機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 08
Mobile Suit Gundam – 08

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

White Base makes its way along the water-filled Grand Canyon as Zeon aircraft observe the ship from a safe distance above. Char understands that White Base is attempting to use the canyon for the increased Minovsky particles, thus making an attack on them more difficult. Char gets Garma to agree to an ambush when they receive word from White Base stating that they have civilians that want off now. Garma agrees to a cease fire to allow the civilians to depart. A transport plane is readied with Kai damaging the cargo pod to make it look like Zeon damage. When the plane launches, Char suspects a trap until the plane makes a crash landing. With the nine civilians departing, Frau Bow and two other leave on jet packs and are followed by a Zeon plane while hidden within the cargo pod, while Amuro and Ryu remain behind to carry out their plan.

With a mother and child heading for St. Anges (and having some trouble on the way), the Zeon pilot decides to stop tailing Frau Bow and company and check on those two civilians. When Amuro emerges in Gundam from the cargo pod, he abandons the plan to hide in the lake and decides to go after the plane, fearing for the life of the mother and child. However, he’s surprised to see the Zeon plane drop a small, supply pod before leaving. Unfortunately, the glint of sunlight from Gundam is spotted and they return and attack, forcing Amuro to shoot them down. As this happens, Garma launches his planned attack on White Base, which dispatches Guntank and Guncannon. Amuro brings Gundam from behind as had been planned and the Zeons are utterly defeated after a lengthy battle. As this happens, the mother treats to two Zeon pilots, who tell her to horror that she should return to the other civilians as this barren land she is traveling on was once the city of St. Anges.

Thoughts/Review:

While I can certainly appreciate the desire of these civilians to want to be on Earth rather than be trapped in a warship that is under constant attack, I cannot fathom how desperate these people have to be to want to be basically marooned in Zeon territory and hope for the best. The writers went out of their way to show that the Zeon folks aren’t inhuman monsters and I appreciate that but this is a war zone and since these civilians are coming from a Federation battleship that carried weaponry that is a major threat to the Zeons, these nine civilians would likely be rounded up and imprisoned in the hopes of gaining even a little bit of knowledge about White Base. Even without that, the Zeons should assume spies being planted in their territory.

Regardless, it was fairly obvious that a plane going to land a few refugees that also is carrying a cargo pod big enough to house a Gundam is going to be playing Trojan Horse and carry a Gundam. I will give credit to the writers for having the cargo pod pre-damaged by Kai to have a hole blown in it as well as having White Base crew members using smoke grenades to create the illusion of a fire caused by Zeon battle damage. However, I’m annoyed at how the oh so smart Char is handled. I’ve no problem with him suspecting a trap, but initially, he states that he only suspected the Federation of trying to have troops landed, disguised as civilians. That’s certainly plausible and I’ve no problem with that. When that proved false, suddenly, Char is, “I suspect an enemy mobile suit actually was in the plane and waiting to attack us from the rear.” That’s what annoyed me.

In my mind, Char should have stated that this was his suspicion from the start. When he mentioned his belief that troops might be landed, it seems then would have been the time to mention hiding the Gundam in the supposedly damaged cargo pod. Instead, he waits, then acts surprised when Gundam actually shows up and the Zeons take a huge defeat.

Then again, maybe this is what Char wants. Char seems to me to be the kind of guy who wants to be in charge. What better way to move up the ranks than to have your superior suffer a massive defeat while you act like you are actually trying to support him? I kept waiting for Char to leap to action in his own Zaku, as he’s done before, but the fact that he didn’t do this and his thoughts earlier on about Garma makes me wonder what political game Char might be playing. Or maybe I’m over thinking these things.

Again, it is hard to judge how much time has passed over these eight episodes but it is clear that Amuro is getting better as are all the White Base crew. I will admit to enjoying seeing these amateurs becoming more professional, even Kai. He’s still a misfit and in the thick of combat was naturally scared to death. However, from his planting the explosives on the cargo pod to emulate battle damage to his fighting to eventually his taking out a Zaku that had targeted an unaware Amuro in the Gundam, Kai was invaluable in the mission’s success.

I’m glad this series is turning out to be so much fun because it makes it easy to move onto the next episode. ^_^