MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: 0079

Mobile Suit Gundam is obviously a very influential show, but until Witch from Mercury came out I had no experience with the franchise whatsoever. So I'm going to change that now, starting where it all began. Obviously I'm aware going in that this is about the horrors of war and child soldiers and such, and I know there's something called a newtype (which i think is gundam lingo for psychic?) but I know very little about the actual plot. I know of Char's existence but that's about it. Also, this is for sure the oldest anime I've ever seen

Episode 1: Gundam Rising

oh hell yeah the gundam 79 theme rules

• quick flash of some kind of wmd killing millions, if not billions of people
  sick synth-disco playing over the credits
  narrator: the principality of zeon is killing millions, slaughtering civilians in their homes and using weapons of mass destruction like none seen before. this war is now a stalemate, and something must come soon to break it before humanity wipes itself out
  cheesy title card music plays
• i knew gundam by reputation, but the very frank depiction of war still threw me off a little. it goes hard! you get children weeping over their parents dying bodies, but also the show sounds Like That and looks Like That
• why does char look like that? i assumed there would be other people who had masks or whatever, but it seems like it's just a thing he decided to do?
• this was clearly not made to be watched on anything other than a 16 inch crt tv, and it does not look too good blown up in 1080p. also, animation quality not great. clearly not expected to be much of a money maker. it's charming though, and it's far from the ugliest show i've ever seen.
• feel bad for mr. ray though. (did the show tell us his name? if so i've already forgotten) his goal in building gundam was so children wouldn't have to fight (though admittedly his logic there is a little shakey. just assuming that it'd win them the war and then there'd be peace forever?), and now he's dead at the hands of his own son who is now the single most important combatant in the war. i mean, i assume. maybe he's just a guy doing his own thing and the war is won or lost through events completely unrelated to him.

Episode 2: Destroy Gundam

gundam update: still good! it's crazy that the show that everyone loves that spawned a massive insanely profitable franchise is good, but i only report the facts.

• slightly disappointing this isn't about a new, stronger gundam called the destroy gundam
• also they very much do not destroy the gundam in this. char gives it a good go though!
• i like how clear it is that they're just incredibly short staffed. bright being the oldest person left alive who has any kind of military experience and everyone else being like 16 at the oldest is important in making this a kids show that can sell toys, but at the same time the show is clearly aware of what this actually means.
• speaking of, how about those people shooting at char? miracle he didn't get hit, even though they were all either 75 or 15.
• this episode does make me want to see more of him, and i'm sure i'll get my wish given he was like the one thing i knew about this show going in. is sayla his sister? probably, but i want to know the backstory there!
• finally, i like how char only loses because he's too cautious. if he'd stuck around he probably could have figured out how to break the gundam. but amuro managing to take out that other guy was enough to convince char he couldn't risk going against that gundam in that scenario.

Episode 3: Vote to Attack

can't believe gundam got away with showing a fucking wmd killing millions in the opening to every episode of it's kids show. i was shocked when korra showed a terrorist attack, and this is one-upping that 35 years early

• love to see these 4 year olds being forced to help hand out food because all the adults are dead or fighting. hope this stays on the shows mind throughout
• it rules that we've mastered space and have mechs to fight wars for us but we still use corded phones in 0079
• i love how every attack makes sure to show the human cost of war. showing people die in several of ryu's strafing runs wasn't necessary, but it's such a good indicator of the tone this is going for.
• it is extremely clear this was a toy commercial, but i'm still enjoying myself a lot. the guntank is goofy, but i love it.
• it probably says something that despite being kind of sexist so far (and i've heard it gets worse) this still treats its female characters better than some anime i can think of in the last few years
• i can't imagine it's actually important beyond being a big science term, but i hope the show actually explains minovsky particles beyond how they're brought up here
• overall i feel like with this episode we've moved a little into battle of the week. i mean, obviously it's coming right off the last episode, but the actual combat in this episode feels a little inconsequential (plot wise, i mentioned above the clear consequences for all those soldiers)
• like, char could have just gotten those supplies and white base could have gotten away off screen imo, though that wouldn't have been quite as good as this
• overall i'm still enjoying myself, and that's only a very slight criticism because the combat is still cool and characterful, and as long as it never feels unearned when a main character escapes a battle i won't be complaining

Episode 4: Escape From Luna II

glad to see both sides are unanimous in their anti-civilian stance

• them getting court-martialed for escaping with their lives and managing to fend off the red comet for 3 episodes is very funny to me. obviously this looks bad to an outsider!
• douchebag: they'll never attack us with the ship they have!
  char: a standard military tactician would think we'd never attack with our current ship, which is exactly why they'll never see it coming!
• still can't believe char looks like that. he even has a custom spacesuit so he has the horns even without the helmet! this man is so extra.
• the zoom in on the still image of the douchebag realizing he fucked up is very good. you don't get that without cel animation!
• the fact that their rooms are gender segregated is weird. i guess they were expected to sleep in there overnight until the trial?
• the little kid being the one to distract the guards was very cute
• overall not that much to say about this one. the douchebag gets convinced to help out and they scare off the zeon forces. kind of a standard episode really. hopefully things get shaken up some when they make it to earth

Episode 5: Re-Entry to Earth

glad to see the show isn't shying away from the whole "everybody's dead" thing

• lol. lmao. is amuro ever going to find out he killed his dad?
• this guy owns a plantation? feel like unless plantations are very different in the future, maybe he's not such a great guy
• char's plan is pretty cool. attacking during re-entry is a pretty metal fight scene, even if this show isn't quite able to do it justice
• i imagine every episode featuring the bad guys dying horribly, screaming for help because they're scared to die would have fucked me up had i watched this as a 7 year old
• this is very toyetic. it seems like every episode introduces a new weapon or vehicle. hopefully that's done a little more elegantly in future gundams, because that's definitely my biggest problem with the show right now.
• the zaku burning up in re-entry in what char hopes will be a valuable sacrifice but ends up being pointless is another thing that would have fucked me up as a kid
• also, char getting them to fight garma instead of ending up in a safe place is a pretty good way to avoid episodes lilke this feeling pointless. also, i was vaguely aware of garma from colin spacetwinks posts about him and char, but no idea how accurate those are

Episode 6: Garma Strikes

this opening narration is remarkably non-judgemental about who exactly is doing the war crimes, but they're showing it all being zeon forces

• oh char and garma are absolutely exes. i immediately see and am on board with what the yaoi fans are about in this show.
• why do they have a second mobile suit now?? where was that in all the fighting earlier??
• come on man, you can't yell at the kids for not being solemn enough, they live here now because their home was destroyed yesterday. and also they're like 5. don't be a dick
• and now the guntank is back. it's not a very useful mech, is it?
• there's that sexism i was expecting! "i can't ask a woman how to fight" bitch why not? that's her job!
• also char clearly planning something with garma. unclear what as of now.
• the combat in this isn't very visually impressive. it's charming at times
• and now we're really getting into the trauma! i see what people were talking about with shinji being inspired by amuro
• and also the show getting a lot more material for doujin authors with the shower scene

Episode 7: The Core Fighter's Escape!

this is a genuinely difficult moral quandry. you can't kick them out, but can you keep them?

• i like how they have to make amuro pilot all the vehicles because they won't be able to sell toys if the main character doesn't use them
• i like the zeon side of things a lot, more than the heroes side in some respects, since they're allowed to go full military scifi without needing to do the saturday morning cartoon stuff
• on the other hand they aren't having refugees riot and take hostages because they're sick of being on the front lines of this brutal war and want to see their homes before they die, so it's not like the federation is boring
• amuro blacking out from the g's is cool. you don't see that often. i feel like a lot of the time you see people straining from that and overcoming but my man is just conked out
• also this is the most danger he's ever been in. as long as he's staying awake the gundam is functionally invincible for now, but the core fighter isn't. if char hits him once he might be dead
• in general this show is super good at depicting the realities of war within the framework of the fight of the week saturday morning cartoon. it's a lot more fleshed out than the stuff i was watching when i was 7!
• they do have to bring out the gundam every episode though.
• as much as i've been praising the show for it's handling of this, i can not follow the physics of this at all.
• hey, old people? i get it. you want to get to earth. if they don't win this fight you are going to die. now is not the time, and it may never be time. and like, do you think you won't get shot if you walk home from here? what's the plan?
• anyways this wasn't a very good episode. seems pretty skippable tbh. though the fact that there's still some interesting stuff to say puts this leagues above whatever i was watching at the target age

Episode 8: Winds of War

MOEAGARE! MOEAGARE! MOEAGARE GUNDAMU!

• these backgrounds in the opening narration are real pretty
• haro is so cute :3 extremely good mascot design
• for a second i thought they were trying to avoid detection and was going to call bullshit on none of the zeon troops looking down, but no. it's a minovsky particle thing
• i mean kai is right. as of right now amuro IS the only one that matters, due to the demand for gundam to win all the fights.
• cool, if they want to leave let them. glad to see garma on board, though it seems char has some ulterior motives unknown even to him. also there are some very good faces in this episode
• kai's face in the explosion rules
• garma: punches his hand with a "yosh!"
  the clap sound: comes comes a full second later
• fraw bow waving at the zeon escort is so good. and the zeon guys waving back at the kid is great, i love them being humanized
• the lake is extremely :(
• lmao at it not having seatbelts for the faked emergency landing
• char is clearly not paranoid enough. (this is probably untrue. he seems very paranoid)
• i would simply have not walked so close to the edge
• i love fraw bow, and i feel i haven't been making that clear in these writeups.
• aww, the zeon troops going back to try and help the mom is what screws up tha plan, because amuro is also worried for them. that's kinda sweet
• he dropped supplies for them :3 and this compassion is what leads to the fight going wrong :(
• all that and we get kai piloting a new* suit? this episode has it all!
  *not technically new, i noticed it in episode 6, but it hasn't been used yet
• kai is not very good at piloting yet
• amuro throwing the shield was very good. i feel bad but i laughed at the guy who got crushed to death by it.
• tomino grabbing you by the shoulders and yelling "war is bad! do you get it? because i think you laughed at that man who just got crushed by a massive shield! that man had a family you know! a wife, and children! amuro just killed a man who was fleeing in terror! war makes monsters of us all!"
• that ending with the mother and those soldiers...
  

good episode. depressing, but a real standout so far imo. i think the first one where the heroes do any #warcrimes

Episode 9: Fly, Gundam

it rules seeing the show go from "every battle just leaves more widows and orphans like me and my son" and amuro nearly killing 2 men for the crime of trying to help a struggling mother to the standard heroic opening

• i like how sayla is responsible for everything in this ship. bet she's kind of sick of it though. "you can't sleep? sayla's a med school dropout, you should talk to her!"
• fraw bow fussing over amuro while amuro gets paranoid about the whole "amuro only pawn in game of life" thing is very sad
• them being told "just figure it out" as the plan of action from the federation higherups is interesting when you consider amuro doesn't really feel he's a part of either side
• kai fat shaming this cook while looking the smuggest anyone has ever been in history
• amuro saying more or less "i'd eat better, but i can't do that if i'm with other people who can't" is a good moment
• feel like i say this almost every episode, but i love that this show is addressing things like food scarcity in ways that feel like they impact the characters
• it's nice of them to be so understanding of amuro during wartime
• lmao garma's suit is the same color as his hair.
• bright: "we don't have time for philosophy! we're going to die"
  amuro, implicitly: "i would rather die than pilot the gundam"
  bright: slaps him for being depressed, more than once. "your dad should have been more abusive!"
• man, even fraw bow is getting in on it.
• me: i am fundementally opposed to the use of child soldiers in battle, and war more broadly. history is a record of their atrocities
  my therapist: that's fair
  me: but i do think fraw bow should get to pilot the gundam
  my therapist: who doesn't
• "just aim for the trojan horses engines" is a good strategy. i've been wondering, why do they call it the trojan horse?
• hey what the fuck did char just do? what was that cord?
• i will say, the physics in this show are super wonky. but whatever, it doesn't bug me too bad this episode, since at least it's trying to explain it
• so bright, since you're so impressed, are you going to apologize for hitting him?
• oh so he's just trying to get garma killed. garma had a decent plan going, he could have fucked the gundam up if char hadn't interfered.
• i guess amuro is a newtype? i think that's what she means by esper
• i was going to say i really liked how the show treated lt. matilda, but then it ruined it with the whole "scent of a woman" thing

the esper stuff sort of comes out of nowhere, but since i sort of knew about it going in it doesn't bug me too much. the show is already clearly super influenced by star wars, so i guess adding jedi isn't that much of a stretch. and that's og star wars, so not even jumping around or force pulling a lightsaber, if newtypes are just jedi than they can probably only sense things and maybe mind control, though i doubt that last one. probably wouldn't have much room to come up anyways.

Episode 10: Garma's Fate

well rip garma i guess

• seeing char in his stupid mask at the fancy rich person occupation party is so funny. especially when he's being a creep watching garma and icelina
• "i'll retrieve the gundam and return to the homeland with you by my side!"
  *looks at episode title*: uh oh garma!
• "we have civilians on board!"
  "hey man, i'm 15"
  
  wait hold on
  
• man mirai is better at parking the white base than i am with my shitty car
• "the only way to flush out a rat in a hole... is with a little carpet bombing"
  char. that isn't true. you're so fucking extra
• listen. icelina. i'm sure garma's nice, but i have a feeling it might be better to forget you ever met him. i don't like the look char was giving you
• holy shit dude! you can't just hit your kid like that!
• hmmm. why is char doing this? guess we'll find out!
• char's ears are so low on his head
• could a rocket damage the gundam? maybe. this fight is definitely a lot more tense than some others we've had because of that
• ahh. that's char's plan? makes sense i guess
• i feel kind of bad for garma, sins of the father aren't a great reason to kill someone, but he died shouting "glory to zeon" and wasn't exactly opposed to his dad (though i suppose that could have changed if char had told him whatever made him want to kill him) so he's not exactly an innocent party. plus he's an active combatant and all, so ¯\_("/)_/¯
• "my daughter, who i hate... your lover has died in battle"
  *icelina runs away to her crying tree, the tree she cries on*
• wow. zeon headquarters are incredibly evil looking. this is almost as much as the palazzo brachi in that one picture

Episode 11: Icelina's Love Remains

frankly the op very much does not fit a show willing to acknowledge the existence of death, much less one that kills recurring named characters in episode 10 of 43

• ok, so dozle is vice commander, kycillia and gihren also are officers?
• this legion of doom ass family mourning their fallen brother is funnier than it should be
• dude her boyfriend just died, stop being a fucking creep
• the slow zoom on the massive portrait is also much funnier than it should be
• these old people maybe shouldn't be required to climb a ladder to get in and out of their rooms, but i guess the white base was designed for soldiers
• i hope amuro kills icelina without ever knowing she was there. not because i have any ill will towards her, i just think that'd be a cool story beat
• dang, how heavy is the gundam! you'd think the trajectory of its jump would be thrown off by the anti-air cannon landing a direct hit, but not even a little bit!
• oh so now you care about being pushed back by the cannon
• oh right these all run on fusion reactors. no wonder they explode when destroyed
• char's such a shit. i love it
• dude it's been 11 episodes, you cannot still be forgetting to turn the safety off
• how do you people not all have seatbelts? bright at the very least was in a chair
• icelina's out for blood!
• why are you people like this? in the middle of the battle?
• char just shooting these elderly civilians like it's nothing. starting to see why char's such a famous asshole
• the action here is so much more harrowing than at any point before
• imagine if icelina just fucking domed amuro right there. i have no idea how things would go, but i bet they'd be interesting!
• "vengeance... on me???" yeah dude, you've killed probably a couple hundred people at this point. i'd bet there's at least a few dozen people trying to kill you right now
• char: gren, i need you to lie to our higherups that my zaku was broken
  gren: makes a perfect tails gets trolled face
• i guess in fairness it would be pretty surreal to have some random civilian pointing a gun at you and screaming about revenge only to immediately fall to her death. plus he hasn't seen many (any?) people die outside of military equipment yet. i'd probably start feeling worse about this whole thing too

Episode 12: The Threat of Zeon

i feel good about my survival this episode. the characters slightly less so

• o shit, new narration?
• ok, so gihren's in charge
• after the genuinely kind of touching scene with the video the funeral is the clearest look we've gotten of zeon as dictatorship.
• this dude seems like he'll be a problem for a while, but maybe he'll be gone by next episode. could be either really. but probably the first, since he was ordered to avenge garma.
• amuro is clearly not doing well. maybe a new guy who isn't char attacking will weird him out so much that he'll snap out of it
• you not have a chair in there man?
• come on bright, the kids are helping with the cleaning!
• on the one hand i want to see more funeral, but on the other not much interesting happened from what we saw here
• lmao at them not knowing what lightning is. "maybe it's a new zeon weapon!"
• oh wow, zeon doesn't know what's up either! that's really cool, you'd think they'd be briefed but no
• amuro just in full on ptsd flashback mode. also, stop slapping him! he's having it hard enough as is!
• so his names ramba ral? i think i've heard of him. he also has a custom mobile suit, so he's gotta be important
• man, amuro is doing extremely poorly
• bright, what do you think happens if you launch the gundam without a functional pilot
• i don't think amuro's gotten this badly beaten since his second meeting with char. no zaku indeed!
• this speech is super interesting, but i'm too tired to make sense of it rn. maybe i'll come back tomorrow
• i recognize this guy! didn't know he showed up this early! mr bajeena sipping his victory drink and snarking at the broadcast while dressed up and wearing his fancy sunglasses is extremely good
• the ending makes it very obvious zeon sucks. i'm sure no one irl has ever wanted to support them!

Episode 13: Coming Home

oh boy, are we going to get to see amuro's mom on earth? he should have to explain what happened to his dad to her.

• i really like all the background work in this series. even if not all of the animation looks good, the backgrounds do
• the white base has been parked so long on this vacation island that it's growing moss? did i miss an episode? or ten?
• hooting and hollering at the non-horny beach scene with mirai and sayla tanning. they're just there! and kai isn't doing anything, just chatting! truly the 70s were a different time
• mirai, i'm not saying you're wrong about the "not everyone on earth is an elite" but you're definitely the wrong person for this message to come from. (look at me remembering throwaway lines from the first episode)
• amuro's mom having a jazz party?
• oh, it's a bunch of soldiers (in fragrant violation of the 4th amendment!) in this abandoned house. these drunk soldiers are listening to jazz for their party? weird choice
• the flashback with baby amuro :(
• these soldiers are pricks. i'm not sure what amuro is hoping for here. he's not even part of the military in any official capacity, unless that happened off screen, so his only real option once they didn't listen was violence. props to him for going for it though!
• "war is really terrible"
• he's so excited to go see his mom. man... he's 15 and he's doing all this?
• oh goddammit, i forgot we weren't going to go an episode without a fight. go away zeon! i want to see interpersonal drama tonight, not explosions!
• the war coming to even the places where he felt safe, interrupting his long awaited reunion with his mother
• this bit in the church is really good. amuro having to kill in front of his mom? chef's kiss
• "it's not right to point guns at people!" true, but maybe amuro isn't the one to yell at here given the circumstances. like, zeon was going to kill him, and also maybe everyone else in the church for hiding him.
• "i don't remember bringing you up like this! go back to the way you were!" it looks like you haven't seen him in at least 5 years, i don't know that you really have a leg to stand on here. didn't exactly do much raising
• also, this was amuro's first time shooting anyone outside a mobile suit or something. he's not handling it great either if that makes you feel better mrs ray. i assume you're a mrs ray, i guess i don't really know
• man amuro seems basically suicidal after that talk with his mother
• the goofy tranformation and the obligatory gundam fight sort of ruin the mood of the episode, i'll be honest
• bright yelling about ammunition sort of brings it back, as does the fact that it's clear amuro is just stomping on these guys to vent/protect his mom, but you guys are in federation territory! i thought you'd be good for supplies now!
• bright clearly trying to apologize a little for being such an asshole to amuro by hyping him up for his mom but saying all the wrong things

COMPILATION MOVIE I

i decided i wanted to watch the whole series, but i also want to watch the compilation movies since they're important to the history of the franchise as well and apparently look much better than the show did. it'll be interesting to see what the differences are, but i don't think i'll be taking too many notes. this'll be a much broader summary than the episode by episode stuff. (this is written a few episodes after 13, but the movie ends there so it's being placed here)

• i'll be honest, i don't remember what of this was added
• i do recognize the guncannon and guntank here
• man, i don't remember the first episode well at all. oh well
• oh man you see the orphans here, presumably pre-orphaning :(
• the first episode feels like it was lifted pretty much one to one
• i forgot that the captain got injured protecting ryu (unintentionally, but still)
• ok, so what happened to the people on the bridge? the bridge is intact, and there were like 20 guys there 10 minutes ago. everyone else i get, but there's no way everyone there left, someone must have been manning it, right?
• i forgot this was dozle who was giving char orders
• well i'm pretty sure char kicking sayla wasn't reanimated, since he still teleports 20 feet after taking the mask off to do so
• good on hayato and kai for improving so much at shooting.
• episode 2 also remains mostly intact, which makes sense. not much room to cut things there, given what i presume about char's overall importance
• episode 3 (the resupplying) basically entirely skipped
• it's weird that the old people all wanted to go back to side 7 and were complaining about earth, and then as soon as they land on earth they're running out into open firefights like fire emblem npcs (there's definitely a better example i could list, but i am very tired
• episode 4 also mostly skipped, though they kept a little more of their time on that base.
• so 4 episodes in roughly 2 episodes time
• this explanation of the core fighter and the guncannon/guntank definitely is new for the movie. i think hayato training was also added, though that's not something i'd necessarily remember
• i think the pilots getting suited up was added
• it's cutting a lot of the reentry fight, but the core is still here
• the entry here is a lot less silly
• we seem to have mostly skipped through to episode 9
• every once in a while there's a shot i'm 100% certain is new, because they never once spent more than the bare minimum animating the guntank in the show
• this fight is the first one where i'm really noticing new animation
• noticing that it is in fact pronounced 'sha', not 'char'. will not be changing how i say it
• this char fight is new, in the equivalent episode he was just sabotaging garma's equipment
• wait, was that the freefall fight? maybe it wasn't new
• someone really needed to stop matilda and ask what the fuck she meant when she called amuro an esper.
• oh and the shower scene comes here? ok, things are being shuffled around more. think they work better in the show though
• so this fight was more of a compilation of the fights in 6, 7, and 9, skipping 8.
• the episode 10 stuff seems mostly unchanged
• i'm pretty sure the newtype discussion didn't happen in the show. the broader discussion did, but they didn't mention newtypes
• they were probably told "you get 3 movies" and had to make it work as best they could, but i really wish they didn't introduce ramba ral at the end here
• the gouf blocking the beamsaber at the hilt is still a great moment
• it ending with the sieg zeon at least makes it feel like it has an ending

basically it's a compilation movie. they did what they could, but it still misses out a lot of the best parts of the show and kind of ruins some of the others because it feels rushed. it doesn't even look that much better than the show, so i'm not sure why that was such a big thing when pitching it as a good entry point. if you aren't willing to sit through 40+ episodes of a show, then this'll work, but i'm glad i'm going with the show

Episode 14: Time, Be Still

don't know what to make of this title. i assume we won't be meeting any passing brandos

• i like the episode starting off with the zeon pov, and i want to see how this plan fails
• matilda stops by to tell white base "yeah keep fucking around i guess. we don't have anything better for you to do." and bright points out that they're being used as guinea pigs
• though i guess he'll admit it's better than execution
• is amuro being creepy about matilda? oh he is, and it's pissing fraw bow off
• dude stop being weird. she's literally just a random woman you met once.
• it's neat seeing the zeon side of this sort of attack. so far that's been the purview of our heroes. but those weird troop carriers seem like a bad idea
• amuro volunteering to get in the gundam confuses bright, as well it should
• oh they're planting plastic explosives?
• this is the most kids show episode in a while.
• i like how the zeon troops are sort of rooting for him by the end
• that's a really pretty explosion
• and a bunch of local guys come by to check out the explosion and the mobile suit and tell amuro they're rooting for him
• wait, they're the zeon troops? that's fun

Episode 15: Cucuruz Doan's Island

ok, gonna watch this one. i've heard some things, but i might as well. no real point in skipping.

• last episode was pretty kids show standard, but a lot of fun. let's see how this stacks up
• good to see them practicing the transformation, but it's still too goofy for my taste. i could see a different presentation making it work better for me, but as is it just feels way too toy commercial.
• why is fraw bow manning that? does she normally do that? i don't think she does
• yeah, i can already tell why they're embarassed about this episode.
• agreed ryu, that does look weird
• oh good, the little kids are throwing rocks at him
• this guy is really good at throwing rocks. i didn't get the impression zaku's were really capable of that kind of precision
• good thing the core fighter floats?
• so why did they tie up and kill those other 2 guys but help amuro out and put him in a bed. just cause he's clearly a child soldier?
• "saved" is one way of putting it. not saying doan shouldn't have defended himself or anything, just that he is very much the one who injured amuro
• unclear what amuro thinks is going on here. more likely he isn't and he's just unable to think of anyone in a zaku as a person because of what that means for what he's done. or possibly this is just a poorly written episode
• yeah amuro, that's the first slap i'll say you completely deserved
• he hid your core fighter because you tried to kill him with it. he then told you that was why he hid it. and now you're asking "why'd he hide it???"
• zeon forces show up and immediately shoot at the children
• ok i'm willing to forgive a lot for "mobile suit martial arts"
• this still isn't a very good episode but i'll cut it some slack
• i have no clue how throwing the zaku in the ocean is supposed to stop zeon from coming after them. have they been tracking it? will they know it's no longer there, or will they just show up and slaughter everyone because doan can't defend himself anymore? impossible to say.

totally get why they don't want people watching this. not a very good episode!

Episode 16: Sayla's Agony

excited to learn more about sayla!

• whoever they're there to meet is a no show?
• the show keeps emphasizing amuro not sleeping, is that going to be important at some point, or is it just a character detail?
• having what looks like the worlds most charred hamburger for breakfast. there's a joke to be made here about char but i can't think of it
• oh wow, you need a mask to be safe here? what happened? is this just what the colony drop did to parts of the world?
• so they need to get to odessa in 5 days? i'm sure that'd be a challenge no matter what since they're in zeon territory, but geez, that's a trip to make!
• needing to make a detour to get salt for food is a fun wrinkle
• ramba ral knows where they are? how?
• the way everyone talks about m'quve seems to be hyping them up a fair bit. we'll see
• so he has mines and is constantly flicking an antique vase? seems like an asshole. why would mines work on the white base?
  wait, i'm a dumbass. he has mines, like for ore. he meant they were avoiding the area his forces were, not the mines he'd planted
• oh wow, the lake is just gone? that sucks
• that doesn't seem right, but i don't know enough about lakes to disprove it
• now sayla, what are you up to?
• use the targeting computer sayla! it's how amuro does it, and he might actually be psychic! or not, it's really unclear what she meant by that
• amuro piloting the guncannon is much more elegant than when he did the ace fighter or guntank, as long as sayla has a good reason for doing this
• oh shit he broke the gundam!
• i do like that this shows that amuro is legit talented, since he was doing much better against random zakus in the first few episodes than sayla is. i mean, those guys probably weren't as good and weren't expecting to fight a mobile suit, but still
• this episode made these guys feel like actual characters before killing them off, more than the standard "show them screaming as they die in agony" does
• "we can't deploy an experimental weapon, are you crazy??"
• amuro dragging that zaku is brutal. and now they have a war criminal. is this going to be remembered? i sure hope so!
• sadly she failed to prove women could fight, and so they didn't let it happen again until 2022 (this is a joke, i'm sure there've been female mobile suit pilots in the 40 years between 0079 and witch from mercury)
• oh, she wanted to learn about char? makes sense. and the guy just telling her since it's such a random question was nice
• was this to confirm he was her brother, or to confirm he was alright? i think the later because it didn't have any identifying details i could see.
• even if he wasn't so famous, it'd still have been obvious he'd be back before this episode, but this would have clinched it.
• and they got their salt! good episode

Episode 17: Amuro Deserts

wonder what the final straw is for amuro this episode

• the transformation from core fighter to gundam is silly, but them doing training exercises makes up for a lot
• also the op into actual content, then narration is nice
• interesting that the word translated to "deserts" is "dassou". weird linguistic convergence there
• amuro is gaming! on paper and pen with a 70s computer doing green and black results. really cool stuff!
• the interrogation room is very funny to me.
• oh you just see a tit in this episode? wild what you can get away with on japanese tv. not even done in a gross way, just stood out to me
• also if this was made today the kikka thing would be so much grosser. honestly, even if it was done the same way i'd still be worried about the show
• did that serve any purpose beyond it being kind of funny to see amuro all flustered?? we'll see!
• hamon and ramba ral look sick with those coats
• he looks way older than her, but apparently he's only 35???? anime ages are wild. i buy her being ~35 i guess
• sayla coming in clutch in this escape attempt! also he's right, they are amateurs
• why is amuro in the guntank? a lot of things are going wrong rn
• that's super important info that got leaked! char knew, but he might have been the only one to survive, and i'm not sure he really cared
• sayla doesn't have a great track record with pointing guns at people
• "mr bright doesn't really understand tactics yet." you are 15!!!!
  "fighting everything with the gundam isn't always best" ah well i know you have no way of knowing this but the show is mobile suit *gundam* not guntank!
• if i were amuro i would never get in the guntank. strictly inferior. unless the gundam is still being repaired
• lmao at the little loony tunes eye gag when he trips on haro
• amuro tactics fail
• i don't think you should bazooka the airlock room door! that's important if you go back to space!
• rip that guy. good on him for not taking the kids hostage though
• sayla ice cold!
• i think they ripped this music for evangelion! (17:20)
• they're really selling ramba ral as a threat here
• amuro's really going through it, huh
• brights right, but idk if that's going to convince amuro
• him overhearing that conversation is convenient, but whatever
• jesus bright! spare a moment to remember the person!
• i thought the title would be about amuro leaving and coming back at the end, like that one episode of eva, but he's leaving at the end. wonder what comes next to make him come back?

Episode 18: Zeon's Secret Mine

i feel like there's a simpsons bit describing the feeling of the contrast between the op and the content of the episodes, but i can't think of it. vaguely similar to krusty talking about the falklands war but i feel like there was a better one. is there an itchy and scratchy bit where it's shown to be a serious drama or something?

• oh, the docking stock footage is just standard intro stuff now?
• i like kycilia's style, but it's still very silly that it seems like only her and char dress like that.
• aww, he tucked the gundam in
• this show has lots of great bits of people hiding behind walls with pistols drawn. hoping for more going forwards!
• are deserters executed? seems a bit harsh, but i imagine it depends on the circumstances. and in any case amuro was never officially military (unless that changed and i just forgot it), so they could definitely let him come back if bright decided
• the weird mirai block appearing in fraw bows mind???? people just tried shit on tv in the 70s
• amuro pointing the gun at fraw bow? that was a little painful, ngl
• i would not extrapolate the shit kai says to be indicative of what he thinks, much less the rest of the crew. but also i am not 15, and i am not a child soldier, and i was never the type to run away from home
• dude you aren't managing stealth in that thing
• amuro! pull the trigger! kill them! make zeon take another day of mourning!
• fraw bow got moves! sick jump!
• i'd say that didn't work well for you last time, but i guess the last time you tried this would be in the episode with your mom. last episode was a totally different beast, and you weren't in the gundam when things went bad
• the transition into eyecatch was slightly jarring there
• fraw bow, why were you stopped????
• i like the heroic music kicking in when amuro gets the gun shot from his hand
• the adzam is fun, but it's no big zam
• now i'm no physicist, but i feel that you should be knocked backwards by cannonfire while in midair
• how does the gundam grip here? they both seem very smooth. magnets maybe?
• well he destroyed the base. it was by showing up and not dying, but the base is gone
• i was gonna say "amuro, destroying a base is still cool even if it wasn't the big one, it was pretty clearly an important one given the appearance of a new vehicle" but then we cut to the dying soldier looking at a picture of his family
• and then he warns amuro to not get too soft??? good shit
• hope we get a zeon defector joining the crew soon
• guys, you don't need to shit on amuro this much. even if none of you know it this was apparently a big deal

Episode 19: Ramba Ral's Attack

excited to see ramba ral face the gundam on a potentially even playing field

• i love the ripple effect, i wonder how they did that. squishing the cel some maybe?
• amuro as the lone wanderer is a cool image. what'd he do with the gundam?
• oh god he saw a sexy lady. we'll never hear the end of this
• does he know who ramba ral is? i feel like they must have gotten at least that much out of the guy they interrogated
• hamon bought him food? oh no, he's going to be stuck on this til the finale
• i feel like i'm missing some cultural context. why's it ok when ramba ral is also offering?
• did ramba ral just grab amuro's dick? oh, it was just the fact that he was pulling out his gun
• amuro looks like a hobbit
• pretty tense stuff. I forgot to take notes!
• the guntank still sucks though
• ryu's a good egg
• the white base absolutely did not have seatbelts before this episode
• kai falling to the ground and managing to trip up ramba ral is so good
• beamsaber duel! this bit is so fucking sick
• them being able to see each other after the fight rules, as does amuro calling ramba ral a sore loser
• i mean, they're totally right, but that's got to hurt

Episode 20: Hand To Hand Combat

excited to see what that title means. we going to get another cool fight?

• who the hell are marker and oscar?
• i saw someone say sayla and mirai had vibes, and i can see it
• dude! people need to stop slapping amuro, it's never helpful! and also what was that even for, he was right!
• new mobile suit alert! wonder if the dom looks noticeably different from a zaku, or if it's just going to be orange
• thank you narrator-san
• howard and maximillian? is this the episode where you make up a bunch of guys and say they're important before killing them?
• take mirai with you, jackass!
• rip ramba ral i guess. after saying something like that, no way he makes it out ok
• i love the base ship designs in this.
• ryu, stop hitting people! not cool!
• wait, so are they leaving?
• this show can be really good at building tension
• go sayla!
• that jump was cool, but it's another thing where the show can't quite stick the landing
• sayla is stone cold
• boarding is fun, and it really shows how far amuro has come that he can just shoot down men who aren't hidden at all without hesitating
• ok so oscar and marker did just die, so i guess my prediction was right
• this is very tantive iv
• i like that the zeon forces are confused and a little off put by the child soldier thing
• sayla's a princess????
• rip ramba ral, though i'm not sure what he was doing there. just making sure he wasn't taken alive?
• "HAMON! RAMBA RAL IS DEAD!" yeah dude, i think maybe she's not happy about that!
• wait, is ryu dead?

Episode 21: Sorrow and Hate

KIDOU SENSHIIII GANDAMU

• hamon - icelina 2.0?
• haro, you didn't need to be so rude to ryu, he got shot
• i hope not every boss has someone trying to avenge them next episode. i wouldn't buy it for the other villains we've seen so far
• this is the same drama that we've been having. it hasn't overstayed its welcome, i just don't have anything new to say
• i like hamon's suit here
• vaguely psychedelic music playing over amuro's wet dream is not what i was expecting this episode
• ryu's doing his best here, i hope people listen to him. he's clearly in a lot of pain!
• amuro, he just collapsed at your door, he's very clearly not all right
• i like hamon with the late stage gurren lagann sunglasses on her forehead
• dude, how'd you miss! it's sitting still, and it's massive!
• i know ryu and amuro are out of commission, but job john is not a real person
• goddamn the guntank is useless as sin
• hamon's helmet is definitely less spiky than it was last time we saw her
• go kai! way to grow and change as a person!
• ryu you got shot in the torso, you need to lay down!
• the transformation is still too goofy for me
• i like how zeon's clearly developing new weapons. maybe the feds are as well, but white base sure doesn't have any! the axe in this episode was different to the others iirc, and ramba ral didn't have a beamsaber til the episode where his gouf was destroyed
• rip ryu
• oh shit, brights crying?
• everyone remembering his heroism at the end ;_;
• it's a sad scene, but i cannot take job john seriously. you didn't exist before this episode!
• amuro finally committed to the cause

Episode 22: The Trap of M'Quve

KIDOU SENSHIIII GANDAMU

• i like the new intro narration, though it feels a bit weird to not actually recap what just happened. the visualization of the sides was cool
• amuro fighting a new gouf. glad to see that wasn't a ramba ral exclusive, and zeon is in fact making more of them
• oh, bright's not doing too hot
• how many rocket launchers do they have, it feels like they've gone through a lot
• same with the shield. is it just really easy to repair? also i like that even against random grunts amuro has to work a lot harder now than he did against zakus
• oh, bright's really not doing well
• i don't want to sell you short m'quve, but you did not have 10 episodes of build up as a cool warrior like ramba ral. i fear you're not long for this world
• this show has a remarkable amount of nudity considering how unhorny it's been. not that this conversation isn't weird and offputting, but you know
• this whole thing with bright has weird vibes. or maybe i just didn't get enough sleep last night (not weird as in bad, it just feels slightly undercooked)
• no metal allowed for these zeon guys
• i guess the white base has some sort of metal detector running? how does that interact with all the minovsky particles?
• anyways, they snuck on to the base remarkably easily
• so this was just sabotage, huh?
• oh, that's clever! the minovsky particles are out now. their radar works
• mirai accidentally saying ryu's name is a real bummer
• yeah the core fighter seems like a bad idea. though i only say that because there's only one episode so far without a gundam fight in it, and i don't think this episode is going to be the second
• they're holding on though!
• is bright delirious?
• "why can't kai do this?"
  "sorry hayato, the animators weren't feeling smug enough to draw him for more than a frame today"
• amuro always says the transfer is about to fail and then does it with no problem
• so do they just have an infinite supply of shields? because it broke earlier this episode
• these goufs are going down a lot easier than ramba ral's, but i guess ramba ral was a better pilot. it's still nice to see amuro struggling against randos again, it's been like 20 episodes.
• me: how do you expect hayato to cover you, he just said he was out of ammo
  hayato: [just throws a big rock]
• the zeon guy just climbing out of his gouf when amuro bludgeons the cockpit open was a good bit
• to be fair to mirai, her job is just to fly the thing
• OH SHIT
• JUST SHOT RIGHT THROUGH THE BASE
• this track was definitely in eva
• i would be doing about as well as mirai at this point tbh
• i think you gotta stop worrying about odessa day, that can't be your biggest concern here

this was the point where i did in fact order my first gunpla

Episode 23: Matilda's Rescue

hope matilda's alright, she seems cool

• kai's making paper airplanes lmao
• general revil has not been the most helpful in the past, so we'll see
• oh he says "here's the abc's of my command" in the original japanese, that's a fun loanword/phrase
• the gundam is getting a powerup?
• wait, elran is a spy? seems not great for this operation!
• the goufs aren't quite zakus, but they aren't much better at this point
• yeah you don't have much to go on here! hopefully matilda does in fact know more
• speaking of, what's the implication behind sayla calling her "matilda-san"? do they know each other?
• there aren't many people who knew about this? well you should probably make a list of everybody involved and figure it out than!
• amuro also calls her matilda-san. i doubt sayla's supposed to have a crush, but who knows
• why is the gundam the one mobile suit you aren't sending? it's the best one! send amuro in a core fighter and someone who can pilot the gunperry there, and keep the guncannon and guntank at the base!
• dang dude, i don't know if you needed that many missiles
• poor bright. mirai does really just need more self confidence, in the past she's been mostly right when asked what to do. but this is a stressful situation
• i will never be a big fan of the transformation, at least as it's portrayed in this show, but if used well it can work fine.
• they got the g-fighter at least
• "the enemy doesn't have much strength"
  cut to the gundam tied up and being electrocuted
• is the gouf's engine in its leg? because amuro just cut the leg off and this guys talking about engines and then exploded
• new toy alert! i like it. it's neat, though i'm not sure what happened to the gundam being unable to move freely.
• also, unsure if it was really necessary, since the gundam could already more or less fly, though i guess it was important in this fight
• glad mirai seems to have gotten her groove back
• god i'm glad this show has kai

Episode 24: Black Tri-Star

i wanna see char's gouf custom

• this episode has a fairly lengthy recap, which mostly is just reminding me that the beam saber is a really good weapon, just 5 degrees to the left of a lightsaber. works really well
• kycilia wants more resources, but the military is worried about their authority. you live under a dictatorship! you should probably just go along with what she says!
• oh hey char's coming back! been like 11 or 12 episodes since we've seen him, so it'll be good to have him back
• also, i like that kycilia has the mask covering the parts of her face that char's mask doesn't.
• so kycilia's in charge of the moon, and is sending some new guys to help m'quve. thank you narrator!
• also, it's crazy how wide in scale this war manages to feel even though we haven't seen any battles that involved more than the white base and one or two small allies on the federation side
• so there's the g-fighter, and then also powerup parts?
• amuro, if you promise to fix something you gotta follow through! though fraw bow shouldn't kick haro, so i guess it breaks even
• everyone getting their picture taken with matilda is a decent bit, though it's kai's whining that really makes it
• ok shenanigans are OVER it is time for WAR
• oh, the black tri-stars have new mobile suits. and they captured revil?
• if i were these guys i would not be nearly this casual about discussing the spy stuff they're doing
• amuro now finding actual common ground with matilda, after like 15 episodes of having this crush. i do like the emphasis on creation though
• the black tri-stars seem a bit generic, but maybe i'll change my mind after they so stuff
• i like the sense of progression in the zeon mobile suits. they all feel like they share a design philosophy, and possibly parts. do standard federation forces have mobile suits yet?
• gonna be pissed if the kids die
• sayla's piloting the g-fighter? wondering what the g-armor is now
• i really like the new zeon mobile suits. pretty cool, feels even more "real robot" than what we've had so far in this show
• the g-armor feels like a really blsatant demand for more toys, but oh well
• the fight works, and i do like the black tri-star guy being put on the back foot because the trojan horse pulled out another crazy new weapon
• too late? what do you mean by too late?
• kai, you may be useless but at least you aren't piloting the guntank. also you aren't useless
• jet stream attack? unclear what exactly the deal is here, i guess three mobile suits working together in unison is enough to be its own attack?
• not sure this music is really appropriate for scoring the scene in which matilda was just killed!
• at least amuro got one of them. black tri-stars, more like black di-stars? has anyone else made that joke?
• spy guy should probably get a better poker face
• rip matilda. i like the sad string+guitar+trumpet cover of the opening

this shows body count is really something! even the kids shows we have in the west that get people saying "how is this a kids show!" don't come close to this. not to put them down or anything, i really love a lot of them, but wow. i knew gundam was known for killing lots of characters, but i sort of assumed that was after they'd secured their status as moneymakers and could just do what they wanted as long as they introduced enough new mechs

Episode 25: The Battle of Odessa

excited to see this shows take on actual battles that overshadow the white base in scope!

• amuro is very high strung before the battle, and it's pissing the engineers off.
• now he's sadly flashing back to the times he spent with matilda last episode. i liked matilda, but this does feel a little like them just needing to reuse some animation to fill time
• the music getting cut off when sayla says his name made me laugh
• come on, answer fraw bow when she asks if you're ok, don't be rude!
• the black di-stars mourning their lost member is a fairly nice scene. as always, this show is really good at humanizing the enemy, with the only exception being m'quve so far. he's just kind of generic
• i love them sliding around. very code geass
• did they not know when they were attacking? i thought that had already been decided and shared
• have faith in fraw bow! you're 5, you don't get to be worried about that sort of thing
• oh shit, they're going to find the spy
• amuro no! the corruption goes all the way to the top!
• oh he convinced the grunts beforehand that this might be worth listening in on? that was smart
• hopefully things go well on that front
• kai's doing surprisingly well, and this whole battle is surprisingly well animated
• aww, the orphans are helping fraw bow out :3
• kai's out of the fight now, so it's amuro vs the black di-stars, with hayato in the core fighter
• so since elran got got, that screwed m'quve? good, i hope this is the last we see of him
• you're gonna nuke everything????
• "yeah, it's a warcrime. but have you considered i would like to win the battle?" is interesting logic, but i'm not sure that'll hold up in a military tribunal
• revil's stone cold, huh. not even hesitating?
• i was expecting these guys to last a while, but amuro is really cutting through the ranks of the black di-stars (now just the black star singular)
• hydrogen bomb as a uniquely taboo weapon feels weird in a world where zeon dropped a colony on australia
• dude that's so fucking risky! i mean, no better option i guess, but if i were amuro i might just hunker down and hope the gundam will stop me from getting radiation poisoning if i'm not at ground zero
• why do you think the data pre-treaty is still accurate? they still have the weapons, why would the not be making more in secret?
• the poor gundam shield. gets destroyed every episode these days
• "the federation has ignored my demand that they let me win or i'll start committing war crimes, so now i must commit war crimes! this is their fault!"
• more like black no-stars i guess
• that nuclear bomb is still on fire, and just exploded on a mountain. that seems like it's still a major issue!
• though i guess the dom exploding is a bigger explosion? dunno what's up with that. maybe i just don't understand how nukes work. and i'm fine with that
• oh god damnit. i knew this battle wasn't the end of the war, but i was hoping it would be the end of m'quve!
• i was going to ask why amuro was the one shaking hands with revil, but he did just save them all from a nuclear missile, so i guess that makes sense

Episode 26: Char Returns

saw the title of this episode and now all i can think about is how hyped i am to see my rotten soldier, my sweet cheese, my good-time boy again

• unreal to me how unfitting this opening is lmao. something like a cruel angels thesis is a banging pop song, but it's got a melancholy to it, and the visuals are way less straightforward
• oh good it's this stock footage again. i was hoping we were done with it after the g-fighter was introduced
• it's good to see the actual justification for why it does that though (the core fighter is an escape pod that you can get out of the gundam in easily, but it takes longer to get back together) but i feel like 26 episodes in is a bit late for that!
• oh? a new person? and she's a zeon spy?
• this balloon transfer system seems risky. gotta be a better way
• it's a char! i guess all the people he was demoted to being under have gotten killed by now
• how does radio interference make the picture like that?
• this is kind of a coincidence, but it should lead to some cool stuff happening so whatever
• someone needs to tell this kid to cut it out with the roman salutes
• i don't think the orphans need to be in this meeting, but i guess fraw bow should be there and they don't exactly have a lot of childcare options, what with most of humanity being dead
• fraw bow, you could have left. it's too late to leave now! (except, i assume, for the 4 year olds. i feel like they'd make an exception there)
• yeah you're all soldiers now. the last offramp was probably in like episode 11, but you could have still made it out if you convinced bright before now
• "ratings are low, so we're going to have zeon throw a bunch of new mobile suits and mobile armors at you to try and drive toy sales to keep from cancellation"
• the goggs are kind of goofy looking (not to be confused with goufy looking, though there is a little bit of that)
• kai sees a spy and immediately starts flirting, since he has the worst instincts known to mankind
• it might be cruel to separate them; it would also be the right thing to do. you can't have 6 year olds around for this kind of thing!
• that's either a sturdy mobile suit or a crappy mine
• the gundam is good to go, but the others aren't since their names aren't in the shows title
• the gogg emerging from the sea is very kaiju
• oh good he's using the gundam hammer (which still isn't a hammer). my interest in this fight has just dropped dramatically
• oh no! he caught the gundam hammer! this is unprecedented! what a way to introduce this mobile suit as a threat!
  more seriously, a zaku could probably have caught that with a skilled pilot
• unclear what this is about. bad fight.
• these things have stronger armor, to the point where the beam saber requires a lot of work to cut through
• episode has lots of good setup and then a not so good fight. so it goes

Episode 27: A Spy on Board

guess spy girl from last time is gonna manage to sneak onboard?

• amuro explaining all the stuff about the g-fighter is neat, but i do not care about any of this
• had to go back and rewatch to try and see what kai was frustrated about
• lmao at amuro stopping to let the stock footage play. the animators need breaks wherever they can get them!
• so kai's not happy about being essentially conscripted into the army just because his home was destroyed? fair enough i suppose
• wait is he the spy? that'd be a bummer
• good to see the general seems to be on board with letting the kids go, but clearly that isn't going to happen
• looks like he just wants to leave. hope he doesn't go to jail!
• what happened to revil arresting anyone who left? i thought he was gonna have to sneak out
• oh well, glad people are being cool about this i guess
• we saw last episode that zeon had like 5 or 6 new mobile suits, i guess we're gonna see most of them get an episode dedicated to them
• miharu inviting him over and then being like 'well, it's not my house, my family is just squatting' is kind of funny
• is she gonna sell him out to zeon for interrogation?
• good on him for noticing the gun, at least
• he just immediately sells out the white base, huh
• what exactly does char want him to do on the white base?
• what's kai thinking right now? he seems concerned, but he already gave out the information. he thinks that this attack happened too quickly for it to be because of what she told them, but we saw them recieve that info and then attack? not sure what's up with that
• oh so she has a uniform and a captains letter? i feel like that isn't going to work too well, but we'll see
• the gundam can just do anything. beats aquatic mobile suits underwater, beats planes in the air, they act like it wasn't designed for these scenarios, but that just can't be true
• miharu saying goodbye to her siblings is a really good scene
• zeon soldiers thinking the guncannon is the gundam makes sense. thay don't have pictures!
• also hayato just doesn't seem very good at this. how'd he end up with the job when there were other people around?
• kai trying to convince himself he doesn't care about the white base, he needs to put himself first and stop worrying about others. very good stuff
• kai's having what would be a good times flashback in another show, but instead it's everyone yelling at him and hitting him.
• the shield has served its purpose yet again. now it drifts down to the depths, never to be seen again.
• and now kai's back on board. it feels cliche, but it works. i completely buy that he was committed to leaving, but couldn't convince himself to do nothing while watching it all happen
• it seems like maybe it isn't the guntank that's bad, it's the fact that hayato's piloting it
• think maybe miharu's going to stand out a little as 1 of only 4 female crew members
• the guntank is about 5 times as useful as it normally is in this episode, but that still just means it hit the enemy mobile suit into the path of amuro's attack
• no ones even surprised he's back, though that might just be them reading the room after his very casual comeback
• i guess the crew being so small in such a big ship does mean she might be able to just not be seen by anyone

Episode 28: Across the Atlantic Ocean

i hope char does something soon, he's been back for 2 episodes and hasn't done anything interesting

• starting off strong by practicing the new stock footage
• feel like the narrator's getting more use lately
• miharu's going to die, and i know this and it's probably still going to get me
• kai's being really considerate here, and i feel like it's going to blow up real bad
• kai trying to act like he's getting laid to avoid telling amuro he's harboring a spy because he feels bad for her is very good
• at least he isn't giving her all the intel
• it took me an extremely embarrassing amount of time to realize fraw bow is wearing a uniform, she's just got some accessories covering up the noticeable parts
• "i'll bet we're the first zeon's to infiltrate the trojan horse!"
• even discounting the current one, ramba ral's guys all got in, one of them got captured and escaped and ran around in there for a while, and iirc char snuck in in episode 2
• them sticking the fishing union with the bill is pretty funny
• he immediately goes for the toilet. not even a minute.
• kai! you gotta try and convince her to make a plea deal with bright or something! you can't just let her tell them everything she knows
• kai! you gotta close your door when you're talking about this stuff!
• he's pretty quick on the uptake though, idk if i'd have connected the dots that quickly
• this music does not fit the mood at all. it does bang though
• they did a pretty good job of covering their tracks
• is this guy the commander here?
• amuro, it isn't a hard question. take the gundam, along with whatever accessories are important today
• ok, he made the right decision
• oh, miharu didn't know about the kids!
• now she wants to help
• the white base isn't doing super hot, but i guess it never is
• kai is right here, this attack would have happened regardless of her info. they knew where it was without her telling them. she might have had more useful stuff in the future, but if she turned coat now she could probably get away with it.
• goddamn, there'd better be repairs in the bases future! also probably some new personnel, there're a lot of people going overboard
• miharu should probably be less insistent on entering a fight when she doesn't know how exactly she's gonna help
• sayla got another kill. i'm a huge sayla fan, love seeing her fight, but i have no real justification for it. she hasn't exactly done well when showing her stuff thus far!
• immediately as i say that she gets shot and has to pull out
• the gundam wasn't made for underwater combat, but it still seems to be doing better than the zeon suits that were!
• the beam rifle definitley wasn't noticeably weaker last episode!
• miharu seems convinced she needs to martyr herself. realizing she put kids in danger really fucked her up
• rip
• ok, whatever. don't care about the gundam fight. i thought she'd died killing the thing holding onto the gundam, but no. that wouldn't have been good for sales i guess
• kai sobbing, unable to explain what was going on is a really good moment
• and no one but kai is going to remember her as anything other than a helpful stowaway who gave her life to save the white base

that was a pretty good episode. worked a lot better for me than the matilda stuff did, which was super similar

Episode 29: Tragedy in Jaburo

this is going to have to pull off something special to qualify as a tragedy after last episode

• starting off with the flashback? ouch
• how's jaburo going to react to them?
• kai not caring that miharu knew they were going to south america while the zeon guys immediately figure out they're heading to jaburo because that's the main base is pretty funny. kai doesn't know jack shit about earth!
• kai isn't doing too hot rn
• i'm a sucker for a good hidden base
• and they led char right there, huh.
• everyone constantly being shocked by how young amuro is something i really appreciate. it'd be easy to do it once or twice and then just sort of assume everyone knows and move on
• silicon valley would be working with zeon
• the zock is very silly looking. also zock is a very funny word to say
• oh? are we finally getting some details on the whole newtype deal?
• oh, matildas fiance, huh
• amuro having this kind of a complex probably isn't great
• hopefully he takes woody's advice to heart
• oh mirais from a big bigshot family
• oh good, does char have a new custom to fight with?
• glad to see them all knowing what to do even without orders
• that's a lot of missiles
• what happened to char being assigned to africa? did he just decide he didn't care?
• i appreciate the focus remaining on kai a little bit
• are we finally seeing the mass produced gundam? i knew they existed, but i didn't know what they looked like. pretty neat from what we see here. i'm sure they aren't as good as the prototype, but whatever
• goufs zakus and doms all attacking plus the amphibious ones? this is a real battle we're seeing here!
• char's in a red custom, alls right in the world
• glad we're getting a look at how the federation managed to survive without mobile suits against zeon for so long, until now basically whenever anything that wasn't a mobile suit went up agains one it lost spectacularly
• char's companions immediately dying was really good at making sure neither side looks incompetent
• the brass has figured out the white base was followed and then immediately start saying some ominous stuff
• and they aren't providing any assistance. no wonder zeon has such an easy time breaking in if they're so petty
• woody seems desperate to join matilda
• char's entrance is really great here, amuro makes a good hype man and char lives up to expectations.
• the choreography here is very good, amuro kneeing the z'gok in the crotch made me laugh out loud
• i'm sure this is very traumatizing for amuro, but seeing woody go out like matilda doesn't feel earned at all. and char bolting after makes it feel like he only attacked to traumatize amuro more.
• amuro immediately taking out the zock does work to sell char as the ultimate zeon guy pretty well
• i don't know if woody cared that much about the base, he seemed like he just didn't have much to live for and decided to attach all his self worth to it
• i don't know if that's a men thing mirai, or if he just wasn't very invested in living
• everyone immediately stops what they were doing when they here char's back. i get it

the actual tragedy wasn't too affecting, but outside that this was a good episode

Episode 30: A Wish of War Orphans

this is either going to be really depressing or be about the little kids. possibly both

• the grunts bitching about nothing happening before getting crushed by that massive suit was pretty good
• that snake just panicked and left its spots behind, so i have a sneaking suspicion this is going to be a comedy episode
• they all have official ranks now! it's not just bright anymore
• amuro isn't crazy about it, but it'd be pretty silly to complain only in episode 30 that you're a soldier. i mean, i get it. i wouldn't want to be conscripted into daily duels to the death either, and i don't think he's wrong to have second thoughts, it just wouldn't make much sense to vocalize them. and so he stays quiet
• does amuro outrank sayla? i'm not totally sure how military ranks work, but i think chief petty officer outranks petty officer first class. feels weird
• also weird is hayato and kai being the same rank. these 2 do not fill the same role at all. hayato is there to occasionally take out a grunt, but mostly to panic and be taken out of the fight by the enemy, while kai is there to hold off the enemy until amuro shows up. and also has a personality
• fraw bow is doing her best to take the kids to daycare, but sadly has not realized this show would be too depressing to show to anyone under 14 without them
• ryu got a poshumous promotion. that's nice, but it was a little cold to act as if he was the only one who mattered. i mean, he was, but the characters don't know that!
• thought amuro was jealous for a second, but he actually thinks they deserve more than 2 ranks for giving their lives. unusually selfless of him
• now amuro. you didn't deserve to get slapped, and the strict hierarchy found in the military is bullshit. but at the same time i do feel you should have expected that
• i was going to say "you can't be considering keeping them! you're taking them from warzone to warzone!" but then i remembered everywhere they go gets destroyed, so the white base is probably safer than most places
• it's definitely true they should be allowed to not deal with this though. amuro's on a roll re:thinking of others this episode!
• this is one cynical kid!
• kikka crying at the word mother is very sad. but the way they animate it is so good, i love it
• and now they're all crying :(
• running away is obviously dumb, but i'd have to be an asshole to care about that
• them walking over the zeon troops without noticing is pretty good
• char still wearing all red and his stupid mask and helmet on this misson fills me with joy
• the kids magooing their way through the zeon attack and just being like "wow! it's like a gundam but it isn't!" is wonderful
• you can't treat the kids like that! was gonna say "at least he didn't kill them" but he left them there with the bombs, so he just didn't want to see it happen
• i'm surprised he can reach the pedals
• kai staring at the bombs piled up in the back made me laugh out loud
• kai's good with the kids, remaining the best character
• yeah there's no way the kids would have survived being that close to the explosion
• and now we have a return to the char and sayla subplot. i originally typed char/sayla but figured i should change that
• sayla's acting like she didn't see char after mirai just started blasting. she saw you!
• i think char just doesn't want to hurt sayla
• i would not go on any missions involving char if i was a zeon grunt tbh. they have worse survival rates than federation officers helping the white base
• char's willingness to just run (and also the fact that he's 3 times faster than normal) remain his biggest strength. though if he was slightly less cautious he might have destroyed the gundam in like episode 2, when amuro didn't know what he was doing
• he's also a big adherent to the principle of 'you don't have to outrun the gundam, you just have to outrun everyone else'
• their safety didn't seem very guaranteed to me!
• thank you kai, 'these kids are so traumatized it couldn't possibly hurt them worse to come with us' is the perfect message for the situation
• don't know it's necessarily worth celebrating the fact that they can't adjust to life not during wartime, but whatever
• 'bright. the white base is doing a great job. but you bring destruction along with you because zeon keeps going after you. you should have them do that somewhere else. like space. space is nice this time of year'

i believe this is where the second movie ends, but i decided i didn't care after how nothing the first one was

Episode 31: A Decoy in Space

glad they're getting back to space. did not expect the majority of the series to take place on earth

• this plan seems decent. wonder how this'll break bad!
• any plan that relies on 'they'll have to negotiate after this attack!' probably needs a backup in case they don't
• don't harass one of the most competent people in the show! and she has a fiance!
• we didn't know that. are we getting mirai romance stuff on the horizon? i could be ok with that if it's done well
• so bright and mirai are definitely an item, right? because this talk makes it sound like they've been together and he's a little mad she didn't tell him
• this mf named sleggar
• not a fan of sleggar. thankfully i probably won't have to deal with him for long if trends hold
• he just showed up and started hitting on sayla and mirai
• will not be shedding tears when he goes out like matilda to hammer the trauma button again
• the kids look at him and are just like 'wow! he's big!'
• another mobile armor. have any of these made it past the episode they were introduced in?
• rick dom is a man running for city council, not a mech
• they don't have any trouble getting out of the atmosphere? wonder how minovsky particles explain that?
• sayla used to be on bridge duty, and it's what she was good at. now she's on g-armor duty, which is much less cool
• oh yeah kycillia is in charge of the moon. what a wild detail that is
• sayla, you gotta be willing to kill schrodinger's brother. otherwise you'll definitely die
• also there's no way char would go out in this thing, it's green
• sleggar law, still unpleasant to be around
• there's no new captain, you just haven't encountered them flying the base itself in 20 episodes
• you've clearly changed a lot since you last saw her, given how she reacted to you. why is it so hard to believe she'd change after years apart?
• what was keeping kai?
• i'm not an astrophysicist, but i have played some kerbal space program and i'm not entirely clear on how this works
• char's the only one who would dare try to ram us! i mean, other than garma, whi died trying to ram us
• amuro down due to hi g's!
• jokes on you, amuro's psychic!
• post battle chatting is all very same old same old, with the addition of sleggar who i don't want to talk about

Episode 32: Breakthrough

this title gives me nothing to go on

• do we get to see hayato do anything this episode?
• signs point to no, amuro is heading out with him
• sayla's staying up to keep an eye out for char
• gotta say, the mobile armors are very super robot monster of the week type stuff
• even char's like 'this isn't a real thing, why are you attacking'
• does not seem hayato will accomplish anything here
• well that was quick. even amuro was confused
• guess the fight's over! time to move on to the talky bits!
• thank you for trying to make sleggar be responsible.
• sleggar is the best name in the show so far and it sucks it belongs to this guy
• dang char, that's cold. you were worried about your men at the start of the series, what's up with that?
• 'can you catch up to us?' 'dren, my men are painting this ship as we speak'
• sayla passed out on the job. i've been there
• glad sayla's finally trying to improve as a pilot i guess? i'd assumed she was asking about this stuff off screen, and we just weren't seeing it
• with this new attack not even being related to the first, it makes that one maybe the most obvious toy commercial thing in the series
• did sayla just hit 2 mobile suits at once? pretty impressive
• they keep bringing up the skirts. they aren't that prominent, but whatever
• this fight isn't too interesting, but it's nice to see the zeon troops being as scared of the gundam as they should be. they're human, and this is killing so many of them
• the beam saber work at the end there was pretty smooth.
• rip dren. getting launched into space after a giant robot cuts your ship in half is a hell of a way to go
• heading to side 6! i guess mirai's from there? or wait, wasn't that where her fiance ran off to?

that wasn't a very interesting episode, but i did laugh at the bit where char was like "i mean, i can't really be mad about this since i didn't know we had it"

Episode 33: Farewell in Side 6

i believe this is where mirai's fiance was, so my guess is we'll get an episode featuring the 2 of them

• guess we'll be getting a good look at dozle now? we saw him a bit early on, but not much since. good luck destroying white base
• sayla is also on board with my platform of 'amuro needs to be nicer to fraw bow'
• what's up with these guys? they don't seem like normal zeon troops
• that's neat, it divides in half. so they were the engineering department testing it out?
• i like side 6 coming up and sealing all their weapons
• the logistics seem weird to me though, i've never understood how you stay neutral in a civil war. i guess maybe it isn't? i guess i'll watch the origin eventually to learn more about what the deal is there. or if anyone wants to explain it that'd also work
• oh this prosecutor dweeb is mirai's fiance? lmao
• bright may be jealous, but also they are very much doing a risky procedure that could go very wrong
• it doesn't seem like she was hiding, so you can't have been looking that hard
• laughed out loud at sleggar floating up towards them, taking off cameron's glasses and then punching him across the room. credit where it's due
• weird vibes from sleggar saying mirai's like a mother. don't care for that
• every time i see his name i say it out loud. it's such a perfect name, up there with kraalnor the soul taker
• this guy chewing char out is very funny, because is there anyone else out there who's fought the white base and lived to tell the tale? definitely not more than once
• i love char, he's such an asshole.
• the guy who shows up this episode to get killed by the white base being the first person in the series to question the mask is very funny
• infiltrating and attacking neutral nations is usually a good idea in war time. i wonder why more people don't try it
• i love seeing side 6, this is super cool
• OH SHIT????? AMURO'S DAD!!!
• i guess he survived???????
• dang, amuro's in shape if he can keep up with that bus
• his dad is so casual about it. 'you probably thought i was dead for a while there, but how's the war machine i built to try and keep you from fighting doing? you're piloting it, right?'
• amuro must be so confused. his dad is acting like he never left. also he's completely unsuprised to see amuro somehow
• i know his name is tem, but i'm not calling him that
• 'i know you haven't seen me in months* and you had no clue what had happened to me and must have assumed the worst, but here's a gundam part, now get out of here
  *though i guess it might have been less than two which is a depressing thought
• hey, amuro's dad, what happened to not wanting children to fight anymore? fuck off with this
• this is a real downer
• i absolutely do not trust mr bergamino
• i guess he's just a war profiteer, so i'm right to not trust him but he isn't betraying them or anything
• 12 rick doms is a lot, but they aren't even sweating
• yeah, char doesn't seem so incompetent now
• an international incident? i really don't understand what's up with this
• this is some pretty blatant corruption
• good for mirai getting away from this guy. strong george ushiromiya vibes from him

Episode 34: A Fateful Encounter

are amuro and char going to meet face to face while they can't fight on side 6? because that would rule

• i would also want you out of my neutral port after last episode
• amuro driving an open top car in the rain
• i'm noticing these little flashes a lot with amuro. is this the newtype flash? because i was under the impression that had a sound effect go with it
• poor bird
• i really like the music here
• no clue what's up with this girl, but i forsee unpleasant things in her future
• that was a really cool scene
• unsure what char's up to, but i'm excited to see him meet the white base crew face to face
• everyone running to look at char docking right next to the white base is a great beat. the song used there has been used in this show like twice an episode, but it really fit well
• kai is the best. you should absolutely invite char over to have a party, i want to see that so bad
• amuro visiting his dad is very sad
• amuro running away from his shitty dad is also very sad
• oh man his car's stuck. now what's going to happen?
• yes... ha ha ha... YES!
• why does amuro know what char looks like? or did he just see the uniform and go 'this must be the asshole who won't pilot a mobile suit that isn't red'
• does char not know?
• "i'm a soldier, as you can see." char. you're wearing a weird customized uniform you only get away with because your so good at piloting mobile suits. he's wearing the standard federation pilots uniform. don't know if 'as you can see' is the right phrase
• did the federation not know his last name til now?
• char teaching lalah how to drive is pretty good
• oh, he knew it was char because of newtype bullshit
• wait did amuro have his birthday offscreen?
• 'thankyouverymuchihavetogonow'
  'what a strange fellow'
• char somehow not knkowing what a federation uniform looks like is pretty funny
• cameron trying to make it up to mirai is nice i guess
• bright and mirai both clearly worried he's trying to get back in her good graces
• everyone else watching like :o as mirai yells at him. maybe just take it, you don't have to do anything for him after, you can just leave
• sleggar i know slapping is treated as a kind of love language by the show, but that's a bit harsh!
• i mean, you're right, but you didn't need to be such an asshole about it
• i don't feel like this is too sexist because amuro and kai have both had this happen about 10 times apiece, but the tone of the conversation and the way they don't let mirai say anything has bad vibes
• char please continue laughing at this man, he deserves it
• what makes you think this attack will go better than the last?
• the rick doms going right up to the white base
• amuro wasn't there on the bridge? maybe he hadn't gotten back yet
• cameron, it didn't work. just give it up. let mario go, he didn't agree to all this
• did mirai just flip cameron off?
• at this point there is no amount of money you could pay me to fight amuro
• "just watch!" [proceeds to miss every shot]
• so that is a newtype flash, it just doesn't do the sound i know
• char, lalah, and amuro's dad all watching the battle on their tiny tvs is very good. i hope none of the other uc stuff moves away from this tech level

Episode 35: The Glory of Solomon

have they actually said what solomon was beyond a zeon base?

• "this is no place for children." bright you're 19
• thank you for pointing that out sleggar
• kai remains good
• i guess bright knows this guy from before the series?
• more people being vague about amuro being a very special boy
• hey, big zam
• i do have to say, i think the prototype big zam will probably prove significantly more useful against amuro than any number of doms
• side 6 may only survive because zeon doesn't want to spend the effort to deal with it, but also you definitely can't do anything right now. the federation has firmly turned the tide
• everyone on the bridge has space suits now, so they don't die like i thought amuro's dad did
• kai seems right about their chances to me, but i guess the federation has something up their sleeve
• they have an anti fortress weapon?
• with all the large scale fighting this episode i'm glad to see them sticking in the stock footage needed
• poor guntank
• yes thank you, every flash of light represents a loss of life.
• what's with the mirrors?
• dang. didn't the mythbusters do an episode on this and it failed? i guess being in space and in the future probably lets you get better angles
• oh no, hayato. whatever will we do without you
• oh he's actually hurt, i thought the guntank was just too damaged
• well now i feel bad for being so hard on him
• "he's different from us." when's he going to get called a newtype?
• char's heading there now
• dozle's clearly not convinced he'll win, but puts on a brave face
• i guess the battle will be concluded next time!

Episode 36: Big Zam's Last Stand

the large mobile suit on my television is so big! how did it get so large. it reminds me of my largest spacecraft

• this part of the show is very pretty. space is easier to make pretty maybe
• oh no. sleggar. however will we manage without you
• bright, this is not the time for this
• unsure what the show wants me to think here, but my guess is it's that mirai's falling in love with sleggar and bright is being noble about it, despite her last interaction with him being him slapping her and her clearly disliking him before that
• so sleggar is supposed to be american, right? what with the hamburger and the face and everything
• the romantic music playing whill he's eating a burger with crumbs on his face is funny enough to make up for this a little
• dude you can't just leave the burger you had 2 bites of there! what a waste of food
• boy do i hate being right all the time
• giving her a ring? he's going to die and he knows it.
• also the show realized it hadn't given anyone a reason to care about him (other than his name being sleggar law)
• this is like the kittan/yoko scene towards the end of gurren lagann but worse
• i will be honest, i'd forgotten m'quve was still alive
• kai's really good at this, he just isn't a newtype (i assume)
• the big zam is big strong
• big zam looks very stupid though, which makes it not too bad
• dozle, are you sure you're the best pilot for the job? i bet char thinks so
• m'quve is still an asshole, but you're heading straight into the battlefield so maybe you guys should leave the pod to go elsewhere
• mirrors probably not going to work anymore, but they're giving it a go
• i think mirai should also have a romantic moment with sayla. fairs fair, and they've had more romantic tension tbh. sadly the showrunners are cowards
• 'it deflected the beam! that means missiles will work!' sure dude, whatever
• "i never expected solomon to fall so easily." you ran the place! this is on you!
• magnets deflect lasers. i gotta take notes
• i thought missiles would need to be used? this type chart makes no sense
• rip sleggar i guess. did his death accomplish anything? i think amuro could probably have managed that on his own
• dozle getting out and shooting at amuro with a normal machine gun is i think supposed to be sad. it isn't
• amuro getting attacked psychically by zeon now, and then a shot of him jumping away not in the gundam before the gundam jumps away
• this is a confusing episode, and i mean that in a bad way
• this song is not earned at all

Episode 37: The Duel in Texas

any episode promising a duel in texas can't be too bad, but i really hope this delivers after last time

• glad everyone is getting some rest
• i'm glad amuro and fraw bow finally got to talk for a little bit. it's not perfect, but 'i'll talk to you when i know what to say' is a lot better than what he's been saying
• so is it the texas zone because it's for livestock?
• what's char doing in texas?
• have we seen a gelgoog before? i don't think so
• glad sayla got to take a bath, and i'm also glad that (despite having some issues with writing women) this show just isn't horny about that
• oh good, m'quve's going out in his own mobile suit gyan. means i won't have to deal with him after this episode
• "but there's no reason you should go out!" yes there is, i want him dead
• i would not be nearly this confident at this point. i mean, the gundam singlehandedly took down big zam. but i say go for it
• oh this is an actual mobile suit, and not a mobile armor?
• "it's a two rank promotion if we defeat the gundam" i mean, i think this is win win. no matter what happens you're guaranteed that promotion
• i feel bad for these guys. they don't know amuro's psychic
• char and lalah riding a horse and wagon through a desert??? with cacti???
• "oh there's a problem with the mirrors, so everything is dry"
  that doesn't explain the cacti. i think you just wanted an episode in the wild west. or like, a second one, after the one where amuro went to the saloon with ramba ral
• oh, so it's eternal twilight here
• the wagon with the computer scanning lalah's brain is cool
• so she's sensing amuro using his powers
• the gyan is like a knight, which is cool i guess
• m'quve is always genuinely pretty competent, i just really don't care about him
• amuro posing for a spaghetti western with the gundam (which i now really want to see)
• char's being weirdly nice to lalah. is it just because she's a newtype and therefore useful?
• the gelgoog's a prototype, so definitely the first time with it
• m'quve's trapping everything
• char genuinely just refuses to change clothes. why? because he's extra
• where did he gat all these mines?
• is this the first mention of newtype in the series? i think it is
• m'quve, just take the help! your way isn't working, so let char try his
• i support char in his mission to get m'quve killed, and i appreciate that we still get a cool beam saber fight
• what was up with the vision there? i thought for a second lalah was seeing the future, but it was actually happening
• m'quve's last words being about that vase from the first episode he was in
• that last vision of them seeing each other is cool. i'm liking the newtype stuff so far
• glad to see the show back on track after the mess last episode

Episode 38: Char and Sayla

we going to get some resolution to the char and sayla stuff?

• ok, we're doing submarine warfare in space now
• char is really nice to lalah, it's weirding me out
• is mirai also a newtype? or is her knowing amuro's alright just a 'woman's intuition' thing
• 'that was a red mobile suit, it could have been char!' have we seen any other red mobile suits, or is it just char? like, i'm sure there are others, but i think there's a point where you just assume anything red is char and treat it accordingly
• i love that being a newtype basically just means you have spidey-sense
• char knows amuro's a newtype, but he doesn't know who amuro is
• this is a really good setpiece, with char shooting from a distance and amuro dodging and trying to figure out where it's coming from
• is that the first time amuro's deflected anything with the beam saber?
• the beam saber does basically nothing to the geloog, which is pretty clearly a better suit than the gundam
• the gundam just can't keep up, though it got in a pretty good hit, making char retreat yet again
• sayla singlehandedly taking on everyone, you love to see it
• not much to say here. the white base is cleaning house, and it's not too interesting
• wait is this guy the guy from episode 4 who was going to have them all court martialed?
• fraw bow's worried, and very clearly out of it
• bright having her go visit hayato is a good way to make things simpler for everyone
• oh shit, char and sayla are going to finally talk
• and her mic is still on while they talk? good stuff
• sayla: 'look at you MY BROTHER CHAR AZNABLE, joining the military to KILL THE ZABIS'
  bright: [furiously taking notes]
• newtype lore just dropped
• so char's getting revenge on the zabis, but agrees with them on everything other than the hunting down and killing his family stuff?
• so sayla knew about newtypes the whole time?
• i don't see what the mask has to do with him discarding his past, but whatever
• bright's taking this pretty well all things considered
• amuro: 'i've never seen a machine like that...'
  amuro: [looks into the desert. no machines visible]
  amuro: 'ah! it's a white base buggy!'
• so was bright the only one who heard that, or what?
• glad they've gotten picked up after the battle, ready for the next one
• rip wakkein i guess
• ok, so this is money for sayla? put it into supplies, or something. idk how much it is
• bright: 'so this letter is for you. you know who it's from?'
  sayla: 'yeah'
  bright: ...
• glad sayla's just being honest when asked
• bright just has to deal with the red comet sending one of his finest officers the breifcase from pulp fiction. i guess he probably knows most of what's up because he overheard that talk, but still. can't be easy!

Episode 39: The Newtype - Challia Bull

guess we'll be getting more newtype stuff?

• do you really have time for recaps? there's 5 episodes left
• the guy on saxophone in the military band is having a great time
• solomon's getting fucked up! is this lalah?
• i like the vocals here
• do we get to see elmeth now
• oh, so mirai is also a newtype, reaction speed just isn't as relevant to her
• brights little talk with sayla was very nice. i imagine sayla's been worried about what people would think (i know i was), and it's nice to see it confirmed that was unnecessary
• sayla also newtype??? is everyone here a newtype now?
• amuro can tell what's up, but lalah's more experienced as a newtype
• this is all very 2001. or i assume that would be the most obvious reference point, there might be something else i'm unfamiliar with
• char remains the only person in this show with any sense of self preservation, at least on the zeon side of things
• oh, the episode is named after a new guy. i assume he's a newtype, but i also assume he will be gone in 15 minutes
• this guy was on a mission to jupiter for helium. you need that for minovsky stuff, right?
• i guess kycillia is next, which makes sense since gihren is obviously the final boss
• wait, the braw brow? wasn't expecting that to come back tbh
• so char's genuinely super worried for lalah. i mean, within the confines of him bringing her to fight in a war. this can only end well
• challia bull: 'this girl, she's very powerful'
  char: 'what about me'
  challia bull: 'hmm. you should try to be more openminded'
• is amuro trying to improve the gundam? i'm a little surprised it hasn't gotten an actual upgrade, i was under the impression that was standard in the genre
• well rip challia bull. he's been sent off to fight our heroes
• man, sayla should be the main character. i want to read the fanfic that's just this series from her perspective, worrying about char and the white base and having to decide which she will side with
• are you sure you want to share the gold? you could setup a pretty good thriller in a few years time if you just dropped it and let the rumors spread. i'd watch that. obviously the climax is a 3 way mobile suit duel
• i really like this talk. we can all only hope to have a boss as understanding as bright
• the newtypes are adding a lot to the fights here at the end. glad to have them
• kai immediately got taken out. guess only the one who's spent the most time as a newtype can fight against this. maybe in another 20 episodes sayla and mirai will be at his current level of psychic ability. (i think that's right, iirc the black tri-stars were the first point he for sure showed any signs)
• rip challia bull. cool mobile armor, not much beyond that
• good fight. amuro really needs that upgrade
• glad the show is aware that char is the best because he's willing to hit da bricks

Episode 40: Lalah's Dilemma

what's lalah's dilemma? is she going to have to confront the horrors of war, and that maybe char kind of sucks?

• i feel like they have the kids here because they were worried the audience of 6 year olds wouldn't get the idea of amuro being too fast for the gundam
• oh right, none of the white base crew knows anything about newtypes except sayla
• i think bright and battler ushiromiya would get along
• so they're basically lubing the joints
• these zeon refugees are not having a good time of it
• wow, gihren and degwin hate each other
• jeeze, this is pretty harsh
• oh, ok. just straight up eugenics is what's happening now, i see
• and the show is just straight up calling this guy hitler! ok! that's where we are
• is gihren gonna go out like hitler? that probably won't be very satisfying, but i know the show was cut short
• degwin very clearly sucks, but he seems slightly less fashy than his son, who just called himself a "follower of hitler"
• i gotta say, i was not expecting this scene!
• lalah's heading out to an actual fight now, not just potshots from outside visual range
• are these guys gonna shoot lalah in the back? no, just not supporting her anymore
• that was a really good sequence, i love the lalah perspective we're getting here
• we'll see how effective the gundam is now, but i don't think it can get that much better or the show wouldn't have any tension
• i like the doctor, he managed to lighten the mood in a nice way
• char: are you jealous of lalah?
  grunt: no!
  grunt: ...
  grunt: maybe
• we'll see how lalah does here, presumably against amuro
• i love kai
• this is the first time amuro has heard the word newtype in the show. he's just like 'nah, i'm not really all that new. i'm just a guy'
• kycillia insisting lalah stop wearing the dress and put on an actual uniform was kind of funny
• oh wow, the insert song? this rules
• amuro and lalah engaging in psychic combat
• amuro fighting char makes him a bad person? i get the feeling maybe lalah doesn't fully understand what war is
• 4 vessels in 1 day? yeah, seems pretty outstanding. i mean, 5 fighters ever makes you an ace, and that's nothing compared to this

Episode 41: A Cosmic Glow

oh boy, more newtype stuff!

• oh, so your kids dying made you realize war was bad?
• degwin leaving on his own is probably good, right?
• so the solar ray is one use only. better make it count!
• glad char is being respectful and taking off his helmet. his mask stays on though. will he be recognized without it? how? i guess i should watch the origin, i believe it goes into his backstory
• oh, kysillia knows about char's plans? and knows he's casval?
• kycillia already came up with a reason for him to not be against her now?
• she is remarkably casual about this, considering she knows he used to want her dead
• well, I'd like to see ol char aznable wriggle his way out of THIS jam!
  *char wriggles his way out of the jam easily
  ah! well. nevertheless,
• glad everyone is just accepting newtypes as a thing so we can move on to the climax of the show
• amuro has newtype potential? yeah, i guess tom cruise has movie star potential
• amuro: today we are ALL newtypes
  bright: ok, but you're like, actually psychic as opposed to kai, who's just better than average at combat
• oh, is lalah dead? char just told her she was in charge now and kissed her. this seems not good for her
• i assume the normal suit thing will come in handy at least
• amuro why are you calling for hayato instead of sayla? hayato has done nothing important in the entire show as far as i remember. i assume he was going to do something in this last stretch, but given the show was cut short i doubt that'll happen
• there's a non-zero chance that's the last we see of the kids
• jesus, hayato gets no respect. sayla gets a kill, he misses
• amuro being abkle to sense the bits movement is incredible
• this whole fight is amazing
• lalah's devotion to char is very sad
• this show is really great at selling amuro and lalah being leagues ahead of everyone else
• they met once, so idk what the big deal is here. i guess the psychic connections make them feel a lot closer
• i really love the psychic stuff here, the animation is super cool
• char's interruption was also good
• char don't attack your sister! i mean, you don't know it's her, but it's still very rude
• amuro just barely saved her there
• lalah stopping char from killing her is a pretty great moment
• amuro probably gets char there regardless, so the only thing she changed there is sayla living, outside that i think char probably still gets cut up and lalah sacrifices herself
• rip lalah
• the song coming in here fits much better than last episodes
• amuro i get that you actually kind of knew lalah (on account of the mind meld stuff) but you have to at least intellectually understand that you do something terrible you can't take back every time you kill
• i know char won't die here, since he has to go have his counterattack
• everyone needs to get to a baoa qu before the solar ray goes off
• the kids hanging out with the pilots is very sweet of them
• oh, degwin's going to start negotiations and then get killed by the solar ray
• everyone putting on sunglasses is a fun touch
• amuro coming in to save the white base here at the end

Episode 42: Space Fortress A Baoa Qu

i love every transition from the heroic, triumphant opening to the attack of some horrific wmd

• rip revil
• degwin doesn't deserve a rip
• i like how since they're in space everyone is sipping from pouches instead of eating or drinking like normal. it's the little things that make this feel more hard scifi than it maybe really is
• kycillia is me sitting at the bus station and realizing the person sitting next to me isn't masked
• is amuro spying on them using his newtype powers?
• 'the war may pose a threat to humanity if it goes on any longer' like the war so far hasn't killed over half the population
• attacking the strongest point because it's the most vulnerable?
• this sequence of everyone preparing for the battle is good
• did amuro lie about their target being a weak link, or was it just about their chances of victory? either way, i kind of figured. maybe lalah could have seen something like that, but amuro seems more limited in his powers right now
• dang, that's a lot of fire going back and forth. this sure is a final battle
• so zeon is bringing out a new mp mobile suit for their last stand?
• and char's going to fly in an unfinished suit because the last episode can't have been more than a few hours ago
• char's the only person they have who they think has even a chance of being a newtype, so out he goes
• gihren, i feel like kycillia maybe isn't totally on board with you killing dad. i think you should have not admitted that
• i like how zeon is so desperate they're fielding a bunch of zaku's as well.
• they seem evenly matched to me, and the white base hasn't sortied yet. i think gihren might not be the best judge of reality. eugenicists rarely are
• this guy pointing out in the second to last episode that legs serve very little purpose in space is very funny to me, since i'd been wondering about that from the first space battle back in episode 2. i understand you need them on land or you have the guntank, and nobody wants that, but in these big space opera battles legs seem mostly unnecessary
• this guy is my favorite zeon character. 'legs are useless' and 'i mean, we only think you might be a newtype because of how good a pilot you are, we have no real clue' in like a minute of screen time
• yeah, kycillia's pissed
• even char is wondering if he's actually a newtype or not
• yeah, he just did the newtype flash
• man, char's pissed
• god DAMN she just domed him!
• now the smart move would be to sue for peace. is kycillia smart?
• it seems not
• dang, even hayato's getting kills here. the white base crew is really the cream of the crop
• 'the enemy seemed to weaken for a moment there.' yeah, it was because their commander got shot in the fucking head
• amuro just blowing away mobile suits and tossing aside guns as he runs out of battery is the coolest thing
• zeon throwing students into mobile suits and tossing them into this last stand is proof they don't have what it takes to be main characters. you gotta give them weaker enemies to level up against! i was going to ask if they'd ever played dragon quest, but it's 79 so they've probably never played an rpg period.
• char shooting the kid crying out for his mother is a return to the more brutal combat seen earlier in the series
• you might be a newtype, but amuro had his first newtype moments 20 episodes ago, whereas yours was 5 minutes ago. you gotta let these things develop!

Episode 43: Escape

well, here it is. the last episode

• this is my last time listening to this theme [wipes a tear off my face]
• kidou senshi, gandamu!
• char did not realize amuro would be able to talk to him now that his powers have been awakened
• not saying much because it's mostly action, but the action is very good. i like the attention paid to the little guys
• the white base has been shot down, and kai and hayato are protecting it. good luck!
• no one less skilled than char can even touch amuro at this point
• char having only his head and amuro losing his head is something i could probably figure out some greater meaning to, but i don't want to do that.
• instead i will commend amuro for getting so close to hitting char's head while effectively blind. newtypes are something else, man
• kycillia assuming char's dead may not be smart
• kycillia is just leaving, which may be smart. but i think the smartest thing to do is admit the war is lost, claim you weren't responsible for anything going on and executed gihren to force a surrender to the federation and hope they don't nail you too hard during reconstruction
• amuro: char must also realize the zabi family is the real enemy!
  amuro, i think char's way ahead of you on that front.
• how'd amuro do that autopilot trick? has the gundam always been able to do that?
• well the gundams destroyed, and amuro and char are out of their mobile suits and face to face
• lalah may not have been a newtype, but she would have been alive
• love this fight sequence where they dogfight as people and not as mobile suits
• sayla ignoring the zeon plans to focus on char is kind of funny. they just don't notice each other
• and now they're swordfighting? hell yeah!
• oh man, char/amuro must be a huge ship (i say in response to them stabbing each other and them smashing their helmets together)
• sayla also going full newtype
• i don't know what char is saying, so i have no faith in amuro to figure it out
• sayla took a pretty nasty hit there! hope she's alright
• i like the eyecatch no longer including the gundam, since there's no more gundam
• how are their suits handling the sword holes? guess they're sealed by the swords still being there. and amuro makes sure to patch the hole
• well char just took off his helmet and mask, so i guess this place isn't a vacuum
• char lying to make that guy feel better was nice
• that little farewell is a nice moment as well
• char saying goodbye to garma as he shoots kycillia in the fucking head with a bazooka is a great moment. love her moment of realization as well
• amuro getting into the core fighter one last time is also good, and i really love him telling the crew what to do to escape
• the little kids here is heartbreaking, because they've finally crossed over into the serious part of the show to the point where they're around and aren't doing background gags
• rip the white base
• the kids returning the favor was really nice

THOUGHTS

the (partially) bad stuff

• The big one is Sleggar Law. Whenever he was on screen I just wanted him to not be. The romance with Mirai felt like it was only added because otherwise everyone would just shrug at his death, but because it was not only incredibly sudden but it came just after he hit her, it left a real bad taste in my mouth. I man, even he had his good moments (the bit where he takes off Camerons glasses before punching him across the room made me laugh) but the show would definitely have been better without him.
• In general I think the pacing was off. Part of that is that the last ~5 episodes feel super rushed because they were expecting to have 7 more than they did, but even accounting for that I think just about everything on Earth should have been shorter. It just didn't feel nearly as consequential as the space stuff, especially when they were dealing with M'quve.
• The animation could have been better, but I know they were on a budget and the animation director was hospitalized or something early on, so it's hard to blame them. And even then, they do a lot with what they have. the stuff on side 6 looks really cool, and they managed to make the newtype stuff work really well almost purely through animation and sound design. The writing feels really rushed, but I loved all that stuff anyways
• M'quve is a bad villain. I don't know what it is about him, I just do not care about him at all.
• The show isn't exactly a feminist masterpiece. I'm not a fan of the fact that all 3 major female characters get seen naked, but if you told me that happened in this show beforehand I'd assume it was way worse about it than it was. The scenes themselves were basically fine. To be honest, I've heard things about the franchises treatment of women and was bracing myself to be way more put off by it
• Finally, the overall tone was not as consistent as I would have liked. I'm fine with episodes that are goofier, and I loved the orphans, but the super robot transformations and gundam hammer went a bit too far. As a kids show I knew to expect some of that, but I have to draw a line somewhere, and that line excludes the gundam hammer. The show places fast and loose with physics, but outside the hammer it all falls within the boundary of acceptable to me

the good stuff

• The consistency in which the Zeon rank and file were humanized was really impressive to me. Even in the final episodes I was still noting when their deaths felt particularly poignant or tragic. The fact that it managed to keep that up when their leader was comparing himself to Hitler is really something.
• The main villains for the first 20 episodes were all very compelling. Obviously Char makes for a great villain the whole way through, but Garma was a good introduction to the broader Zeon culture and structure, while Ramba Ral made a great rival to Amuro for the episodes he was in. The duel where they destroyed each others cockpits
• I liked most of the mecha, and I did purchase high grades of the gundam and char's custom zaku, which were pretty fun to make. So as a toy commercial it still works, over 40 years down the line
• This died down mostly after the first half or so, but for a long while the show was really amazing at emphasizing how exhausted and constantly on the run the White Base was
• As mentioned, I really loved Sayla, and kind of wish we'd just gotten the show about her. But in general the main cast was all really well done. The characters all felt consistent and sympathetic. None of them were amazingly complex, but they all served the story really well, and made the stakes feel real
• Speaking of stakes, how about that body count! Ryu was the only member of the main crew to die, but enough side characters on both sides were dying off on a regular basis to make combat feel pretty consistently risky. I was expecting that sort of thing to only start being the case after the franchise was established as a hit, but it's been in there from the start.
• The way Amuro's progression as a pilot was shown was very well done. He's shown improving, and it's easy to grasp as a gradual process. It makes the way he chews through every new toy introduced later on a lot easier to swallow, because he's shown to be just that good.
• And despite my pacing complaints, the final battle managed to wrap things up well enough. The final confrontation between Amuro and Char as they fought outside their mobile suits was really well done.