The following may contain spoilers for Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury.
Director / Hiroshi Kobayashi, Ryou Andou
Screenplay / Ichiro Okouchi
Production / Sunrise (Bandai Namco Filmworks)
Release Date / April 2023
The first season of Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury wasn’t perfect but it did leave quite the impression, especially in the last few seconds of the after-credits scene, that it left audiences anticipating for the second season. The whole school setting was also refreshing and introduced a different take from the usual military backdrop. Though with events escalating really fast since the first season finale, are we going to expect the same laid-back atmosphere from the second season? Well, we didn’t have to wait long as just three months after the first season’s conclusion, the second season picks up where things left off and the momentum of events was definitely in full swing. With the central figureheads of both Benerit Group and Jeturk Heavy Machinery out of commission, permanently for the latter, how would the dynamics change within this megacorporation group? And let’s not forget the brewing Earthian-Spacian conflict moving further thanks to the recent actions of Dawn of Fold. Then there’s Suletta Mercury, Miorine Rembran, our crew from Earth House and Prospera Mercury – all of which are further complicating the situation.
There are no time skips this time, as season two picks up just days after the events in Plant Quetta. Miorine is out taking over Delling’s duties for obvious reasons, and hasn’t cleared things up with Suletta following the post-credits situation. Then the Earth House crew is trying to get things back to normal, except that this normalcy is short lived when our two Dawn of Fold pilots decide to enroll in Asticassia – and we all know how that will turn out. Speaking of Dawn of Fold, Shaddiq is very much on track to continue his plan, working with the supposedly dead Ochs Earth organization for reasons we’ll soon know. And then there’s Prospera finally going full Char Aznable because of revenge, using both Aerial/Eri and Suletta in the process.
Compared to season one, a lot of the plot threads previously introduced come head on in this season and produce a series of events no one from our main cast is prepared for. First, they finally confirm a fan theory brewing for the longest time – that Eri is really within Aerial. Then we have the Guel Jeturk redemption arc, or episodes, as we’re shown what he went through on Earth to get the resolve needed to take over Jeturk Heavy Machinery. Then the fragile peace in Asticassia is finally shattered when both Sophie and Norea finally put Shaddiq’s plans into motion. All of these leads to Prospera kick starting her grand plan to use Quiet Zero to create a data storm ‘area of effect’ that covers the whole Earth Sphere. All under the guise of creating a world where Eri can live freely where in actuality, this will allow Prospera to gain control of key systems dependent on Permet.
This brings out my primary criticism of the series: there’s just not enough episodes. We’re used to the year–long Gundam series, or at least 24–26-episode long seasons. But with the way the seasonal anime landscape and consumption is right now, everything must fit into twelve episodes. On one hand, this allows productions to balance pace and prevent things from dragging on. On the other hand, this shortens the number of episodes we can stay on a specific plot point that it prevents audiences to have deeper connections with our characters. Fortunately for Guel, and the rest of the Witch from Mercury cast, season one was presented to allow us to connect with these characters that they can throw them in various situations come season two and it will still be believable, well except for one, we’ll come back to that later. The same pace also allowed us to witness the depressive arcs of both Suletta and Miorine.
When season one ended, we were all expecting Miorine to free Suletta from the brainwashing Prospera has been doing all this time. Well, it sorts of did as she was instrumental to everyone leaving Suletta behind to become the carefree student they should she wanted to be. But she was able to do this herself, after witnessing the atrocities that Prospera did on Quinharbor, which then placed Miorine into despair. Fortunately, we weren’t treated to episodes of Suletta sulking by herself except for that one time she wanted to sneak food from the Earth House refrigerator, something you’d likely see in Gundam SEED. On the flip side, what helped Suletta are her friends from Earth House, which made us appreciate more this bunch of people.
Speaking of the Earth House (not counting the segways I’m doing here), we also got resolution of the plot involving Nika and Martin finding out her connections to Dawn of Fold. It led to an interesting number of episodes where we see Nika, Norea, and Elan No. 5 interact to provide more context on the struggles of Earthians. Some found these scenes superfluous but I did find them quite interesting, and at times laughable how the unlikeliest of people are just hanging out in the same room.
Everything comes to ahead once Shaddiq puts his plan into motion, causing the near-destruction of Asticassia, death of Norea, and everyone eventually working together as Prospera uses the chaos also to start her ultimate plan with the massive space fortress Quiet Zero. This leads us to a couple of Gundam tropes getting subverted. First is the bait-and-switch supposed death of Guel. But before that, let’s mention the totally unnecessary plot point of Lauda getting his Riddhe Marcenas episode and pilot Gundam Schwarzette, one of the most hyped Gundams in the series before the Calibarn appeared. His motivation doesn’t make any sense and ultimately comes across as a means to have another Gundam in the finale. That said, the Schwarzette does look really good, especially with that battle with Guel. Which leads us to the bait-and-switch moment where we get the flashback of Guel and Lauda meeting for the first time, seemingly setting up his sacrifice – only to be stopped by Felsi, now considered series MVP, and calling them both idiots.
And then there’s Gundam Calibarn. Now for those who knew, and I was quite late on this train, the Witch from Mercury does take some inspiration from Shakespeare’s The Tempest with characters like Prospero and Ariel. So, some were expecting that we’d get Caliban at some point in the series, and this manifested with Gundam Calibarn, the last-minute main protagonist mobile suit. For the last portion of the season, Suletta wasn’t in possession of Aerial as it eventually become the main villain mobile suit, yet another Gundam trope subversion. Ultimately, while we didn’t have a large-scale war as with previous Gundam series, we did see a good escalation that was previously resolved, at least for now. The only thing I really wanted them to expand upon is the Space Assembly League. For the longest time, it’s an organization just in the background monitoring what Benerit Group has been doing and in the last episode, they decide to go front and center with what’s essentially a colony laser masquerading as a power transfer system.
I won’t repeat what I mentioned about the animation, soundtrack, and mobile suit designs as the Witch from Mercury was able to maintain the highest quality in these aspects. While I do see the series will benefit from a higher episode count, the way they did here presents a good gateway Gundam series.
And yes, I didn’t forget to mention the queer aspect of it. While that’s not really a factor for me to enjoy the story, it opened up new opportunities for such storytelling to be done. It may not be for everyone, and that’s totally fine. And while I appreciate them touching this subject, I hope future series won’t see the need to delve to such specific topics just to get a female protagonist. Just have a competent female, non-binary, or other protagonist and combine that with a great story and it should work. I’m hoping they would return to the Ad Stella timeline in the future, but if this is all we’re getting then I can say that Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury a definitely worth your time, not just as a Gundam series, but as a work of fiction as a whole.
