2022 Contest: The Final Round (Patreon)

It's finally time!

Entry #4, a comedy about the self-sabotaging antics of Zeon's mobile suit designers stampeded through the semifinal round, but can it maintain that streak, or will the opposition rally around dark horse contender #25? This epic tale of how Amuro's famous Haro wound up on the moon waiting to be discovered by Kamille dominated in the preliminary round but only narrowly escaped a three way draw in the semis. Now the final battle is at hand. On the line? A fabulous Grand Prize bundle and eternal glory.  

Once voting concludes, we'll let you know which entries took home the judges prizes (picked by Nina & Thom personally) and which was favored by fortune. 

The Contenders

#4: Untitled workplace comedy

The episode is a comedy about the Zeon mobile suit designers, taking place over the entirety of the OYW, as they are forced to come up with more and more ludicrous designs at an increasingly abbreviated pace. As the episode goes on, it becomes apparent that the project manager is a parody of Sunrise Advertising Executives, who cares more about the marketability and aesthetics of the mobile suits rather than their military applicability (the Zakrello being the highlight). The other engineers are shown to be exasperated by his antics, and at the high turnover rate they are forced to work under (caused by the Gundam almost instantly destroying their new designs as soon as they’re unveiled). They try to complain to Dozle Zabi, but when the project manager shows him a draft of his newest design, the Big Zam, Dozle falls in love, and the other engineers are resigned to the fact that their complaints will never be heeded. The episode ends on a gag about the ‘real’ reason the Zeong doesn’t have legs being that the designers have gone on strike.

#25: One Haro

This is the story of how Amuro’s Haro ends up in the hands of Kamille Bidan. Since the story focuses on Haro and the instruments of war, humans are often depicted from the chest down.

We open on Amuro being placed under effective house arrest by the Federation. His means of communication are being seized, including his Haro. We follow Haro to a Federation military base, where Haro and Amuro’s other belongings are placed in storage. Haro escapes to look for Amuro, and ends up on a shuttle of war refuse headed to the moon for repair/recycling by Anaheim Electronics.

At the facility, Haro is befriended by a young engineer. We learn through overheard conversations that Anaheim Electronics is still supplying considerable arms to the Federation, despite the war being over. They are also supplying weapons to Zeon remnants, but not everyone at Anaheim is aware of that. When the engineer accidentally learns that the order they are working on is intended for Zeon, they become distraught and plan to sabotage the delivery.

When the engineer’s attempt to remotely detonate explosives in the delivery goes wrong, they sneak aboard the delivery ship in a panic, with Haro trailing behind. With tearful resolve, the engineer thanks Haro for being there so they don’t have to be alone in the end. Tossing Haro away, the engineer manually triggers the explosion, killing themself and tearing the loading bay open. The damaged delivery and Haro are ejected into space. Haro drifts down to the moon’s surface, landing in the colony ruins. After a short montage of the passage of time, Kamille, Emma, and Kacricon arrive in the heat of battle. Haro saves Kamille’s life, and then the teen takes Haro away with him, with many adventures yet to come.