Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (TV)

[MFauli]

Just watched episode 10. This was another bad episode, but it especially made clear how bad it is when compared to a great Gundam like Iron-Blooded Orphans.

The children in both these anime couldn't be more different. In IBO, it just makes sense that the children are somewhat battle-hardened, that they can compete on par with adults. There is no character that feels out of place, and where the children reach their limit (politics), they find apt aid in the form of, duh, adults that will side with them. In MW, however, there is NO explanation for why all of these children get to play on the real battlefield of economics and politics. No matter how smart they might be, adults would always be smarter and more experienced. Everything these kids do comes off as unearned due to that. Miorine's behavior is the most annoying, because she acts like a know-it-all, yet we even see in the dialogue with her father that she doesn't know it all. If I were an adult in that universe, I absolutely wouldn't do business with such a spoiled child. At best she could spread her legs, considering her beauty is the only objective prowess of hers.

Which brings me to something else: Are the 2 girls with the assassin supposed to be Miorine's clones? Or did the studio run out of budget to design new characters?

[Ryllharu]

This is almost a copy-paste of the post you made for episode 8.

Episode 10 is character-driven, true. But it also feels like you are deliberately ignoring all the background details the series has been shelling out since the prologue.

You're obsessed with the structure of the school and missing the entirety of the setup with the Benerit Group.

If I were an adult in that universe, I absolutely wouldn't do business with such a spoiled child. At best she could spread her legs, considering her beauty is the only objective prowess of hers.

I'm not at all surprised that you have this stance.

[MFauli]

and missing the entirety of the setup with the Benerit Group

I ignore it because so does the anime. In this episode, the tanned blonde boy even wants to give up the duels and an adult tells him to continue doing duels. Like, wtf. If there is any setup for higher tier politics, when will we see it come to fruition? The anime is about to end ...

I'm not at all surprised that you have this stance.

Act appalled all you like, my stance is the more realistic, plausible one. You have this spoiled jailbait-girl walking around in sexy evening dresses, mingling with adults, talking as if she's a big fish. She's not. Or at least she shouldn't be. But I have little hope that this anime will ever show her that.

[Ryllharu]

The series is a split cour.

2nd half starts in April 2023. Expect a nasty climax when this season finishes in early January.

[MFauli]

Episode 11:

Most of the episode was bad-cringe Suletta crap. God, I honestly wonder whether she was written to appeal to whatever demographic OR to be hated by most people, lol. And I SOOOO wish they'd drop the lesbian-pandering bs. I've got nothing against a proper lesbian relationship, but Suletta-Miorine just come as some sort of role play. And stop using "-san", Suletta, when you're that close ...

And who'd have thought: When the anime finally becomes "Gundam" in the last 5 minutes or so, it's actually exciting to watch. The terrorists attacking the station, the Jeturk son on the small ship, the two Earth-twitches, that's fun to watch.

[David75]

I've been wondering for a while, but isn't suletta's stuttering and awkwardness a symptom of her piloting Aerial ?
She keeps calling lady prospera her mom... but I feel like we never had a confirmation.

[Ryllharu]

Prospera has referred to "daughters" in plural across the episodes. Aerial is almost certainly Ericht.

Though, that could be some very cold misdirection since the Bit Staves are also part of the "everyone" that Suletta refers to when talking to her Gundam, but Suletta is also considered her daughter. Stuff like, "It's a call from my daughter."

We're left with Suletta in quite possible the worst situation she could possibly be in at the end of the episode. There's debris everywhere, and she's on the wrong side of an armored airlock with only a window between her and space.

Fun Fact: Suletta is one of the taller Gundam leads. Not Shown is Domon from G Gundam, who is 180cm.
Fkqx-VYakAI6LwP.jpg

[Buffalobiian]

Fun Fact: Suletta is one of the taller Gundam leads. Not Shown is Domon from G Gundam, who is 180cm.
Click image for larger version. Name: Fkqx-VYakAI6LwP.jpg Views: 5 Size: 171.4 KB ID: 1998

Hah, wow, I didn't know Heero was 157cm-ish.

[shinta|hikari]

I didn't know gundam protags are all hobbits.

[MFauli]

Well, smaller pilot -> smaller cockpit -> more effecient mecha build


Or so ... >_>

[Buffalobiian]

I think it's just that they're all teenage kids. And if we're talking early teenagers, the girls do get their growth spurts first.

[Ryllharu]

Miorine is much shorter. She's 150cm.

[shinta|hikari]

The height gap between Miorine and Suletta is exactly the same as the gap between my wife and I.

[MFauli]

Miorine is 150cm? Well, guess she has ONE positive now ...

The height gap between Miorine and Suletta is exactly the same as the gap between my wife and I.

Nice, well done, shinta.

[Ryllharu]

Eps 12 (season 1 end, resumes in Spring 2023)

---------------



So seriously, fuck the haters of this series, you all have no taste or sense for what's good.

It's the complete package on presentation. The music (or noted scenes of silence) has been phenomenal the entire time at building up specific scenes and amplifying them to the correct tone. The animation has been stellar, consistent, subdued in its intricate detail (seriously, go rewatch some of the character movement on past episodes), and the framing on the action has been some of the best Gundam has offered, on par with some of the best in genre (more like the Macross OVAs and movies is what I'm saying).

As for the writing and characterization? Gundam Witch from Mercury has been one of the more interpersonal-relationship focused mecha and actually done it right.

Organizations and political allegiances are present in the background, but at its core, this has been a series that focuses on the minutiae of vengeance, hate, loathing, regret, and lies (both deliberate and by omission). We see a zoomed-in look at all the horrific suffering of armed conflict and war, scheming, and casual lack of empathy for human life when individual personal gain is on the other side of the equation. Across the entire cast too.

Suletta is fucked up. Her mother raised her that way. She's pragmatic to a complete and disastrous fault.

The scene where Elnora lures Suletta into stepping over the metaphorical line onto the bloody floor with her sweet tone and seductively 'justified' words? Brilliant. Guel killing his father on accident, but in the end his father was relieved to see him safe? That one hurts. Nika getting found out to be a traitor, even though she secured the safety of everyone aligned with Earth House? Tragedy in slow motion. Shaddiq still smiling even though his little operation failed? Ominous. The overall balance between Suletta and Miorine? Perfect and constantly in motion.

What's great about this series is that even now, we still have no idea who is on the "good" side. There probably aren't any.

[MFauli]

FUCK this anime. Ryll is wrong 120% lol

This was a GOOD episode. This is what the epilogue episode had promised and it is what I expect from a good Gundam-anime.

So WHY DID IT TAKE AN ENTIRE SEASON TO GET THERE?!

There's not much to talk, really, because we're now at the starting line from where HOPEFULLY a good, meaningfull story can grow. We have the Jeturk-boy lose his father, experience trauma, and probably grow as a result. We have Miorine who's also about to lose her father. We have Suletta who continues to be the worst character, but at least now she's a hilarious psycho.

Bummer that we have to wait for season 2, because I'm really excited for next episode

[Ryllharu]

Because your takes are unerringly shallow and as usual with any anime, you missed all the development that wasn't overt and explicit.

The entire season was littered with details that led up to almost everything that happened this episode.

[Buffalobiian]

The scene where Elnora lures Suletta into stepping over the metaphorical line onto the bloody floor with her sweet tone and seductively 'justified' words? Brilliant

Yep. Nothing wrong with any of that actually. Once you get over the "kill or be killed" idea, decision making is pretty straight forward.

[shinta|hikari]

Miorine is a bitch. You and your dad was just saved and you call your savior a murderer lol.

[Ryllharu]

Yep. Nothing wrong with any of that actually. Once you get over the "kill or be killed" idea, decision making is pretty straight forward.

Not what Suletta did. What Elnora has constantly been doing to her the whole season. There's something very wrong about what's going on there.

Even the VAs for Suletta and Miorine (who don't have knowledge of the plot for S2 at this point) brought up how creepily manipulative Elnora is to Suletta.