Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury.
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Mecha, Science Fiction
Hello my friends. Welcome to another entry of my blog.
Firstly, I want to share with you a very special moment – after 12 years and 7 months, I was finally granted the Australian Citizenship.
I have no words for express all the happiness and all the gratitude to those who helped me, supported me and had a lot of faith on me for this very moment. And what can be a better way to celebrate? I know!!! Writing an entry of my blog.
Having said that, I bring to you… THE FIRST MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM ANIME WITH AN LGBT CHARACTER!!!
Nah!!! Who am I kidding? Of course that is a lie, there has been a lot of LGBT characters in Mobile Suit Gundam in the past. Nonetheless, I want to bring you my own opinions about the new series of Gundam that was recently released, and that is…
And I will try to do this in a very slight manner, because yesterday night, I was checking the first episode, but I found more interesting than I expected. I was planning to leave and watch episode two instead, so I can write a First Impressions, but I was surprised by some… circumstances of the episode, influenced by the ending of Lycoris Recoil, and the desire of the fans… (if you know what I am talking about), and the relationships of the characters, so I decided to write about the first episode instead.
But before I start, I must ask you the typical question:
Are you guys ok? Feeling healthy?
If the answer is yes, then I am happy.
Now, let’s get into the mecha with the first episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury.
EPISODE ONE
The episode starts with our protagonist, Suletta Mercury, who recently arrived to the prestigious Asticassia School of Technology; she is very excited, and she says to the mother that she finally made it. Everything goes well, but suddenly Suletta sees a person in a spacesuit, apparently stranded; believing the person is in danger, Suletta gets inside her Gundam Aerial to rescue her, and she successfully brings the person in. Or that is what she believes.
Shortly afterwards, the astronaut headbutts Suletta and reveals she was trying to escape. After Suletta arrives to the school, she discovers that the girl she «rescued» was none other than Miorine Rembran.
The reason of why Miorine tried to escape was because she was engaged to one of the brutish students of the school, yet the top duelist, or «Holder», Guel Jeturk, a movement done by Miorine’s father, Delling Rembran, head of the powerful Benerit Group, the biggest financial and political conglomerate of the universe.
Basically like Disney, but in Gundam universe.
The fact is that Miorine was very unhappy with the arrangement, and her relationship with her father is… How to put it in nice words? Disastrous!!!
Meanwhile, Suletta meets again with Miorine to apologize for her actions, much to the latter’s annoyance, and demands Suletta to leave her alone. However, they have a small moment of bonding thanks to a tomato that Miorine planted. The thing is that, at her place, Miorine has kind of a greenhouse to plant her trees, and offers Suletta a tomato in exchange of leaving her alone.
Shortly afterwards, Guel arrives to confront Miorine for her actions, and to «discipline» her, needless to say that he is going to usr violence against her. But, then, gets, one of the best scenes on the whole episode. In order to «rescue» Miorine, Suletta spanks Guel… literally.
I personally love the way Suletta was trying to be assertive, with her whole body shaking in nervousness. I think that says a lot of the character. However, Guel is anything but happy, and tells Suletta that in the Academy, the duels are the ones that imposes the rules, going beyond, from a simple apology to an engagement. And is how things are.
Man… And I thought that the Hyakkaou Private Academy was a despicable school.
Guel challenges Suletta to a duel, and if she loses, she will be forced to leave the academy. Naturally, Suletta accepts. Meanwhile, Guel’s father plants a bomb on the spacecraft of Delling, in the hopes that his death will legitimate Guel as the rightful heir of the Benerit Group.
During the duel, Guel and the school discovers that it was actually Miorine who pilots the Gundam Aerial, not Suletta. But that does not stops the latter to get into a hoverbike and get into her precious mecha and activate the true power of her Gundam, and quickly defeat Guel.
The victory immediately grants Suletta the position of the «Holder», and well as a fiancee. Yes. Suletta becomes the girlfriend of Miorine.
And of course, the assassination attempt is immediately called off, and with this glorious posse of the Gundam Aerial, we conclude Episode One.
IMPRESSIONS
Ok! Where to start?
I must confess that, when I saw the final scene of the engagement of The Witch from Mercury, I couldn’t believe it. And yet, I was prepared to meet something like that, because I was reading on the Internet that some of Lycoris Recoil fans were heading to The Witch from Mercury in order to satisfy some «yuri» desires.
And I am not saying this. This is the article I took that statement. Be careful, because it is in Spanish.
In some terms, it says that the ending of episode one from The Witch from Mercury were hooked by the possible yuri relationship between Miorine and Suletta, and I am saying possible because I am waiting to watch more episodes of this series in order to watch how these two characters evolve.
Indeed I will get more surprises.
But changing the topic, I saw one of the best themes that has most of the Mobile Suit Gundam series – social commentary; in this case, how capitalism and financial power wretches society, to the point of racism, misogyny and discrimination. In this case, only those who are powerful can oppress and abuse the least fortunates. And it is done in the most subtle way possible, just like Gundam does.
And Delling reminded me a lot of Andrew Ryan from BioShock, and his most famous quote.
He does not even has a lot of interest of her daughter, only about maintaining his power and I will not be surprised if he becomes the main antagonist of The Witch from Mercury, or a major one.
But indeed the best part was how the bond between Miorine and Suletta was born, with some simple moments, they start a great adventure, including the «rescue» from the beginning, Miorine offering a tomato to Suletta, the intervention of Suletta against Guel, and the offical engagement.
And of course… the animation. It is Studio Sunrise, the one that has done practically every series of Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979. And this time, it is not the exception.
Anyway, the episode one was great. And I want to watch more, especially to see if there is really that amount of yuri. THUMBS UP!!!
And because I love you, my friends, I leave this image of our favourite yuri couple of The Witch from Mercury…
Did I say image? I meant… Galleria!!!
Because I love you all!!!
Anyway, hope you like my review. See you soon.
Jainituos Presents 