Hogan Reviews

I know I said the next Gundam review would be me finishing off my coverage of the Cosmic Era shows, but I do try and get reviews for the seasonal shows out as close as I can to when they aired, so you’ll have to bear-with! That being said I’m always happy to talk more about The Witch from Mercury as although parts of the ending definitely felt rushed the second half / season of the show was once again great, full of fun twists and turns and great visuals and music. Let’s take a closer look!

The season opens up a fortnight after the finale of the previous one, and our lead protagonist Suletta is back on campus defending her title but her close friend / potential love interest Miorine is doing some business work away from her, still reeling from the rather bloody end of the previous incident. Suletta has been assured by her mother Prospera that the killing she did was right because it saved someone she loved, so Suletta is convinced. This is sort of the sticking point for the first few episodes as Miorine is pretty much blackmailed by Prospera to continue a secret project her and Miorine’s father had been developing called “Quiet Zero” and she soon gets angry when Suletta pretty much confirms she’ll literally do anything her mother tells her. It works well because you also start to dislike Suletta a bit, or at least begin looking forward to when she finally gets up the guts to speak for herself. Things don’t get much easier either during the opening two episodes as the two Gundam pilots that the series sort-of antagonist Shaddiq used at the end of the previous season, Norea and Sophie, are sent to infiltrate the school but instead of a “when will they find out they’re the enemy?” storyline it almost immediately breaks down into a Gundam fight between Suletta and the duo and its here we get the first major revelation…

“Hey Prospera, Char Aznable much?” “… What?”

Prospera is cornered by her old colleague Belmoria and she lets slip her big secret: Suletta’s Aerial Gundam has the mind of Prospera’s actual daughter Ericht within it, Suletta is “merely” a copy of Eri created in her image, and her big plan is to use the Quiet Zero system to “create a perfect world for Eri to be happy in”. So although it was obvious she was hiding something (plus, you know… the mask) it was great seeing who the true antagonist was, and that it was for such a deep emotional reason rather than just a power grab or revenge. Still, it’s a little while before we get there as Suletta defeats Norea and Sophie, with the latter dying in battle, and its here where Suletta talks directly to Eri herself, finding out why Ariel was “like a sister” to her and why she never felt the physical strain from using the machine’s higher settings like everyone else did. It was quite the big reveal to drop just two episodes into the series! As this is all going on the previous season’s rival character Guel is revealed to still be in a state of shock after what happened to his father and he’s also a prisoner of the Earth-based terrorist group “Dawn of Fold”, though as Episode 3 progresses he regains his sanity and manages to head back to space to take his father’s company over, relieving his younger brother Lauda in the process.

Suletta hitting rock bottom before her triumphant rise…

This all sets up the major mid-way act as Shaddiq puts his plans into motion to take over the whole Benerit Group and transfer their assets to Earth, therefore evening up both sides and hopefully ending the hatred between “Earhtians” and “Spacians” (so as far as villainous plans go, that’s not a bad reason for one!). Meanwhile Suletta is removed from the political equation by Miorine and Guel, who cruelly take her title of Holder and generally tell he they’re no longer friends in hopes she doesn’t get involved, then a short while later Suletta is told by Eri of her origin as a clone and that she can now control Aerial by herself so she is no longer needed. Prospera arrives to confirm everything and tells Suletta she won’t be needed any more and leaves her drifting in space, crying because literally everyone she’d ever cared about had just abandoned her, even Aerial. It was legitimately heartbreaking, certainly made up for any feelings of distrust from the whole “I’ll do whatever my mum tells me” part. Shaddiq’s plans cause the outbreak of war on Earth (just as Miorine and Guel arrive, making them look complicit) and similarly mobile suit fighting breaks out at the school as well, leaving many school kids dead and sending Miorine spiralling into a guilt-fuelled depression. Suletta sees the destruction and finally starts to make up her own mind about things as she soon starts helping to try and free several of her trapped schoolmates and later helps handing out food and the like. This also reunites her with Earth House and they form a tightknit unit once again.

Not much to say here, but I thought the review was getting too pictures-of-humans-heavy for a Gundam review!

At the end of all this Shaddiq is arrested but its all gone according to Prospera’s plan as she soon unveils Quiet Zero as a massive space station that with Eri placed at its core can take over any electronic equipment and shut them down within a large area of space, with the end goal of creating a massive “data storm” over the entire Earth sphere, shutting down all tech and giving Eri a “peaceful world to live in”. Suletta is offered an older model of Gundam called Calibarn to go a face-off with her sister, while everyone else offers to help invade the space station and try and shut it off while she keeps Aerial busy. This includes Guel, Miorine (who had to be talked out of her depression by Suletta, in a rather sweet reversal of roles), Earth House and the most recent Elan clone, which come to think of it I haven’t mentioned. At the end of the previous season a new clone of Peil Technologies’ ace was introduced who is more direct and emotional than the first one we saw and throughout this Season this new Elan realised his place in the world was fake, that once he failed to take the Aerial he was going to be killed like his predecessor and therefore that he would be better off hiding out amongst first Shaddiq’s crew (where he fell for Norea only to be devastated when she died during the school attack) and then here with Earth House. So a good group of characters heading off for the final confrontation…

As mentioned Suletta’s classic hero journey of losing it all and then reclaiming her life was excellent because she really did lose it all and became a far stronger person on the way up. Same goes for the previously rich spoiled brat Guel during his time on Earth. Despite the ending feeling somewhat rushed there were some good character development on show.

Overall Thoughts:

Now future games can have the Aerial in twice! Hooray!

The Witch from Mercury’s second and seemingly final season continued the trend of great character development, fun mobile suit battles and interesting politics, all with great animation and a dramatic OST. Hard to find much fault, beyond some storylines feeling rushed, but I still feel most characters had a good arc to them. Definitely exceeded my expectations, and I hope the fact that it’s set in a school with a female protagonist doesn’t stop you from checking the series out, you won’t regret it if you do!

So on the way to Quiet Zero Guel’s brother Lauda arrives in his father’s secret Gundam the “Schwarzette” after hearing that Guel was responsible for their father’s death and the two brothers duel, leaving everyone else to follow through with the plan. It works too, as despite having to go through the pain of piloting a Gundam at such a high level now she has no Eri to take the strain Suletta manages to break through the barrier and begins fighting Eri while begging her to see reason. While Guel and Lauda eventually patch things up while nearly killing one another Prospera and some heavily armed HAROs arrive to stop Miorine and co. but fail thanks to Miorine’s sudden hacking skills and Elan’s gunplay. Just as things look good the most secretive and clearly evil of the corporations, the Space Assembly League, fires a giant colony laser (sudden classic Gundam-ness!) at Quiet Zero and Eri seemingly gives up her digital life to protect her family from the blast.

The Calibarn adds just one more Gunpla to the stock list for that little bit of extra cash!

Although devastated Suletta refuses to restore Eri via Quiet Zero as Prospera requests because she knows what Eri actually wanted and instead with the help of the data ghost of the original Elan clone she loved (that came out of nowhere!) she uses the remains of Aerial to upgrade the Calibarn and takes out the giant laser before passing out due to the strain. With the grandiose choir music and flashing rainbow lights on the Gundam it was all very Gundam Unicorn, that’s for sure! Miorine has a brief moment where she cries thinking Suletta is dead but she comes to and so we skip three years into the future to see everyone living a happy life (including the original Elan working under Guel, which was the one plot thread that felt like never got going, we barely saw the original and he ended up doing nothing!) Even Eri’s mind was somehow copied onto the electronic keyring Suletta had been carrying, so beyond Saddiq still going to prison everyone is pretty happy. Suletta and Miorine are clearly very close and happy together as well but the show creators didn’t quite pull the trigger on the full on relationship between the two, which is a shame but at the same time I think its visually obvious enough to let that pass…