I think this set of episodes, more than any other, deserves a round of applause. Questions were answered. Rivalries were settled. Sacrifices were made. And in the end, we got one of the greatest battles in Gundam history thanks to one last showdown between Domon Kasshu and Master Asia, the Undefeated of the East. G Gundam isn’t the most serious Gundam show out there. But today it’s earned the right to stand on the shoulders of greats like the original series. Honestly, were there not a couple of dangling threads needed to be tied off (including a probable THIRD round with the Devil Gundam), this could have been G Gundam’s series finale.
The biggest let down of these episodes is a minor one. For a “Battle Royale”, we didn’t see much of an initial brawl between The Shuffle Alliance and their Injustice League counterparts. Besides the Viking Gundam, everyone else like Cobra and Jester were taken out off screen instead of giving us a chances to see Chibodee or one of the others take them down. Once you got past that though, it was time for the main event: The Shuffle Alliance vs. The Devil Gundam and its Four Kings. True to form, Chibodee, Sai Saici, George and Argo gave their all to defeat Michelot and Chapman once and for all, sacrificing their precious Gundams in the process to make sure Domon reached his end goal. Domon really shines throughout all these episodes and he gets a good start with his anguish over the possibility that his friends might not have made it out of this fight alive…Spoiler Alert: Everyones fine.
Poor Domon though, dude had the worst day ever with this Final Battle. Sure, the Devil Gundam is…you know what, I’m not even gonna say it cause you know it’ll be back. No I’ll focus on the moments that were both victories and tremendous losses for the Neo Japan Gundam Fighter. At long last, the curtain was pulled back and the mystery of Schwarz Bruder/Kyoji Kasshu was revealed. Turns out the flashback we saw at the beginning of the series was total crap. Kyoji and his family were betrayed by Rain’s jealous father and Kyoji escaped to Earth with the Ultimate Gundam. From there we have Ulitmate becoming the Devil, going all Skynet and deciding to exterminate Humanity and Kyoji managing to create a DG Cell clone of himself onto the original Schwarz Bruder before he was totally out of it. Oddly enough, that kind of bizarre plot twist is something I’m ok with and it makes sense within the rules of its show. Domon did get to hear all of this from Kyoji himself and repent that he’s been on a revenge quest for nothing but a lie for the last year. If nothing else, Ulube and Mikamura have a lot to answer for, especially after Kyoji gave his life to make sure his brother succeeded in his mission. Domon was doing a lot of screaming and wailing this week…and it was warranted.
Then there was that amazing epic brawl between Domon and
his former Master. Like Schwarz, Asia
came clean about his motivations and he did sound like a mad man once again…but
thankfully there was a great sadness behind the madness. Disillusioned by the deteriorating state of
the Earth, Master Asia sought to use the Devil Gundam to wipe out Humanity and
restart the planet so it could live again.
Thankfully, Domon has actually grown as a character thanks to his
friendships with the Shuffle Alliance, Allenby and his love for Rain. He was actually the bigger, wiser man to
state the obvious, “An idealized world that doesn’t involve humans is doomed to
fail”. I’ve criticized Master Asia’s
chaotic and sometimes childlike behavior when things didn’t go his way. But Domon’s words did reach him and he accepted
his defeat and demise gracefully, dying in the arms of his beloved
student. It’s one of the better endings
for a Gundam antagonist and one of G Gundams most beautiful moments.
Domon was more than up to the task of bearing most of the emotional weight of this penultimate set of episodes. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty for everyone else to do. Like I said, The Shuffle Alliance put in their time. Chibodee and George showed it’s always good to have celebratory booze on hand just incase this might be ones last battle. Sai Saici and Argo delivered one helluva final combo to Michelot that could very well have been their ultimate sacrifice. Even Rain got in on the action, this time with her own Gundam (guess it’s a good thing the Rising Gundam was just hanging around). Rain and Domon are on a whole other level now and I think the only reason Rain didn’t really freak out when a possessed Allenby told her she loved Domon is because Rain knows Domon wants to tell her that when they reunite. Still, we got the showdown of Domon’s two love interests and Rain got to deliver a killer finisher by firing an arrow into the mouth of Allenby’s new Monster Gundam. Oh and Allenby unknowingly got her own revenge when Wong got blasted during the fight…see ya douchebag. While they didn’t get to do as much, Domon and company’s Support Crews also leant their support, so everyone had something to do, no matter how small.
While it definitely doesn’t feel like it, Domon won the 13th Gundam Fight. The barrier around the Earth is down. The Devil Gundam isn’t dead but it’s out for now. All in all this feels like the end. But there’s still the matter of the lying jerks who started this whole Devil Gundam business in the first place. I’d say this means we’re gonna get our hero vs. Char clone Ulube in the finale…but I think Master Asia has filled the Char/Main Rival role more than he has so I guess I need a new comparison…actually, Domon and Asia is a better done version of Uraki and Gato from Gundam 0083…crap I’m ranting and getting way off topic. In short, I have no idea how this finale is going to turn out OR how it’s going to top the masterpiece of Gundam action we just saw. One way or another, we’ll find out Friday with the Series Finale of Mobile Fighter G Gundam right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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