Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is a visually excellent sci-fi action show but suffers from its incredibly ill-defined world. The usual Gundam charm and polish with mech combat can only make up so much for the vagueness of its political and societal structures. As an ironic consequence, despite Gundam being considered a sci-fi classic that has stuck to the harder end of that spectrum, it is difficult for a viewer in that demographic to enjoy WFM. While the characters are certainly brought to life with fantastic voice acting and dramatic moments, it is hard to be sold and invested in them when the context they make their decisions in is so poorly explained or even convoluted at times. It constantly takes the viewer out of their suspension of disbelief because much of the world the characters interact with as core parts of the plot is never properly defined. There is this constant lip service to how complex or multi-layered all this corporate politics and economic oppression is, but never an actual exploration or even basic explanation. It is frankly more frustrating than a botched dive into it or having a more simplistic scenario. In those cases, there is at least an attempt to address or deliver on what was promised. Understandably, some viewers can be entertained solely by the drama and characterisation alone. But it is hard to call it good science fiction or even a Gundam series after it has deliberately brought up complexities in its world and narrative yet fails to explore them and leaves them as only cheap aesthetic window dressing. The only saving grace of the series is then the characters but they can only make up so much for things since they are ulimately beholden in believability to the setting.

Any interesting plot developments or meaningful actions by our characters affecting things rely on comprehending the political, economic and social structures they interact with. This might all sound incredibly cerebral and too complex, even for sci-fi or Gundam. But it really is just a formal and systematic way of saying that we need to understand, at least in the broad strokes, who is interacting with what, what powers they have, and what any of it means in relation to their objectives. Illustrating this point, we find out only after 19 episodes that there is an entity called the Space Assembly League. This sounds like some kind of traditional government institution. They appear to have authority and power over the Benerit Group. And at the very least, they clearly are a powerful and highly centralised organisation with how even a section of their armed forces is seen to be threatening to the Benerit Group. This is a major issue since WFM has been giving the impression for one and a half seasons that its world is some kind of corporate-controlled future where they run amuck and do as they please. The sudden departure from that is an issue since it shatters the already paper-thin safety net of the viewer being able to take it for granted that the Benerit Group controlled most things as a mega-corporation and that the series was a consequence of that.

It raises an incredible number of questions as to the nature of the conflict throughout the series, and the themes or ideas the show is attempting to comment on or explore. Namely, if the Benerit Group was always subject to a higher authority, how do they have so much power? Corporate capture of government institutions is a very real phenomenon and would be a sufficient explanation while also being an interesting point to explore. But the relationship between the two entities is barely brought up, much less explained in even a basic sense. The audience has no idea if the SAL is a traditional government entity representing the people of the Fronts (space colonies) or if their delegates only represent corporations. This distinction is important since it changes the nature of the show's world and themes. The latter would be more of an exploration into what a world run at the behest of corporations looks like, while the former explores corporate influence and control over a government and its consequences. Similarly vague is even the broad strokes of the political structures on Earth. When Minorine goes to negotiate to end the hostilities between the two sides in the wake of the attack on Plant Quetta, it is revealed she is not talking to government representatives on Earth when one of them tells her to leave the deals up to the politicians. This is mind-boggling since it raises so many questions about what authority or power these people from Earth would have to stop the fighting. And it seems like WFM is even dimly aware of how botched its world's coherence is since it does not even bother mentioning a cursory title or designation for these people like most other shows would. Instead of briefly naming them as representatives, a mayor, or even a CEO if they wanted to double down on this being a corporate world, they give no hints as to what positions they hold. Yet the viewer cannot even take it for granted that these are community leaders who deal with the Benerit Group since no other political institutions exist in this world. They directly mention the existence of conventional politicians elsewhere. Instead of giving intuitive cursory answers and letting the viewers fill in the blanks on their own, WFM only raises more questions. This can only be explained by incompetence or negligence when planning out the world, or as another deliberate attempt to create a complex and politically dramatic appearance without putting in the effort.

Even the Earthian-Spacian split fails to be a compelling motivator of the conflict because it is arbitrary and ill-defined, even after two full seasons. The main issue is that because this is not a traditional political conflict, we cannot take it for granted that the two sides hold animosity toward each other because of their differing allegiance. Again the lack of any explanation of the political situation has come back to undermine this. It is never made clear if the Earth and the Fronts are in some kind of political union or if it is a colonialist type situation. So we lack even that as a means for inferring the implicit goals of the Earthians, be it independence, autonomy, or a more just and equitable union of the Earth sphere. What we are left with appears as more of a class conflict. Yet the writers treat the issue as something more akin to a difference of ethnicity, something inherent to a person and affects their outward appearance and that cannot really be changed. This is a significant issue since there is no difference between the two groups besides economic means. There is no meaningful or even visible cultural difference between Earthians and Spacians, with them seeming to both be heterogeneous groups. There are also no inherent differences would necessarily distinguish themselves from other humans, like with Newtypes or Coordinators. What is left is that the only distinction is their place of birth. Hypothetically, someone born on Earth but raised by Spacians in a wealthy environment would realistically have zero allegiance to an Earthian identity. If this were a conflict drawn on class lines, most people in this situation of adoption would be defenders of the status quo since they benefit from it and have entirely different mannerisms because of their upbringing. They would be unrecognisable as Earthians. Yet the characters of WFM treat the birthplace of someone as an overarching determinant without any comprehensible explanation. An eye-watering highlight from this is that if we were not told Shaddiq was part Earthian, the viewer would have no way to discern that. It renders the distinction unconvincing and shallow as a means motivator of conflict. It is a primarily class conflict, yet it is written as if it was related to race and ethnicity. And even then it is done without any particular depth and serves as a poor allegory for one.

It cannot even be said that the viewer holds an unfair expectation of the complexity of the series. WFM continuously brings up and hints at complexity and complication in its world, like with the vague statement that corporations created 'war partitioning' for their own benefit, but never explains or explores any of it. WFM provokes the viewer to see its world as complex, warranting the drama it derives from the heavy themes it covers, yet not only fails to deliver but absconds from the responsibility to back up any of these hintings with some substance. It is perfectly acceptable for a series to have a simple, closer to black and white conflict for the sake of focusing narrative time and resources on characters with their more personal stakes and drama. The problem is that WFM constantly holds up the pretence that it is a complex, multi-layered conflict while lacking the actual depth to do so. In fact, it is incredulous how little exposition there is in this series despite the multiple deliberate attempts the series makes to complicate and layer issues on top of each other. Many other series, some Gundam ones included, stumble into the pitfall of relying too much on exposition to explain the complexities of the politics behind their worlds. But at the very least they provide the viewer with some understanding of the conflict. Without that, it is hard to see any of the fighting our characters are put through as having some meaning, or even cause, beyond just being for the sake of entertaining spectacle. Even if WFM wishes to evade its Gundam name and the legacy that comes with it when it comes to viewer expectation, it still draws heavily on many ideas from the series. This is a hallmark of Gundam at this point, and it is interesting to see a new riff or adaptation of what are now classic Gundam elements. Yet it is hypocritical to say that WFM cannot be compared to Gundam standards when it benefits from so many of their ideas. The most obvious thing it adapts is Prospera Mercury being a Char clone through and through with all the motivations and plot consequences archetypical to this character type. It is unfair to say that WFM must address in depth all Gundam themes to a tee because of this legacy. After all, each series is its own unique entity which have differing level of focus on different aspects of Gundam. Yet they cannot say they are a part of the series and choose to do away with explaining politics on some level, especially after they keep voluntarily bringing up how complex and central it is to the setting.

In this, it is almost possible to call WFM an abject failure since it does not deliver on its promise and squanders its potential. We get no exploration on anything unique to a world where corporations are in control. Nothing about the dangers of corporate overreach or exploitation despite it being touted as a major flashpoint throughout the series on Earth. And nothing about the perils of the military-industrial complex and how that relates back thematically to meta-tension in Gundam of mobile suits being cool for the audience to watch yet also weapons of war. The little lip service we get of this is related almost entirely to the Ariel and the datastorm technology instead of the more grounded questions with mass-produced mobile suits. It leaves it all with the distinct impression that the corporate setting surrounding the Benerit Group and the economic oppression of Earth are nothing more than aesthetics. It is the aesthetics of a serious issue that is used to make the series appear deeper than it really is. A veneer to add gravity and drama to events without doing any the work to explore its causes or ramifications. For emphasis, WFM is constantly flaunting these themes and elements to the viewer instead of it being an unfair adult expectation placed on a juvenile action show. The failure to then satisfactorily explore this, even if it is just on the surface with only notional answers, is a major issue that detracts from things. It is an incredibly blatant failure in managing audience expectations.

The only saving grace is then the show's characters, which are charming and exceedingly well voice-acted. The opening of many of the character mystery boxes has greatly eased WFM's reliance on uncertainty to create character drama. Though it still reveals how most characters have not grown so much as finally being shown to the audience and understood. Guel and Chuchu were still the highlights of the series again as the few characters with any real depth or different facets to them. It is obvious by now that this is a consequence of using an overwhelming number of character mystery boxes. A character cannot be developed if so much of their past and motivations remain hidden, which limited a vast majority of growth to Chuchu and Guel since they were the only real known quantities to the audience. They are the only ones that can have a change of character while the rest have 'reveals' of them. This even applies to Suletta, who is functionally a pawn with little agency until the final episodes of the season. While her character arc and story are still compelling enough, especially helped by Ichinose Kana's fantastic performance, having a character that the plot essentially happens to until the last moment does not make for an ideal protagonist. It is still serviceable, but it contributes in no small part to Guel feeling like the story's actual protagonist since he is put through the most conflict. This amount of choice and ramifications is usually reserved for the story's protagonist with how much growth and agency he receives. This is more of a structural issue than anything particularly wrong with the characters, but it does create this issue of audience expectation since Suletta's perspective is better suited to a different genre of show. There are some attempts to develop what would probably be considered tertiary characters like Martin and Lauda. But given how little time is spent with them with their initial characterisation and how quick the build-up is, it either feels flat, like in the case of Martin or rushed to the point of melodrama with Lauda.

This comes back to a large overall pacing and tone issue that seems to plague the series. Past Gundam series have had far longer continuous runs, and it feels like WFM is suffering from having only 24 episodes to tell an entire Gundam story that usually runs for roughly double the length. It leads to it feeling like an abridged version of Gundam with a particularly tropey cast in how much their personality is exaggerated to speed up characterisation. In fact, this might also explain why so little has been developed about the larger politics of the series. Though instead of dialling it back, they still tried to have their cake and eat it too. The pacing issue and general time squeeze only really highlight itself with how little Minorine actually interacts with Suletta this season. The major flashpoint between them feels melodramatic with how little build-up it receives and the severity of their outburst. While it is appropriate to a degree for teenagers to react that emotively, it could certainly have done with more time to breath. The tonal whiplash of going from the Plant Quetta attacks, a seemingly paradigm-shifting event, back to attempting to play school heavily stretches believability. This seems like a consequence of having a two-season format which necessitated a climax midway even though the series had not finished what it wanted to do with Astacasia as a setting. It really does feel like another instance of wanting it both ways, having a dramatic conflict yet continuing to play around in the school setting indefinitely. To the show's credit, it is far more gruesome than usual with its depictions of the cost of war. And appropriately, it has some outstanding moments with how hard it is for characters like Guel and Chuchu to return to playing war in their duelling after seeing real combat. Yet a lot of this bloodshed has this distinct undertone of feeling like cheap shock value at times because of how incoherent the world is.

Overall, Witch From Mercury feels incredibly botched in how vague its world is. While charming and lively, the characters can only take the series so far. Their believability is linked to the world they inhabit, and that element is constantly being eroded with every reminder of how vague it is and the needless complications of it without answers. And it feels like the world of WFM is almost irreparably damaged with how long it has gone without being properly explained. The entire premise of the Benerit Group feels like a cheap aesthetic choice with little merit. With how little they cover themes about corporations, it would have been better to stick to it being a world with more conventional political organisation. In fact, if the Astacasia School was a peacekeeper training academy, it might have made it feel far less out of place than some corporate high school. It is hard to recommend this despite WFM still being entertaining enough with its action and quirky characters. There is a lot to like, and will probably appeal to viewers less interested in the sci-fi's more cerebral or abstract aspects. But it is hard to say it is a good representative of the Gundam series with how little it cares about its themes, though it is definitely better than the average in terms of its character. Perhaps too much time was sacrificed from other elements for that. Given it is frustratingly vague and even vapid but still at least functionally entertaining as a story, a 5 out of 10 rating seems appropriate.

It is entirely understandable why a viewer looking primarily for cool fights and character drama for entertainment would like WFM. In that, the show has succeeded. I would recommend it as a digestible modern taster of the Gundam aesthetics, though not as an archetypical representative of the series as a whole. But for viewers like myself who would like something more thematically interesting to chew on and think about, it hard to recommend it with how impossibly vague it is. Especially because WFM quite blatantly promised that to us yet did not deliver. It makes one wonder if it really just misses potential at times or deliberately stringing a major part of the usual Gundam audience along with the hopes of a political explanation.