機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 05
Mobile Suit Gundam – 05

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Frau Bow and Amuro distribute towels to the civilians before White Base gets to Earth so they can clean themselves. After Amuro fixes a child’s radio control car, the escort ship Salamis prepares to launch a capsule (shuttle) piloted by Lt. Reed to guide White Base to a safe landing on Earth. With the Musai detected as getting another resupply, the crew of the Salamis doesn’t believe that Char will attack them. Bright feels otherwise and has his crew at battle stations with Amuro in the Gundam. Meanwhile, three more Zaku are delivered to the Musai and Char holds an emergency plan to attack White Base while they are still prepping for reentry. They will only have a small window of opportunity so as to avoid getting destroyed in Earth’s atmosphere.

Char leads the Zaku assault and Amuro races to meet him. As they fight, Sayla reminds Amuro to not solely focus on Char, causing him to notice a nearby Zaku attacking the ships. Amuro uses up his rockets in his “bazooka” weapon and asks Sayla to send him the beam rifle, something she says she can’t do. Amuro uses the Vulcan cannons in the Gundam’s head to destroy a nearby Zaku when Sayla says that they can launch the Gundam Hammer to him. Amuro agrees and as Char fires on Gundam, the “hammer” (a flail) blocks the shot. As White Base attempts to keep the Zaku units at bay with its guns, Amuro continues to battle Char and another Zaku, taking it out. Char is forced to retreat to the Musai‘s guidance shuttle to avoid destruction in Earth’s atmosphere.

With White Base already in Earth’s atmosphere, Amuro cannot get to the safety of the ship. The final Zaku unit burns up in the atmosphere and as Amuro uses Gundam’s shield for some protection, he sees in the manual about a protective film that is deployed if the Gundam is to enter the atmosphere. He activates this and survives. This is noted by Char who communicates with Zeon forces to let them know that the “Trojan Horse” and the Federation mobile suit have been diverted so that they are heading to Zeon territory. Meanwhile, Sayla restores radio contact with Amuro and directs him to return to White Base. As he does this, Bright and Reed see they are heading into Zeon territory and that a giant aircraft as well as a group of fighters await them.

Thoughts/Review:

OK, so if Gundam has two energy swords, what does it need with an old-fashioned flail? Granted, Char’s Zaku has some sort of axe, but that has some sort of energized edge (or something) which he’s used to cut through the bazooka weapon that Gundam has as well as Gundam’s shield. This “Gundam Hammer” seemed to be nothing more than a flail, though the ball of the fail can obviously take a lot of damage to survive a rocket hit and not be destroyed. I suppose the flail could be made of some sort of material that when used in space, could seriously damage Zaku’s armor since that’s exactly what happened when Amuro destroyed the second Zaku unit. The anime seems to enjoy springing things on the audience and then explaining things later.

As expected, Char got his resupply rather quickly. While I know the Federation is eager get its prized battleship safely to Earth and the territories they control there, why wasn’t something done about Musai? In one shot (reused from the end of the previous episode), White Base is being escorted by more than one ship but then only one ship is ever mentioned (the Salamis). So where are the other Federation ships? I saw a lot of ships at Luna II and one would think that it would be bad juju to allow Musai to continue to track White Base AND receive a resupply. Instead, its like, “Meh! They won’t attack.” So the good guys let an enemy warship get a complete resupply rather than destroy it or at least get it out of the area. At least Bright had White Base on alert.

So, White Base has only two official gunners (Kai and Hayato) with Ryu helping when he’s not in the Core Fighter. I think that even without training, I would have put some civilians into gun pods during the attack as White Base attempts to enter Earth’s atmosphere rather than have those three running from place to place (or so it seemed to me). Assuming White Base makes it to Federation territory (which I’m sure they’ll do eventually), some personnel to fill the gunner positions would seem to be in order and indeed the most important jobs to be filled. The other “drafted” rookies will obviously stay at their posts because that’s the way this series is going to roll. ^_^

The standard Char vs. Amuro fight happened with the usual results. I did notice Char’s throw away line about the Gundam pilot getting better. Well, I’m sure Amuro is starting to gain a bit of proficiency with Gundam, but the suit is the one really getting better as I see it. Amuro does get credit for consulting the manual for the deus ex machina save of the Gundam during entry into Earth’s atmosphere though. Using the Gundam’s shield to buy time is something else to credit Amuro with.

I did like how Sayla was involved in the mobile suit fight this time. Until now, she’s just been the chick who launched the Gundam and Core Fighter. This time, her role has expanded to one of “controller.” Thus, she monitored Zaku movements, directed Amuro when he got too focused on Char, and provided him with the Gundam Hammer when he needed another weapon. For me, it provided a more realistic feel to the combat and reminded me of the way AWACS crews helps direct air combat.

So, another enjoyable episode and I look forward to more.