Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, Vol. 1 (1) Paperback – November 15, 2016

Thunderbolt finally makes its way to the US hot off the heels of the animated adaptation. The book itself is a bit larger than older Gundam mangas and has some nice glossy, colored pages scattered sparingly. Not much for extras aside from some nice illustrations in the beginning. The story takes place in late 0079 where the heavily contested Thunderbolt Sector is being protected by Zeon snipers call the Living Dead Division; a group made up of amputee MS pilots. Their enemies are the Federation forces backed by the Moore Brotherhood who are trying to take over the sector to cut off Zeon supply lines. Io Fleming is the top Feddie pilot and he goes up against Darryl Lorenz and his sniper team. After a devastating loss to Io, Darryl makes it his mission to take down the jazz-loving pilot. But the Moore Brotherhood supplies Io with a prototype Full Armor Gundam to help him take the sector!Overall a great start to the story and it fleshes out the characters much more than the anime adaptation does. We get to see a unique take on MS designs and lots of neat details for world-building within the story. Overall a very enjoyable manga and I can’t wait to dive into the rest!

Gundam Thunderbolt has been the only manga I have read. Manga has just never been my cup of tea. I've watched a few of the shows and been very put off by kids in these mobile suits just somehow born with the gift of being a pilot. Until I stumbled upon December sky. After watching the DVD I got the manga. I was hooked. Transfixed by the way combat was brought into an anime and the constant dynamics elements of when an operation takes place. I went ahead and bought all remaining volumes (12 at the time of writing this) after reading this first volume. The artwork even though in black and white can really be appreciated. It falls right in line with the story telling and captures the true horrors of combat and the after affects. If you have seen the movie this is still awesome because we get just a tiny bit more that adds to the overall story. Since I have read all 17 volumes so far I can say that the entire series as a whole has been a fantastic read. That being said you will encounter some times of corniness but it only lasts a few pages here and there. The reason I mention the corniness is that this is an adult book through and through with scenes of nudity intertwined with brutal and violent scenes. So it was a little odd to get some playful banter in there. Just thought I'd throw out a review for both the first volume and the rest as well.

Another great Gundam manga gets an English language release, and it's a biggie. Thunderbolt is a very gritty war story about one particular sector of action during the One Year War, and it's good. The story is tightly told and the art is fantastic. I don't want to say much about the story itself because spoilers are a disservice to it. Oh and much like Gundam The Origin this manga is really not for kids.The presentation Viz has go with is pretty much exactly the same as the Japanese Tankōbon, right down to retaining the color pages! The paper stock is pretty good, not as good as The Origin's which used high quality gloss stock throughout, which Thunderbolt only uses in the color sections. The tactile feeling of the cover of the volume is also quite pleasant and feels like it will last.

I love Gundam

Amazing art work and the quality of this volume is above expectations. The story can be read without any prior knowledge of the gundam universe which is great since this was a nice entry point for me. This story is character driven as the two main rival pilots are the main focus of this series... i will put up the rest of this series

Author and illustrator Yasuo Ohtagaki brings us the opening chapter in the Thunderbolt saga. During the Federation Zeon war of Universal Century 0079 and during the late stages of that war the Thunderbolt sector also known as Side 4 was destroyed by Zeon forcing the families and the Moore Brotherhood to join with the Federation to take back their home sector. On one mission Ensign Io goes out in a full armored GM and while the rest of his wing is being shot down by a Zeon sniper he loses his mech but finds a way to take one of the Zeon mechs for himself. That act makes his stand out and be chosen for one of the prototype Gundams that the Federation forces have come up with. He then takes the Gundam into battle and goes up against that same sniper again. This is a great opening to the Thunderbolt side series and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I highly recommend this book for all mech and Gundam fans.

Excellent start to Ohtagaki's Thunderbolt manga, it deviates from the standard UC timeline, but all for the right reasons.

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