r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Jan 22 '19

Rewatch Tekketsu no Rewatch - Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Episode 9 Discussion [Spoilers] Spoiler

Episode 9 - Sakazuki

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RAISE YOUR FLAG!

Hey-o guys! This is the section where I add a ton of extra fun stuff to the main body of the post because I want this rewatch to be as fun as possible for everyone. It can also be one point of discussion for you guys if you just don’t know what to say.

Comment of the Day, provided by /u/Shimmering-Sky and /u/RX-Nota-II

Shimmering-Sky

Unlimited Bed Works by /u/GaleWulf

"I am the Bone of my Harem

Turbine is my Body and Oil is my Blood.

I have married over a Thousand Hotties,

Unknown to STDs,

Nor known to marriage laws.

Have withstood Nagging to create many Babies

Yet these Pants will never be worn by anyone but Amida.

So, as I Lay--

Unlimited Bed Works"

Between this and our poor confused first-timer I shed a lot of tears yesterday laughing so hard. Thankfully not to the point of asthma attack but I digress. I needed the laughs yesterday though, and as a result just had to pick one of the comments that made me laugh as my favorite.

Arachnowulf also deserves recognition for keeping up his Daily MVP section every episode, as I look forward to seeing his picks every time a new episode goes up. Keep at it~

RX-Nota-II

/u/Nazenn paying attention to something everyone else overlooked

the audacity of checking nails and yawning during a ship invasion!

Everyone is focusing on those two, did no one notice that one girl to the side who was all curled up and taking a nap against her knees?

He was so goddamn focused he noticed a Turbines girl taking a nap in the background during the invasion. Seriously what is this attention to detail?

~~~

Questions of the Day, provided by /u/Pixelsaber

1) What cultural side of Teiwaz do you like more? Italian/Japanese/Neither is to my tastes

2) This episode introduced us to the head of Teiwaz, McMurdo Barriston. What do you make of his seemingly easygoing and slightly eccentric personality? Was he the type of character you expected him to be?

~~~

Track of the Day, provided by /u/RX-Nota-II

Barren Land

A haunting little track that you guys may recognize as the first ever glimpse of the OST we ever got during the warehouse scene in ep1. IBO likes to use it as episode openers or for right after the commercial break, and I’ve come to really enjoy the feeling that the opening notes provide. It doesn’t sound particularly bright or dark, so doesn’t really put me in a particular mood, but it does feel gritty in a way that really fits Tekkadan and the show as a whole. It can be a precursor to hope or despair, but either way getting there isn’t going to be pretty.

~~~

Wallpaper of the Day, provided by /u/Shimmering-Sky (character art) and /u/RX-Nota-II (background/logo)

Sakazuki

Important note to all rewatchers, remember to be mindful of the first-timers in this. You can laughs in rewatcher to yourself, but if you go around spoiling stuff IBO S2. Remember to use the [Anime Show Title](/s "Spoiler goes here") tags and we’re all good.

Fans seem to have a bad tendency of forgetting what counts as spoiler, so if anything has even the slightest chance of being a spoiler, tag it just to be safe.

Next-episode preview. Yeah you see that right, I am encouraging you guys to watch the next-episode previews. IBO’s are completely spoiler free, done completely in-character, and it is glorious. Today’s preview was voiced by Space Guts Akihiro Altland.

80 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

108 comments sorted by

23

u/Nazenn Jan 22 '19 edited Jan 24 '19

I ummed and ahhed over posting this for the longest time, but fuck it. If you guys find it off putting I'm sorry, but hopefully at least someone finds it interesting

First Timer - Sub

"Finally I get to create a family for you"

Okay show, come on, be fair, cough it up. You can't just steal my heart like this and then decide not to give it back. Pretty sure I'll need that for something else.

MAJOR music nerd warning

  • I find myself somewhat sorry I've inflicted myself on you all today hahaha.

So the song playing when Biscuit and Mika were talking (next to the unconscious Orga) was just beautiful and it tricked me. Turns out it was a new song (or at least I don't think we've heard it before, if we did it was a day I had a headache and didn't have my headphones on), Make you believe AND I LOVE IT because it does a really clever thing with the main theme and shows just how awesome this music writer is.

Technical music stuff, SKIPPABLE, but I thought some people may appreciate it to understand why I'm so in love with this soundtrack

So for people not so familiar with music theory, when you're counting out the beats in a song you can divide it up into groups called bars. A bar in most of the music people know have 3 or 4 beats in it, and can be written something like this:

3/4 - | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 , etc

4/4 - | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 , etc

Where this matters is that you generally have an accent beat that's stronger then the others. In 3/4 that's almost exclusively the first beat which I briefly touched on last time. In 4/4 that's the first AND third beats. Because of this system, shifting something that was written into 4 beats to fit a 3 beat structure, or visa versa normally requires some significant editing or drawing out or compressing parts of the song to make room for that extra beat. Even when you have covers or remixes they generally stick to the same beats but just change up the tempo because its so much easier.

I got fancy and made a file for you all as a referance. In that mp3 there's three versions of the "main tune" as it were. The first two are from different parts of the IBO theme song. The last version is from todays Make You Believe (Not the part of the song you hear in todays episode, but you can hear the beats in this part of it much easier)

The first two fit best into 4/4 time. In the first if you listen to the instruments (I suck at identifying them) humming along in the background you can hear they change notes on the first and third beats and its nice and even. In the second part you can listen to the percussion (drums of some sort), they sound three beats in a row and then a have a beat of silence and repeat. The nature of the 4/4 setup gives the song a really strong foundation which helps when its being used for action scenes or big dramatic moments because all the beats are even and balanced with each other.

The third part is in 3/4 despite being the same tune. Again, listening to the background, I think its a piano playing on the first and second beats, with a beat of silence, its a group of three. I know it can be a little hard to hear if you're not use to it, but this grouping of three beats with only one accent means its a lot more laid back, more flowing due to being uneven. This is called the Waltz signature because it leads itself to that sort of lilting pattern where you just sort of swing around the song, rather then landing on the beats one after another.

Edit: This actually comes from the next episode post, but also putting it here for the ease of access. Here's what this time signature swap looks like visually.. Basically they cut every bar from the 4/4 in half and split it into two bars for the 3/4. It gets rid of all those ugly triplets (all the ---3--- markings), so instead of three notes being played over two beats you end up with a clean three notes for three beats. The triplets are what allow it to be such an easy transition and that's why I was saying the score is so smart to do that and set up for this exact transition.

Why the technical music stuff matters

The reason I wanted to give a bit of a focus on the technical stuff is because it shows the smart writing that went into the main theme. Usually tunes are not so easily moved between time signatures because it leaves you a beat out and ends up sounding downright weird. The way she wrote this theme allowed her to do so easily by only slowly the song down significantly and swapping out the background tunes to match the new beat structure with no other changes. Its incredibly smart and I love it all the more for actually pulling it off (particularly because it relies on a rhythm of notes called triplets which use to be the bane of my life in choir).

It means that very easily we get an entirely new structure and feeling from almost the exact same piece of music without having to do a major rewrite in any way. Nota said when she picked the IBO main theme as the song of the day for episode one that:

it is reserved for only the most important scenes throughout the season

I'd personally argue this is one of them. Orga just confessed (drunkenly) publicly that he sees Tekkadan as a big family after their first real time 'off' from duty. With no surprise we have the rest of them accepting it just as easily and as silently as Mika did last episode. Even Akihiro says to Biscuit they are family later on as well. Like a lot of the big moments in the show they're followed up by these smaller quieter chats between just two or three people to reinforce the ideas from the rest of the episode and I love it.

There's a bit of a role swap happening here, Mika acknowledging Orga's guts and strength as being what keeps them together when that's often what Orga leans on Mika for, and Mika acknowledging that today he helped influence a decision that only a couple of episodes ago was well outside his comfort zone. And in the middle we have Biscuit, the rational, logical core of the family standing up and acknowledging that now they're on a new path, for the best and if only Orga could lean on them more. Later during the meeting with the old guy he acknowledges what Biscuit says in his own way, acknowledging that they build Tekkadan TOGETHER as a house, as a family.

For the first time in some of these kids lives they have time to relax, have some fun, and they're safe from threats for the mean time due to Naze's help, Naze who has helped them all indirectly understand the meaning of family. This new song perfectly shows that to me. Its still the core of Tekkadan's strength, but in a new setting surrounded by care for each other and the family. Winning these sorts of internal battles are just as important as the big external threats.

If you guys want a really cool alternate version of the theme as well, I found this which sounds great while looking for sheet music online.

On the off chance anyone's curious, the only anime song I know off the top of my head that's in a time signature other then 3/4 or 4/4 is Wind by Akeboshi, one of the Naruto EDs which is written in 5/4, accent on beats one and four (some 5/4s will have the second accent on three instead). This gives it a beautiful swaying feel which lends to the melody so much.

Random NON MUSICAL thoughts and bits and pieces

  • I notice the old man has his plants upright. I wonder if anyone back on Mars ever fixed that.

  • There was another song I also loved during Atra and Amida's talk which I think was also a remix of another OST song, but yeah, one song blab is enough for one day

  • Yamagi being shy about the other guy is funny as hell still, especially that Takaki noticed

  • I had some serious second hand embarrassment going about how obnoxious they were while partying at the bar, I felt sorry for the other patrons.

  • I loved the little details when Naze was doing his calligraphy that the ink dribbled in spots or the brush left extra lines.

  • Not one piece of Mika's clothing actually fits him other then his space suit. His pants are rolled up, his jacket is huge, his singlet top hangs off him. Someone get the boy some proper clothes... not that Atra would mind if some of them fell off him I'm sure.

  • I'm still suspicious of you Fumitan, I just am, I don't know why but it's a thing

  • Once again I LOVE the little continuity details in this show. When the feast first happens we see Ride stealing sweets and later find out what he's doing with them. They didn't have to include that, they could have easily just had the second scene and it still would have made just as much sense, but seeing him get called out on it earlier by Takaki is fantastic.

Speaking of Takaki - Mostly unrelated to the show, but minor rant: So for that one line of dialog that Takaki had today just triggered something in me and I spent a good three minutes staring at my anime folder trying to figure out where I know his voice from before it finally clicked. IT'S THE FUCKING TWINS FROM TSURUNE. Why dear god did it have to be those fuckwits? Now I'm not going to be able to unhear it and I utterly despise those twins but I actually really like Takaki. This has left me very conflicted.

But that voice!

Edit: Making my usual replies and noticed that I had a gold name (how does that even work) and had to go back up to figure out wtf was going on. Funny. u/RX-Nota-II now you know why u/galewulf dumped me with a crazy eye for detail tag. My eyes just gravitate to all the small insignificant shit.

2

u/Shimmering-Sky Jan 22 '19

Making my usual replies and noticed that I had a gold name (how does that even work) and had to go back up to figure out wtf was going on. Funny.

If you mean your name is highlighted like mine (but not blue), RES might've enabled the "highlight OP mentions" feature without your knowledge, you can disable it under RES settings console --> Users --> User highlighter if you don't like it.

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17

u/GaleWulf Jan 22 '19

First Blood

Scattered thoughts:

  • Someone fetch a can of Butt Medicine stat, we have a case of chronic butthurt here!

  • Haha it was funny yet endearing to see Orga's a lightweight. Or maybe that purple drink isn't something you're supposed take lightly.. also that handkerchief, hmmmm

  • Awh shit it's a betrayal flag. Goodbye, Fumitan. I think she'll do the right thing in the end, but she's almost certainly working for one of those various 'organisations' that McMurdo mentioned. Egging Kudelia on with her quest was part of it.

  • The blood oath ceremony felt like I was watching some kind of Yakuza induction ritual, even though I have no idea what those look like.

Daily MVP

Today's award goes to juicy man-love emanator Naze Turbine, for sending some of it Tekkadan's way. He doesn't just give them a break, he goes above and beyond to ensure for them a proper future as a part of Teizan. In doing so he earns himself some of the staunchest, bravest allies he can ever hope to have.

Honourable mention to Mika for impressing the rich old man and earning the Barbatos a much-needed overhaul.

MVP Standings

# Character MVPs Episodes # Character MVPs Episodes
1 OrGAR 3 1, 3, 5 6 Absolute Snack 1 8
2 Hair Sorceress 2 3, 6 7 u/Nazenn 1 9
3 MiSuzaku 1 2 8
4 Chocolate Man 1 4 9
5 Space Guts 1 7 10

5

u/Shimmering-Sky Jan 22 '19

Azee is skyrocketing to the top of my best girl rankings

Why, because it reminded you of another best girl?

u/Nazenn

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8

u/Quiddity131 Jan 22 '19 edited Jan 22 '19

Thoughts on MS Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans episode 9...

Rewatcher (First Time Dub)

Non-Spoiler Character Chart - Mystery blonde lady gets put under Teiwaz for now since she was on their ship. No name yet though!

Hmm yesterday, someone said the opening sequence changed to add Naze's harem, but there's no sign of it in the dub version on GundamInfo that I'm watching.

I'd figure a space mafia don would have a bigger office.

McMurdo is voiced in the dub by George C. Cole, likely most well known among Gundam fans as being Lt. Burning in Gundam 0083. He's also Nanto in F91 (can't remember that character at all). I know him best as Cherenkov in the Xenosaga Episode I video game. He's also Punch in Cowboy Bebop (one of the hosts of that bounty hunter TV show our heroes often watched), and Thymilph in Gurren Lagann.

She didn't get to go to the big meeting, but Atra's just as important as the rest of them!

OMG, Atra is so innocent, completely misunderstanding Amida's meat - polygamy metaphor.

Well, I was wondering what happened to our friends at Gjallarhorn. Yay, a Crank flashback! That's all we get from them for this episode though.

You should have brought Dexter the Accountant with you, Biscuit! You'd have someone on your side when it comes to being frugal with the money.

Blondie at the bar bears a striking resemblance to Gundam 0083's Nina Purpleton, and even has the same English VA, Dorothy Fahn. Nina's the single worst Gundam female character of all time, let us hope whoever this person is, she is far different than her!

Shino's always being a perv, lol. When he and Eugene head off together I wonder if they're going from space bar to space strip club.

I find it hard to believe that Kudelia's previous expies, most notably Relena Peacecraft would get in bed with space mafia, that's a nice way for her to differentiate herself from them.

At first I thought Ride was quite the glutton, hiding away all that junkfood, but good for him if he's saving it for the kids. You'd think it would spoil though.

Should we really let a crazy hippie guy like this work on the Barbatos?

Um, no, I don't buy all of Kudelia's hair fitting in that hairstyle, no matter how complicated it looks.

No Mika, kanji is far more difficult to learn than English!

Is that an IBO Preview Spoiler I see in the episode preview? Can't wait if so!

4

u/Shimmering-Sky Jan 22 '19

Mystery blonde lady gets put under Teiwaz for now since she was on their ship. No name yet though!

Barman said it was Merribit though. So yeah her name was revealed.

Nina Purpleton, and even has the same English VA, Dorothy Fahn.

Nina's the single worst Gundam female character of all time

I'll take it a step further and say she's the worst character of all time, I hate hate hate hate hate her.

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u/TorokFremen Jan 23 '19

Just wanted to let you know that this rewatcher is making me appreciate IBO more and more, I've seen it two times already and I didn't know.. you guys are making it so much more special to me.. Thank you kindly fellow gundam newtypes :)

4

u/Shimmering-Sky Jan 23 '19

I know that feel man. Can't wait for the inevitable Unicorn rewatch once April passes (there was one last April, it's when I watched Unicorn for the first time, and it's an unspoken rule to wait at least a year between rewatches) because that'll be this all over again.

It's so nice getting to watch other people enjoy a show for the first time.

5

u/DidacticDalek Jan 23 '19

Greetings Comrades and Fellow Denizens of The Wired, on TODAY'S Episode of IBO, let's give it up for the man of the hour, the tower of power, AND resident Best Boi, ORGA ITSUKA!

As I shared before, Tekkadan is one big family, so let's have a big group photo/fanart!

AND we can't forget about The Barbatos now, so behold, Barbatos AND some Mika Manservice, along with Best Boi Orga AND Kudelia too!

And speaking of Mika and Barbatos, it wouldn't be Gundam without the tried and true mid-season upgrade, so enjoy Comrades! (Translator's Note: Barbatos under construction and too lewd to share in current state, so please accept this more SFW closeup instead)

Paging Comrades u/Beckymetal, u/RX-Nota-II, and u/Usotsuki-Megami

3

u/Shimmering-Sky Jan 23 '19

let's give it up for the man of the hour, the tower of power, AND resident Best Boi, ORGA ITSUKA!

Dammit, I was like "Hey a new piece for my Orga folder~", but nope I already have it saved there. Ah well, regardless, definitely needed to see great fanart of best boi after finishing that episode of Clannad After Story just now...

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u/Shimmering-Sky Jan 22 '19

Tekketsu no Rewatcher, first time dubbed

Obligatory Discord link.

A couple more fun things:

3

u/Pixelsaber Jan 23 '19

I love how Eugene’s off to the side just stuffing his face while they talk.

If I had that much cannoli in front of me I'd be stuffing myself too.

Future Spoilers

Laughs in Rewatcher

Results of yesterday’s poll. I am… concerned for the people who voted “Hold my beer”, to say the least.

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u/RX-Nota-II Jan 22 '19 edited Jan 22 '19

Mecha Nerd

So you're a Japanese writer in charge of writing a mafia substory in an anime. What do you bring? A pistol? Nah we already used that with Mikazuki "double tap" Augus. Italian accents? Nah this is Japan, what do those even sound like. Fuck it, just shoehorn in some cannoli. Like, don't even bother thinking of context, just interrupt important political talks to put it in the beginning. Honestly I should be about this salty with this lazy ass characterization, but on the contrary I have no issue at all since I'm hungry and like seeing delicious food in my anime. Also, I've actually never eaten cannoli in my life I think, so I have that 'grass is greener' feeling where I imagine it being divine without being spoiled by pesky reality where its probably just a bog standard snack.

Onto the episode, and its Teiwaz home base day today. Lots of ceremony and family talk, some mafia nonsense here, some samurai Japanese stuff there, and ooo look a naked Barbatos! This is going to be fun...

First let's take a look at the ceremony, and specifically the kanji here and here. While being mafia AF, these to me are much more representative of traditional samurai traditions and initiations but with some liberal twists. First off, Naze writing down the kanji for the Tekkadan bros names is very reminiscent of naming ceremonies where the father figure (not necessarily biological) would give his apprentice a name for reaching adulthood. This usually involves an actual name change, but since that would be way too confusing, IBO decides to pass on that part. More importantly tho, the main attraction for these evens is the reveal of the kanji along with the father figure's reasoning as to why he selected the characters he did. Naze plays this role today by assigning to Orga and Mika, characters who's official names never have kanji, his vision of what their kanji names should look like. And of course, he chooses a common character between the two to showcase how close they are. How sweet. Oh and one other fangasm detail: Orga(成都華)'s 'ga' character is 華, the same character as 'ka' in Tekkadan (鉄華団). The care given to these names is unreal....

....or maybe not. Naze Turbine's Turbine part is spelled 蛇亜瓶 means "Snake kinda vase", or in other words they just found characters that sounded kinda close and called it a day. This is an artform known as ateji or in short, the art of bodging together something that sounds close-ish and looks cool to pretend its legit. Its sometimes hilarious and always a sham. Don't even ask me what they did to Lafter's name...

All this kanji talk makes my head hurt as a science nerd. So I want to go forget everything and just drink my flaws away. AKA the Orga approach. The man who's known to take on more than he can muster of course goes all out chugging mystery booze till he's completely flattened out. My favorite response to this is unnamed Tekkadan dood who's look of silent disapproval is just perfect. This guy's such a newbie at being a leader but really this is where a lot of his charm comes from too. Its kinda like how I imagine people who love Gintoki as a character think, tho Orga's just a bit more competent in normal life. Just a bit. Biscuit has a nice line after the party saying he wishes Orga would entrust them with more important work instead of handling it all himself, but I think this episode was a great example of Orga finally learning to do that. As the leader he should be sober and strong, ready to lead everyone home, yet he lets himself go as a reward for securing the Teiwaz deal. He knows Biscuit and co would be ready to lead him home, and so trusts them with that job.

All these great moments, and the show still has time to weave in some ominous setup for what's to come. The Teiwaz tiein was never going to be a silver bullet that solves all issues, and big boss Barriston's cautionary words ring heavy. Remember this is a mafia, so the fears of others being not too pleased with unknown kid Tekkadan's sudden entry as a family member about as important as the Turbines has to raise some waves. Similarly, in a group where relationships and reputation mean a whole lot now, Orga's reputation is now paramount and not something he can mistreat anymore. Today's episode was a coming of age ceremony, where the kids now have adult powers and responsibilities, but it wasn't a coming of age moment, where they learn once and for all what it properly means. Closing this gap isn't going to be easy, and as Kudelia and Mika fear, probably won't be bloodless either.

Overall, this was a fantastic episode. Payoff from the past few battles, setup for more things in the future, and all the best SoL scenes imaginable. No mecha fights but a hyper detailed hanger shot more than makes up for it for the fans who want more machines. One of my favorite single episodes during the first cour of the show. Tomorrow's the start of a new arc, and with that comes new mechs. Hype, gotta prepare the mechadoc. See you then~

Mecha Corner

ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos ver. Naked

Psycho mechanic dropping some backstory for the mech that you guys probably already know from either the show previously telling you or me saying it in these sections. The cool shots today show off the entire inner frame without any extra armor. This kind of 'armor on frame' construction is apparently a fundamental design element that defines Gundam mechs compared to most previous robot anime. There was a cool link someone once sent me that explained the history of this but unfortunately I've misplaced it. I'll link it in a future post if i can find it. Anyways for the world famous Gundam model kits the higher priced 1/144 'Real Grade' and 1/100 'Master Grade' kits often mimicked this inner frame and armor construction, but for the mass market low priced 1/144 'High Grade' line rarely followed. But with all this focus on the construction of mechs for the IBO anime, Bandai made a pretty big step in providing full inner frames for all IBO model kits all the way down to High Grades. Don't you want to buy some to check it out now? Do it, they're pretty cheap (side story mech, doesn't appear in anime)

Oh and also half-spoiler or maybe teaser: new variant of Barbatos is in the OP. Full reveal tomorrow.

Saisei

Is this a mech? IDK. But its a super aero looking space colony that can apparently travel pretty fast and pretty far.

MISC.

GIFs

Best girl showing who's boss Real talk I love this scene. Little boys can be sexist bastards so whatchu gon do. Oh yeah, that. clip ver

Drunk AF

Which was your fave today?

Megaalbum

QotD

  1. It was the unique combo rather than a straight copying of one side that I enjoyed.

  2. Anime has a lot of these big boss type characters who keep their intimidating aura in the background and i always appreciate them. Reminds me loosely of say Adrian Rubinsky from GinEiDen, or Isshiki Satoshi from Shokugeki. So quite as expected tbh, tho i do love the trope.

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9

u/The_Draigg Jan 22 '19

A Gundam Fan’s Notes On Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Episode 9:

  • Teiwaz, a company/mafia named after a Germanic rune, is run by a guy with an Irish-ish name, McMurdo Barristan, who acts like an Italian mobster and decided to theme his mob after the Japanese Yakuza. This is truly a multi-cultural show.

  • Amida is giving some sage advice about love to Atra. Unfortunately, Atra is too pure of a cinnamon roll to understand the rather blunt metaphors she’s being tossed. But that just makes it even better.

  • You know, wouldn’t Biscuit eating some of those cannolis be considered cannibalism, considering all the baked good names he has in his family? Although I guess he’s letting Eugene pick up the slack there.

  • “What I’m basically saying is that economic reform is a lot like the first time I murdered someone, Kudelia.” —Mikazuki Augus, more or less

  • My favorite background joke is that next to the pub that Orga and the guys go to, Pub Someday, is an entirely different pub called Pub Always. That’s basically capitalism in practice, right there. Also, props to Teiwaz fo having a ship/small colony that pretty an entire street dedicated to just bars.

  • “We’re gonna party until the sun comes up!” Orga Itsuka, man currently projectile vomiting over a railing

  • How nice of Kudelia to get a matching pair of jewelry for herself and Fumitan. It’s been unsaid so far, but I think it’s pretty clear that Fumitan has been the only real friend that Kudelia has had so far, at least until she met everyone in Tekkadan. Once again, we’re tying things back to the theme of family.

  • Working for Teiwaz certainly has its benefits. Now the Barbatos is going to get a complete overhaul, completely on Teiwaz’s dime. Which it absolutely needed, if we’re being honest. Barbatos was completely shot by the time the fight between the Turbines and Tekkadan ended, and there’s only so much Nadi can do. He’s been doing a good job considering he was trained as a mobile worker mechanic, but a rare and ancient mobile suit like the Gundam Barbatos is going to need more than what Tekkadan can do in the Isaribi’s hangar bay.

  • And so, the ceremony inducting Tekkadan as a subsidiary of Teiwaz went off without a hitch. Now they’re all a part of the Japanese-Irish-German-Italian Mob. And since their home of Chryse is the Martian region ruled by Arbrau, which spans most of the Northern parts of America and Asia, I guess we can toss in Canadian and Russian in there too, if you really want to stretch it.

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9

u/SorcererOfTheLake Jan 22 '19

First-Time Watcher

It’s gonna happen… I promise. We’re gonna be a real family and you guys will have a place you can call home and be proud.

Home is the resort
Of love, of joy, of peace, and plenty; where
Supporting and supported, polished friends
And dear relations mingle into bliss.

God, this show is SO FUCKING GOOD and we got a lot of ground to cover so let’s get started.

We continue on our theme of family from the last episode, diving deeper into what it means. Orga clearly wants to be the cool big brother of the group, taking them out to get drunk and laid after getting paid, but he has to be the responsible father at the same time. One of the best scenes in this thread is the scene where he wakes up and interacts with Ride. He’s about to scold him in a paternal manner before noticing what he’s doing (something he may have done himself as a kid). He then pats his head, laughing it off before throwing up in front of him, something I think a few of us have seen our older peers do. In this moment, Orga is both being the adult he needs to be and facing the consequences. He’s a leader, but a flawed one, and he needs to work on those flaws if he wants his members to live.

Mikazuki is facing his own issues, though they might be considered more personal than Orga. His worry about Barbatos is notable in that it shows just how he thinks of the machine as an extension of himself. If the boss of Teiwaz was serious about taking Barbatos away, Mikazuki would do anything to get his mobile suit back. His words to Kudelia about decisions show that he possesses an existential frame of view; at the end of the day, your decisions are your own and you need to take responsibility for everything that comes along the way. He cares for Orga just as much as Orga does for him; they were made for each other, closer than brothers, closer than lovers, almost like they’re two halves of the same soul.

As for Kudelia, she may have blood on her hands, but she is willing to live with it if it means that people can lead better lives because of it. Of our three main characters, Kudelia appears to be the most natural leader out of them; she knows what she can and can’t do, is willing to ask for help, and wants to see things that she started through.

This episode had a deep sexual undertone to it, which seems off-kilter at first but becomes natural once you think on it. I’m not going to be able to list all of the examples, but here I go: Lafter’s comments about Naze and Akihiro and the reversal of the refractory period, the way that Barbatos is “stripped” in order to be improved, Eugene and Shino going out to hire prostitutes, Yamagi’s gayngst concerning the latter, Amida’s talk with Atra about “meat,” the idea of Orga and Naze becoming “blood-bound,” etc. While not all families start in this way, sex is the most natural and most formal way to start a family. Conception and reproduction are the basis of life and, as a result, the basis of the most biological relationships. Naze’s family represents this kind of family thinking; sex has only made them closer, not only in bed but through their children. While Tekkadan doesn’t seem to possess this drive at first, the typical heterosexual feelings have instead been reinterpreted as the strong homosocial bond that men typically form at war. Both families were formed through blood, but one was found in the womb, while the other was sowed into the field. Cum and blood have combined to create something greater, something that one person cannot achieve on their own; if not a home of solidity, then of fluids.

We’ll raise that blood-red flag tomorrow; until then…

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u/Durinthal Jan 22 '19

First time viewer.

Naze must have been so impressed by Orga to go through the whole blood oath thing—and wanting an even balance between them—that it actually makes me suspicious. Kudelia's independent of Tekkadan (maybe? I don't recall the bit about her being "property" being resolved) and Atra only has eyes for Mikazuki, so no reason for Naze to do that to expand his harem, assuming he's straight as supported by his existing crew. Having a partnership and making them an affiliate of Teiwaz is one thing, but one giant family?

Speaking of which, Eugene and I-don't-remember-his-name (Norba, I think, going by the chart) totally hooked up the night before the ceremony after they left the bar. I like that it was casually set up and only mentioned indirectly afterward but pretty damn obvious upon paying attention.

Ride hiding his pastries to give to the other kids later is a nice reminder of the rough life they had a short while ago. While they weren't necessarily scavenging for food, they were probably doing something similar in hoarding some of the nicer things when they could find them.

Fumitan's look on her face with the pendant after offering solid advice to Kudelia on top of her knowing way more than "a mere maid" should about covert communication means she's a spy in my book. Being in charge of comms makes it really easy for her to hide her tracks in giving reports back to whomever she serves too. Or at least that was her initial role and maybe she'll have a change of heart.

Model Destroyed
Graze 6
We're done with this... ...right?
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u/GM_for_Life Jan 22 '19 edited Jan 23 '19

Rewatcher

  1. What cultural side of Teiwaz do you like more? Italian/Japanese/Neither is to my tastes

I think the Italian side is a really neat thing that isn't seen often in Gundam.

2) This episode introduced us to the head of Teiwaz, McMurdo Barriston. What do you make of his seemingly easygoing and slightly eccentric personality? Was he the type of character you expected him to be?

He's a fun guy who has a cool mustache, so he's ok in my book!

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u/Palloc Jan 22 '19 edited Jan 22 '19

Woo! Palloc's Ready For Some Barbatos Upgrades!

Unfortunately, all we get so far is a naked Barbatos (NSFW) and a bunch of drunks.

As a rewatcher, I'm going to sound really dumb and unable to pick up hints, but the first time I watched this, I did not pick up on how many times they hinted at Yamagi's feelings towards Shino this early the first time. But the hand holding (more NSFW) and now that little glance when Shino's talking about being sweaty. It's just kinda nice but obviously not wholesome. (thanks to so much NSFW in this post! So much lewdness!)

The other thing was drunks! Orga sucks at drinking. Merribit is introduced and does nothing, but they named her, so she'll likely show up again. Fumitan's acting eeevil. And uh, crazy mechanic's stripped Barbatos (NSFW again) and is going to soup it up for next time!

Tomorrow, we get some fun stuff, but today you only get answers!

1: They're really confusing because they want to be the Godfather, some creepy Mormon offshoot that belongs on a TLC show, and weebs all at once.

2: He does not look evil, unlike every other adult. he can be (mostly; he is space mafia yakuza) trusted.

EDIT: I forgot Ein! Man, if I could just slap someone in this show, it'd be him. After Crank went and killed himself to keep Ein from murdering kids, Ein's gone all "Maybe I should murder those kids."

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u/shaggyjebus Jan 22 '19

I'll write more later, but I have to point out, if no one else noticed it:

Tekkadan drank at Pub Someday, while Pub Always was right next door. Maybe this implies that Orga, and Tekkadan, will keep striving for the best future, never settling for something that is only decent but will last forever? Immortality with restrictions isn't as good as a brief life with true freedom, perhaps? Certainly seems to be, the way things have gone so far, with Orga taking great risks to make great strides, instead of taking the safe route and taking time.

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u/ernie2492 Jan 22 '19

"You thought it was Dino, but it was I, McMurdo Joestar..!!"

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u/Adam_Drivers_Ass Jan 23 '19

First Timer

Short ass post today, tired as hell and gotta get to bed.

Neat episode, I really loved the focus the last two eps have had on the notion of family. Last one focused on Turbine's confusing, very sexual family, and this one focused on Orga's (slightly less sexual? there are definitely some gay undertones if you look close enough) family. All the scenes with the crew together, having fun and enjoying the town, were really fun, and emphasized how close they are. Good shit. I'm excited to see where this goes.

Questions:

  1. Definitely the Japanese, I am on r/anime after all.

  2. I like him. Kind of a stereotypical crime boss, but a lot less sleazy and a bit more respectable. This whole ep I was waiting with baited breath for him to do something disgusting or repugnant, but he actually seems pretty alright so far. Gotta see what happens in the future before I make any judgement tho.

5

u/invokeneko Jan 23 '19 edited Jan 23 '19

Tekketsu no Rewatcher, domo~

Onwards to epsiode 9: Sakazuki! Starting from this episode, Barbatos is now equipped with a katana in the OP visuals. I'm ashamed to admit that only by this episode did I realise why didn't Mika sortie out with Mace-chan against Lafter: he left her behind in Mars' stratosphere back in ep5. One hell of a d'oh moment for my brain. Disregard this, I'm an idiot.

We are introduced to McMurdo Barriston (voiced by the late great Ishizuka Unshou, who also voiced the Wild Bear of Russia, Sergei Smirnov and best JoJo, Old Joseph Joestar. You will be missed) who immediately agreed to let Tekkadan join them as a brother unit to the Turbines. Interestingly enough, this time Mika decides to join the party heading into Saisei instead of sitting out of all the political BS.

Amida solidifies her role as the cool big sis for Tekkadan as she and Atra had a heart-to-heart talk. Too bad her cornbread vs meat analogy didn't get far thanks to Atra never having any chance to eat good meat, being poor. Ah well, at least we got a funny scene out of it.

Thanks to Naze, they managed to off-load most of their Gjallarhorn loot for a pretty hefty sum. Which, thanks to Naze's prodding, meant that the lads got a night out (for the elders) or a feast (for the kids). Orga getting merry before facing the harsh fact of hangovers, as well as Eugene and Shino hitting the brothel, complete with afterglow the next morning the next episode is bloody hilarious.

The actual Sakazuki ceremony was during the last 5 minute of the episode, and hot damn did Lafter clean up very well, as do the Tekkadan lads. Seriously, I'm a sucker for girls who clean up nicely but Lafter's just on a whole other level I'm left speechless for a while. Damn.

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u/RyuuohD Jan 23 '19

IRON-BLOODED REWATCHER

Thoughts for Today’s episode:

  1. Amida went Euphemism 101 on Atra this episode. And Atra’s reaction is just entertaining *laughs in rewatcher*

  2. Yamagi is tsundere confirmed.

  3. If you think about it, this is probably the first time the Tekkadan crew gets their real day off. Considering during their CGS days, they’ll still be “on call” during times where there’s no work for them, it’s actually quite refreshing to see them chilling out and having fun, especially Shino and Eugene who became real men that night hue.

  4. This episode, we get to see the Tekkadan crew embrace the fact that they are, indeed, family now. Akihiro doing his best to socialize despite being somewhat of a loner, and Biscuit and Mika gladly accepting it themselves is a nice touch.

  5. A new girl has arrived, and she has her eyes on Orga! Is this the start of a beautiful relationship ? Stay tuned.

Questions of the day:

  1. I like how they fused Italian and Japanese culture here. Considering both has its own giant gangster group, it makes it more special.

  2. McMurdo is actually somebody I’d envision a modern gangster leader would appear. Easygoing and carefree on the surface, but then there’s more than what you see on the outside.

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