Victory Gundam had some good momentum taking it into its halfway mark and most of that carried over into the start of the second half. We had a few major battles in space; a wedding; a reunion; a couple of major character deaths; a sudden but inevitable betrayal; and in the middle of all of that, Uso got a much needed upgrade in the form of a new Gundam (even if it has duplicates of itself too I think, seriously, how hard is it to make a Gundam that’s unique and not among a batch of clones but I digress).
Katejina’s betrayal has been building up for a while and now it is official. And yet its still one of the least surprising developments in all of Victory Gundam. Katejina has been a character who’s hard to pin down. There’s been next to no explanation as to why she is the way she is beyond being a spoiled rich girl who thinks of the world in a way no one understands and is thus ignored a lot. She says she’s found purpose in Zanscare’s Mariaism (yes that’s what theyre calling it), but…why? Why does she hate Uso, is it because he wouldn’t listen to her and stop piloting the Gundam? Seems kind of petty to be spurned by a 13 year old. I guess Katejina’s used to getting her way all the time and hasn’t since she joined the League Militaire. Maybe she’ll think she’ll find better luck with Zanscare and by Cronicle’s side. Katejina seems eager to prove herself, quickly hopping into the cockpit of a Mobile Suit and volunteering for special missions hoping for recognition. Still wont make her any less of a royal pain, I garuntee it.
Speaking of royal pains, I so called that Shakti was eventually going to try and use her “Princess” title to try and stop some of the fighting. Her latest stupid act in a list of stupid acts was to purposefully get captured so she’d be taken to Cronicle before the Motorad Fleet launched for Earth. The end result was Uso’s mother getting captured by Katejina while rescuing Shakti and now Uso’s got even more to worry about as a result. Honestly, if it looks like things are moving back towards Earth, Shakti should be dropped off with Suzy and Karl and Flanders (who actually was a good guard dog and made a solid team with Haro) and left alone. However, everyone knows how valuable Shakti is now, title wise. I’m sure we’ll get to some bargaining between the LM and ZE eventually for Shakti…sigh, everything this girl touch goes from bad to worse, somehow.
You did read correctly back there too: Uso found his Mom-Myra Miguel. Looks like both Mr. Evin’s have been pulling duties for the League Militaire while they thought their son was safe on Earth. Uso’s Dad is apparently helping plan LM strategies while Myra designed the Victory 2 Gundam that Uso’s now traded up to. I did like that Uso finally got a small bit of peace talking with him Mom (even if it resulted in another clip show, seriously guys?). I’ll talk more about Uso’s ever growing list of troubles in a moment but I did want to take a sec to mention a fun factoid about Victory Gundam involving Uso and his Mom. An idea that was played with during production was making Uso the Great Grandson of Char Aznable himself. This would’ve been further by Uso’s mother, Myra Miguel, bearing the same last name as Nanai Miguel, who was Char’s lover and second in command during Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack. Tomino shot this idea down pretty quickly but personally, I think it would have been a great revelation to explore and show that at least one person in Char’s bloodline isn’t a total bastard hellbent on twisted ideals and faulty logic. Missed opportunity I say.
This is Victory Gundam, a Yoshiyuki Tomino production. So of course, we had to return to the “Kill Em All” days with a pair of major deaths that will rock Uso to his core. The first casualty was Junko, the senior most member of the Shrike Team. Of all the members of this doomed squadron, Junko’s the one we’ve spent the most time with. She got pretty close with Uso and Marbet (even seemingly having a bit of a rivalry with Marbet for Oliver’s affections). So, for once, it sucked to see a Shrike Team member bite the dust. Sadly, her commander wasn’t too far behind. Oliver might not have been my favorite character (I honestly couldn’t tell you much about him even after all this time) but he was a mentor to Uso and someone dear to Marbet, hell the pair even got married…as part of a distraction for a prison break but still it was official. I’ll be honest, im still not sure how that marriage was even considered. Most of the time Marbet shared screentime with Oliver, she was jealous of his all female fighting force and seemed to fight with him a lot. I don’t think I ever saw a scene of them ever being romantic together or even considering it until Oliver mentioned to an insanely jealous Uso that he’d known Marbet for over two years at this point. Still, this leaves Uso and Marbet in a bad place having lost a person mutually close to them both. It's a pull no punches horrors of war twofer that Gundam is well known for, especially a Tomino directed one.
Couple of odds and ends to close out the review. The Victory 2 looks much better than the OG Victory and feels much more powerful. The “Wings of Light” on its shoulders can double as beam weaponry that can cut down enemies like butter, pretty sweet. Though before it was revealed, the Zanscare let loose it’s latest model Mobile Suit combo, Gedlav and Einerad. Gedlav’s are Mobile Suit and the Einerad’s are giant tires they ride in…yes you didn’t misread that. Mobile Suits riding in giant tires might be the most visually appealing design ive seen so far in this show. Plus, Zanscare wasn’t kidding with the designs they showed earlier: they put giant tires on their new Motorad battleships that theyre sending to Earth. So we really are going to see battleships riding around on two wheels…and I bet it will look as silly as it sounds. My other thought: Is Uso the Tenchi Masaki of Gundam? This 13 year old has been teased and hit on by at least half a dozen older women in this show it’s kind of…awkward to watch. I’m sure we all had fantasies of having fun with older women at that age (and Uso’s jealousy at Marbet getting married to Oliver was entertaining to watch) but looking at it now…God Uso’s life can be uncomfortable sometimes (did I mention that since he fired the Kelias Guilie's main laser and destroyed a chunk of the Zanscare Space Fleet he might just have the largest bodycount of any Gundam pilot in history?)
Next time, it looks like we’re heading back to the Earth to watch Battleships on Motorbikes ride across the surface. Can the League Militaire stop them from devastating the planet and can Uso rescue his Mom? How will Katejina try to prove her importance while Shakti finds another way to make any situation worse than it is? Mobile Suit Victory Gundam returns Monday with a new review right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment