機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 31
Mobile Suit Gundam – 31

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Bright and Mirai receive their orders to launch While Base as a decoy 2-hours ahead of the Tianem Fleet, which actually heads to Luna II.  Joining the crew is Lt. Sleggar Law, who loves the ladies. Char boards the Zanzibar to pursue White Base with an estimated 30-minutes until interception.  Char is shown the Bigro mobile armor for space as well as the two Rick Dom mobile suits.  White Base detects Zanzibar and alters course to the moon, leading a crew member of the Zanzibar to suspect they are going to attack Kycilia’s lunar base. Char disagrees, stating that White Base is a decoy and the real fleet went elsewhere.  However, were they to break pursuit, White Base would be able to come about and attack Zanzibar.

Char remains on board Zanzibar and orders the launch of the Rick Dom units and Bigro. They immediately begin an attack on White Base. Sayla instinctively knows Char is attacking and accidentally verbalizes this on the bridge. Bright orders Amuro out in the G-Sky fighter while Sayla takes the G-Bull EZ and launches.  Zanzibar opens up with an attack while Sayla engages the Bigro.  However, it is faster than she expects and it grabs her.  Despite this, she has a chance to blast it but refuses lest Char be inside.  The G-Bull EZ is tossed aside and Sayla is forced to recover, aided verbally by Amuro.

Bright has Lt. Law take charge of the weapon stations. Law wants Bright to turn the ship to attack Zanzibar instead of running or else he won’t be able to do anything.  With G-Bull EZ and G-Sky unable to do much of anything, Bright orders Kai out in Guncannon to assist.  After it launches, Bright has Hayato bring Guntank into the launch bay to act as another weapons platform.  Once that happens, Bright then orders White Base about and tells Law to man his station.  Guncannon provides cover while Amuro docks with the G-Bull EZ in order to extract Gundam. A Rick Dom attacks but is not successful in stopping the conversion as Sayla now flies the G-Fighter and Amuro destroys the incoming missiles in Gundam.

With both capital ships approaching cannon firing range, Char wonders if Artesia is on board. White Base fires first and Char orders a delay in firing. When Zanzibar opens up, Char decides to go right at White Base. Bright begins to panic as he realizes Char must be in command to do something so rash.  However, while White Base evades, Law’s gunnery skills cause major damage to a Zanzibar engine and Char is forced to retreat.  Meanwhile, Sayla manages to take out a Rick Dom as the other mobile suit retreats. Amuro surprises the Bigro pilot by grabbing it in flight and destroying it at point-blank range.  After returning to White Base, Amuro is concerned for Sayla based on her actions in combat and in her question about who might be piloting the Bigro.

Thoughts/Review:
 
Good grief! Could we make even more weapon platform types? I swear it is getting more and more difficult to keep track.  I feel like I need some sort of illustrated chart nearly every episode. ^_^;

Though I didn’t mention it in the summary, I thought it was a nice touch on the writers’ part to subtly touch on the subject of a Mirai/Bright romance.  OK, so the one Federation leader’s remarks about Mirai being engaged weren’t so subtle but I liked how Mirai explained things to Bright and how he looked just frustrated enough about the prospect of losing Mirai to another man.  They make a good team so why not marry?

For someone as smart as Char is, he sure is dumb about his sister.  Even though he’d seen her twice, the second time at Jaburo as a member of the White Base crew, he starts thinking that she wouldn’t stay on board because that’s not how his sister behaves.  Yeah, better to deceive yourself so you can continue to fight since we saw what happens if you don’t.  Sayla had a chance to at least damage and possibly destroy the Bigro mobile armor unit but because Char might be on board, she doesn’t fire and nearly dies as a result.  Her worry is so great that she almost gives away her secret to Bright.  I figure she may end up telling someone she’s related to Char just to try to spare Char’s life.

I didn’t see a reason for Bright to panic just because Char might be in command of Zanzibar.  Yeah, Bright did have his mental collapse earlier in the series and I suppose this could be a carryover of that.  Fortunately, Law was there to bail him out with a good shot on Zanzibar.  Law reminds me of Roy Focker from Super Dimension Fortress Macross.  It was amusing seeing Mirai and Sayla turn him down when he hit on them but it was also interesting that when the battle was over, Mirai’s declining of the invitation to take a shower with Law was without the “ewww” factor.  I expected Law to bite it heroically this episode but he survived. Well, there are still remaining episodes to potentially kill him. ^_^;

In the end, this is an entertaining episode and apparently the start of a new story arc. Looking forward to more and seeing where things go. ^_^