Shiro’s team is now a team…more or less. There’s still the matter of Sanders’s curse
and Eledore and Michel’s disastrous joy ride of base not making things
easy. Worse yet, the team stumbles upon
a brand new Zeon mobile armor. It’s
called the Apsalis and it has enough firepower to take out Earth Federation HQ
at Jaburo in only one shot. On top of
that, unknown to the team, is the identity of the pilot: Aina, the Zeon test
pilot Shiro fell in love with in space.
It’s up to the 08th MS Team, undermanned and outgunned to put
this weapon down.
The “true enemy” has revealed itself to the 08th
Team…kind of. And she is a doozy. No I’m not talking about Aina, I’m talking
about the ginormous Mobile Armor cooked up by her brother. What is it with Zeon and skyscraper sized
mobile weapons? I mean I’m sure the
Apsilas could do some damage given its giant cannon but still…smaller and
faster would be better right? Anyway,
moving on.
Shiro stepped up for everyone in a big way, multiple
times this week. He defended Sanders
from physical and mental abuse because of his “third time jinx curse” and
convinced Sanders to go for it, even against the Apsalis solo. Actually, I really liked that moment a lot in
particular. The team hasn’t really been
a team up until now, with initial friction and Shiro getting sidetracked by the
Guerilla forces in the area twice. Here,
it felt like a team effort to back up Sanders and deal some damage to the
Apsalis. It was their first real victory
as a unit. Shiro also kept his cool
better than most during the stellar desert episode. Even in the heat, he still acted like a
leader a guy could get behind…unless you were Michel and Kiki but I’ll get to
them in a second. And Shiro didn’t think
twice to save Michel from the Apsalis’s second assault in the desert. He’s a true Gundam pilot if there ever was
one.
Onto Michel. I
mentioned last week how I was sure I wasn’t going to like him. Well this week didn’t do him any favors to
better him. He’s a wuss, a liability
and…oh for fraks sake why is he in this army?
He blows cover cause he’s scared of the Sanders curse. Gets peer pressured into a trip that gets him
captured. And he calls out Shiro on
being heartless when it’s clear Shiro isn’t into Kiki at all. Rather than suck it up and improve, Michel
just mopes and complains his way through every single episode. It almost seems mean to say, but even though
Eledore was being selfish this week, only thinking of himself and his music
career, I was perfectly ok with him beating the crap out of Michel…the kid
could use some sense being kicked into him.
A couple of nitpicks this week and they both had to do
with animation more than the story, which continues to be tight and
interesting. Episode 5, Michel and
Eledore’s disastrous trip off base seemed to take a dip in animation quality,
or at least it didn’t measure up to the standard set by the first four
episodes. And while things looked back
to normal in Episode 6, the use of CG decoy balloons seemed so out of
place. Was it a fluke, a last minute
inclusion? I don’t know but it
definitely nags me. Oh and as cute as
Eledore’s song is, it still proves my point that he belongs in Macross more
than here in Gundam. Wonder if there
will be a follow up masterpiece from Eledore.
He’s got time to kill now that he’s on medical leave.
Michel being the weakest link aside, this was a strong
follow up week for the 08th Team.
They got a good victory and strengthened their teamwork, thanks to some
great writing and pacing. This is
easily, so far, one of the best entries in the Gundam franchise for me…and it’s
only at the halfway mark.
Next week, Shiro and Aina reunite and I give some insight
into an episode what was given a special “extended” feature during it’s Toonami
run.
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