After a successful revolt, the former young fighters of
CGS rebrand themselves Tekkadan and vow to deliver Kudelia safely to Earth to
speak on the behalf of Mars. Even with
powerful fighters like Mikazui and the even more powerful Gundam Barbatos in
their possession, Tekkadan is still woefully short on supplies and
support. Orga seeks assistance from the
Teiwaz group but soon Tekkadan finds themselves locked in a battle to prove
they deserve to act as their own independent force. If they can broker a deal with Teiwaz, the
journey to Earth can finally begin.
As I continue to delve into Iron Blooded Orphans, I can
see that is has a lot of elements common in the franchise but premise wise,
it’s a bit of a slow burn.
Rather than
already being in the middle of an ongoing war, IBO feels closer to After War
Gundam X with its proceedings.
Right now
it’s focusing on its core cast and establishing their motivations and goals
before the real fighting begins.
And to
it’s credit, after the shaky, morally grey introduction given to Orga and Mika,
I’m glad Part 2 stepped back and gave us a better, more sympathetic look at the
guys we’re supposed to root for.
Part 2
showed me that they aren’t just thugs out for revenge against their former
masters, there’s a lot more to Tekkadan than the first glance we got in the
premiere.
The newest arc of IBO found Tekkadan squaring off with
one of the bigger powers in space, Jupiter’s own Mafioso group, Teiwaz…yeah
Jupiter has a Space Mafia, go figure.
Most of these interactions were held with the Turbines, a group of
gorgeous all female Mobile Suit pilots led by Naze Turbine…the guy who dresses
like Michael Jackson from Smooth Criminal and is literally the lover of every
member of his crew (and they have the babies to prove it).
Naze is an interesting character: confident,
smooth, classy, the envy of every man in existence because of his harem of
lovely bad ass beauties.
However, I
remember what happened to the last all female Mobile Suit Squad in a Gundam
Series (The Shrike Team from Victory Gundam)…and I hope they don’t meet as
rapid or as depressing a fate as they did.
Naze is a glimpse for Orga of what he could be if Tekkadan hits the big
leagues…just with more women at his side.
For Orga though, success isn’t just about what he can do, though he puts
more than enough pressure on himself to perform and deliver as leader.
Orga’s goal isn’t a life of pure luxury for
himself but for everyone in Tekkadan.
It’s funny that it’s Naze who points out to Orga that the way he talks
about his crew isn’t as comrades but as a family.
No matter what, Orga isn’t looking for his
own glory but glory for everyone and he’s more than willing to share and do
whatever it takes to keep Tekkadan together.
The Turbines gave Tekkadan a run for their money in
combat and even Mikazuki found himself outmatched by the very sexy Lafter.
I’m actually surprised the Barbatos can fight
as well as it can in space.
Normally you
see a Gundam have to get tweaked and even redesigned to operate in different environments
but Mika is holding his own…mostly.
Lafter still has far more Mobile Suit experience to best him though Mika
doesn’t make it easy for her.
Still,
Tekkadan’s determination and Orga’s brilliant plan to sneak aboard the Teiwaz
ship to capture Naze earned the Turbines respect and opened some new doors for
them.
In truth, Tekkadan’s had two major
successes back to back being able to free itself from the CGS and become a
subsidiary of Teiwaz, granting them more support than ever.
Also apparently Teiwaz is so influential and
powerful it can rival Gjallarhorn, that’s interesting.
Much like Orga, we got to see more of Mika beyond his “Ok
time to kill someone, lemme go get a gun and a shirt,” mentality.
It shouldn’t shock me that Mika doesn’t know
how to read, actually, not a lot of Tekkadan’s younger members know how to
read.
These are child soldiers and
reading probably seemed like an unnecessary skillset to have.
It reminds me of Mugen from Samuari Champloo
when he said “You don’t have to read in order to kill people.”
And yet Mika’s near defeat in space threw him
into a new mindset: he wants to do better and do more to help out.
To this end, he approached Kudelia about
reading, or rather Kudelia approached him (because any excuse to spend more
time with the silent tiny Terminator amirite?).
We also learned that Mika wants to read in order to help with Mobile
Suit repairs and start a farm of his own.
It continues to put him more in line with Heero and Setsuna, both of
whom had their own lofty goals beyond fighting.
Whereas Setsuna and Heero’s end goals were a little undefined beyond
“fighting for peace”, Mika actually has a retirement plan in mind.
The second outing also gave us some insights as to the
“Calamity War” that the Post Disaster came from.
Apparently, it was a massive war that took
place on Earth 300 years ago, where Gundams and other Mobile Suits nearly
destroyed the entire planet.
Thanks to
Gjallarhorn, the war ended and that propelled them to the state of power theyre
still in today.
Only 72 Gundams were
made for the war and they didn’t appear til close to the end.
72?
Does that mean we could see more further into the series?
That’s pretty exciting to think of.
It might be a bit much to hope for a cameo
from a previous Gundam model from a previous series since IBO isn’t connected
to another series but more Gundams are always a good thing.
We also looked deeper into the hardships the
crew of Tekkadan endured long before this series began.
Akihiro’s brother has been missing following
a pirate raid, heck like 90% of Tekkadan’s younger members don’t have families
at all, theyre all they have (another reason Orga is so desperate to not have
Teiwaz split them up).
Atra used to work
in a brothel (as help not as a you know what) before running away.
As much as it’s fun to tease Atra’s crush on
Mika, it isn’t without merit.
Probably
the more compassionate scenes involving Mika was Atra’s flashback when she
revealed he literally saved her from starving and helped get her a job.
Kudelia might be taller and prettier but
Atra’s certainly got the deeper connection with Mika that she needs to build up
the courage to act upon.
If I did have one gripe with this second set of episodes
its that I feel like a lot of the conversations and negotiations between
Tekkadan and Teiwaz couldve been done on the way to Earth.
Like I said, the story is slow building, though
it was made clear that Kudelia negotiating Mars independence from Earth could
upset Gjallarhorn’s governing power, hence why they want her eliminated.
However, alliances have been made and the
Isaribi is en route to Earth now with Teiwaz support.
Here’s hoping it wont be too long before we
get there…weird I’m saying that and want to get through space stuff ASAP,
usually I’m excited to see Gundam in space.
Maybe I just want a little more speed in IBO…but with the good character
work done in this set, I can chill on speed and just enjoy the ride too.
See you tomorrow for more Mobile Suit Gundam:
Iron Blooded Orphans right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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