Gundam: The Origin, No. 8

Rating:
Summary: Awesome beginning to an awesome variation on the OYW
Review: For those who've seen the original Gundam 0079 TV series, the character personalities, mecha designs and plot synopses differ from it, even if it's just a little bit. Each issue of the manga probably translates into about 1 episode or so of the show, so expect to see about 40-50 issues at the rate Japan's Gundam Ace Magazine is covering it, along with Viz's great translation to English. Once you get the right-to-left reading down, you'll have no trouble understanding it. This issue especially differs from the first episode for a few key reasons, but I'll leave them up to you to notice so as not to spoil anything. I recommend this to anyone looking to get into Gundam manga, the UC timeline, or Gundam in general.

Rating:
Summary: A hard story given a modern edge...
Review: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's mecha and artistic skills work very, very well for this re-telling of the first Gundam story. The Origin is a version of the events that's been tweaked a bit, expanded in some really cool ways (we get to see a fight between a Gundam prototype piloted by an expert, among other things) and thoroughly modernized. The mecha and people still have that 70s Disco-Afro Glow, but the artistic style of the book is much more realistic, with a lot of moody shadows, more detail on the mecha and a weight of credibility slathered over all of the mechanical elements. If you've read the story before, then you won't find much that is new, but Yas' complex, rich illustrations and the modernized mecha designs are worth the cost of the book.