Print Review: Gundam Ecole Du Ciel volumes 1-3

Review Gundam Ecole Du Ciel volumes 1-3Written by WarpshadowRating very good/ excellent

Gundam has been a mecha juggernaut for decades with several great anime works. Ecole Du Ciel shows that the Gundam magic works with manga as well.

Asuna Elmearit is a student at Ecole Du Ciel a military academy to train mobile suit pilots. She is having a difficult time at the academy and is known as the class loser. Yet she perseveres for the sake of her mother who was abandoned by Asuna's father, a Zeon scientist suspected of war crimes. Even if Asuna does manage to master the use of a mobile suit like will not be easy for the tides of time are flowing towards war and being a space-born person working for the federation is not an enviable position.

Although I have heard the name Haruhiko Mikimoto dropped a couple of times I never really understood why he was so revered until I read this manga. The artwork in Ecole Du Ciel is not simply good (although it is that) but a work that is expressive and inventive in a way that manga rarely is. This manga is worked seamlessly into Gundam's Universal Century time line although previous experience with the continuity is not needed. In fact the plot favors character interaction from a female lead making this manga accessible to those that usually don't touch anything with giant robots. When robot fighting does occur it is well drawn so those that usually do touch things with giant robots will enjoy it too. In short Ecole Du Ciel is a manga that too good for the amount of buzz it receives.