Gundam AGE ep43: the plot is revealed. Surprise. Giant thing smashes Earth. Again.

[Gundam AGE ep42]

Episode 42 of Gundam AGE left me in a somewhat sour mood. It wasn’t a bad episode at all. But it spent a lot of time playing up its pawn. Sure they did a better job of using that pawn for entertainment purposes. And I have no problem with them using women to demonstrate the suffering of war, Zeta Gundam-style. But it’s still a fairly straightforward and a cliched way of using a character like Reina in a story to evoke emotions. My only hope going into this episode was that it didn’t repeat the flashback/fillerbuster fest that the previous episode became.

It’s not often that you get a collection of star power and Gundams like this in an episode.  Sure you get shows where there are multiple Gundams.  But not ones with multiple main protagonists.  That’s usually reserved for video games .  Flit, Asemu and Kio fighting Zeheart, Fram and Reina; it really shouldn’t be much of a contest.  But with Kio’s new found hobby of lecturing people, and Asemu busy trying to do something similar with Zeheart, I could only feel real bloodlust coming from Flit and Reina.  And to be honest, they weren’t really even fighting each other.  I really do wish this series would push the bitterness of combat in half century plus long war further.  The One Year War was more intense than this, and it lasted… well, only one year.

It was all a bunch of dancing (though flashy and entertaining) until Reina finally did what Zeheart had been fearing since last episode.  She went berserk in a way that I don’t think I’ve seen before.  Sure I’ve seen Newtypes freak out, even in ways that hurt or affect other Newtypes.  But I don’t think I’ve ever seen one confiscate other Newtypes’ mobile armory before.  It was funny display to see all those various bits and funnels coalesce around her.  All I could think was, “oh, look at all that ridiculous space junk floating around her.”  In the end though, she just burned out without taking a single soul with her.  Flit ended up putting her down in one stroke. And she got her prerequisite floaty Newtype moment post death.  I was a little mystified that she remained clothed, but whatever.  I’m not gonna harp on that minor aspect, of a minor tradition.

The real progress was made on the ground.  Now I generally have a big problem with mobile weapon pilots hopping out of their walking battleships to play commando.  In a narrative sense, it kills two birds with one stone.  Allowing things to focus on a character we’re familiar with, since honestly they don’t even show the infantry in this show.  But it did allow us to see one of the better and more understated characters of this series.  Seric Abis.

Seric is able to take the whole ground campaign into his hands and solve the problem of whether or not to destroy the base with a clever play.  With the extremely cowardly commander-in-traitor of the lunar base homicidally hauling ass to an escape ship, Seric is able to negotiate the surrender of the base with the Vagan officer left in charge.  It leads to a nice moment where Seric meets the surrendering officers and shares a quick moment of possible understanding with the man who agreed to his demands.  They both come out looking like reasonable, sane people.  And that’s a good sign for the series and the people in it.

I know I may sound like a bit of a hypocrite for saying I want the bitterness of a long war to show through.  But I’m also no fan of people acting blindly stupid either.  It’s a nice contrast from Gundam SEED, when as the show got closer and closer to the end, the more and more people seemed to be inhaling some crazy gas.  Oh and speaking of crazy gas, that cowardly commander got what was coming to him from Fram. NICE. I’m liking that girl more and more every episode.  I sure hope she survives now ( SHE’S DOOMED).

Episode 43 concludes with one less fun character, me in a good mood, and a giant space thingy making its way towards Earth.  If you guys don’t know what’s coming then you either need to sit back and enjoy, because you’re probably new to this sort of thing.  Or you need to go back and do your homework, because short of the moon, anything from a building to a colony is a problem when you get into these later episodes.  And in essence, the Vagan are bringing their own moon.  Oh boy.  This will be messy.

Oh and didn’t forget.  I’m fully aware that Flit is a stone’s throw away from genocide at this point.  And that Commander Einus is on the verge of speaking up, but it doesn’t look like it’s time for their confrontation, yet.  I’m sure she’ll get a grand moment near the end of the show.  Though for now, I’m disappointed in her lack of development.