MSA-0011 S Gundam
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Gundam
The is a metaseries of anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots called "Mobile Suits" ; usually the protagonist's MS will carry the name Gundam....
novel Gundam Sentinel
Gundam Sentinel
is a novel set in the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam universe, originally serialized in Model Graphix magazine between September 1987 and August 1988. Gundam Sentinel became a cult hit, due to its super-detailed mechanical designs and an intricate story by veteran writer Masaya Takahashi...
. It is not only piloted by the protagonist, but the onboard AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, A.L.I.C.E., is also one of its pilots.
MSA-0011 S Gundam
The MSA-0011 (MSZ-011) S Gundam (also called Superior Gundam, but its original name is the Supreme Gundam, codename: "Ι Gundam" (Iota Gundam) in the Greek letter Anaheim Gundam series), more frequently called the S Gundam, is an incredibly powerful Earth Federation ForcesEarth Federation
The is a fictional organization in the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam anime series. The name also made a reappearance outside of the Gundam series in following media.* Godzilla vs...
mobile suit. There were four units built, but only one has ever made an appearance in any story. The one appeared in Gundam Sentinel and in the story, send to the Taskforce Alpha battleship Pegasus III, where it was assigned to pilot Ryu Roots. Although the S Gundam had three separate cockpits, the other two were not used until the very end of the plot, where three pilots would be saved by the core block system (see below). Since its plans are highly classified, it is said in chapter 1, Revolt in Pezun, that the pilots have been only able to train in Z Plus B types, which are the highest performance transformable mobile suit they have access to.
The S Gundam is equipped with relatively heavier armour than its Z Plus cousin, which is specifically mentioned in the story (Chapter 2:Sally Forth! S Gundam) where the 2 Z Plus C1 accompanying the S Gundam in its booster configuration took more damage even though S Gundam was at a much higher acceleration when against enemy fire. To further confirm this point, the author mentions that the pilot cannot even bear to imagine what will happen if they are using Neros or GM IIIs in the same situation. Within the design notes, the offensive capabilities of the S Gundam featured a highly accurate beam smart gun, with 12MW power operating the beam smart gun normally, the unit can connect the beam smart gun to two extra power outlets on both left and right hips or the centre of its belly, to supply extra power that increases the beam smart gun up to 56MW. However, this will have to sacrifice the mounting of one of the two 12MW beam guns that are similar to the ones used in the Zeta Plus mobile suit series. Two beam cannons protruded from the S Gundam's backpack over the shoulders, and it also featured four 60 mm vulcans in the tail stabilizer and four 60 mm vulcan guns in the head, in which the mechanical designer, Katoki Hajime, specially took the problems of this weapon in the pass series into account, including the barrel length being too short which means the weapon can only have grenade launcher effects as well as no space for ammo, and lengthened the barrel (also the depth of the head of S Gundam) and introduced the liquid explosives electronic firing mechanism to the design, in which later retcon
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
ed earlier designs and is again mentioned in Gundam Officials, the Gundam Encyclopedia and Master Grade instructions. It also featured a red circular-shaped wire-guided remote beam weapon called an Incom that was stored in the forehead. And finally, to round out the S Gundam's weaponry, the unit featured two beam sabers stored in recharge racks in the small white protrusions in the unit's knees.
The S Gundam is built on a modular design, made up of two separate transformable units that could combine with a core fighter variant called the G Core to create the full S Gundam. The S Gundam was capable of separating into the 3 crafts. The G-Attacker (also referred to as the A Parts) is one of the crafts, which was made up of the upper torso area of the S Gundam. The second craft was called the G-Bomber (also referred to as the B Parts), which were composed of the lower torso and legs of the S Gundam. The G-Core core fighter, which were the C Parts of the S Gundam, was flown by Ryu Roots. The story used this mechanism as a make shift role for the task force alpha not having enough mobile suits for the battle and has to compromise by separating the S Gundam for 3 pilots in chapter 12, Pursuit. The author also made his own disbelieve in combining robots in the midst of battle into the plot, where S Gundam is forced to combine back into the mobile suit form and sacrifice of the 3 pilots' instructor was made by being their shield in order to buy them time for the combination in chapter 13, Triple Attack.
A.L.I.C.E.
The S Gundam in Gundam Sentinel featured a unique and incredibly complex artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
computer that went by the acronym
Acronym and initialism
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...
name A.L.I.C.E., which was developed by Ryu Roots' mother, Meith Roots. A.L.I.C.E., which stood for Advanced Logistic & Inconsequence Cognizing Equipment, was more than the standard learning computer featured in earlier mobile suits; "she" had the capability to think and to grow. The growth of ALICE is one of the main plot lines to the story, compared to the growth of the main character Ryu Roots. In "her" early stages of growth ALICE was not yet a full individual, but "her" experiences with Ryu Roots would help "her" to grow. ALICE is originally programmed to place the pilot(s) life as first priority, and could assume total control of the S Gundam if "she" felt that the unit was in danger. This function has been used throughout the plot to save the pilot's life and caused confusion to the pilot since Ryu Roots has no knowledge of ALICE's existence even towards the very end of the story.
Although 4 S Gundams have been produced, it is known that the other 3 S Gundams do not have the ALICE system installed on it.
Variants
According to ModelGraphix Special edition "GUNDAM WARS III" Gundam Sentinel, and the Gundam Fix Figuration #0013 box description, the mechanical designer Katoki Hajime mentioned that MSA-0011 S Gundam's equipment is numbered by the three different types.- equipment for the normal S is 1XX
- equipment for Ex-S is 2XX
- equipment for S[Bst] is 3XX
- rest is 4XX
Although there is no actual numbering for any equipment in the story, there is but one equipment that appears in Model Graphix Gundam WARS III: Gundam Sentinel (aka Sentinel Variations) that have a number attach to it.
MSA-0011[Ext] Ex-S Gundam
The Ex-S Gundam is an upgrade plan (Plan 20X series) of the S Gundam. By adding armour parts on the legs and I-Field generator in front of the cockpit compartment, the Ex-S is aimed to put the pilot's life in priority. It also improved its weapon systems, and replaced the backpack with 2 booster units. The Ex-S Gundam took a step closer to what it was originally designed for, both in real-life and in plot, the ultimate mobile suit of the time. In the interview of Katoki Hajime in ModelGraphix Special edition "GUNDAM WARS III" Gundam Sentinel, the editor questioned him about why the I-Field generator only covering the cockpit area instead of the whole mobile suit, which he claimed to be of power shortage reasons in the design notes; Katoki's real reason for the design is that he thinks it is not interesting to have the unit so mighty powerful, yet he also admits that Ex-S is already too powerful as is. The author took a new look at the powerful suit, he only placed the Ex-S in one battle, featured in chapter 8, Battle of Aires, (Ex-S made its debut in the very end of chapter 7, Eagle Fall, labelling Ex-S as S Gundam's most powerful equipment) and the parts would be destroyed in the battle by G-V (Gundam Mk-V) and the Ryu Roots would be saved by ALICE over-riding the controls of the unit. By doing so, the author again expressed what he did in chapter 2 and chapter 3, where pilots have in turn ironically doubted either their skills are useless against technology while others doubted technology could be over turned by piloting skills.The Ex-S Gundam is also capable of undergoing a transformation into a waverider mode, like its predecessors Z Gundam
Z Gundam
The MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam, designed by Kazumi Fujita, is a fictional weapon of the anime Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam from the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam metaseries. Its popularity has led to many variations, upgrades, redesigns and influenced later design works such as the Zeta Plus and the...
and ZZ Gundam
ZZ Gundam
The MSZ-010 ΖΖ Gundam , designed by Makoto Kobayashi, is a fictional weapon from the Universal Century timeline of the anime Gundam metaseries. Its popularity has led to many variations, upgrades, redesigns and influenced later design works such as S Gundam...
in the same project. Unlike the S Gundam, which divided into three separate components, the Ex-S Gundam re-combined into one large unit called the G-Cruiser. Ex-S Gundam can travel in this mode whenever it needed to travel over a great distance to conserve the propellant for use in actual combat situations. The G-Cruiser also has two large propellant tanks mounted in the front over the Ex-S Gundam's shoulders. These extra tanks can be jettisoned when the G-Cruiser would reach the battlefield and transform into the Ex-S Gundam. This mode is only used for a brief period during chapter 8 of Gundam Sentinel but the mechanical designer has detailed transformation design notes in ModelGraphix Special edition "GUNDAM WARS III" Gundam Sentinel.
The Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
Modelling Company G-system has built a 1/35 Ex-S Gundam garage kit which costs US$2250 and weights 44kg. According to an interview from Model Kit World, a Hong Kong modeling magazine, the kit took 4 years to build and is actually more like 1/28 (80 cm/21.73m = 1/27 by math, 1/28 is a more common modeling scale) since the head was made slightly bigger than the original scale in the very beginning and they are too lazy to rebuild it at that time. This has haunted them from that point on until even after the final completion because not only the whole thing became bigger, they also found it extremely hard to fit some of the parts into the car to move it into the studio to take photos for Model Kit World, promotion posters and official web page.
MSA-0011[Bst] S Gundam Booster Unit Type
In chapter 2, Sally Forth, the S Gundam is equipped with the booster configuration, in which the B Parts (legs) and backpack would be replaced with 4 booster units. The code for the plan is later retconned as Plan 3XX series in the Gundam Sentinel special edition along with the Plan 303E Deep Striker. The unit is extremely useful in assault missions; the story made it clear that its acceleration is so great that it created doubts in the hearts of the expert pilots of New Desides, originally trainers and instructors, and even made them doubt whether their skills are so useless against the technologically advanced suit. The S Gundam Booster configuration had the highest acceleration (9.72G) in all mobile suits losing only to V2 Gundam's 20G suicidal acceleration, and is literally able to make the pilot wet his pants in the story, earning Ryu Roots the name Pants Wetting Hero for 2 chapters.MSA-0011[Bst] S Gundam Booster Unit Type Plan 303E "Deep Striker"
According to Katoki Hajime from the above sources, the MSA-0011[Bst] Plan 303E "Deep Striker" is one of the configuration of MSA-0011[Bst] S Gundam Booster Unit Type.The Plan 303E Deep Striker equipment was never used, however. If it was, it would have been one of the most powerful equipment ever installed on a mobile suit. Designed to allow the S Gundam to strike deep inside enemy's territory with minimal support, it was thus equipped with four large booster backpacks: two of them replace the original's smaller backpack, like the Ex-S configuration, while its legs are replaced by six more thrusters (basically a normal booster pack with an extra thruster nozzle attachment, each containing 3 thrusters nozzles, a large thermo-nuclear generator and numerous propellant tanks), like the S[Bst] configuration.
In addition to its booster packs, it was also equipped with the following equipments:
- I-Field generator, provide full protection by covering all of the unit. Its position was placed further ahead as to allow full coverage
- A mega particle cannon which is stripped from an Irish Class Battle Cruiser's Main Gun; supplemented by a radome on the cannon's left; both mounted on the back over shoulder.
- A 56MW output power Beam Smartgun (already employed in S Gundam and EX-S Gundam) reinforced by a special cooling unit for rapid firing.
- 2 improved beam cannon, mounted in the hardpoints of leg boosters, allowing mid to close range defense
- long range multi-sensor, capable of detecting many hidden enemies as it cruises forward
Because of the heavy equipments the Plan 303E Deep Striker needs to carry with is a lot of propellant to increase the available combat time, thus reducing its acceleration by 30% as compared to MSA-0011[Bst] S Gundam Booster Unit Type
MSA-0011 S Gundam
The MSA-0011 S Gundam is a prototype transformable mobile suit that appears in the Gundam novel Gundam Sentinel. It is not only piloted by the protagonist, but the onboard AI, A.L.I.C.E., is also one of its pilots.- MSA-0011 S Gundam :...
.
It could be identified as the retcon improvement unit of RX-78 GP-03 Dendrobium's concept in the Universal Century
Universal Century
is the original timeline of the Gundam anime metaseries. The official English name U.C. is often used instead in recent production like MS Igloo and Master Grade model instructions and official pages is the original timeline of the Gundam anime metaseries. The official English name U.C....
timeline, which was designed by Katoki Hajime 3 years later in real-life. The next of the line would be V2 Gundam Assault Buster Type, although it did not follow the Mobile Armour concept. These designs were equipped with a Battle Cruiser class mega particle cannon and overwhelming fire power along with I-Field Barrier Generators. Although vaguely similar designs were produced by Kunio Okawara in M-MSV as the RX-78-7, FA-78-3 and FHA-78-3, these weapons lack the Mobile Armour concept and did not resemble the anti-fortress theme of Katoki's designs, which left little to defend Okawara. As for the V2, it was technologically feasible during its time to place anti-fortress armaments on a mobile suit.
This unit first appeared in Model Graphix Gundam WARS III: Gundam Sentinel (aka Sentinel Variations) A 1/100 garage kit
Garage kit
A garage kit or resin kit is an assembly scale model kit most commonly cast in polyurethane resin. They are often figures portraying humans or other living creatures. In Japan, kits often depict anime characters, and in the United States depictions of movie monsters are common...
was built for the picture in this version. Later, a smaller version was produced within the Gundam fix figuration
Gundam fix figuration
The Gundam FIX Figuration series of collectible figures was started based on the Gundam mechanical designs of Hajime Katoki and his 'Gundam FIX' illustration artbook and are released by Tamashii, a Bandai's characters based toys line...
#0013. Hong Kong modelling company G-system has created 2 1/100 conversion garage kit for the Master Grade Ex-S Gundam to be convert into a Plan 303E Deep Striker. And have entered at least 2 Dengeki Gundam Model competition with the 1/100 Plan 303E in Hong Kong.
Beam Smart Gun
The Beam Smart Gun, a beam rifle capable of hitting a target without the barrel necessarily pointed in the right direction, is equipped on the B-parts (G-Bomber) when S Gundam is separated into three parts. With an extended booster unit installed on the G-core, it can also equip the Beam Smart Gun in mobile suit mode as well.Booster Unit
The booster unit is introduced in ModelGraphix Special edition "GUNDAM WARS III" Gundam Sentinel as an optional equipment plan for S Gundam and related development plans. It essentially is two ultra-compact thermo-nuclear generator along with two thermo-nuclear thrusters packed together. Each contained a connection point on one side for connecting to the main unit and 2 hard points on the opposite side as power outlets for beam cannons. The top (opposite side of nozzles) side contained to white covers which can be removed and act as extra propellant inlets. This unit is also used on the Z Plus C1[Bst] Hummingbird and the core booster [extended] configuration.Conformal Pack
The conformal pack is an upgrade to the booster unit used in Plan 303E Deep Striker. It increased the number of generators and thrusters pair to three (thus an extra nozzle), and can connect to a drop-type propellant tank.Real Life design problems
According to the interview notes of the author and mechanical designer, although the project started as a joint effort between Model Graphix and Bandai (meaning it is an official story) it was difficult to get approval of the Supreme Gundam lineart. At Bandai great people (エライ人) thought that it did not look like a gundam at all. Katoki dealt with the problem simply by painting the S Gundam with the traditional white, blue, red, yellow color scheme and presented it at next meeting. Bandai officials then referred to it as more gundam-like. Bandai showed little interest after the first planning stages and offered as little support as possible going forward. They seemed to think of the Model Graphix project team as an annoyance due to their belief that a novelization would have poor visual qualities. They thought the novelization would not sell well and focused on the development of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's CounterattackMobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack
is a 1988 anime film set in Gundam's Universal Century timeline of Gundam, specifically U.C. 0093.Making its theatrical debut on March 12, 1988, Char's Counterattack is the culmination of the original saga begun in Mobile Suit Gundam and continued through Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Mobile Suit...
. Because information of the planned work was released to the public along with the designs of S Gundam, some fans started to speculate that S Gundam was a fake or possibly the work of fan fiction. Newtype
Newtype (magazine)
is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime and manga . It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985 with its April issue, and has since seen regular release on the 10th of every month in its home country...
magazine editors felt sorry for the Model Graphix project team, and had a full Gundam Sentinel, the battle of real Gundam coverage subtitled This is the real thing! in order to question Bandai's official lack of support. This improved the publicity of S Gundam, and the Sentinel project in general, forcing Bandai to display a model for the S Gundam along with the ν Gundam's model in the 1988 game show.
Sources
- ModelGraphix Special edition "GUNDAM WARS III" Gundam Sentinel. ISBN 4-499-20530-1