Following up my discussion on [https://lemmy.world/post/24254749](0080 War in the Pocket), I've recently watched 08th MS Team and the Witch from Mercury, both for the first time in anticipation of the new Gquuuuuuuux Gundam series.
Overall, I quite liked it.
It wasn't perfect and the story was a bit hit-or-miss for me personally. I also felt it occasionally got a bit lost in the sauce of the whole meaningless corporate school battles thing. But at it's best the drama was really engaging and good.
The Good
Suletta and Miorine were great characters that were really well acted. I think a lot of my positive feelings for this show rely on the fact that Suletta was just a very likeable and relatable character, a true underdog who got brutally fucking bullied and manipulated, and definitely went through some shit, but ultimately tried hard and elevated herself. Where this show really shines above all else is the drama around these two characters in particular.
The Bad
I think the plot could have been more effective and meaningful had it been a little bit simpler.
In the first half of the show I felt like Prospera had a strong and simple motivation for what she was doing--revenge. But over the second half she turned into a weird overly complicated Gendo Ikari facsimile. I liked the somewhat Armored Core nature of a solar system governed by corporate oligarchy (and it's a good reflection of the times we live in), but multiple times throughout the series I found myself wondering who people and corporate names were referring too.
Complexity doesn't always equate to depth, and I feel like this story could have been more effective to me if it had been simpler. Suletta works well because her motivation is simple; to be accepted and loved by family and friends, and to stop needless killing.
The UGLY
Dystopian corporate oligarchy is bad... or is it good?
At the start of this series I was really excited to see a modern anime story dare to be critical of the mega corporate Japan and Earth that exist today, and the oligarchs, investment and business politics that govern almost every aspect of our lives. After all, this series starts off with the idea that corporate dynasties are using kids to essentially demonstrate the power of weapons in order to gain shareholder value and conglomerate clout. Surely these kids would eventually realize that all of this company bullshit was not only against their personal interests, but also against the interests of everyone in the solar system, right?
Unfortunately by the end I lost any sense that there was an overarching message. The premise was interesting and good, but I feel like this series completely backed away from saying much about the world they lived in at all. We see characters like Guel learn and grow from his experiences on Earth and the conflicts within his family, only to at the end revert into the same system that tore his life apart for no reason.
I won't spoil the ending, but I felt that the show never really puts its foot down on whether the corporate oligarchy that they all live under is BAD or GOOD for society, and whether it's worth saving or not?
I think there's a simpler and better version of this story that could have existed, in which Prospera uses Suletta and Ariel to usurp the corporate structure of the Benerit Group (purely in the name of revenge), only to throw the entire solar system into war and chaos as the Earthians rise up against a weakened Spacian oligarchy.
But with all that said, I did like the show. Mainly because I liked Suletta, Miorine and the drama that unfolded around them. It's certainly an entry that's worthy of the other Gundam series that I've checked out so far.
MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS (Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury)
First half Prospera was super engaging as her motivation seemed to be to avenge her family and take down the corporations and power structure that lead to them being needlessly murdered during the prologue. She was undoubtedly manipulating Suletta (and in one of her best scenes Miorine calls her out for it, only for Prospera to point out the hypocrisy of that), but it felt like she was infiltrating the system and masterminding the demise of the Benerit Group. I really figured she would be like Char in the original MSG 0079, in the sense that she wasn't going to be so much of a villain.Instead she ended up becoming something like Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evagelion with the Data Storm as her Human Instrumentality Project, all of this at the expense of her relationship to Suletta. But then at the end we got something of a "happy ending" where all of the kids are CEOs (or rather, oligarchs), the people of Earth are still subjugated (but I guess at least being "listened to"...), and Prospera is now having a picnic with Suletta and her keychain sister, despite the fact that she just wiped out an entire fleet and almost had both her daughters kill each other. Her arc didn't really stick for me.
The thing about being Gendo Ikari is that there's really no way to repair the relationships that you've destroyed in order to achieve your selfish goals. Prospera went down that route, but somehow everything turned out OK in the end in her toxic relationship to Suletta. .
For sure, the show really looked great and was effective at telling the story. The drama and symbolism were truly great at times. When it hit, it hit. Some of the more intimate scenes with Suletta dealing with shit on her own were really genuinely touching and beautiful.
I also recommend checking it out and think it's a worthy series. :)
I'm in! Still pretty new to Gundam but I'm quickly getting up to speed in anticipation of Gquuuuuux, having just watched 0079, War in the Pocket, 08th MS Team and Witch from Mercury. About 10 episodes into Zeta right now and loving it so far.