's ridiculously awesome. I'm not surprised the Karaba would make that modification, given how resource-starved they are, but I'm really surprised it's even possible. Wouldn't it drop like a stone with all those weapons and suits? Aw, heck, this is Gundam! If Camille can eat dead people and spit them out as a huge beam saber, I'm sure Amuro can find a way to turn the Audhumla into an aerial Dogosse Gier.

The bio-sensor installed in the Zeta Gundam is apparently based on technology inherited from Kamille's father, Franklin Bidan.

Yay for inconsistency!

Seriously, I can't bash this too much. The novels are not a substitute for the show, which is currently backing the idea of the biosensors as Sirocco's baby. Even so, I have to wonder why Sirocco was the only Titan to take advantage of the biosensors. Unless, of course, the novels put the biosensors elsewhere, akin to the way Rick Doms can support beam weaponry in the original trilogy but couldn't in the show.

[J-Lead]

VERY interesting information. It's a shame none of this makes it to the animation, but it seems artistic freedom and poetic license gives Tomino much more liberty in fleshing out his characters than animated productions. Although I'd like to know more about Kackricon's and Henken's backstory, or perhaps some details on the the ever ambiguous Alaska incident. Might there be any chance the Zeta novels go into that, Mark?

[DeltasTaii]

It's a minor retcon stretch to say that Scirocco independently developed Bidan's tech into the Bio-Sensor, while Anaheim ended up doing so seperately. Yeah, it makes the word independent silly, but it's the best I can do!

It would somewhat explain the longheld belief in their different affects anyways. Then again, Scirocco may just not be good enough at harnessing dead souls. Regardless, AE's inability to understand the tech still fits in that they just sort of found some random stuff in Mk.II's data and ran with it, never actually being able to test what it did without a resident newtype. The Zeta was already costing eleventy bajillion bucks, why not?

[Pegasus]

Dakar became the Earth Federation capital after the One Year War. Most of the major cities of the pre-Universal Century era were destroyed in the war, and the Federation government decided to mark the start of a new era by leaving the old cultural sphere and relocating to Africa.

-- Mark

So the Federation government decided to relocate to Africa after the One Year War, the continent that was still teeming with renegade Zeeks. Interesting. It's intriguing that they wanted to have a new start after the war. Perhaps wanting to get away from the memory of near giving in. Anyway, is there any indication of where the seat of government was previously? "old cultural sphere" suggests either Europe or North America.

[toysdream]

IInteresting info on the Zeta novels there, Mark. I am a bit thrown by the fact that Tomino decided not to continue with the original novel's continuity, as a fanboy I'd have preferred his novels to create a parallel UC instead of being so scattered.

Given the way his Mobile Suit Gundam novels ended, though, it would have diverged so dramatically from the animated universe that comparisons to the anime series would be hopeless. Instead, Tomino just wrote the Zeta novels as a sequel to the anime - he's never been a stickler for continuity. He does mention the novel character Margaret Ring Blair, though.

Now that's just silly. Even if Char was only on Axis for a few days, it would take months or even years for him to make the round-trip. How did he explain that? Did he go all Cast Away on us and find a way to survive in a harsh environment with only his volleyball sidekick to comfort him?

Yep, pretty much! The explanation is that some warships ended up getting semi-destroyed in battle and drifting out of the Earth Sphere, returning months or years later once the surviving crew members had figured out how to change their course. This seemed like a pretty clever way for Zeon infiltrators like Char to pass themselves off as Federation Forces soldiers.

And yes, Char does go to Axis in the novels.

This really caught my interest. With all this talk of conspiracies and Hymen's name only coming up now, one gets the feeling this is some sort of shadow war being waged by Illuminati-like entities.

Exactly. Abu Dabia, the AEUG operative who mentions Jamitov to Char, describes him as being something like a Freemason. One of Jamitov's trademarks is that he operates from behind the scenes, and he believes that Gihren Zabi's greatest mistake was to play his dictator role too obviously.

How did Hymen go under the radar when he's supposed to be the head of the EFF's big, new elite task force?

He isn't. Bask Om is the official commander of the Titans, while Jamitov maneuvers and schemes behind the scenes. According to the Zeta movies, it turns out that Jamitov doesn't actually have Bask on a very firm leash.

Although I'd like to know more about Kackricon's and Henken's backstory, or perhaps some details on the the ever ambiguous Alaska incident. Might there be any chance the Zeta novels go into that, Mark?

I haven't found anything on Kacricon or Henken yet, beyond what we're told in the animation. Henken actually makes a cameo in "Gundam The Ride: A Baoa Qu," though, and I believe this "Alaska incident" comes from a choose-your-own-adventure novel.

So the Federation government decided to relocate to Africa after the One Year War, the continent that was still teeming with renegade Zeeks.

Yeah, there is that.

Anyway, is there any indication of where the seat of government was previously? "old cultural sphere" suggests either Europe or North America.

I think the implication is that it was in North America; my money is actually on New Yark...

-- Mark

[Crusader]

Hmm this is indeed interesting news. The stuff about Jamitov behind the scenes fits him very good.

Mark do those novels happen to go into any detail pertaing to Jamitov and Bask relationship, Because we see very little interaction between the two, but it appears he lets Bask do whatever he wants, much like Scirocco.

[Mark064]

Possibly unrelated to this but in the Zeta Gundam animation we are told that Jaburo is moving, however we are never told where. The only thing we are told of is Dakar which well isn't the same thing so is there any word of where the Federation relocated their main military facility?

But for the biosensor would this mean that Franklin Bidan has some relation to Newtype related technology or perhaps the Newtype Labs themselves? With what we know of him it seems a bit odd for him to design something like the biosensor.

[Pegasus]

I think the implication is that it was in North America; my money is actually on New Yark...

-- Mark

oh yeah, that's a bit obvious really when you think about it. Does this make the moves to Lhasa the "new new era" and the move to Von Braun the "new new new era" for the Federation, or is it just "lets move the capital whenever it gets captured/destroyed by our enemies?

Possibly unrelated to this but in the Zeta Gundam animation we are told that Jaburo is moving, however we are never told where. The only thing we are told of is Dakar which well isn't the same thing so is there any word of where the Federation relocated their main military facility?

I was under the impression that the Titans had relocated the majority of Jaburo's functions to the newly constructed New Guinea Base. That's what Gundam Official says anyway.

[Kavik Ryx]

Though we never get to see New Guinea base; however, I was under the impression that terrestrial operations were moved to Kilimanjaro and Space operations were located at Gryps 1 and A Baoa Qu.

[Imperial]

He does mention the novel character Margaret Ring Blair, though.

I absolutely adore her, if only for the fact that she helped Char finally get over Lalah. (Too bad she couldn't have shown up in the show, eh?) What's the context, if you don't mind my asking? I'm not entirely sure how Kycillia Zabi's secretary could tie into the Gryps Conflict, unless Char off-handedly mentions her for whatever reason.

Abu Dabia, the AEUG operative who mentions Jamitov to Char, describes him as being something like a Freemason...

Bask Om is the official commander of the Titans, while Jamitov maneuvers and schemes behind the scenes. According to the Zeta movies, it turns out that Jamitov doesn't actually have Bask on a very firm leash.

Fascinating

I always assumed Jamitov was the official leader, given his appearance as an officer in Jaburo during Operation Stardust. However, this piece of information surfaced ina non-Tomino production, so it only figures we take it with a mountain of salt. It does put a lof things in perspective, though.

Either way, I need to see those movies! I'm begging you here, Bandai. I'll sell a kidney to see those. You licensed them all the way back in 2006. Be a buddy.

...and I believe this "Alaska incident" comes from a choose-your-own-adventure novel.

Why must all the juicy stuff get shunted off into the spin-off material we'll never see State-side?