Now that the major Sentinel retranslation project has wrapped up, it's time to move onto the next somewhat "gritty" militaristic installment in the Gundam verse. When Bonds of the Battlefield came out, there was a variety show on TV Tokyo that showcased comedian Toshiyuki Itakura duking it out with fellow comedians/tv personalities as part of his "07th Itakura Team." The first season debuted in October 2011 and would go on for quite a few seasons. Due to the popularity of the program, he opted to pen a novel, the first (and so far only) one to be penned by a celeb. It was serialized in Gundam Ace for several years before being compiled into four volumes. Haruhiko Mikimoto handles the character artwork (damn him!) and Kyoushi Takigawa handles the mechanical designs. Hopefully, you all find it as fun and immersive to read as I had translating it.
Our stage is four years after the One Year War...