機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 10
Mobile Suit Gundam – 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Garma and Char are attending a high society party at a mansion outside of a ruined major city.  The daughter of the former mayor, Icelina Eschonbach, is announced and this causes Garma to make an exit for a secluded balcony where he is joined by Icelina.  She tells him her father won’t allow her to marry the Zeon heir to the Zabi family, which Garma expected.  However, if he succeeds in capturing the new Federation weapons, then he will have a chance to bargain and if that doesn’t work, he’ll give up being Zeon.  Upon receiving news that the White Base is attempting to leave the city, Garma and Char return to the action with a large squadron of planes.  However, they are unable to locate the Federation ship, which has hidden itself in a sports dome arena.  As such, the Zeon forces begin carpet bombing the ruined city in order to flush out White Base as Icelina attempts to flee the party and join her beloved “Garma-sama,” only to be stopped by her father.

With White Base not revealing itself due to the bombing, Garma wants to head to the ground and continue the search.  Char volunteers to lead a Zaku search of the area and report the location of White Base to Garma, who agrees.  The Zaw drops the three Zeon mobile suits, which is detected by White Base.  Bright goes with Amuro’s plan and launches Gundam to act as a decoy.  Soon, the three Zaku’s are engaged in combat with Gundam.  Char sees that the Gundam pilot is getting better and after one of Char’s support Zaku is destroyed, he discovers the location of White Base.  However, he reports false information to Garma, aiding Amuro’s decoy plan.  As such, Garma’s Gaw and fighters head in the wrong direction.

Seeing the Gaw and support planes leaving the area, Guntank and Guncannon are launched from White Base as Bright orders the ship to attack the departing Zeon aircraft. The massive attack causes major destruction of the Zeon forces as Garma orders the Gaw to turn around.  With the heavy damage taken, all Garma can do is a kamikaze attempt on White Base.  As his giant plane heads in, Char contacts his former friend and reveals that he betrayed Garma because of his father, Degwin.  Garma is stunned by this revelation but is determined to die like a man of the Zabi family.  Bright orders White Base to gain elevation as they manage to destroy Garma’s Gaw before they can be struck.  Meanwhile, the news of Garma’s death reaches Icelina, who weeps for her Garma-sama.  It also reaches the main Zeon territory behind the moon where the Zeon leader Degwin is stunned by the loss of his son.

Thoughts/Review:

Well, there was a lot going on here and a surprise to boot.

The introduction of Icelina seemed almost contrived.  I say this because though Garma and Icelina have had an apparent long standing relationship, I don’t recall any mention of her before this episode.  Had she been name-dropped in a conversation between Garma and Char or Garma had been seen with her picture, then it would have been no problem as she would have been established previously.  As it is, she just seems to come into the picture in order to have the fawning babe in love with “Garma-sama” who can also shed a tear for the man and make him less two dimensional.

Char’s plan now seems more based on revenge than on simply someone attempting to gain advancement by putting down their superior or as happened in this episode, have his superior killed.  Since Char seemed to actually like Garma but had to kill him anyway to gain revenge on Degwin, I guess maybe Degwin did something that caused Char to be separated from his sister since Char and Sayla seem to think they are related to each other.  I guess the obvious “thing” would be the killing of their parents, assuming Char and Sayla are indeed related (and as I said previously, I sorta suspect this will prove the case).  So Char kills Garma indirectly (which surprised me) and will probably go after Dozle, this sister that’s been mentioned, and then finally Degwin.  Question is, what does Char do when he kills them all — take over Zeon?

Speaking of Zeon, the anime finally provides a clearer picture of the Principality of Zeon.  We got to see a giant space station and three large, almost flat “panels” nearby.  I’m not clear on if the whole thing is Side 3 (station and panels) or what but it is nice to see exactly where this Zeon nation originates from and where its currently located.

I’m not sure exactly where White Base is on Earth but if they were near the Grand Canyon recently, then this would likely be a large California city with a sports dome near the ocean.

So, a rather enjoyable episode to be had here.  I’m surprised that Garma was killed but I guess more of his family are going to bite the dust in future episodes.