Written & Illustrated by Mizuho Takayama
Published in the west by Mixx Manga, $12.95 (US) max, available from www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk and any other suppliers of Gundam books.

Overview

The tale of Blue Destiny takes place during the eleventh month of the One Year War as Operation Odessa is driving the Zeon forces from the surface of earth. As a result of the retcons of 08th MS Team there are GMs a plenty in action and this Manga focus' on the actions of one three man unit of pilots. Yu Kajima, Philip Hughes and Samana Feuris are introduced in a clean up operation on a Zeon base. It's here where the quickly meet the "star" of our tale, the Blue Destiny unit. The unit goes berserk in the skirmish and destroys several GMs before coming close to doing the same to our trio. Driven away by Yu, the scene is then set as that unit shadows the events of that unit for the next section of the story. I won't go on as I don't want to spoil the tale but suffice to say you're treated to several battles between the GM unit (strangely re-equipped with Cold Climate types in a warm environment) and Zeon forces as the mystery of Blue Destiny and the Exam system unravels. The finale of the manga only just scrapes past as an actual ending as the story was always intended to continue on. Sadly the Japanese company that hold the rights went bust before another volume could be begun so the tale is now only continued in the Blue Destiny game.

Opinion

First and foremost then - what's the art like? Well very nice actually. It's very well detailed and suitable for both mecha and humans. The Mobile Suit battles look very dynamic and action in general is very well done. You may be disappointed to hear that it's black and white (except for the covers of course) but I didn't find it really mattered. I think black and white actually contributes to the atmosphere of the manga, whereas colour would have cheapened it. The script isn't quite as good as the art, perhaps loosing some of the depth of dialogue in the translation. It's still past functional though and probably rates as just above average. The story (something that's not reliant on the script here, for the most part) is a good one. There is a good sense of inevitability about the relationship between the unit and Blue Destiny. It's very welcome to see the majority of the action carried out between standard suits, with the EXAM units only taking centre stage in the last quarter of the book. It's my personal opinion that there should be more mangas (like this one) and even animated works about the standard suits and their pilots.

I do have some gripes. As I already stated, the manga is kind of incomplete and the ending does really leave you unsatisfied. It's passable but it leaves you wanting more, in both a good and a bad way. Also I don't think the whole concept of the EXAM system really fits into One Year War era Gundam, it would have made more sense during the heavily newtype-experiment ridden Zeta era. However the interaction of the Marion character (perhaps spirit is a better way to refer to her) with Yu and the events is pretty well done. However these gripes are not enough to really spoil the enjoyment of the manga, and I really do think it's worth the money, especially as it's the only original non-Wing manga translated so far.