What is a Newtype? Pt. 1 [Gundam Lore Explained!]

What is a Newtype? Seems like a fantastical element, but as similar as it might be to "The Force" in Star Wars, it's not as heavy-handed. And in fact, it is used to great effect - especially when it comes to Cyber-Newtypes.

But after laying the foundation, what more can we dissect about this super abilities Spacenoids develop? Does this really mean those from Earth are inferior?

#gundam #newtype #lore

[bacd-nnlg]

To keep it simple Newtypes are evolved human beings that started to appear in human massive colonization of space. Now for their source of powers, there are some theories that it came from the higher dimension were souls of the dead go for reincarnation (taken some lore from Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative movie), this would even explain Kamille Bidan powers at the end of Gundam Zeta, and why RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 03 Phenex could move. To summarize I could write even more about this subject, however the best way to understand the subject better is to watch Gundam 1979, Gundam Zeta, Gundam ZZ, and Gundam Char counterattack for the beginning. Later I recomend watching Gundam Unicorn, Gundam Origin, Gundam Narrative movie, and even Gundam Hathaway for more lore about this topic.

[donovandunlap]

Another thing, I have always been fascinated by idea that there are mobile suit aces who were not new-types, but there were new-types who were not mobile suit aces. However, there's Char who could be considered an ace and a new-type.

[dartagnanjames]

Char's soul is weighed down by gravity.

[googleuser]

I really wish Newtypes were explored more outside of direct combat, because it seems like a huge waste narratively and in universe to keep killing them. Newtypes like Scirocco, Lalah, Judau, Kamille (even when he was recovering he seemed to have enough power to jolt Judau) and as seen in Victory with the angel halo and Thunderbolt can do miraculous things or exert influence that could easily change politics, spirituality, and technology.

A single Newtype can do a lot of good as well as a lot of damage. Of course that lends credibility to the theory that a Newtype society created the Turn A

[dartagnanjames]

Also another weird thing about Newtypes is that they sort of "Imprint" on each other. Char and Amuro imprint on Lala, Hathaway imprints on Quess, Banagher and Audrey imprint on eachother, Ridhe imprints on Mineva, Katz imprints on Sarah, Kamille imprints on Four. It happens over and over and it's never talked about.

[jonathanreasor]

I wouldn't be surprised if Dune was also an influence on Tomino when he created Gundam. It also features people who have evolved over time to develop mental abilities, and those people are used and manipulated by major powers because their powers help overcome technical obstacles. In Dune it was the loss of computers, and in Gundam it's the loss of long range communications due to Minovsky particles.

For Tomino there's also an extra air of tragedy with newtypes: we're constantly reminded of their ability to share emotions, understand and bond with people on deeper levels, basically that there's a utopian possibility that people developing these abilities could lead to a kinder and more understanding human civilization. But the entire franchise, newtypes are forced by various political powers to fight and kill each other instead.

[tuumef]

When Gundam Wing came out on Toonami, I was a kid. No thought to the deeper concepts, just liking the mobile suits. Videos like this are a real treat now that I'm older. Thanks for the information.

[redfire]

I always saw it as amuro developing his newtype abilities more as he wanted to understand the feelings of other people where as char wanted to force his feelings on to others

[donovandunlap]

Question, I watched Mobile Suit Gundam the Origin and I believe La La somehow unlocked Char's New-type abilities. What I am about to ask may sound corny, but could a non-new-type become a new-type by spending time with a new-type ? I know there is no way to really answer that question, but I always found it fascinating how Char's new-type abilities emerged.

[raiftadehara]

I have a tendency to think that a newtype's abilities are latent and only awakened under certain circumstances much like a Jedi or a Saiyan

[hecbec]

Gundam Wing's "Zero system" touched up on this concept: now is it the ability to predict the future? Or are your reflex augmentated?? Have fun figuring this out 😂😂😂

[kamikaze]

I feel like it's somewhat roughly convoluted and over or under explained. But it looks to me like Newtypes are implied or meant to be the first humans who've stepped onto the next threshold of human evolution. Or at least the starting point towards it. While not in Gundam universe, in Tenchi Muyo's books (specifically in the GxP novels) Tenchi's granny (don't call her that if you want to live 😁), explains that a civilization is considered a "young/primitive" civilization until they solve three universal problems all space-faring civilizations have to overcome on their own before they will be considered "maturing" by the rest of the advanced universe. I might get these wrong as it's been years since I read it but here they are: #1 is the creation/discovery of universal energy source/solution to non-renewable energy. #2 is the creation of technology to become free from the confines of gravity/technology to go and live or travel outer space. #3 is the creation of a planet-wide single governing body that represents the planet/civilization as a whole.

How does this tie in with Newtypes and Gundam? Well, as far as I can understand, humanity have become capable of overcoming the overreliance on fossil fuels to an extent which led to the age of colonizing space. While not completely, they have started solving #1+#2 in the earliest Gundam series, which brought about the birth of mobile suits (the mass production age of MS).

This leads us to #3 which I think is the last hurdle humanity has to overcome to be truly an inter-galactic civilization. At this point, humanity in space have only just started to evolve and develop new unknown abilities which was dubbed the Newtypes. Unfortunately, as a young civilization humankind was still bound by stuff like racism (mostly due to fear of those who are different from themselves like Newtypes) and greed. People on Earth feared people on Space Colonies (thus dubbing them Spacenoids) specially due to the fact that they (or at least from a narrow-minded POV) evolve into these Newtypes with full capabilities still unknown. It doesn't help that this happened at a time when such conflicts become involved in convoluted human interactions which led to wars. Wars in which made it inevitable for Newtypes to participate in, and thus would become a stage where they would demonstrate their superior abilities, albeit this is mostly through destruction thus clouding "their kind" in this long-lasting first-impression image of being powerful beings of war and destruction. This image prevents the rest of humanity from seeing Newtypes evolved abilities from a different lens other than for war purposes. That's how we got the UC Gundam timeline.

If you look at it closely, Newtypes are actually what seems to be what we normally refer to as "Empaths" albeit more evolved in their abilities. Their mysterious powers give them the ability to "connect" mentally and "interface" with each other, as well as with their surroundings like with Psycho-frames. This empathic ability is what gives them that enhanced spatial awareness in the battlefield especially in space (imagine Professor X with the Cerebro). Because they feel the thought-waves of others even their enemies more greatly, they are able to react faster in battle. This, magnified to even more elevated levels allow them to communicate or imprint towards other Newtypes. It might also be the case that their powers which mostly seem to rely on the powers of the "mind" or "thoughts" works on something like a quantum level (since our thoughts are made up of energy signals, chemical reactions in the brain and body, as well if you think about it). This ability to control, interface, manipulate, energy on a quantum level might be the reason why we see these characters do the feats they have done in the many series.

Unicorn showed Banagher and Full-Frontal do a sort of time travel (perhaps just in their minds or actually physically). If you think about how in the MCU Ant-Man travelled time via the quantum realm, it might give a glimpse that what I said above is correct about Newtype powers.

This also works with how we get the so-called "Newtype Ghosts". The question about what happens after a person dies is easily answered by the idea that since the "mind/thoughts/consciousness" dies with the death of the body and brain, it would be imaginable that Newtypes who can basically turn themselves into quantum energy or pure information bodies/thought bodies can free themselves of the confines of a physical body, and instead continue to exist powered by whatever energy makes up the universe all over us. We just don't see them because they no longer have physical form (but Newtypes can based on their present level of power usage).

All in all, I think the entire Newtype thing reflects these things I mentioned quite well, albeit the Gundam series' do not outright say "They're psychics or mutant evolutions of humans who live in space." to give them this sense of groundedness rather than focus on the super powers theme. Even so, the concept can be seen throughout even the other "centuries" like in SEED where Coordinators replace Newtypes, or in 00 where GN Particles replace the "quantum thought particles" of Newtype powers. We even get so far as to see actual alien beings and actual evolved human beings in 00 Trailblazer if I recall correctly.

[SSJFutureGohan]

I love the idea of NewTypes and their ultimate fate is almost.. beautifully tragic? Their emergence is supposed to allow humanity to begin to move forward and towards a better sense of understanding, but instead of embracing this, most of humanity reacts to them with fear and paranoia, and end up abusing them for their own political gain. This is why you end up having the late U.C. look like it is.


I also really like the idea of Psychoframe and Psycomme technology. It’s too bad it’s used to abuse NewType pilots about 99% of the time.

Honestly, if Unicorn and Narrative take place in U.C. 0096-0097, and Hathaway takes place in U.C. 0105, I REALLY want to see what the hell happened in that 8 year gap. How did it all go so wrong?

[bongerman]

If Lady Hamon was a Newtype, the Universal Century would be a better fictional alternate spacetime continuum...

[jackieham]

Cant wait for you to blow up on YouTube

[ChemFiendtaco]

are you a newtype? interesting video and i agreed with many of your points

[renovan.gundam]

A lot of builders are using Newtype name to each of their own Instagram profile name or Twitter or whatever.

[cfury]

are you going to talk about au new-type esque concepts like innovators or coordinators with seed modes for example?

[TheGreySpectrum]

As I remember, having watched Mobile Suit Gundam in the middle of last year, 'Newtypes' weren't mentioned a single time until the last few episodes of the 42 episode (or 43, including the Doan's Island episode) series, so I would personally contest your comment that there are 'murmurings' of Newtypes. I also think that the inclusion of the 'Newtype' stuff is very heavy-handed, given that Amuro in the final episode literally gives detailed instructions to other White Base crew while being nowhere near them via telepathy.

My personal feelings towards Newtypes is that they're an incredibly lazy and dumb excuse for literal magic powers that are given to characters in MSG and a borderline offensive way of handling individual accomplishments by human beings in war time. In the real world we've seen people like Alvin York, Mitchell Paige, Albert Ekka, Simo Häyhä, and many, many more from all different conflicts throughout history from all different backgrounds, and even in MSG regular people like Ramba Ral, who manage to do incredible things that we might otherwise regard as impossible. There was absolutely no reason to believe that Char or Amuro couldn't achieve these sorts of things while still being regular human beings, but instead we get an ass-pull of an excuse that tells us no, they're not achieving because they're exceptional people, we just gave them magic.

None of this so far has even touched upon the reality that this sort of thing is absolutely physically impossible, nor how Tomino's notions of there being several stages of human evolution that just miraculously happened when we achieved various milestones throughout history, like the Discovery of the New World, from which he based the premise of Newtypes, or even how this is a Pokemon-tier understanding of the concept of evolution. All this from the same series that went through all this trouble to explain Minovsky Particles and justify the usage of Mobile Suits. So far as I'm concerned, Newtypes add nothing to the series and even detract heavily from it. The fact that everything in the Universal Century after the original series fixates so heavily on Newtypes has all but stopped me from anything more than dipping into them from time to time.

My tirade and one small disagreement at the start aside, I dig the video, and I appreciate what you do with the channel. Gundam lore stuff can be pretty dense and daunting for people that are completely new; understandably so given its age. I've actually linked your stuff to a few friends that are just sort of peaking into Gundam because of that, though I can't tell you if they've actually bothered watching much of anything.

[Genji-wtbo]

man I hate they really like making even the new gundam mercurry the mc suletta also a new types human 0-0