Hogan Reviews

The next lot of G Gundam episodes are a bit of a let down overall. After a fun and crazy story arc last time the show reverts to a “of the week” format again, with different adversaries for Domon to take down each week and even a rematch with his Shuffle Alliance pals with each getting an episode for a rematch. It’s not bad per say, but it did feel like the show was breaking out of the convention and stretching out a bit, only to snap right back. Let’s take a look!

Episode 26 sees Domon fight the Neo Greek fighter, and after a crisis of confidence solved by meeting a kind fisherman and his grandson, Domon wins with a “Shining God Finger” (or “Shining Buring Finger” if you’re watching the dub!) The next episode sees Domon overcome the Neo Indian Gundam Fighter and his dirty tricks surrounding using a group of local kids to plan an assault pre-match (the kids in question later apologise…), then in Episode 28 he fights the Gundam Fighter from Neo Nepal, who is actually a famous assassin who tries to, well, assassinate Domon beforehand but thanks to a pep talk from Schwarz Bruder Domon overcomes his fear of the Nepalian’s attacks and wins. Episode 29 is almost a filler episode (if G Gundam were based on a manga, which it wasn’t…) as Sai Saici falls in love with a girl whose actually with the Neo Denmark Gundam Fighter, his next opponent, and while he initially hesitates Saici overcomes the Mermaid Gundam (?) in the end, and receives a good luck kiss from the girl in question.

It’s Allenby Beardsley! … What’s that? Who? Oh right, I haven’t talked about her yet. Well…

Episode 30 is a bit more significant as Domon fights the Neo Swedish Gundam Fighter Allenby Beardsley, with the two hitting it off pre-fight much to Rain’s displeasure. Their fight is one of mutual enjoyment until the Neo Swedes activate Allenby’s “Berserker Mode” which sends her into an uncontrollable rage. Domon isn’t impressed with the technology so destroys it, freeing Allenby from its control but she’s soon too exhausted to fight. It’s a fun episode and Allenby is a good addition to the cast. The next episode is another filler-feeling affair as Chibodee Crocket has to fight the Neo Portugal Fighter but is frozen in fear as its pilot dresses like a clown and he has a fear of clowns, but unsurprisingly he overcomes his fears to win (there’s a lot of that in G Gundam, in case you haven’t figured that out yet!) The main plot pushes its way in next as Domon and the Shuffle Alliance are targeted by assassins led by Michelo Chariot and other disqualified Gundam Fighters, and after Domon easily beats him once again he transforms his Gundam into the “Gundam Heaven’s Sword”, though Domon defeats that too. As all this went down we also found out that this year’s Tournament head / Neo Hong Kong Prime Minister Wong is in league with Master Asia and has brought the remains of the Devil Gundam to Neo Hong Kong in hopes to revive it once more.

Realised I hadn’t put a picture of George de Sand’s Gundam Rose up yet. It’s a favourite due to looking stupid in a “cool” way, rather than being a flying windmill…

Episode 33 sees George de Sand fight the resurrected Gentle Chapman from Neo Britain and much like Michelo Gentle is beaten but then transforms his Gundam, in this case into the “Grand Gundam”, but is eventually defeated anyway. In the following episode Schwarz, then Rain, then Domon all find out that the Devil Gundam is busy healing in Prime Minister Wong’s care but before they can do anything Domon and his new ally Allenby are forced into an unfair tag match where the ring is rigged to generate extreme gravity, but they overcome the obstacle together and even both do a God/Buring Finger Attack together. With their enemy revived (or currently reviving I guess) Domon requests the help of the Shuffle Alliance once again, but all four of them refuse to help unless Domon gives them their one-on-one rematches…

So yeah, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, there isn’t much to this chunk of episodes, very much just giving the audience a fun self-contained story each week while occasionally setting up big things to come in the finale. Nothing offensive as a traditional airing strategy but I can’t say too many episodes gripped me…

Overall Thoughts:

Now here’s a man you can clearly trust!

This chunk of G Gundam is mostly “opponent of the week” matchups for Domon, with a few episodes focusing on some of the Shuffle Alliance members, with a couple of episodes of actual story progression thrown in. Again, I know what kind of show it is, but if it were just “of the week” it would be fine but it keeps switching back to the overarching plot episodes which I find a lot more fun (and equally silly!) so it comes off a bit more annoying as a result. Not the best set of episodes, but at least the next bunch, the finale, is good fun from memory!

As you might have figured out, episodes 35 to 38 are a rematch each with Chibodee, George, Sai and Argo, and in each episode they all attain their own Super Saiyan-a-like Hyper Mode along with a new super move. Argo’s episode is a bit different though as rather than fight Domon he fights his old rival-turned-ally Andrew from Neo Canada, and then when Prime Minister Wong decides to use Allenby instead of Domon to revive the Devil Gundam via the Berserker machine he puts Domon and Allenby against Argo and Andrew in a tag match and then puts the Berserker Mode up to 100%, causing her to try and kill Argo but Andrew sacrifices himself for his old foe-turned-friend instead. Allenby is mentally burned out and Andrew is “so injured he’ll never fight again” (it’s like 00s DBZ censorship over here!) but the former is given to Rain to look after by Domon but is soon recaptured by PM Wong, causing Domon to blame her for Allenby’s disappearance and causing her to quit the Neo Japan Gundam team.

Super Saiyan Domon about to unleash his latest super move!

On Allenby’s trail Domon meets Master Asia and as they duel they end up ambushed by a Devil Gundam Head and get trapped underground. In order to escape Master Asia teaches his student the “Sekiha Tenkyoken”, Master Asia’s best attack, and the two escape using it, with Domon destroying the Gundam Head for good measure. Little does Domon know though that back at base the love of his life will no longer be waiting…