It’s a brand new world but the fight for a better
tomorrow rages on. In the wake of the
Battle of Edmonton, Tekkadan has established itself as a force to be reckoned
with. But the revolution they and
Kudelia enacted has come at a cost. With
Gjallarhorn weakened by McGillis’ secret plans, chaos rains across the
stars. A powerful Pirate Fleet, the Dawn
Horizon Corps, has risen to the challenge of filling this power vacuum and even
has Tekkadan and Kudelia in their sights.
To meet this threat head on, Orga enters a deal with McGillis for a
joint operation with Tekkadan leading the fight.
While I’ve said that it’s (currently) the last of the
more traditional length Gundam series (47-50 episodes), Iron Blood Orphans was
aired in two separate 25 episode seasons, similar to Gundam 00.
That said, while 00’s First Season ended on a
pretty intense cliffhanger, IBO’s First Season wrapped surprisingly neat, completing
the story of Tekkadan’s journey from Mars to Earth to help Kudelia accomplish
her mission of seeking independence for Mars.
Now, as we enter Season Two, we see that the status quo has changed a
bit and some of it is a bit hard to follow, I’ll be honest.
Power has shifted and new players have
entered the fray.
This latest set of IBO
episodes is all about establishing the new world order but does that enhance or
take away from IBO’s enjoyment?
While I don’t think it’s stated in episode, about two
years have passed since the end of Season One.
As Kudelia narrarates, the battle she and Tekkadan raged across the
stars and two planets has yielded both positive and negative results.
Tekkadan is even stronger than ever, a proper
Teiwaz subsidiary and theyre even being called in to help train the new Arbrau
Defense Forces on Earth.
The boys who
were once nothing more than expendable cannon fodder are now welcome
heroes…which leads into a major negative of all this.
Kudelia also reveals that due to the enormous
success of Tekkadan, child soldiers and Human Debris are being utilized in
combat more than ever.
On top of that,
Gjallarhorn’s weakened condition and infighting (more on that later) have left
things unchecked in space and now PMC and Pirates are stepping in for their own
glory.
In short, things might be on the
up and up for Tekkadan but they aren’t that much better everywhere else.
A new season also introduces a slew of new faces and…yeah
that’s a problem.
IBO already has a
pretty sizeable cast (no shock there, Gundam shows have dozens of characters in
play at one time).
So other than showing
us that they have taken on new members because of their success, there really
isn’t any need to give them a story, if I’m honest.
There’s no reason the group can’t be split up
and bit more so we can follow their continued journeys on Mars and on
Earth.
Put Ride on Earth with Takaki and
see how both of Tekkadan’s youngest handle the situation theyre in now.
Instead, we get the return of one of the
Brewers in an expanded role and I don’t think he’s that interesting, or at
least I’m not as invested in him.
We
barely get to know anyone else on Earth and now that Chad is incapacitated,
Takaki is the only one of consequence to care about but I wouldn’t call him a
leading man.
It’s gonna make the Earth
storyline a bit dull until the other show up to help out.
Then there’s the Mars rookies, one of whom
has an Elvis haircut and the other looks like a taller, more muscular Brock
from Pokemon.
Finally, there’s Hush…who
is just here to hate on Mikazuki for no reason and proclaim to everyone he’s
going to surpass him.
Hush is all talk
and more annoying than interesting.
No
wonder my favorite moment with him so far has been Mika almost breaking his arm
when he thought Hush was going to hurt Atra (he wasn’t but still, Hush is a try
hard and he looks like a poor mans Bakugo from My Hero Academia…and Bakugo
wouldn’t take any of his crap either).
Then onto Gjallarhorn, which, I’ll admit, I’m having a
hard time understanding how it all works.
It seems McGillis is in charge but there’s clear signs of infighting
going on with at least two factions: one belonging to McGillis and the other
belonging to newcomer Rustal.
I don’t
think it’s much of a secret a lot of Gjallarhorn knows about the crap McGillis
pulled so why are they so quick to accept him as their leader?
Sure he’s got the political clout and has
maneuvered himself into one of the most powerful families within the group…but
he’s still one guy and the amount of clear dislike for him makes me wonder how he
lasted two years as Head Honcho.
Wasn’t
his goal to clean house once he was in charge?
As for Rustal, he’ll clearly be a big adversary going forward, as will
his subordiantes: Iok and Julietta.
Iok
is a complainer (he’s Gjallarhorn Hush really) and Julietta brags when she
really has no reason to do so.
Sure, she
can go toe to toe with Mikazuki but her high and mighty attitude is so
unlikeable.
Plus, you’ve got a cyberized
masked man (a new Char?) named Vidar…who is either Gaelio or Ein.
It could be either man cause we never saw
them actually die in Season One, just take blows that should have killed
them.
My money’s on Gaelio because if
its anyone whos willing to throw their lot in with Rustal to take down McGillis,
he’s at the top of the list.
How is
Gjallarhorn even functioning with all this drama?
I guess if theyre so unsure and unorganized
it makes sense how so many lower factions could rise to challenge him.
Sure Gjallarhorn has the numbers and Mobile
Suits but without a clear leader, they’re kind of just around.
While the political drama and societal changes are kind
of a mess, the combat is still as strong as ever in IBO.
The Barbatos has been given a cosmetic
makeover, now dubbed the Barbatos Lupus (though to Mika it’ll always just be Barbatos).
The new changes give the Barbatos a more
Samurai feel whereas its first version felt more akin to that of a Roman
Gladiator (in keeping with the preferred combat styles of the show).
It’s even stronger than ever and Mikazuki got
to show off in the battle against the Dawn Horizon Corps.
Said battle was one of the biggest space
battles in IBO.
We’ve seen skirmishes
but it’s been a while since we’ve seen battle on this large a scale with over a
dozen battleships and dozens more Mobile Suits on the battlefield at once.
It’s solid stuff, enough to make you forget
that the new additions to the world and cast are not working out as well as
they should.
If nothing else IBO still
works as an all out action spectacle that Gundam does so well.
All in all, the second half of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron
Blooded Orphans scores on the action spectacle but hits a few misses trying to
establish the new world order.
Needless
screentime is given to new Tekkadan cast members when the old cast couldve been
positioned in their roles between two planets.
Gjallarhorn’s functionality is all over the place and I don’t see how
McGillis is getting anything done.
The
Earth plotline lacks anyone to care about from Tekkadan, save for one but
Takaki could use a proper supporting cast, not someone we haven’t seen for half
the first season.
So yeah, story, not so
great at the moment.
Here’s hoping
things can turn around and hopefully Takaki wont be fighting with a bunch of
nameless red shirts for too long.
See ya
next week for more Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans, right here at the
Gundam Anime Corner.
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