機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 21
Mobile Suit Gundam – 21

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
 
With White Base damaged from Ramba Ral’s attack and its crew attempting to make repairs, Hamon takes the sixteen surviving members of Ral’s unit along with two Samson units, a modified Zaku carrying a Magella Top gun, and a new mini-Gallop with three Magella Attack turrets attached to attack the Federation ship.  Ryu, recovering from his injuries in the last attack, gets out of bed to pay Bright a visit to discuss Amuro, whom Ryu feels will not fail them again.  Despite the pain, Ryu pays Amuro a visit in the brig, where Amuro says he is no longer angry and understands why Bright is keeping him imprisoned.  It is there that Sayla and Frau Bow find Ryu and attempt to escort him back to the sick bay.

While Hayato and Kai are out in Guntank and Guncannon to guard against a Zeon attack, Hamon’s forces make their first assault with the Zaku unit.  Kai gives chase but soon finds himself outgunned with the approaching Samson units.  Meanwhile, Guntank is having serious issues with only hasty repairs done to it after the last attack.  It breaks down without being in position to provide cover fire.  Inside White Base, Ryu asks Sayla to release Amuro from prison on Ryu’s responsibility as Frau Bow continues to escort Ryu to sick bay.  Sayla agrees and contacts Bright to make the request.  Bright is not happy that both Sayla and Ryu are taking responsibility for Amuro but agrees to the release.  Once released, Amuro promises Sayla that he won’t let Ryu down.

Amuro discovers that Gundam is not ready for launch and the main crew responsible for making the mobile suit ready were injured in the last attack.  As such, Amuro launches in the Core Fighter to provide cover for Kai, taking out a Samson unit in the process.  The backup crew finally gets the two sections of Gundam ready and launches them for Amuro to dock with.  This successful, Gundam now enters the fight and destroys the other Samson unit as the Zaku unit inflicts major damage on White Base.  Before Amuro can take it out, the mini-Gallop appears with the three Magella Attack turrets firing.  Amuro finds the method of attack odd and realizes that this is a kamikaze run on the part of Hamon.  Thus, he uses Gundam to attempt to stop the approach of the mini-Gallop.

Hamon launches the three Magella Tops and has the Zaku attack Gundam from behind.  Amuro manages to use Zaku as a shield from one of the Magella Tops and then tosses the Zaku at the Magella Top, destroying both units.  Hamon is impressed and swings her Megella Top to hover behind Gundam.  Her repeated attacks destroy Gundam’s shield and damage the back of the mobile suit but before she can finish it off, the injured Ryu arrives in a Core Fighter, ramming Hamon’s Megella Top which destroys both craft, killing both pilots.  Now freed, Amuro forces the mini-Gallop back and destroys it.  With all Zeon units destroyed, the crew of White Base mourns the loss of Ryu.

Thoughts/Review:

I’d forgotten that Ryu had been injured in the last episode.  ^_^;;;   Regardless, while I didn’t expect Ryu to be killed, at the same time, I wasn’t surprised by it.  I guess it was having Ryu struggle from place to place to talk to Bright and then Amuro that planted the subconscious flag in my mind that Ryu was marked for death.  Unfortunately, his death ended up not being sad, mainly because the White Base crew started figuratively whipping themselves.  That ended up being heavily overplayed and thus minimizing the impact of the very death they were attempting to maximize.  I couldn’t help but think of other times a major character has died in other titles and those moments were very sad to me but this wasn’t.

With Ryu’s death and the loss of a Core Fighter, I guess that means that one of the mobile suits will be out of action.  Since Guntank is the one with all the problems, I guess it will be that unit which sees no action for a while.

There’s always a chance of a resupply though and that has to come into play soon since Hayato made mention of the dwindling supplies and parts.  If that happens, it seems it would have to happen soon since Operation Odessa is about to happen.

I liked how Hamon handled things for her final mission to attempt to avenge her lover Ramba and her former commander, Garma.  I liked her speech and I liked how she knew the names of all sixteen men (or so that was implied) as she shook hands with them before the mission.  My only problem with Hamon was that she never appeared to be part of the official Zeon military in that she never wore a uniform.  Sure, Ramba’s men addressed her very respectfully as “Hamon-sama,” and she did command the Gallop, but does that make her a qualified Magella Top pilot?  Its just a minor point since she’s dead now, but I kind of wish that her exact role beyond Ramba’s babe had been defined.  It wouldn’t have taken more than a few lines at most to establish her credentials as more than the babe.

I’m glad to see that Amuro appears to have learned his lesson about deserting and stealing Gundam.  Question is, will Bright and Amuro have this chat that Ryu thinks they should have?  Why would Bright be scared of Amuro?  Is it his own doubts about being in command of White Base and all these amateur crew members?

I liked seeing Frau Bow take a more active role in the defense of White Base by manning a weapons station.  I hope we see more of that in future since she hasn’t had a lot to do in terms of defending the ship.

So, we have the end of Ramba Ral’s forces and thus move on to M’quve it would seem. Bring it on!