機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 13
Mobile Suit Gundam – 13

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

White Base is in the water and secured as its crew takes some much needed down time.  Amuro heads off to a nearby town where his mother still lives after his father took him to Side 7.  Reaching his childhood home, Amuro finds a group of drunken, ill-disciplined Federation soldiers have taken over the place since it was abandoned.  Taking a wooden doll from the mantle, Amuro leaves and encounters a middle-aged woman who’s being harassed by a couple of other Federation soldiers.  In defending her, Amuro fights the two soldier but is beaten.  However, the woman recognizes Amuro and sends the soldiers off by giving them their money.  She explains that after the Federation main force left the area, they abandoned the soldiers that remained behind and thus the soldiers have degenerated.

Back on White Base, two Zeon Lugguns are detected and so Bright orders Ryu out in a Core Fighter to take them out before White Base is located and its position reported.  Meanwhile, Amuro learns that his mother is at a nearby church and takes his Core Fighter there.  The residents of the town are afraid of his fighter being in the open and beg him to hide it as the Zeons make regular patrols from their front line base on the other side of the mountains.  Amuro’s mother shows up and after a reunion, Amuro agrees to hide his plane.  Returning to the camp, Amuro is in one of the many beds in a barracks-like structure that have been set up as his mother sits beside him and they catch up.

The arrival of a couple of Zeon soldiers on patrol has Amuro’s mother pull up the covers to hide his presence.  They are looking for the Core Fighter and with no cooperation are about to leave when an emergency page from White Base reaches Amuro and reveals him.  Amuro shoots one of the soldiers and attempts to shoot the other but his mother interferes.  His mother is upset that her son has turned violent which Amuro interprets to mean she doesn’t love him since there’s a war on.  As he leaves, she screams that she’s ashamed to call him her son.  Amuro runs to his hidden Core Fighter and takes off after the damaged Luggan where he discovers the Zeon base.  The Zeon commander immediately dispatches two Dopp fighters, both of which Amuro manages to destroy.

As Amuro’s mother continues to weep over her “lost” son, a Gunperry is deployed so that Amuro can make a mid-air conversion from Core Fighter to Gundam.  After successfully docking with the Gundam legs, Amuro has difficulty syncing up with the upper body of Gundam but manages to do so just the same.  With that, Amuro proceeds to single handedly destroy the Zeon base.  On White Base, Bright is not happy with this as a small, remote Zeon base is not worth the time and resources spent to take it out.  With the base destroyed, White Base lands and Amuro’s mother sees him again, handing him the wooden doll.  Bright comes up and praises “Amuro-kun” despite his earlier feelings.  Amuro’s mother cries as he returns to his ship and White Base takes off.

Thoughts/Review:

OK, so where exactly did Amuro land his Core Fighter when he initially came to see his mother?  I ask because he could have landed it right outside of her home rather than land it wherever he did and then take the leisurely stroll down the lane to her place. That’s why his suddenly being in the Core Fighter to make what seemed to be a short trip to this church came as such a surprise.  The refugee camp may have been several miles away so taking his fighter there makes sense but if he could initially park it right within 50-yards of his mother at the camp, why couldn’t he have done the same for his childhood home?  That just makes no sense to me.

Despite all of his whining, Amuro has become a pretty good soldier.  I have to admit that I was taken by surprise when Amuro shot the Zeon soldier through the bed linen but he did the right thing.  An enemy soldier was there and Amuro would have at best been taken as a prisoner of war with a very uncertain future (to say nothing of the Core Fighter being captured) had he not acted.  At worst, he would have been shot and very possibly, the refugees as well for harboring a Federation soldier.  I was also surprised that Amuro aggressively went after the second soldier but that too was the right thing to do so as not to allow the Zeon forces to know of his presence and to protect White Base which was in the nearby area.

His mother’s reaction to everything initially seemed odd to me but then the last time she saw him was when he was a child (or at least that’s the impression I was left with).  I know that to a parent, their children remain their children even when said children are no longer children but adults.  So, I’m guessing there is a bit of that at play.  However, in becoming an adult, Amuro appears to have shattered his mother’s illusions and well those things break badly.

I liked how Bright praised Amuro in front of his mother when those same actions had earlier ticked him off.  It was classy on the part of Bright but I wonder if Amuro got spoken to after they returned to the ship.

Speaking of Bright and Amuro’s actions against the Zeon base, again I’m going to side with Amuro here.  I understand that White Base has limited resources and that resupplies are difficult at best.  However, Amuro’s actions spared a town of Federation folks from further harassment for the time being.  The destruction of the base allows White Base to move unmolested for a while, at least until they come into Zeon territory again.

Which reminds me, did White Base leave California?  I would guess not but it is difficult to know for sure just where the heck they are.  Baja maybe?

I should have expected that in addition to being a space ship and an atmosphere flying craft, White Base also functions as a ship on the water.  The only thing left to reveal is that it has submarine capabilities, which it might considering the ship is space worthy.

I didn’t like the Gundam mid-air conversion stuff.  The moment Amuro’s Core Fighter transformed into a flying box, I couldn’t help but think of how that could not work in reality.  OK, I accept White Base hovering and flying so why not a Core Fighter without its wings?  I don’t know but it was just something that set off my BS meter.  ^_^;

Finally, we had an episode without Char?  Seriously, what’s wrong with this picture?  *lol*

So, and interesting episode with some surprising moments.