Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury

Episode 22

I definitely enjoyed last week's episode of The Witch From Mercury on its own, though I can see why some would be trepidatious about the pacing for the final stretch that one seemed to be setting itself up for. Apparent as it is that we're heading into finale territory, without certainty of a follow-up season, we can see that the show simply isn't going to have the space to resolve all the various conflicts it's built up and utilized throughout its run. That's an issue that I won't be able to critically assess until we've arrived at the ending and seen exactly what pieces the series leaves un-picked up. But the notion of that pacing still informs reactions to this episode and its decidedly uneven approach to its upcoming plot off-ramp.

You'd be forgiven for thinking G-Witch had more than a couple of episodes left, what with the downright languid pace this one deals in arranging its characters and shipping them off to the final battle. Most of the themes covered here are simple reiterations of what was hit so effectively last week: Suletta resolving to move forward, under her own decision, regardless of gaining anything. The big shift this time, which I'm sure we're all happy to see, is in Suletta finally making her way back to Miorine to impress that philosophy on her. Their reconciliation, and the big damn hand-holding shot accompanying it, is wonderful because it's come about as a result of Suletta's internal growth, rather than her needing to demonstrably 'earn' Miorine back through some sort of material accomplishment. Even her non-mecha-based final duel with Guel is nothing more than a formality. It's not that Suletta is 'worthy' of being with Miorine again because needing to prove her usefulness and worth to be with her was a dooming point of the original iteration of their relationship. They are now two people capable of understanding and supporting each other in what they need to do, apart from the transactional nature that previously defined their connection (as it did for all of Suletta's relationships during her listening-to-her-mother era).

Everything about the Suletta/Miorine rebound, including the duel scene, makes for a great center to this episode. But with the themes just being concentratedly reiterated there, it means everything else about the story covered in this one can feel strictly mechanical, in a moving-pieces-around way. Suletta finally learns the truth about El4n from El5n, at the same bench where she had originally been waiting for him, and even comes the closest of all this stuff to feeling emotionally resonant. But it also smacks of the writing realizing this was the last chance it had to sit down and cover that point. El5n has been put on a pretty interesting emotional journey over this season, and he's one I fear may get left in the dust of everything else happening in these forthcoming final episodes. Ditto for the frankly bizarre revelation of Miorine's mother baking a message of love for her daughter into the genetic code of her tomatoes. You can practically hear Okouchi going "Oh right I guess I need to squeeze in something covering Miorine's relationship with her mom!"

On the other hand, you have Guel, whose characterization feels like it has come confidently full circle several times over by now. You know I love the boy, and the extended kindness of that duel challenge he gives Suletta is one more neat capstone on his story. But then this episode, in the end, makes clear that all the build-up it was doing with his brother Lauda and the Schwarzette mobile suit was entirely so they could throw them at Guel so he'd have something to do during the final battle here. I am sure it will be something very cool, but recalling things like the Dawn of Fold cell he briefly got involved with, or that whole concept of him saving his company to atone for killing his father, it all comes off like plots that got lost in needing to use him to (very effectively!) compliment the arc for Suletta and Miorine.

The rest is pure piece-moving. We get the revelation that Quiet Zero has a cooldown timer to facilitate the limits on this final battle (which does annoyingly seem set to be something of a structural retread of the fight around Plant Quetta in the first cour's finale). We get Secelia sending Rouji with everyone in her stead, so he can manage the technical stuff that will be involved in this plot and also because she knows that every time she stands up something horrible happens. We get the proper debut for the Calibarn, and I kinda have to applaud G-Witch's audacity in giving this mecha an actual big ol' robot witch broom to ride around on. It's the ending, just friggin' go for it. And it does make for an incredibly cool-looking prelude fight to lead into the final battle proper (and assuredly move even more model kits for this series).

That all makes for an odd unevenness to try and critically assess this episode. When the themes and the emotional elements and the cool robot bits are on, they are on. But that's all surrounded by some of the most perfunctory plotting that G-Witch has gotten to in a while, which also leaves us with a lot of questions about which cards it won't have time to put on the table before all is said and done. You can kind of see that reflected in this one's emotional center, as Suletta and Miorine resolve to move forward and take responsibility for their actions, even as they realize it won't be able to all work out satisfactorily when all is said and done. But it must be done, regardless.

Rating:

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is keeping busy keeping up with the new anime season, and is excited to have you along. You can also find him writing about other stuff over on his blog, as well as spamming fanart retweets on his Twitter, for however much longer that lasts.