”How many dreams will you achieve? How much love will you know?”
Creative Staff:
Story and Art: Yasuo Ohtagaki
Original Concept: Hajime Yatate and Yoshiyuki Tomino
Translation: Joe Yamazaki
English Adaptation: Stan!
Touch-up Art & Lettering: Evan Waldinger
Cover & Design: Shawn Carrico
Editing: Mike Montesa
What They Say:
“Only the dead know the end of war.” –Plato
The Federation attack on the Zeon fleet in the Thunderbolt sector is a bloody fiasco as Io Fleming leads a squadron of inexperienced young pilots into the teeth of the Zeon defenses. Desperate, the Federation throws even the maintenance crews into the fray. Casualties mount as the two fleets clash, and Fleming and his Zeon rival, Daryl Lorenz, engage deep in the ruins of one of the space colonies. Shattered and driven by memories of the past and all they’ve lost, their duel resonates with the fierce emotions of both sides in this deadly conflict.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
From the start of Gundam Thunderbolt volume 3, you’re dropped in the middle of the action, rife with bodies dropping and unapologetic technobabble in a hectic, fast-paced space war among two opposing factions. It’s a far cry from the previous volume’s character-centric backstories and can be difficult to follow at times, but it’s been a long way coming and I’m sure the spectacle is something old-school Gundam fans have been anticipating for some time. That’s not to say that the gun fights and robot-punching takes priority to the characters themselves, but it definitely feels like the balance between action and dialogue has shifted.
Regardless, the volume’s earlier action-oriented scenes do have their payoff in more than a simple, shallow manner. Specifically, we see Cornelius among the other less fighter-prone crew members on the front lines leading his Federation brethren into Zeon territory. Upon actually facing the soldiers they’ve been opposing, however, it becomes clear just how hopeless both sides have gotten—equally war-weary by this point and unwilling to fight. It’s in these brief moments of dialogue that the volume begins to pick up the pace—humanizing the unnamed characters of both factions not with an ultra-detailed backstory but with the simple reaction of being tired of war to the point of no longer caring and eventually culminating in one of the series’ more shatteringly depressing scenes involving people whose names you don’t even learn.
This leads perfectly into the battle between Io and Daryl—still ongoing from last volume. Having faced off against each other before, the two have become that much more desperate to finish the fight for very different reasons. The volume makes a point to draw parallels not only between Io and Daryl, but to their romantic interests as well. In Io’s case, it’s Claudia’s defeatist attitude that surges him forward—willing to sacrifice his humanity and embrace the feral nature of war for the sake of victory. In Daryl’s case, however, the eventual love he finds with Karla and the hope that the two may one day live in a world together in peace keeps him fighting. It’s in this disconnect—Io fighting for the present, while Daryl fights for the future—that the drama further unfolds and their fight between Gundam and Zaku holds that much more emotional impact. The fact that you’re led into believing one side’s advantage only to soon be proven wrong by the volume’s end only better brings the drama home, resulting in a satisfying end to the series’ first arc.
In Summary:
Although a shaky start with a full-on space war filled with technobabble, Gundam Thunderbolt volume 3 finishes off the series’ first arc spectacularly. While the final fight between Io and Daryl ends in a draw, you really feel how equally defeated yet hopeful the two parties are, the manga’s creative team bringing about the enemies’ similarities and differences so perfectly—the two seemingly stuck in an endless stalemate until the end of days.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: T+
Released By: Viz Signature
Release Date: May 16, 2017
MSRP: $14.99
