Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Anime Episode Discussion

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Jaden

I've only scraped the surface of the Gundam franchise. But I remember in some of the older shows, the mobile suits were a lot more sluggish on Earth, and had specialized gear for atmosphere missions and space missions.

Let me give you an example. This is Ground Gundam, one of the most sluggish Gundams in the franchise:



And yet even that Gundam can launch itself in the air under Earth's gravity. Again, thrusters matter.

[Kanon]

Not as entertaining as the previous episode but it showed how deeply rooted discrimination against Earthians are. And that things really aren't going well on Earth.

I have hope Suletta will grow more confident and determined soon. It was endearing at first but here it was just sad.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I have hope Suletta will grow more confident and determined soon. It was endearing at first but here it was just sad.

That's the thing. She's not gonna grow more confident on her own. Self-confidence comes from interacting with other people. That's why I wanted the show to cut it out with the duels for a while and just let Suletta make some friends. And well, we finally got just that. Hopefully they'll keep it that way for a few episodes. I know people want action and whatnot, but the characters need some downtime.

Besides, it's not like this episode didn't move the plot at all. We got our first glance of how things are between Earthians and Spacians in the outside world. And it's not pretty.

[foxbox360]

I smell a war in the future...

[Frontier]

I think that's the first time I've ever seen a marriage proposal get broadcast on live television and lead to the recipient vehemently rejecting it and then running away in a Gundam .

It's weird...there's no war going on currently, just political and social situations, but the training with the grunt MS's feel like it's preparing them for war settings .

I was wondering when Suletta would get her white Holder Uniform, but it turns out their outfits can change colors in a flash. Suletta looks good in white !

Guel is still acting cocky and abrasive, even though he honored the deal and apologized to Miorine, but despite his protestations that he has no interest in Suletta...he just comes off like a tsundere to her now. Like, most people don't make spur of the moment marriage proposals to people they just met without being a little interested in them .

You can definitely see the tension between Earthians and Spacians when Chuchu's MS gets sabotaged and she can't complete her training drill. No wonder she hates Spacians so much .

It gets even worse on Earth as it seems like Spacians are obtaining or using Earth labor and factories without even paying the workers of the Earthians a dime for them, leading to protests and near riots which are forcibly quelled by Mobile Suits and riot police. It's not a pretty sight, and I sense they're going to get worse .

I love how for a second Suletta seemed to take it seriously that she'd have to take orders from a goat .

Turns out Suletta needs your classic Gundam support team, which means she needs to join a house like in Fire Emblem, although when it seems like she has a shot with people in the Earth House, Chuchu violently screams her out. The irony being that despite Chuchu despising her for being a Spacian, Suletta's parents were from Earth .

So Chuchu is fighting for her family's factory back on Earth? Kind of in a way like Suletta is fighting for Mercury and to better improve life there by building a school on Mercury to bring more kids like her there. No wonder they end up coming together in the end .

Miorine staking her claim to Suletta when Elan coincidentally shows up once again! I love how she was slightly offended that he wasn't at all interested in her despite her hating the whole fiancé thing. Although Suletta thinks Elan is so nice and dependable, but I think his intentions towards Suletta are less than altruistic .

Man, Miorine is like a one-woman support team! She's definitely smart enough to understand the basics and other stuff in one read through and be the backbone of Suletta's efforts .

Miorine and Suletta in their PJ's! They looked cute and it was nice to see Suletta with her hair loose .

Miorine cooly retorting back against Chuchu's prejudice against Spacians, even though she too was raised on Earth for added irony .

Of course the bullies would target Suletta next...but despite constantly trying their best and retrying the test again and again and getting so close...they just keep failing. Poor Suletta can barely hold it together when she just wants a normal, happy, school life even though Miorine is doing all she can to get her through this. It finally lead Chuchu to realize enough is enough .

Okay, Chuchu is immediately Best Girl material with punching out the bully girls. I was admittedly not expecting an actual brawl between the girls to happen, or Suletta to get punched, but it made Chuchu's final punch so much more satisfying .

Suletta is now in Earth House and has found her people at school! Does this mean Miorine will hang out with them too or just keep doing her own thing? The Opening kind of implies the latter .

[kari-no-sugata II]

After an intense set of "opening" episodes, this felt more like a "breather" episode. While there was tension the stakes were quite a bit lower. Instead we got properly introduced to a range of characters, mostly focusing on those from Earth House.

While I enjoyed the episode overall and it's clearly setting up a lot for the future I was a bit disappointed how Suletta was shown here. While she's stammering less she felt a bit too incompetent in general. Didn't she prepare at all for this?

It was probably somewhat inevitable that Suletta ended up in Earth House, as they're both outcasts of a sort and nobody else wanted to take a risk on her. Going by the title of the next episode, will it be about trying to get Miorine to open up to the rest of Earth House?

Looking ahead to the rest of the cour, I wonder how much "real" action we're going to get? Duels are one thing but clearly tensions between Earth and Space are escalating. Does Lady Prospera want war or just revenge? What remains of Ochs Earth and who built Aerial? It wouldn't surprise me if she's secretly working with Earth based industries, supplying them technical details in return for material support. In which case, it's entirely possible that some Earth based industries will start secretly producing Gundams and start a war that she wasn't expecting or planning for. Maybe such a thing will break out towards the end of the cour, leaving it on a cliffhanger? Or maybe we'll have a small but real conflict that is resolved in an episode or two but has very real consequences as a prelude to war in the second cour?

If that's the route the series ends up going down then it seems likely that this would pit Suletta and Miorine plus "Earth House" against the rest of the students.

[Twi]

Episode reviewed on blog.

I get Chuchu almost 100%, minus whatever magic she's using on that hair to fit it in a helmet.

[Ragashingo]

Episode 4

I think this was a good early low point for Suletta. She's under a lot of pressure and has found herself in a school that is almost entirely hostile to her for one reason or another. She's both the center of attention and someone who is almost completely shunned because of the politics of it all. It's no surprise to me that she had a breakdown. I do wonder how far and wide her audio feed went... Chuchu heard it, right? And Miorine, of course. But what about the instructors? Dueling council? Benedict Group leaders? Her mom?

For a bit there, I thought Chuchu was going to hand her mobile suit off to Suletta... but that punch out was so unexpected and so satisfying! I do wonder if Chuchu was lying about fighting off a bunch of spacians earlier when she was talking to her family/supporters back home. Was that something that is just her daily life and happened off screen, or is she putting on a cheerful face for her people back home because as bad as she has it, they have it worse?

From here, I too want to see Suletta to be built back up. She now has a team. And I think she has talent. She just needs one or two things to go her way so she can get back on her feet. Just in time for the serious stuff to kick off, I'm thinking.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

While I enjoyed the episode overall and it's clearly setting up a lot for the future I was a bit disappointed how Suletta was shown here. While she's stammering less she felt a bit too incompetent in general. Didn't she prepare at all for this?

I don't think she came into this expecting to get bullied or forced to fight people.

I think she expected to learn what she needed to rep Mercury and realize her dream of being a teacher, and otherwise expected to have a normal school life.

Originally Posted by Ragashingo

Episode 4

I think this was a good early low point for Suletta. She's under a lot of pressure and has found herself in a school that is almost entirely hostile to her for one reason or another. She's both the center of attention and someone who is almost completely shunned because of the politics of it all. It's no surprise to me that she had a breakdown. I do wonder how far and wide her audio feed went... Chuchu heard it, right? And Miorine, of course. But what about the instructors? Dueling council? Benedict Group leaders? Her mom?

They panned to Chuchu in her cockpit when Suletta started crying, so I think she heard everything.

From here, I too want to see Suletta to be built back up. She now has a team. And I think she has talent. She just needs one or two things to go her way so she can get back on her feet. Just in time for the serious stuff to kick off, I'm thinking.

At least Miorine doesn't have to carry Suletta on her back .

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I don't think she came into this expecting to get bullied or forced to fight people.

I think she expected to learn what she needed to rep Mercury and realize her dream of being a teacher, and otherwise expected to have a normal school life.

Suletta seems to come from a harsh but innocent place where everyone helps everyone else. The Academy is rife with disgusting corporate cliques, pecking orders, and students who mostly come from pampered backgrounds where danger is an afterthought and happens to other people. The kind of sabotage the other two girls were doing would get people killed where Suletta is from, but it is a good lesson for Suletta to learn and check the equipment first.

Earth House seems to be the exception. It felt like they've all struggled to get here and earned their ride instead of being handed it, and they're still in a derelict warehouse/hanger that doubles as an agriculture stable.

Chuchu seems to be here after her home outfit scrambled together the funds and cobbled her together a refurbished mobile suit.

I still think Suletta's mom should have told her what to expect.

Mercury seems to have become the new reject Colony in the same category that Earth is. Miorine's line about how technological advances allowed the material Mercury was once a hub for can be refined as easily on the Moon.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I don't think she came into this expecting to get bullied or forced to fight people.

I think she expected to learn what she needed to rep Mercury and realize her dream of being a teacher, and otherwise expected to have a normal school life.

I was talking more about the pilot exam thing. Suletta didn't even know she needed support staff. I would have expected her to read up in advance about this sort of thing during her trip from Mercury to wherever they are now. She's not joining as a 1st year so she should have at least been up to speed with what 1st year students would know in terms of course material, else why even join as a 2nd year?

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Ragashingo

I do wonder how far and wide her audio feed went... Chuchu heard it, right? And Miorine, of course. But what about the instructors? Dueling council? Benedict Group leaders? Her mom?

I think it's limited to people who were involved in the make-up exam so pretty much everybody on site. The Dueling council is not involved in this make-up exam on principle (it's not a duel) so they shouldn't be interested aside from Shadiq & Elan who have personal motivations to check on Sule. From the Benerit side probably Shadiq's dad if he decides to report this "event" to him. Char-mama.......iunno, maybe.

[Twi]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

I was talking more about the pilot exam thing. Suletta didn't even know she needed support staff. I would have expected her to read up in advance about this sort of thing during her trip from Mercury to wherever they are now. She's not joining as a 1st year so she should have at least been up to speed with what 1st year students would know in terms of course material, else why even join as a 2nd year?

She mentioned reading all the forms on the way there. I think what happened was that she would have been informed ahead of time, but she got locked up when the class was covering it and so even when she was cleared no one informed her.

Even then, it's pretty clear that there's a major discrepancy in knowledge. Su's answers on her test have been translated as her giving pretty normal answers but failing because it wasn't what the school considers proper.

For example, when asked who makes MS and MCs for consumer use, she put Factory Workers. That's common sense. especially from her background and the protest, but look at this school.

[serenade_beta]

The human interactions, I do enjoy, but the robot part of this episode was so weird

It's fine to physically assault others, you can retry after failing a test as many times as you want but you can't perform maintenance on the robot any time in-between, and apparently despite being tricked once, none of the Earthlings are standing guard or checking their robots before the test
Especially the whole "You can retry the test as many times as you want" thing is so... off. How does that even work? Do they only have one person test each day?
Also, are these bullies different from the ones in the previous episode? We got some kind of weekly bully character thing going on?

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Also, are these bullies different from the ones in the previous episode? We got some kind of weekly bully character thing going on?

I thought they were the girls who demanded Nika and Chuchu vacate a cafeteria table and spit gum in Nika's food but looking back they're completely different!

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

apparently despite being tricked once, none of the Earthlings are standing guard or checking their robots before the test

The saboteurs only managed to prank the Earth house once. The second time, Earth house had no problem with their training MS. Suletta's did, and she's not from Earth house.

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Especially the whole "You can retry the test as many times as you want" thing is so... off. How does that even work? Do they only have one person test each day?

The only students who needed to have make-up exam this episode were just Suletta & Chuchu.

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Also, are these bullies different from the ones in the previous episode? We got some kind of weekly bully character thing going on?

If you're talking about Guel's hype-girls in episode 1-3 then no, those are not them in this episode. And yes, the school has serious problem of Earthian discrimination by Spacians.

[Kanon]

Suletta being able to try the exam over and over again definitely doesn't make sense. I've never heard of infinite make-up exams.

I was so focused on Miorine's feet I didn't even notice her room was full of literal garbage. She's living like a NEET.

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I was so focused on Miorine's feet I didn't even notice her room was full of literal garbage. She's living like a NEET.

Wouldn't be surprised if her dad told her to clean her room once and she decided to live like a hobo out of spite.

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I was so focused on Miorine's feet I didn't even notice her room was full of literal garbage. She's living like a NEET.

She's voiced by Lynn, so was Kirisu Mafuyu.

Prim and elegant public appearance always countered by living situation of squalor. The best trope.

[Twi]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Suletta being able to try the exam over and over again definitely doesn't make sense. I've never heard of infinite make-up exams.

I was so focused on Miorine's feet I didn't even notice her room was full of literal garbage. She's living like a NEET.

I mean, I don't think they want any of the rich kids to fail so maybe that's the reason. You only have to pass once.