The Official Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Anime Thread Mk I

[Underrated GM Custom]

Ah beat me to it. I'm curious if this is going to affect all streaming services or just Gundaminfo on youtube (and what region of Gundaminfo).

[SonicSP]

Gundamkitecillection has a headline saying the delay is in North America but the only link they gave was the EN Gundam.Info page which only mentioned simulcast delay in general.

[Chris]

https://en.gundam.info/news/video-music/02_7331.html

G-Witch Episode 1 simulcast plan has been postponed to a later date for now.

Specificity is important... this only applies to Gundam.info, not Crunchyroll.

[Underrated GM Custom]

Here's a tie in novel that goes with the OP and reveals some more information between the Prologue and Episode 1.

https://g-witch.net/music/novel/

[Mafty]

Thanks, the novel did help flesh a lot out.

(SPOILERS). It's neat to see more information of the worldbuilding and characters. It seems like Mercury has asteroid bases like the one seen in the prologue with limited living spaces (think more Core 2 than Moussa habitation block), and trips to the surface for mining resources.

We get to see the development not only of Suletta , but also of the AI that aides in raising her. It also explains where exactly Suletta's new Gundam comes from.

Suletta's mother kind of reminds of Flit Asuno from AGE who ends up training a family member in their own long game of revenge against the enemy, which is quite a change from the prolog where Elnora broke down at Suletta being the pilot. It will be interesting to see how far this goes, who knows Elnora could wind up being like Patrick Zala at the end of this.

Also it seems as though Minori is being offered up as a Bride to who wins in the inter school Mobile Suit duel, this probably puts even further strain on the relationship between her and her father.

Lastly we see that there is tensions between people from the Earth and those in space (Considering the Earth organization blew up an entire colony in the prolog for plotting against them, it's hardly a surprise that there is tension). Also that Suletta and her mother are deemed as Witches, hence the title.

[Underrated GM Custom]

I'm looking forward to seeing how the next few episodes play out. This is certainly different than I expected, or rather I wasn't expecting so many scenes to replicate the 1st episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena. We'll see how many more homages they make.

It looks like Suletta is going to be used as the out-of-towner country bumpkin role to make it easier to give setting-explanations to the audience. On the downside they are portraying her as extremely apprehensive in almost every social interaction. Makes sense, but I think they're overdoing it a bit. Hopefully she shed's that side of her personality as she gets more used to the school.

[Dark Duel]

Oh. my. GOD. That was great! Suletta is just too precious. Also, the end of the episode had me LMFAO. Can't wait for the next one.

[SonicSP]

We get to see the development not only of Suletta , but also of the AI that aides in raising her. It also explains where exactly Suletta's new Gundam comes from.

If I understand this correctly, the AI that is telling the story is itself Aerial.

It certainly explains why Suletta is talking to it at the start of the episode. I think I see it communicating to Suletta in the novel but not sure it's by voice or text.

On the downside they are portraying her as extremely apprehensive in almost every social interaction. Makes sense, but I think they're overdoing it a bit.

Suletta's on her first day in a school period, so I find that to be natural. Plus she's used to being the only kid on Mercury and she grew up mostly interacting with Aerial's AI as her only friend (notice how she's completely normal when talking to it).

Given her background and the tough situation she found herself in the first episode by offending two important people, I think her social skills so far has been great.

[Mafty]

Agreed it's a great episode. In addition to Revolutionary Girl Utena; I thought there were similarities to My-Otome (which is also from Sunrise) in the interaction between Suletta and Miorine being a bit more like the one between Arika and Mashiro (the characters are also a little similar, being a Tsundere rebellious rich girl, and a quirky country girl who keep squabbling) than the one between Anthy and Utena, There is also a bit of the Asterisk War going on (I know the duel academy thing is Utena, but the flashy Mech duels look a bit more like Asterisk).

The episode also managed to cover a lot of ground in characters and worldbuilding without feeling too crowded. Being Gundam I don't doubt that an all out war between the factions is inevitable, however it's hard to tell at this point when it going to happen. This isn't a bad thing however, and it's neat to see this series break some of the franchise trends.


Also did anyone else notice a woman in a mask who briefly appeared on one of the screens?

[SonicSP]

Yea I did notice it. Thought it was interesting.

[BrentD15]

Spoiler

We just need to wait for one of these ladies to turn into a Gundam.

I haven't seen the episode yet, but judging by the responses, it's a really good start.

[Underrated GM Custom]

Suletta's on her first day in a school period, so I find that to be natural. Plus she's used to being the only kid on Mercury and she grew up mostly interacting with Aerial's AI as her only friend (notice how she's completely normal when talking to it).

I agree given her background the social awkwardness makes perfect sense. My problem is they dialed that up to 11, and I hope they can drop it down a few notches in a couple episodes.

Also did anyone else notice a woman in a mask who briefly appeared on one of the screens?

There's a lot of speculation that the woman in the mask is Suletta's mother and she will be the Char clone based on the music novel.

[Mafty]

There is also a red unit called the Darilbalde, which would follow in the whole Red Zaku 2 Clone thing as well, though it's not yet clear who will actually pilot it.

Spoiler

That being said if Suletta's mother is actually the masked woman , could that be a reference to Brain Powerd : where Jonathon's mother is revealed to be Baron Maximillian?

[yazi88]

Protect Suletta's smile. It is a treasure.

The Utena comparisons are not a coincidence... the head writer Ichiro Okouchi wrote the novel version of Utena.

[Ryujin]

I can very much relate to Suletta's social anxiety. It's not that much of an exaggeration.

[Underrated GM Custom]

The Utena comparisons are not a coincidence... the head writer Ichiro Okouchi wrote the novel version of Utena.

Thaaaaat makes a lot of sense. I'm not familiar with the name but looks like they worked on King Gainer and Shigofumi, both of which I enjoyed for very different reasons. Oh also, Planetes, which has been on my to do list for the longest time.

[domino]

Was it explained how Miorine was able to activate the Gundam Aerial? Suletta seemed surprised by that
Could it be due to her being in the cockpit with Suletta earlier or something else?

[Mafty]

Maybe the Ariel can be used by a regular person, but cannot reach it's full potential. Going in it almost seemed like the Gundam units could only be piloted by those with GUND technology modifications (Sort of like in Broken Blade where only those who can control quartz can pilot the Golems, or the Alaya-Vijnana in IBO ), but it seems like regular pilots can loosely operate them.


Also has anyone else read the interview Zeonic Scans posted? It really goes in depth on the background of the work, and how the creators wanted to do a whole new kind of Gundam story. Okouchi has a lot of experience in the mech genre (working on novels or episodes of Turn A Gundam, Code Geass, Euerka 7 , the rather obscure M3 Dark Metal, Gainer,Rahxephon, and so on). So far I'd say he does a good job of creating a new and unique Gundam world.

[Poochi]

The tone of the first episode was all over the place. Nothing like the prologue. Did someone decide to turn it into a school comedy at the last second?

Are barely comprehensible main characters all the rage with young people now?

[yazi88]

Was it explained how Miorine was able to activate the Gundam Aerial? Suletta seemed surprised by that
Could it be due to her being in the cockpit with Suletta earlier or something else?

She copied Suletta's phone/tablet earlier and with it the control access to the Gundam.