Turn A Gundam, Part One – Review

TURN A TURRRRNNNN. TURN A TURRRNNN. Sorry. That ridiculous opening song is has been stuck in my head for weeks.

Anyway! I got to review some good ol’ Gundam this time, and really enjoyed the experience. I’m told Turn A is often regarded as the best (or at least most accessible?) of the central/Tomino Gundam shows, and it certainly does have plenty to recommend itself. A compelling world, an engaging cast of characters, and lots of fun/silly ideas. It’s also marked by some really, deeply weird quirks of storytelling, but I’m told that’s just how Tomino rolls, and I’ve kinda gotten used to it. The weirdness of the telling means this isn’t nearly as emotionally strong of a ride as it could be, but it’s still a very enjoyable one.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episodic notes below!

Turn A Gundam

Episode 1

This menu song is adorable

Title: “Howl at the Moon:

“Mary had a little lamb”

Pilots singing lullabies

“One little Moonrace”

So we get a cold open with the three dudes coming down from the moon

Keith and Loran are two of the moondudes

Fran Doll is the girl?

The aesthetic is great – part robots, part turn of the 20th century steampunkishness

Loran gets attacked by a coyote! wtf is he doing out in the wild?

Nice song

The colors are bright and sharp. The animation is a little jerky

What the hell is Loran doing all by himself out in this river anyway?

Loran getting rescued by a naked blond girl in the river

The pacing is weird. Scenes keep sorta jumping with no real rhythm

Sochie is the brown-haired girl

“I was busy drowning, so I didn’t get a good look.” “Your loss.” “Is it?” Cute dialogue. Cute, but strange. Again, there’s a weird, sorta jerky pacing to everything. These characters talk in an established rhythm without ever having had a conversation before

Loran plans to work in the Heim Mine. What?

It already feels like I missed an episode

The blonde woman looks like “Queen Dianna”

“You’re going to the festival?” AND THEN FESTIVAL. WHAT is this pacing

“To the Mountain Cycle!”

Loran sneaks in. He’s 15, apparently

Sochie doesn’t seem to mind being a rulebreaker with him

Kihel (the older sister) is the White Doll, who chooses her partner in the festival

World War I planes!

This show feels like… circa-90 Ghibli style. Or Nadia

And a new fancy car

Potential war with the country of Galia

The master of the house wants to build up technology and industry

Loran’s now their chauffeur, and will attend university

God, I absolutely love this show’s world/aesthetic

Another great song. Twangy hillbilly guitar, as you’d expect

Master Guin – he keeps calling Loran “Laura”

I like how well this episode is establishing the world. It really doesn’t care about telling things to the audience

And now Loran’s the driver for real

God this world is nice

Loran and Sochie already have a very nice rapport

Oh wow, a third great song. This one’s all background synths and lovely plucked guitar

Another of the moon people is Fran, a baker

All these weird wipe cuts. The pacing is just… off. It’s its own thing. I don’t get it

The show just seems to have its own individual, awkward conventions

Jeez, these guys are rich. I love the little details of their lifestyle

Sochie’s snooping on the meeting of Loran with Keith and Fran

So they’re hiding the fact that they’re from the moon

“Maybe the rumor that the attacks are from Galia are made up, and they’re actually from the Moon.”

So now Sochie’s following Loran as he goes to check out his ship

And another nice song – this one all synths and a woman singing

Ooh, great shot of the car Loran left with Sochie’s car approaching

“Everybody, the earth is a really great place. Come back soon!”

Aaand this ED is ridiculous

Episode 2

Aw dang, that cheesy menu song really is the OP

The DVD quality isn’t the best. And it’s in 4:3, of course. And the yellow subs

Title: The Coming of Age Ceremony

Old-fashioned telescope and phone

So the leader really does know about the moon people

Loran and Sochie learning to fly planes

Loran’s great with machines

“My sister can handle the family stuff. I don’t want to end up as the wife of some bureaucrat or merchant.”

“We’ve been building airplanes here since my granddad’s day.” Such an interesting world. So is this place just sort of in an industrial revolution stasis? And I feel like it plays in the same whimsical creative space as stuff like the original Journey to the Moon, a fantastical vision of space travel, far removed from most scifi

Sochie wants to actually join the militia. She is very naive

And Loran says he goes where his boss tells him. Sochie wants the mechanic girl Miashei to help her convince her father to let Loran fly

“It’s my life! I’ll decide how I live it!” Good luck, Sochie

And then we cut to a bizarre scene of Loran shouting about his coming of age ceremony. This show’s pacing is a MESSSSS

The militia parade and coming of age ceremony are on the same day

Old fashioned elevators!

Kihel’s about to enter university

“You’re not coming with us, Loran?” “Drivers aren’t allowed in the VIP section.” Both the sisters are sort of blind to their position

“Those won’t be fighting against the Dianna Counter, will they?” Marveling at the planes that will be fighting their countrymen

Vicinity is the earth country Loran will be joining

The lord offers him a position in Bostonia Castle, and then a position as an engineer, working for Mr. Sid

Oh my god, he intentionally calls him Laura. What a dick

Six sacred marks are applied to their back during the festival

“You just worry about catching the eye of a girl.” Yeah, it seems like some kind of fertility festival

The Moonrace have sent technology, and are demanding part of North America

The animation’s pretty limited. The sound design is nice, though

“What do you make of this, Sid? They’re holding rituals like this in a time when planes fly through the sky.” “It takes more than reason to make the world go round. I’m fine with it.”

The kids gettin’ naked for the ceremony

Leeches. Very weird adolescent sexuality space

As they try to complete the ceremony of becoming an adult, war strikes their hometown. A very direct bit but effective bit of storytelling

They’re coming in with mobile suits to fight propeller planes

These weird frame-in-frame shots sure are a thing. Just zooming in on the frame

And of course, the big temple site hides the Gundam. Icon of strength, the road to adulthood

Do they sit in its groin? That’s pretty on the nose and great too

“How did a mobile suit end up like a relic?”

Explosions!

This zooming in and out on the enemy pilot is a really weird effect

And even the episode ending is a weird cut. “I see fires!” “Where!” Episode end

Episode 3

Title: After the Festival

“But it doesn’t have a steering wheel or levers. NANI?!?!?!?” huuuge pan out. This show’s transitions whaaaat. Events and even single lines just don’t follow each other in any coherent human pattern

The cockpit applied the “stigmata” – a cool idea, that their rituals are based on what were initially mechanical elements of the robot’s controls

“Does your returning have to involve destroying the local cities?” A fair questions

Whoa, great explosions and disaster shots

A single beam from these mobile suits is a terrifying disaster

“What’s that? Those pillars are moving!” About a mobile suit

“Does it have thin paper or film inside it?” About a computer

Dr. Sid and his assistant find Loran and the mobile suit

“The White Doll has a mustache?”

“Queen Dianna says to act peacefully, but the earth is a big place”

Lord Guin is very excited about the mobile suit

Boss Heim, Sochie’s father, is dead

Sochie falls apart

“Was… was this your doing, Queen Dianna?” The dramatic pacing is still ridiculous

The mobile suit pilot will get a chance to redeem herself, apparently. I’m not sure what she did in the first place???

Sochie has to sign documents relating to her father’s death as they bury him. Jeez

And now Loran and his moon-friend go for a swim and talk about the computer

“Can I be a baker someplace where there’s no fighting?”

“You can rejoin the Dianna Counter or run away”

Loran’s been drafted to pilot the mobile suit

Loran’s getting prepped to fight pretty quick!

Episode 4

Title: Soldiers from Home

Loran’s figuring this mobile suit out pretty fast

I like the aesthetic of these battles in the European countryside

It’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on and where people are relative to each other in these fights

Loran shaking the mobile suit to try and get them to stop fighting. Pretty cute

“Outsiders go home!” “How barbaric! These Earthers can only be described as savages!” Okay, so we got some serious racial/political tension here

“How can we return to earth just by sitting around? This is turning into a war out there!” BECAUSE OF YOU

“What kind of coward points a gun at a prisoner?” “Are you on their side or something?”

Who the hell is this crazy dude in the bug-eye shades

Sochie’s hiding in her bed as everything happens. Her mechanic friend calls her out on it. “Didn’t you want to join the Militia?”

Loran runs into the woman pilot, and she takes him back to her base

Ensign Poe is the woman

Loran’s telling them everything except that he’s the pilot

They just yank Sid right out of a cave-in in one piece, lol

The meeting between the Earthers and Moonracers

“My wife and nephew were killed last night!” AW SHIT, he kills one of the Moonrace leaders! Negotiations are BREAKING DOWN

And Sid’s group discovers more technology!

So it seems like this technology is from… other Gundams?

The various narratives and characters with their weaving stories make this very fun to watch. It’s oddly constructed, but fundamentally entertaining

Episode 5

Title: Dianna Descends

“You need to make a show of force just to negotiate?”

Sochie’s mother is just gone at this point

Lorin’s trying to do a mid-air transfer onto Sochie’s propeller plane. They’re really making great use of the limited tech here for an exciting setpiece

Attempting to steal a mobile suit

So the lord is choosing to invalidate their negotiations

Them excavating the mountain and Loran figuring out his mech provides a nice natural progression of powers for the fights

Kihel keeping it together for their mother, but crying alone. “Sochie’s turning into a soldier…”

“You barbarian! As if we would kill a child your age!” And yet the Moonracers let many children die in their initial attack. They play to civil niceties, but they are an invading army, and the Earthers basically keep sneering at their pretend civility

Lord Guin is making really, really bold calls. Playing with fire to maintain control in these negotiations

Dianna appears, and for once Guin is stunned

Episode 6

Title: The Forgotten Past

The Militia’s planning to abduct Dianna

“People never change, no matter where they are”

Lt. Harry is the bug-eye dude

So Guin ended up calling off the abduction, and simply reenforced his “loyalty” to negotation

Playing up how Kihel and Dianna look identical

A nice little conversation between Loran and a guard here

“Queen Dianna will sort everything out, and that’s what matters.” Loran’s his own kind of naive

“You deserted the earth! Our ancestors stayed here and nursed her back to health!”

Ooh, really nice guitar song here. Lovely backgrounds too

“It was Dianna’s orders.” “Dianna isn’t a soldier. Our job is to compensate for her weaknesses.” We keep returning to how the leaders only have so much control

Sochie and Miashie plan to distract the robot that might discover Sid’s work

And the damn soldiers fire on them, as Loran discovers more secrets of the mobile suit

“The portable shrine storehouse, it’s…” Again, the architecture and religion of these people has arisen around the tools of the old mobile suits

Loran finds weapons. Most of the weapons are busted. But a ball and chain survives

“Queen Dianna, I beg you. The earth is precious. We must not fight.”

Episode 7

Title: Training To Be A Lady

“It’s our chance to crush them while they don’t have many mechanical dolls.” “Is that what you think cease-fires are for?”

Dianna wants to throw a party to promote peace

Keith wants to keep the bakery alive, but the town’s half deserted

The Moonracers agree to buy his bread

“She’s mocking us. She says that she wishes to have a goodwill party.”

A reasonable orchestral song here

Loran will be attending the party… as a woman

“Without a balance of power, it will mean a crushing defeat for earth, right? Then I’ll do it.”

They don’t even really include the decision for him to attend as a girl. It’s just, yep, that’s happening

The whole “Laura” thing is a feint by Guin. Create a strong narrative of the woman pilot beating back the moonracers

Oh man, Loran countering Harry’s info probes with some boasting about earth forces! Nice going, Loran!

Loran immediately challenged Dianna about the fighting continuing. Damn!

And of course the cake hides militia people, or something

But the assassins were Moonrace?!?!

I don’t trust Dianna’s assistant dude ONE BIT

So yeah, her assistant and Henry are both in on something

Episode 8

Title: Laura’s Cow

Sochie jabbing at Kihel for negotiating with the Moonrace

Guin and Kihel discussing the various factions

Guin on Loran: “To keep one secret, he decides to be totally honest about everything else”

The Moonrace putting up more fences

“You expect us to steal from the Earthers? I can’t do that!” Moonrace civilians are also angry about being used in this land-grab game. There are diverse opinions on all sides

“They brought it on themselves, for coming down here! The military have lots of supplies!” Sochie says, as she holds up a sandwich. Sochie is a very well-constructed jerk

An interesting song here – pipes and jangling percussion, like a country dance

Sochie pressing Loran and the moonracers about their connection

“I hate the Moonrace, and I hate this bawling baby!”

Loran and his friends are helping out the destitute Moonrace settler

“I don’t know if they can use this money that the Dianna Counter hands out, but I hope it helps them forgive us.”

Loran chases a cow in a mobile suit while the girls are attacked by a killer pig. This is quite a silly episode

“Is the Dianna Counter a pathetic outfit that harasses civilians?”

Harry saves the day!

“Laura! You’re helping my countrymen!”

Sochie learns something about the humanity of the Moonracers. But the rest of the gathered Earthers understandably aren’t so forgiving

“Aren’t you a Militia soldier? Whose side are you on?”

And Loran can’t hold it in any more. He announces he’s Moonrace, but he will fight anyone on either side who doesn’t value human life

Episode 9

Title: Coran Shouts, It’s a Gundam!

A huge ship lands

Three mobile suits emerge

A former military prisoner emerges – Corin Nander, a very dangerous man

The top people are just shipping whatever down

Sochie is mad at Loran, and Guin gives her a chance to pilot the White Doll

Henry asks Loran where they might find Laura

The Moonracers are failing to find more mobile suits, while the Earthers find plenty

Corin attacks the Earther excavation

“I know that you’re a Gundam!”

Loran thinking about how to maintain balance. He’s finally deciding he can’t even trust Dianna to maintain peace

Guin gambling on Sochie. Guin is a natural gambler. He’s the only one with the combination of intelligence and madness to actually fight the Moonrace

Keith meets with Col. Michael Gern, offering to sell the Milita info on a mechanical doll

Corin’s ridiculous. He’s a cartoon character

Ooh, great string and drum track here

Kuhil: “Perhaps I’ve been too quick to agree with Master Guin”

Sochie gets herself in a damn fight with Corin

Sochie’s kicking ass!

Corin’s mech is pretty sweet

BEAM SWORD

Loran doesn’t want to use his beam sabers, to avoid war

Episode 10

Title: Grave Visit

Sochie still being racist as fuck

Guin: “Is it that they won’t return, or that they can’t? They seem to be having trouble back home”

Magistrate Miran is Dianna’s suspicious assistant dude

Sid and his assistant are totally fine with Loran being Moonrace, because it helps their investigations

Dianna summons Kihel

Jessica the housekeeper asks Sochie to return home

Guin offers to take Dianna on an airship ride, which she accepts

Dianna and Kihel hanging out

Keith getting money from the Militia to open his own bakery

Now Dianna and Kihel are trading outfits, just being friends

Aw dang, they’re trading roles. Dianna’s quite the joker

Or she’s trying to escape, or she’s worried about being assassinated. All sorts of possible reasons here

Nice shots using the framing and rigging of the airship

Dianna seeing the truth of Sochie’s feelings from Kihel’s perspective. And Sochie and Loran sharing a really nice moment. “You can see how I feel, can’t you?” “I can. What you’re saying isn’t wrong.”

Dianna seeing the damage firsthand

“I launched a war against people such as this?”

The whole visit brings Dianna and Kihel much closer

Episode 11

Title: The Fall of Nocis

Lovely opening scene with Dianna as Kihel

Sid’s assistant Joseph doesn’t trust Loran

Corin wants to fight, and says the forces back on the moon, led by “Agrippa Maintainer” (my god these names) are pushing for a more aggressive approach

Are Kihel and Dianna STILL switched? That seems a little… improbable

The Militia decides independently to attack the Soleil, Dianna’s ship

Once again, the Moonrace attempt to stop the much weaker forces without actively killing people

“You’re addressing the next Lord of Inglessa!” “Inglessa is history! Your money isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on!” Guin is having a rough day

Keith takes that line hard, since he just sold the FLAT to finance his bakery. He’s invested in this specific world

Corin’s just destroying Nocis

Now the White Doll has a shield

The Counter attacks the Mountain Cycle

The episodes have been kinda muddled and circular for a little while now – it’s lost the pacing of the first half dozen or so

Episode 12

Title: Underground Passageways

Loran and Dianna fall into a cave

Loran feels awkward being familiar with who he assumes is Kihel

Guin meets with the daughter of the Lord of Lousana, another Amerian country (I guess this is where the USA would be). Guin’s on the ropes

Lily Borjarno is the woman, who’s happy to act as his spy

Corin’s idiots now firing railguns into the underground gas vents

They’re really just “bumbling fool” placeholders

“Being someone else is difficult” yeah, maybe you shouldn’t have indefinitely switched places with someone on the opposite side of a war, Dianna

A big fight between Loran and Corin. This one’s actually staged very well, using the cave, lots of physical exchanges, and Loran’s mech having a bad leg

They’re fighting by a magma river, lol

“There’s a memory somewhere in my brain that a Gundam once made a fool of me.” So is Corin a character we’re supposed to know from Gundam?

“You are thinking of another era, so your mission is complete.”

The White Doll flies to safety. And of course Corin just barely survives

And it ends with a strummed guitar ballad that’s overtly about Kihel and Dianna. You gotta kind of run with the cheese in this show

Episode 13

Title: An Older Woman

“Must it take a tragedy like Romeo and Juliet to finally make everyone see eye to eye?” You’re really hamming it up there, Kihel

The show does a good job of depicting a bunch of variant perspectives, but its pacifists are very simple-minded people. Maybe that’s intentional?

“Used the right way, weapons can be useful tools”

The show gets a bit less interesting with the characters on the run in a simple narrative like this

Great guitar and electronic tracks this episode

Dianna runs into “Will Game”, who she apparently knows, but who doesn’t know her?

He looks like Will Game the First

But another woman recognizes her as Dianna Soriel, and tries to attack her

The woman is Teteth

“He really wants to find Dianna Soriel, his ancestor’s love”

So Dianna has lived for hundreds of years, and loved this man’s ancestor?

Loran’s getting seduced by Teteth, but he’s being his oblivious self

Hot spring scene, lol

Ah, Dianna went into cold sleep after returning from the earth

The show’s at the point where it’s avoiding animation if it can

The Dianna Counter pilot’s frame just swooping in and out to convey dynamicism. It’s a weird effect

Another nice bit of choreography and animation as Loran wins this one

Well that was a strange little vignette

Episode 14

Title: Separated Again

They’ve now uncovered the spaceship in the cave

“I didn’t need to go back to the moon on that ship. What an enormous blunder I made.” Not the most invested in this Dianna story

“You have the soul of a poet, Miss Kihel.” The hell you on about Loran

The Lousana general has arrived

The Lousana troops have their own mechs, the Suicide Squad

Gavane Goonny is the name of the Lousana mech pilot. Lol

Will wants to prove his grandfather’s love story was real

Miran wants them to establish their own official territory

Teteth is convincing Will to go to the Dianna Counter! Because apparently she’s been a spy for years, or something?

“I won’t let such a simple-hearted, simple man get caught up in our war!” This whole Will thing has been kind of a mess

Episode 15

Title: Fleeting Memories

“Nocis was destroyed because he was such a bad negotiator, right?” Yeah, that pretty much covers it, Keith

Sort of a slow episode. Everyone moving between the various camps

Keith arrives at the Militia with a proposal from Guin to hire Moonrace engineers

More of these wacky screen-in-screen tricks. Fun fight, though

“Is that you, Miss Sochie? Stop running into battles!” “HEADS UP, RUNTS” And then she literally throws bombs at them. Sochie is the best

Episode 16

Title: All About Turn A

Now we’re getting a Dark History lesson? Covers 2,000 years, apparently

Nah, it’s just a recap episode

Episode 17

Title: Dust Blow at the State’s Founding

So Will Game is dead

They’re starting to really overuse this one guitar trill interlude track

Guin and Col. Michael of the Militia negotiating

Lily is jealous of Guin’s bond with “Kuhil”

A tornado approaches the moonrace ship!

The Moonracers think the storm is a curse

Gavane runs into Loran, and suggests they duel to see if they can keep their Moonrace engineers

“Earthers sure love to fight”

And now Corin’s two stooges sneak up on the duel

Lily shows up and stops the silly fight

The stooges steal a truck

Teteth runs into the stooges, and she’s apparently one of their sisters

She wants them to assassinate Dianna

Episode ends in a standoff again

Episode 18

Title: Kihel and Dianna

Laura Rolla is invited to Dianna’s statehood-declaring ceremony

Dianna tells the truth to Loran

She enlists him to get her back to the ship

That one guitar track again

They’re going to take Floria, which is presumably Florida

“My family went to sleep with the hope of being a family on earth. But they were of the lower class, and could only afford simple hibernation. My father died.”

The Militia’s getting everyone drunk, in order to stage an attack

Teteth’s got her own plan, of course

A few typoes here and there

Teteth finds ‘Dianna.’ “You were hired by Agrippa Maintainer, weren’t you?” “Not all of us want to return to Earth!”

Kihel… sends them back to Guin? Feels like she could do better than that

“Loran, Kihel Heim is spelling out my true feelings better than I ever could.” Kihel’s a badass!

Kihel pleading for a peaceful future

“We are all one humanity!”

And she cancels the creation of an independent state, and asks to reopen negotiations

“Kihel Heim, I believe I can leave the Moonrace in your hands.” DAMNIT DIANNA

Now everyone’s either mad, frustrated, or celebrating how naive her speech was

Episode 19

Title: Sochie’s War

Wilhelm is the name of the ship they dug out. And the Militia’s mad the Moonrace engineers are working on it

I really like the Moonrace engineer communicating with the earth one, engaging their relative masteries

Loran getting all insecure about Dianna doing menial labor

Horace is the Moonrace engineer

The White Doll repairs itself with nanomachines, and is way ahead of marine technology

“This might well be the mobile suit called ‘Gundam’ that’s spoken of in legend”

Kihel and Harry getting closer

Loran at least realized that Teteth was trying to assassinate Dianna

The ship is called the Gallop. It can repair mobile suits. Loran is the captain now

Sochie being her Sochie self. Pretty nice character animation here

Another very random and dangerous patrol. This show sure is lackadaisical in its actual military plotting. It’s much more focused on character stuff, but often at the expense of the world’s credulity

Great dynamic panning across this big shot

Nice little panel-in-panel comic shots of characters adding comments

“If you’re gonna kill me, do it! I’ll be with my father, so I’m not scared!” Damn Sochie

“They say you can fight mechanical dolls because you can see them, not the people inside”

Loran and Sochie are making up nicely

Episode 20

Title: Anise Power

Burrowing mechs fight the Lousana forces

And now the two stooges are being employed as farmers and complaining about being guarded by a donkey

Anise Bell is the woman living in the house. She doesn’t want to be driven off her land

Loran gets caught up helping the old lady as a battle rages. This show’s storytelling is so bizarre

“Do you hate the Moonrace?” “I hate anyone who stomps all over the land I’ve worked so hard to protect.”

More about appreciating the beautiful world and whatnot

The Rett Team are the current baddies. They look like half hippies, half barbarians – totally ridiculous

“Where do you think your food comes from? This land and we farmers make it!”

So these baddies are earthers whose ancestors were Moonrace?

“I couldn’t protect Miashei”

Episode 21

Title: “Dianna’s Hard Fight”

This show really has slowed down since the first eight or so episodes

WHY IS THE CAMERA SPINNING IN CIRCLES

The direction is just madness in this show

Sochie still holding her grudge

The two stooges take over the bridge because no one here is a professional

Nice Sochie animation

Kihel is kicking as much ass as she can

Agrippa is rebelling

I really like Kihel managing the politics on the Moonrace side. This is some compelling drama

There’s a real disconnect in the idea of this being a war and the lackadaisical way all of the characters act

“The first step that changes history is always a reckless one” A very Guin line. Nice choice

Lily talking shit to Dianna

And Dianna goes to help the hospital, becoming a maid. Another awkward episodic story. This show really needs to have its narratives flow and build more gracefully, not be these awkward little vignettes

The stooges are actually pretty solid workers. I hope they turn out okay

Lily stirring up more trouble for Dianna

This doctor scene is actually pretty solid. You can feel the stress Dianna is under

So Dianna’s seeing the cost of war on an individual level. But why does Dianna of all people need to see the cost of war? She’s always been the naive pacifist

Loran heads out to help with the laundry in the White Doll

“Machines are also tools to help people! They’re not just weapons!”

Episode 22

Title: “Harry’s Misfortune”

Settler families are sneaking away. More engineers lost

“We can’t go on living on nothing but rations like this”

Kihel and Harry share a melodramatic moment

Using mobile suits to gather chestnuts

So Harry goes to find “Kihel”

And gets stuck helping in the excavation

Wait, Harry knows the truth? I don’t remember that happening

The stooges have settled in as workers, which is pretty cute

Lt. Poe heads out to do some new stupid thing

Dianna, Harry, and Loran arguing about disguises. Also a cute scene

“When the need arises, sometimes one must protect the enemy!”

This fight is great. The whole militia and Loran, and then Harry jumps in

The ship is named the Willghem, after its discoverer

Episode 23

Title: “Teteth’s Last Words”

So Henry respects Kihel as well

“This won’t wreck our plan, right, Vanya?” A flashback to Teteth’s youth on the moon

Keith’s neutrality is helping create a neutral zone

“If everyone became a baker, people wouldn’t fight anymore”

Gavanne, uh, proposed to Sochie?

Oh hey, it’s the former prisoner, now also working on earth

I like the evolving politics of Earthers versus Moonrace

Keith manages what he can for his business, but calls the war leaders boys with toys

Corin Nander was his name. He seems to have entirely lost it

Fran Doll runs into Joseph Yaht

Joseph figures out who she is almost immediately

“You’re a Returnee too, huh?” “I used to think I was”

Teteth stages an abduction of the White Doll

“Turn A Gundam”

“The Gundam is the monster that brought about the dark history!”

Dianna knows exactly what’s happening, and is trying to snipe Teteth. Holy shit

“The war turned into a mess because the Moonrace kid had this thing” That’s… kinda true

Teteth’s mother was discriminated against because she was an Earther

The show can’t actually animate this fight between Loran and Teteth

Ah, her mother was an Earther who came back with Dianna Soriel

It’s nice how consistently this show demonstrates the consequences of Dianna’s simplistic optimism

Episode 24

Title: “Laura’s Howl”

“Spirit of the Moon, be one with us!” That bizarre group with the ridiculous fashion, the Rett team, are having some kind of ritual

Sochie’s been hanging out with the Suicide Squad, defending farms against Moonrace attacks prompted by late supplies from the moon. Everyone’s got their reasons

Gavane talking about the possible antagonist politics of Guin while stressing the militia has to stay united. Yeah, lots of nice subtleties to the rivalries and alliances

Everyone talking about Sochie’s proposal

Guin is working with the Lousanans to try and unite Ameria

“You can’t trust anybody who breathes earth air!” Moonrace bigoted against the Rett squad

And now the friggin’ Rett squad are raiding a hospital

Dianna slaps Sochie for being a brat to Loran

“This is a childish operation meant to drive a wedge between the militias”

Loran trying to negotiate with the Rett leaders directly

The Rett team is are descendants of subordinates Dianna left on earth

Loran trying to cheer up Dianna. She decides she must return to the Moon to settle things

And then they… start dancing. This show is weird

Episode 25

Title: “The Willghem Lifts Off”

Sochie’s conflicted. Gavane’s sweet, but she’s hung up on Loran

Corin Nander’s driving Dianna across the desert

The reporter girl Fran is getting all philosophical

It’s snowing

An attack planned on the Willghem

“Wherever there’s food, the mechanical dolls will come for sure.” Cutting line from a war orphan

Joseph and Fran have gotten extremely close extremely fast

Loran’s conflicted about his role

Another sweet fight. Basically every character engaged

And the Willghem takes flight