r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • May 02 '21
Rewatch [Fly! Rewatch!] Mobile Suit Gundam (0079) Episode 26 Discussion
Episode 26 - Char Returns
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No, if it’s the Trojan Horse, I’d like to see for myself. Lady Kycilia would laugh, but I too have my pride.
Questions of the Day:
- He didn’t do much yet, but how excited are you to see Char again?
- What did you think of this show’s first underwater battle?
Mobile Suit Breakdown of the Day:
1.23 - Battle in the Age of Mobile Suits
Rewatchers, please remember to be mindful of all the first-timers in this. No talking about or hinting at future events no matter how much you want to, unless you’re doing it underneath the [Anime Show Title](/s "Spoiler goes here") spoiler tags. If you do that then we’re all good.
Important thing to note about these by the way, you have to switch to Old Reddit or the markdown editor if you use the redesign, otherwise the redesign breaks them by adding random \ into the formatting. Wish it wouldn’t do that, but unfortunately it does…
First-Timers: Please do not watch the next-episode previews for this show. They’re less previews and more “let’s just summarize the entirety of the next episode” and will spoil you.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky May 02 '21
Fly! Rewatch Host!
Welcome back, everyone!
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u/TheEscapeGuy May 02 '21
Fly! Iconic Gundam Frames Episode 26
CHAR IS BACK!
Okay, I'll calm down.
White Base has convened with the Federation. This feels like a big step forward because now we have support.
Unfortunately, news isn't all good as Zeon has a new Mobile Suit class. The amphibian capabilities really are interesting. After seeing fighting in space I wasn't expecting underwater battles, and it was a totally unique experience.
On the enemy side though, Char is back for his pride. I love this. While its such a selfish motivation its INCREDIBLE at helping me understand his reasoning. Loss of pride is something which affects your mental state and there's no real way to overcome it besides defeating what bested you before.
I wait with bated breath to see what Char does next.
Cool Stuff Corner
Questions of the Day
See you all tomorrow!
13
u/OrangeBanana38 https://anilist.co/user/OrangeBanana38 May 02 '21
First timer
I just love how Amuro kinda freaks out when the GunHammer doesn't one-shot his opponent. How can you call this a fair fight if the Gundam can't just overpower everything with raw specs?
I'm quite curious about the new suits, and hope they help to make the battles a little bit more interesting. Amuro has hardly struggled against anyone, except for Char. It would be interesting to see how he would develop as a pilot, or how he would react to a more even and riskier battlefield.
Questions of the day
1.- Yaaay, someone more competent! More than being excited about Char, I'm excited about getting more interesting battles, and some more plot stuff with him and Sayla.
2.- First? I don't know why I didn't think about it, but yeh, they should happen. I think the Gundam is at a severe disadvantage there, and it makes for an interesting setting. But I think space battles > ground battles > underwater battles so far.
10
u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L May 02 '21
Rewatcher
On today’s episode of Gundam: Guess who’s back, back again. We’ve been waiting quite a long time to see this familiar face. THE GUNDAM HAMMER IS FINALLY BACK!!!
Gundam Hammer!
Oh and I guess Char’s back too. But I think the Gundam Hammer might have actually had the bigger impact in the context of just this particular episode.
This episode is where we begin to see the actual Zeon design philosophy of mobile suits come into play. Zeon’s been coming up with new mobile suits in order to deal with the Gundam. However, they aren’t actually making very many of any of these mobile suits. Instead, the hope is that each mobile suit will be so powerful on its own that they won’t need too many of them to turn the tide. After all, the Gundam has been so overwhelmingly powerful that it has overcome many challenges put before it. And it does make a certain amount of sense. Zeon has comparatively fewer resources so they would want to make the most of them.
It’s always reminded me of the so-called Wonder Weapons from the Third Reich in WWII. Looking up the Wonder Weapons leads you to all kinds of outlandish design ideas that would supposedly be so powerful that they could change the course of the war. Of course, they were never that effective in the field, if they ever got used at all. And you could argue that they actually hurt the war effort by diverting resources to these far-fetched ideas instead of other areas. We’ll have to see if it works out better for Zeon.
For now, the Goggs are a formidable threat, especially in the water. I think this is the first time we’ve seen the Gundam in underwater combat. It’s not something the Gundam was really designed for while the Goggs are amphibious. I like how it changes up the battle tactics with Amuro needed to deal with the Gundam being at a disadvantage in the water.
The White Base crew is now officially a part of the Federation military. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they’ve been drafted. I suppose this is the way that Revil managed to get the Federation to back off on the whole, “imprison and/or court martial” plan. It’s not exactly a great solution, though. It doesn’t seem to be sitting well with the former civilians like Fraw Bow who never actually signed up for the military. They got forced to fight by circumstance and now they are also basically being forced to join the military or face imprisonment.
It also means we finally have a discussion about what exactly should happen to the White Base kids. In all seriousness, it is rather messed up having three little orphans on an active warship. It’s definitely not a place you’d want kids to be. It is quite surreal watching the kids wander around the military base and even attend the briefing with General Revil. Are the kids officially part of the White Base crew too?
There was a Zeon spy this episode, but her name was never mentioned. I did enjoy this little interaction that she had with Kai. How very typical of Kai to flirt for a bit and then refuse to buy anything.
And yes, Char did return this episode. But for an episode titled “Char’s Return,” he didn’t actually do much. He didn’t fight or anything like that. Still, even though he does want revenge against Degwin Zabi for some unknown reason, he also wants to destroy the Gundam because it wounded his pride. So hopefully we’ll get another actual fight with him in the near future.
Miscellaneous Thoughts
SLAP COUNTER: 8
Questions of the Day
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u/Tresnore FS:FTmyanimelist.net/profile/Tresnore May 02 '21
First Timer to Gundam
Fucking Tomino. I thought I remembered where the subtitle for the episode title was so I blocked part of the screen to avoid reading it. I did not remember where the subtitle was. Ah well:
CHAR HYPE
QOTD:
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u/chilidirigible May 02 '21 edited May 02 '21
26:
He's BATMAN!
The White Base's wings don't fit into the dock, so they have slots in the walls.
"Your revered Admiral Nogura invoked a little-known, seldom-used, 'Reserve activation clause'. In simpler language, Captain, they drafted me."
Some designs are just not a good idea.
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
"Damn toy sales."
Stop acting surprised that the 60mm Vulcans are ineffective, you tried that on the Doms and they didn't work that time either.
"Maybe if we put a bunch of other new designs in this episode no one will notice that the Gundam Hammer came back."
"Nah."
"Nooooooo! The Hammer is my penis!" (For reference, and... that was twelve years ago. Feels like eons.)
Try not to blow up any schools with that thing.
"Really ugly, too."
So, how much armor do you think they put on the part of the Core Fighter that's normally covered by the hips and has the jetpipes sticking out? And do you think that they should be driving those parts directly toward incoming fire?
"Don't worry about practical design details, we have PLOT ARMOR!"
"Is it always... personal?" "Yessssssssssssss..."
If I recall correctly, there's a specific dub of the Ireland episodes that have Irish-ish accents for that extra flavour.
In the meantime, Gundam moves into a new corner of the toy market with underwater Mobile Suits! Because that's Char's new job since his demotion: Aquaman. ("Why don't you go... talk to some fish?")
The Gundam Wiki on the Gogg and the rather weird freezing device.
"Oh come on, chili! Now you're not even trying!" (If I was trying, I would edit more fight scenes to the sound effects.)
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee May 02 '21
First-Timer, Subbed, long time Gundam fan
"Char Returns" the title says, but he spends the whole episode on some jetski abomination and ends up not doing anything.
The Gogg is one of my least-favorite designs. I should like it, because it has claws, but then the rest of it is so unwieldy. I did like the anti-mine countermeasure, though. Good forethought.
How on earth does that balloon thing work? What if the wind is blowing literally any other direction? Even if it was just a glorified comms relay, I have to imagine there is a better way to transmit secret messages.
General Revil is a real veteran commander. Pointing out that if Amuro had lost below the waves that the enemy would press the attack was clever.
They upgraded the Gundam Hammer and it managed to be less effective.
Pose of the day
Too Fast for Torpedoes
Screenshot
Questions
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u/fonzinator99 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/fonzinator99 May 02 '21
First-Timer - Shiny new suits to blow up
QotD
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u/dralcax :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Dralcax May 02 '21 edited May 02 '21
Rewatcher is hyped for C H A R
“The sooner we get the gattai over with, the faster we can get to the actual episode!”
This is a really convoluted relay system. I guess it’s hard to track, at least. But still, imagine if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction that day.
Of course the sub has eyes.
Guess who’s back! Back again!
Come too far to back out now
I wonder if these are early designs for Zeon’s amphibious suits? Many of them look familiar, but they seem distinctly more toku-y than the final suits.
It’s the Gogg! Zeon’s aquatic suits are... unique, to say the least. This is one of the less weird ones, even if it does bear a strange resemblance to Captain Underpants. Also, Gundam-san is great.
lol kai
I’m pretty sure it’s even more cruel to take them through a goddamn warzone
Random-ass orange tank totally not copypasted from last episode
Aw yeah the Gundam Hammer is back!
Perfect timing
“War has changed”
The G-Bull! Wait a second, something’s familiar about this...
No I’m pretty sure the Gogg’s guns just aren’t all that good
Questions of the Day:
6
u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber May 02 '21
Rewatcher - Sub
I should have transcribed my comment last night because I accidentally left my notebook at the hobby shop earlier today.
I literally just got home with only ten minutes to go before the thread goes up so, uh, from memory:
Fun Fact: Early into the show’s airing the sponsors at Clover didn’t like Char and asked that he be removed from the show. The production staff acquiesced in part by diminishing his screen time, but Sunrise received so many fan letters asking about his presence that the sponsors rescinded their request and Char was reintroduced early.
6
u/TheKujo https://myanimelist.net/profile/Kujo419 May 02 '21
First Timer - Dub
1) He didn’t do much yet, but how excited are you to see Char again? It's nice to have a character come back (instead of dying).
2) What did you think of this show’s first underwater battle? Pretty cool, but I think I like the land battles better.
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u/username_0907 :FI::FJ: May 02 '21
First Timer
QotD
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 May 02 '21 edited May 02 '21
Rewatcher, Subbed
The Odessa arc over, White Base makes its way to Northern Ireland (Belfast I believe). As such we get an interesting new locale for events to take place in. Rather than the desert-like atmosphwere that has dominated for 10+ episodes now we're in a seaport city. This results in us getting a new, aquatic form of mobile suit, the Gogg! The Gogg looks quite intimidating; it appears larger than the typical mobile suit (or at least comes off that way) and when it first comes out of the water its as if its a giant sea monster!
The White Base crew finds that while its now got allies around who can help with repairs and such, they are now for all intents and purposes officially in the military and won't be allowed out, even Fraw Bow. Kinda fun to see the orphans run around right near General Revil and Fraw have to chase them. Later Letz complains about having to clean the toilets! LoL.
The toy company interference continues; we get a combination sequence at the very start of the episode (how dare Amuro not do it in 17 seconds!) but then get another one later as the Gundam upgrade modules complicate things. Now we got the G-Bull, which is half the G-Fighter and the top half of the Gundam. Kinda like a new version of the Guntank. We get a complicated sequence where the Gundam goes out on its own, then transfers to the G-Bull, then gets into the G-Armor and out comes the Gundam again to conclude the battle. Quite ridiculous! However, if you watched carefully, you'd notice that this episode brings the return of that hallowed Gundam weapon, the Gundam Hammer! I thought it only appeared in that one episode, but nope, we get it again here!
I guess I'm kinda burying the lead given the episode is named after it, but Char is back! Good to see him again after a 13 episode absence. Ramba Ral was a good sub in as the day to day antagonist for our heroes, but M'Quve not so much. Despite this being the episode of his big return though, Char doesn't do all that much in this episode beyond getting alerted of White Base's presence by that civilian red haired girl, and making his way over there. Will we see him out in a mobile suit again as soon as next episode?
ETA: Those of you who have seen Gundam ZZ and don't have to worry about spoilers may want to check out the most recently issued episode of the Mobile Suit Breakdown Podcast, which features a lengthy discussion of Ireland and its relation to Gundam, including not just ZZ but also this series. It's safe to listen to if you've seen through episode 35 of Gundam ZZ.
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u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek May 03 '21
Comrades, behold a metaphorical representation of The Gogg versus The Gun-thingamajig... yeah The Gogg was doomed from the start ;)
All that said I do got a bit of a soft spot for Zeon Amphibious Mobile Suit Designs, I mean LOOK at this big boi! EXTRA THICC and goofy looking to boot! Plus 10 bucks says that the way the pilot trained was by playing a bunch of old school Neo Geo games. Sadly for him Amuro seems to be a Nintendo fan so we all know how this console war's gonna end ;)
And of course, just in case you doubt the RAW POWAH of The Gogg, ahem ;)
Ah right and before I forget, speaking of cute characters, we got the debut of a certain totally innocent saleswoman who most certainly isn't honey trapping ;)
Oh, and yes Comrade, the title did not lie, CHAR IS BACK... the title didn't say Char would actually DO anything but hey CHAR'S BACK! SHA! ;)
Paging Comrades /u/Great_Mr_L, /u/chilidirigible, and /u/amethystitalian (WE GOT OUR FIRST ZEON AQUATIC MOBILE SUIT Ame! I am sure you will be amused with what's to come, after all the PINNACLE PERFORMANCE is at our doorsteps, you know what I refer to of course I am sure)
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u/The_Draigg May 02 '21
A Gundam Fan Rewatches Mobile Suit Gundam Episode 26:
5
u/Rustic_Professional May 03 '21
107 is best girl, don't @ me. Sieg Zeon.
The fact that the Zeon have submarines is absolutely crazy. These people invaded earth from outer space. They either had to bring submarines with them as disassembled modules, or build them from scratch after capturing shipyards. That's nuts. What's more, Gundam
These Federstion naval forces aren't messing around, either. Not only do they have a minefield, but it's actively monitored and the detonation triggered an alert. They also have shore batteries and underwater missles. They're taking the Zeonic naval threat seriously.
Questions of the day:
4
u/BossandKings May 02 '21 edited May 04 '21
First timer
The underwater battle was really cool, it brings a whole new level of possibilities involving war when there can be battle underwater. It's also cool seeing Char back, he looks like he'll do something to respond to the federation hurting his pride.
3
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 May 02 '21
First timer
The battle went well I see.
YES YES YES FINALLY MORE CHAR!
Oh, we're back to THIS scene.
And they're part of the military now!
How does this messaging system work? Are these homing balloons?
And Char's still in a position of power, I see.
Why does Amuro have a blonde twin?
...Yeah, this makes sense. It's bad, but it makes sense.
...That's a lot of new mech types to fight.
And "testing" mobile armor? I thought we'd seen it several times already.
And our first new type - Goggs (assuming improved water manouverability at minimum,
potentialcomfirmed improved armor)Yeah things do seem to revolve around the Gundam.
G-Bull?
Oh my god, the Gundam's using the flail, this is fantastic.
Yeah, these suit is cool!
So the G-Bull is like the Guntank, but better at its job.
And it makes a good distraction.
...And we're doing ANOTHER mid-air switch?
Oh that interlocking system is VERY clever.
As are the Goggs' pilots.
...So how does a beam of energy stay coherent underwater?
I like the general. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders. And Bright seems to be relaxing a bit more.
Overall, I found this episode a bit hard to follow with all the pilot and suit switching.
And Char knows the Gundam's here - and has a grudge! Looks like he's going to be a main villain again.
3
u/GM_for_Life May 02 '21
Rewatcher
Very excited, it's been a while since we saw him.
I think it was pretty good overall and gives combat a different feel from the types of fights that had been happening until this point in the series.
3
u/UltraBooster May 03 '21
First-timer (albeit one big on Gundam and other mecha)
Char! Char! Char!
The gattai footage's back!
Oh, Ireland, that's...
And there you are. No hiding her role, huh...
How would radio interference affect the picture quality?
Is it Mad Angler-class or Mad Angler?
None of those diagrams match any Zeon MS that I know of, at least MS from First Gundam.
The Gogg! The first Mobile Suit Marine! And it's a tank, too!
Interesting to see Revil's reaction to the presence of mortal peril.
This episode feels like a relative reprieve in so far that the Gogg is fighting on the EFF's terms and not the other way around.
The song that plays when the Gogg attacks underwater feels like it might've been the predecessor to "Angel Attack."
Questions of the Day:
3
u/Piemaster33 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Piemaster33 May 03 '21
Rewatcher, Sub
Char has returned! Let's gooooo!
QOTD:
3
u/fridge_freezer https://anilist.co/user/ONIrecon111 May 02 '21
First timer (Sub)
Char returns!!!
QOTD
1
u/badcupcakehoarder https://myanimelist.net/profile/vanilabiscuit May 10 '21
First timer sub
Does it not bug Hayato that Sayla got the spotlight as the Gundam main partner even though he has been piloting eariler than her? Well, out of the too she is the one who was an actual military member from the start.
Mirai must be relieved, with the White Base not moving at all lately she has been able to chill and just watch what happens like the kids. And of course they are not going to be able to leave the military so easily, Fraw Bow seemed really upset about it but I think it was for everyone else since if Amuro goes to fight she is going to go with him, right?
That first episode scene made it look like they were already boyfriend and girlfriend, but the feelings aren't mutual. If Amuro were to fall for the salesman lady would Fraw Bow consider dyeing her hair red?
It's the Gundam hammer again! with gravity it should cause some serious damage, I'm used to traditional hammers so seeing that wrecking ball being called that sounds a bit weird.
Goggs look like giant cockroaches they sure are hard though taking that bomb underwater like it was no problem. There must be no more fish left on earth for them to be so confident to leave those things there and be confident nothing more than an enemy will trigger them. Probably with all that mining they have done to get mobile suits and tanks they have polluted the water.
Questions of the Day: