Trivia / Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin

• Actor Allusion:
  • Veronica Taylor has played a mother before in another show.
  • In the first episode, we see Artesia escaping from Munzo dressed like a witch. Her Japanese VA already voiced one.
• Casting Gag:
  • Megumi Han became the new voice of Sayla Mass, Char's sister, and is also the daughter of Keiko Han, who voiced Lalah Sune, Char's love interest (which is especially amusing in light of Char's fucked up Oedipus complex).
  • Saori Hayami previously voiced an Expy of Lalah Sune—Yurin L'Ciel—in Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. Here, she voices the actual Lalah Sune (see The Other Darrin below).
  • Keith Silverstein voices Full Frontal's clone father.
  • Toshihiko Seki voiced Char Clones Rau Le Creuset and Rey Za Burrel (who already had a sinister friendship involving much karma with a role played by Shūichi Ikeda), and now voices the actual Char Aznable (the guy whose identity is stolen by Casval).
  • Doug Stone has previously played someone who's very paranoid 24/7. Unlike that time, Jimba is paranoid for serious reasons.
• Playing Against Type: Karen Strassman as Casval Rem Deikun.
  • Wendee Lee as Kycilia Zabi.
• Reality Subtext: Zeon Deikun's more violent, insane and generally unflattering portrayal compared to the sagely figure described in the original series was motivated by the Aum Shinrikyo cult's infamous terrorist attacks. Yasuhiko felt partially responsible for the attacks for having worked on Gundam as the series, particularly the idea of Newtypes, helped popularize New Age mysticism in Japan, ultimately leading people to become interested in "New Religious Movements" like Aum Shinrikyo and their twisted visions of bringing about a new era.
• Recursive Adaptation: The anime, which is an anime adaptation of a manga adaptation of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, though the Origin anime seems to be steering clear of ground that's already been covered by the original series.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: In contrast to the unique redesigns most of the mobile suits got, Origin's Zeong is simply a rehash of the original (albeit with sleeker proportions than the anime version) due to Yasuhiko using one of the more recent model kits as a reference (although in this version its cockpit is located in its collar rather than its head).
• Star-Making Role: Amanda Schuckman as Crowley Hamon.
• The Other Darrin: Given the decades-long gap, everyone except for Amuro, Char, Kai, and Gihren.
  • Megumi Han replaces You Inoue in the role of Artesia/Sayla, due to Inoue's death. Also, Mami Koyama has been replaced by Akeno Watanabe in the role of Kycilia.
  • For the English dub, all of the characters from the UC timeline were recast. Whereas the original series was dubbed by Vancouver-based The Ocean Group^note And by extension, the compilation films were dubbed by Los Angeles-based Animaze, Origin was dubbed by New York-based NYAV Post.
  • Saori Hayami took over Keiko Han's role as Lalah Sune.
• What Could Have Been: In the cover gallery, Yasuhiko states that one of the plans for the series was to end up replacing the Guncannon's with GM's after the team made it to Jaburo. He ended up simply bringing in more advanced Guncannons because the MS was always one of his favorites though the White Base also takes on a couple of GM's as well.