Gundam has to be one of the more reliable shows for me to fall back on. Rarely do you ever get get disappointed by what it offers, and the few times that you do you still have something positive to take away from it. Stardust Memory, Wing and Build Divers have so far been the only ones to let me down, and even those still had something to offer, from good action, beautiful animation, great music, fun designs etc. Complete misses are quite rare, which is why I had pretty high expectations of Witch From Mercury, which I can safely say it met. This review will incorporate my thoughts and feelings about both Witch From Mercury Season 1 and the Prologue episode. It will contain spoilers for both of these. You have been warned.
The HOOK, LINE AND SINKER
Witch from Mercury's prologue is a short, 1 episode long intro to the series, which sets up the world of Witch from Mercury and its current state. G-Witch is a standalone Gundam show that takes place in its own little universe, so setting this universe up beforehand was very much welcome. The prologue also introduces some of our cast members, the soon to be Lady Prospera, and Eri, her cute little daughter. After a visceral and thrilling action sequence that ends in an absolute massacre and the 2 of them being out in space on their own, we are hit with a time skip that kickstarts the main show. Eri, now renamed Suletta, is now our main character, and she has to incorporate herself into this new Sci Fi school. After two or so friendly duels between characters and slight plot advancement, we are hit with a pretty big reveal.
The years don't match.
If the prologue happened 20 years ago as the character's are stating, Suletta could not possibly be Eri. Or at least SOME type of f*ckery is happening. And that's where Witch from Mercury picks up pace and doesn't slow down. A lot of not so subtle hints are constantly dropped in the show, with it becoming more and more apparent that Eri is likely in the Aerial. The fortune teller lady asking Suletta if she has any siblings, Prospera referring to them both as daughters, Suletta referring to Aerial as family and to her G-Bits as "Everyone!". I found myself sitting there and nitpicking every mention of the Aerial like a madman. There's a popular theory that every G-Bit is a different kid or Eri clone but I highly doubt that. It would be a tad bit too cruel, even if it technically fits with the "Witch" moniker. Going online after each episode to see what other conspiracy theories people are forming about the situation and how the plot will advance was a lot of fun, and i'm going to miss it.
__The actual plot, with the crazy hat _off___
Even before the crazy theories, it was up to a really strong start. Suletta being sent off right into the jaws of the enemy without any real knowledge of what has occured years ago and that she's being used as a pawn by her vengeful mother - bumbling and stumbling her way into success was pretty great. Her growth from being someone that just wants to fit in to being someone who's wanted and relied on by her friends was great. Her anxiety doesn't get any better and can still be triggered by very minor things, but she's still taken great steps and i'm very happy about it. She, as the main character, is a big focus of the show, and the show uses it to get you used to how quirky, silly and innocent she is, which makes the episode 12 scene hit much harder. Seeing this innocent goofball who looks like she couldn't hurt a fly even if she tried just absolutely obliterate some poor sod was a big gutpunch. It happened before, in the prologue, but you don't really need to do much of anything to build up a little kid's innocence, and even then it wasn't as visceral of a scene. With the anime, they were taking their time, and went all out. I respect that.
Seeing the machinations of Prospera's revenge plot unfold over the course of the season and wondering if she really planned all of that or if she's just winging it was great.
My biggest worry at the start was that Delling would be a boring main antagonist, but it became quickly apparent that he's not the main antagonist at all. Who is? After 12 whole episodes, I'm still not sure. There's like 4 different characters who could easily step up and take that mantle and that's exactly what makes it interesting. Lady Prospera is obviously talking her kid into doing her vengeance for her while also caring more about the Gundam than her own supposed daughter, Shaddiq's dad is vying for power while Shaddiq is seemingly also in the market for himself, the terrorists from earth trying to take down Spacians as vengeance for mistreatment, or maybe even some of the other corporations? The deck is pretty stacked.
One very interesting thing about Witch from Mercury's world is also how, unlike in other Gundam worlds, it's the people on Earth that are oppressed rather than the people in space. What started off as a seemingly pointless switch of roles has a lot of potential going forward, and i'm excited to see what they do with it.
How much Gundam would you like in your Gundam sir?
One of the biggest complaints that I have seen about G-Witch is that its not "Gundamy" enough. While I can kinda understand it , I can safely assure you that the crux of Gundam is very much in G-Witch. Gundam's main points have almost always been empathy, love and understanding. Whether its for one's enemy, parents, planet or home changes with each show, as do the additional themes of family, ecology and political ideologies. G-Witch handles these very well in its first season. The Suletta x Mio romance, different characters handling losses of their loved ones, the late-capitalist hell of G-Witch's world, the "Earth House" family, the Duels of the academy, all is present. To claim it's not Gundam because of its Romance focus? X Gundam, G Gundam, Zeta, and many others disagree. Because the setting is a school setting, in a series whose settings vary greatly from show to show? I would greatly disagree.
G-Witch is as Gundam as Gundam gets and the series trying something newish should NOT be panned. After all, if the series refused to change, we would never get G Gundam, or Turn A Gundam, or Wing, or any of the other alternate universe series. Gundam constantly pushes the definitions of what Gundam is, and that should honestly be celebrated.tldr; Good stuff.
See you all in a few months. Apologies for the ranty nature of the review.
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