Char Aznable

Char is an officer in the Zeon forces. His exceptional piloting abilities awarded him a very quick promotion in the military. Char is a living legend, known by both friends and foes as the Red Comet, in reference to the color and speed of his custom-tailored Mobile Suit.

Char is responsible for the attack of Side 7, Zeon’s attempt to interfere with the making of the Gundam and White Base. He then starts pursuing them when they escape, many times directly fighting the Gundam and his extraordinarily gifted young pilot, Amuro Ray. 

Char is a character full of mystery. His sharp intelligence and cunning mind make him a formidable opponent. But he’s also got a darker side … And what could he possibly be hiding behind this metal mask of his?

Garma Zabi

Garma is the youngest son of the Zabi family, which rules over the Principality of Zeon.

Eager to impress his brothers and sister, and find himself worthy of his name, Garma enlists in the colony defence forces. There, he meets another young recruit named Char Aznable. Char and him quickly build a strong relationship, made of a mix of fellowship and rivalry.

Always wanting to shine brighter as a Zabi heir, Garma then becomes a commander in the Zeon ground forces, on Earth. When the White Base and the already famed Gundam enter his territory, they’re just too tempting a prey … Plus, with Char’s help, it should just be a piece of cake.

Ramba Ral

Ramba Ral is the son of Jimba Ral, an loyal follower of Zeon Zum Deikun. He served in the colony defence forces and was the one who helped Deikun’s children escape the Zabi.

Ral then joined the forces of Zeon in their war. His exceptional leadership abilities granted him the command of some troops, and he quickly made a name for himself on the battlefield. 

He’s a stoic soldier, loyal to his homeland, and endowed with a high moral sense that he will never transgress. He is also a sensitive man, deeply attached to his wife, Crowley Hamon.

His encounter with Amuro will mark the young boy forever.

Sayla Mass

When Side 7 is attacked by Zeon, Sayla escapes with other civilians to take refuge in the new warship the Federation was hiding there, the White Base. 

She immediately volunteers to go search for other survivors in the colony. She then leaves the colony with the spaceship, together with the young Amuro Ray and his Gundam. 

Together with the White Base crew, they engage in a long escape that sees them battle multiple times against the fearsome Char Aznable, a mysterious masked Zeon soldier who received the mission to chase them down. 

Her destiny catches up with her when Sayla finally meets Char in person, and he removes his mask before her.

This year, MIA welcomes Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

Yohsikazu Yasuhiko was born on December 9th 1947 in Engaru, a town counting around 20.000 inhabitants on Hokkaidō island, in the northern part of Japan. 

Impressed by the work of Mitsuteru Yokoyama (Tetsujin 28-gō, Giant Robo), he developed an early interest in drawing manga, which eventually led him to try drawing his own. 

During his student years in Hirosaki, he became an active member of the New Left political movement, fighting among other things against the ongoing war in Vietnam. 

Dreaming of becoming a mangaka himself, he moved to Tokyo in 1969. Needing to pay his bills, he applied for a job at Mushi Production, the animation studio founded by the “God of Manga” himself, Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Dororo). Lacking confidence in his ability to draw sufficiently with a pen (which he considered the obligatory tool for a mangaka), he eventually gave up on manga, and chose to focus on his career in animation instead. During his years at Mushi Production, he notably worked on Wandering Sung as a character designer, where he met the storyboard artist, Yoshiyuki Tomino.

After the bankruptcy of Mushi Production in 1973, he worked as a freelance on various animation projects. Among those, Space Battleship Yamato (1974, Academy Production), on which he worked as a storyboarder. It was on this occasion that he met Leiji Matsumoto (Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999), who reignited the flame of the mangaka in his heart by reassuring him that it was perfectly fine to use a brush instead of a pen. 

His career as a manga artist started a bit later, with the release of his first manga, Arion (1979-1984).  In 1981, his work earned him the “Best Artist of the Year” Seiun Award. He then released a lot of other stories over the years, among which the famous Venus Wars (1986-1990). 

In 2001, eager to bring new life to the original Gundam series from 1979, he started releasing the manga Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, which earned him another well-deserved Seiun Award as “Best Manga of the Year” in 2012. This manga also marked his comeback to animation in 2015, with its anime adaptation.

At the beginning, there was Mobile Suit Gundam

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko is the character designer of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, which aired in 1979 in Japan. He is, together with the director Yoshiyuki Tomino, and mecha designer Kunio Okawara, one of the original creators of the whole franchise. 

To fight against the Earth’s overpopulation, part of mankind migrated to space, to live into gigantic artificial structures called space colonies. This marked the beginning of a new calendar: Universal Century. 

Universal Century, year 0079. A space colony starts an independence war against the Earth Federation, calling itself the Principality of Zeon. Half of mankind dies in the first six months of the conflict. 

Far from the horrors of war, on a distant space colony, Amuro, a young boy, lives peacefully. But one day, his world collapses when Zeon forces attack the colony, and he steps into the Federation’s new prototype weapon: a Mobile Suit called “Gundam”. Forced to pilot it for his own survival and that of his friends, Amuro will get sucked into this war…

Mobile Suit Gundam was a pioneer in the Real Robot genre. Whereas robots and their pilots were previously depicted as superpowered and heroic forces, Mobile Suit Gundam takes a different, more grounded approach, portraying mechas as weapons of war and pilots as ordinary human beings. Mobile Suit Gundam stands out for its emphasis on the characters and their fears, anxieties and traumas of war. 

This series was the starting point of a franchise that now spans over 46 years.

But Yoshikazu Yasuhiko did not only work on the original series. He also served as a character designer on its direct sequel series, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985), as well as the Mobile Suit Gundam F91 movie (1991). You will also recognize his drawing style in Gundam Unicorn (2007 in novel, 2010 in animation), for which he drew the original characters.

Gundam: The Origin, back to the roots

From 2001 to 2011, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko published Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, a retelling of the original animated series in the form of a manga. 

But just calling this manga a retelling is not doing it justice. Gundam: The Origin slightly reworks the story, adds details, and essentially goes further than the original series, all the while remaining faithful to its tone and themes. It truly is a remastered and even more refined version of the 1979 series. 

Also from a graphic perspective, this manga is a masterpiece. You can already guess it from the covers: Yasuhiko’s unique style captures the soul of Char, Amuro, and all those other characters like nothing else. It actually is more than that: it does not capture them, it defines them. After all, weren’t they all designed by him in the first place ?

One of the most interesting elements added by the manga is Char’s origin story. In this extended flashback, Yasuhiko unfolds before our eyes the tragedy of Char’s past, and the deep roots that eventually caused the One Year War. It’s full of surprises and interesting references, brings many new perspectives, and really is a must-read for any Universal Century fan. 

This arc was so popular that it got adapted into 6 OAV to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Gundam franchise, the first one releasing in 2015. Those are absolute must-see, that perfectly follow the manga. And it’s no wonder, since they were all directed by Yasuhiko himself. 

Yasuhiko’s final love letter to Gundam (yet!) came in 2022, with the Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island movie, that he directed. This movie deeply reworks the story of one specific episode of the original series, which hadn’t been included into Gundam: The Origin.