As I headed into the final five episodes of Iron Blooded
Orphans, I prepared myself for the worst.
All the odds had been stacked against Tekkadan and the many mistakes
Orga and McGillis had made along the way were finally coming back to bite
everyone in the ass.
From a certain
point of view, I was fully expecting an End of Evangelion level slaughter of
the main cast at the hands of Gjallarhorn and fully expected the antagonists to
triumph (not using Villains and I’ll explain why later).
Well, I was only a little right.
The losses Tekkadan suffered in the final
battle were big, even if it did end up being a few members in the end.
But it wasn’t the ending I expected.
Inspite of the hardships and loss, Tekkadan
still achived their main goal.
So yeah,
not quite the total downer ending that Zeta Gundam was.
Let’s start wrapping this one up.
I’ve been hard on Orga the last few reviews and I cant
fault myself for feeling frustrated with his short sightedness.
He really thought that McGillis was the one
to bring about his dreams for Mika and Tekkadan the quickest.
Well we all saw how that went and Orga had to
weigh his options along with the immense guilt he’s accumulated.
Still, it speaks to Tekkadan’s great sense of
family that no one really blamed Orga for Tekkadan’s misfortune and stood by
him to the very end.
Of course, Mikazuki
was always gonna back Orga, it’s his primary function in life.
And in the end, even though he didn’t make
it, Orga still made sure a plan was in place to ensure the survival of his many
brothers.
He didn’t just send them on a
suicidal final charge like McGillis wanted.
Heck, the one character I expected to not make it to the series end,
Ride, was saved by Orga personally in a Godfather style drive by shooting.
I’d say compared to McGillis, Orga came out
the better of the two msisguided souls in the end.
McGillis has been on a downward spiral ever since the end
of Season One.
Gone was the Char Aznable
level calculator and manipulator.
Instead we had a zealous dreamer who thought that legends and proper
procedures would secure his victory and make all of his dreams come true.
Even though he clearly lost with his defeat
on Earth, McGillis still foolishly believed he had victory in the bag so long
as he had his Gundam.
And yes, he did
kick serious ass with it…but come on, after everything McGillis has done, he
had to get his comupance at some point.
That’s the difference between McGillis and Char.
Char might be a horrible person but we love
him in spite of it.
McGillis was
just…ugh he turned out so dumb and idiotic.
Even if his past was good enough justification for revenge, McGillis
still let a romantic view of Gjallarhorn’s doom his future.
In a way, I’m glad Gaelio was the one to
defeat McGillis in the end.
It was worth
it just to see the shock on McGillis’ face when Gaelio’s Gundam trashed the
Bael.
The final battle on Mars was very much a last stand for
Tekkadan.
But again, no one was throwing
their lives away in vein.
It wasn’t
about taking down Gjallarhorn, no matter the cost.
It was about following Orga’s last order:
keep going and survive.
So yeah, it
surprised me the bulk of Tekkadan’s surviving members got to make it.
Somehow though, I didn’t think Mikazuki was
gonna survive.
I’m amazed he handled
Orga’s death as well as he did, guess he’d grown more than I thought he had at
times.
But Mika and Akihiro didn’t go
down without a fight (Hush less so but I’m not crying over him, sorry).
Akihiro got the lucky honor of finally
crushing Iok.
I mentioned last time that
he should’ve been the one to take out Jasley but Iok also had a hand in
Lafter’s death.
So seeing him crush
Iok’s cockpit with his pincer was a very satisfying moment for sure.
Less satisfying, Mikazuki getting defeated by
Julieta.
Yeah, the Barbatos Lupus Rex
was in rough shape after the orbital bombardment and I wonder how much of that
fight was Mikazuki and not Barbatos on its own.
But Julieta basically came in and got an easy win when she hardly did
anything to earn it.
I’ve gotta say,
Mika gets the win just for fighting to protect and not just fight in the
end.
Julieta didn’t deserve her victory
and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that.
When the dust was settled and everyone else was safe, the
series jumped ahead again and we got to see how everyone was getting on.
We got the “new world order” Kudelia and
Tekkadan fought so hard for thanks to Rustal of all people.
Yeah…the reason why I used “antagonists”
before and not “Villains” is because in the end, it’s both easy and hard to use
the “Villain” label on some characters in IBO.
Rustal was one for most of the Second Season but you could say McGillis
was just as much a villain as he was.
I
kind of feel like Rustal shouldntve made it in the end and someone else in
Gjallarhorn should have taken his place, maybe Gaelio.
Either way, Mars got its independence, with
Kudelia as the Head of the Mars Union.
The Tekkadan survivors moved on, with many of them working alongside
Kudelia.
Ride even got to assassinate
the man who gave the order to kill Orga, Nobiliss…shooting the guy on the
toilet no less.
And Atra and Kudelia got
their ultimate wish in the end: Atra bearing Mikazuki’s son, Akatsuki.
So, just to recap: Mars is independent, Mika
helped make a kid, Gjallarhorn is on the path to becoming a better
organization, and Tekkadan’s survivors found their happiness.
Yeah…imma call that an optimistic ending, and
a good one overall at that (Gaelio asking Julieta out on a date though?
Come on dude, you can do better).
Whew, Final Thoughts time.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans was
a vast improvement over Reconguista in G.
While character decisions were head scratching and infuriating at times
(especially in Season Two), the themes and strong character work supported the
series from beginning to end.
I grew to
care a great deal about Tekkadan, though I think I loved the supporting cast
more than Orga and Mikazuki a lot of the time.
Same goes for Kudelia and Atra, both of whom earned spots as some of the
strongest female characters in all of Gundam.
The action was rough and brutal, more so thanks to the emphasis on melee
combat as opposed to the ever popular beam spamming that Gundam was used to
showing off.
It wasn’t easy to watch
everyone pay for the mistakes and misjudgments of lead characters but a
surprisingly hopeful ending awaited anyone who stuck with the show to the
end.
Overall, it’s a strong entry in the
Gundam franchise.
Might not be the best
(could fill a spot in my Top 10 if I decide to re-rank that ever again), but
until The Witch of Mercury arrives, it’s a nice bookmark on the legacy of
Gundam’s more traditional 50 episode epics.
Tekkadan, you boys did it right, Hell yeah.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans receives and
8/10.
And with that, we’ve reached the end of
Gundam Month
Mark VI-The Undiscovered Country, just in time to kick off our Extended
Summer Series Review on Monday (so no review tomorrow, just a new First
Impression Friday).
And what series is
getting the distinguished summer slot?
Why the Queen of the Magical Girls herself, the Pretty Guardian in a
Sailor Suit who fights for Love and Justice.
She is the one named
Sailor Moon and we’ll be looking at the
entire First Season of her epic series starting Monday right here at the Gundam
Anime Corner.
See ya then everyone.
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