Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「魔女と花嫁」 (Majo to Hanayome)
“The Witch and the Bride”
We may only be two episodes in but it’s fairly safe to say this Gundam is going to be on the, shall we say, energetic side of the fence. Teenage rebellion; corporate scheming; hell even some secretive – and dark – backstories for spice: we’ve got it all, and there’s plenty of guarantees more is on the way. After all, you damn well know where masked enigmas in this franchise lead.
Given how most Gundams feature a melodramatic streak, it shouldn’t be too surprising that shocking yuri courtship winds up getting cancelled in a figurative blink of an eye. Honestly I’m somewhat taken aback just how quickly we got this move: usually the go-to would be drawing out Suletta’s and Miorine’s awkward pairing for a bit before bringing down the paternal ban hammer and snuffing out a million eager shippers in the process. In a way, however, revealing (or at least hinting towards) Suletta’s coloured past and digging into her and her supporting company right now does make some narrative sense; besides showing just how broken Miorine’s relationship is with her father (daddy issues indeed), we also get a good idea of her pride and how for all her wishing of escape, she’s not about to leave someone who helped her in the lurch. It’s a small yet significant step on the path towards true friendship, with the only unknown being if anything comes after it. Unless, you know, someone gets in the way of forbidden love.
One blooming pairing is only half the picture though as corporate inquiries and more down to Earth moments (quite literally) tease future proceedings. Lady Prospera is case in point, as besides her masked and augmented veil covering some very important twists to happen later on (seriously, just remember SEED’s Rau Le Creuset) there’s also the fact that Gundam Aerial is in fact a Gundam – just a well-camouflaged Gundam. It’ll be interesting seeing how this inevitably comes out because it’s quite likely Aerial is the first Gundam which overcomes the problems plaguing the technology as shown in the prologue. Reason for this? Pure guessing on my part (:P), and the fact there’s nothing so far indicating that Suletta has any sort of physical connection to Aerial. For such apparently dangerous tech there would already be some hint that Aerial is it, so the lack of one can reasonably be considered evidence that more is afoot.
Not like we’ll have to wait long to find out either. Between Suletta and Miorine going head-to-head with daddy dearest we also have the first taste of brewing troubles outside of the school environment. I think we all know how this upcoming duel is likely to end – but it’s anyone’s guess just which sly third party (as introduced at the end) will happen to interrupt the proceedings this time, and what their political manifesto will be.
Preview
 |
I liked that the episode jumped straight into corporate drama. After all, school yuri shenanigans or not, this is still Gundam, and the universe is a harsh place.
I mean, after showing off a Gundam, everyone would have a lot of questions, so no wonder the corporation intervened quickly and decisively. Miorine’s father is an ass and a tyrant (honest, though; he owned up to the ‘king’ label), but he’s not wrong. That’s a Gundam, no matter how much Prospera tries to gaslight everyone else.
I wonder about this series’ Char. That’s Suletta’s mother, come on; perhaps this will be a “daddy issues” vs. “mommy issues” kind of conflict.
Yeah but every gundam series that isn’t M G fighter is a political drama
. It be nice to get another fun and campy Gundam show again.
IMO I think it’s too soon to assume Prospera is Suletta’s mother. It’s likely, but I could also see it being a bait and switch with her actual mother being someone else entirely. This one is gearing up for some serious drama after all.
@Pancakes
True, but at this point I’d be far more surprised if she wasn’t. Same cybernetic arm, same voice actress, and the short companion sstory The Cradle World reinforces the idea, although it doesn’t confirm it.
I get that all the faculty and the powers at be are not happy with the sudden appearance of a Gundam when they outlawed the ‘GUND’ format. But even from the prequel we were not given any real info as to why Gundams should be banned and anyone who is involved with the DEV should be executed. At this point I’m gonna say the proof that ‘GUND’ format being outlawed is a bunch of HeeHaw. Until the Benerit Group can cough up real evidence.
I am willing to bet Lady Prospera is actually Eri’s—er I mean Suletta’s mom in disguise. Looks like she got big plans and needs to move fast. I didn’t think the Lady is okay with letting the Benerit Group review the specs for Aerial.
I can see Ericht Samaya the type that doesn’t think before she acts. This whole situation of being detained and questioned could have been avoided…but then we won’t have a greate episode.
Personally, I think the risk is real. The Prologue showed some of the problems, the development team was worried about the dangers, and that’s also how Suletta’s father died. But I agree that the reasoning is bullshit. As we’ve seen in the last two episodes, these industrialists couldn’t care less about the welfare of their fellow humans.
My bet is a mix of economics and politics. Given its name (“Ochs Earth”), the company making the Gundams was probably from Earth or Earth-affiliated, and as we see here Spacians look down on Earthians. “Made in Earth” Gundams could put other mobile suit companies out of business and alter the current balance of power between Earthians and Spacians. That was a no-no for these people.
The actual reason is as you said, the new Gundam will offset the power balance. Lfrith project was supposed to create Gundam that didn’t has bad side effect.
I also expect it’s entirely down to balance of power. No sense letting a competitor gain the upper hand when you can simply cut them out – you can see it best with both Guel’s and Miorine’s fathers working hand in hand to ban Aerial even though they too lack evidence on what it is.
The whole “trial” makes no sense. Why are they standing there letting totally not mom tap dance around when they have control of the Gundam and could just look over it’s systems themselves?
I mean how are we supposed to take her super revenge plans seriously when they should have crashed and burnt in the second episode without they hand of god coming in to make them work.
Well, if the Benerit Group were smarter people, they wouldn’t have to resort to murder or a siege in the prologue.
‘Can’t seem to find a good way to get a group of people to stop developing something dangerous…Hell lets shoot to kill and hope they learn their lesson.’
It’s showmanship and largely for character (re)introduction, but it also does have a purpose. Kangaroo courts still like to operate with a veneer of authority so letting the accused speak maintains that fiction even though the outcome is already given. Many dictatorships both past and present have done the same so they can claim they’re following the rule of law.
But in this case the accused is “guilty” it is a Gundam. Why are they letting her deny it when all they have to do is have their own engineers look over the MS they have complete control over?
Not much thought seems to have been put into the trial, the school, or the duels. From some of the interviews it seems like the whole “teens first last and always” order came down after they were halfway through with the show and you can see it.
Not feeling the school setting dynamic. They basically mixed gundam with rwby. Not digging this atm gonna skip a couple eps. Hopefully it gets better
RWBY, fascinating, I was thinking they mixed Gundam with Little Witch Academia or Boku no Hero. In Any case it does have the adolescence feeling to it.
It seems that feeling was deliberate, at least according to a recent interview tih the producer:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2022-10-12/gundam-the-witch-from-mercury-producer-modern-teens-think-gundam-is-for-old-people/.190729
They were getting data that Japanese teenagers thought Gundam too old fashioned, so they designed this new series to be a fresh entry point for a new generation.
Nothing about school duel clubs is ‘fresh’. When you aim at a specific demographic rather than at telling a good story you get something like this. An AI-written show that has 0 captivating elements.
I can’t stand this show. It must be the most derivative and boring Gundam ever.