Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt vol. 9

Seeing the Spartan arrive at the Rig in the final pages of the previous volume was a clear indication that things were going to hit the fan in vol. 9.  That’s exactly what happens here with some pretty spectacular and morally ambiguous action.  We see things mainly through the eyes of the civilians caught in the crossfire between the Federation and Nanyang forces.  Just about all of these individuals have had some of their limbs replaced with robotic parts and they use them to save everyone they can.  Thanks to his powers as a Newtype, Sojo Levan Fu is aware of their efforts and guides them, along with sympathetic Zeon officer Fisher, to an underground section where they’ll be able to escape in a sub with mobile suit escort.  They’ll just have to get past the Federation blockade along with its Gundam if they want to survive.

Mangaka Yasuo Ohtagaki really goes all-out with the action in the volume’s first half as he makes the assault on and escape from the Rig a thrilling experience.  His focus on the human efforts of the escape and the ingenuity behind them makes it easy for the reader to sympathize with and get involved with their efforts. The same goes for the sub’s efforts to escape the blockade, which delivers the volume’s requisite dose of mecha action with aplomb.  However, things start to become murky when you realize that the people attacking these civilians are those we’ve been asked to sympathize with since the start of this arc. They’ve got good reasons for doing so — the individuals on the subs will likely become the new pilots for Nanyang’s Psycho Zakus — but the perspective of this volume has them coming off as the bad guys.  It’s an interesting experience more than a distracting one since no one in the Federation is acting out of character. The best “Gundam” stories get you to question the morality of all sides in a conflict and this volume is a particularly good example of that.