Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Episode 2 Discussion

Deazu said:
Me encanto el anime. Espero que sí sea un yuri, y no un Shojo-ai

Turtles_Hunter said:

To me it's an instance of show, don't tell. To me it looks like she is against it, but since she intend to leave, she just want the idiot off her back. The fact she comes back is because she kinda feel responsible for what happens to Suletta, she feels she has been dragged into her shit. From those 2 episodes only, nothing seems contradictory.

For the love interest part, I didn't follow the promotion, so we'll see. But I don't want the that to become too proheminent. It rarely has been, and the few time a love interest has taken the light, it died in horrible circumstance. I really hope they won't go too far in the romantic part, and especially don't want a fucking love triangle.

alphazero4um said:
I think it will take a while to get use to Eri or Suletta for a while. Especially the damn screwed up students. I wonder how this will go now. But I hope this series allows me to be attached to only two characters. Though I am already getting attached to maybe three more. That is not a good thing. Yeah? Because it is GUNDAM after all.

MFDOOMED said:
Big Big Charles Zi Brittania vibes from Delling. The new current bastard we want to die in a Gundam show. Nothing's changed but things have been flipped. Like Space dominating Earth through discrimination. The intrigue is 1 of 2 reasons I watch the show. The other reason is the hot mecha action.

I really hope this show isn't just a CGDCT show with Gundam grafted on to the side. It seems like the prologue is nothing like how the show is going to be. I trust the writer from Code Geass to come through with a great story, and so far, the minimizing of mecha to focus on humans and intrigue is very Code Geass. You could really swap Parmet for Sakuradite. Suckering in Gundam fans to watch a CGDCT show is pretty low for Sunrise. I prefer a show like Cross Ange, where you know from the very beginning what you are getting if you choose the watch the show. Tho the focus on excessive tights shots of Miorine is proof that Gundam fanservice will never go anywhere.

I think fans think they have too much power. Gundam Wing already proved to Sunrise how lucrative potential same sex stories can be. And Naruto and MHA are huge for a similar reason. It's pretty cynical to bait same sex people with a possible relationship to inflate views. If the fans don't get the pairing they were led to believe, it's gonna make them very upset. But fans don't have as much power as they think they do. But it is also very anime. Somehow, Sunrise managed to involve woke culture, CGDCT, and a fresh Gundam premise into a show that will have a lot of eyeballs on it as long as it has controversy. Hopefully people will also watch because it is a legitimately great show. Hopefully.

YOASOBI is killing it this year. From BEASTARS to an actual mainline Gundam OP is about as big as you can get.

Hoppy said:


Gundam isn't Code Geass though

It will suck, if we don't get some catalyst for war in the next episodes (you know like an MS attack on the school by one of the corporations or something), the setup we got in the prologue and this episode doesn't not do for a SOL mecha anime, I mean there's already concerns that the large number of popular shounen this season will overshadow this, if this is an SOL mecha, a lot of people are going to bail fast.

phantomfandom said:
I don't think Suletta shouldn't be worry about being expelled from that school because there's nothing she can learn from that school. She's actually come to teach those adults in power, not to learn (except learn about love from Miorine LOL).

EnVaH said:
I know nothing about gundam series, I know that gundams are some type of mobile suit but better? why is it banned? is it like nuclear weapon ban or something? was it so strong they eliminated all of them?

ACasualViewer said:


In pretty much every Gundam series, Gundam Mobile Suits are a superior type of unit compared to all other types by a substantial margin, although them being banned is more series specific and rare.

As far as nuclear weapons go, every Gundam series has it's own weapon of mass destruction and Gundams themselves typically do not fall under that umbrella. Usually its things like dropping a colony onto a planet, firing a laser large enough to scorch the surface of a moon, actual nuclear missiles, AI controlled swarm weapons or super large railguns.

PrecureHunter said:
Miorine really did abandon her "supposedly" lifelong dream of going to Earth for a girl she met one day ago?
jesus christ, i dont really mind the whole "girls love" angle, but there are ways of not being so on the nose about it

Hijazi said:
I have had my share of yuri baiting and usually go into such shows cautiously so I'll say that Suletta became miorine fiance by coincidence/show-dynamics. There is some affection but no love involve yet. Will it develop or not depends on the producers of the show imo.

NewestPersonHere said:
Red mobile suit with a horn?

Hmmmm… is it going to be 3 times faster?
Who will wear a mask and pilot it?

Real Gundam fans will know what I am talking about. XD

Looks like this Gundam’s message is anti-corporatism or anti-nepotism?

For anyone who does not know what corporatism is, it is when big corporations own everything, including the government, etc. And corporatism IS NOT capitalism. Capitalism is people working for reward. Corporatism is big corporations crushing people, making everyone poor despite working hard.

Hope this Gundam anime remain good.

EDIT: Corporatism is a huge topic nowadays. Such as Nestle owning a bunch of smaller food companies or Microsoft owning a bunch of tech companies (TikTok).

Looks like there are space migration topics too. Mercury inhabitable? A reference from AGE or IBO.
And Spacenoids looking down on Earthnoids. Is there going to be spacenoids war of independence? Like in UC, Wing, X?
Are there going to be NewTypes?

thunderkitten13 said:
The official OP is AMAZING. This series feels much more lighthearted than the traditional Gundam series, but of course this may just be the beginning. Still, I don’t see this as so bad. It’s a great beginner series for new fans.

Miorine probably has had a miserable life with her father controlling ever aspect of her life, including her future. He doesn’t even grant her the respect to communicate face to face. On the other hand, I can’t help but feel sorry for Suletta. She has been having to deal with so much adversity since she arrived after school, but at least there are some people like Nika seem to have compassion for her. Still, even Nika receives discrimination for being from Earth. On a random note, Chuchu’s poofs are seriously cute. Miorine telling off her father was really satisfying to see. The next episode is going to be an amazing duel! Miorine pinning Suletta to the wall was so cute and a perfect end to the episode. Overall, this series is showing it will be quite the journey!

RobertBobert said:
God, this is so funny for all the many reasons. First of all, all this engagement hype turned out to be bait. LOL. Secondly, it really turned out to be an all-female show with a CGDCT formula, while male characters are only needed here to sell mecha. Lol all they even show up in OP in one second scene, like "Hey, there are still boys here!". And judging by the way Miorene has suddenly become the second main character (although the promotion shamelessly ignores her as a protagonist), this will literally be a high school all-female yuri-bait with mecha (Looking back at Ichiro's PriPri, I can already see how it will be a BFF melodrama with excuses like "we didn't mean anything romantic, but we leave that to your imagination".). As expected. The only thing left to hope is that the show will not copy Utena so brazenly in the future and Suletta will finally stop being Tatsuya Shiba with boobs.

All in all, it doesn't feel like Gundam at all. Just kind of like a spin-off that connects both franchises as an artistic experiment, but promote it like a new age Gundam? Unless you're going to turn the franchise into a second Waifu bait like Love Live.



Don't worry, they'll convince themselves with some bullshit like "she's bisexual because bisexuals exist" lol.

@Marinate1016 This is not a parallel to "other shoujo ai". This is literally a continuation of copying Utena. Just because the genre as a whole loves these clichés doesn't mean the show is directly copying them. Not to mention, you really have to be a hypocritical yuri fanboy to call it a breath of fresh air to switch from one cliché to another just because it might give you something gay.

ACasualViewer said:


In pretty much every Gundam series, Gundam Mobile Suits are a superior type of unit compared to all other types by a substantial margin, although them being banned is more series specific and rare.

As far as nuclear weapons go, every Gundam series has it's own weapon of mass destruction and Gundams themselves typically do not fall under that umbrella. Usually its things like dropping a colony onto a planet, firing a laser large enough to scorch the surface of a moon, actual nuclear missiles, AI controlled swarm weapons or super large railguns.

LostSpectre said:
I didn't read it that way at all, she would be an absolute coward to run away to Earth, her pride demanded that she stand up to her father.

LostSpectre said:
Writer of Utena light novels making a full on recreation of Utena's first episode, that would be the yuri-bait of the century.

RobertBobert said:
God, this is so funny for all the many reasons. First of all, all this engagement hype turned out to be bait. LOL. Secondly, it really turned out to be an all-female show with a CGDCT formula, while male characters are only needed here to sell mecha. Lol all they even show up in OP in one second scene, like "Hey, there are still boys here!". And judging by the way Miorene has suddenly become the second main character (although the promotion shamelessly ignores her as a protagonist), this will literally be a high school all-female yuri-bait with mecha (Looking back at Ichiro's PriPri, I can already see how it will be a BFF melodrama with excuses like "we didn't mean anything romantic, but we leave that to your imagination".). As expected. The only thing left to hope is that the show will not copy Utena so brazenly in the future and Suletta will finally stop being Tatsuya Shiba with boobs.

All in all, it doesn't feel like Gundam at all. Just kind of like a spin-off that connects both franchises as an artistic experiment, but promote it like a new age Gundam? Unless you're going to turn the franchise into a second Waifu bait like Love Live.



Don't worry, they'll convince themselves with some bullshit like "she's bisexual because bisexuals exist" lol.

@Marinate1016 This is not a parallel to "other shoujo ai". This is literally a continuation of copying Utena. Just because the genre as a whole loves these clichés doesn't mean the show is directly copying them. Not to mention, you really have to be a hypocritical yuri fanboy to call it a breath of fresh air to switch from one cliché to another just because it might give you something gay.

Hijazi said:
I have had my share of yuri baiting and usually go into such shows cautiously so I'll say that Suletta became miorine fiance by coincidence/show-dynamics. There is some affection but no love involve yet. Will it develop or not depends on the producers of the show imo.

EnVaH said:

thanks a lot for the information, I still don't understand why it's banned. if they're better and they're not mass-destruction tools, shouldn't they replace their normal mobile suits with gundams instead of banning them?

Fail_Man_X said:
It wouldn't be a Gundam series without racism

EnVaH said:

thanks a lot for the information, I still don't understand why it's banned. if they're better and they're not mass-destruction tools, shouldn't they replace their normal mobile suits with gundams instead of banning them?

Cambriel5202 said:
As for yuri-bait/queer-bait...yeah...I am willing to give a lot of anime passes on whether they are baiting or not because I recognize that Japan is a different culture with different cultural standards about how explicit vs subtle something needs to be to be considered the intended reading (for example, Americans want everything hyper explicit to be considered "canon" but Japanese media tends to favor more subtle expressions and still expect the audience to take it as "canon"). But this show is not even going for subtle. Between the plot, the characterization between Suletta and Miorine, and the ED, this is as in your face as it gets. So, cool, you want to go explicit let's go explicit. But now that sets the bar that they actually have to be explicit about a romance or else it is just bait. The only out I could imagine is the airing time. Does anyone know when this airs on TV in Japan? I know queer relationships can't be explicit during air times deemed "family friendly" hence the very light coding of shows like Yuri on Ice. Still, if Yuri on Ice could find ways to say 'they're a couple' even when they couldn't show it, that's what this show would need to do as well. We'll see. The introduction of Elan as a love interest isn't super encouraging. He looks like a beard, which I don't like for the main couple, and I don't like for Elan. I hope he gets to be more than that.

Marinate1016 said:

You reply to all my posts every week I promise I do not care or read them

StarZone1 said:

Guess we were right that this is going to be Woke.

Women know better than "evil" man because obviously as a minor you're smarter than the head of a multi-trillion dollar corporation who deserves the right to speak whenever and wherever reguardless of the circumstances.

She also suddenly supports the idea of the force marriage to the holder of the title just because it'll upset her farther? Of course he wasn't going to stand for a same-sex marriage, he'll be wanting grandchildren to pass on his name and fortune to. Why isn't the duel so that she can marry anyone she wants which was what she originally wanted? Obviously it's because it's just an excuse to get a same-sex relationship on screen.

Cambriel5202 said:


I had a similar reaction about Miorine going back at first. But then she said the whole 'if you run you gain one' line, which I interpreted as her realizing she could run away and maybe gain a victory, or she could fight and gain her pride.

I see a lot of people ascribing bad intentions to Suletta's mother, but that wouldn't fit in with her characterization in the prologue. I think she is trying to "wash" Ariel because she knows that the only way for Suletta and Ariel to have a normal life is if they are accepted somehow by the group. I don't think she's out for revenge (though that doesn't mean she wouldn't claim it if the opportunity arose). Still, I think she's out to protect her daughters (flesh and mechanical). At least I hope so because that would make her a more interesting character.



As for yuri-bait/queer-bait...yeah...I am willing to give a lot of anime passes on whether they are baiting or not because I recognize that Japan is a different culture with different cultural standards about how explicit vs subtle something needs to be to be considered the intended reading (for example, Americans want everything hyper explicit to be considered "canon" but Japanese media tends to favor more subtle expressions and still expect the audience to take it as "canon"). But this show is not even going for subtle. Between the plot, the characterization between Suletta and Miorine, and the ED, this is as in your face as it gets. So, cool, you want to go explicit let's go explicit. But now that sets the bar that they actually have to be explicit about a romance or else it is just bait. The only out I could imagine is the airing time. Does anyone know when this airs on TV in Japan? I know queer relationships can't be explicit during air times deemed "family friendly" hence the very light coding of shows like Yuri on Ice. Still, if Yuri on Ice could find ways to say 'they're a couple' even when they couldn't show it, that's what this show would need to do as well. We'll see. The introduction of Elan as a love interest isn't super encouraging. He looks like a beard, which I don't like for the main couple, and I don't like for Elan. I hope he gets to be more than that.

LostSpectre said:
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing subtle about Utena's LN writer remaking Utena's first episode, yuri-bait accusations seem hilariously misguided.

StarZone1 said:

She's a minor, of course her farther is going to control what she does. It's literally his job to raise her in the best way he sees so that she's ready for her future.

Give a child the option to only eat cake and ice cream and they'll happily do it. Take away that ice cream and give them vegetables then they'll cry. This is literally what is happening here.

Cambriel5202 said:


Is that who's writing the episodes? Or directing?

As for baiting, Utena would be considered bait by today's standards. (Anyone else beginning to hate the term 'bait'. It's super reductive). Anyway, since Utena isn't explicit in its romance (at least during the show, it is explicit come the movie) it would be considered queer coding, and the assumption would be the corporation behind it is too scared to be explicit (whether that assumption is right or wrong). So if the Utena writer is operating by Utena standards, the show is going catch some heat because there are diff standards today than there was during Utena's airing.

Cambriel5202 said:


Is that who's writing the episodes? Or directing?

As for baiting, Utena would be considered bait by today's standards. (Anyone else beginning to hate the term 'bait'. It's super reductive). Anyway, since Utena isn't explicit in its romance (at least during the show, it is explicit come the movie) it would be considered queer coding, and the assumption would be the corporation behind it is too scared to be explicit (whether that assumption is right or wrong). So if the Utena writer is operating by Utena standards, the show is going catch some heat because there are diff standards today than there was during Utena's airing.

Cambriel5202 said:
@RobertBobert I don't read anything you say, whether you're responding to me or anyone else: eye's just pass over. By all means, keep posting with your 'notice me sempai' energy though.

thunderkitten13 said:

Uhhhh I think Delling just wants to use his daughter for his own agent, same as Elnora. If you don’t even communicate with her own daughter face to face that is an indication you are a bad father, and to top it all off he literally offered her hand in marriage to anyone that is Holder regardless of how she feels. That is horrible.

thunderkitten13 said:

Uhhhh I think Delling just wants to use his daughter for his own agent, same as Elnora. If you don’t even communicate with her own daughter face to face that is an indication you are a bad father, and to top it all off he literally offered her hand in marriage to anyone that is Holder regardless of how she feels. That is horrible.

thunderkitten13 said:

Uhhhh I think Delling just wants to use his daughter for his own agent, same as Elnora. If you don’t even communicate with her own daughter face to face that is an indication you are a bad father, and to top it all off he literally offered her hand in marriage to anyone that is Holder regardless of how she feels. That is horrible.

Cambriel5202 said:


The reason they gave in-show is that the gundams kill their pilots. But who knows. I'm new to the gundam IP, so I'm looking forward to learning more. I think this is a question the series will tackle over time. I don't think we're supposed to know yet. It has the vibes of a mystery we'll uncover.

StarZone1 said:

Where was the racism?

RobertBobert said:


It's funny to hear this from someone who literally obsessively spent energy making Licorice a gay show for everyone, to the point of creating bait threads on an anime board. But if you're literally so desperate that you want to close yourself in an echo chamber with other trolls and yuri fanboys, where you convince each other that everyone is obviously gay etc, then okay. No problem. As Rousseau said, trying to enlighten the deliberately ignorant is like shining a light into an owl's nest.



Yeah, and then his daughter herself began to defend it, diametrically changing her mind only because now he is against it. This was not done intentionally, but as a result, as you can see, she herself does not know what she wants. He just does something based on the logic "if the father is for, then I am against it and vice versa."

LostSpectre said:
Writing. I don't see why we should assume the yuri elements will be written to the same standards of a 25 yr old show, but we'll see what happens.

StarZone1 said:

Yes, this is literally how families of significant wealth and power operate. The top duelist at an elite school is obviously going to be someone from wealth and power. They're also going to be able to defend and look after her in the future, what more could a farther want? The concept of marriage being for love in relatively new and look at what it's done... divorce rates through the roof, single parents rates through the roof, reliant on benefits for basic childcare provisions through the roof. The farther is using the traditional concept of marriage, that's all.

She's a minor, her opinion on how she is raised is irrelevant because she has no life experience and does not know what's best for herself in the long term. Just because he may not by there all the time does not necessarily make him a bad farther, I mean that's how it'll be painted but it's not the case. Historically, farthers have been more distant in the raising of their children and during times where that happened is some of the high points of civilisation. Just look at how the high socity Victorians raised their children and what they managed to achieve.

Cambriel5202 said:


Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious we're supposed to assume Delling is a bad father. Your analogy is way too simple. I assume you made it in bad faith, but if you didn't here's why it doesn't work (and I've been a teacher for 8 years and have a Masters in eduction, so this is backed up by experience and research):

Children need to be given choices in order to learn how to make good choices. The act of deciding between two or more courses of action is a skill just like any other. When children are young, they can't comprehend future consequences and hence need simpler choices to decide between, and to have some options taken off the table altogether. As children grow, you also need to increase the difficulty of the choices you present them with and the amount of agency you give them in what course of action to take. Over time, you take on more and more of a coaching role instead of a deciding role so that, by the time they are adults, they can make good, informed choices on their own.

Miorine is 17-19ish (not sure of the ages). She is practically an adult. So a competent parent would have been following a course of instruction that would have seen Miorine pretty much completely independent by now and making not only her own choices about her life, but also making choices that impact others in her community showing that she could be trusted with responsibility.

Not only has that not happened with Miorine, but the show very clearly establishes that Delling doesn't let anyone make decisions other than him. He thinks he's the most powerful and can dictate to everyone else how things are going to be.

thunderkitten13 said:

The father is a genuinely bad person, and if he is willing to slaughter a research base full of innocent people, I wouldn’t see how he would manage to be a good father. I get being rebellious but look at Guel. Despite his obnoxious behavior, he treats his father with great respect and honor. You can tell his father has raised him to behave in such a way. I would guess he is such an asshole because his father has inflated his ego and made him out to believe he is better than the majority of people around him. Miorine on the other hand despises her father but for the most part is respectful, which was shown in the first episode with the instructor. She seems to only direct her rebellion at her father...but anyways, I don’t want to talk to you because you are disrespectful to people who like yuri, and are constantly harassing my friends over it.

Ashhk said:
A forbidden Gundam hmm, I'm very curious about Suletta's past now, but anyway for now Miorine was great standing against her father and thanks to that we'll get another duel that will be decisive, if they lose RIP the Mobile Suit and RIP their scholarship (or even Suletta herself xD)

Cambriel5202 said:


Yeah, I'm not assuming what will happen. Just saying, we should wait and see. Hopefully it's done well. Most times it isn't though because these shows involve a lot of people, and most of the people in power are not aligned with marginalized groups. I will celebrate some good, queer fun wherever it shows up. I just don't want queer people to depend on corporations for our fun, nor to think of them as allies. They never are. Sometimes their interests align with ours, sometimes a queer artist sneaks through and makes something cool, but it's always a temporary thing.