Gundam: Reconguista in Context

A lot of discussion has been taking place recently about Yoshiyuki Tomino’s new Gundam series Reconguista in G, but many have mentioned that there is a lack of elaboration on the setting within the series at this point.  However, a number of details have emerged through interviews, conferences and publications, along with information from currently broadcast episodes, that have helped to shed light on many subjects within this production, and details regarding the relationship of G Reco to other productions within the Gundam franchise.

In this article, I would like to do what I can to outline and expand upon what is known about G Reco in America, going over events, terms, and assorted details, then extrapolating possibilities about the nature of this new Gundam series based on them, while taking into account the greater chronology that G Reco is associated with.

Foundation and History of the Regild Century

“The long reign of the Earth Federation is finally facing an end.  The people on Earth find themselves in a period of chaos.”

Victory Gundam – DVD Cover excerpt

To start, let’s briefly cover the period of time taking place after the series Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino’s final entry into the Universal Century timeline, and immediately before the change between the Universal Century and Regild Century calendar systems.

During the period of Victory Gundam, which occurs over a century and a half after mankind establishes a unified world government and constructs permanent habitats in outer space, we see the effectiveness of the Earth Federation, the principal power throughout the Universal Century, undergo further deterioration to the point where its collapse is more or less considered inevitable.  Evidence of this is presented within the series as the League Militaire, a collection of resistance cells comprised of civilians, is the major driving force against the Zanscare Empire fighting against the Federation, with the government itself able to provide very limited support in its cooperation with the civilian resistance, incapable of fielding an effective countermeasure against Zanscare on its own.

After the events of Victory Gundam, what happens is largely left up to speculation.  The live action film G-Saviour provides us with some details as to the nature of the Earth Federation’s disestablishment, and it, Gaia Gear, and other assorted works provide us with various, and at times conflicting accounts as to what transpires within Gundam afterwards.  However, the legitimacy of these works are at best questionable within what could be called the primary framework of Gundam, so for the purposes of this writing, they will not be taken into account.  What is known, however, will be described within the next section.

GUNDAM ACE: What sort of changes took place from the Universal Century to the Regild Century?

TOMINO: When the Universal Century ended, what happened in its final days – I don’t know these things. You’ll have to ask the history scholars of the Regild Century.

Following Tomino’s last entry of the Universal Century, the vague picture we can infer from what little information we are provided begins to look quite grim.  Despite the statements mentioned above made by Tomino in an interview of Gundam Ace, he goes on to mention in this same article and in an interview within issue #3 of this year’s Toys up! magazine pieces of information that, while not explicitly stating what happens during the final moments of the Universal Century, provide us with an impression of the severity within the setting.

During or after the fall of the Earth Federation, conflicts that occur at the end of the U.C. era are so devastating that the space colonies become “trash”, and the environment on the Earth becomes ravaged to the point that it takes hundreds of years for the planet to undergo visible signs of recovery, with over ninety percent of humanity having been lost in the wars taking place before the Universal Century comes to a close.  The death toll could be even higher than that, if we take into consideration that over a thousand years of growth has occurred over the course of the Regild Century to achieve these population values when making a comparison.  In addition, statements derived from a Gundam Exhibition catalog containing an interview with Tomino have provided horrific descriptions regarding a portion of humanity referred to as the Kuntala. These people were used as a food source as humanity began to teeter on the brink of extinction, resorting to cannibalism in their most desperate moments.  Tomino has stated that the Kuntala serve as a representation of  “The problem of racism, the horrors of the collapse of society, and the depths of human sin.”

As a result of these factors, among a number of others, the Universal Century comes to a violent end, but somehow, miraculously, the species manages to avoid complete destruction, and after the conclusion of this era, the Regild Century is born. This is a period of time in which humanity is dedicated to recovering and rebuilding from the severe losses that have occurred in previous wars within the Earth Sphere, and the era in which Reconguista in G takes place.

GUNDAM ACE: The Regild Century is a setting with a taboo around the development of technological systems from the Universal Century. But the Universal Century also depicts nuclear issues…

TOMINO: Nuclear energy is completely taboo.  This isn’t just limited to nuclear; the development of science and technology promotes consumption as well, and for that reason, the Universal Century was an era that exhausted the Earth’s resources. The majority of mankind on this starved Earth died off, and the few that survived spent long months and years across a millennium to achieve a revival on the Earth’s surface. Basically, the Regild Century is a mere shadow of what the Universal Century was.

The Regild Century begins with construction efforts focused on the Capital Tower, a renovated orbital elevator system carried over from the Universal Century that is composed of many parts, providing a conduit between the Earth and outer space, enabling a transfer of resources in material, energy, and personnel.  Components of the Capital Tower include the B-Clover, the mobile base of the installation which the Capital Territory is concentrated around, the Crowns, gondolas in the shape of golden spheres that travel along the elevator’s cables, transporting people and goods, and Nuts, a series of over 140 stations made in a variety of sizes that are located at various points along the umbilical cable of the Capital Tower.  These structures appear to be used as fasteners, much as the name implies, maintaining the structure of the orbital elevator as the Earth rotates, and for adjusting their position in relation to the tower when needed, utilizing Minovsky Craft systems located on their undersides in order to make these adjustments.

In the first years of the Regild Century, construction efforts are focused on the portion located in outer space, with much of humanity relocating their homes along the Capital Tower so as not to interfere in the process of nature’s recovery on the Earth.  The few Spacenoids, in this case, residents of outer space that managed to survive the conflicts of the Universal Century, begin construction of an installation on the far side of the moon by means of repurposing debris from space colonies that are irreversibly damaged or destroyed, forming what comes to be known as the Towasanga.  Construction of another installation is also occurring around Venus, which becomes known as the Venus Globe, a giant disc suspended in space, spanning a hundred kilometers in diameter, filled with water.  From what little is known, Tomino conceived of the setting based on the idea that humanity needs to have access to a body of water when away from the Earth as a means of maintaing psychological health…and apparently, to be used as an artistic asset for depicting submarines in outer space!

After a time, humanity begins to spread across the Earth again, forming independent nations that span continents such as Ameria (North America), Gondowon (Europe), and Izanel (Africa), tied together by an interdependent resource based economy.  This system relies upon the operation of the Capital Tower that is located in South America, with material obtained on the Earth being needed by those residing in space, and energy collected in space being shipped back to the Earth.  After the immense loss in resources from the destruction of the vast majority of Space Colonies, and the logistical impracticalities of extracting materials from the Moon and other space-based sources, surviving Spacenoids are not yet able to achieve sustainable living conditions.  In exchange for resources given to residents in space, containment units and supplies of a new source of energy to replace nuclear power, known as Photon Batteries, are provided.  The batteries are constructed and replenished in outer space; Based on conceptual art, photovoltaic arrays appear to be illustrated around multiple Nuts for the purpose of power collection.  Photon Batteries are approximately the size of a notebook, and have the ability to power a mobile suit for a week before replenishment.

This interdependency has developed to the point where the acquisition of Photon Batteries from space has resulted in the Capital Tower being viewed as a sacred structure, with a religious order developing around the process of this resource exchange, managing the allocation of Photon Battery power to other regions on the earth.  The Capital has also implemented restrictions on scientific and technological development in certain areas to prevent the violence that erupted from the Universal Century from once again taking place, which is known as the Ag-Tech Taboo.

Violations of this cycle of reciprocity and restriction of scientific advancement are considered heresy, an attempt to break the restrictions humanity placed upon itself for its own protection. This leads us to the current state of affairs depicted within Reconguista in G over a thousand years after the establishment of the Regild Century calender, with the Amerian government expressing a desire to break the taboo of energy infrastructure prohibition, wishing to begin construction of its own solar power systems, and initiating proxy incursions into the Capital Territory through pirate forces.  How this conflict will continue to play out, however, remains to be seen within the series and other related media.

Speculation and Possibilities

With all of this being said, there are a few conclusions that we can come to regarding connections between the different eras separated by calendar systems within the primary Gundam setting.  They may be conclusions that do not end up being correct, or do not provide a substantially explicit connection between elements, but given information that has been presented, they are conclusions that can certainly be arrived at with a reasonable degree of confidence.

For now, let us discuss the lack of space colonies in eras after the Universal Century, the nature of the Towasanga in G Reco, the Sackträger from Turn A Gundam, and what conclusions we can come to about these items.

GUNDAM ACE: What happened to the space colonies of the Universal Century era?

TOMINO: They’re all trash. However, that trash was recovered and used to build a new colony, and somehow there are some surviving humans living there. That’s Towasanga, the colony on the other side of the moon.

Based upon Tomino’s description of the end of the Universal Century, this period of history could have been, at least in part, the “Armageddon” lasting hundreds of years described in Turn A Gundam.  It may also be during this time that the massive emigration of colonies into interstellar space takes place that is described in Turn A, after a significant decline in the condition of the Earth Sphere and the destruction of a considerable number of space colonies, though it is entirely possible that this emigration could proceed in a different direction as depicted in the brief synopsis of the Dark History, taking place after the close of the Universal Century instead of before it.

This alternate direction could be derived from what is known about the Ring of Gundam project, which, as stated by Shin Sasaki at Animazement earlier this year, contributed to the foundation of what ended up becoming Reconguista in G.

“The foundation of the ring colony was bedded with nano robots, and over several hundreds of years, it grew into a ring shape more than five-hundred kilometers in diameter. These were the historic ruins of the Universal Century…It’s said that the Ring Colony was a ship to sail to a younger solar system beyond our own.”

Ring of Gundam – Summary Excerpt

Within Ring of Gundam, we are provided with images of a enormous ring colony that, based upon the description of its construction, is built from materials obtained from the remnants of space colonies that were destroyed in the Universal Century, a scenario that sounds similar to how the Towasanga is constructed.

Could the Towasanga be derived from the colony in Ring of Gundam?  If so, could the exodus of the spacenoids described within Turn A Gundam occur at some point within the Regild Century by means of the ring colony, instead of at the end of the Universal Century by means of an assorted group of Island 3 shaped habitats as initially depicted?  This could explain why all of the space colonies in the Universal Century are said to be destroyed, with no mention of a collection of habitats escaping for the outer reaches of the Solar System and beyond.

Another connection that can be observed is between the Capital Tower system and the structure in Turn A Gundam known as the Sackträger, a space tether thousands of kilometers long. Based on descriptions of the structure within the animation and in diagrams, the object functions independently, yet apparently has a relationship with a once intact orbital elevator system.  The Sackträger operates as a rotating skyhook for assisting in the transportation of spacecraft, with vehicles on the earth reaching the tether with the assistance of a mass driver.

How does the Sackträger have a relationship to Reconguista in G?  The primary evidence that would demonstrate a connection would be the general location of the installation as indicated on a map in the book Turn A Gundam: The Memory of the First Wind, in which the Sackträger is assigned a general location around the northern portion of the South American continent.  This corresponds with the given location of the Capital Territory on the official website for G Reco and other published material, which states that the area is located in “The northern part of the Elraid continent, an area that contacts the Amazon River basin from the Caribbean Sea.”

The Sackträger may have been used in order to transport humans from the Earth to specific locations in outer space before certain adjustments or repairs were made to the orbital elevator system during the renovation process.  This skyhook, or a similar facility, may also be required to transport spacecraft to destinations that demand specific trajectories within G Reco’s current setting; Perhaps the Venus Globe may be one of them.  Given that the Sackträger revolves around the Earth, it may be possible that it exists within Reconguista in G, but we have not yet seen it pass by the Capital Tower during its period of revolution. It may also have been built in conjunction with the disassembly of the Capital Tower, a possibility that will be discussed in the next section, or it may not yet have been built at the current time. It is also entirely possible that the Sackträger will not be an element of influence within G Reco; I can only speculate!

Descriptions of a structure known only as the “Ades Tree”, as well as the Sackträger’s relationship to this tree as a component of it, a “Branch of Ades”, should also be taken into consideration when we imagine the influence this installation could potentially have on how the story of Reconguista in G will transpire.  In Turn A Gundam, a tribe referring to themselves as the People of Adeska reside near a nonoperational mass driver, formerly used to deliver ships from the Earth to the Sackträger skyhook.  Their mythology is heavily driven by events revolving around the connection between Earth and outer space provided by the Ades Tree and the Branch of Ades, described as a bridge between the world of the heavens and the earth, a function that would also be served by an orbital elevator.  This connection between the sky and the ground is explained in further detail by the leader of the Adeskan people:

“The world formed thanks to the tree which connected the worlds of the land and the sky…However, on that fateful day in which the sky burned red, the world changed.  With the Ades tree at the center, the giants from the sky reached the world on the ground, the giants on the ground reached the world in the sky, and there, they fought one another.  Because of this, the ground was soon covered with disease…our ancestors wanted to save the goddess of the ground, and so they used the power of the giants to cut down the Tree of Ades.”

Quoatl – Turn A Gundam

Based on this account, a conclusion could be drawn that the Ades Tree is the Capital Tower, with the formation of the world as a result of the Ades Tree being interpreted as an allusion to the restoration of nature on Earth being made possible through the resource exchange system that developed around the tower.  The Sackträger and the Ades Tree are considered holy, sacred objects, as is the Capital Tower within Reconguista in G.

In addition, conflicts are described to arise at a future point between the Earth and outer space, fought with what would seem to be mobile suits, with the Earth’s environment suffering the consequences.  The most recent episode of Reconguista in G has hinted at this possibility with a description of the purpose behind the formation of the Capital Army being to defend against an unspecified threat from outer space, but this unknown danger may be clarified somewhat with information obtained through Ring of Gundam, given that it has served as a building block for G Reco. In it, the last remnants of war criminals from the Universal Century act as a space-based threat.  If this is indeed the case, then the return of a Universal Century power would severely undermine the recovery efforts, resource control, and ideology established by the Capital, encouraging the development of an effective military response.

Following this development, the conflict between Earth and outer space powers would reach a point where the only solution to prevent further environmental damage would be to dismantle or destroy the orbital elevator system, leaving the skyhook intact as an option if travel between the Earth and outer space was ever required.  With all of this being said, I can only wonder:  Will another massive conflict take place within Reconguista in G, in which the end result is the collapse of the Capital Tower?

Final Thoughts

It may be that implicit connections such as these are intended to be made by the viewer to form a clearer picture of how the greater tapestry of Gundam is woven, but I think it is also too premature to come to these conclusions with absolute certainty, given that the G Reco has only just begun, and we still have a considerable amount of content to be exposed to, not just through the animated production, but through a variety of other works and sources of information that can supplement the story being told.

Nonetheless, from what is known, and what can be derived from what we know, a very engaging portrait of Reconguista in G, and by extension, Gundam at large, can be painted, and it’s certainly very colorful!

Thanks go to Eric Kortschak, and users Balofo and Deacon Blues of MAHQ for translated information provided.