[Honey’s Crush Wednesday] 5 Mikazuki Augus Highlights - Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Mikazuki-Augus-Mobile-Suit-Gundam-Iron-Blooded-Orphans-wallpaper-603x500 [Honey’s Crush Wednesday] 5 Mikazuki Augus Highlights - Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

The Crescent Moon Devil

  • Episodes :25
  • Genre :Mech, Sci-Fi, Action, War, Space Drama
  • Airing Date :Oct 2015 – Mar 2016
  • Producers :Sunrise, Bandai


Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (No Spoilers)

Taking place in the year Post-Disaster 323, and as it indicates, it takes place more than 300 years after a war known as the Calamity War. Since then, Mars has been colonized by humans but is still economically dependent on Earth with its citizens consequently impoverished. As a result, numerous orphans join private military contract organizations as child soldiers to better provide for themselves and their families.

One of these companies is the recently established Tekkadan (or the Iron Flowers), whose first mission is to help Kudelia Aina Bernstein, the daughter of an aristocrat on Mars. Despite Kudelia’s upper-class upbringing, she sees the suffering of regular citizens and hopes that Tekkadan can escort her to Earth and appeal to the government in order for the prosperity of Mars. And the man most qualified to be Kudelia’s personal one man army is Tekkadan’s top soldier himself, Mikazuki Augus.

Mikazuki Augus Bio

Voice Actor: Kawanishi Kengo

Mikazuki (or Mika for short) serves as the protagonist of this installment of Gundam’s nearly 40-year legacy. Like his fellow comrades, Mika is an orphan who finds his way into Tekkadan. Though very little is shown about his past, the flashbacks suggest that he has known Orga, his best friend and leader as far back as he can remember. Due to being surgically implanted with unique nano-machines called the Alayna-Vijnana System (with the spinal implants called whiskers), he is capable of piloting the Gundam Barbatos, which happens to be a machine from the old Calamity Wars.

Due to the interface of the Barbatos and the Alayna-Vijnana system, it allows him to move the suit as if he and the suit were of one mind and body. So thanks to Mika’s base training as a soldier along with his understanding of basic machinery, he can transition his training and experience into the Barbatos as if he himself were physically fighting.

Mikazuki Augus Highlights

1. He's a Contemporary Take on Child Soldiers

Though a huge majority of other Gundam pilots were all teenagers and children, those characters all had lives and families prior to becoming pilots, and some had the intellects of Ph.D. Physicists. With Mika, he was pretty much born into his life as a soldier. Setsuna from Gundam 00 may have been a child soldier, but his story and direction are much different from Mikazuki’s. While Setsuna was able to show recovery from his experiences, Mika is still going through the motions since he is still in his pre-teen years.

One notable example of how Mikazuki’s life as a child soldier has negatively affected his development is that he is initially illiterate. In the course of the series, Kudelia briefly teaches him (and the other children of Tekkadan) how to read and write. In addition, due to being on the battlefield his whole life and with most of his interactions being with his peer group within Tekkadan, his basic social skills in regular conditions with other people come across as awkward and he feels out of place. He tends to say things people shouldn't say but on the same token, he gets to the point but his facial expressions and tone of voice tend to exhibit he doesn’t understand he is showing bad manners by the laws of common sense.

2. He Gets Down to Business

Another great quality of Mika and why you may want him to have your six is that he gets down to business. Towards the climax of the first season when he confronts Carta Issue in Alaska, she issues him a challenge and gives him 30 minutes to accept. Instead of 30 minutes, he just needed 30 seconds and he’s on the attack. His attack style is all offense and goes in for the kill and because of it, he is feared as the Devil of Tekkadan from the start of season 2. Though Carta accuses him of playing dirty, to people like him, war only has one rule; kill or be killed (and hopefully get the money).

In the beginning of season 2, while capturing the leader of some space pirates, he admits that fighting to capturing as opposed to killing is difficult for him. It’s not that he enjoys the killing (despite his vicious fighting style), he just sees it as a job he must do and by any means necessary. This quality shows that Tekkadan itself is by no means a military that is state-sponsored and that they are not regulated by any rules of engagement.

3. He is Loyal

Though Mikazuki comes across as socially awkward, he still understands the meaning of being part of a family. He always shows that he is wholeheartedly devoted to Orga, but he is by no means Orga’s lapdog. Orga respects Mika’s value to the team and his companionship as if he were his own brother. He respects Orga’s dream of finding their place in the world as a group and as individuals. His loyalty is not just to Orga but extends to his entire team.

One notable example is one of their most valued members, Biscuit Griffon, who was the literate one. Though Mika and Biscuit may have had their personality differences, they always had each other’s back. Mika in his own way took the loss of Biscuit pretty hard, as did the rest of the team. Due to knowing that Carta was responsible for Biscuit’s death, he exhibits no mercy in his confrontation with her in order to avenge his death. One last example that demonstrates his full loyalty to Tekkadan is when he kills Gyojan (a president of a failed activist group) in cold blood for setting them up in one of their missions and being unable to pay the fees.

4. He is Open to Trying New Things

As Mika’s time with Kudelia and the rest of Tekkadan and their family members expand, so do some of his horizons for his future. Thanks to his time with Biscuit’s family, he discovers a new interest in farming. He uses Tekkadan’s farm on Mars known as Sakura, trying to grow various crops, but they all fail due to being unsuitable for Mars’ soil. Even so, he is not afraid to keep on trying. He is hoping that when he finds time, he can expand his reading skills so he can read more books about farming. And thanks to his success in the events of season one, he is appointed as the commanding officer of the Commando Unit.

His leadership skills are somewhat of an extension of his social skills, but his personality allows him to be specific with his orders without beating around the bush. Even though he is a leader, he does a bulk of the fighting himself but whenever the new recruits are blunt with him, he puts them back in line by returning the favor with his personality working incidentally in his favor. If given the time and dedication, he can probably learn how to be a businessman like Orga if he is to take over Tekkadan.

5. He has His Dreams and Own Self-worth

Initially, Mika comes across as someone who lacks his own identity as an individual due to his rather one track way of doing things and never questions orders, but he is still someone who wants to eventually live his own life. For starters, deep down inside with Orga and the rest of Tekkadan, they are all trying to find what place they have in the world. With a majority of Tekkadan being orphans and no education, they want to be recognized that despite their backgrounds, they have their contributions to the world and Mika in his own way shares those views by saying he agrees with Orga’s dreams.

If Mika has any dreams for himself, he wishes to become a vegetable farmer out of inspiration from Biscuit’s grandmother. As stated before, he is doing his best to try other kinds of crops but hasn’t succeeded. Due to his time being spent with Tekkadan, he can only pursue farming as a hobby. Even with his some of his failures as a farmer, he doesn’t give up and still has the support of Biscuit’s sisters and his peers.


Final Thoughts

Compared to a large majority of previous Gundam heroes, Mika comes across as the most realistic. Though he has experienced numerous tragedies in his childhood that regular people would never see in their lifetime, he demonstrates numerous qualities that exhibit that, deep down inside, he is still a child that needs proper love and nurturing. He’s a character that has yet to live a life beyond the battlefield.

He may have skills with machines that could become handy in non-combative work like being a mechanic or an instructor, but he needs to see what life is like being a student, spending a day at the mall, or experiencing true love. Due to his circumstances and upbringing, he shows an unorthodox mix of both maturity and innocence, which makes him a fresh character to the franchise.

Mikazuki-Augus-Mobile-Suit-Gundam-Iron-Blooded-Orphans-wallpaper-603x500 [Honey’s Crush Wednesday] 5 Mikazuki Augus Highlights - Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Writer

Author: Justin "ParaParaJMo" Moriarty

Hello, I am originally from the states and have lived in Japan since 2009. Though I watched Robotech and Voltron as a child, I officially became an anime fan in 1994 through Dragon Ball Z during a trip to the Philippines. In addition to anime, I also love tokusatsu, video games, music, and martial arts. よろしくお願いします

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