Review: MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: ECOLE DU CIEL

Of course, there's more to Gundam manga than tossed-off adaptations of the actual shows.  There are loads of manga-exclusive spinoffs, although the vast majority of them have not reached our shores.  Today's review is one of those rare exceptions, and a UC continuity one no less.

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: ECOLE DU CIEL (Kido Senshi Gundamu: Ekooru dyu Shieru), based on the series by Hajime Yatate & Yoshiyuki Tomino, with art by Haruhiko Mikimoto, mechanic design by Yoshinori Sayama, & produced by OUTASIGHT.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

It is UC Year 0085, and Asuna is starting her first year in pilot training at Ecole du Ciel.  Sadly, Asuna is at the bottom of class.  She struggles with learning the controls as well as social scorn.  That's bound to happen when your father was not only a Zeon sympathizer, but also expects you to be the perfect pilot from the day you were born.  Just as Asuna is finding her place with her peers, they are put into some seriously non-simulated danger by forces outside their control.  It will now take all their skill to survive.