Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (TV)

[Buffalobiian]

Alternative title:
Kidō Senshi Gundam: Suisei no Majo (Japanese)
機動戦士ガンダム 水星の魔女 (Japanese)

Genres: science fiction

Themes: mecha

Synopsis: A.S. (Ad Stella) 122―

An era when a multitude of corporations have entered space and built a huge economic system. A lone girl from the remote planet Mercury transfers to the Asticassia School of Technology, run by the Beneritt Group which dominates the mobile suit industry.

Her name is Suletta Mercury. With a scarlet light burning in her pure heart, this girl walks step by step through a new world.

Links: ANN, MAL, Official.

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The Prologue OVA is out (added above youtube link). Gotta say, I feel much worse for a 4 year old girl in these situations than the usual 10 year old boys being annoyed that their parents are working too much and die for the Gundam.

[Ryllharu]

I've watched a few analysis videos on the Prologue from people who watched it at anime cons.

I'm definitely liking the setting.

Modified people for space exploration feels very Crest of the Stars and Battle Angel Alita.

Bit of a bummer for me that the "Witch" refers to the gundams themselves for taking their pilots' lives, and not Suletta or the other skilled pilots.

[Buffalobiian]

Here's the magnetic link if you guys, you know.. wanna watch it.

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:7367d3a6611611eb...451%2Fannounce

edit: Also out on youtube now.

[shinta|hikari]

Just watched it.

WTF? They wanted to kill the Gundams and the people making them... because the Gundams were killing the people making them..?

I guess that was just some bullshit excuse. They merely feared the development of a mobile suit stronger than their own. And with Ericht, that has finally come to fruition. Funny enough, if they hadn't interfered, the Gundam might've never been completed.

The Gundam currently has a big weakness, which is that weird EMP wave. Without overcoming that, it is pretty much useless in combat. Other than that, the unit seems pretty OP with great offensive and defensive capabilities.

I think the first shot of the prologue was a teen Ericht in front of the Gundam, so this might be a revenge story.

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah, it's all a BS reason to can a project. I'm not sure why anyone in that universe thought it sounded remotely valid. Maybe they don't but they just run with it because no one has the physical might to say otherwise.

The EMP wave is... super effective. The internal wiring at least needs shielding. I'm not sure if they can do anything about Funnels being jammed. I'm sure it'll come back as a weakness during their next encounter with this EMP-Not-A-Gundam because it doesn't sound like anyone alive knows they got jammed.

[Ryllharu]

It's some revolting level of corporate scheming.

All the other companies in the MS Alliance decided to exclude the Gund-Arms because they want a monopoly. Nothing more. The ex-military guy is using the risks that going high PMET score can cause as an excuse to outright exterminate them, to a degree that the president of the MS Alliance was kind of shocked at how brutal Cathedral went with all this.

My understanding is that it isn't an EMP wave, though it works like one. It's specifically disrupting the link technology the gundams use. It should similarly kill or at the least paralyze cyborgs using the same technology, but Ericht's mom only has an arm(?) and she wasn't using it anyway so she could share her space suit's air with Ericht.

So the "EMP" disruptors are probably insanely expensive and can't be mass produced. They were on a bespoke model. I expect them to be dredged up later out of mothballs, because Cathedral assumed a decade later that the last suit and their pilot died in the void.

[Buffalobiian]

My understanding is that it isn't an EMP wave, though it works like one. It's specifically disrupting the link technology the gundams use. It should similarly kill or at the least paralyze cyborgs using the same technology, but Ericht's mom only has an arm(?) and she wasn't using it anyway so she could share her space suit's air with Ericht.

I see it working exactly as a jammer would. I get lazy and just call it an EMP because it's a half the number of letters.

[Ryllharu]

I just watched the prologue and unless the main show is totally different, this should be a banger. Really liked the grounded presentation of the story; only thing I'm not sure whether it's an issue or not is the linework, the art looks kind of weird in a hard-to-explain way. Also the animation during battles could be smoother.

Which version of the Prologue did you watch? There are three.
AnimeCon (~mid-July), GundamInfo prescreen (9/1), and Official Release (9/25). The official one is completely uncut and has the most polished animation.


The Ad Stella setting is really interesting.

The major conflict is still Spacians vs Earthers, but instead of military and moral stuff the settings normal have. It seems to be centered on rampant Corporate power and monopoly control. Space Faction want to be the only MS makers. I mean, it could do a total tone shift like 00 did at the mid-point, and the series is a split-cour already.

Hopefully, it isn't all loaded with transhumanism like Gundam normally is in terms of genetic superiority and "Childhood's End" type trash that they're always cranking out with the Newtypes, but more protheses and supplemental/replacement organs because the legitimate and very real dangers of space: cosmic rays, radiation, and prolonged zero-G ravage the human body. Stuff we know from science today thanks to all the real-world space agency studies on the long-term effect. WFM is very grounded just talking about that stuff.

The 'danger' came from the Ochs Corporation adapted the GUND-Format into a MS, which as a huge robot, causes significant higher drain on a person's mental faculties unless they are able to sync with it better like Ericht does. What Ericht is doing isn't any different from the younger generation being much more natively tuned to technology of the era. Like a child who very intuitively uses a smartphone. Human-Machine Interface, not Brain-Machine Interface as in IBO or the Innovado bullshit from 00.

Ericht thought of the Lfrith Gundam exactly as the Professor described it, like another child. She spoke to it and personified it. As a result, she didn't struggle to sync with it like her mother and the others do because to some degree they're afraid of it. She jumped right down to the bottom layer of connectivity with it because she treats the technology differently. The way she speaks of the Gundam Aerial in the end of the 2nd trailer convinces me she still thinks of her branch of technology that way.


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edit:
First episode of the main series is out.

Make sure you're using V2 when they're out. Someone botched the subs and they're off by 13 seconds.
And about 8 minutes in they're off by an additional 13.5 seconds, so simple delay retiming won't fix it.

[MFauli]

What I didn't understand: I have watched several Gundam-anime but never heard of that Ochs company. Is this a Gundam-reboot with all new contents or does it fit into the existing shows' timeline?

[Ryllharu]

What I didn't understand: I have watched several Gundam-anime but never heard of that Ochs company. Is this a Gundam-reboot with all new contents or does it fit into the existing shows' timeline?

Witch From Mercury takes place in Ad Stella, which is a new setting entirely.

Universal Century - Numbered Mobile Suit series, Unicorn, Thunderbolt, Hathaway, etc.
Our Century - Build series
Correct Century - Turn A
Anno Domini - Gundam 00
Post Disaster - Iron Blooded Orphans
Future Century - G Gundam
After Colony - Wing
Cosmic Era - SEED
Advanced Generation - Gundam AGE

[MFauli]

Witch From Mercury takes place in Ad Stella, which is a new setting entirely.

Universal Century - Numbered Mobile Suit series, Unicorn, Thunderbolt, Hathaway, etc.
Our Century - Build series
Correct Century - Turn A
Anno Domini - Gundam 00
Post Disaster - Iron Blooded Orphans
Future Century - G Gundam
After Colony - Wing
Cosmic Era - SEED
Advanced Generation - Gundam AGE

So these are all ENTIRELY separate universes? Because some sound like they could follow one another.

But anyway, thx, makes it easier to understand. So this one definitely is a fresh start.

[Ryllharu]

I deliberately left out Mars Century, Late Universal Century, and Regild Century because they are carryovers from one of the others.

[MFauli]

Episode 1:

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can stomach this. Didn't expect Gundam to become a "women good, men bad" story. Lesbian relationship fron and center with apparently an all-girls school, too. Not sure if it refered to something else, but did the subs use "they" to address Eri? If this is woke-Gundam, I'm out.

Plus, why are we supposed to be in awe of Eri winning the duel? She clearly has an overpowered nextgen-mecha that's several times stronger and more durable than her opponent's. Give both the same Gundam and she's no looker, on top of her opponent shooting dozens of energy blasts left and right of her instead of hitting her while she was just standing in one place. Bad presentation here.

I hope the woke-fest tones down from next episode, but with the whole "you're my husband" bs, I'm not hopeful. Real bummer, because I was looking forward to this anime and the prologue was great.

[Ryllharu]

WTF. I don't know where you got that reaction from. You find it in some Outrage Industry youtuber or the dumbass MAL comments?

The series is very openly making an homage to Revolutionary Girl Utena with how the school setup works and how Miorine is being used by her father's consortium as a trophy to be won. Shots, framing, set-pieces for the dialogues, the entire structure of the whole episode is a very deliberate act to mimic Utena. You completely missed the point that Miorine and the rest of Spacian society don't care about who is her "groom," but that doesn't mean it is a genderless society just from the first episode. It also makes visual references to dozens of other Gundam series that I don't recognize, but super-fans will. Including Miorine spitting up in her own helmet after taking a hit. That level of detail.

And yes, the subs and the Japanese dialogue both refer to Suletta/Ericht as "girl" a lot, so you're just objectively wrong about that last part. All-girls school? I count at least three guys who are named in the main cast, and four girls in the same.

We should be in awe of Suletta winning because she completely overwhelmed the current champion. Doesn't matter that Aerial is very overpowered by being a GUND-ARM in a generation where there are no more of them, and she just placed a monumental target on her back by openly revealing she has one of them. Given the title of episode 2, I expect that issue to be fleshed out next time. The Consortium and its military branch Cathedral (that Miorine's father still runs) is probably going to want her killed and Aerial destroyed.

Deturk gets goaded into missing them because of the broadcasted verbal fight between Suletta and Miorine in the Aerial's cockpit. From his view, a timid and shy girl who hides behind his own lackeys after challenging him just casually called the reigning champion trash. He was toying with Miorine, but Suletta enraged him. So yeah, he missed. Guns are hard to use when you're not calm. Even harder when you're using one via a joystick and the slightest finger twitches from rage are quivering the bead off target. His own brother warns him not to lose his cool, but he does anyway and even throws away his spear. He lost then, regardless of whatever weapon Suletta used on Aerial to respond.

We should also be impressed that she surgically disassembles his mobile suit without killing him or blowing it up. The way her bits work, killing him would be effortless.

And the episode itself reveals that the stupid games the students are playing with each other via this Dueling bullshit they've built for themselves has much wider implications out in the greater solar system. One CEO nearly killed Delling the same way he killed off Ochs/Vanadis in an assassination because his idiot son was at the top of the rankings.

All upturned by an isolated, socially stunted girl with more bravery than self-awareness. Sent to the academy by her mother with no allies aside from an overpowered Mobile Suit that the girl talks about like it is her sister.

And yes, there's even more than that going on. Spoil yourself with the official website (particularly in Japanese?) if you want to know. I regret opening a spoiler post elsewhere and seeing the details.

[MFauli]

Ryll, I'm not "wrong", I ASKED whether the sub as meaning to say that or not. You could have just said "no, must have been a coincidence, Eri is refered to as a girl".

And I haven't seen Utena, so no idea what this anime alludes to.

[Ryllharu]

You don't really have to have seen Utena in full. They're being very deliberate.



They're not the first series to make references to Utena, but for real, entire structure of the first episode, including title.

It's a clever way to befuddle the detractors of the first Gundam with a female lead character by fully embracing it to this level.

[Buffalobiian]

The vibe of Prologue and Episode 01 felt so different. There's still the background corporate scheming, but if feels like there's less gravitas because the school environment feels constructed and thus protected - even though you could still get bombed at any time.

I didn't really like how the prize girl controlled the gundam seemingly easily as well - even though she was shit at it.

[Ryllharu]

Episode 2

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To my surprise, they're not fooling anyone on what Aerial appears to be. Immediately brought down Cathedral onto herself, and got imprisoned. I didn't realize that Suletta probably hadn't eaten the entire time she's been at the Academy since she did her EVA rescue on Miorine until the other dueling committee guy brought her some food.

I do wonder what Ericht's mother and the Vanadis survivors did to Aerial to make it appear as a "drone" and not a GUND-ARM.

Then a swift dive into socio-political issues and corporate politics. Terrans are treated like 2nd class citizens, we knew that, but that pervasive dismissiveness extends to their corporate children as well. Chuchu might have been more vocal about it, but it was interesting to me that the one the series is portraying as legitimately furious is Nika, the 2nd year mechanic. Clenching her notebook-phone tight after getting shit from the Academy staff, but also the silent shot of her back as Chuchu couldn't understand why she was taking it from the random students in the cafeteria.

I wonder what Elnora's plan is though. "Lady Prospera" seems more than willing to throw her daughter to wolves to get that opportunity to confront the Benerit Group right away. I'm not sure if she's secretly trying to prove the superiority of GUND-ARM tech by hiding it as "drone" technology and letting the other manufacturers secretly install it in their own Mobile Suit models, or if she's just after ingratiating herself so she can kill them all when the time is right.

Good on Miorine for proving her father is a hypocritical asshole. Saying out loud what all the other business leaders think but are too afraid to say.

The way the OP frames it, I'm honestly kind of wondering if the real villain of the series is going to be Elnora. Delling seems like such a petty and stupid asshole now compared to the Prologue where he was a scheming bastard. He does act like he's a king with more power than strategy at this point. Elnora on the other hand, going full Char/Mr. Bushido with the dumb masks that Gundam loves, is hatching some vicious revenge scheme, using her daughter as a distraction. The pure-hearted daughter who is eager to make some friends and learn about less-dangerous things, since she already has piloting down quite well.

[Ryllharu]

Episode 3

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I honestly deeply enjoy the dichotomy they have with Suletta being very shy socially but cocky and overconfident when it comes to piloting. It makes sense because they've set up the whole background for her to act this way. Her wish list of things to do are all social things that someone with her background never got to experience, and her world has probably been limited to just adults. But whenever it comes to piloting, her attitude shifts. Not in a stark or abrupt manner, but just that she has zero doubts that she and Aerial are the best. Telling Jeturk that her beating him wasn't a fluke with utter confidence in between in stammering and meek other statements was a great example of how they're handling it in an intelligent way. Suletta has been piloting longer than most others have, I suspect, and we know she's up to some seriously deadly activity due to the environment on Mercury.

It also feels like Jeturk didn't actually lose to her this time. The bumbling AI caused most of the damage to their latest gen MS. I wouldn't mind seeing a casual rematch between these two in matching MS units, just to see who's actually better as a pilot.

The duel system is ridiculous, but in a good way. Cheating is allowed as long as it looks like a normal system error, using an entire company's resources is allowed, and it is so overly formalized it feels like stupid kids playing stupid games with each other's livelihoods over completely stupid social infractions. It will be very satisfying to watch Suletta and her allies upend the entire status quo they have going. That stupid bitch claiming the winner will always be the one with the biggest corporate backing is probably due for a major comeuppance by the Earthian crew (the mechanic girl and Chuchu).

And Miorine still can't pilot anything well without slamming into walls. Balance is maintained.

It's also cute the Earthian crew has already claimed Suletta as one of their own despite the fact that she is without doubt a Spacian. If anything, Suletta's link to Ochs Earth is pretty low compared to being part of Vanadis, merger 10 years ago or not.

Her mom is going to be the true villain of the series. 100%.

[shinta|hikari]

It also feels like Jeturk didn't actually lose to her this time. The bumbling AI caused most of the damage to their latest gen MS. I wouldn't mind seeing a casual rematch between these two in matching MS units, just to see who's actually better as a pilot.

I disagree. Without the AI, Jeturk would've been defeated much earlier on. He himself knew he was gonna get hit by the beam rifle near the start of the match, but the AI blocked it. Same with Suletta getting behind him and the AI blocking a shot to the back. The AI might be inferior at noticing distractions, but it was extremely effective at reacting to and defending against Aerial's attacks.

I think it is very clear that Suletta is the better pilot, to the point she can assess that Jeturk is strong, but knows she is still stronger. If she actually thought he was better or equal to her, she wouldn't praise him like that, if only because of her own pilot's pride.

Her mom is going to be the true villain of the series. 100%.

I hope this is not true.