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「激戦の日」 (Gekisen no Hi)
“Day of the Fierce Battle”
I’ll be quick to admit that I have a soft spot for prideful stubbornness that someone will take to their grave, but even then, Gundam AGE deserves some praise for getting an emotional response out of me with the deaths of some side characters. I haven’t seen Boyage and his two henchmen as anything more than a throwaway trio and some poor comic relief, but now that they’re gone, it’s safe to say they left their mark on the story — more so than I would’ve ever anticipated anyway. Their kamikaze sacrifice — though in vain of actually dealing damage to the UE warship — served its purpose of instilling a relentless and suicidal mindset on the Euba and Zalam troops that were overtaken by fear, hence why I couldn’t help but get a little emotionally caught up in their deaths. I was more taken back by what their deaths meant, more so than feeling of sadness to see them go, though I will concede that it’s partially because I’ve gotten used to seeing them around in the past five episodes. I guess you never quite realize the impact someone’s had on a story until they’re gone, even in the case of characters you don’t care too much about.
Battle-wise, I was expecting a slaughter so to speak, seeing as the Euba and Zalam mobile suits still couldn’t inflict any real damage to the UE. For whatever reason, Largan’s Genoace wasn’t even equipped with a DODS Rifle, leaving it up to Woolf’s G-Exes and Flit’s Gundam to actually take out enemy units. What was surprising of course is that it wasn’t a slaughter, with Euba and Zalam’s piloting experience coming into play to help draw the UE’s fire and pincer the enemy mobile suits so that Woolf and Flit could easily pick them off. The coordinated effort actually made the battle fairly believable, as it suggested the UE’s been relying on their impenetrable armor for the most part. Had all of Zalam and Euba’s forces been equipped with DODS Rifles, Grodek’s plan may have even succeeded, so the only plot hole is the failure to address when that wasn’t done, even if it’s with a convenient explanation such as a lack of materials and/or time. On the plus side, there really wasn’t anything terribly jarring aside from that minor oversight, which is saying a lot considering Grodek’s plan to attack the UE with a handful of ill-equipped ships and mobile suits was questionable at best. The writers were able to make me buy into the idea that it might actually work despite my skepticism, allowing me to everything else at face value.
The highlight of course was the completion of the Spallow parts, which transformed the Gundam into a high-speed ninja-like variant equipped with a Shiguru Blade that it holds with a reverse grip. It turned the tides against Desil’s remote-piloted Zedas much like it’s been foreshadowed to, and raised questions as to how much longer the back and forth technological advancements would continue for Flit’s portion of the series, seeing as Spallow is the only other major upgrade seen in the opening sequence. Before we see any sort of a time-skip, we need to first address who Flit’s future wife is though. The preview shows his reunion with Yurin, who is probably the better candidate in terms of harnessing the Newtype-like abilities that have started to awaken in Flit as well, but in all likelihood, we won’t find out until the “Ambat Capture Operation” Grodek’s proposed to the newly-formed Euba-Zalam Alliance is completed.
* I had to question whether it was necessarily to fake us out with Boyage’s death at first, but his actual sacrifice more than made up for it.
* Full-length images: 01, 28, 30, 35.
Preview
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Omake
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I agree, there are too many idiot balls being passed around in Gundam AGE. Still, if the series takes place over 100 years, and 100/3=33.3, the how will we expect Flit to get it on with Emily or Yurin in the next few episodes even though they are still 14?
Time skip to the future and have a narrator summarize what happened that they didn’t show. Naturally.
I was thinking they can use the multi-media concept to add in details here and there at anytime during or after the series.
Side-story manga, photo-novels, games.
Speaking of side-story manga, Tokita Kouichi is doing one like ‘usual’.
He has been busy with Gundam EXA.
Currently for AGE theres only the Treasure Star manga.
Not sure if theres anything in Hobby Japan or Dengeki for AGE.
Theres the game in development, if its just telling the same story again then it loses some points for me.
Ok, just checked the JA wiki.
Theres 3 more manga for AGE besides Tresure Star.
One 2 part manga that came out before the anime airs and the other 2 are adaptations of the First Generation and Second Generation.
Ok, self-correction.
“Tokita Kouichi ISN’T doing one like ‘usual’.”
Enough for me 😛
Woolf got the good luck wish when launching by that girl, IIRC most characters like that will get killed off shielding the ship from a giant laser beam or something to that effect =P
think they will get together in the future & produce wolf v2.0
I was surprised at her behavior but then again the anime is kind of the overview and not poking at every detail and thoughts of every character and every minute of their lives.
This episode was really stretching it. The UE mecha are obvious invulnerable to the fake Zakus gunfire, so why even bother avoiding them or putting any attention to them. Also any threat analysis would immediately determine that the Gundam and G-Exe are the only threats after the first 2 UEs were blown up.
The equivalent is a man seeing a lion among a bunch of flies and he swats the flies instead of trying to take down the lion. This is the great tactic by Grudech? If they are manned machines, their pilots are really really stupid. If they are AI driven then they need to shoot whoever wrote the AI.
A smaller but still significant silliness was that the missiles launched by the Diva served as effective countermeasures against the UE main ship’s beam cannons. For this to happen, the UE beam cannon technology must be close to Federation level or the beam discharge would simply wipe away the countermeasures due to the pure energy emitted. This is the same as a thin piece of metal stopping the bullet of a toy gun but against the higher propulsion of a real gun, it works as well as paper.
The guy who was telling the UE he has so weapons so he should not be attacked served up some laughs too. Shouldn’t he be trying to exit from the cockpit in the hope that he can escape the UE and that he might be rescued after the battle?
As for Boyage getting blasted, that sequence was also unwittingly funny. He used both his hands to stop the UE’s single hand. I was thinking that the UE should wave his free hand at Boyage in the manner of “are you forgetting something?”
The good part about this episode was Boyage getting choked up when his 2 friends joined him in his kamikaze attack. His VA was pretty good even if he was hampered by the silliness of this episode.
The reasoning for the battlefield change and the G-Exe buying time for him (rather than mahou shojo transformation time freeze) to complete it was also convincing as you really have no time to go back and leisurely change your parts then relaunch.
Looks like the Diva is now a figurehead, possibly uniting the colonies against the UE, ignoring the useless government of the Federation. Perhaps also a dig at the Japanese government’s lack of response to the tsunami aftermath?
Well to use your analogy, a fly is still annoying and distracting. And there are alot of flies. Yes the weapons don’t do jack, but they can still shake them up with their shots. Not to mention they did say they were taking advantage of their mobility. So the Gundam and G-Exes are just dancing around the battlefield taking potshots, while the UE are forced to wade through the multiple MS’s to find the proper threat and leave themselves open.
Tracking the Gundam and G-Exe won’t be a problem due to several factors
i) The fake Zakus are supposed to be moving in formation. The Gundam and G-Exe is obvious as they are not moving in formation with the rest. The irregular movement is even more obvious on radar or other sensors other than visual
ii) High mobility does not prevent you from being tracked by electronic sensors once it has you tagged as long as you remain in sensor range. You can fly and move as fast as you want but you need to be able to fully move out of sensor range before any response can be mustered (probably 2 or 3 seconds). Consider the range of radar today vs the fastest available jet, then consider the size of the UE mothership and then the mothership sensors and power output it could supply to those sensors.
iii) From the battle, the UE Zeda’s mobility is higher than both G-Exe and Gundam Normal. So for the idea that the high mobility in anyway obscures their tracks, it would mean the UE sensors cannot track their own mecha. That would lead to a humourous situation at the bridge of the UE mothership where the UE commander would not be able to plan tactics because he has no idea where his own Zeda forces are
iv) The same principle for giving the Gundam Titus a DOTS rifle to prevent him from being ninjaed last episode applies. High mobility does not make you disappear from visual detection when you are far away. A ferrari going at maximum speed a will look like its going slowly to a viewer who is perpendicular and some distance away from the car. And space is not going to be measured in meters or even hundreds of meters
v) Electronic sensors do not work like visual sensors. They are not distracted by light or blasts. Same as radar and sonar ignoring the bullets fired by planes in a dog fight and detecting planes behind other planes. The distraction caused by the fake Zakus aren’t really a distraction at all.
The entire distaction idea is silly. Maybe its not silly if no one had any sensor types other than a camera showing the external view and your own eyes but that itself would be silly as the size of space requires more than just visual sensors to see anything not battleship sized. Grudech’s tactic of depending on the UE to be stupid is quite stupid on its own, especially since he has insufficient information on the UE
As an example of what tracking abilities they have in that universe, the Diva (which is lower tech and i think is smaller than the UE mothership) has “High Lange Ladar” (which really should be Long Range Ladar <-Note Ladar exists) and about 11:00. You can see the AGE displayed on that ladar too.
I think you’re overanalyzing everything a bit too much Zaku Fan (e.g. Boyage grabbing the UE mobile suit’s arm with both hands), or seeing a possible oversight in one area and letting it affect your objectivity on the entire series; however, if that’s the way you prefer to watch the show, then by all means go ahead.
It’s a perfectly valid view on the show, but keep in mind that there are various things people could say to refute stuff you’ve said, or at least propose a different possibility to suggest that you might be drawing premature conclusions. Personally, I don’t care to get into a “theory crafting” discussion about this though. All I’ll say is that I found this episode believable enough, and it wasn’t because I failed to recognize a lot of the things you pointed out.
Every time someone tries to apply realism to Gundam, God kills a puppy.
Here I come with another post explaining the possible physics regarding Gundam Age 🙂
In Quantum physics, we learn that the energy of an atom is quantized. To put this in perspective (in plain English), consider this TRUE fact:
An atom can absorb specific energies and re-emit that energy almost instantaneously as a photon.
What this means is, if the missile contains highly compressed gas of an atom that can absorb the proper wavelength of light, you can create a “field” where incoming energies (laser) will get it’s energy captured by atoms and released as a photon in a random direction.
Since Lasers are basically intense light of a specific wavelength, once you find an atom that captures the energy of that wavelength, you can utilize the gaseous form of that atom to neutralize that laser.
Given that there is enough gas, you can neutralize lasers quite effectively.
In fact, this is probably the physics between GN particles in Gundam 00. If you are familiar with the series, there are a few battles where they put some sort of gas in the battlefield that prevented beam weapons from working. This should be the explanation for that phenomena.
~~
“Electronic sensors do not work like visual sensors. They are not distracted by light or blasts” – Zaku Fan
When blasts eject gases, that is not true. As I explained in a post below, gases have the ability to absorb energy.
Radar is based on shooting radio waves (part of the electromagnetic spectrum; it has wavelength; it is considered energy)
If a cloud of atoms absorb that energy from the radio wave emitter, there will be no response traveling back. Therefore, they can be distracted.
I have to agree that it seems far fetched though, given that they didn’t use any wide area compressed gas release.
the only redeeming item within the episode: the detailed mecha shots.
…and I think I was partially correct coming in from last week:
BTW: just in case…Show Spoiler ▼
Got to hand it to Grodek, he was perfectly aware that his forces are made of cannon fodder. So he used them to his advantage as buffers and decoys. That doesn’t happen often enough in Gundam, most canon fodder just stand and blow up.
Spallow debut is alright. I’m glad they didn’t tease us like the Titus. Still it wasn’t as impressive as the Titus for me. Its got a blade and is fast, and that’s it. I was hopping for something more surprising.
Think I have an answer for there only being 2 DOD rifles. The AGE builder was busy working on the Spallow and there were only 2 rifles in reserve at the time. That or we should be really worried about why the writers made such a big oversight.
Which would be plausible, if it hadn’t been a constant issue since the second episode.
the 2nd generation promo pics are out.
meet flint, now a badass.
http://i.imgur.com/QGC1d.jpg
Lol the moustache makes him look heaps pro.
Show Spoiler ▼
Why does the Gundam look similar to the 00 Raiser now?
Future Flit’s Getting a moustache? Aw yeah!!! Now that’s manly!!! Now I can watch this series in peace.
ALL OF MY GAR
This promo pic is almost a confirmation that Emily is his wife.
I’d wager that flit becomes a ship captain in the feature, so that his son can get the gundam. I see flit’s son as a badass version of him though, he’s even imitating the spallow’s signiture pose. xD Also Woolf! Kicking UE ass, 1 generation at a time.
@zuuuul:
Hair and eye color in anime can be deceiving, as siblings may not even match up.
Asem’s character design (and blond hair) was revealed from the very beginning, making Emily seem like the obvious possibility, but then Yurin rolled around and most people weren’t so sure anymore.
Flit’s mustache though… lol. That’s awesome.
~ 30 years later and the Gundam still looks relatively the same? That’s not very cool now :(. Then again, I guess producers wouldn’t spoil it too much with a promo pic. Although I’d be a sucker for a new looking Gundam promo pic, much more enticing.
AGE-2 is transformable, so there’s your technological advancement
Blech, Flit kept his crappy hair but the stache makes for it though. Its obvious that he’s more manly, he did get LAID after all.
Great episode!! I’m loving Spallow the ninja Gundam, but i still like the Titus. I like that both sides of this war have trump card to use. You never know what the UE’s gonna cook up next. Same for the Age system. Mr. Boyage was a really cool character. He was like a shogun to me. R.I.P, commander of Euba. you will be missed.
I really love the pacing for this anime. This will be the first Gundam series I watch all the way though.
I’m still thinking the ship is part of the weapon system, like in GP03/s, Double X and Freedom/ Strik Freedom. Guess next up is the TMA first then.
They should let the AGE system produce some rifles (and maybe armors) to other MS.
Finally we get to see Yurin again. I’m delighted.
First the heavy weight champ gundam, then a ninja… what’s next, shining finger? Oh and little boys throwing tantrums (Desile).
Well, since the Spallow now outspeeds everything, and can cut through anything… I guess it’s going to be the unit of choice from here on. But other than that, I think the next step would be a combination ranged/melee unit like the Destiny was. Or, you know, just giving the Spallow a beam rifle.
Im on the lines of combining sparaw’s thrusters and legs and titus’s arms and a dots rifle and volaha you a have a super powered gundam … on the assumption that you can use any parts
Finally, the pitched space battles that have made me love Gundam so much in the past. The one-on-one battles are alright, but the only time I ever liked the atmospheric combat was in 00. Hopefully we’ll be treated to some SEED-esque naval battles with full complements of mobile suits and capital ships pounding away at each other later in the series.
So will the second generation be a second season?
Have you guys notice how cuts and blasts by the Gundam are always clean at the joints? I also like how the black UE mobile suit piloted by Desile is cut perfectly in half lol. A bit skimpy on the animation, no? It’d be cool if the animation showed now the metal was being cut by the shiguru blade (close ups, etc.) instead of just limbs falling off. I’ve always been a sucker for animation detail in main character fights… and it should be in detail.
Do you guys think the animation is below par?
Its a TV anime… You can’t expect the animation to be too detailed. Its hard enough just to even animate mecha.
If you want detailed mecha combat, the Gundam OVAs have them.
Then what about the past 10+ Gundam series with good quality animation? When you compare other works of Kanetake Ebikawa such as, FMP, Gundam 00, Eureka seven, and FMA, this isn’t really his normal standard of work.
Perhaps they have their budget put on other episodes? 😛
(Makes me think of the Tiger Dojo previews in Carnival Phantasm)
Or is it some kind of Level5 style? lol 😛
I’ve noticed this for awhile but… does anyone think the Diva looks like one big Gundam Shield? Or at least the shield of R-1?
R-1 and Shield
http://gwing-online.com/images/categories/SRW/100/R1100_2.jpg
Diva
http://images.wikia.com/gundam/images/7/7a/563456F76.jpg
Then that must mean… there will be… A GIANT GUNDAM!!!! THE GUNDAM TO END ALL GUNDAMS!!! GUNDAMUS PRIME!!!!
When I saw a big face on Seravee’s back, I’m jokingly said that all gundam and Ptolemy 2 will combine into one big robot in space.
But it didn’t happened.
Now that you mention OG Mecha, Diva might have some resemblance to the battleship Valstork which transforms into Valguard.
Had that thought too but Diva is introduced as a new Federation battleship, not sure if Flit has anything to do with its designs.
But maybe it could be ‘upgraded’ later on to become some kind of Super G-Wear?
(Then it would be a big model kit for Bandai to milk wallets.)
So the hamburger guy from Popeye finally dies…
AGE system = Deus EX Machina available anywhere anytime
Except…it’s not.