Solanum Lycopersicum Callipyge
Like the lumbering skeleton-framed Gundam Barbatos, the series begins its purposeful lurch forward. You can tell by its lurch (despite the exciting, electric, “Raise Your Flag” opening), in the way the battle between the Barbatos and Gjallarhorn squad quickly concludes and focuses on world building. The more interesting thing about this is that there’s no narrator this time around (it’s kindof a thing in Gundam) to get us going about the world. Every little story element that is shown and told is done by any and all characters present, thus allowing us maximum engagement in the world and its characters. Like the mobile suit, the story is piecing itself together into a more cohesive, dynamic, whole.
It isn’t just the big things like Lieutenant Crank at odds with his superiors with regards to killing children, or even Orga’s continued machinations toward subverting the First Corps. It’s also the smaller things like the establishment of Biscuit having a duo of (kinda adorable) little sisters to Kudelia’s thoughts on the aftermath. On that regard, it ain’t just the small bit of flashback that shows us a little bit of how Martian society functions due to the Calamity Wars, but more interaction between her and Mika. I think this is the first time when a relationship between a Gundam pilot and a peace princess figure is actually legit frayed. For all of Kudelia’s eagerness to help Mars, Mika doesn’t give two damns about such, never mind her feelings of regret (no matter how sincere) about the attack being caused by her presence. Again the divide between her world and his world is made known, and the way Mika shoots down Kudelia’s sincere emotions contributes once more to the question jar of how that divide will be bridged. Both aren’t wrong, and it is not like their thoughts are of evil intent, so what will help close the gap?
It’s exciting I know. I’ve never seen this before. Usually when there’s a Gundam pilot and some Peace Princess of the same age in a room there’s usually a lot of potential romantic sparks flying, some supernatural connection between each other, and at worse them nekkid in the opening sequence. Here? It’s just awkward and tense. I really want to know what’s going to happen between them as time goes on. I feel for both of them.
Well, we’ll see next week when Lieutenant Crank looks to turn himself into the Grim Reaper early on in the series. Here’s to anticipating that Ein will eventually become a secondary rival/antagonist outside of the main Gjallarhorn fellas. May change, but… with the way things are going I won’t be at all surprised.
Iron-Blooded Notes:
- It’s nice to finally see a Gundam system that doesn’t rely on a complicated OS or a bio-sensor type deal where it gets into the mind of some special prodigy. Instead, it’s actual, gritty, manual link-up with the robot itself, with any and all tactical information being fed by wire into a pilot’s head. Intense. I like to think of it as Valvrave without the suck or Gasaraki without the information overload.
- The show really likes their cute girls narrating the next episode preview. I appreciate their presence; it lightens the mood a bit for the show and gives some welcome innocence.
- Cookie, Cracker, and Biscuit. Are there gonna be relatives named Saltine and Digestive later in the show?
- That ED is so melancholy and blues. It works perfectly given the tone of the show.
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