Whew, this was a lot to pack in for sure. These six episodes wrapped up the first half of Victory Gundam and there’s plenty to process. Uso’s Newtype abilities are starting to emerge in space; Shakti doesn’t want to be the heir to Zanscare (shocker); Queen Maria has the ability to heal the sick and crippled; and Katejina has finally made her choice and stands with Zanscare…why that is I have no idea but let’s get into this jam packed set of episodes and see how this sets things up for the road ahead for Uso and the League Militaire.
There were three major space battles in this mid season section of Victory Gundam. The first picked up where we last left off, with the LM using their new ship, the Reinforce, to stop the ZE (Zanscare Empire just FYI) from using their prized ship, the Keilas Guilie, from using its fiersome arsenal on the Earth. The other two were right in the center of Zanscare territory, their capital colony of Amelia to be more precise. All three battles kept up that good Gundam epicness that weve come to expect from battle in space. I call this setting Gundams true home for a reason after all (not that battles on Earth cant be just as exciting, see 08th MS Team for that). At the heart of each fight was Uso and how more and more worked up he was getting. He doesn’t want to kill but keeps getting pushed. He wants to protect his friends but keeps getting pushed to fight and defend them. He wants to rescue Shakti…and really needs to make up his mind on that, but ill table that for now. Point is, Uso’s only getting more and more personal in battle and that can be a very bad thing. If it doesn’t get him killed, his carelessness or overthinking will get his teammates killed. While all of this was going on, Uso’s Newtype abilities finally began to manifest: a sixth sense on the battlefield and even being able to sense when Shakti was close (she’s also showing similar signs too). Overall, Uso can be a stubborn pain but I do like him as a Gundam protagonist, he isn’t unlikeable at all. Hopefully he’s taking all of these lessons to heart, particularly the ones he’s getting from Marbet, Gomez and Junko (btw she’s the only Shrike Team member who’s gotten any real screentime, at least one of them has).
As for Shakti, sigh. She wasn’t as insufferable as she was last time, but she’s still taking way too long to process even basic information without looking like she doesn’t understand anything besides “Go home to Karselia”. She didn’t get into as much trouble as usual but that’s because she was kept pretty well guarded at the Zanscare home colony. Her meeting with Maria yielded some expected results: “Youre not my Mom, my real Mom is the one who raised me on Earth, etc.” It’s a sad thing for any Mom who gave up their child to hear but why did Maria send Shakti away in the first place? Back to her and Uso, Shakti’s best friend had a chance to get her out of Amelia…and told her to stick around and help her mother…only for Uso to suddenly think “I’ve made a terrible mistake” and undertake ANOTHER risky mission to rescue Shakti for the (insert number) time. Dude needs to make up his mind about a girl who is more hazardous to his health than the actual war he is fighting. Maria might need to get to know her daughter a bit better before deciding she should lead an unstable empire…cause Shakti will A. only make things worse or B. be dealt with by Kagatie before the end of her first day.
We did spend a bit more time in Zanscare than before and got to see why Maria is so beloved. Not only is she a decent speaker but she also has the ability to heal the sick and crippled with some sort of aura. It’s probably Newtype related and amplified somehow…hmmm how long until we learn Kagatie is secretly mining this for his own ends and trying to figure out how to weaponize it. Uso himself had a brief interaction with Maria and asked the obvious questions that Maria couldn’t answer: If you’re the Queen why are you letting this war happen at all and why all the Guillotine-ing? Much like her daughter, Maria couldn’t process or answer the question right away (yep, Shakti is her daughter alright). I will be slightly commendable though…Queen Maria looks pretty hot when she’s not dressed like a Queen Pope. Also, Zanscare, what’s up with leaving your homeland so undefended? The LM managed to get a decent shot in cause more of the ZE fleet was off dealing with the Earth Federation Space Forces and had next to nothing besides trainees watching their front door. Seems like kind of a careless mistake on their part.
This set of episodes also did a good job of highlighting previous Universal Century tropes, concepts and images that hadn’t really gottan a lot of spotlight thus far in Victory Gundam. Not only did the Reinforce kick ass and show that the old school EF battleships had plenty of life left but we also got the surprise appearance of the La Vie En Rose IV. For those who might not know, the La Vie En Rose was a supply ship for Anaheim Electronics, a supplier for the Earth Federation, Zeon and any other Mobile Suit demanding faction during the Universal Century. The first version of the La Vie En Rose was seen in Gundam 0083, Zeta Gundam and met its unfortunate demise in Gundam ZZ. I’m glad to see they built another to keep the name going and the design is pretty similar to the first. But let’s talk about the true hero of Gundam getting to shine brighter than ever: I’m talking about HARO!!! The little mascot got right into the thick of it at Amelia and was seen doing things we hadn’t really seen out of a Haro unit before him. He actively attacked defense robots coming after Uso and even used holographic projections of the Victory to keep Zanscare patrols from finding Uso and his friends. Sadly, Haro might be out of commission for a while since he sacrificed himself to save the Victory from a crippling electric attack that fried his systems. Poor guy. Not going to lie, this might be my favorite Haro in all of Gundam (ousting the one owned by Lockon Stratos in Gundam 00).
We closed out this rather busy set of episodes on a cliffhanger: Katejina in a Zanscare Mobile Suit ready to attack Uso in the Victory Gundam. Ok what the hell is this chicks damage? We still don’t know how Uso met Katejina, how they became friends or why she’s become so indifferent towards him and now just flat out revealed (to us anyway) that she’s a bad guy now. I thought Katejina was trying to protect Uso but is she jealous he’s getting all the attention as a Gundam pilot? I don’t know and this show needs to give me a reason to care cause a cute character design wont help make me care about Katejina without proper motivations. Maybe we’ll get to them on Friday as the second half of Mobile Suit Victory Gundam begins. See ya then.
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