Monday, April 15, 2019

Mobile Suit Gundam Part 5 Episodes 22-27



The loss of Ryu Jose is only the start of a long string of tragedy for the crew of White Base.  Though Ramba Ral and his unit have been destroyed, even deadlier Zeon forces stand in their way, some who have made their name in the earliest days of the One Year War.  If Amuro and his friends can endure, they can link up with a Federation task force for a battle that has the potential to crush Zeon’s Earth based forces.  It’s a victory that is sorely needed but one that will not come without cost.  And as the White Base and her crew near the end of their original mission, an old enemy returns to battle them once more…Char Aznable, the Red Comet.

It’s always a 50/50 shot when a show returns from a midseason cliffhanger and said cliffhanger was a damn good one.  Can the series continue the momentum it’s built up or does it sputter out?  Thankfully, Mobile Suit Gundam continues it’s streak of improving as it goes along, familiar problems still appearing aside.  We were watching a different kind of White Base crew this time around and the show was better for it.

The crew had little time to rest after Ryu’s death.  In fact, the gang suffered another huge loss with Matilda, their biggest spokesperson and basically the first crush of every guy on White Base (cant imagine why).  I liked Matilda’s bit with Amuro, treating him like a little brother while being the supportive older sibling (her to him, ofc Amuro probs wanted something more).  Perhaps because of Matilda’s affections, the bratty version of Amuro we’ve spent a lot of time with in the first half seemed to evaporate and a new Amuro was born.  Not only did he manage to uncover a mole in the Federation, and perhaps deal the biggest blow to Zeon on Earth as a result, but Amuro also took on more of a teaching role, helping Sayla learn how to pilot the new G-Fighter and educating the crew on Gundam’s new super robot components.  Yeah, about that is giving Gundam a bunch of transformable modes a bit too Super Robot like?  The biggest change Gundam brought about when it first appeared was ditching those kinds of tropes in favor of a more real world approach.  Not that the G-Fighter isn’t a cool looking ship, I just wished it stood more on its own rather than be an upgrade for Gundam.

So yeah, Operation Odessa was a success for the Earth Federation and White Base played a pretty big part, even if it wasn’t on the main battlefield.  They were more busy dealing with the murders of Matilda, aka the Federation moles and the elite Black Tri Star pilots.  It definitely made their battle more personal, which was great.  I wish the Black Tri Stars had more time to develop like Ramba Ral, Garma or even Char.  For living legends they were dealt with rather quickly, and sometimes unceremoniously.  When all was said and done, the gang got to meet General Revel and everyone got handshakes and official welcomes into the military (those who weren’t already).  I liked how Revel pointed out this was the only option for the civilian crew members like Amuro, Kai and Mirai.  Sure they’ve done a good job and Revel has faith in them.  But they haven’t been military til now and they’ve also been handling the most advanced weaponry in the Federation.  It makes sense they might face prison time if they didn’t officially join the Earth Federation full time.

Once Odessa was over and done with, I feel things toned down a little bit.  Once again, I felt like we were dragging our feet a little bit and maybe some episodes could have been folded into others or outright omitted.  But it made sense for White Base to get repaired and for everyone to get a breather.  Im excited to see Jaburo, the Federations main HQ next time.  In the meantime, we got a nice mini plot involving a Zeon spy named Miharu, who befriended Kai and eventually snuck aboard White Base briefly.  Miharu had another tragic backstory that felt very real world.  You really did feel bad for her having to rat out Federation intel to Zeon just to put food on the table for her two much younger siblings.  What’s even more heartbreaking is Kai figures this out and yet he never sells Miharu out to Bright.  What Kai’s plan to help Miharu was, we’ll never know.  The tears Kai sheds after Miharu dies (in a tragic but kind of silly way) those were real and a moment that will define the path Kai takes from coward to unlikely hero in the future. 

This set of episodes also featured the long awaited return of Char…and nothing was done with him.  That’s probably my biggest complaint about this midseason premiere.  Char, the biggest and best villain of the series, who’s been gone for quite a bit, finally comes back to the action…and he’s stuck on a sub with nothing to do.  I feel like he was barely in ten minutes of footage and not even allowed to go out and fight his old adversaries on White Base once again.  That’s unacceptable.  If you’re going to have Char around, either feature him more prominently or give him a Mobile Suit and let him cut loose, accept no substitutes.

With the promise of Jaburo to come, Mobile Suit Gundam scored big wins in this set of episodes (except for Char who is still more or less on the bench for a bit longer).  Bigger battles and even better character growth were the big highlight and a sign that lessons are being learned and amendments made.  This is really living up to the legend that started one of the biggest franchises in all of Anime.  And there’s still plenty more to come.  See ya Friday.

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