Mobile Suit Victory Gundam Part 7 Episodes 32-36

Despite the best attempts of the League Militaire, the Zanscare Empire’s Motorad Battleships land on Earth and commence Operation Earth Cleansing.  A desperate Uso and the crew of the Reinforce pursue them only to find even their best weapons cannot bring down a Motorad without causing serious harm to the Planets surface.  To make matters worse, Shakti and Uso’s Mother are both prisoners aboard the flagship commanded by Cronicle Asher.  With the situation growing more and more dire, what tactics will Uso have to resort to in order to save the Earth and will he be able to save Shakti and his Mother…or will he be forced to choose?

Wow…just…wow.  The claims of Victory Gundam being one of, if not the, darkest chapters of the Gundam saga definitely rang true today.  We’ve seen countless deaths on this show already but nothing could ever compare to the enormous loss Uso suffered and how it all went down.  As much as I could point out that this is all Shakti’s fault from a certain point, most of me feels so heartbroken for Uso and the loss of his Mom.  Let’s run it all down and see why this ended up being the heaviest chapter of Victory Gundam so far.

Earlier in the show we saw the Shrike Team hold a funeral for one of their fallen comrades and even let Uso and Shakti participate in it.  I bring that up because we got another funeral sequence, this time for Oliver and this time, it felt a bit more weighty.  I couldn’t tell you the name of the Shrike Pilot who died literally one episode after she was introduced.  But regardless of my thoughts on his character overall, Oliver was a mainstay and his loss rocked everyone, especially his wife, Marbet.  She found herself losing it on the battlefield, even resorting to using Odelo and Tomas as shields in battle and cursing herself for doing so.  Still, Odelo and Tomas know what they’ve signed up for as pilots and they’ll protect her for Oliver.  It all culminated in the crew of the Reinforce scattering Oliver’s ashes into space in what is a truly beautiful scene with a beautiful song accompanying it.

The bulk of this set saw the action return to Earth, where the Zanscare Empire unveiled the true might of their Motorad Battleships…and they look like Battleships on Motorcycles.  It’s as silly as it sounds and looks, like a twisted and slightly comical version of a Space Battleship Yamato.  Regardless of their design, these weapons were unleashed as part of Operation: Earth Cleansing, which is exactly what it sounds like.  Zanscare is now full on wiping out any form of resistance and anything in their path of doing so by literally rolling over the planet.  No matter how honorable a guy Cronicle has been in this series, he’s still at the head of this genocidal invasion and shouldn’t be given a pass on this.  Same goes for Katejina, who’s gone completely bonkers and is twisting the ideology of Queen Maria to her own ends.  I mean, “Queen Maria wants to crush the Earths inhabitants and use them as fertilizer for the new Earth”, sounds like something a sane person would spout in the heat of battle.  I’d say Katejina’s lost it but really, when did she ever have it.  It didn’t help that every battle she had with Uso resulted in a back and forth shouting match that is grating on the ears.  Hopefully, Uso’s well over his long time crush and now sees that Katejina needs to be stopped along with everything Zanscare is trying to accomplish. 

I suppose I shouldn’t put off talking about it any longer: the death of Uso’s mom was the most brutal kill I’ve ever seen in Gundam, and I’ve seen a lot of it in this franchise.  However, decapitation by giant battleship wheel might be near the top.  To hammer it home, Uso even returned to the Reinforce with her severed head in tow and DAMN TOMINO!!!  If Uso was ever going to reach a breaking point it’s now.  Katejina refused to listen to reason.  Cronicle refused to budge on stopping the invasion.  Hell, when things got really dire, Uso even resorted to using the nuclear reactor of damaged Mobile Suits without pilots to try and stop the Motorads but that ended up doing more harm than good.  Uso’s desperate now.  He had to choose between saving Shakti and his Mom and his Mom made him choose in the end.  I cant imagine how Uso will just shake this off.  I think he’ll either be out of action for a couple of episodes or he’s going to go into a full berserker rage.  On top of all of this: the Federation signed a peace treaty with Zanscare just seconds after Uso’s Mom was killed…damn this show is really shoving in the gut punch.

I wont rag on Shakti too much this time because everything else was so heavy…but yes, the death of Uso’s Mom could be traced back to Shakti getting captured on the Moon.  But then she goes and gets herself captured by a crazy Maria Cult in the underwater haven of Underhook.  The brainwashed nutjobs even let most of the civilians drown, not allowing them on their escape ship cause they don’t believe in Queen Maria’s teachings.  How is it that Gundam has given us villains far more messed up than anything Zeon could throw out?  Zanscare’s about on the level of the Titans or even the racist jerks running the Earth Alliance in Gundam Seed.  Still, Shakti getting continuously captured became a pain ages ago and now it’s one of Victory Gundam’s most infuriating tropes.  Her naievte in the heat of battle was already obnoxious but when will Shakti learn to stay on the Reinforce and lock her freaking door?  I know I said I wouldn’t rag on her but…I freaking hate Shakti, there I said it.

At least the crew of the Reinforce are smart enough to know this truce wont last forever.  What is Zanscare up to and how much worse can it possibly get for Uso at this point?  Well, we’re heading into the final stretch on Friday and you know how Tomino likes to make his finales super intense and bloody.  We aint seen nothing yet but I think we will in the next review or two…definitely in the series finale.  Mobile Suit Victory Gundam continues this Friday over at the Gundam Anime Corner.