Ad Stella 122.
Humanity has reached the stars and a new economic system has prospered
from it. The Beneritt Group runs the Asticassia
School of Technology, where the youth of today train to use the technology of
tomorrow, including new advanced Mobile Suits.
Hailing from the planet Mercury, a young girl named Suletta Mercury
transfers into the School. With her she
brings a Mobile Suit once outlawed, the powerful Gundam Aeriel. On her first day, Suletta saves a beautiful
girl from an arranged marriage, only to become her new groom to be in the
process…and take her first steps into a brand new world beyond the home she’s
known.
Back in September, I looked at the Prologue for The Witch
from Mercury and was very surprised.
With the premise seemingly being set around young pilots at a Mobile
Suit Academy, I was worried the series would be veering into cutesy Reconguista
in G territory with random cheerleaders popping in to do dance numbers and
everything.
Much to my relief, the
Prologue was very intense and pretty dark, a strong continuation from the last
major Gundam TV effort, Iron Blooded Orphans.
It set the stage pretty well and made me really look forward to checking
out the first episode of the series proper.
Well, that day has come.
The
first new Gundam TV Series in seven years (that isn’t a Compilation or a Build
Divers series), is here.
How is it?
(BTW if you want a refresher on my thoughts on the
Prologue, you can check out that previous First Impression right here:
http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2022/09/fif169-mobile-suit-gundam-witch-from.html)
We pick up with Eri Samaya, known going by Sulleta
Mercury, about ten years after the Prologue.
Suletta is a wild girl in that she’s not feral but as nervous
wreck.
I shouldn’t be shocked by this.
After the bloody events of the Prologue,
Eri’s Mother has probably kept her under lock and key and done her best to
educate her academically and in the art of Mobile Suit combat
(apparently).
Much of Sulleta’s dialogue
is constant stuttering, she’s clearly not used to anything beyond wherever her
home has been.
In stark contrast, we
have the more elegant and fiercely independent co-lead Miorine Rembran,
daughter of Delling Rembran, aka the guy who ordered the mass slaughter of the
Gundam test site where Eri’s father died…that wont make things awkward when
that comes up at all.
Miorine clearly
wants to take control of her own life and certainly doesn’t take mess from
anyone, least of all her would be Fiancee’, Guel.
Miorine taking Sulleta’s Gundam Aeriel into a
duel and failing miserably at it kind of reminded me of Sayla Mass’ disastrous
first foray in the Gundam in the original series.
But Suletta comes to her aid and shows that
despite her awkwardness, she’s still the pilot of a Gundam and you aren’t just
given the keys to a Mobile Suit like this for no reason.
As for the fact that Suletta just inherited
Miorine’s hand in marriage by freeing her from Guel…well that’s definitely a
Revolutionary Girl Utena angle I never expected in Gundam.
We don’t get to learn much about the current state of the
Ad Stella era but hopefully that will be given to us gradually in later
episodes.
This first episode is about
establishing Suletta and Miorine as leads, showing off the Asticassia School of
Technology and, maybe most importantly, giving us some Mobile Suit combat
action.
Gundam is one of the few Mecha
franchises out there that has best incorporated the use of CG into their Mecha
battles.
It never looks out of place and
the mechs look gorgeous to boot.
The
Gundam Aeriel is as fierce as they come.
It look like its retaining the more thinner, less armored look of IBO’s
Gundam Barbatos, but it packs some serious firepower and a number of trusty
funnels that can act of both offensive and defensive levels, it’s pretty
sweet.
The big fight between Suletta
& Miorine and Guel felt like something you’d see out of the Build
Fighters/Build Divers eras of Gundam with a digital battleground and stats
being posted for all to see.
Hopefully
this dueling approach to battle doesn’t become the complete norm as I’m eager
to see what larger scale battles like those in the Prologue look in the main
series.
This is Gundam after all, if I
want Fighting Game style duels, there’s the aforementioned Build Fighters/Build
Divers series for that.
I was smiling at the close of The Witch from Mercury’s
first episode.
There’s still some
details to explore and directions I hope the series steers clear of (less
School Drama, more War is Hell Gundam Drama).
But that doesn’t change that fact that Gundam has returned to TV Screens
with a proper new TV Series in its near 45 year history.
It wasn’t the equally impactful follow up to
the Prologue I wanted but there’s room to grow and I want to see this show
grow.
It’s Gundam after all so of course
I’ll keep on watching it.
Who knows,
depending on how long it is, it might end up getting reviewed on this blog
withing the next year or two (definitely by 2024…fitting since that will be the
Gundam Anime Corner’s 10
th Anniversary).
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