機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 16
Mobile Suit Gundam – 16

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

White Base is in the Central Asia desert area at the point where they are supposed to rendezvous with General Revil.  Instead, they encounter one of his men in a car and wounded with word that White Base and crew will participate in a major military offensive called “Odessa Day” in five days against M’quve, one of Kycilia’s subordinates.  In the meantime, the chef reports that the ship is completely out of salt.  Since this is a health risk, Bright is forced to head to Rob Lake, which is a salt lake.  However, when they arrive, they find the lake gone.  Since the lake changes positions, they must go find it since a lack of salt will reduce crew performance.

Meanwhile, Ramba Ral and his woman Hamon are hunting White Base and report in with M’quve.  Receiving intelligence that White Base has altered course, M’quve is glad since it means his secret mining operation won’t be discovered by Admiral Dozle.  M’quve sends this information to Ral, who begins to set a trap for White Base with his Gallop, Gouf, and Zaku units.  With Hamon left in the Gallop and its approach is noticed by White Base.  Though unidentifiable to the White Base crew, the vehicle is determined to be too fast to be a Magella Attack tank and too small to be a Gaw.  Bright has Amuro deploy in Gundam, but Amuro discovers that Sayla has taken the mobile suit out herself.

Sayla quickly discovers that all of her simulation training didn’t prepare her well enough as the G-forces from catapulting from White Base were nearly too much for her. Ral arrives in his Gouf and soon schools Sayla as do the two Zaku units.  Amuro provides some cover for her when he deploys in the Guncannon but she does not answer the radio.  Ral damages Gundam’s foot, causing it to no longer be stable when standing and a Zaku unit piloted by Cozun soon has it and begins to disable it more for capture.  Amuro takes out the other Zaku unit and with Ral out of position, Amuro disables Cozun’s Zaku.  Ral is forced to retreat and Amuro has a prisoner and a captured Zaku unit.  Sayla is punished to three days in the brig but manages to learn from the Zeon prisoner that Char is safe but has been removed from the front line.  She’s relieved since she believes this to be her brother.

Thoughts/Review:

I gotta say that this is the first time that I’ve ever seen any kind of show make a central focus of an episode the shortage of salt.  The closest thing I can think of is an original Star Trek episode with a salt monster of some kind.  Anyway, we never hear about the dangers of a low-sodium diet.  On the contrary, all one ever hears about are the dangers of a high-sodium diet, mainly from eating processed foods.  Since all foods have salt in them naturally and one would presume that White Base‘s food stores contain a large amount of processed foods for long term storage, then the whole salt shortage issue seems to be rather far fetched.  However, the writers needed something to send White Base elsewhere.

Sayla’s sudden re-interest in Char certainly came out of the blue as did her apparent simulator training to pilot a Gundam.  Since her goal in taking Gundam out was to try to learn about Char, this has apparently been on her mind since Side 7, but since the writers hadn’t done anything in all this time to suggest she was still thinking about it, it seems to be forced, much like the salt issue.  Further, Sayla goes from being a competent bridge officer and controller for mobile suit units to being some dumb blonde who thinks that she can pilot a Gundam just because she got into a simulator.  Granted, Amuro the dope did it but his actions made sense on Side 7 whereas Sayla’s make no sense.

So, just how did Sayla make this connection that Char was indeed her brother?  What new intelligence has she learned that would lead her to conclude this?  Again, we’ve seen no evidence of Sayla quietly conducting an investigation or anything else and as such, her actions are all completely out of the blue.  I was intrigued that Mirai was the one who handed out Sayla’s punishment.  Mirai has been seen being fairly close to Bright, not quite in an XO role, but certainly a trusted adviser.  This episode puts Mirai closer to the executive officer position, which is fine with me should that play out.

Going back to Sayla’s punishment, I cringed at the forced nature of her getting to take a meal to Cozun so she can pump him for info on Char.  *_*  I guess Sayla is going to now be constantly on the lookout for Char and do anything to get back with her “niisan.”  *_*

On the other hand, Amuro shows how his experience has improved his skills as he brought out the best of Guncannon.  I liked how he did things and that he was able to capture a Zaku and take Cozun prisoner.  Let’s see what interesting things come of this development.  ^_^

On the Zeon side, Ral and his wench Hamon got a new toy, which seemed pretty ineffective.  Heck, White Base was just as inept since both vessels blasted away at each other without apparently doing much.  Now, we get Garma’s “replacement” in the form of M’quve, who’s apparently doing some unauthorized mining (or at least that’s the impression I got).  I realize that M’quve is higher in rank than Garma was or than apparently Ral but he has that strange look to him, which reminded me of Garma.  To be honest, these Zeon villains seem somewhat boring to me.

Well, on to the next episode.  With Sayla going coo-coo for Char-puffs, I’m guessing Char will soon make an appearance again.