The battlefield has changed. Though Dianna Soriel and Loran Cehack aim to
return home to negotiate peace, other forces plan for war. At long last, those on the Moon who have their
own plans for the conquest of the Earth reveal themselves, men more dangerous
than anything Loran and the Militia have faced yet. Waiting for Loran at the end of this long
journey is Gym Ghingnham, commander of the Moonrace military, who also pilots
his own Gundam, the Turn X, a deadlier enemy than even the Turn A itself.
I really hope we’re sticking around the Moon for a bit. It took us more than half the series to get
up here and now we get to explore this new uncharted territory. Just the glimpses we got of what’s basically
the surface is promising…including the galaxys largest indoor pool…with
Whales…yes you read that correctly, freaking Whales. It wasn’t the smoothest road to get here but
Turn A continues to surprise when I think its hit a roadblock in its
storytelling. One thing I will say I
don’t think is as good as it could be is the new second theme that kicked in
around Episode 37. “Century Color” feels
like a normal Gundam theme compared to the unique vibe that “Turn A Turn”
had. Also, kind of like Gundam Wing, why
wait so far in before changing songs? I
could rant about this for a bit, let’s get back to the actual story, shall we?
Indeed, it was still quite a bit before we actually
reached the Moon. In a sense, I feel
like the series entered a bit of a final holding pattern with the plot. Stuff happened sure but the momentum didn’t
feel as rapid fire as it has been. I
attributed a lot of this to moving more characters into certain positions
before the story was allowed to get going proper again. I make it sound like we got a bunch of
standalones in this set. Actually we
only got one and it could be hit or miss depending on how easily your
entertained. I for one actually was
surprised how much I liked the Militia men suffering from “Space Madness” (that
thing Steve Buschemi’s character was “suffering from” in Armageddon). It’s a scary thing to lose ones mind in the
strangest of new environments. But the
episode played it mostly for harmless laughs with several men pilling into a
Mobile Suit just to try and reach Earth and one character even tries to float
back to Earth in a wooden barrel…it goes about as well as you’d expect but he
does survive. If anything, this was a
nice little breather and probably the last bit of true levity Turn A Gundam can
afford before things undoubtedly get serious in its final act.
As part of these aforementied setups, we got Kihel
abducted by Harry so she could play Dianna’s double (again). This time, she was brought before Gym
Ghingnham (definitely one of the odder names in Gundam). Now this is a guy who could be a real problem
for the Militia and Loran. We’ve been
dealing with paranoid Moonrace authority figures on Earth all series long. Gym, however, is a whole other beast. He’s anxious to cut loose, along with his
men, and has every intention of going to war when he gets his chance. What’s interesting about Gym and his men is
the fact that this is their very first war.
Multiple times in battle his men commented on how different things were
from the simulators, especially since they had no intel on the Militia or the
Willghem. Gym, additionally, seems to
have knowledge of the Turn A because of his possession of the Turn X (though we
only saw its head). It furthers my
excitement to keep things in space for now because we might get a lot of
answers to the Dark History and the overall situation in space.
Speaking of, it was kind of shocking for Loran to learn
that those on the Moon don’t even know there’s a war going on with the
Earthers. With Dianna gone, this Agrippa
guy we’ve heard mentioned forever (and still haven’t seen yet) and Gym seem to
be dividing up the powers spoils of the homeland. And things seem to be bleak because of it
(big shock there). Though the Seaside
Town looked cozy, the people still had a lot to complain about in terms of good
and media restrictions. But learning
about this now, this far in, it almost makes me wonder if we should have had a
side story focusing on the Moon setting and the aftermath of the Dianna
Counters departure for Earth, maybe focusing on Lorans two friends (especially
the cute Donna) who were introduced in this set of episodes. I feel like we’re going to get a pretty
intense cram session with only ten episodes left when there was some time from
the Earth storyline that could have been given to this potential plotline. It’s one of the few real gripes I have to
give Turn A Gundam (besides a few characters like Guin and the ever annoying
Lily (seriously, why is she along for the ride again when she isn’t doing squat
besides trying to look pretty, superior and untouchable?)). That said, with ten episodes to go, all of the
Moon stuff really needs to deliver a homerun to make all this waiting and
missed opportunity worth it.
But like I said above, everything is off to a promising
start. We got some great action in space
(and Yoko Kanno’s music invoking bombastic action and a mythical 2001: A Space
Odyssey feel for the softer moments).
Even though it was brief, I liked seeing a Gundam battle Zaku’s again
and some of the maneuvers by the old Zeon suits against Loran felt like callbacks
to the original Mobile Suit Gundam when Amuro fought the Zeon outside of Side
7. Side note: we did get another similar
callback when Loran had to save Sochie and Kihel from a faulty shower system
much like Amuro had to help Mirai with her shower on White Base…though this had
far more nudity. Speaking of Kihel, her
abduction by Harry isn’t all terrible.
She’s got a plan: kill Agrippa, take back power in the name of Dianna…and
maybe hook up with Harry while she’s at it…not a bad list. I’m not sure how Dianna would feel about
this. But with both doubles headed for
the Capital, we’ll see who gets to act out a plan of attack or negotiation
first when they get there. Also, I was
going to give Loran so much crap if we’d reached the Moon and he STILL hadn’t
gotten rid of those two nukes he’s been carrying for God knows how long. Space is pretty big, he could dump them
anywhere and be rid of them. But he
ended up putting them to good use blowing up an asteroid that would have
impacted a city on the Moon (Von City, any relation to Von Braun City from the
Universal Century I wonder?) Then the
was the seaside town that was Loran’s home on the Moon. Barely two minutes in and I loved anything
about this place more than anything in the time waster that was the Adesan
Arc. It blows my mind the Moon has this
kind of setup, along with the Marine life and an old school fishing village to
go along with it. If this is just the
first level, I cant wait to see the rest.
And yes, I wasn’t kidding about the Whales (and the Dolphins). Where’d they get them, how do they live so
long on the Moon in an airtight dome? I
don’t know, I don’t a care, I freaking love it, let’s wrap this set up.
Well, we’re on the Moon and headed into the final
stretch, only 10 episodes left of this wonderful Alternate Universe
Gundam. Loran, Dianna and Sochie even
have Whales accompanying them to the Capital…yeah, it’s typing those strange
sentences (and smiling as I do) that make me realize no matter the stalls or
the lulls in momentum, or how irritating some of the cast can be, Turn A Gundam
is a special series and im confident it can close itself out as strong as it
began. The beginning of the end gets
going on Friday. See ya then.
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