Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury
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John the Dark Lord
Posts: 232 |
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Actually she said Mercury.
You forgot to mention how by the end of Episode 3, Suletta is already on her way to become the mecha pilot version of Bakarina. Truly, this is a show with many influences. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11135 |
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I've seen some people come at this as not feeling quite like a real Gundam show or more "boring" but so far I've been really getting into it.
Suletta is an adorable and surprisingly competent lead and I'm really invested in her and Miorine's relationship as they try to overcome the path set by their parents through each other. Obviously they're the core characters but I wonder if they'll really commit to a yuri route in a main Gundam show. Or maybe Suletta really will commit to a bisexual Harem. I like the political machinations brewing the in background and how the parents keep screwing their kids up. I imagine that's going to blow up as we move past the midpoint. The animation for the Mobile Suits is gorgeous. A few scenes were CG but Sunrise is still committing to 2D Mecha and that should be applauded. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 1817 |
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I'm still confused with this series since it's been quiet considering all Gundams series tend to focus on war. If it keeps being like this, it would become a stylish version of G Gundam but I highly doubt that's the direction.
Also, I really love the opening theme. The same band that made Beastars season 2 |
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Kalhiki
Posts: 57 |
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This is the first Gundam series I'm watching. Been interested in the franchise, but never got around to taking the plunge. I've been joking that it took a female lead and yuri to get me to watch Gundam... Which may not be entirely untrue.
Either way, it's been fun, and I'm curious to see how everything unfolds, from the story to the character relationships. |
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John the Dark Lord
Posts: 232 |
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In an interview the director said this was conceived as a classic Gundam series, with the school setting being added halfway through because he thought the work was becoming too adult and unwelcoming for younger viewers. He says he once talked with teenagers who thought Gundam "wasn't for them", causing him to realize the 40+ years of history in the Gundam franchise can be a demerit when you are trying to bring in new viewers. Not to mention what Kim brought up in the review: the negative stereotype that Gundam is all about overly serious and ponderous war stories. Having said that, he also warned that it's still a Gundam show, so the lightness of the setting can be deceptive. |
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1354 |
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The Tempest is a pretty good model for political intrigue and a secret plot.
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MagicPolly
 Posts: 1574 |
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I've never seen a Gundam series but I've absorbed a lot of it through osmosis. I've been having a lot of fun with this series, I was even able to drag two of my friends to watch with me because of the Utena references (though I'm glad they slowed down with the direct beat for beat copying)
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1175 |
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Although it is definitely its own thing, there's a number of surface level aspects which remind me of G-Reco - the more buoyant tone, Aerial's resemblance to G-Self, Ippei Gyobu more or less recycling robot designs - all of which are good news as far as I'm concerned.
I suppose I hope that like G-Reco, it doesn't have to get stupidly dark to stay interesting. Not that a tone shift like that is inherently bad (I loved V Gundam, and Episode 0 was good), but it feels like some modern shows think you have to arbitrarily start chopping off heads to do drama without anything else going on. Still, the character writing has been good so far, so I likely worry for nothing. (Speaking of G-Reco, I guess it also started the whole "G-Something" title trend) |
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thepepin
Posts: 69 |
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interesting social commentary on the relationship between war and capitalism
It is only interesting if it lists the following facts. 1. Capitalism has only existed for under 500 years 2. In most of the world capitalism has never been implemented 3. Lots of the ills blamed on capitalism - colonialism/imperialism, slavery etc. - were actually done because of mercantilism, a completely different economic philosophy. An example of the differences: where capitalism believes that the capacity for economic growth is essentially unlimited and primarily driven/expanded by technological and other innovation, rendering conflict for economic reasons mostly unnecessary as - for example - building a great educational and healthcare system to develop your own resources is more efficient than warfare. Meanwhile mercantilism believes that economic resources are essentially fixed which means one entity's growth can only come at the expense of robbing others of land, people etc. making constant expansionism and the resulting warfare necessary for a state's survival. The American Civil War was one between the mercantilist south - who actually wanted to invade Mexico and expand slavery there - and the capitalist north. Anyone who believes that the Confederacy was capitalist should read what the Confederates themselves actually said and wrote. A common refrain of the Confederate fire-eaters: if the Confederacy won then only some people would be slaves but if the North won then EVERYONE would be slaves (to the bankers, manufacturers and other capitalists). Bottom line: of all the wars in human history, 99.9999999% of them didn't have a capitalist party to the conflict on any side. And since capitalism has been created, capitalist states have actually been less likely to go to war than adherents to the systems that preceded it. Yes, America goes to war a lot. No, America is not the only capitalist state. And yes, there are non-capitalist states that go to war just as often as America allegedly does, with the Russian Federation and its predecessor the Soviet Union being a great example. And if anyone knows this, it should be Japan, who fought a series of wars against them prior to the Cold War, and the Russian Federation occupies Japan's Kuril Islands to this day, and Japan is at present kicking around the idea of whether now would be a good time to reclaim them. Yes, I am aware of the "Russia is capitalist now!" claims. They are made by people who honestly don't have a definition of the term in any consistent sense, and are also unaware that the Russian Federation vehemently denies being capitalist, considers western capitalism its biggest enemy and that their natural and human resource acquisition-driven expansionism to retake Georgia, Chechnya, Ukraine etc. far more closely resembles tsarist imperial mercantilism than capitalism. And oh yeah, even when they were still the "Union of Socialist Soviet Republics" they still had the same mindset, as their attempt to expand their empire to Afghanistan proved, and that was merely one example. So the "interesting social commentary" is this: A. where did the "capitalism = war" notion come from in the first place? Note: not Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the ones who coined the term "capitalism" in the first place. B. why do so many well educated, erudite people embrace with such conviction something that is not only a complete and utter falsehood, but can be so easily disproven via a cursory glance of economics, history, sociology, anthropology etc.? C. Why do so many Asian (including Gundam's Tomino), African, Latino etc. leaders and intellectuals adhere to a system of thought cooked up by a couple of 19th century German nobles (Engels particularly) who personally had a very low opinion of Asians, Africans and Latinos (and women too by the way)? That is the part that I find the most fascinating. |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13224 |
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Gundam titles have always been pretty varied even how they tackle the war story so the direction Witch is taking is hardly out there. It's not even the first Gundam title to have a female protagonist that attends school. But yeah, these companies might play nice at the school for now but they could easily fracture off and start an armed conflict at any time.
I'm not a fan of yuri so I do appreciate Suletta is getting some male suitors as well. That said, I am glad the yuri was established as a real possibility from the get-go instead of something only teased and danced around. If it's going to be included they should be serious about it. |
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Rahxephon91
 Posts: 1859 Location: Park Forest IL. |
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I really hate this show so far. I come to Gundam for war drama and adventure not high school duel anime nonsense:
So far it has been very unenjoyable. The whole school setting and duel mechanics come off incredibly stupid to me. Having high schoolers pilot advanced military weapons for fun duels tied to marriage agreements passes my anime tolerance level. It’s just stupid. I also find it pathetic that the first female lead is in a high school anime. The characters so far are garbage and unlikable, especially the other main female. She is cringe, espically her actions in episode 2. All in all. So far I really dislike this. What a big disappointment. Age exists so it’s not the worst AU, but it’s up there. |
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BaronViolet
Posts: 212 |
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In response to Raxph: Dude. Every bloody Gundam series is about war. I appreciate the fact that the creators are trying something different. If you hated it do much why the fudge did you watch up to episode 2? If you hate something just drop it after episode one. Your wasted time is your own fault. If you want same predictable Gubdam just watch Gundam Wing or something.
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Rahxephon91
Posts: 1859 Location: Park Forest IL. |
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This show is predictable and bland so far. There’s nothing really unique. If you didn’t want a Gundam war drama, why not go watch the millions of high school battle anime that exists. I don’t appreciate the creators turning Gundam into every other anime to appeal to teens. I’m watching it because I’m a Gundam fan. But so far it’s one of the most trite and idiotic installments in the series. Having harem memes and a safe lesbians but not lesbians relationship isn’t exciting. It’s lame and trendy. |
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pikrodafni
Posts: 125 |
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Do you...honestly think the setting will be at the school the whole time and there's not gonna be some sort of escalation as the series goes on?Did we watch the same show?
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Rahxephon91
Posts: 1859 Location: Park Forest IL. |
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I watched the show with the stupid marriage proposals, yes.
Do I think it will stay in the school? No, I expect something to happen by episode 13. Doesn't change the fact that what I'm seeing now is incredibly stupid. Will I be surprised if it does stay in an important aspect? No considering, Geass kept the school when the show had clearly grown past it. Complete with important world regulation meetings in the gym. |
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