May 11th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy 機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 36
Mobile Suit Gundam – 36
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Sleggar’s G-Fighter takes a hit and he’s forced to return to White Base. Bright tells Mirai over a private channel of his feelings for her and knowing she wants to leave, he as her relieved. She races to where Sleggar is wolfing down a burger while the G-Fighter is being quickly repaired and refueled and attempts to express her feelings for him. He says that they are from different worlds but gives her a ring to keep safe. They kiss and he returns to the fight. Meanwhile, Federation mobile suits encounter Big Zam, piloted by Dozle. The giant mobile armor unit resists incoming fire directed at it and easily destroys waves in invading Federation mobile suits. Dozle orders his remaining ships to attack with him leading the Zeon mobile suits while Kycilia sens M’quve’s fleet to reinforce Solomon. On the way there, they pick up the pod containing Dozle’s family.
Meanwhile, Amuro sees the melted remains of Federation mobile suits and sees Big Zam easily take out other Federation invaders before leaving. He, Kai (in Guncannon), and Sleggar (in G-Fighter) take off in pursuit. Meanwhile, the Federation again fires Solar System, which still is 65% functional, and takes out a large number of Zeon ships. Big Zam encounters a Federation capital ship and easily destroys it before destroying many other Federation capital ships. However, Dozle knows that Solomon is lost and signals a retreat, ordering his two men to bail as he will pilot Big Zam solo and inflict as much damage as he can on the Federation, knowing that once Zeon begins mass producing Big Zam, the Federation will lose the war.
Since Big Zam is impervious to beam weapons, Sleggar signals to Amuro that he wants to merge to form G-Armor, hoping to penetrate Big Zam’s electromagnetic shield and do damage. Amuro is to have Gundam’s beam rifle and energy sword at the ready as well. G-Armor attacks but Big Zam manages to grab it, destroying the cockpit and sending Sleggar into space dead. Amuro has a clear shot at Big Zam and destroys one of its legs before freeing Gundam from the remains of G-Armor and attacking with his energy sword. He causes critical damage to Big Zam causing Dozle to emerge enraged that a mere mobile suite would take out his mobile armor. He opens fire but his weapon does no damage and Big Zam is destroyed, Dozle with it. M’quve’s fleet sees Solomon has fallen and goes to pick up survivors and observe Federation movements while Mirai weeps over the death of Sleggar.
Thoughts/Review:
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What in the world is going on here? Since when has Mirai had feelings for Sleggar? Seriously, this was completely out of the blue. Up until now, it seemed pretty clear that she had a torch for Bright and he for her. Indeed, they work quite well together in running the ship. The only thing I’ve seen between Mirai and Sleggar is that he punched her fiance at one point and then at another time he bitch-slapped her (pardon the expression). So, I’m supposed to believe that being slapped hard by Sleggar got Mirai all gooey and wanting to have his children. *_* Man, I’m so not buying that at all. I guess Tomino needed someone to mourn the loss of Sleggar but it doesn’t work for me in the least. Had there been some setup beyond the bitch-slap, then I could have bought it.
That aside, this was a really good episode. Big Zam’s introduction and destructive power reminded me of how the German’s in World War II introduced the V-2 rocket. Unlike the V-1, which could be shot down, the V-2 was basically impervious to anti-aircraft fire and to fighter interception because of its incredible speed. Because the weapon was quite devastating, the British had to employ a massive disinformation campaign to fool the Germans into thinking the weapon needed to be recalibrate so that subsequent launches missed major targets. Anyway, Big Zam certainly falls into the category of devastating weapons making a mark but ultimately not having any impact on the war, or in this case, the prevention of the loss of Solomon and the loss of one of Zeon’s top commanders.
M’quve is back. I have to say that I had forgotten all about him but he is part of Kycilia’s forces and so it makes sense to send him out with a fleet to try to rescue Solomon. Whatever plan they had to beat back the Federation was never revealed. I guess the fleet isn’t considered strong enough to retake Solomon if they are simply going to rescue fallen comrades and Zeon ships while observing what the Federation does. Does Char’s Zanzibar join M’quve’s fleet or does he get to remain solo? I would have thought that Zanzibar might have made it in time but Char didn’t even appear in this episode. Well, I guess he does next episode so I’ll find out then how, if at all, he interacts with M’quve.
It was weird that Amuro could see some sinister thing rising from Dozle as Dozle basically lost it when he emerged from Big Zam’s cockpit and started a futile attack on Gundam. I’m guessing this is part of Amuro’s powers or something. I find it funny that Tomino goes all out to make Dozle a family man with a very beautiful wife and cute kid. Even in this episode, Dozle is hoping that his wife and kid make it out safely. So, after again reinforcing the notion of him being a family man and not 100% evil, this imagery of Dozle with some demon presence rising from him says, “Forget what we told you about him being a family man. He’s pure evil and must be killed immediately. Amuro — get busy already and kill this bastard!” ^_^;;; I never saw him as evil but I did see him losing his sanity as the reality of things set in.
Still, as I said earlier, this was a good episode and I really kinda dislike stopping to blog about it because I want to know what happens next. *lol*
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The Big Zam is what all those other pesky little mobile armors have been building up to. But it sort of lacks much explanation in the series itself on what the hell is going on in that fight. It’s the first mobile weapon to use an I-field for defense. I-fields themselves are all over the place, as they line mega particle cannon barrels (and all versions produced afterwards, like the beam rifle) to keep the beams coherent, and due to a highly-manipulative property are formed into the plasma-containing shells for the beam saber and later melee beam weaponry debuting in the next few episodes. The Big Zam keeps an I-field around itself powerful enough to turn aside most beam weaponry, but there is the obvious downside that conventional weapons are not effected at all, and neither are any beams fired from inside the field. I-fields take a lot of energy to maintain, though, so they mostly are only ever used on large mobile weapons. In the Big Zam’s case, between the I-field and all its beam weaponry it had four reactors running at full-tilt. This lead to heat issues and an operational time of 20 minutes, though it didn’t exactly come up in the series. Had it not been for White Base‘s mobile suit team managing to find and exploit the armor’s weaknesses before Dozle could react, enough damage might have been done to the Federation fleet as to stall them after Solomon.
Also as of note, you’ll notice most GM’s use a much smaller beam rifle than the Gundam. It’s called a beam spray gun; while much cheaper to produce, it suffers in accuracy due to a shorter barrel (and therefore I-field) causing a less coherent beam. It is still pretty powerful, but works best in closer combat.
I wouldn’t say Dozle’s “phantom” was meant to make him look evil. As you guessed, that was all on Amuro. Looking at some other anime and manga–specifically martial arts type stuffs–it would best be seen as a battle aura. And to Amuro, being right there and feeling the full hatred and fury from Dozle, that’s the form it manifested in.
As for Mirai and Sleggar, though… I wonder if that wasn’t caused by the ending getting rushed. Can’t help but feel we’re missing a lot of scenes in there somewhere.
I also wanted to mention, as I wasn’t able to watch the episode after your last review until just yesterday, that I’m pretty sure the scene where Lalah was floating down a hall wasn’t actually in a gravity block. They are in the Zanzibar, and the shuttle itself was being held by that tiny little claw, so it all suggests zero-G. You’ll notice Char also floats down to the floor. That everyone else was just standing there does make it seems a little odd, but I guess they just put magnets in everything.
All of the Zabi family have their good points… except one. I won’t name names, but it’ll become fairly obvious (if you haven’t figured it out already).
When your dad compares you to the National Socialists, it’s usually an indication that something’s wrong with you…
😛
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What in the world is going on here? Since when has Mirai had feelings for Sleggar? Seriously, this was completely out of the blue. Up until now, it seemed pretty clear that she had a torch for Bright and he for her. Indeed, they work quite well together in running the ship. The only thing I’ve seen between Mirai and Sleggar is that he punched her fiance at one point and then at another time he bitch-slapped her (pardon the expression). So, I’m supposed to believe that being slapped hard by Sleggar got Mirai all gooey and wanting to have his children. *_* Man, I’m so not buying that at all. I guess Tomino needed someone to mourn the loss of Sleggar but it doesn’t work for me in the least. Had there been some setup beyond the bitch-slap, then I could have bought it.
So, it wasn’t just the compilation movies that that subplot came out of no where. Because the movies were a condensed run of the TV series I thought I missed something in the TV show, apparently not…
Still, the whole thing just screams sexism. Only in Japan (and possibly a few other countries) would a woman get slapped in the face be the prologue to…something…romantic… (and usually in modern anime it’s the other way around)
I mean if Bright did it, it would make far more sense. Since his slaps have become a popular trope. He’s an equal opportunity slapper!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GetAHoldOfYourselfMan
@Manae — thanks for all the information. ^_^
I wouldn’t say Dozle’s “phantom” was meant to make him look evil. As you guessed, that was all on Amuro. Looking at some other anime and manga–specifically martial arts type stuffs–it would best be seen as a battle aura. And to Amuro, being right there and feeling the full hatred and fury from Dozle, that’s the form it manifested in.
Ah. Well, I suppose that could be the case but the way it was presented, I saw it as evil.
That everyone else was just standing there does make it seems a little odd, but I guess they just put magnets in everything.
Well, that and Char walked down the same corridor (IIRC). ^_^;