Mecha observations from G Gundam

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Mecha observations from G Gundam

I had a chance to rewatch G Gundam for the first time in about 20 years, and it was also the first time for my wife. While we were watching I thought it would be fun to note down some of the peculiarities of the technology in the G Gundam universe for each episode. Since the universe is often over the top and silly, many of these questions won't have answers but I thought it would be fun to consider them regardless.

Since this is the Mecha and Technology forum this will be focused entirely on the mecha, not on the characters or plot. Feel free to chime in with your own ideas for why technology functions the way it does or any official answers from G Gundam publications.

To start here's the first three episodes.

EP 1 - Shining Gundam vs Neros Gundam
-The first and last time Shining Gundam uses a smoke screen grenade.
-In this episode we see Shining Gundam's forearm withstand a pair of beam cannon shot to the forearm; it does so again with the Neros Gundam "Silver Feet" attack which is several beam cannons firing together into one large mass of energy.

This brings to mind a few questions, namely why are ranged beam weapons so ineffective and often fail to pierce through. Here a couple ideas.

1. In universe it's a Gundam fight and both participants and viewers prefer to see more hand-to-hand combat. As a result ranged beam weapons may be intentionally weaker, or they may be a standard where they cannot exceed a certain power (that would pierce the enemy Mobile Fighter).

2. In the Future Century they've developed extremely potent anti-beam coatings and since there's only one fighter per country they are more than willing to spend exorbitant costs make sure the coating is applied for each match.

3. Super Gundarium Alloy has similar properties to Gundanium alloy from Wing, and so only the most extreme of beam weapons have a significant or lethal effect.

EP 2 - Shining Gundam vs Gundam Maxter

Seemed a bit unfair to me that Shining Gundam's punch was stronger than Gundam Maxter who transformed into his boxing mode and turned his chest armor into boxing gloves. Since G Gundam is often a show where fighting skill trumps technology, I chalked this one up to technique over technology.

EP 3 - Shining Gundam vs Dragon Gundam

I'm very curious how the Feilong flags work by letting Dragon Gundam disappear from sight. Perhaps the flags confuse the sensors and optical cameras of the enemy Mobile Suit?
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:02 pm 1. In universe it's a Gundam fight and both participants and viewers prefer to see more hand-to-hand combat. As a result ranged beam weapons may be intentionally weaker, or they may be a standard where they cannot exceed a certain power (that would pierce the enemy Mobile Fighter).

2. In the Future Century they've developed extremely potent anti-beam coatings and since there's only one fighter per country they are more than willing to spend exorbitant costs make sure the coating is applied for each match.
Consider that Chapman won Gundam Fight three times in a row until Master Asia beat him, and that Gentle Gundam (which is the successor of Britain Gundam) has nothing fancy beyond a sniper beam rifle, it makes sense that people would invest heavily in beam defense tech in the 12 years from the 9th Fight to 12th. We know that the Kappa Gundam was Neo Japan's representative in the 11th Fight and it's totally focus on aquatic combat that's pretty bad on land, which might reflect how people put so much emphasize on beam defense in that time (although Mermaid Gundam present in the 13th Fight also suggest that people of FC era are just nut).

Then again, we also saw how FC era has beam that's actually safe to touch. So ultimately I think of it as being more like ki in anime and wuxia story, its power is depend on its purpose, user, and (of course) plot.
Underrated GM Custom wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:02 pm I'm very curious how the Feilong flags work by letting Dragon Gundam disappear from sight. Perhaps the flags confuse the sensors and optical cameras of the enemy Mobile Suit?
More likely similar to some of more fancy move in wuxia story and martial art anime. Often, a simple movement has hypnosis effect that cause people to lose track of their target.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:02 pm This brings to mind a few questions, namely why are ranged beam weapons so ineffective and often fail to pierce through. Here a couple ideas.
You missed the big one.

No Gundam Fighter wants to be disqualified. Attacking the opponent's cockpit is expressly prohibited by the rules of the Gundam Fight, and having a beam weapon that can pierce all the way through a Gundam greatly increases the chance of attacks hitting the cockpit and earning a disqualification. Negligent homicide is overlooked in the course of the Gundam Fight, but intentional homicide not so much.

That rule didn't change until Prime Minister Wong Yun-Fat changed the rules for the finals to benefit his own country.


Underrated GM Custom wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:02 pm Seemed a bit unfair to me that Shining Gundam's punch was stronger than Gundam Maxter who transformed into his boxing mode and turned his chest armor into boxing gloves. Since G Gundam is often a show where fighting skill trumps technology, I chalked this one up to technique over technology.
Neo-Japan was pretty big on having both fighting skill AND the best technology... that's what STARTED this mess. They went a bit wild with the tech part until it went full kaiju of its own accord.


Underrated GM Custom wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:02 pm I'm very curious how the Feilong flags work by letting Dragon Gundam disappear from sight. Perhaps the flags confuse the sensors and optical cameras of the enemy Mobile Suit?
Actual magic.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

That's an excellent point on Chapman along with avoiding accidental homicides. I haven't had a chance to check out the G Gundam prequel manga but do they cover any of Gentle Chapman's fights? If so I really need to catch up and take a look. Here's two more episodes.

EP 4 - Shining Gundam vs Rose Gundam

-Interesting how George can control Gundam Rose while outside of it and move so nimbly. As we see in later episodes the Gundam's can often operate when the pilot is outside of it and have built-in autopilot commands to allow them to reach their pilot.

-We see Rain repairing Shining Gundam in a facility, makes you wonder what kind of logistics are involved in the Gundam fight.

1. Are there preassigned facilities that fighters can use or do they have to commandeer abandoned facilities?
2. Where are they sourcing the super rare armor materials from?
3. Do they keep spares on hand in their home country or do they need to send frequent shipments from the colonies when they are damaged in battle? This would make things quite difficult for any fighters who roam around where they can't easily get support from their nation. Presumably there are regulations against interfering with another countries resupply of parts but do all countries follow that...

-Domon blocks the Chevalier beam saber in the 2nd half and the blue section of his forearm swells up then pops like a balloon, it almost looks like a decoy from CCA. It's an interesting effect and we don't see it repeated later. The Blue section is still missing after Domon uses his beam saber, but a few moments later when George unleashes the Rose bits the blue section is returned to Shining Gundam. Probably an animation error.

-Lastly we see the first time that Shining Finger is fired like a projectile, shooting upward breaking through the Rose Screamer.

EP 5 - Shining Gundam vs Bolt Gundam
-We see Neo Russia cannibalizing parts and technology from other countries Gundam. Which is all very interesting, but instead of some fancy chimera of technology the end result just appears to be a Gundam that can take an impossible beating.

-Continuing on the line of thought from EP4, it would make sense that Russia who is operating a hidden site might also steal part resupplies from other countries but it would be rather hypocritical considering they are imprisoning Argo for being a pirate.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Kuruni wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:33 pm Consider that Chapman won Gundam Fight three times in a row until Master Asia beat him, and that Gentle Gundam (which is the successor of Britain Gundam) has nothing fancy beyond a sniper beam rifle, it makes sense that people would invest heavily in beam defense tech in the 12 years from the 9th Fight to 12th.
Minor little quibble: Chapman's machine is called the John Bull Gundam in the original Japanese and Royal Gundam in the English dub. "Gentle" is Chapman's first name.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Dark Duel wrote: Fri Oct 07, 2022 2:50 pm Minor little quibble: Chapman's machine is called the John Bull Gundam in the original Japanese and Royal Gundam in the English dub. "Gentle" is Chapman's first name.
I've often wondered why they changed that... it's not like John Bull is offensive, he's a national personification of England (specifically the everyman, rather than governmental authority like Uncle Sam is in the US) and the term "John Bull" is non-offensive slang for an Englishman.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Dark Duel wrote: Fri Oct 07, 2022 2:50 pm
Kuruni wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:33 pm Consider that Chapman won Gundam Fight three times in a row until Master Asia beat him, and that Gentle Gundam (which is the successor of Britain Gundam) has nothing fancy beyond a sniper beam rifle, it makes sense that people would invest heavily in beam defense tech in the 12 years from the 9th Fight to 12th.
Minor little quibble: Chapman's machine is called the John Bull Gundam in the original Japanese and Royal Gundam in the English dub. "Gentle" is Chapman's first name.
Ow.... I've no idea how I mixed up that bad... :oops:
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Seto Kaiba wrote: Fri Oct 07, 2022 4:17 pmI've often wondered why they changed that... it's not like John Bull is offensive, he's a national personification of England (specifically the everyman, rather than governmental authority like Uncle Sam is in the US) and the term "John Bull" is non-offensive slang for an Englishman.
After Walmart told Bandai that they wouldn't sell toys named "Deathscythe Hell," they went on this ridiculous renaming spree with many of these choices making no logical sense. Nether Gundam became Hurricane Gundam because they thought "Nether" would remind kids of the "netherworld" and scare them. In addition to John Bull, they also changed Kowloon Gundam to something like Haoh Gundam and I have no clue why.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

i think some of them were probably changed to make them more toyetic too, like i don't know what would've been offensive about Lumberjack but they turned that one into the Grizzly Gundam, things like that
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

I vastly prefer Lumberjack Gundam over Grizzly myself. If I had to guess they went with Royal Gundam over John Bull Gundam since the average American wouldn't be very familiar with John Bull, I know it certainly wasn't touched upon during my public school education.

Here's four more episodes.

EP 6 - Domon's Past

The debut of Shining Gundam's super mode. I hope that the Neo Japan mobile armor hit by shining finger sword was unmanned.

EP 7 - Tequila / Spike Gundam
Gundam Maxter uses a magnum and the animation shows it as a pink beam despite being a solid shell weapon.

EP 8 - Lumber / Grizzly Gundam

The axes on Lumberjack Gundam are severely underutilized.

EP 9 - John Bull / Royal Gundam
Seems like the shots from Royal Gundam were only lethal at a very close range, which is rather unfortunate for a sniper type character. While it tore a large gouge into Rose Gundam's head, it did nearly nothing to Shining Gundam who was hit several times, until one shot caused it to kneel. Unclear how strong the mass-produced

Based off of this fight I'm very curious if there are any pages of Gentle Chapman fighting in previous Gundam fights. It would be great to compare if his beam sniper rifle from previous fights had more of an effect compared to this fight. It would certainly help indicate if other nations managed to vastly improve their beam defense in the years since then.

Unrelated note, Neo England's unmanned Cushing suit has quite a charming design. I wonder if they ever did any merchandise for this one.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:58 am I vastly prefer Lumberjack Gundam over Grizzly myself. If I had to guess they went with Royal Gundam over John Bull Gundam since the average American wouldn't be very familiar with John Bull, I know it certainly wasn't touched upon during my public school education.
Really? It was in mine.
Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:58 am EP 7 - Tequila / Spike Gundam
Gundam Maxter uses a magnum and the animation shows it as a pink beam despite being a solid shell weapon.
No, it's always been a beam weapon.

Every source I can find - MS Bible 117, the Dengeki Data Collection, its Gundam Fact File, Gundam Perfect File, Gundam Fight Memorial, the model kit manuals, etc. - lists it as a beam gun.


Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:58 am EP 9 - John Bull / Royal Gundam
Seems like the shots from Royal Gundam were only lethal at a very close range, which is rather unfortunate for a sniper type character. While it tore a large gouge into Rose Gundam's head, it did nearly nothing to Shining Gundam who was hit several times, until one shot caused it to kneel. Unclear how strong the mass-produced
Considering the penalty for intentionally killing another Gundam Fight competitor is immediate disqualification and it'd be stupidly easy to kill others with a sniper rifle that could shoot all the way through another MS, dialing the power down to a level that can damage mobile suits without punching an immediately fatal hole in them is probably a requirement to reduce the probability of Chapman getting disqualified by his own preferred strategy.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Seto Kaiba wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:59 pm Considering the penalty for intentionally killing another Gundam Fight competitor is immediate disqualification and it'd be stupidly easy to kill others with a sniper rifle that could shoot all the way through another MS, dialing the power down to a level that can damage mobile suits without punching an immediately fatal hole in them is probably a requirement to reduce the probability of Chapman getting disqualified by his own preferred strategy.
However, the battlefield was mainly guns before Master Asia won. The one before that was him losing to the New American shooter iirc.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

MythSearcher wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 11:05 pm However, the battlefield was mainly guns before Master Asia won. The one before that was him losing to the New American shooter iirc.
I'm afraid you've got your cause and effect backwards, and the wrong country.

The Gundam Fights were almost exclusively martial arts-focused prior to Neo England's Gentle Chapman cheesing his way to a totally unprecedented three back-to-back victories in the 9th, 10th, and 11th Gundam Fights with a sniping-based strategy. The uproar over his third consecutive win almost caused a war, and did ultimately cause a significant military buildup in the colonies, increased interest in ranged weaponry, and ended up delaying the 12th Gundam Fight by four years. To keep the Gundam Fight from devolving into a shooting war, the Shuffle Alliance dispatched Master Asia and the Kowloon Gundam to win it with orthodox martial arts in order to restore faith in it as a contest of martial skill. That's why the 13th Gundam Fight was still mainly fought with martial arts and not beam weapons.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Seto Kaiba wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 11:55 pm I'm afraid you've got your cause and effect backwards, and the wrong country.

The Gundam Fights were almost exclusively martial arts-focused prior to Neo England's Gentle Chapman cheesing his way to a totally unprecedented three back-to-back victories in the 9th, 10th, and 11th Gundam Fights with a sniping-based strategy. The uproar over his third consecutive win almost caused a war, and did ultimately cause a significant military buildup in the colonies, increased interest in ranged weaponry, and ended up delaying the 12th Gundam Fight by four years. To keep the Gundam Fight from devolving into a shooting war, the Shuffle Alliance dispatched Master Asia and the Kowloon Gundam to win it with orthodox martial arts in order to restore faith in it as a contest of martial skill. That's why the 13th Gundam Fight was still mainly fought with martial arts and not beam weapons.
Yes, I got the wrong country.
But didn't Master Asia's back story said he lost before that?
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

MythSearcher wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 1:49 am Yes, I got the wrong country.
But didn't Master Asia's back story said he lost before that?
Not in the series proper. There is a backstory manga Mobile Fighter Gaiden Gundam Fight 7th that depicts a young Master Asia (fighting under his real name Shuuji Cross) competing as Neo-Japan's entrant in the 7th Gundam Fight. He did lose in that contest, partly as a result of having taken some significant side effort to defeat a terrorst named Dr. Chaos who wanted to overthrow the colonial government. Neo Japan basically exiled him over it, despite his heroically having averted a war, and he ended up living in Neo Hong Kong. He did not compete again until the Shuffle Alliance put him into the 12th Gundam Fight to win it and restore the public's faith in the Gundam Fight by winning it with martial arts rather than guns.

You might be thinking of Neo England's Gentle Chapman, who lost the 12th Gundam Fight to Master Asia and was all but cheating in the 13th before he died.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

Great background info on the Gundam fight, I had no idea the 12th fight was postponed due to Chapman nor that the Shuffle Alliance dispatched Master Asia to win the tournament, wish that info had come up during the show's runtime.

I'm familiar with the Shuuji Cross only from looking at the Yamato Gundam a while back, I've been meaning to track down a copy of the 7th Gundam Fight at some point.

Here's a few more episodes:

EP 10 - Mummy Gundam vs Dragon Gundam
A mummy robot piloted by an actual Mummy. This episode shows us the powerful regenerative capability of DG cells.

EP 11 - Minaret Gundam vs Shining Gundam
Shining finger had an interesting effect where it engulfed the Turkish Gundam. Presumably shining finger is able to purify the DGcells from the Mobile Fighter, or perhaps put them into remissions.

EP 12 - The Undefeated of the East Appears!
-The first and last time "Shining Shot" is used, these four small beam guns on Shining Gundam's forearms are used against the dark army.
-Interestingly it seems most Mobile Suits in this era have enough thrust and propellant to fly, we see both Shining & Kowloon Gundam as well as the defense force MS able to fly continuously when going above the city and leading the Dark Army into the Sea. Typically long distance flight is reserved for Transforming MS in UC and other AUs and the occasional flight types like the Aries, Gouf or Byarlant.

EP 13 - Domon vs the Big 5
-They did an excellent job with the animation of Master Gundam, with some highly detailed stills and fluid shots in between.
-Both the darkness and shining finger produce an energy wave when used this episode.
-First time we see the joint shining finger and the extreme power behind it. I wonder if there's anything in the Gundam regulations against having dual pilots.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

IIRC, MF from the 7th Fight suggest that range weapon, especially abdoment/torso mount was the trend then, with Yamato Gundam (and later, Kaiser Gundam) stand out for being pure melee fighter (not that it doesn't has range attack, its original finisher is Choukyuu Haoh Nichirindan which launch energy ball from a palm - the Tohofuhai style was in its infant stage back then).
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

7th Gundam Fight sounds really interesting. I'll have to track down a copy of the prequel manga at some point. I don't think too many units have torso mounted beam weapons, Nether Gundam I suppose, most weapons are handheld except for Neros with his legs and Skull Gundam with the mini skull on its head.

A few more episodes
EP 14 - Shining Finger Defeated.
-I had completely forgotten about the cloaked form of Master Gundam serving a purpose where its magnify all the propulsion in one direction. Similar concept to TMS I suppose.
-First appearance of the Shuffle Alliance mobile suits. I'm curious if these are Mobile Fighters that are passed down to members, or if they modified their personal mobile fighters after joining to resemble the iconography for the shuffle alliance.

EP 15 - Warriors Crest. Goodbye Shuffle Alliance!
-I had forgotten Master Gundam had his hands on retractable cords.
-Another instance of Shining Finger turning into a projectile. When Shining Finger is used in super mode, after grasping Master Gundam's head instead of crushing it it instead lets out a burst of energy that then transforms into a massive beam

EP 16 - Rise of the Devil Gundam
- A new technique by Master Gundam. I always found this one to be an interesting choice, a whirlwind attack that is created by spawning several mini-master gundams who then form the spinning vortex.
-Shadow Gundam demonstrates a cloaking camouflage mode. It can also create 5 clones of itself to dodge incoming attacks.

EP 17 - Challenge! Mysterious Masked Finger
- With the Dark Army disguised as Master Gundam I have to say the usual imposing visage has been replaced with something bordering on adorable with the bat ears of Master Gundam on the small cyclops eye.

EP 18 - Scheme of the Beautiful Warriors
- Another use of Shining Finger as a projectile.
- Maxter develops a new technique with Burning Punch which it uses to destroy some boulders to protect others. Fire wouldn't be the first thing I think of when it comes to destroying or moving a rock, in fact the cyclone punch should be ideal for that...

EP 19 - Bolt Gundam vs Dragon Gundam
- We get to see the Dark Army disguised as Dragon Gundam's. For all the advancements of the Future Century, IFF doesn't seem to be one of them when they keep getting deceived by simple getups on the Dark Army. Then again, Sensors and IFF are less important when you're built to fight another countries Gundam 1-on-1 and usually in a small limited area.
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

EP 20 - George Beat the Nightmare

I had completely forgotten there was a Butler mobile suit. What's more, there's even an MSIA of the Butler.

This one seems like a filler episode and based on the animation quality dip I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of this one got subcontracted out while they worked on the S1 finale. DG Cells give Mirage Gundam a conch shell full of missiles, I didn't think of it back when I watched it originally but with the reveal of the Ultimate Gundam later the nature-esque evolution makes good sense here.

EP21 - The Final Battle Approaches Only 3 Days away

I don't know why the burning punch is useful in making a water geyser...I'm still very surprised every time they use his new fire punch directly into water.

This episode features a good number of variations in the Death Army with flying types and water types (sadly they don't make a return later in the series but the designers were solid).

We also see Shining Gundam able to glide over the water while Maxter requires a surfboard. This goes back to my earlier point that its typically unusual for Mobile Suits to have long distance flight capabilities or water hovering (without special equipment), at least in UC and a good number of AUs.

EP22 - Breakthrough! Warrior's strong ties
We see Shadow Gundam spin in order to turn himself into a helicopter and fly away as a distraction. Interesting..

EP 23 - Destined Battle! Domon vs Dark (Devil) Gundam
It's been many years since I first saw this episode, I had always though Domon used Shining Finger Sword on the Dark (Devil) Gundam but it turns out my recollection was faulty (or perhaps I was remembering EP16 instead). Domon uses the Super Mode to defeat Master Asia then uses Shining Finger to finish off the Dark (Devil) Gundam.

For Shadow Gundam we see it use a blinding grenade as well as explosive Kunai. We also see self-recovery on a Mobile Fighter.

EP 24 - Bright New Star! The Birth of Burning (God) Gundam
Burning (God) Gundam can apparently escape the atmosphere and survive reentry without a capsule. I wonder if there are any rules prohibiting you from jumping into space and delivering a flying elbow in reentry during a Gundam fight :lol:
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Re: Mecha observations from G Gundam

EP 25 - Recap episode. Still not sure why a fire punch was effective against falling rocks or water instead of the preexisting cyclone punch.

EP 26 - First episode of the new arc, seems they are regressing Domon's character development a bit, I suppose to match up with mastering a new Mobile Suit.

EP 27 - Fight with Cobra Gundam. Separating the Gundam body from the Snake is a neat trick, although I'm disappointed we didn't see the inside of the Cobra cockpit, I'm curious if it follows G Gundam tradition by having a Snake pilot the Snake MS while the Horse pilots the Horse MS :lol:

The resolution of the fight is Domon dislocating his own shoulder in order to get free of the constricting snake. An interesting concept which shows just much the mobile suit will mimic the pilots movements which requires a sophisticated mobile trace as well as machine design that will respond to those movements in a human.

EP 28 - Fight with Mandella Gundam. - A nice Zatoichi reference by having the blind swordsman cut the candles. First episode where Burning Slash is shown. The resolution of this fight is simply brute forcing the sword with Burning Finger which is a bit anticlimactic.

EP 29 - We briegly see Taurus Gundam, one of the other Gundam's with a beam cloth. It also has a set of Heat Horns, I wonder if this AU plays by the same rules as UC where a heat weapon can block a beam weapon.

This episodes fight is with the Mermaid Gundam who has a beam net, although the net itself doesn't appear very damaging. Mermaid's home country is apparently unable to afford repairs. I suppose the take away here is that countries with more resources can do much better in the Gundam fight but it felt more like writer's fiat than anything else.

There's also an error in the dub where they reuse stock footage of "Rise Shining Gundam" instead of Burning Gundam.

EP 30 - This is the 2nd time where Burning Slash was used, which conflicted with my memory where I thought it was one of the many one-off techniques in the tournament arc. There's an animation error where burning gundam shot out a green blast against Nobel Gundam as if it were Shining Gundam. In later episodes the erupting burning finger produces a red orange blast
similar to Chibodee's Burning punch.

EP 31 - Fight with the Jester Gundam. Interestingly the Jester Gundam seems to be able to mimic or copy its opponents abilities, would have been curious to see if this came up in its previous fights with some of the more unusual opponents. I wonder if it ever gets touched upon in supplementary material.
Last edited by Underrated GM Custom on Sat Feb 18, 2023 8:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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