Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Anime Episode Discussion

[Frontier]

Watching a Gundam premier with out-of-synch subs was...not as fun as I would have liked. It's like I was able to get the gist of the plot, but when the subs are running into the ED sequence, you know you screwed up .

Suletta is utterly adorable! Anxious, sweet, steadfast, loyal, and with a strong bond/pride in the Aerial! It really doesn't seem like she's attending this school for any kind of revenge plot beyond showing the GUND-Arm tech was valid and they shouldn't have done what they did to her family. Of course a chance meeting will bring her closer to the man who ordered their deaths sooner than later .

Suletta and Miorine definitely seem to be the central relationship of the show and the Yuri vibes to their relationship can't be denied, especially when Suletta ends up being her new fiance and probable excuse to ward off any other suitors at the end. I don't expect them to concretely do anything with it, but they'll probably mine the undertones for all their worth .

I see they'll use CG for at least a few MS scenes even if it's still traditionally animated 90% of the time. I can live with that .

It's neat that the uniforms are pretty gender-neutral, since both the guys and girls wear shorts instead of the girls wearing skirts, although obviously some of the girls customize their uniforms to be more feminine and some have their shorts...really short .

So instead of a war setting we've got corporate wars and high school duels in an MS high school. I wonder if we'll see a transition to a traditional Gundam conflict...

Miorine seems to be a headstrong, cool, beauty with her own problems but is more caring than she appears (tsundere love interest here we come!). She grew up on Earth and has an agricultural bent from her mother, but her mothers' death and her father being, well, her father has left her feeling cold and used up. I'm eager to see her open up more to Suletta .

Our first slap! And it's a butt slap by our female lead! Priceless .

I see old age hasn't made Rembrant any less cold and ruthless .

I didn't expect Miorine to pilot the Aerial first, but it makes sense she'd want to settle a duel involving her by herself instead of involving someone else...it's just she's not really an MS pilot and doesn't know to use the Aerial, so she falls on her butt in expected fashion .

But luckily with the help of best gal Nika Suletta arrives to the save the day and deliver a satisfying defeat to Guel! But now some have realized she's piloting a Gundam .

Was that the actual ED? It's got some very nice illustrations of Suletta and her life, revolving around the Aerial and all the various places she's been/will be .

[darkdhaos]

Originally Posted by Blaat

So it looks like this is going to be split cour series with the second cour starting in April.

Is this the end of four cour Gundam series?

They are probably testing to see if this series is profitable. Maybe if the series gets really popular with a big fanbase along with good sales of their model kits, BDs and other merchandises... they will produce the remaining cours.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

It would be very remiss of me not to compliment the banger BGM provided by the relative newcomer, Takashi Ohmama. He composed the music for Gundam: Twilight Axis and did a really good job there. So I love that he can finally shine brighter in this show.

[FlareKnight]

They just went straight from yuri-vibes into straight up yuri since they are engaged now .

I do hope they are just hiding the second half of the show. It would be a shame for the first real Gundam series since IBO to only get half the regular amount of episodes. And I wouldn't even want to joke on that being done to the first Gundam series with a female protagonist.

As for the episode, it was fine. I'll admit the prologue episode was better. Suletta will be good...once she gets past her awkward stage. It's nice that she can absolutely get it going in a fight. But even if I get why they are having her be incredibly awkward that doesn't make it fun to watch .

Credit to them for some surprises. I figured that Miorine would actually be really competent and a rival for Suletta. Instead she's got no clue what she's doing in a mobile suit and is stupid enough to nearly get someone expelled because she's "gotta do things herself!" That's a fine approach...if the person saying it can actually follow through on that!

I'm also wondering if Suletta's mother is even sane. Her husband and friends were murdered over the existence of Gundams. And she's just sending her daughter off to school in one!? She can't think that no one's going to notice or that there won't be immediate and deadly consequences right?

[Router25]

So does Suletta saying she and Aerial grew up together means that Aerial is the Lfrith from the prologue?

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Router25

So does Suletta saying she and Aerial grew up together means that Aerial is the Lfrith from the prologue?

I'm presuming that's the case. It seems like it'd be tough for her mother to build new mobile suits in isolation after most of the people that built the last one..died. And they built this connection with Suletta and the suit enough for her to realistically still be using it even in the future. That would make it relatively a really old suit, but if technology has stagnated after the Gundam project was crushed then it still works. Plus in terms of combat it seems to function the same way.

Might be a different one, but I think there's reasons to presume they are the same for the time being.

[Ragashingo]

Ok. I liked it. Really didn't expect the nervous protagonist, but that'll give her plenty of room to grow. I do hope it gets past Gundam Highschool sooner rather than later... but it seems there's enough Grownup Politics happening already that we'll move to some greater conflict soon enough. This will be my first Gundam series to watch live and really the first I've ever seen start to end since Wing way back when... I'm kinda excited.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I'm presuming that's the case. It seems like it'd be tough for her mother to build new mobile suits in isolation after most of the people that built the last one..died. And they built this connection with Suletta and the suit enough for her to realistically still be using it even in the future. That would make it relatively a really old suit, but if technology has stagnated after the Gundam project was crushed then it still works. Plus in terms of combat it seems to function the same way.

Might be a different one, but I think there's reasons to presume they are the same for the time being.

Although the idea they just refurbished Lfrith but didn't even really change the design much and sent her to an MS school with an obvious Gundam is just hilarious to me .

[Ragashingo]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Although the idea they just refurbished Lfrith but didn't even really change the design much and sent her to an MS school with an obvious Gundam is just hilarious to me .

Yeah... and students watching on a monitor noticed what it was immediately. That won't cause any problems at all.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Credit to them for some surprises. I figured that Miorine would actually be really competent and a rival for Suletta. Instead she's got no clue what she's doing in a mobile suit and is stupid enough to nearly get someone expelled because she's "gotta do things herself!" That's a fine approach...if the person saying it can actually follow through on that!

I saw it as a (farcical) continuation of the tradition of episode 1 Gundam hijacking

I wonder if Miorine will be able to learn to pilot it...?

[kuroyanagi]

Ah, this was good. Loved the fight - the way the funnels moved was mesmerizing. I did find it funny how the bully charged at the Aerial with a sword, only to be owned by a ranged weapon.
Also, either the Aerial can't do attitude control via reverse trust or Miorine didn't know how to use it, hence why the Aerial toppled over. I found that a nice detail.

Everyone is already noticing the Utena angle, but the boardroom intrigue on the adult side that has been hinted so far also seems quite interesting. What I've gathered from the assassination attempt scene is that whoever becomes Miorine's fiance also is next in line to control the Beneritt group, which is why the Jeturk CEO was trying to off Delling post-haste? Having your daughter married off to whoever kicks the most mobile suit is bonkers in a modern society, and giving control of a huge defense enterprise to that same person is beyond bonkers, so I hope there is a good explanation for this. Then again, Delling was shown to have some, er, particular ideas about the ethics of war and murder in the Prologue, so maybe he genuinely believes in hegemony of the strongest...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to how this show plays out. It doesn't seem very preoccupied with fitting in the Gundam mold so far, which is a good thing in my book.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by darkdhaos

They are probably testing to see if this series is profitable. Maybe if the series gets really popular with a big fanbase along with good sales of their model kits, BDs and other merchandises... they will produce the remaining cours.

Has there been any split-cour anime that didn't release its other cours just because it wasn't profitable? Even Fairy Gone broadcasted its 2nd cour.
Split-cours seem more to me as a way to give the animators more time to work on the anime, since there are so many anime now (in volume, not quality)

[ryllharu]

Oh, I just stupidly noticed that the "out of fashion" headband that Suletta is wearing is her mother's.

Originally Posted by kuroyanagi

Ah, this was good. Loved the fight - the way the funnels moved was mesmerizing. I did find it funny how the bully charged at the Aerial with a sword, only to be owned by a ranged weapon.
Also, either the Aerial can't do attitude control via reverse trust or Miorine didn't know how to use it, hence why the Aerial toppled over. I found that a nice detail.

It's a nice touch in the mecha genre for a teenage complete novice to actually operate a mecha like a novice after sneaking into one. I would guess that Aerial is even worse for Novice pilots to be in because the pilot actually has to sync with it over time to unlock its capabilities without it killing them. They can just jump the PMET Scores up if they know it is a GUND-ARM, but they'll die very quickly without attuning to the layers like Suletta's family and the Vanadis scientists were doing.

Everyone is already noticing the Utena angle, but the boardroom intrigue on the adult side that has been hinted so far also seems quite interesting. What I've gathered from the assassination attempt scene is that whoever becomes Miorine's fiance also is next in line to control the Beneritt group, which is why the Jeturk CEO was trying to off Delling post-haste? Having your daughter married off to whoever kicks the most mobile suit is bonkers in a modern society, and giving control of a huge defense enterprise to that same person is beyond bonkers, so I hope there is a good explanation for this. Then again, Delling was shown to have some, er, particular ideas about the ethics of war and murder in the Prologue, so maybe he genuinely believes in hegemony of the strongest....

I thought it was quite fitting for someone like Delling to be betrayed in a similar manner to how he methodically planned his destruction of Ochs/Vanadis.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by ryllharu

I thought it was quite fitting for someone like Delling to be betrayed in a similar manner to how he methodically planned his destruction of Ochs/Vanadis.

This was something I had a bit of a concern over coming into the show but ep 1 clearly telegraphed that events within the school can have big effects outside the school. This was actually averted for now... but it seems likely to blow up before the end of the 1st cour. And then... playtime is over. Hopefully by then Suletta will be less timid.

[Kanon]

That was really nice. I was caught off-guard by Suletta being a shy blubbering mess but she can stand up for herself (or rather, others) when she needs to. I loved that she utterly destroyed that guy's MS when all she needed was to destroy the antenna.

The yuri is a very nice surprise. It's particularly cool that Miorine sees it as normal. I doubt she plans on marrying Suletta of course, but over the course of the show, who knows...

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I'm also wondering if Suletta's mother is even sane. Her husband and friends were murdered over the existence of Gundams. And she's just sending her daughter off to school in one!? She can't think that no one's going to notice or that there won't be immediate and deadly consequences right?

The answer to that is on the official website (the Japanese one).

Spoiler for Just in case people don't want to know:

The mother specifically sent Suletta to that school as part of a ploy to take revenge on the people who killed her husband and colleagues. Suletta doesn't know, the mother only told Aerial who didn't want Suletta to get involved because she's a very sweet girl. Sadly, Mommy can't hear Aerial's voice, and her mind is set on revenge anyway.

Suletta becoming Miorine's fiance is part of the plan by the way.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

The answer to that is on the official website (the Japanese one).

Spoiler for Just in case people don't want to know:

The mother specifically sent Suletta to that school as part of a ploy to take revenge on the people who killed her husband and colleagues. Suletta doesn't know, the mother only told Aerial who didn't want Suletta to get involved because she's a very sweet girl. Sadly, Mommy can't hear Aerial's voice, and her mind is set on revenge anyway.

Suletta becoming Miorine's fiance is part of the plan by the way.

Spoiler:

Wow, we're legit getting a sentient Gundam .

I've also seen some speculation that the masked woman might actually be Suletta's mom.

[Sejuro]

The main character is annoying with her manner of speaking. Sadly, another Gundam for children. It seems UC is the only timeline worth watching, for me anyway.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

I saw it as a (farcical) continuation of the tradition of episode 1 Gundam hijacking

I wonder if Miorine will be able to learn to pilot it...?

Miorine is just reenacting the Sayla moment where she took out the Gundam without being able to properly pilot it until Amuro took over again . Like I said, this episode has a bunch of homages to previous Gundams. Also, the way Aerial wrapping its hands around Miorine during the rescue early in the episode was like a scene recreation of Unicorn wrapping its hands around Mineva.



But since Sayla in the OG Gundam developed into a very good pilot for Core Booster & G-Armor, I wonder if Miorine can have other things that she'll be good at piloting in this show.

[stray]

If this is going to be a fake Utena it really needs a Nanami character soon. Mooo.

[Frontier]

Did Miorine actually barf in her helmet ?