Mobile Suit Gundam The Witch from Mercury Episode 21: All Quiet On The Mercurial Front

G-Witch has a fast pacing in its story, I believe this is one of its many well-known facts, one of its many strengths. But this episode is probably the first time that I would like to say: slow down, please. Because it was too fast. While it still was a good episode, It made me feel uneasy about what it will show in the next episode, because if the series really ends in the 25th episode, G-Witch may fall right into hell.

So why did I say that?

The Shaddiq vs Guel fight made me realize something is wrong with this pace. The battle is well done, and well-made, just like I said in the previous review but emotionally speaking, it fell short and shallow. Sure they had quite opposite characters when solving things (in what price they paid in a duel for example), and the choice they made somehow got tangled with each other, but precisely speaking, Guel did not have that many one-on-one direct interactions with Shaddiq, only one at episode 8 so to speak…

So what does this mean? It means that even though their drive was clear – Guel losing his father due to Shaddiq’s ploy, and Shaddiq was forced to play his hand early due to the incident on Earth – their face-off felt less impactful because they haven’t been interacting for so long that their relations kinda turned into strangers at one point. And at that time, it’s more of an anguished soldier being mad at the other side’s general whom he never faced before. However, if you string together all the events that happened until now, their battle did carry some weight, especially for Guel.

Now when you compare it to the simple talk between Miorine and Shaddiq in this episode, you could see that it is very emotionally different from what we have seen in Guel vs Shaddiq. Miorine and Shaddiq shared their past with each other, both had a relationship as childhood friends that has been established before, even though Shaddiq did choose a different path from Miorine both had some soft spots for each other.

When they shared their moments with each other, you can feel the weight in each line they gave to each other. Only in front of Miorine that Shaddiq could drop his mask outside of his small “circle”, and only in front of Shaddiq (before Suletta) Miorine could tell what she felt, even having something for him in her heart. This is how the emotional side of the duel between Guel and Shaddiq should have been delivered.

The same could apply to the Space Assembly League (SAL). Granted, they had been teased for a while, but have never been introduced in full, never understood what the hell can they do, what kind of government they are and how exactly powerful they actually are, until this episode. So when they dropped their mantle and decided to do something, they made no impact at all. If the staff thought some fleets with a bunch of new MS (CARGORE, what a name lol) were enough to make us believe the SAL were very powerful, they were completely wrong.

And to make it worse, they debut Quiet Zero and the Gundnode, lots of Gundnodes right after the so-called “maiden voyage” of that fleet. There was no way Prospera could lose that fight, there was no way Quiet Zero could be defeated in this episode, it made the SAL look like turkeys that were slaughtered on Thanksgiving. They were losing hard even before Prospera decided to go Permet Score 6!

Give us an episode or two solely about SAL, you have done that for Miorine’s company before, why not do the same thing for the SAL?

The last bad thing I would like to talk about: the カリバーンガンダム – Calibarn Gundam, or Caliburn Gundam / Caliban Gundam depending on which platform you chose to watch the episode.
(Currently, it is called Calibarn on the Gundaminfo’s subtitles but we all have been through this kind of translation problem before so either they reveal its actual name when they release its kit, or in my opinion, it should be called Caliban considering The Tempest‘s heavy influence on G-Witch.)

What the heck was that debut? This episode was neither at mid-show when you could introduce a new main Gundam for the protagonist, this episode is the beginning of the end for at least this cour, they just debuted the main villain’s vessel, which was too OP by the way, and the staff decided to just “Oh hey we forgot to make any possible option to counter Quiet Zero, any ideas lads? – Oh I know, let’s just make some kind of Deus Ex Machina and drop it in the middle of the episode without any teasing at all! – Fantastic ideas”? What?

They made a whole episode to let Miorine decide what kind of path her company will take and they can not spare an episode to establish SAL and in that episode drop in the Calibarn? Logically speaking, it was still possible thanks to episode 19, but seriously though, why even made Schwarzette Gundam?

You hinted that suit even before the beginning of the second season and yet it became so obsolete to the story that at this point I don’t even know why it is there. To make Lauda’s trauma worse than ever before? If so, you have done it, Lauda might pilot Schwarzette to screw up whatever plans there is to subjugate Quiet Zero, potentially ruin its sales just like Michaelis. And I don’t know how you even wrap up everything in episode 25 which was anticipated at the finale for the second season since the beginning. I just hope they had more than 25 episodes, but to be honest, I can’t see any possible chance for G-Witch to have more than 3 cours, not with the ongoing developments…

Aside from all the bad things, there are good things though.

Guel going to comfort Miorine was a nice evidence of how far the two best-developing characters have gone. They might not engaged with each other because they loved each other but they still treated each other with care. Their relationship, or should I say “marriage” might not be one that was born from “love” but they can still care for each other and respect each other (only Guel at this point though because Miorine is in depress at the moment) truly showcasing how a “marriage” should be, even if it is purely a political marriage.

Quiet Zero’s and Gundnode’s debut soundtrack was lit as hell. From the majestic track of Aerial’s debut in Episode 1, then to the grand yet shadowy track in Episode 12 when Aerial Rebuild debuted, and now, Aerial has fully become an antagonist Gundam with its wicked track in Episode 21, all of them were magnificent. Of all the things that G-Witch could disappoint you, the OSTs are not one of them.

And one of the best parts of this episode was the characterization of Suletta has finally come to fruition. She has now become the main character that we all have expected her to be, can be able to speak fluently in front of people, able to think something that even Miorine did not tell her to do, able to decide what kind of path will she take regardless of the price, even able to produce her own motto based on the previous ones. It sure was late, but it’s better to realize it rather than nothing will happen.

Alongside those were the interactions between Secelia – Suletta, and Chuchu with the two bully girls in episode 4 that solidified Suletta’s characterization, with the bonus of Nika, Martin, Chuchu, El5n, and Suletta herself are characterized beautifully, also somehow raising their own dead flags. Not bad, Okouchi, I hope you won’t kill half of them at the end of this season.

Also, Petra’s alive. The best part of this episode.

Next episode: “Calibarn” ’s real name, and what can Suletta’s team do to stop such an OP weapon that is Quiet Zero?

>Reryuu<

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