Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – Ep. 3

Back with Witch from Mercury again. I’m on vacation now so I should be able to tackle the show in earnest. I’d like to finish Season 1 and make a decision on Season 2 at the end of the month but we’ll see. Just making significant progress in Season 1 is good enough for me.

So coming off of the last episode, we see Miorine give the rundown of the situation over to Suletta. As one might’ve suspected, Guel is Suletta’s opponent for the duel. Funnily enough, Suletta’s only reservation is her arranged marriage to Miorine. Apparently, she has a list of things she’d like to do in school and one of them is going on dates with a special someone. Suletta thinks she can’t achieve that if she gets married. Obviously, she can just, I don’t know, go on a date with Miorine after they marry but whatever, the wedding isn’t anytime soon so Suletta can worry later. I’m not sure how important the to-do list is but it does get mentioned a couple more times in the episode so who knows. Knowing a little bit about Gundam, I hope going to war and getting PTSD is on the list because those might happen down the line.

After getting reinstated as a student, Suletta talks to Prospera, giving further confirmation that the latter is indeed Elnora and Suletta’s mother. Apparently, Prospera’s face is perfectly fine. She’s just using her fancy visor to fake an injury and to conceal her identity. In hindsight, I should’ve considered that as a possibility. I’m a little curious about the fact that Prospera calls both Suletta and the Aerial her daughters. That seems a little strange to me. Like, I get that she’s one of the masterminds behind the Aerial but it seems odd for her to value it as much as Suletta.

Elsewhere, we see Sarius Zenelli (Atsushi Ono), the CEO of mobile suit manufacturer Grassley Defense Systems and a member of the Benerit Group, grow suspicious of Prospera. He assigns his son Shaddiq (Makoto Furukawa), the leader of Asticassia’s Grassley House, to help him in an investigation by keeping tabs on Suletta. This seems important enough to mention in the review but frankly, there isn’t much to say as you barely see Shaddiq do any investigating. To be fair, Shaddiq comes across as a bit laid-back so it’s possible that he’s just waiting for any intel to come to him.

For the duel, Vim gives Guel the Daribalde, Jeturk’s most advanced mobile suit in development. To Guel’s chagrin however, the Daribalde is equipped with AI auto-pilot (how topical!). It comes a pinch during the actual fight but it upsets Guel as he’d rather beat Suletta with his own strength and it suggests that Vim has no confidence in his son’s ability to win. As if that’s not enough, Vim has two of his House’s students sabotage the heat management system in the arena, causing rain to fall down and diminish the beam weaponry used by the Aerial. Guel takes advantage of the change but he gets angry when he realizes his father’s involvement. If the goal is to make Guel more likable or relatable, this duel certainly does the trick. I like that even though he as an ego, he’d rather earn his win than have it handed down to him. You almost can’t help but root for him a little when he decides to ignore his father and take full control of the Daribalde, even giving Suletta run for her money. It’s also interesting how Guel treats Miorine as nothing more than a trophy when it turns out that he’s treated as a pawn by his own father.

I also like the budding bond between Guel and Suletta. When one of the House heads make fun of Guel, Suletta actually stands up for him. After that, she uses her family saying, “If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two” to acknowledge Guel’s willingness to have a rematch. The only thing Suletta that rubs Guel the wrong way is her claim that she’ll still win though this is later balanced out by her fully acknowledging Guel’s abilities after the duel. Slowly but surely, you can see Guel warm up to Suletta and it’s pretty charming. It also makes it all the more interesting when the relationship escalates at the end of the episode.

So yeah, Guel ends up falling in love with Suletta and he proposes to Suletta on the spot. Given Guel’s hostility towards both her and Miorine, this is quite the turnaround. I can kind of buy it, however. None of Guel’s relatives believe in his strength and any other relationship he seems to have at the moment is a part of a pecking order. Conversely, Suletta is a legitimate rival and she respects him as a fellow pilot. It’s easy to see how he would become infatuated. That said, this confession means that we’re now in a love triangle between Suletta, Miorine, and Guel. I can’t help but be cynical and wonder if the staff intentionally gave Suletta a male love interest in case they can’t have her hook up with Miorine for whatever reason but I acknowledge that’d be insane. Chances are, Guel is here as a contrast to Miorine. Like, Miorine doesn’t really care about Suletta right now but Guel apparently does now and that may lead to some character for Miorine. Kind of weird to go with Guel since he’s mostly a jerk but I digress.

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