Episode Review: Gundam: Witch from Mercury ep 9: Duel of Crossing Paths

Following episode 8, the Gund-arm Inc is now facing with the threat of having their business put under the thumb of Shaddiq and Grassley. And everything is of course solved in the simplest way, which is a duel between two sides to get what they want.

Starting with this episode, we see a flashback of before Suletta entered the school, although it was short, in that 1 minute the viewer understood a bit more about the character Shaddiq. Whether he’s a mobile suit pilot or the future head of the Grassley family, Shaddiq himself is just a 17-year-old boy. He tries to do everything for the person he likes, but he doesn’t understand what that “person” really wants and doesn’t have the courage to deal with the difficulties that “person” is facing. Coming from such a background, it’s not unreasonable that Shaddiq feel some form of complex about wanting his own happiness.

This is the last character introduced in the 3 strongest houses of the Benerit Group. I personally see the problems that Guel, Elan or even Shaddiq have in common are the problems of teenage rich boys. For Guel, it is the arrogance of a rich boy who always listens to his father and does not dare to resist, but somewhere in him there is still the filial love of a son for his father. Elan is probably the most pitiful person, a trash person who finds ways to benefit himself, using his power to blackmail and control others. kill elan-4 and replace him with a new one just to skip school and do the things he likes. People like Elan, if they are found out about their deeds, the worst is that he will be assassinated or death like Iok of IBO.

And last but not least, our boy Shaddiq, a guy with emotional thoughts for the girl he likes. Although he is now rich, his starting point is still being adopted from an orphanage. Perhaps it is also because he can be easily replaced and the fact that he openly likes Miorine will also cause many problems for the corporation. Thanks to the plot twist of the series, maybe now Shaddiq is the kindest guy, not Elan (4) as everyone thinks. Not to mention the first two, perhaps Shaddiq’s character was developed closer to an ordinary person than a rich person because his problem is about love which every teenager boys are entangled.

Furhtermore, The battle in this episode is also very eye-catching, a team battle with 6 MSs on each side. Shaddiq’s team did a great job with the strategy of isolating Aerial by eliminating the remaining 5 MSs, starting with the sniper, who would be the most dangerous and in CSGO I would say Chu Chu can clutch and it’s not impossible. With his special MS, Shaddiq’s confidence is not unreal, but unfortunately, Aerial’s potential has not been fully shown from episode 1 until now, that why it turned out to be a trump card for Suletta’s team. On Suletta’s team, Suletta’s advantage was clearly Aerial and Aerial itself was also the weak point. Just like in sports, when two teams compete, but one side is equally strong and one side has only one strong person, of course that strong person will be “focused and taken care of” more carefully by the strong people of opposite team. And it was the trap that Shaddiq fell into, focus on Aerial and got headshot by the person he didn’t expect.

Prospera must be having a field day in this episode, where her anti-Antidote mechanism has clearly worked, and she has demonstrated to the world that Gundams are unstoppable, not with the toys they have 21 years ago. A tears of malignant satisfaction roll down her cheeks – showing that her past 21 years haven’t been for nothing and that her revenge is nearer than ever. And look that the “tower” that the Bits created, it just looks like Shaddiq’s anti-Gundam team were trapped in a nightmare of their own making, completely helpless against the new Gundam’s potential. Even though Shaddiq managed to incapacitate Aerial, he was too careless with his tunnel-vision.

Overall, Episode 8, 9 an arc of Shaddiq is probably the best arc so far, maybe because this character is easy to empathize with viewers. However, the fact that he secretly contacted Nika is really a bad flag, just hope not the death one for Nika. The lesson learned from this match for Shaddiq is that he needs to trust others as well as believe in himself more and especially the courage to keep the girl he likes. Not to mention about Aerial’s OP, Chu Chu this episode deserves a MVP with her sniper shot. Guel got a call from his father, maybe he will be used for his father’s dark purposes. This character development is really good so far, hope before cour 1 ends he will do something explosive and giga chad.

Other Episode Review: