| Okay it seems Crunchyroll had a temporary glitch. I can access the anime fine again. Episode 10 - 11 Well, this show is yoyo-ing all over the place. The previous episodes were very good, but these last ones again hit a new low for the series. @inim I also got strong LoGH vibes from the ball scene and the Germanic names of the noble. It seems I completely misjudged Char's attitude towards Garma and @inim was right after all as Char actively sabotaged Garma's operation and sent him to his death. It makes me wonder why he was thinking about saving Garma in an earlier episode. Perhaps the time wasn't right to bump him off? Maybe he needed Garma to help spread the legend of Gundam so that his own failures to take out the Gundam look more excusable. In any case, it seems Char is indeed a ruthless, treacherous bastard. I also find him far more interesting than his counterpart Amuro - it's pretty obvious by now why Char's name is the only one I'm aware of from the original series, and not Amuro. I'm not convinced by the blatant way this backstabbing was carried out though. Char pretty much told Garma that he'd screwed him over and then gloated in his ear, and yet Garma did not even attempt to spread the news of his treachery to the rest of his forces, and so this act somehow did not become news to the rest of Zeon! I do feel a little bit of sadness for Garma's death, but the same cannot be said for Icelina: the sequence of events leading up to her death was so plagued with outdated production issues and bad melodrama that I found myself chuckling in amusement over how it went over. Firstly, it was clear that an earlier episode's talk about Gundam having to battle while in freefall was greatly exaggerated, as we see it practically flying with its rocket boosters from ship to ship. But then for some inexplicable reason it was completely immobilised as Icelina's Gaw basically ran it over aircraft style. Icelina, dressed as though she's going out on a weekend shopping spree, then clambers out to finish off Amuro, and it looks to me like she fainted in typical lady style (one of several moments of casual 70s sexism in this series so far) and, in slow motion, fell on her pretty little head. It's a credit to the show that it's been a fairly compelling watch so far, considering how old it is, but for me this last part has aged terribly to the point of unintended comedy. |
| Take off every SIG!! |
| Episode 14. We see some rookie Zeon soldiers talking about White Base and the new federation suit and making plans that I'm guessing with fall apart. Not sure whether the show is trying to plant romantic subplot with Amuro seeking out Lt Matilda when he should be sleeping, then when he returns to his room Frow Bow is waiting outside and upset. Was she wearing sexy underwear/lingerie underneath that overcoat, it seemed like she was hiding something and I can only suppose it was something provocative. It's not clear if Frow has feelings for Amuro or is simply annoyed or jealous because he seems so infatuated with Lt Matilda and with the fact he's never looked at her that way. I have no idea which. We see some new hover-copter type machines flown by Zeon soldiers. They attack Matilda's ship and Amuro comes flying to the rescue facing off against the rookie soldiers just like they wanted. The rookies have a good plan and stick explosives to the mobile suit. The mobile suit isn't really equipped for anti personnel fights especially against manoeuvrable foes like a commando force. Amuro manages to remove the bombs before they explode. Been thinking, it's taking a long time for White Base, a space ship, to travel all the way across the surface of the earth. Next episode is the filler that's not available on CR. |
23feanorOct 1, 2022 2:43 AM
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| Episodes 12 - 13 Wuhoo! New intro! We're finally getting a bit more information. They've also figured out how to update the intro animation to incorporate the contents of the previous episode! It seems Icelina's death added yet another scar onto Amuro's already fragile psyche. I like how this part played out into his struggles at the start of the battle against Rambo Ral before the intensity of the life-and-death situation snapped him out of it. The duel between them was good, but those other Zakus were useless - Rambo told them to attack the other two mechs, but as far as I can tell they did fuck all. It's like one of those 10 vs 1 martial art brawls where most of the goons on the side of the 10 just prances around without actually attacking. It ended up as 1 vs 3, so Rambo was forced into a retreat. Then in the next episode Amuro goes home where he encounters some poorly behaved Federation soldiers whose conduct stands in stark contrast to the Zeon soldiers who dropped off supplies for the mother and child several episodes ago, despite the new intro narration making it sound like Zeon are the bad guys in the conflict. Amuro shows some spunk, but gets his ass kicked, which is how you'd expect the fight to turn out. Props to the show for not making Amuro go super-sayan. I'm a bit confused that there appears to be multiple core fighters. I thought there was only one which formed the Gundam itself? Is the other one from one of the other gunmechs? I can certainly see why some people are finding Amuro's changes and his interactions with his mother a bit jarring. For me it just about works: Amuro bouncing back can be interpreted as due to him finally returning home; yes, his mum chiding him does not make logical sense given the situation. However, humans aren't completely rational, and I read it as the visceral reaction of a mother seeing her sweet child not only wielding a gun but willing to shoot people with the intention of perhaps killing them. On Amuro's part, I find his sudden aggression believable in the context that he was not just protecting anyone, but his own mother! It was a heat of the moment thing. I liked the fact that even though they destroyed the Zeon base, but Bright still gave them a bollocking. But what happened to the other commander they picked up from Lunar 2? I haven't seen him for a few episodes now. |
| Take off every SIG!! |
| Episode 14 I liked most of this episode. It gives a bit more of the perspective from the Zeon side of things (guys just trying to prove themselves) while also showing how those without a lot of technological support (i.e. mechas and flying ships) are still quite capable if they are strategic. It also gave us an opportunity to see Amuro really put his own life on the line trying to disarm a set of bombs with only a limited idea of when they would go off. Given how much time he's spent essentially being bulletproof inside Gundam, it's a nice change of pace. The stuff with Lt Matilda is more of a side note, and... yeah, he's horny for her alright. Episode 16 (I'm just skipping the filler until we can find it) Yeah... I didn't love this one. We spent most of the episode looking for salt because they lost a lot of it in a previous attack. I know salt is important to a human diet, but they seem like they're lending too much effort to something relatively small. Anyway, they find a salt water lake, except it moved, and now they're in a battle with the blue mech guy and his crew. All that is weak setup for what could be an interesting rematch given that Amuro has now seen this mech in combat and is better rested and prepared. But that's not the title of the episode. Instead, Sayla hijacks Gundam by giving a flimsy "these are the orders" cover. Maybe there's more to this, but she later says she did it to prove that women could be good pilots too, which... I mean, if you're going to do that, don't prove it in the one vehicle that everyone cares the most about because losing it might be the end for White Base and everyone on board. Seems like an excessively dumb move, and given that Sayla's never shown a willingness to do something like this, it doesn't really work for me. She does talk about now somehow knowing that Char is her brother (feels like this revelation should have an impetus, but the only episode we saw them interact is way back now), but that doesn't really have anything to do with this. So Sayla gets her ass handed to her in a fight against two Zakus and our blue mech. The only reason she doesn't get killed and lose Gundam (well, beyond a foot anyway) is because Amuro has now become apparently quite capable of piloting their other mobile suit. Two problems. One, he's never piloted this one before. Maybe he's gotten some skills from piloting Gundam, but two, Gundam is partially piloted by an AI. Far as I know, there's no AI in this system. It would be one thing if he was just up against the other Zakus, but Amuro goes toe-to-toe with the blue mech itself and, despite not winning, is able to hold his own and defeat the Zakus, even taking a pilot hostage. That's a bit absurd for someone whose only experience in a mech is with Gundam. Anyway, episode ends with Sayla and the captured pilot being jailed. Sayla has more going on that she doesn't clarify by the end of the episode, and the pilot appears more confident than his situation should afford him. Overall, just kind of a weird episode. Maybe future episodes will explain Sayla's behavior, but this should have had consequences for White Base and it doesn't look like it will beyond however this capture will go horribly wrong. |
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| @whiteflame55 there's a link to the missing ep 15 on my post of 26th September. Episode 15. Amuro finds a lonely island populated by a an ex Zeon soldier looking after a group of children. It turns out Doan killed the children's parents with a stray bullet from his zaku and decided to leave the Zeon nation after being ordered to kill the children. Amuro also practices some mid air docking. |
23feanorOct 2, 2022 3:10 AM
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| @23feanor thanks, missed that somehow. Episode 15 Yeah, you can see why this one stands apart. The animation is a lot jankier, with some of the models looking a bit off at times and the motions looking stranger. There’s just a lot of weird in here as well, including strange interactions and plot threads that go nowhere. After practicing midair docking, Amuro goes to scout a distress signal, discovering two Federation soldiers tied up in their fighter. One of them dies and the other just kind of gets forgotten about for the rest of the episode. It’s never explained why they were tied up while Amuro was rescued and given a bed. Anyway, Amuro fights a Zaku in his core fighter after being assaulted by some kids on the beach. He loses and, several weird crashing animations later, he is recovered from the ship and taken to a house for recovery. Turns out that the Zaku pilot is MIA, having run off after having killed the parents of those children and deciding to care for them. Amuro doesn’t know this and ends up searching the island for where they stashed his fighter. The kids keep pelting him, saying he should leave the island (on what, I do not know) before a Zeon Zaku and fighter arrive. They shoot at Amuro and the kids, nice guy Zaku pilot goes to fight the other Zaku and White Base arrives. Amuro gets his fighter, transforms into Gundam, and then does basically nothing while the Zaku pilot shows him… mobile suit martial arts and almost gets himself killed. Still, he wins with a solid punch. Then Amuro throws his Zaku in the ocean to get rid of that nasty “scent of battle” before peacing out, and somehow they’re happy about this despite now having no way to defend themselves should they be attacked again. Yup. That’s filler alright. |
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| Episode 16. The White Base crew gets news about a new federation offensive and something about mines near the Caspian sea being key to the war effort. Ramba Ral (what a great name, lol) and his wife are part of a Zeon force in the area that Ramba Ral has come to join, although the commander doesn't seem to happy about this as he has plans of his own. I know salt is important in a balanced diet but you don't need it like you need water to survive, despite one of the crew saying the exact opposite. Anyway the WB heads for a lake to gather salt. We then get Sayla making a poor decision by taking the gundam out to fight in an attempt to prove herself and prove that women can fight like men, or maybe to get news of Char? This leads to the gundam being damaged and needing rescuing by Amuro in the guntank. @whiteflame55 you make some good points about Amuro's ability in the guntank. I had assumed that the gundam mobile suit, guntank and the other one (also looks like the guntank but white instead of red) were all 'gundam mobile suits' and had AI but i think you may be right and it's only gundam itself that has this tech, which makes Amuro's fighting ability in the guntank a bit unrealistic. My guess with Sayla's revelation that she guessed Char is her brother is the show introducing this subplot into the mix and this episode was out introduction to Sayla, just not a very good one. |
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| Episode 12 The White Base has escaped Zeon occupied territory and flies over the Pacific ocean. Managing Führer Gihren Zabi overrides his father's wish and makes the the death of his brother Garma into a state funeral. It's choreography and the wording of Gihren's speech is taken straight from Leni Riefenstahl's directorial masterpiece Triumph des Willens (1935). Only Japan in the 1970s could get away with such an un-ironical movie quote. I have to out myself as a big Riefenstahl fan here, well aware about her contributions to the Nazi regime and ideology. She nevertheless was a directorial genius and inventor of both modern sports documentary and the political rally choreography and camera work seen from Pyongyang to Washington until this day. She defined how to film power. So my answer to the question "Can the depiction of evil be art?" clearly is "yes". And of course Gihren Zabi by this montage is equated with Adolf Hitler, just to spell that out clearly (see: https://youtu.be/VaCpbwkNR0w vs. https://youtu.be/gH0ZDRgAY80 vs. https://archive.org/details/TriumphOfTheWillgermanTriumphDesWillens at 1:33:00 ff.vs. https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/andrewwk/garmazabisfuneralspeechbygihrenzabi.html) A new character in a blue mecha suit is introduced, Ramba Ral. He's the personification of a battle proven, older veteran soldier (canonical age is 35), living for duty and survival more than for the ideology he fights for. He by that meets the stereotype of e.g. Erwin "Africa Corps" Rommel, who despite being a Nazi general is often portrayed as a chivalrous and honorable soldier until this day. His ship's name "Zanzibar" probably a subtle clue on that, as Zanzibar used to be a German colony in Africa until the early 20th century. Ramba Ral comes with his own crew of similarly knightly and professional lieutenants. There's cool blonde beauty Crowley Hamon, also his wife, and gunner Clamp. We get a long and intensive fight Ral vs. Amuro, which I'd call a draw. Finally we meet Char again, who is in civilian clothes and drinking in a bar. He watches the funeral on TV there, so he has fallen from grace and is not invited. Overall, this is a groundbreaking episode in anime history. The enemy isn't alien, demonic, a mad scientist or batshit crazy megalomaniac anymore. The enemy has many faces, and this group has even different, often contradicting positions. There are many shades of grey, from Ghiren Hitler to Ramba Rommel. And Char has a completely independent agenda, he is his own faction. The super robot genre had clear black-white, good-evil monster of the week villains. There isn't even one of those in Gundam, everybody has their plausible drivers along with inner and outer conflicts. I'm thoroughly impressed by this writing, even if as usual it has to compromise to keep this a shounen compatible toy seller.  |
inimOct 3, 2022 5:54 AM
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| Episode 14 - 16 Well, it seems there's no better cure for PTSD than the prospect of protecting a hot woman, and so Amuro heads out in the Gundam in a move that surprises even Bright lol. Feels like the show might be pushing this narrative a bit too far, but I suppose Amuro is 15 after all. The Zeon soldiers pilots the mech-equivalent of mosquitos ends up catching the Gundam in a bomb trap. The trap itself feels a bit contrived with its non-remote, 30 minute timer which gives them just enough time to disarm, but it is rather creative and does set up a refreshingly different scenario from the usual battles. Moreover, it also serves to illustrate how resource starved both factions are by this point in the conflict. With regards to the elusive episode 15, I guess from the animation quality and filler nature that they ran into some production issues? I note that the intro to the filler did elaborate on some background info for the war. The Gundam's disassembling posture is also rather hilarious. Other than that though, the filler episode doesn't offer much in terms of positives. The story is stupid on so many levels, and the Zaku Kung Fu is incredibly silly. If the guy can intercept a missile with a thrown rock, he's probably even more skilled than Char. The Sayla episode is a bit hit and miss. I mostly agree with @whiteflame55 on the weaknesses in the story, although I would point out that Sayla's "I want to prove a woman can fight just as well as a man" is just her excuse: the real reason she went out in the Gundam was to try and make direct contact with a Zeon soldier - something that's hard to do when she's stuck on white base - to try and find out about Char. Though she probably could and should have found a way to do it without nearly losing their most prized asset. In any case, she shows that she certainly hasn't inherited the genes that her brother has for piloting mecha. The rematch against Rambo Ral is certainly more convincing than the previous one, though it is a bit bizarre that Amuro fared better in the Guncannon than in the Gundam, managing to evade attacks from Rambo while later on also dishing out some Robot Kung Fu. Regarding the AI question, I had assumed that Guncannon and Guntank were all new weapons to come out of the same Gundam project, since they all have names with the gun- prefix. If this is true, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume the same AI is installed on all of them. That said, I am now questioning whether my assumption is correct: are Guncannon and Guntank just standard fare federation battle mecha? In any case, Amuro somehow manages to use the specialised artillery bot like a melee bot and out kung fus the Zaku. They then decided to capture the pilot for Plot Reasons i.e. so Sayla can get a chance to chat to him, even though they can barely feed the people already on the ship. Overall, this batch of episodes are certainly entertaining, though not always intentionally so. PS oops, just realised I repeated a lot of what @23feanor has already said. |
kekekeKajOct 3, 2022 6:00 AM
| Take off every SIG!! |
kekekeKaj said: Commenting on this in full detail would be a massive spoiler of the 30-ish episodes. But the lack of training is not the same as the lack of ability. Speaking as the 50+ old fart I am, I also have to point out that 1979 was the year of both Gundam and Rose of Versailles. Women's liberation had been creeping across the nation for some years and it was harvest time, even in places as backwards as Japan. I'd agree that the "like a man" quote feels ridiculous today, where anime girls replaced males completely in most shows and do cute things with all sorts of complicated machines. It felt differently 40 years ago and was used unironically. The remarkable part is that she can control the Gundam at all, clumsily and in Rambo Ral's words "inexperienced". But she has the basic ability of a pilot, only gender roles hold her back. The Sayla episode is a bit hit and miss. I mostly agree with @whiteflame55 on the weaknesses in the story, although I would point out that Sayla's "I want to prove a woman can fight just as well as a man" is just her excuse: the real reason she went out in the Gundam was to try and make direct contact with a Zeon soldier - something that's hard to do when she's stuck on white base - to try and find out about Char. Though she probably could and should have found a way to do it without nearly losing their most prized asset. In any case, she shows that she certainly hasn't inherited the genes that her brother has for piloting mecha. Your analysis that her true agenda maybe to get into contact with an enemy soldier to gain intelligence about Char's whereabouts didn't occur to me. But that makes a hell of a lot of sense, and makes her little stunt a little less out of character and rational logic. |
inimOct 3, 2022 6:41 AM
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Episode 13 Showcases the contrast between civilian and military life, including the single defining difference between the job as a soldier and any other job: to kill other humans. Full disclosure: I was (am) a conscientious objector back when it still mattered, in the 1980s when Germany still had the draft and the Cold War was not over. Gundam was one (if not the) first anime where the enemy wasn't cartoonish, alien or supernatural. There was a scene early on when Amuro killed his first enemy in space, and how he had to force himself. He has killed dozens of humans since. This episode has another first. He kills another human at close range, and preemptively to cover up his identity as a soldier. Unlike in the first case he doesn't show any remorse or inner conflict about his deed, he as gotten used to it. It's his job, and even being close enough to literally have blood spilling on him is no longer a shocker. The framework around this key scene is a visit to his mother, who works as a nurse in a civilian hospital in Zeon occupied territory. Another reality of war is shown, how soldiers short on supplies use force to plunder and steal. The icing on the cake is the party scene in Amuro's former home. He picks up a wooden toy (Pinocchio figure) there, a symbol of his childhood and former innocence. Later he leaves this with his mother, when he literally walks away from her into the arms of Bright and back to the ship. He made a choice, and breaks his mother's heart. The conflict of mothers losing their children to war and the military is as old as war itself. Any era had it's literary treatment, for example "The Rat Catcher of Hamlin" fairy tale is a metaphor on recruiters taking away children from their parents with a magic pipe. That's your military piper, and his funny dress is a uniform. Talking about this is still a huge taboo, we get glorified versions of "military families" and "brave military moms", but the tragedy of losing your child and knowing that they will likely kill humans is the same as a millennium ago. Overall, a rather divisive episode depending on your political position. Portraying the negative sides of a soldier's life (plundering, killing, emotional damage, drinking etc.) is a bold move in a kids' show. As much as I understand soldiers are needed, I think it's important to show that side of reality as well. |
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inim said: Commenting on this in full detail would be a massive spoiler of the 30-ish episodes. But the lack of training is not the same as the lack of ability. Speaking as the 50+ old fart I am, I also have to point out that 1979 was the year of both Gundam and Rose of Versailles. Women's liberation had been creeping across the nation for some years and it was harvest time, even in places as backwards as Japan. I'd agree that the "like a man" quote feels ridiculous today, where anime girls replaced males completely in most shows and do cute things with all sorts of complicated machines. It felt differently 40 years ago and was used unironically. The remarkable part is that she can control the Gundam at all, clumsily and in Rambo Ral's words "inexperienced". But she has the basic ability of a pilot, only gender roles hold her back. Your analysis that her true agenda maybe to get into contact with an enemy soldier to gain intelligence about Char's whereabouts didn't occur to me. But that makes a hell of a lot of sense, and makes her little stunt a little less out of character and rational logic. Good point about Sayla being able to control the Gundam at all. I remember her saying something about getting familiar with it in the simulation room, so I assume that's how she learnt the basics, but I hadn't considered it from the angle that just being a female pilot is a big deal. That said, there were female pilots in the super robot genre right? Getter Robo had one, though she wasn't part of the robot itself, and I believe there was a female pilot that formed part of the robot Combattler V. Perhaps they were rare but not unheard of. It's a bit of stretch to call it my "analysis" of Sayla's true agenda. Maybe people missed it, but she literally says it out loud at around the start of the second half at 13:30 haha! |
| Take off every SIG!! |
inim said: Episode 13 He picks up a wooden toy (Pinocchio figure) there, a symbol of his childhood and former innocence. Later he leaves this with his mother, when he literally walks away from her into the arms of Bright and back to the ship. He made a choice, and breaks his mother's heart. The conflict of mothers losing their children to war and the military is as old as war itself. Any era had it's literary treatment, for example "The Rat Catcher of Hamlin" fairy tale is a metaphor on recruiters taking away children from their parents with a magic pipe. That's your military piper, and his funny dress is a uniform. Talking about this is still a huge taboo, we get glorified versions of "military families" and "brave military moms", but the tragedy of losing your child and knowing that they will likely kill humans is the same as a millennium ago. Ah I did puzzle over the significance of the toy, but your explanation of the symbolisms makes perfect sense! When you put it like that, it definitely becomes a very powerful moment when he left it behind. It's made me appreciate that episode more now. |
| Take off every SIG!! |
| Episode 14 Filler episode in which half a dozen miniature nukes are planted on the Gundam and have to be defused within 30 minutes. Amuro takes the lead in this and gains high respect from both his own crew and the enemy for his success at it. There's a minor scene in which Amuro in the middle of the night comes to Lt. Matilda's quarter for unknown reasons. He's sent back to bed and meets Fraw Bow in front of is room, sparsely clad. Love triangle in the making? Another interesting detail is the dialog between Cpt. Bright and Lt. Matilda (his direct superior). She addresses him as Lieutenant, and reveals he has direct protection from General Revil. The White Base is kind of an unofficial mission, and there's plausible denial if problems occur. Matilda also mentions without Revil, Bright would have been executed as a deserter long ago. Episode 15 Another take on guilt and redemption, but the episode's writing and production values don't hold up to the high aim. At the center is Cucuruz Doan. He seems to be a deserter from the Zeon army who broke apart after killing the parents of three children, whom he adopted as redemption. He lives as a farmer on an isolated island with them and a young adult woman, working as a farmer. He still owns a Zaku and uses it to attack and disable any military surveillance unit investigating his refuge. Amuro first is defeated by him, befriends, and later wins the upper hand when White Base enforcement arrives. They key symbolic scene is when Amuro intentionally destroys Doan's mecha, which the latter welcomes. There's some "swords to plowshares" spirit over the whole episode, but production ruins much of it. interestingly enough this was fixed 43 years later in Summer 2022. They extended the episode into a movie named Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island (2022) directed by 75 year old original Gundam animation director Yoshikazu Yasuhiko of Gundam Origins directorial fame. Probably a good alternative to his obscure episode never officially broadcast in the West. Episode 16 Sayla hijacks the Gundam to gather intelligence about her brother Char. She's a lousy pilot and only Amouro and Kai's exceptional battle skills in lesser mechas save her ass. She's jailed for 3 days as punishment, yet succeeds with her plan to extract information. The battle scenes in this episode were the best so far. I'm normally not very attentive during mecha battles, just waiting for the winner. But this fight really got me glued and watching. In the plot at large the White Base is re-integrated into Earth's regular forces and ordered to take part in a major offensive to take strategically important mines near Odessa. |
inimOct 3, 2022 10:19 AM
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| Episode 17 Breaking news: we finally got the first fan service scene, provided by topless Mira and big-boots girl Kikka. In other news, Amuro deserts and takes the Gundam with him. At the bottom of this is the new order placing the White Base, and by this Captain/Lieutenant Bright, into the regular military. Amuro ignores Brights order on a sortie and uses the Guncannon rather than the Gundam for it. While the operation succeeds, Bright doesn't allow Amuro to easily brush off the insubordination later. They now would operate under military chain of command rules. Amuro is visibly pissed, the playful days seem to be over. Later he overhears Bright talking to Mirai about replacing Amuro as the Gundam's pilot. He's too much of an unruly child still, according the Bright. Amuro snaps, grabs the Gundam, and deserts. In the second major plot line the Zeon prisoner manages to escape from his cell. Sayla alerts the crew, but the prisoner already has successfully transmitted data using the ship's communication room. He later is shot dead with a bazooka, leaving Sayla and Omar in a "memento mori" mood. The submitted data reaches Ramba Ral and gives him a strategic advantage. Speaking of Ramba: another classic "soldier mentality" moment occurs when he answers Hamon's "why we fight" question: To get a double promotion for himself and his men, allowing her to "live the good life" of a high ranking officer's wife. A classic career soldier trough and trough. Overall, a lot of moving parts in what feels like a transitional episode. Operation Odessa (Earth's attack on Zeon's mine in Ukraine) is about to start and both Ramba Ral and Amuro are ready to rumble. Sayla certainly made good for her Gundam insubordination by playing a key role in damage control of the prison break. |
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| Episode 17. Sayla makes up for her boo boo by going after the escaped prisoner, who after leaking classified info to Ramba Ral (he's supposed to be 35, really, I thought he was mid 50's) about the number and type of mobile suits is shot over the side of the White Base with a bazooka. From the info in this episode I'd hazard that the gundam, guncannon and guntank all have improved capabilities and AI, although as the 'fighter' mech (one that battles other mecha directly) the gundam seems to have extra performance ability as we see Amuro pour over the algorithms for it's battle simulations. I quite like when Amuro dissects when and how each of the mobile suits should be used and what military capabilities they each have, rather than just 'gundam is the best and always wins the battle', that gets boring quickly. I noticed that when we saw Mirai come out the shower, she didn't have nipples, but the child did. Also is it just me or do Bright and Mirai seem quite close, as if the show will try and surprise us with a sneaky commander and his junior romance later on down the road, brought together during a difficult time type of deal? Amuro overhears Mirai and Bright talking about relieving him from duty in the gundam and decides to bail on White Base, completely justifying everything Bright said about him being too immature. |
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| Episode 18. Amuro is camped out at what looks like an ancient Roman ruined town, or maybe Arabic. Frow Bow is sent by the crew of the WB to ask him to come back, promising he won't be too severely punished but only makes matters worse. Amuro then discovers a Zeon mine and thinks it's the same one that the Federation forces are targeting in the upcoming offensive. Present at the mine is one of the Zabi royal family, Kycilia Zabi. I have to admit a fondness for villainess types like her with a distinctive look, I blame it all on Evil Lynn from He-Man. Kycilia seem to be the key commander at the mine site. Amuro does a pretty good job of single handedly destroying the mine, despite some crafty interference from a medium size ship with Kycilia and the gloomy captain on board. Only later does Amuro realise that this isn't the main base the Federation is planning to attack. Finally Amuro helps a wounded Zeon soldier and gets told not to be too soft on the enemy for his troubles. |
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| Episode 18 / Episode 19 Two episodes about Amuro's detour trough the wide open steppe of central Asia. He fights two high ranking Zeon soldiers, once again Ramba Ral and new entries Kycilia Zabi (the dictator's daughter) paired with Colonel M'Quve (Zeon Mining operations commander). Kycilla and M'Quve use an advanced UFO-style ship code-named MazdaAdzam, which I find interesting because not every advanced military technology has to be a suit. One point for realism. Fraw Bow drives around in a space Jeep as a messenger between the White Base and Amuro repeatedly. In a Western-esque saloon scene, Amuro and Fraw meet Ramba abd Hamon face to face. They treat each other with mutual respect and even reserved kindness. Later in battle they recognize each other and despite fierce fighting keep respecting each other. Working with pros is so much better than working with psychopath villains I guess. There's a lot of fighting, first Amuro attacks a minor mining facility which Kycilla decides to self-destruct as a result to protect military secrets. Then Amuro starts to lose against Ramba's troops, but Fraw has alerted the White Base in time and there comes the cavalry. Eventually Amuro ends up in the brig, still defiant and arrogant. He doesn't feel he did wrong and that he will not lose the Gundam command, because nobody is as good as him as a pilot. We'll see. Overall, a lot of action with rather little story progress. Not quite a filler arc, but close. |
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| Episode 19. Nice meeting between enemies when Amuro comes across Hamon and Ramba Ral at a saloon, although Hamon's attitude towards Amuro was a bit out of left field, does she like picking up young lads, something that Ramba Ral joked about. Fraw Bow leads the Zeon forces straight to WB. Amuro comes to the rescue of WB with gundam and helps defeat their forces. Finding some of these episodes hard to get through tbh. Glad we're watching this daily otherwise am certain I would have dropped this show already. |
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23feanor said: can feel you, I seriously had to force myself trough the movies back in the day. That's 7h 05m of the TV version's 17h 55m but in only three painfully long sittings of over 2h each. The last 1/3 of the show takes a turn to the better, so my ratings were 5-5-6 for the three movies. Tbh, I enjoy the TV show a little bit more currently. Maybe because I've watched a lot more anime since, including quite a few mecha shows, and definitely have a lot of "wow, they already had that in 1979!" moments. So the enjoyment is more that of an archaeologist excavating a 3000 year old garbage pit. "Wow, look at this bone! They imported livestock from as far as Spain! And look at this sea shell, they had trade with China!"Finding some of these episodes hard to get through tbh. Glad we're watching this daily otherwise am certain I would have dropped this show already. Gundam S1 didn't age very well, for sure. I'll nevertheless continue with S2 (https://myanimelist.net/anime/85/Mobile_Suit_Zeta_Gundam ) and insert the retrofit S1.5 https://myanimelist.net/anime/84/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_0083__Stardust_Memory OVA and the concluding https://myanimelist.net/anime/87/Mobile_Suit_Gundam__Chars_Counterattack movie I really want the UC0079 bragging rights, beauty knows no pain :D S2 is usually considered the best "old" Gundam, and the darkest. What I can remember is that starting in the early 30s episodes the show became actually entertaining again. The original script killed Amuro in the middle of the season, btw. Char took over as pilot and MC, to be killed in the end as well because he abused his power and turned more evil than Zeon themselves. Nothing of this will happen in S1, but I feel that episode 34 onward is relic of the original script. |
inimOct 6, 2022 8:04 AM
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| @inim I will keep grinding my way through until I enjoy it, lol. By the same point in Macross, which didn't look much better than Gundam to be fair I was very much hooked by the story and characters. My problem is that there's no real meat to the show apart from the mecha aspects and fighting. I'm missing Char, he interests me. I'm looking forward to Origins and Iron-Blooded Orphans once we're done. I can see your point about finding the shows place in anime archeology interesting, and it is to a point, but it doesn't help with my enjoyment whilst watching sadly. I can see the threads of a good story and characters but the show is taking forever to weave them into a coherent pattern. |
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23feanor said: He's best girl for sure. I wonder if it's a spoiler to point out that episode 26 is called "Char Returns", and that this is right after the Battle of Odessa - the turning point of the One Year War.@I'm missing Char, he interests me. It all may be the same weird production driven logic as episode 26 of Macross was the "true finale" as well. Courtesy of fillers and recaps it "physically" was a few eps later, but that was the genuine finale of Macross. It feels similar for Gundam, a major battle at the end of cour 2 looks a lot like a "drop here if needed" marker. The point is that Macross got worse after this, while Gundam becomes better. |
inimOct 6, 2022 9:19 AM
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| Episode 20 The episode contains precisely what's on the tin: Hand-to-Hand Combat. Earth main command orders all ships to stand still before the upcoming Battle of Odessa, the White Base included. Ramba Ral and his commando troops use the opportunity and attempt to enter the ship, good old fashioned pirate infantry style. Combatants are armed with hand grenades, WW2 style assault rifles and pistols. The whole battle takes place inside the While Base and I got LotGH vibes again, this time reminded of the Rosen Ritter episodes. Sayla is given her first official sortie as Gundam's pilot, as Amuro is still jailed. Later he's released and takes over, just in time to kill Ramba Ral. The key revelation of this episode is Sayla's origins story. Ramba Ral's father Jimba Ral served her father, Zeon Zum Deikun - the founder of the Republic of Zeon. He addresses her as Princess Artesia Som Deikun, and a flashback shows the two of them (Sayla at pre-school age) playing. Only the viewer and Sayla herself know about this, as Ramba is killed shortly after this scene. Overall, more fighting for fighting's sake, but I liked it a little better this time. At last we get some breadcrumbs of backstory this episode. In some shots I felt that part of the boredom of some episodes is due to background drawings, or lack there-off. The show weasels out by officially being set in a central Asian desert/steppe, which by design is a boring landscape. Yet, it's clear how underfunded this show is, down to the still lackluster handful of colors they seem to be limited to. Colorization also was manual labor back then, and every frame counts. |
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| Alright, rapid-fire catch up. @kekekeKaj I do appreciate the insights into why Sayla behaved that way, makes a bit more sense of it. Episode 17 We're getting a more insubordinate Amuro this episode and, considering the title, it was pretty clear where that was headed. It's interesting that he decides to desert over the possibility that he might not be allowed to pilot Gundam anymore, despite the fact that deserting and returning later (maybe he wasn't thinking that far ahead) would make that a near certainty and he's already well aware that he's the best suited to pilot it. Figure anyone else trying to pilot it would make a strong case that he needed to be in that cockpit. Then again, maybe he just saw how quickly Sayla was released from her imprisonment and thought that deserting may only yield short term discord. I've enjoyed Ramba Ral throughout much of these events. He's a very different kind of military leader from Char, someone who is truly a soldier and behaves like one throughout. Episode 18-19 Amuro's thinking in deserting really didn't seem to get far past "I need to leave," since he basically just ends up camping out in a deserted town and putting Gundam partially under a tarp (it's still blatantly obvious what it is, so way to half ass it, Amuro). The couple of fights he has when he is out and about are, if anything, somehow made easier by being on his own, which doesn't sit all that well with me as he mops the floor with Kycilia and multiple Zakus. There's something going on behind the scenes with this special ship that they were using, but not much is explained yet beyond clarifying that this is new tech they can't let get into Federation hands. Fraw does track Amuro down, but nearly gets herself and Amuro captured in a Western-style saloon. Did kind of like the Ramba/Hamon interactions with them - as @inim pointed out, the mutual respect is pretty strong here. There's a really close fight as well where both Ramba and Amuro almost die and Amuro takes out his mobile suit. Ramba really gets into Amuro's head by telling him that he only won due to having Gundam, but Amuro really did pull off some slick moves here. Still, he's stuck between questioning his own skills and being very full of himself when he returns. Episode 20 Ramba Ral goes out like a boss, fighting until the end even after being basically told to go fuck himself when he seeks backup from his superior. This results in a rather desperate but partially effective effort to board White Base and inflict some real damage. It's interesting to see how the Zeon soldiers react to the presence of children on the ship, and particularly intriguing when Ramba runs into Sayla, who he appears to know as Princess Artesia Som Deikun. He may not survive the episode, but that revelation will certainly have a role to play. The gritty nature of the fighting in this series is on full display in this episode, and I personally got flashbacks to the woman who unsuccessfully tried to shoot Amuro after Garma was killed when he charged Hamon with finishing the fight. She doesn't seem the type to respond in highly emotional fashion, but her attachment to Ramba was undeniable, and given the title of the next episode, there's a good chance this won't end well for her. |
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| Episode 20. Noticed that Bright told Mirai he thought she was special too, that ship will be sailing soon. Good episode. I like Ramba Ral and his over exuberant, no nonsense approach to soldiering, especially at the end when he says "watch closely, this is how a soldier dies" or something to that affect, and then jumps off the side of the ship into an explosion. We learn some of Sayla's backstory and her royal connections to the old Zeon ruler. Amuro comes to his senses when the Zeon attack and joins in the defence of WB. About time as he was starting to become very annoying. I find it interesting how Hamon keeps commenting on what a lovely young boy Amuro is. In the last episode she said the same in front of Ramba Ral, her husband, and the crew of the Gallop, which they all find amusing, clearly clued in on Hamon's 'tastes'. Does she enjoy young guys, something that Ramba Ral doesn't mind, or does he have his own 'distractions' and they are happy to let each other indulge as long as they return to the marital bed every now and then? It seemed like they cared about each other from their dialogue. I just find it perplexing to have such an adult theme of extra marital affairs, or indulging/pursuing lovers outside of a marriage with your partners consent in this show. Hamon's comments last episode in the saloon are pretty obvious, either she views Amuro as sexual prey to tease or enjoy as a conquest, either way it's a bit kinky for a 70's mecha show. |
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| Episode 17 - 20 The backstory intro has been dropped! These batch of episodes see the White Base clash repeatedly with Rambo Ral. We get confirmation that the Gundam/Guncannon/Guntank are part of the same project. I also get the impression that the control scheme is similar enough that if you can pilot one you can pilot another without too much trouble. I enjoyed the fact that Amuro is starting to show initiative in studying simulation data etc and making decisions such as going out in the Guntank instead of the Gundam. His choices made a certain amount of sense, but like the best laid plans, they go out of the window in the face of actual combat. At a very narrow tactical level, Amuro has perhaps already exceeded his commander Bright, but he's obviously lacking the experience to see the big picture. Having defended Amuro's change of personality when he went home to visit mum, I find myself struggling to accept the apparent permanency of his change. In fact, the changes seems to be going a step further - not only is he no longer struggling to go out into battle, he seems to have found a certain relish for it. I get the impression that he's now set his sights on becoming as good as Char. On the face of it, it's not an unreasonable progression as Amuro clearly has some admiration for Char, but I just find the transition process a bit jarring. After overhearing that Bright is thinking of removing him as the Gundam pilot, Amuro decides to not only leg it, but to do it in the Gundam. It's a bit of a dick move as it puts White Base in danger without its best weapon and I honestly can't say I'm feeling the motivation of this act. In the meantime, Kycilia arrives on Earth cosplaying as a female fighter from Mortal Kombat. Except of course Mortal Kombat wouldn't exist for another 10+ years. We get to see that it's not just Char pulling in a different direction in Zeon - there's different factions underneath the united front of being Zeon. As a result, Rambo Ral gets screwed over for working for a different faction, but he takes it like a champ and formulates a plan to take over White Base via hand to hand combat. Amuro's return to White Base seemed to prompt a fresh batch of desertions, which feels a bit random as they seem to come out of nowhere - the anime should have laid better groundwork for this development. But anyway, the desertion doesn't last for long as Rambo Ral puts his plan into action. I like the specialised commando tank designs, with its long protective "wings" that allows the commandos get close before jetting onto the ship. The Rambo Ral encounters are always fascinating and at least on a par with Char, and this one is no exception. The main revelation is Sayla's background. I didn't actually connect the dots at the time that her father is the founder of Zeon, but I suppose it makes sense given her father's name is Zeon! Also, that would imply that Char and Sayla are direct descendants of the founder! Given Char's animosity towards the Zabi patriarch, it seems a distinct possibility that Zabi took over Zeon's leadership in a coup or something along those lines. I guess we shall see. Rambo Ral is no more, which makes me sad as I really liked the guy, but at least he went out with a literal bang. I would expect no less from him. Despite very visible story issues, these episodes were very good. I for one am enjoying this show. But then I do like to get me some tactical military action :D I also get @inim 's joy of watching this as a historical artefact. So far this is a borderline 6/7 show for me. |
kekekeKajOct 7, 2022 3:23 PM
| Take off every SIG!! |
| Episode 21 Well, given the title "Sorrow and Hatred," I knew there was going to be some heartache, though I didn't expect this going in. Ryu barely survived the fight in the previous episode and is bedridden. Despite that, he's taking an active interest in what's going on outside, watching Bright and his team on a screen. It also doesn't stop him from directly interfering, as he leaves his bed in agony and ensures that Amuro is released to help in the fighting. Bright has a point that they don't want to give Amuro the impression that he's special enough that the rules don't apply to him, but he has no choice here given the coming attack from Hamon. When that attack comes, it's well-planned, with the aim to strike a specific portion of White Base and put it out of commission after threatening it from multiple sides. Hamon is a very different sort from Icelina, leading an actual force as opposed to a hastily assembled team and wielding them with a seemingly cool head. That doesn't prevent her from facing down the same fate, though, putting herself in harm's way and going for a near-suicidal charge on White Base. It ends in her death, but this one is far less affecting than Icelina's, as we don't really get to know her as a character beyond some minor depth regarding her interest in Amuro and Ramba. Speaking of death, it's Ryu's that elicits the strongest response. He raises death flags every time he gets out of bed, and they just keep stacking up until he flies the core fighter into Hamon's own ship, which was about to take out Gundam with a close range shot. Not clear why he didn't fire on it at a distance, but it's affecting and it has everyone in the cast in tears afterward. Everyone blames themselves for his death, but he clearly made this choice and pushed others to get his way. They'll all have to accept that at some point, though it's likely that their grief and guilt will last a while. |
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| Episode 21. Another better episode about Ryu, a secondary character but who has had some dialogue and who we know a bit better than some of the rest like Hayato and Kai. Ryu is gravely injured but makes his way about the ship dispensing some sage advice and getting people, mainly Amuro and Bright to think about their actions and attitude towards each other. Amuro seems to have gotten over his moody rebellious phase and is even understanding of Bright placing him back in the brig. The issue now is that Bright doesn't know how to communicate with Amuro. Hamon leads the Gallop and the small revenge force to take out the WB with a desperate plan involving their deaths. This do go according to plan until Ryu sacrifices himself to prevent the Gallop crashing into WB and detonating the stashed explosives. This has a big impact on the remaining crew of the WB, who are all feeling the effects of the the long journey and drawn out battles they seem to be constantly fighting. Damages and lack of spare parts are really starting to bite and prevent WB and the mobile suits from working and fighting. This episode used a member of the secondary cast to good effect. |
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| Episode 21 We get two heroic self-sacrifices in this episode, Ryo of team Earth and Hamon of team Ramba Ral. Both of them make military sense, and also are motivated properly by the character's condition. The battle leading to the demise of both of them in a mutual kamikaze crash is interesting and also feels real. Certainly one of the better episodes. Ryo was seriously injured last episode, and maybe he has some death with. He also was Bright's candidate to replace Amuro as Gundam pilot, so maybe there's some feeling of guilt for that. And finally that guy just seems to have an enormous feeling of duty, he takes things into his own hands in the best interest of the whole. Hamon wants revenge for Ramba, the love of her life. But she's professional enough to avoid blind revenge. Ramba's men immediately accept her as their new commander. She explains their primary "revenge for Garma Zabi" has failed, but they still can help Zeon's cause by disabling some of the most advanced Earth Federation military assets: the White Base and the Gundam. She comes up with a focused plan, concentrating their remaining resources on a single weak point of the White Base. Her plan works out rather well, and only seconds before she could destroy the Gundam Ryo kills both of them by a collision. Overall, above average episode. See praise above. |
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| Episode 22 The White Base marauds in M'Quve's mining facility area, destroying mines and military units quite successfully. After we've got that information from a montage, the remainder of the episode is a sophisticated military trap set up by M'Quve. It's a complex cooperation of infantry, air force and mechanized heavy ground troops. The kick-off is done by a commando unit destroying select sensors of the White Base by clandestinely planting bombs. The overall goal is to drive the White Base into the fire range of a large stationary laser weapon. The White Base is grounded that way and the episode ends with them sending an encrypted distress call to Earth HQ. The plan works smoothly, and from time to time the show cuts into M'Quve's command center for the info dump of the next stage and his "I love it when a plan works out" commentary. It's nice to see once more the show is fairly balanced towards both sides. Neither side is completely wrong, and villains are portrayed to be just heros of the other side. They are no idiots but, in M'Quve's case quite competent, professionals. Two minor nitpicks. First, Bright right at the start of the episode falls ill and the command is with Mirai. She fails to bear the pressure and by that makes slow and bad decisions. Sayla tries to help her with the occasional pep talk, but to no avail. Bright face-savingly is in the sick bay, while Mirai is character assassinated as weak ... woman. In a side note: did anybody else notice the shot where Sayla (a princess and military officer!) is seen sewing during her bridge duty? At times the gender roles of this show feel as if they come from a century ago. But it's only 43 years. 2nd and speaking of more 1970s stuff: Fraw Bow and the kids provide some more fan service. Needless to say that the nipples (on both the kid and the lady) and the groping wouldn't fly anymore today. As somebody who was a pre-teen boy myself in the 70s (and in Europe) I nevertheless may add that I also remember a far more innocent approach and thinking about "natural" nudity as displayed here. I'm not sure when the change of social standards and norms took place, but in 1979 that scene probably didn't raise too many eye brows. I like Fraw Bow better as a fan service girl than Mirai (last time), and am really waiting for Sayla *evil grin*. Overall, another good episode. The show currently has a run again. |
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| Episode 22. One thing I've wondered watching gundam fight, how many shields and rifles does the gundam have on board WB as they seem to get split in half by the Zakus almost every time they fight. Another thing, the WB is capable of space flight, so why doesn't it go up into the atmosphere and then come back down again at it's destination rather than crawling forward at ground level? The fan service scene with Fraw Bow and the kids was so out of place. @inim I wouldn't have noticed Sayla sowing without your prompt, maybe they're trying to say that despite being a pilot and princess, she can still help with menial tasks? On top of Mirai being befuddled by command, this doesn't paint women in the best light. Contrast that with Hamon, Kycilia or Icelina and you get quite a broad range of female types in this show so far. M'Quve and his forces devise and execute a well worked plan that brings the WB down. |
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23feanor said: You ask very valid questions and I'm glad to see I'm not alone with that. One thing I've wondered watching gundam fight, how many shields and rifles does the gundam have on board WB as they seem to get split in half by the Zakus almost every time they fight. Another thing, the WB is capable of space flight, so why doesn't it go up into the atmosphere and then come back down again at it's destination rather than crawling forward at ground level? 23feanor said: I wouldn't have noticed Sayla sowing without your prompt, maybe they're trying to say that despite being a pilot and princess, she can still help with menial tasks? Foto or it didn't happen ... here you are :) |
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| Episode 21 - 22 With Rambo Ral gone, Hamon and a small loyal band goes on a kamikaze strike against the Gundam and the whitebase. Ryu plays an important role in his final episode, demonstrating the heart of a lion as he goes around helping to hold the ship together despite so heavily injured that he could barely walk. For me, his most poignant moment came when he went to have a chat with Bright about Amuro being solitary confinement. Since becoming a parent, I find myself often watching things through a parental lens, and Ryu's simple question of whether Bright tried just talking to Amuro sparked one of those parental connections. The whole talking rather than punishing approach is very much of the respectful parenting school of philosophy that I strive to aspire to, and the connection is especially strong here because it's just occurred to me that there's a pseudo parenting of Amuro thing going on by the more mature members on the ship. Remember that Amuro is 15 and is having to grow up fast in this war situation without having his father around, and it's up to the older people around him to guide him, which they are trying to do with mixed results. Unfortunately while Ryu talked up a big game, his actual talk with Amuro was underwhelming to say the least. Turns out Amuro has already matured to the point that he understands Bright's predicament and Ryu didn't seem to have much more to say. Even more unfortunately, the episode rapidly went down hill once the action started. The battle was all kinds of over the top and ridiculous and it's hard to take much of it seriously. As Amuro is getting better everyone else seems to be getting useless - Kai can't hit a damn thing with the Guncannon now. It also wasn't clear why Ryu didn't just shoot instead of ramming, or why he was piloting the core fighter at all! As a result the deaths of Hamon and Ryu felt silly and unnecessary which smothered most of the emotional sting. Those two deserved a far better ending than this. Despite not being a hugely prominent character, Ryu's death seems to have elevated him into messiah material. His shipmates are understandably distraught, but what's less understandable is how "if only Ryu were here" became a meme that is uttered for anything that's goes wrong after his passing. I'm not sure if LoGH took inspiration here too, but at least it was done more convincingly there. Like @23feanor, I've also been wondering about how many shields etc they have. And now I've got one more thing to wonder about: Ryu crashing one of the core fighters does not appear to have affected the formation of any of the robots, which makes me wonder: do they have a stack of spare core fighters lying around or something?? And WTF is the Gunperry? They've mentioned it a couple of times now, but I have no idea what they're referring to! Anyway, at least the M'Quve trap battle is a hell of a lot better than the one in the previous one. The trap is a masterclass in tactics. The only thing that beggars belief is that they left the ship alone and went home once it started smoking. I also note that Amuro seems to be killing Goufs as easily as Zakus now. Not sure whether Ral had a custom one or whether he was just badass. |
kekekeKajOct 9, 2022 1:06 PM
| Take off every SIG!! |
| Episode 22 Yeah, I'm largely agreed with @23feanor about the apparent ready availability of both Gundam's shields and guns. Considering how long they've been traveling without a resupply, I find it hard to believe they're storing this many or even repairing them fast and well enough to make this work. As for White Base going into the atmosphere, it's difficult to say. Zeon could have countermeasures for that, but more likely it's just plot convenience to ensure that they're constantly being harried. And yeah, sudden fan service was sudden and strange. @kekekeKaj also made a good point about the core fighters and how many they have. Also, to your question, I did look this up: the Gunperry is a different kind of transport aircraft used chiefly for big ticket items like Gundam or its components. The White Base actually has one, and they used it to set up a sneak attack with Gundam a while back. https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Gunperry It's nice to see a tactic used by another Zeon leader, M'Quve, that actually works to bring down White Base. In general, considering how undermanned they've been and how most of their staff is lacking in basic experience, it's a wonder they've survived this long with so few losses. Also as @kekekeKaj pointed out, Goufs seem to be a lot more common now. Not sure why they suddenly went into mass production after Ramba Ral died, but as he also notes, they seem extremely easy to defeat all of a sudden. I do chalk that up to the pilot rather than its having been customized, which fits more with his assertion that Amuro's win against him was all about Gundam and not about his actual skills. Episode 23 We spend this episode obtaining a new piece of merchandi- I mean, upgrade modules and supplies to White Base. Considering just how well Gundam has been cleaning up, it makes a lot of sense to specifically design tech for it, though that's a lot of eggs in one basket. Also seems suspicious that the Goufs used by the enemy just so happen to be surfing on their own Green Goblin gliders this episode. In any case, it's another opportunity to show off to Lt. Matilda (Kai apparently wants to as well, so the crush isn't just Amuro's) and fight off M'Quve's fighters and Goufs, which they manage to do quite well... despite the fact that Gundam has to use the upgrade glider for the first time ever and just kind of nails it without any training. Yeah, there's a lot going on in this fight that seems exceedingly lucky, like being able to pull off the docking maneuver for Gundam while being fired upon. Also strange is when Amuro says that he can't use the core fighter to take out the Goufs... just after having taken out one of the Goufs with his core fighter. Might have more to do with ammo, but it's a strange thing to say. Didn't really want to say anything about Mirai being in command in the last episode and her apparent inability to take up the mantle but... yeah, kinda problematic, as is the sewing thing. I will say that Sayla stepping up to make the decision to send out everyone they could to protect Lt. Matilda and her squadron was a nice change of pace, as was Mirai eventually being able to make decisions... even if it came after a near total lack of leadership on her part for an extended period. She is still new to this role, so I understand her trepidation, but many of the male characters have stepped into their roles much more smoothly. Anyway, they do win this fight and get resupplied and all the dudes get their accolades from Lt. Matilda. They're still in a bad way and it's unclear how long, even with the extra supplies, it will take to repair White Base and get it to where its needs to be, which is the front lines in Odessa. Frustratingly, they're being told they need to get there even after having done a great deal on their own with minimal help, and yet they have little to no idea what they're rolling into or how to even get out of their current predicament. |
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| Episode 23. This episode has more of Mirai being confused so Sayla takes charge and issues orders, later Mirai thanks Sayla for her support, bit wishy washy here. Lt Matilda is on the way with supplies to save WB but is intercepted on route. I noticed that Matilda said this info was top secret and shouldn't have been leaked to the Zeon forces but it clearly has so M'Quve must have a mole in the Federation. Gundam gets beaten up but manages to survive and use a new flight wing flown by Hayato to defeat the last Gouf (such a silly name, reminds me of guff every time I hear them say it, which is a fart in the UK, puerile I know but always makes me chuckle). There were a lot of inconsistencies in the fighting. The core fighter uses missiles to dispatch a couple of the Goufs but then Amuro says he has to convert to the gundam mid flight as the "core fighter can't destroy the Goufs" after just blowing one up. Matilda praises the guys who saved her, each of them basking in her praise. |
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| Episode 23 Ahh just as I was wondering what the heck the Gunperry is, they tell you in this episode. It is indeed the gundam cargo ship that @whiteflame55 mentioned. It seems like all the mechas are now on hoverboards, and Gundam gets its own one. Feels kinda odd we haven't seen it before and now they're everywhere. And cynically I suspect it's because it's the latest brainwave by the toy marketing exec. The battle is a mumble jumble of inconsistent nonsense. Amuro is so overpowered that he can take down Guffs with just a core fighter. What a load of guff, I say. The Gundam gets so badly damaged in the legs that it could barely stand, and yet it balances on the hoverboard with no problem, with Amuro taking to it like a fish to water. Meanwhile, on board the White Base, with Bright only well enough to say "Gambatte!" from his sick bed, Mirai is taking to leadership like a fish to desert. All jokes aside, I want to pause for a moment to reflect on the character development here. As someone who's averse to being thrust into a leadership role, I can honestly empathise with Mirai's floundering. That said, there's definitely a sense that Mirai's struggles stems from the fact that she's a woman, and that is a black mark against the show. On the other hand, I feel this episode does a good job of portraying the power dynamics between Mirai and Sayla. More crucially, it feels like Mirai is beginning to get a sense of what she's doing now. (If we extend the progression from here, we end up with Misa from Macross, a far more progressive show). There's a few nice touches here and there like Mirai not wanting to sit in the Captain's seat. It also feels like Kai is undergoing subtle character development as well, changing from the village jackass to someone who's starting to pull in the same direction as everyone else. The battle may be a mess in this episode, but the character writing is solid. PS I suddenly realised in this episode why Matilda's hair look so strange compared to everyone else - it's because unlike everyone else, it lacks a solid black outline (there's probably a technical term for this), so the boundary is less well defined as other people. I wonder why they decided to draw her hair in a different style to the rest of the art. See the difference here:  |
kekekeKajOct 10, 2022 7:28 AM
| Take off every SIG!! |
| @kekekeKaj good catch on Matilda's hair Episode 24. As I suspected M'Quve has a couple of spies in Federation command alerting him to their plans. The guys on WB make fools of themselves over Matilda. Kycilia sends a strike force known as the Black Tri-Star to Earth who all have thick country American accents. The new Zeon mobile suits look pretty effective and give a good account of themselves, eventually forcing Matilda to crash her supply ship into one of the Zeon mobile suits (think they call it a Damm?) to prevent it getting a shot at WB killing Matilda and her crew. This show sure likes to kill off the secondary cast for dramatic effect. |
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| Episode 23 and 24 Battle savvy mini-arc killing off another side character, tall Dominatrix beauty and General Revil's right hand red head Lieutenant Matilda. She's given multiple heroic moments when her transport Medea Squadron against heavy Zeon resistance manages to resupply the White Base. Due to her personal intervention they also can deliver power-ups for the Gundam, right in time for the 3rd cour and the upcoming major battle. She ends in a heroic sacrifice, once more via kamikaze into a powerful enemy threatening to take out the White Base. This is built up via a group photo, everybody and his dog had a crush on her it seems. Sob sob. One the Zeon side: There's spy character named Judoch whom we have been hinted at before. He's reporting to M'Quave from the inner circle of the White Base. And finally there's a new trio of very advanced Zeon mecha pilots sent by Kycilia Zabi, the Black Tri-Stars. They attack the White Base and are pushed back, with one of them destroyed. Kycilia also re-activates Char and has a new suit sent to him. Glad to have him back, next episode. And finally Sayla is officially promoted to pilot, with Fraw Bow taking her bridge seat as communication officer. Overall, average episodes. In 24 I think they used asymmetric split screen and picture-in-picture quite a lot. I actually like that, it makes for an interesting pacing increase effect. Otherwise, pretty routine battle and story progression. |
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| Episode 24 There are a few little things going on of interest in this episode, including mention of Char and a spy among the Federation that could explain a lot of why White Base has been so consistently targeted. Much of the central plot of this episode, however, is dedicated to the Black Tri-Stars and Matilda. The former are well-trained fighters in highly advanced mobile suits sent by Kycilia to help M'Quave, while the latter keeps the attention of the young male staff of White Base. Soon as she took that picture with all of them, that raised a pretty big death flag for me. The two collide during a battle where Amuro is barely holding his own, leading Matilda to try to pilot her ship to take out one of the Tri-Stars. Her attempt fails, her ship is brought down, and she dies in the ensuing explosion. Harder to feel this one given how little we've gotten to know her and the largely superficial attachments to her character - most of the characters saluting her have dry eyes as well. Episode 25 A lot of things kind of just... resolve in this episode. White Base finally gets close enough to join the Federation offensive and, while off practicing how to fly the new Gundam module, Amuro and Sayla stumble across a Federation vehicle taking off from *gasp* a Zeon base! And, what's this - it's landing on a Federation ground transport! Yeah, it doesn't take long to put two and two together and realize that Judoch, a general for the Federation, is the spy. Amuro confronts him in what initially seems like a foolhardy move but turns out to be an opportunity to catch him giving himself away, which felt kind of forced because he had the opportunity to pass the blame off onto a subordinate, and even after that he actually could have shot and killed Amuro, he just missed. Still, the spy threat has been solved. Then White Base is attacked. It's defenders can't do much, so Gundam returns and takes out the two remaining members of the Black Tri-Stars. While that's going on, the Federation is stomping M'Quave (anyone else kinda blindsided by how effectively they're destroying the Zeon forces? I get that Zeon's outmanned and outgunned, but M'Quave seemed more in control than most, never got an indication that he was out of his depth), to the point that M'Quave threatens nuclear fucking annihilation if they don't stand down in violation of a nuclear treaty between the two forces (hope something comes of that). The Federation general presses onward anyway, so M'Quave fires the thing. Amuro is tasked with stopping it by cutting the missile at a very specific point, which he somehow manages just in the nick of time just after killing the Tri-Stars. M'Quave escapes, and White Base meets the general who almost got them all killed. Yeah, a lot of this just felt anticlimactic, especially given how the Tri-Stars were built up and the threat of this spy, it just seemed to fall apart too easily. |
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| Episode 25. I also found this slightly anti climatic. This show does have different gears when it comes to pacing. The WB crawls along the continent for what seems most of the show soa far and the Odessa offensive is mentioned as this looming big battle then it's all over in half an episode. The spy is also caught, which directly impacts the Zeon defence of Odessa so lucky break for Amuro and the Federation. Then Amuro saves everyone from disaster by cutting a nuclear warhead in half. This is saturday morning cartoon levels of fighting. Looking forward to the return of best girl Char next episode. |
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| Episode 26. For an episode titled Chars Return we didn't see much of him. We find out he's been transferred to a unit known as the Mad Angler, great name. A Zeon spy spots the WB and another confrontation is on. The crew of the WB, formerly civilians, meet general Revel and are told that should they not wish to continue as military personnel they will be imprisoned, not much of a choice then. This episode then focuses on the mobile suit arms race, with the Zeon coming out with a wider variety and number of suits, whereas the Federation seem to be relying on the suits they have (gundam, guncannon, guntank and now gunfighter) and upgrading them with new modules and additions. The gundam fights off the new Zeon mobile suit, an amphibious type. Sayla is now one of the pilot crew and called out with Hayato and Kai every fight. Wonder when she'll meet Char in her suit? |
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| Episode 26 As @23feanor said, distinct lack of Char in this Char-titled episode. There's not too much to say about this one. There's a Zeon spy living among the civilians who is clearly trying to get information but is rather ineffectual this episode. The Zeons have themselves a new mobile suit that swims pretty effectively underwater, has massive claws, and is largely impervious to everything but the beam swords and laser cannons of Gundam. Char is entirely elsewhere, but is kind of sort of heading up these efforts. It's an interesting arms race developing, though given just how fast these manufacturing changes are coming from Zeon, it does look like the Federation is generally in more trouble. Despite having heavily fortified this beach, they are completely ineffectual at protecting White Base. Still, Gundam wins after a daring underwater fight. |
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| Episode 27. Kai decides to leave WB, meets a girl and her family, discovers she's a Zeon spy and then returns when WB is attacked as he realises he feels part of the crew and can't stand by whilst his erstwhile comrades are getting pummelled. The girl Kai met in town has resorted to becoming a Zeon spy in order to feed her young brother and sister. She is ordered to infiltrate the WB which she does with comical ease. Does the WB not shut the doors on their super secret base. They'll find a family of racoons next. Finding some of these episodes tortuously hard to sit through. Give me Char or maybe something in space. |
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| Episode 24 - 25 MATILDA-SAAAAAAAN!!! The episode 24 preview at the end of episode 23 gave advance notice of Matilda's demise, so it wasn't such a big surprise. Thanks a lot preview! The show is surprisingly ruthless towards the characters. Despite the outdated melodramatics, Matilda's death was handled pretty well by the standards of the series. One thing that struck me is how hilariously dated the camera technology is. This show is obvious way ahead of its time, but this is one of those instances where the a sci-fi shows its age. Amuro's clashes with the Black Tri-stars were pretty decent. It may well have ended badly for him if it wasn't for Matilda's sacrifice breaking up the Jetstream Attack formation. It's also clear from these battles that Amuro's grown into an exceptional pilot. I'm looking forward to his clashes with Char when the latter returns. Also it seems that Zeon woman has gone back to space to the moon. I agree that the catching of the spy feels a bit anti-climactic and forced. The point of real interest in this episode to me though is the use of nuclear weapons. Japan is pretty unique in that it's the only nation that's ever had the unfortunate experience on the wrong end of a nuclear strike. While the whole world experienced anxiety over the possibility of a nuclear war during the cold war, I imagine Japan felt that anxiety more than most. You can see this thing's weighing on their minds in quite a few of works produced in the era like Yamato and Fist of the North Star. Here we actually see the explicit firing of a Hydrogen bomb! I wonder if this episode caused a reaction in Japan when it aired. |
| Take off every SIG!! |
| Episode 27 This one was a bit anticlimactic. Kai leaves and returns to the crew in the same episode, which kind of makes sense given that he has absolutely no plan after leaving, but it's just not a very interesting way to use his character after all his derision. His running into the Zeon spy is interesting - I keep questioning whether he actually knows she's a Zeon spy, or if he thinks she's just up to something else, since he doesn't say it outright in this episode. We do get some background on why she's doing this - for her younger sister and brother - but as @23feanor pointed out, it's kind of ridiculous how easily she gets on White Base. Episode 28 Yeah, this is where I'm really questioning how much Kai knew about this spy. He seemed to know at the end of the last episode, but suddenly becomes surprised by her appearance here. Regardless, it doesn't take him long to figure it out at this stage. He discovers her on the ship and shields her from accusations in the short term (honestly, she lucked out that they were almost immediately thrown into the fray after she boards). Meanwhile, a pair of Zeon soldiers arrive onboard undetected since they're... using the cover of being fishermen? Honestly, why not just install a revolving door onto the WB and let Char on next? There's some discussion over this when Kai finds out that they're probably spies, but Bright seems pretty certain that they covered their bases on this. Not sure what makes him so certain. Also, strange note: one of the Zeon soldiers tells the other not to speak because he has an obvious Zeon accent. Interesting, didn't know there was an accent associated specifically with Zeon. Anyway, the spying didn't do much for the purposes of this episode. The Zeon soldier reports back to Char and tells him that they're not headed to Africa, where a lot of the fighting is currently going on, but rather South America. Apparent this will not bring them into direct conflict with Char for a while. Kind of a let down. Anyway, fighting begins. The Zeons bring out two other waterborne mobile suits, and they unleash a much larger submarine-esque suit called the Gabro. The Zeon soldier piloting the Gabro apparently has it in for Amuro since he killed many of his comrades, and while he does put up quite the fight underwater, even managing to tear off Gundam's leg, he eventually loses to the beam sword. Amuro says something about losing the leg somehow helping him move better underwater, which... no? Pretty sure that's not how that works. Meanwhile, there's a lot of effort up above the water to use various aircraft to take down the remaining mobile suits. Sayla nails one, but gets damaged and must return to base. So it's all on Kai to fly a Gunperry and save the day. The spy decides to join him after seeing that they have children on board that they are trying to protect. They fly down and she helps destroy the second mobile suit, but gets flung out of the Gunperry, presumably to her death in a pretty well-done scene. Everyone returns to base jubilant except for Kai, who cries over the girl he met, like, yesterday... OK, it is actually a kind of sad scene. They do, however, put up a weirdly drawn image of the girl that... doesn't leave the best final impression. |
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| Episode 28. This was a better episode. Miharu is now on board the WB and bumps into Kai, who I'm guessing knew she was a spy, or working for the Zeon to feed her family from the moment he saw the gun in her picnic basket. Kai seems to have a connection with Miharu and accepts her for who and what she is. During the fight Kai takes Miharu out in the gunperry with him as she wants to fight after seeing children on board. She helps manually launch a missile and gets blown overboard to drown or be blown up, which really gets to Kai like nothing else we've seen before has. Nice bit of character development here and another good use of a secondary character who only appears for a couple of episodes. Some fishermen also turn up and Bright just isn't suspicious enough. Is the show trying to tell us that he's incompetent or just too trusting for the commander of a secret Federation warship? |
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| Episode 29. The WB finally arrives at a safe Federation base in South America called Jaburo. However unbeknownst to them Char and the Zeon's are tailing them, how I have no idea and the show doesn't tell us. Char mentioned something about the Zeon spy but we know she's dead and there was no mention of a tracking device. Just when they think they're safe the Zeon attack including Char in a new mobile suit. I've wondered why we've never seen any other types of Federation mobile suits before and we get out first sight of them, Gyms I think Amuro called them, mass produced versions of gundam. Amuro also meets Matilda's fiancee who is has an attachment to WB because of Matilda's sacrifice. He is later killed or injured by Char. Not sure why g-bull or g-armour (combination of g-fighter and gundam piloted by Sayla and Amuro) are always sent out first when it almost always has to convert to gundam as soon as they start fighting. Looks like the meeting of Sayla and Char is imminent. |
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| Episode 25 Episode 26 Episode 27 Episode 28 I've been in some stress and half ill, so I'll shorten my posting a bit. We got two spies introduced, discovered and killed. We got half a dozen advanced Zeon mecha unit types introduced. And we get introduced to the new power-up modules supplied by the late Matilda. The "technical talk" at the beginning of episode 27 was basically what today would be a youtube paid advertising "unboxing product X" video. It shows what you can do with the new toy extras. Also the many new Zeon types scream merch variety and turnaround. And of course this comes with many action scenes, a lot of them re-using transformation sequence material as for the bull. Char is back as a Colonel commanding a submarine following the White Base (with the help of spies). The task spanning the four episodes is to get from Northern Ireland to a South American repair facility for space ships to get long overdue work on the WB done. The male spy and Matilda's heroic sacrifice didn't really touch me, Kai and the female spy far more. I really like 2ndary and side characters getting arcs, this is what shows like Monster are all about. But there are too many shortcomings which kill the benefit. Two episodes are just to short to create an impact. Looking at the female spy, her character development took 10 seconds: when she saw the three children she did a 180 degree turn and changed sides. That's not how it works. Kai is probably the grayest character of them all anyway, so his involvement and development was a lot better. Shortly before he had that leave-and-return-for-duty arc, those things sum up and create story value. Kai, Char and Sayla are characters with credible development at a realistic pace. Episode 29 This takes place in the hidden South American (looks like rain forest) docks, under the command of Matilda's fiancé. Zeon troops lead by Char plan and conduct a smart attack using new aquatic mechas. Matilda's man dies conveniently in it. Amoru and Char meet face to face (both inside their suits ofc) again and "sense" each other. Sayla drops her drink when she hears about her brother's return. At this point Amuro was already dead in the original script, with Char as the new traitorous MC. If I recall the movies correctly, about this time I woke up again because the story changed into something I was really interested in again. The endless chase and skirmish arcs resolved with the death of yet another side character are over soon. Bring it on, Char! |
inimOct 16, 2022 4:57 AM
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| Episode 29 They do a lot of damage to the South American rainforests in this one. War is hell. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Char supposed to be in Africa? I guess they gave him leeway to go wherever he wants. This episode largely just comes with a heaping helping of distrust from the Federation of White Base and the crew therein, which is partially warranted by the fact that their arrival revealed the base to Char (seems like they were prepared for an attack regardless), but partially just doesn't make a lot of sense given just how effective they've been over the last many episodes. The one person who is on their side, Matilda's fiancé, ends up biting it this episode in a foolhardy attack on Char during a pitched fight where he really wasn't necessary or helpful. Felt kinda pointless. The remainder of the episode is a rematch between Amuro and Char, which is rather anticlimactic and ends with Char escaping. @inim Interesting that, by this point, Char had become the MC. He does appear to be getting up to quite a bit more, so I can see it. Episode 30 Another Char attack. The protagonists luck out because the kids decide to escape and end up stumbling upon a rather bumbling set of Zeon soldiers planting bombs on Federation mobile suits. The kids do some incredible work removing all the bombs and somehow driving them out of there in a jeep. Luckily for them, Amuro and company arrive just in time (apparently there to survey the mobile suits) to take over and drive the bombs off a cliff after saving the children. Lot of right place at the right time stuff going on here. We get another rematch between Amuro and Char, though this one doesn't last long, either, with Char just doing everything he can to escape. He manages to outsmart Amuro and escape underwater after losing the arm of his mobile suit, the first real damage we've seen him take. Amuro has certainly gotten better. We end the episode on Bright, who is being told that he will have to use the White Base as bait, given how much the Zeons have hyped up its importance. Honestly, the hype seems accurate - they've done a massive amount of damage in their travels and have survived everything thrown at them. Still, they'll be back in the crosshairs soon enough, not that they ever really left. |
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| @whiteflame55 you're completely right, Char said something along the lines of he would be fighting in Africa so woudn't get to up against the gundam again any time soon and then he suddenly reappears. Episode 30. I liked this episode more but that was probably because it didn't feel like the rest of the show. First we witnessed the WB crew being given military ranks. Then we got a whole scene with the kids and best girl Kikka with her red ribbon and boots. The kids don't fit well into the Federation daycare centre on Jaburo and make a run for it, only to discover a bunch of Zeon bombs on the production gundams. They manage to retrieve them all and start a car when they're found by Amuro, Hayato and Kai who dispose of the bombs. Sayla, or princess Artesia, finally meets Char again. Sayla can't believe her brother is working for the Zeons and Char asks her to defect and join him, He clearly has some plan to get revenge or undermine the Zeons from within, but he doesn't have time to explain his plans. Mirai observantly notices that Sayla didn't shoot at Char and wonders why she denies seeing him. We then get most emotional moment of the show so far for me with Kai declaring that the kids are family after all they've been through, you go Kai. |
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