Throughout Gundam AGE thus far, my interest has been waining a bit. This series is rushing through its main story arcs so fast it isn’t allowing time for emotions to set in or major developments to be properly digested. I suppose that was always going to be a curse of this rather unorthodox way of telling a Gundam story as massive as this. However, I can say that unlike the finale of Arc 1, I enjoyed the finale of Arc 2 a lot more. We got some of the best battles in the show, unexpected payoffs and even more unexpected moving sendoffs. And the future of Asemu Asuno looks far more promising than that of his father…who may have just started down the path Harvey Dent was so fond of describing, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
The Arc 2 finale had a two act structure to it. The first was the Battle of Nortram. Basically this was Vagan’s Plan B if they couldn’t take Big Ring. Which meant that, on the surface, this was their last shot at getting some kind of a foothold on Earth. The lead up to this battle saw Asemu hit his lowest low, obtaining a helmet that brought out X-Rounder abilities at the cost of possible brain damage. I was ready to chide him for this big time cause…well its stupid and he’s stupid for thinking he needed to do this. What saved me from being truly upset was Woolf. Whereas Flit chided his son as his commanding officer, Woolf actually gave Asemu the true words he needed to hear: that he doesn’t need to be an X-Rounder to fight Zeheart and the Vagan. “People who are strong in their hearts are the ones who win in the end.” Asemu truly took those words to heart from a man who’s been more of a parent to him that Flit has ever been, at least on screen so far.
Which made Woolfs sacrifice all the more heartwrenching. Yes it sucked seeing Grodek bite it last time but Woolf definitely gets the Saddest Death of Gundam AGE Award so far. We’d followed this cocky, self assured and fun loving ace pilot for half the series and he played mentor to two generations of Asuno. If he was Flit’s big brother, Woolf was definitely Asemu’s father figure in Arc 2. Flit always treated his son like a soldier because he doesn’t have time to be a dad, not with revenge disguised as duty on his mind. Woolf has been there for Asemu ever since he came aboard the Diva and has never lost faith in him. Woolf was the first proof that you didn’t need to be an X-Rounder to defeat an X-Rounder. Asemu proved that for certain by kicking Desil’s ass six ways to Sunday in hands down, the most satisfying moment of Gundam AGE. Every other moment in this show will have to work hard to top Asemu tearing Desil’s suit to pieces and getting his revenge on the man who killed Woolf. I’m not even mad Flit wasn’t the one to kill Desil…it was that damn good of a moment.
The Battle of Nortram had the scale and emotion you come to expect from a mega level Gundam space battle. Lots of Mobile Suit destruction also paved the way for very emotional moments. I was not prepared to feel something for the death of Engineer Remi. But wow, she actually went out protecting the Diva so it could fire its mega cannon and escape destruction. Remi’s death was more evidence that while it was a well handled death, it could have been better had we spent more time with her and not forced a romance (and a freaking marriage proposal?) with Obright without building it up properly. Even Zeheart’s reconciliation with Asemu feels rushed. I mean yeah, Zeheart was kind of playing Asemu a little because Ezelcant has a plan that includes the outcome of this battle which seems to go in the Federations favor. But yeah, I cant help but come back to Arc 2 needing like 5-7 more episodes to tell a proper story about Asemu and Zehearts friendship to give it a proper wrap up. And we don’t even get a true wrap up. Zeheart’s fine and in cryo and will probably be back sometime in Arc 3 if not the 4th and final Arc.
Given how we got to see the AGE-2 Double Bullet tear its way through Desil, the Magician’s 8 and a just about everything else, you’d think that Asemu seeing the sunset on Earth would be a good place to end things for his story. Nope, we had ANOTHER time jump to one year later so Flit could handle some unfinished business and set up his further decent to the Dark Side. Another lingering plot point of AGE thus far has been the extremely corrupt and nigh unresponsive Earth Federation government when it comes to the Vagan. This led to a swift purge of Prime Ministers and equally corrupt officials and set Flit up to be the new head of the Government. The sad thing is: This new regime isn’t in better hands, it’s arguably in worse. While the old Government did virtually nothing at the risk of the world finding out its secret connection to Vagan, Flit is dead set on exterminating the Human Colonists from Mars. Key word there: Exterminate. Not the kind of word you’d throw at a “hero” of a Gundam series. At least Asemu knows he isn’t fighting for an organization or an army, but to protect those he loves. Asemu actually gets a more optimistic ending and we even get to see him marry Romary in the final moments (and guess who isn’t seen there at the wedding…wow Flit, you are Father of the Year).
Just like Arc 1, I’ll offer my Final Thoughts on Arc 2: it was…better? No, it was about on par with Arc 1. It made the same mistakes with pacing and lack of a longer episode run. Flit’s decent into darkness continually made me question why he even got married and had a kid in the first place. But Asemu turned out to be a good egg and thanks to Woolf he became a better man by the end of the Arc and I hope he’s a better dad to his son than Flit to him. The action was more intense and on a grander scale and it felt like more characters had a chance of biting it than the whole of Arc 1. The loss of Woolf and Grodek means we’re getting rid of the best characters well before the final act and their shoes are not easily filled. Overall…dammit, these Arcs should have been 20 episodes each and just gone for broke on telling a properly fleshed out story. Honestly, I cant see Arc 3 or 4 doing much better in that regard.
Tomorrow, the battle finally comes to Earth and we meet the last Asuno, Kio, as we begin Arc 3 of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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