In space, capitalism still sucks. And, with the addition of weaponized armored robots, it looks a lot like war. In a world where different corporate concerns are literally fighting for control of market share, a family is torn apart, but not before a young child bonds with her mother’s mobile suit in a way that no one else can attain. Now, 14 years later, Suletta Mercury has come to Asticassia School of Technology to train as a pilot, only to find herself in a series that was brilliantly summarized by Kat Callahan as “Revolutionary Mobile Suitena.” ^_^
At Asticassia, Suletta functions both as a blithering idiot-type protagonist and a True Hero TM type protagonist. She finds herself in the middle of a duel to protect a girl she doesn’t know and, as a consequence of winning the duel, is “engaged” to the girl, one Miorine Rembran, who lives in a small greenhouse on campus. By now, you’ve probably cottoned on to the fact that Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is honestly, in some key ways, Utena in Space.
There’s no doubt, from the credits to the character named Chu-Chu, (with a mouse-ear like hairstyle) and, of course, the duels for Miorine, this homage is deliberate and not especially subtle.
But this is not Utena, it is Gundam, which has plenty of its own references. Also, interestingly, it may be Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Suletta’s Gundam is named Aerial and the head of the Mercury-based Shin Sei Development Company, Lady Prospera is a pretty strong nod in that direction. Prospera is also this season’s Char Aznable-helmet wearing character, because if we don’t have one of those is it really a Gundam? ^_^
As many people have pointed out, Miorine is not at all a passive Anthy. She’s actively seeking to effect change and it seems likely that she’ll be a key piece to overturning her father’s influence. Suletta has a normal sense of what is right and wrong, and she can see that there’s a lot of wrong stuff going on. They may be very good for each other. One hopes so. Guel Jeturk is already our Saionji character and we can see hints of the rest of the student council, at least in part. I sincerely dislike the character designs, and the school uniform, but that’s fine, it’s unimportant.
So this season is carrying quite a heavy load of symbolism and imagery in the first few episodes. But don’t be deceived, this is still a Gundam and is therefore full of politics and business that have a tenuous relationship to how those things work in real life. If it did, Miorine’s father, Delling Rembrand, would have been removed by the rest of the board long ago. Corporate extortion is one thing, but having to listen to the shouting is not. Those 30 other board members could just pool shares and bounce his ass. He’ll be a drag as a big boss.
And then there are the Gundam themselves. Aerial takes on the heroic white/red/blue and yellow “main Gundam of this series”* design, with unrealistic and very cool transforming weaponry. I am a huge sucker for transforming weaponry, apparently. Honestly, the Gundam battles are among the best parts of the series thus far. I’m glad, too, because they’ve had decades to get that right and it would have been depressing if they weren’t.
I have no idea how much of or how long, this series will be wearing Utena cosplay, plot-wise, but I’m hoping that it sheds it and movse on to a powerful story of its own. I’ve only seen a few Gundam series but one that makes strong anti-war and anti-capitalism statements would be welcome, although I wouldn’t bet on that this time. At least we have a female lead and a couple right from the beginning…let’s see what they do with that.
Ratings:
Art – Good on tech, less good on people, let’s give it a 6
Story – Well, since at the moment it’s 3 series trying to figure out who’s boss, also a 6
Characters – Other than Delling, who is stupidly unlikable, I’ll go 7 and hope some of them go up in score
Service – Erm, not really, but I don’t know if I should be reassured or not
Yuri – Again, erm. It’s Utena, but we’re at the beginning and who knows what will develop. Say….2 for the homage.
Overall – A strong 7, with loads of room to get amazing…or not. Guess we’ll find out!
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is streaming on Crunchyroll.
* I know every Gundam is different and fans could tell me in great detail why. They mostly look the same to me, but I feel that way about cars and planes and other forms of transportation, too. Feel free to detail your feelings about Aerial in the comments. ^_^
