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A Newtype (ニュータイプ Nyūtaipu?) is a person who has reached a new stage of human evolution in the Gundam universe. The theory behind this minor but groundbreaking metamorphosis is: in order to adapt to life in space, the human body evolved with heightened mental awareness. As such, Newtypes tend to appear among Spacenoids, although not exclusively (Amuro Ray, arguably the most famous Newtype, was actually born on Earth although he is raised in space). Appearing in the Universal Century timeline (chronologically the first), they are also present in the After War timeline.
A similar type of human being called Coordinators exists in the Cosmic Era timeline of Gundam SEED, although their evolution is artificially obtained by genetic engineering. Coordinators' distinguished abilities are more physical as opposed to mental but they have a similar heightened spatial awareness like Newtypes. The series' director Mitsuo Fukuda identified some protagonists (like Mu La Flaga) as Newtypes, even though the term does not exist within the plot itself.
Another entity very similar to Newtypes appeared in the Gundam 00 series. They are called Innovators, who have evolved through exposure to high grade GN (Gundam Nuclei) particles, though the only ones confirmed to emerge are Setsuna F. Seiei and Descartes Shaman. Like Newtypes; they also have a heightened degree of spatial awareness and have the ability to communicate with other beings through the utilization of Quantum Brainwaves, although their full abilities remain unknown.
In Gundam AGE, a condition similar to Newtypes also exists known as X-Rounder.
Distinguished Characteristics
Newtypes have an extremely high degree of focus and spatial awareness, almost a sixth sense. They are capable of empathically detecting other Newtypes and are sensitive to the hostile intentions directed at them by others, allowing them to uncannily react to their opponents even before the offender carries out the intended action. Some Newtypes also exhibit telepathic abilities or use psychokinesis. Kamille Bidan, the pilot of the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam was able to channel sheer emotional pressure for summoning the spirits of his dead friends to boost his unit's power for a brief but devastating attack.
The abilities of the Newtype are kept very abstract and treated as mysterious events much the same way the Force is treated in the original Star Wars trilogy. (Bright Noa; "So Newtypes don't necessarily have psychic powers?" Sayla Mass: "Yes" - episode 41 of Gundam.)
Newtypes and Society
One of the Universal Century's greatest social conflicts is the exploitation of these advanced humans. Heralded by scientists and philosophers upon their discovery as a beacon of hope for the future of humanity, the various series of the UC timeline show that these humans have merely become cannon fodder for greedy politicians and violent militarists, creating even more war and destruction.
Various characters state that the exploitation of the Newtype is due to fear of them by the Oldtypes as they represent humanity's next step of evolution while the Oldtypes are merely relics of the past. A great example of this is the signature Gundam pilot of the metaverse, Amuro Ray. Although he is the hero of the One Year War-the first great Mobile Suit war-he barely climbs the ranks through his entire military career and it is implied that this is because of the government's mistrust in his loyalties (due to his Newtype status). Many believe this to be an allegory for the newer generations taking over the previous generation, with the confusion and conflict which comes from this. Well into the very late incarnations of the Universal Century timeline, Newtypes remain as rare an occurrence as they were during the One Year War, facilitating a curious cycle of weapons development, in which highly specialized Newtype-use weapons are developed and repeatedly phased out as fielding people capable of using such weapons in significant numbers remains consistently impossible.
Notable Newtypes
The most famous Newtype is probably the legendary Amuro Ray, protagonist of the first series. While Amuro develops into a powerful Newtype, he relies just as much, if not more so, on his superb ability with machinery and his inherent piloting skill than on his other Newtype abilities.
Char Aznable is implied to not have particularly powerful Newtype awareness at all. Char, like Amuro, develops his formidable ability in combat only after years of experience. Char is first and foremost a planner and strategist, fields he excels at without any relation to Newtype capabilities. Although his Newtype abilities were not as powerful as Amuro's, Char was among the most skilled Newtype pilots of the era, due to the fact that a lot of the previous battles were on the earth sphere.
According to Yoshiyuki Tomino, Kamille Bidan has the strongest Newtype powers in the Universal Century series, followed by Judau Ashta, and then Amuro Ray.[1] Most of Kamille's Newtype powers did not manifest until the late portions of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, however, he is augmented by contact with Cyber-Newtypes such as Four Murasame and Rosamia Badam, even Elpeo Ple. The strongest points of his power are revealed when he uses Zeta Gundam's Waverider Mode to crash Paptimus Scirocco at the end of the series. During the attack, he is filled with strength from the souls of slain Newtypes who are close to his heart. Although the mental death throes by Scirocco damaged his mind, he began to recover the following year during the First Neo Zeon War and became even more powerful. He is able to contact and speak with characters such as Ple telepathically and even sense what they do while still functionally comatose. At the end of Gundam ZZ, he lent his powers to Judau Ashta, allowing the latter to defeat Haman Karn.
Newtypes in the Universal Century
The word Newtype first came into being when Zeon Zum Deikun, the founder of the space colony-based Principality of Zeon, created his philosophy: mankind was destined to leave the Earth for space, where they would evolve into a new stage of evolution, called the Newtype.
This philosophy was accepted by many people to the point that it became superstition, and it became a name for those with strange and exceptional abilities. Hence when enhanced psychic potential manifested in certain individuals in the One Year War, the idea that Newtypes were evolved humans with psychic abilities as a result of the movement to space began to stick. Non-enhanced human beings, by retronym , became known as Oldtype. In addition, a Newtype MS pilot's ability to more accurately recognize the combat situation and other Newtypes from a great distance spurred the development of control devices to link with and operate remote-controlled weapons via EEG waves. This equipment is termed Psycommu system (short for Psycho Communicator), and machines installed with this equipment demonstrated overwhelming force in combat.
As time passed, the number of new naturally occurring Newtypes remained fairly stable. However, as their destiny had been transformed from the "future of mankind" to living weapons forced to fight in war, artificially created Newtypes began to outnumber them. So by the time of the Second Neo Zeon War (Char's Counterattack), it was doubtful whether these Newtypes were the same as the legendary ones found in Deikun's theory.
Basic Newtype Theory
The basic Newtype concept was originally proposed by Zeon Zum Deikun. The theory proposes that as humanity expands into space, all latent abilities will blossom in order to adapt to the great void and mankind will then be able to understand each other without misconceptions.
Newtypes as soldiers
Not long into their discovery, the combat potential of the Newtype is quickly exploited by various military factions. Various technologies allowed these Newtypes to control remote weapons known as "bits" and "funnels", and other psychically controlled weapons. Some systems even allow Newtypes to control entire Mobile Suits or Armors just with the power of their mind, although this would take an exceptionally powerful Newtype to make possible. Many types of interfaces have also been designed for Newtype use, such as the cinematic Psycoframe.
Cyber Newtypes
Pioneering work on the Newtype phenomena were conducted by the Principality of Zeon and the Flanagan Institute during the One Year War. After the war, Principality of Zeon's research on Newtypes fell into the hands of the Earth Federation Forces, and they set up several Newtype Labs to carry on the research. One area of research for these labs was the enhancement of normal humans into Newtypes via artificial means. Newtypes created through this manner were known as 'Cyber Newtypes'. These Cyber Newtypes were successfull to a certain extent, and were deployed in combat. However, the earliest Cyber Newtype all suffered from mental instability due to the conditioning they received to be more effective in combat, the best examples of this phenomenon are Four Murasame and Rosamia Badam, both of which suffered from heavy moodswings and chronic debilitating headaches, making them both difficult to control and deploy in combat. In the years following the Gryps Conflict however, the process of creating Cyber Newtypes eventually refined to the point the results no longer suffered physical or mental defects, producing such results as Gyunei Guss and Full Frontal, both of which operated with extreme skill and clarity.
Newtype ability in animals
A particularly comical chapter of the manga Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Skull Heart portrays a group of monkeys found in a derelict Principality of Zeon satellite, originally part of a project to test their ability to pilot Mobile Suits, namely the MS-06MS Barbus. After being stranded in space for decades after the One Year War, the monkeys seemed to have developed Newtype abilities, using them in a Mobile Suit battle.
Newtypes in the After War Era
The Newtypes of the After War timeline are similar to those in the Universal Century, however they also differ greatly. The After War era lacks an equivalent character to Zeon Zum Deikun, hence there were no prominent theorists or philosophers prior to the discovery of Newtypes. Despite this once Newtypes were discovered the spacenoids began perpetuating a belief similar to the spacenoids of the Universal Century, saying that only the chosen people of space could evolve into Newtypes and perpetuating the idea that this was the greatest fear of the jealous United Nations Earth. The United Nations responded to the evolution of Newtypes with a violent program to understand their existence. The chief example of this is D.O.M.E. (original name unknown), one of the first Newtypes who was eventually disassembled down to his component parts in order to understand his nature, his consciousness was then implanted into the D.O.M.E. system on the moon.
Realizing the potential within Newtypes the United Nations began a program to create Artificial Newtypes, along with programs to monitor, train and use Newtypes that they discovered. They began ranking Newtypes in classifications from A to F, however these classifications primarily expressed the degree of potential they had in use for combat, particularly the Mobile Bit System. These classifications failed to express the nature or degree of the Newtype's abilities as a whole. Shagia and Olba Frost for instance, possessed an active telepathic power that allowed them to communicate mentally regardless of distance, but were categorized as "Category F", the lowest classification, as their abilities were insufficient to utilize any Newtype-use weaponry.
Newtype abilities differ greatly in the After War era, Shagia and Olba Frost have a strong telepathic power, Tiffa Adill has primarily a power of prescience and powerful range at which she can sense other Newtypes, whereas Jamil Neate's abilities were more of a battle sense and his one prescient flash was the last time he was able to use his abilities to any degree, doing so later he can contact other Newtypes minds, but only at a severe level of strain to the point of causing him to physically bleed from the ears. It was also revealed that it was possible for a Newtype to "burn out" their powers to the point of losing them if overused or they experienced sufficient strain, as was the case with Jamil.
Truly natural Newtypes in the After War period are revealed to be rare, as many were created as Artificial Newtypes even without their own awareness. The Newtypes that evolved however were not only not limited to spacenoids, but in fact not limited to humans and Newtypes evolved in other sentient lifeforms. The main example here is the White Dolphin, a dolphin who evolved into a Newtype and was able to contact Tiffa Adill telepathically. The White Dolphin experienced Newtype flashes much like characters in the Universal Century and was even powerful enough to contact the extracted neural nets of other dolphins in order to have them backfire on the MS systems they had been built into.
Known Newtypes
Below is a list of known Newtypes: (NOTE: This list will probably eventually grow longer and does not include the Cyber Newtypes.)
Universal Century (UC 0079 - 0099)
Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX
Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo: Apocalypse 0079
Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: Missing Link
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
- Kamille Bidan
- Quattro Bajeena
- Haman Karn
- Paptimus Scirocco
- Sarah Zabiarov
- Amuro Ray
- Katz Hawin Kobayashi
- Letz Cofan Kobayashi
- Kikka Kitamoto Kobayashi
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
Mobile Suit Moon Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack
Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight Axis
Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative
Late Universal Century (post 0100)
Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway
Mobile Suit Gundam F91
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam
- Uso Ewin
- Katejina Loos
- Shahkti Kareen
- Maria Pure Armonia
- Karlmann Dukartuse
After War
After War Gundam X
- D.O.M.E.
- Jamil Neate
- Lancerow Dawell
- Lucille Liliant
- Tiffa Adill
- Abel Bauer
- Shagia Frost
- Olba Frost
- White Dolphin
References
Notes & Trivia
- In the Super Robot Wars series, a newtype will have an enhancement in accuracy, evasion and the range of Funnel-type weapons according to her/his newtype level. The same goes with cyber newtype.
- Some Super Robot Wars series have a newtype as its original protagonist. An example of this is Arklight Blue, one of the protagonists in Super Robot Wars 64.
- Newtypes display some of the general abilities of Jedi and Sith from Star Wars using the Force, such as precognition, faster reflexes, better awareness, and telepathy. In later series, they even possess the ability to deflect beam shots using their willpower.
- Ironically, despite the fact the majority of series in Universal Century surrounds Newtypes, the name "Newtype" was not introduced until Episode 37 of Mobile Suit Gundam.
- In the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series, each and every character has the potential to become a NewType. Additionally in DWG1, non-NewType pilots who pilot Newtype-based mobile suits will have an alternate moveset. In later games however, they will simply be restricted from piloting them until they become a Newtype.
- In Dynasty Warriors Gundam's Original Mode when Ple Two in her Qubeley encounters Heero Yuy and the Wing Gundam Zero, she attacks him with her funnels, when Heero manages to dodge them so effectively, she thinks he must be a Newtype, but gets confused as she can't feel any pressure from him.
- In Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn, Newtypes are divided into four Burst types: Combat Newtypes who can slow down the entire battlefield around them and Empathetic Newtypes, who retain a bit of Burst after using it. Cyber-Newtypes can instantly power down enemies that are knocked down from attacks and characters such as Paptimus Scirocco and Haman Karn possess the "Pressure" Burst which steadily drains the vitality of nearby enemy units.
- In both the Gundam vs Gundam series, and its successor, the Extreme Vs.series, various Newtype abilities and effects are used primarily for characters from Universal Century. Some are purely aesthetic such as Amuro and Char using the Newtype Flash when they enter burst while others, such as Haman and Scirocco's mental attacks creating an unblockable stun field, are actual attacks. Several units also have Newtype-related abilities such as Kamille's Zeta Gundam using its biosensor to receive super armor or Elpeo Ple's Qubeley Mk-II receiving a buff in its quantity of funnels.
- In Around Thirty Office Worker Haman-sama, younger characters, primarily the the children of Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ, are described as part of the "Newtype" generation, who are surprisingly more efficient and capable in office work compared to characters of the older generation like Bright Noa or Reccoa Londe.
See also
External links