Mobile Suit Gundam – 10

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

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Mobile Suit Gundam - 10Garma 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.

Mobile Suit Gundam - 10With 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.

Mobile Suit Gundam - 10Seeing 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.

Mobile Suit Gundam - 10

Thoughts/Review:

Mobile Suit Gundam - 10Well, 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.

Mobile Suit Gundam - 10Char’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?

Mobile Suit Gundam - 10Speaking 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.

Mobile Suit Gundam - 10
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9 Responses to “Mobile Suit Gundam – 10”

  1. Anonymous says:

    A bit about colonies, sides and what not. Around all bodies that have another large orbiting them there are five places where the gravity will keep them in place. Called Lagrangian points. When colony pairs called Bunches are gathered at a point it’s designated as a Side. Side 3 the home turf of the Zeon is at lagrangian point 2 (L2) which is behind the moon and farthest from earth. A lot of the space science in gundam is taken right from the 1976 book called High Frontier. The panels are for extra solar power.

  2. junior says:

    Side 7 was the only side with just one colony. The rest of the sides all have quite a few – though iirc at least one Side (and possibly more) has been completely depopulated at this point. The Duchy of Zeon is Side 3 in its entirety.

    You got most of the Zabis, but your list was missing two. You’ll meet one of them shortly, iirc, so no need to identify him. The other is Dozle’s daughter, Minerva, who’s so young that she’s merely scenery in this series. I should probably refrain from saying anything else until you know more about what’s going on…

    And just as a random note, the first episode of Gundam 08th MS Team ends with the broadcast of the eulogy at Garma’s funeral.

  3. Manae says:

    To elaborate a bit on Anon’s info:

    Earth has five Lagrange points, one opposite the moon on the same orbit, two in-line with the Earth and moon (one between, the other equidistant on the other side of the moon) and two others on the moon’s orbit path sixty degrees from the Earth-moon line. The same five also exist if you use the Earth and Sun, but multiple-satellite systems like Jupiter are unlikely to have steady points.

    Most of the colonies seen for most of the UC series are O’Niell Island Three colonies. They’re arranged in the two-colony Bunches that orbit each other which helps them remain stable. Each side has many Bunches: Side 3 (Zeon) goes to at least 38 Bunch.

    Gundam: Origin (made as an updated version of the original series, with even more of the Super Robot-ness removed) is pretty clear that this portion takes place in LA. The stadium the White Base hides in was completed shortly before the One Year War.

    Unfortunately, except for a few single lines here and there, I’m pretty sure the anime itself never goes in to Char’s background. It’s probably one of the parts that got cut off due to the early cancellation. You’d have to go into some supplementary material, but I’d recommend waiting until after you finish the series.

  4. junior says:

    ———————-
    Unfortunately, except for a few single lines here and there, I’m pretty sure the anime itself never goes in to Char’s background
    ———————-

    While we never get in-depth information, we do get a comment later on from a certain individual (who shall remain nameless at this time) who recognizes Artesia and sheds a tiny bit of light.

    The novels also add that Char and Garma were in the same class at the academy, and Char would have been at the top of the class if Garma hadn’t been a Zabi. I don’t know if that’s carried over to the series or not, however.

  5. AstroNerdBoy says:

    Thanks for all the information. I think the next episode shows Side 3 with multiple space stations, which I assume to be different colonies. Each space station appears to be like Babylon 5 in that the center contains an actual surface where things are grown and then there are levels from there down/up (depending on your point of view) to the hull.

  6. AstroNerdBoy says:

    The anime did mention that Char and Garma were at the academy together and were supposedly close friends.

  7. Krono says:

    “Each space station appears to be like Babylon 5 in that the center contains an actual surface where things are grown and then there are levels from there down/up (depending on your point of view) to the hull.”

    Kind of. Babylon 5 was more of an Island Two design:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernal_sphere

    Where as the colonies in Mobile Suit Gundam are mainly Island Three Designs:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Three

  8. junior says:

    The colonies in MS Gundam are all classic O’Neill Cylinders – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder

    The “ground” in those colonies is the inner lining of the colony hull.

  9. AstroNerdBoy says:

    Thanks everyone for the invaluable information. ^_^ I hadn’t realized that there was so much actual theory on these kinds of stations as I’ve never researched it.

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