With my episode reviews, I try to reflect whatever numbering the streaming service gives to the anime I’m covering. So while this is technically Season 2 Episode 1, Crunchyroll continues the count from the last season, hence me labeling it as Episode 13. I know it’s small potatoes but I figure I should clarify since I usually reset the episode count.
But yeah, I’m back with Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. I’m technically done with the poll but usually with retroactive coverage, I leave the door open for subsequent materials, assuming there is any. Witch from Mercury Season 1 is a bit of a slow burn in hindsight but I ended up enjoying my time with it, more so towards the end. I may as well continue into Season 2. I certainly need to know what happens after that crazy cliffhanger ending. That really was one hell of a sequel hook.
Season 2 begins two weeks later. Earth House is back in Asticassia safe and sound but they’re more or less forbidden to talk about the Plant Quetta incident. The one exception is Miorine (Lynn), who is staying at a Benerit facility for questioning as well as to wait for a comatose Delling (Naoya Uchida) to recover. While we don’t to get see what immediately happened after Suletta killed a terrorist to protect Miorine, the aftermath of that incident still looms over the characters. Understandably, Suletta realizes that she may have gone too far and she’s worried of what Miorine thinks of her. Meanwhile, Miorine is still uncomfortable at what Suletta did but a part of her also wants to remain as Suletta’s friend.
At school, Suletta (Kana Ichinose) continues to defend her title as the Holder against a backlog of duelists who have been itching to fight her. Later into the episode, Suletta learns that, as the Holder, she must compete in a battle royale event at Asticassia’s upcoming open campus, called the Rumble Ring. Right now, defending her title proves to be an easy task for Suletta, thanks to the upgrades the Aerial received at the end of Season 1. I’m kind of curious what an actual challenge for the Aerial will look like because right now, it feels very overpowered.
During Suletta’s back to back duels, it’s established that the student committee is a little short on staff. Elan-05 is temporarily acting as the group’s leader. Meanwhile, auxiliary characters Renee (Sayumi Suzuhiro) and Felsi (Yūki Takada) are forced to represent Grassley and Jeturk respectively. We soon find out what the deal is those two houses. Shaddiq (Makoto Furukawa) is over at Benerit to help Sarius (Atsushi Ono) with investigating the Plant Quetta incident (which is funny since they both helped orchestrate the event). As for Jeturk, the worst character in the entire show Vim’s second son and Guel’s brother Lauda (Takeo Ōtsuka) is serving as the company’s acting CEO, following Vim’s death. Lauda acting as CEO begs the question of where Guel is after the Plant Quetta incident. Poor guy is seemingly nowhere to be found. The OP shows Guel looking like a bum on the street. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case. This show really likes making Guel suffer.
At a meeting, Shaddiq shows proof that Dawn of Fold had used Jeturk branded Mobile Suits so that the board is mostly focused on Jeturk’s negligence, thereby making Grassley’s involvement less apparent. In response to the attack on Plant Quetta, Sarius orders for Benerit forces to be deployed in Earth to crack down on Dawn of Fold. While all this is going on, Norea (Aoi Yūki) and Sophie (Shiori Izawa) suddenly appear at Asticassia, infiltrating the school as transfer students for Earth House. The episode is vague as to who sent these two to the school. It could just be Dawn of Fold but I’m inclined to think this is Shaddiq’s doing. He clearly has an agenda separate from his father’s.
Being the only one aware of Norea and Sophie’s identities, Nika (Yume Miyamoto) is wary of the two’s sudden appearance in Asticassia. Nika’s suspicions are proven correct when she catches Norea and Sophie trying to sabotage the Pharact before the Rumble Ring. The show remains as vague as ever on the exact relationship between Nika and Dawn of Fold. Some scenes the character shares with Norea do shed some light on the matter. While Nika has connections to the organization, she doesn’t appear to eye to eye to them. At the very least, she has a more hopeful outlook on Earthian and Spacian, something which Norea views as naive. These scenes give us a better look at Norea’s character, namely her apparent disdain towards Spacians. I appreciate that Norea is starting to get some attention. Compared to Sophie, she barely got the spotlight during Season 1.
Norea tries to silence Nika by pulling a Suletta but fortunately for Nika, Suletta appears to save her in the nick of time. To keep Nika safe, Suletta proposes to duel one of the two terrorist girls. Norea understandably points out that she and Sophie are under no obligation to follow the school rules but Sophie ends up agreeing to the duel anyway, seeing as she wants to fight Suletta again anyway. Part of me thinks it’s a little early to pit Suletta against Sophie again. Like, their first fight literally happened last episode. Then again, I don’t know how else Suletta can fight at the moment. An interesting rift forms between Sophie and Suletta; the former sees Gundams as weapons of war while the latter argues that they can be used for more peaceful means. Admittedly, Suletta’s counterpoint is rather rich when she literally just used her Gundam to kill someone but maybe that potential bit of hypocrisy will be brought up as this discourse is further explored.
After the credits, Miorine is approached by Prospera (Mamiko Noto), who is also stuck with questioning. Funnily enough, Miorine correctly deduces that Prospera is the one who convinced Suletta to choose violence. I wonder if tensions will rise between these two. It seems like Miorine sees Prospera as a bad influence towards Suletta. I’m inclined to agree given how easily Suletta goes along with Prospera’s advice. I also chuckled when Prospera admits that she didn’t expect Suletta to use the Aerial to squash a guy like a tomato. Like, that has to be a lie, right? She the one who told Suletta to kill and Suletta has a giant robot. What exactly was she expecting Suletta to do?
Anyway, Prospera reveals Quiet Zero to Miorine and she asks the girl to continue the project in her and Delling’s stead. Prospera explains that goal of Quiet Zero is to use the GUND Format so that the world is somehow free of war. How exactly it could do that, I’m not sure. I guess since the GUND affects a person’s mental state, Quiet Zero might have something to do with the mind. Whatever the case might be, I’m curious if Miorine will continue the project. There’s definitely something fishy about it but a world without war is in line with Gund Arm’s mission statement.
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