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「宇宙要塞アンバット」 (Uchuu Yousai Anbatto)
“Space Fortress Ambat”
While I’ve always given Gundam AGE the benefit of the doubt, it still manages to surprise me with its flair for the dramatic. The lead-up to this “final battle” at Ambat was extremely well-done on several character fronts, making it seem like anyone could bite the dust, and then the battle itself proved to be all kinds of awesome starting with the Diva’s transformation. It was a fairly even battle since all the Euba and Zalam mobile suits were properly armed with beam rifles, but it wasn’t short of suspenseful moments either as Grodek’s fleet pressed on to try and get the Diva into firing range for its newly equipped Photon Blaster Cannon — a huge beam weapon with a long recharge time that’s directly attached to the AGE Builder.
The entire battle rested on this one trump card and clearing a path for the Diva, so once Flit made the last push with the help of his recently awakened X-Rounder ability, I was pretty pumped to see Grodek give the order to fire. The music, the sacrifices, and the eventual sight of the Photon Blaster Cannon punching a hole through not only the UE mothership Fa Bose but Ambat as well provided a plethora of emotions that ended in rejoice from seeing their plan succeed. However, before that feeling could even sink in, the writer’s went one step further by throwing in a kamikaze attack for even more drama from both Ract and Mukured. When I saw the huge beams barraging the UE ship, I was half-expecting Stoller and the EFF to show up, so I was completely surprised by Mukured’s dramatic entrance. His timely arrival just went on to reiterate that this episode was buckets of Gundam awesomeness all around.
Even with the destruction of the Fa Bose, the tension hasn’t even dipped one bit with Desil’s intention to join the battlefield. Of course, the bigger development is what I’ve been fearing would happen: Yurin’s going to be forced into piloting a UE mobile suit. Any old-school Gundam fan would’ve seen this coming from a mile away after all the flags episode eleven raised, but I’ll admit that the idea of Yurin dying before Flit’s eyes still doesn’t sit well with me. I’m almost entirely convinced that it’s going to happen, especially now that Emily’s received a clear-cut sign that she’ll be Flit’s future wife, but the Hayami Saori fan in me is still in denial and holding onto that extremely faint glimmer of hope that Yurin will survive somehow. I’d say there’s less than a one percent chance that’ll happen, seeing as the next episode is titled “Flash of Sorrow”, but I’ll still hold onto that hope regardless! Why do you have to do this to me Sunrise!? Yurinnn~ *sniff*
* In case anyone’s wondering, the kid with Gira Zoi, a.k.a. Yark Dole, is Arabel Zoi according to the credits. He is voiced by Hirata Mana and will likely have a bigger role in the second arc.
* Full-length images: 02, 03.
Preview
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Yurin, you were a cute girl but it’s time to say goodbye.
I’m getting bored on how gundam follow the same pattern each time…. they even managed to do it with unicorn.
Wow, you’re the first gundam viewer I’ve read to ever say that, whereas everyone else is whining about how AGE deviates from the established “mature” formula (both in terms of storytelling and art style).
Nothing new really, its just the classic Double Standard of the hardcore Gundam fanbase.
“This is nothing like UC so It sucks” vs. “It’s copying UC so it sucks!”
Same shit, different day.
@paul
easy, while AGE may deviates from the established “mature” formula in storytelling and art, it doesn’t mean it can’t smash-n-grab some tropes from the “tried-so-many-times-it’s-annoying” shelf on its way out
I was talking about Yurin, “Hey guys let’s add a cute & innocent girl and make the hero kill her”.
maybe she’ll survive, after they show her as MIA, then returns in the second gen as the unknown grown up female pilot.
I really hope Yurin will survive. I hope the excuse of AGE is a children show will cause the plot to at least not letting Flit kills someone around his age. As of now, it is still not confirmed whether most UE are autopilot or not. At least there is still no sign of Flit killed someone yet (no animation, screams whatever)…
I know, I am just trying to escape from reality
Well, if you striped it to the Base, your right. But for me, this kind of Anime is not the Destination. Its the Way they Walk, that keeps me watching. I know. most RPGs are about to save the World. But How i walk this way, Thats what keep me Playing.. Also keep me watching
Is it not a Chinese thing? The Way is the Destination? They are so wise, indeed
Its time they do something out of the ordinary again.
Like G Gundam 🙂
I’m echoing a Lalah Sune there on Yurin.
Unlike Lalah, she is drugged and forced to fight for the UE. No wonder those UE guys are a bunch of crazy Innovades turned up to eleven!
I knew evil was bad but c’mon UE, this is just wrong. I mean, forcing a loli to fight against her will and have her killed. That’s sickening beyond belief.
So I suppose there will be some naked Yurin ghost thing when Flit unwillingly defeat her?
Or will they deviate?
This was definitely one of the best episodes so far. Action, suspense, hints of romance. It was all there. I think I even got goosebumps at one point. Also, it seems that Flit’s story has only one or two episodes left. I wonder how they’ll transition.
Asem’s run for AGE starts with episode Show Spoiler ▼
Unless the white-haired guy in the promo poster is someone other than Woolf, I think he’ll be around for the second arc.
According to this preview, that’s Zehato, the “mysterious transfer student.” But I can’t believe that he’s not related to Woolf in some way, with a character design like that
Yeah, I’m a bit worried about Woolf’s fate in this battle. I’m thinking he may be one of the characters that’s too cool to live.
Woolfe is probably gonna pull a Slegger Law-like kamikaze maneuver to give Flit an opening. I mean, he mirrors him quite well with his sudden joining of the crew, his more outgoing personality, and his (brief) romance with Milais (Mirai, lol).
My only complaint, if I were to really struggle to find one, is that the UE could feel a lot more threatening if their aim was a bit more accurate. As it stands, I find the Mobile Dolls of GW more threatening than the (probably) unpiloted versions of the UE that serve as grunts since the former was brutal, accurate to a dime, and inhuman, but the latter miss and are slow to deliver killing blows.
Anyone want to make a theoretical bet on who would win in a fight: everyone in this story (UE, EFF, and protagonists alike) vs. a handful of Virgo II’s from GW? >.> My money is on the latter.
Is it time to bring out the Worlds Smallest Violin for Yurin? At this point I don’t think they’re even trying to be unpredictable, Yurin has literally tripped on every cliche the reduces one’s mortality in Gundam.
The battle itself was good though. The UE still had an overwhelming advantage, despite the MS having beam rifles so it felt tense. In particular, the Diva transforming was awesome and its Photon Blaster was sweet. I also like the thinly veiled reference by calling it “Trojan Horse”. Though I found it funny that needed to get the weapon in range, when the gun could PUNCH THROUGH A COLONY! But that’s just a minor gripe.
Agree with Algent completely. Gundam missed a golden opportunity to break away from one of their more stagnant plotlines.
Finally some good battles in this series. AGE was lacking in terms of action scenes, but this time they manage to come up with some really battles. And yes, I like overpowered Gundams.
Holy shit Diva turned into a Pegasus class carrier!xD That transformation almost gave me the same goosebumps as seeing Banshee NT-D for the first time.
new characters information for AGE second gen are out.
they’ll be around 17 years old.
looks like the new captain is a female, & the blue hair plump kid gets a daughter as a ship engineer or smth. flint’s grandpa is somehow still alive as a very old man. the to-be-wife of the 2nd gen kid is spotted too.
they’re located at the bottom left.
http://i.imgur.com/FuPjT.jpg
Woooh the kid inside me is bursting with joy!
Can’t say I liked Emily much, so the signs make me kinda sad.
Also, I could never really see the UE as very threatening until now. They always looked like total pushovers to me. Especially after giving us all that prologue about UE never before beaten by humans. It’s a bit sad that the “great threat to humanity” only gets really threatening in the finals of the first arc.
Nevertheless, this show is better than I expected. Maybe not up there with Unicorn and my other favourite Gundam shows, but I’ve definately seen worse.
What really gets me was all the lead up to the “effective range” of that new weapon. It was a huge plot point that they had to get into range to use it with enough power to destroy that ship… And then, when they fired from “maximum” effective range, not only did it go through the enemy ship, it went all the way through the base directly behind it! Something tells me that they could have fired that from a much greater distance and been just fine.
can take it that Grodek did not know how tough the enemy’s ship defenses were, so he did not want to take a chance & just to be safe fired within the effective range.
or they storyboard people forgot about it & added the beam going thru ambat for dramatic pew pew effects.
To be fair, maximum effective range is not just the range at which the weapon will cause damage, it’s also the range at which you can have some reasonable change “to hit” the target. In other words, it’s the range at which you have some accuracy. To hit a ship which can move, they had to get closer.
There’s also the fact that it was a brand new weapon that was just recently produced and had never been test fired (if they did, no doubt the Federation and UE would come running in to investigate), so it’s not like they knew all the ins and outs it had besides being more powerful according to the AGE Builder. Chances are that the “maximum effective firing range” was what would’ve been needed had they merely had the hyper mega particle cannon (another UC reference from ZZ) and, as mentioned, Grodek could simply have been playing it safe by getting to a distance they knew and could trust.
I doubt anyone there expected the Photon Blaster Cannon to be THAT powerful though.
Sure now that we, the viewers, have seen it for ourselves, saying “getting into range was a plot/dramatic excuse” doesn’t change the in-universe fact that nobody knew anything about the Photon Blaster Cannon or its strength. Test firing beforehand could have helped in this regard, but as said, doing so would’ve been painting a huge target on them. Especially considering, beforehand, they were seen as mutineers and the Federation may not have even bothered trying to take Grodek or anyone alive, but simply destroy them as a threat because of such a powerful weapon being ONLY in their hands.
I might be a little late to the realization party, but I’d say that Sunrise is trying for some sort of reintroduction of the Gundam franchise for the newest generation of viewers while still paying homages to its long-time fans. The Diva very closely resembling the original Gundam series’ White Base, and the Gundam simply being called “Gundam” in the show (wiki reveals it’s actually the Gundam AGE-1) might lend credence to my guess.
Regardless, I still think AGE is a good show in its own right. While the general art style looks like it belongs to a much less serious anime, the plot is still pretty Serious Business in my opinion.
Great episode. AGE just keeps getting better and better.
Regarding Yurin and Emily, it’s already been confirmed that Flit and Emily marry.
http://red-shoulders.blogspot.com/2012/01/gundam-age-generation-2-preview.html
As for whether or not Flit will kill Yurin himself… I kind of doubt that. The only Lalah clone that got killed by a protag was, well, Lalah. All of the other clones (Four, Puru, Stellar, Flay, etc., etc.) have been killed by enemies.
Thank you to Divine for detailing another interesting and awesome episode, this series is definitely picking up.
Now I know what to expect from Gundam Age S2 after that preview confirmed by HojoJoe.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QClJh9Lkjfs/TwoDL4YailI/AAAAAAAABwQ/Udryecvoh3Q/s1600/Cast.jpg
I guess we can tell who the parents of the children are, based on how Asem looks (hair color, style, ponytail mix of Flit and Emily). I will postulate that Kio Asuno looks like Rosario, the female protagonist of Gundam Age S2, therefore AsemxRosario in Gundam Age S2. I’m still hoping that the while haired woolf look alike is the offspring of Millias and Woolf.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9tW0CQhDcjI/TwoIl_2GgMI/AAAAAAAABwo/CJqDIfxOnJE/s1600/asdfasdf.jpg
Dique must have hooked up with some hot broad to produce his daughter. I’m still a little freaked out by the inheritance of the hair shield though.
All in all, get ready for a school arc beginning like Gundam Seed!!!!
AsemuxRomarie*
You didn’t have to post this. Show Spoiler ▼
Also, it does look like Alisa is Dique’s daughter. I’m quite surprised that boy was able to reproduce.
I agree that Romary is the only candidate for Asem’s future wife, especially since she has brown hair like Kio.
I think it would be interesting if Yurin survies this season and her granddaughter becomes Kio’s love interest, like the love between Yurin and Flit living on through their grandchildren. Also, if Yurin is still part of the UE during the third arc then her granddaughter falling in love with Kio could possibility be what ends the fighting. And just to make it cooler, her granddaughter will start out as Kio’s rival.
For Vargas to modify the ship to completely transform without making modifications to the outside of the ship because they were being watched by the federation while in space dock is another magical feat.
I think this is the first time I’m not feeling completely negative about an episode of AGE. Aside from everyone suddenly having beam weapons (the Euba/Zalam guys, maybe, but where’d Madorna get identical hardware?), Flit just deciding to invoke X-rounder, and all the UE units simply standing around being slaughtered… I actually did enjoy this. I think that the Diva turning into some sort of a Macross/Gray Phantom hybrid (or Gray Phantom with a Macross Cannon) was also pretty nice, but I’m a sucker for that kind of thing.
it just me or the transformed diva oddly resemble white base?
More the Gray Phantom (Pegasus-refit class, 0080) than the White Base (Pegasus class, MSG), but yes. Between that and it being called a Trojan Horse, there’s absolutely no way it’s not completely intentional.
Am I the only one who thinks Desil will be the one to kill Yurin?
Perhaps it’s because I’ve only seen SEED and 00 in their entirety, but I find it more plausible within the Gundam franchise for the hero’s archrival to kill off the errant love triangle member. I’m not ruling out the possibility of Yurin surviving, but I’m also surprised that so many people think Flit will be the one to kill her off.
Overall, a good episode, though I actually thought the last battle was a bit more coherent as far as its portrayal of what all the different elements were doing. Perhaps this is because that big EU ship had only showed up once before, but the fact that it wasn’t shown doing much besides launching mobile suits and making its suicide run made it seem like much less of a threat than it was intended to be. Nevertheless, I have high hopes for a great arc finale next week.
I agree with you. There is a good chance Yurin will die taking a hit for Flitz.
Dique must have pulled off a Daru sometimes during the time skip….
All that 2nd generation info is false information spread by Sunrise. They led us to believe in this episode that Emily will be the future wife, while it’s HER who will actually die and Yurin will be a bride! Nice troll, Sunrise.
Yeah, wish I could believe what I just wrote. *sobs*
What is the (badly repainted) SDF Macross doing in Gundam AGE?!? Not funny, Sunrise.
I was half expecting that the Diva will transform into a giant mech ala Macross…
But turns out, it transformed into a Pegasus class ship! =))
Anyway, it was a nice episode! It actually got me excited!
And good thing the grunts finally got decent rifles to use! =))
Hah, same here. I thought it was going to turn into a robot. This was cool, but that would’ve been cooler.
The AGE System still have 2 more timelines to work its magic, it Diva didn’t survive it can do it to another ship or it can design a whole new ship.
When Diva transformed I get a feeling similar to when I saw the designs for the Gundams in 00 season 2.
I love anything gundam but this show is really good… its a nice introduction for the next generation of anime fans…. and in that I think it accomplishes its purpose… if you are looking for really hard core mecha action… I personally think its garbage… even so for what it is… I truly love it… and thats a simple gundam anime… you take what you can get…
I am kind of done with this series tbh. I know there have been a lot of complaints about this but I already miss the more mature amd more political Gundam. I was never a fan of the G format so I loved Wing, Seed and 00. I really didn’t even mind Unicorn but this is just too much. It reminds me of a saturday morning America cartoon with an almost Pokemon level storyline. I will let it go for a few weeks to see if it gets better at the time skip, otherwise I won’t be finishing the Gudam series even though I have watched every single one prior.
Why did you even decide to watch this to begin with…
I was very surprise by the fact that they referenced the famous Trojan Horse like in the original Gundam… the fact that it lookd like the Whitebase… or at least the Throughbred… if I spelled it right. Lots of nostalgia, that for a second. It’s kinda like what Seed did in terms of being similar to the original. Overall, can’t wait to see what happens next week.
Actually, it most greatly resembles the briefly shown Pegasus-class ship, the Gray Phantom from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket to me. (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/0080/pegasus.htm)