Kidou Senshi Gundam: Suisei no Majo Season 2

vampirevore

This is primarily a review of just the second season (or second cour) of _Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury_, rather than a review of the show as a whole, but I do discuss a few spoilers from both seasons. If you want to avoid those, or just don’t want to have to read the entire thing, then feel free to skip to the last paragraph right at the bottom of the review, after the last rainbow breaker. ~~~__img(https://vamposts.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/rainbow.gif)__~~~

I tend to do my best to stay away from any kind of discourse surrounding the anime that I enjoy, so I have no clue what the public consensus is on this season of _Witch from Mercury_, but I have the sense that it might be more divisive than last season proved to be in some corners of the internet. For a decent stretch of episodes it managed to build on what the previous season accomplished, mixing compelling character writing with great action and political intrigue in an immersive world, but as the season went on there were more and more cracks noticeable in these central pillars of the show’s appeal. If you're curious on whether this season lives up to its predecessor, or if it represents a slump in the quality of its presentation, I’ll do my best to balance the good and the bad to make it clear why I think it's actually a mix of both, and why I think it was and is still worth watching.

If you happened to have also read my review of the previous season of this anime, you may recall that I spent a chunk of that review talking about how great the character writing was. Some of that still carries over into the second season, with the main cast generally reaching the inevitable endpoint of the paths they were on when we last saw them. There’s immense payoff and emotional impact in Suletta’s journey from being a blank slate for Prospera to impose her will on, to being able to take action independently from what people expect of her or how they may react. This being accomplished by reframing rather than wholly abandoning the perseverance that defined her character in the previous season of the show. Guel Jeturk - whose name will never stop being funny to me - goes through a similar reframing, with a return to his father’s company, but with a desire to do the right thing replacing his desire to prove himself. A lot of the characters in this anime find themselves in effectively the same place they’ve always been or even always tried to escape, but in completely different circumstances after confronting the delusions that once held them as prisoners. That progression might seem to take place a bit too quickly in some cases, with Miorine getting over her slump almost instantly - at least from the audience’s perspective - but it never feels unearned or out of place. Well, never may not be the right word there, as the faster pacing of the last half of this season does result in moments where character motivations start to get a little lost or muddled, like Lauda’s arc towards the end in particular, and even Shaddiq to an extent.

Rushed pacing took away from the appeal of the show and made the last few episodes a bit of a mixed bag. For one thing, my enjoyment of action scenes a lot of the time is tied directly to how much I care about the characters involved in those scenes, what they have to lose and what it is they fight for. When you have Lauda and Guel in this pointless feud in the final stretch, it’s difficult to even bother paying attention to what’s going on, likewise with Shaddiq somehow blaming and attacking Guel for certain developments that take place on Earth. It felt like the show was missing a few scenes to bridge the gap in the characters’ logic between what occurred and how they reacted to it. I understand that what ultimately matters the most is not whether a character is strictly rational, but whether that character is believable and consistent. My constant criteria for what I consider good character writing is "does this make sense for this character in this situation, with the information available to them?" In the first season of the show, the answer was always a resounding yes, but here we ended up with different points where - for the sake of advancing the plot or artificially progressing the character - that wasn’t always the case, and again it just made the action that much weaker for me as a result. For what it’s worth though, the pure visual spectacle of it is as great as ever, if not even better, with brand new Mobile Suits and Gundam units coming into play in well choreographed and animated battles.

One last note on the character writing, the first half of this season is really _Witch From Mercury_ at its best on that front, with a number of supporting characters getting to shine. Chuchu routinely coming in as the voice of sanity to hold Suletta and Earth House at large together was a wonderful thing to see, and honestly the highlight of at least a couple of episodes. Sophie and Norea were also welcome additions to the main cast for a period of time and got substantially more development than I expected they would from the roles they had in the attack on Plant Quetta. For the few out of place character motivations or choices we get an abundance of emotionally engaging and interesting characters and scenes from the start right through to the end, and it’s important not to lose sight of that. Everyone here has flaws and fears that make them feel human, and that make their high points or happiest moments resonate so strongly, even Elan has a positive, heartwarming moment in choosing to carry the spirit and will of another character with him, reconnecting with the value of human life in general, and his own life. I can’t emphasise enough that just because there’s a few missteps doesn’t mean that this season completely shat the bed on this aspect of its character writing

Moving on from the characters to address the setting of the story itself, we have another instance of the show suffering because it tried to do too much too fast to reach its endpoint. I loved how both the prologue and the first season only gave the audience the essentials in terms of worldbuilding so as to make the anime immersive but not overwhelming, but this season shows the limits of that approach in the long-term. As things stand, I actually no longer think there will be another season, so for the time being the Assembly League almost coming out of nowhere and disturbing the internal politics of the Benerit group, which itself had just begun to reap the effects of having intervened against the Vanadis institute, created an interlocking chain without an easily discernible start or endpoint when it comes to the different factions in this world. I just ended up not sure who was even on what side anymore at some point, and what their roles were in relation to each other. When you start to cram in so much stuff, explaining or introducing things a bit more beforehand is quite helpful, and probably would’ve helped make the experience of watching this weekly more seamless. With all of that said, I think the role of the Assembly League works quite well thematically even if I’m not quite certain of its position in the narrative, and that leads on into a brief glance at what makes this anime so great even when other aspects of its writing start to falter a little.

If the core focus of the original _Mobile Suit Gundam_ series was the dehumanising nature of war, then _Witch From Mercury_ shifts that focus onto the role of corporate interests in deepening and perpetuating wars. Through the system of war partitioning, the different arms of the Benerit Group - as well as presumably other competing corporations - are able to fund the conflicts that have left the people of Earth under constant threat of violence and exploitation. This occuring while those same people have no say or influence whatsoever over the corporations that profit from selling weapons and technology to their proxies on Earth. The Assembly League, while ostensibly some kind of overarching government, is merely an extension of this system for mediating corporate rivalries, as it only finally makes its move against the Benerit group not as a neutral arbiter but as a tool to further the interests of one corporation over another. If this does turn out to be the end of the show as a whole, then it does leave something to be desired in terms of fully expressing or demonstrating its ideas on both corporate greed and the symbiotic relationship between corporations and governments, but the final episode does end on what could be an ideal path forward in the upliftment of the Earth. The “Earthian” quest for freedom didn’t get as much of a spotlight as it perhaps could have either, but different ideas of freedom remained as the core motivating factor for the decisions undertaken by the different members of the main cast. It’s not a coincidence that the physical form of Quiet Zero that we do get to see in the show resembles a coffin, drawing attention to the irony of Prospera’s methods when you consider that her explicit desire is to use it as an instrument for freedom.

Lastly, it would feel kinda weird to talk about this show without talking about Suletta and Miorine _together_, but if you happen to not care much for what I have to say on their relationship, or you want to avoid spoilers on the possible status of that relationship, you can keep reading without clicking on the text that’s in the spoiler tag below: ~!Right from the first episode of this anime, the prospect of Suletta and Miorine getting married by the end was undoubtedly near the top of people’s minds while watching the show. Their interactions with each other were some of my absolute favourite moments in just about any anime I’ve watched, as in _ever_, so I’ve been worried all along that something would happen that’d obviously feel forced in order to separate the two of them so the official line could be “they were really good friends.” So while I’m sure there’s people who haven’t been happy with how much of this season they were kept apart for, or how we didn’t actually get to see their wedding if it has happened already, I’m personally just overjoyed that we did actually get both a happy ending and the one that made the most sense to anybody with eyes and a brain. The way that their support of each other has always been unconditional and absolute, the way that they were both able to free each other from the shadow of their parents, everything about it was perfect to me, and they truly got the ending they deserved. It’s another instance where a lesser story may have taken the chance at different points to manufacture some tension or conflict between them, and another instance where Witch from Mercury does not compromise the integrity of its own characters.!~ ~~~__img(https://vamposts.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/rainbow.gif)__~~~

With all that said, this season of _Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury_ had a few rough moments, and perhaps tried to do more than it realistically could with its allotment of episodes, but even when the cracks started to show thanks to patchy pacing, it still held on to the themes and engaging characters that were a big part of what kept me watching the previous season anyway. If this is indeed the end of the show, then it may not have gone far enough in expanding on certain threads and ideas, but it delivered enough to be both a worthy successor and a satisfying end for anyone who was a fan of the prior season. For that reason it gets a score of __79 out of 100__, a bit of a step down from the first season, but still more than worthwhile both on its own terms and as a continuation of the story.

SpiritChaser

The return of Gundam Witch From Mercury was something I had some high hopes in. Season 1 ended giving me the impression this was going to get intense. Sure, it somewhat did. Still, it was mostly a let down where I felt nothing besides frustration and 0 emotions for this anime for a while until the end. Recent mecha has done very little for me overall. 86 was painful to get through, Kyoukai Senki was worse, Sakugan was a lie and embarrassment, Rumble Garanndoll imploded and then I dropped it, Macross Delta proved to be the worst Macross entry for me after watching it all, Muv-Luv and Back Arrow were "okay," etc. Despite this, it wasn't all that bad. Megaton-Kyuu Musashi emerged as a multimedia project that tried to bring the spirit of anime like Gurren Lagann back, among much of the other mecha and space operas it often referenced, such as Space Battleship Yamato. I was surprised and pretty pleased to see something get it right. The worst part? No one watched it because no one really looks for anime in an age where there are so many "weeds" you have to get through to find something good. Even Birdie Wing: A Golf Girls' Story, that deliberately felt like a Gundam series, proved to be a great modern anime. But it's a "sports" anime about golf. It's not surprising the treatment this got. We were also graced with Tomino's new movie projects on Gundam Reconguista in G, which I am more than half way into, and really enjoying so far. To get straight into it, Prospera was the character I came to like the most. The expectations of the "Char clone" were how she was being measured. Every time time she talks to someone it's coming from this sarcastic, condescending place where she knows something really important that you don't. She planned things out really well at first. It's like she plays out several possible scenarios in her head so that she always has some technicality or legal reason to justify what she is doing. There was a point where it became funny to me because she is always smiling. However, the last few episodes of Witch From Mercury-and the worst ones, in my opinion-ruined her character. I felt baffled how poorly thought out her actions were towards the end after she had created such a clever image of herself. The "appeal" I see about this anime is sorrowful. The "Utena" approach resulted in the bride and groom of Miorine and Suletta. First of all, this and they felt barely explored. A lack of exploration I think explains a lot about this anime. It pulled in those communities that are into these types of stories, so it did its job. Miorine doing nothing but mostly crying for episodes on end felt like a waste for the potential of her character. Suletta finally graduated from being the annoying crybaby she was in season 1. Now, her overpowered Gundam magic so conveniently saved the day that it felt too convenient. It made me feel they were rushing in the finale to resolve the final conflict. Slowly, I saw this train wreck unfolding right before my eyes. So much wasted potential, really. I thought Shaddiq would do more than sit down and smile like a clown for episodes on end. I thought Chu's character would go somewhere than just being unnecessarily angry all the time. It was annoying. I appreciate that at least Guel's character went through an interesting arc, though he gets resolved early and got sort of shafted to the side almost completely after that. I found it comical how certain characters practically "get away with it" by the end. One thing about Witch From Mercury that I haven't seen in modern mecha lately is what it does with violence. Though it was able to get violent at times, it was still child's play compared to the violence of anime such as Tomino's Gundam, or his Space Runaway Ideon, that will probably never be challenged for it's horrifying, yet beautiful approach. At least for me, Witch From Mercury isn't the worst Gundam I've seen, as trash such as Twilight Axis exists. In criticizing this, I am not being "negative." I should be critical. I could "turn my brain off" and give everything 10s and only point out the "good," but I wouldn't want to delude myself like that. I think it's important for me to think and distinguish what I think is good, and what I think is bad. And this has no significance to the audience in terms of what they should think. Why? because like I've said before, there will always be someone who will like something you don't, and dislike something you like. We have to come to terms with this and stop fighting over it. What I can do, is at least find people who understand where I am coming from and who can relate to me. That's more important than trying to dictate and be an authority on the quality of something. There is hardly anything else I can say I enjoyed about this. On the brighter side, this has introduced Gundam to many of the new generation, and I'm sure many will feel inspired to watch the original 0079, and make that pilgrimage to at least Turn A Gundam. Speaking of Turn A Gundam, the first episode alone is better than this entire anime.

Leafer

I admire The Witch From Mercury. Not only did it introduce me to Gundam (something I have found great interest and enjoyment in) but even among the larger Gundam franchise, it stands out as the instalment that most resonated with me and the world as I know it. Indeed, the concept of the expansion into space being a corporate matter more than a national one as well as corporations outgrowing themselves is the reality of our world and, naturally, this opens up the horrific possibility of war for profit. Personally, this concept of corporate expansion into space where, after the resource exploitation of Earth, it is now grounds for proxy wars to generate more and more profit is far more fascinating than some national, racial, and fascist conflict that is little more than historical fantasy re-imagined in space-age. Whereas, the school setting is an especially interesting part of this class division wrought from the wealthy exploiting the poor as it represents the discrimination that festers in the young and the possible ways the differences can be overcome through mutual understanding, communication, and overcoming difficult times and conflicts together early on for the sake of a better future. Even the biological matter of human settlement into space and the broader topic of disability are very interesting aspects of this show that you do not see every day. Even beyond the political, capitalistic, and biological themes, WfM's most outstanding aspect is, perhaps, its classically tasteful Shakespearean drama, fantastic metaphors, and the lesbian romance of the two protagonists and their fateful family drama. It is so tastefully accomplished, Suletta and Miorine’s romance is, where nothing is left to extravagant declarations of “I love yous” and kisses but rather the nuances of exchanges, desires, and declarations as well as the sacrifices and actions all for the sake of the other in the face of adversity and pain as they journey towards their happy ever after. It is all made further appealing by the familial conflicts and drama as well as the parental and sibling love and irony that I want to sing songs of praise for. Conceptually, it is masterful. _Conceptually_, that is. The execution, on the other hand, is somewhat problematic. Ah, but, I will say that it is not _what_ it does that is problematic nor _how_ it does it, per se. No, rather, the problem is that it is entirely too cramped. There is so much to do and so much to explore but not enough time to properly accomplish them. It gets to the point where it feels like _literal space magic_ was used to conclude the story in the face of such constrictive timeframe. Indeed, “rushed” is a fitting description as it would have much benefited from taking its time to address its different dimensions, conflicts, and characters with more care and thought because, as it stands, a lot of said matters are “gotten over with” instead of seen through to the end. Furthermore, while it does try to normalise the aforementioned lesbian romance of its two main characters, in that no one questions the fact and at least one other girl tries to win Miorine’s hand in marriage, it also plays it safe and leaves Suletta and Miorine’s romance to nuances and subtexts a bit too much when juxtaposed with the heteroromantic love-interests, giving the impression that while it does do its part in trying to normalise the lesbian romance of its main couple, it still maintains the heteronormative narrative. Ultimately, the Witch from Mercury is a somewhat misjudged endeavour. It is masterfully conceptualised but the timeframe to accomplish its concepts is miscalculated - where it will leave you thinking: _I thought the magic was meant to be metaphorical, not literal,_ as it wraps its story. In spite of this, though, Miorine and Suletta’s romantic journey is tastefully accomplished to a happy ending and is worth the show.

Scheveningen

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury is a visually excellent sci-fi action show but suffers from its incredibly ill-defined world. The usual Gundam charm and polish with mech combat can only make up so much for the vagueness of its political and societal structures. As an ironic consequence, despite Gundam being considered a sci-fi classic that has stuck to the harder end of that spectrum, it is difficult for a viewer in that demographic to enjoy WFM. While the characters are certainly brought to life with fantastic voice acting and dramatic moments, it is hard to be sold and invested in them when the context they make their decisions in is so poorly explained or even convoluted at times. It constantly takes the viewer out of their suspension of disbelief because much of the world the characters interact with as core parts of the plot is never properly defined. There is this constant lip service to how complex or multi-layered all this corporate politics and economic oppression is, but never an actual exploration or even basic explanation. It is frankly more frustrating than a botched dive into it or having a more simplistic scenario. In those cases, there is at least an attempt to address or deliver on what was promised. Understandably, some viewers can be entertained solely by the drama and characterisation alone. But it is hard to call it good science fiction or even a Gundam series after it has deliberately brought up complexities in its world and narrative yet fails to explore them and leaves them as only cheap aesthetic window dressing. The only saving grace of the series is then the characters but they can only make up so much for things since they are ulimately beholden in believability to the setting. Any interesting plot developments or meaningful actions by our characters affecting things rely on comprehending the political, economic and social structures they interact with. This might all sound incredibly cerebral and too complex, even for sci-fi or Gundam. But it really is just a formal and systematic way of saying that we need to understand, at least in the broad strokes, who is interacting with what, what powers they have, and what any of it means in relation to their objectives. Illustrating this point, we find out only after 19 episodes that there is an entity called the Space Assembly League. This sounds like some kind of traditional government institution. They appear to have authority and power over the Benerit Group. And at the very least, they clearly are a powerful and highly centralised organisation with how even a section of their armed forces is seen to be threatening to the Benerit Group. This is a major issue since WFM has been giving the impression for one and a half seasons that its world is some kind of corporate-controlled future where they run amuck and do as they please. The sudden departure from that is an issue since it shatters the already paper-thin safety net of the viewer being able to take it for granted that the Benerit Group controlled most things as a mega-corporation and that the series was a consequence of that. It raises an incredible number of questions as to the nature of the conflict throughout the series, and the themes or ideas the show is attempting to comment on or explore. Namely, if the Benerit Group was always subject to a higher authority, how do they have so much power? Corporate capture of government institutions is a very real phenomenon and would be a sufficient explanation while also being an interesting point to explore. But the relationship between the two entities is barely brought up, much less explained in even a basic sense. The audience has no idea if the SAL is a traditional government entity representing the people of the Fronts (space colonies) or if their delegates only represent corporations. This distinction is important since it changes the nature of the show's world and themes. The latter would be more of an exploration into what a world run at the behest of corporations looks like, while the former explores corporate influence and control over a government and its consequences. Similarly vague is even the broad strokes of the political structures on Earth. When Minorine goes to negotiate to end the hostilities between the two sides in the wake of the attack on Plant Quetta, it is revealed she is not talking to government representatives on Earth when one of them tells her to leave the deals up to the politicians. This is mind-boggling since it raises so many questions about what authority or power these people from Earth would have to stop the fighting. And it seems like WFM is even dimly aware of how botched its world's coherence is since it does not even bother mentioning a cursory title or designation for these people like most other shows would. Instead of briefly naming them as representatives, a mayor, or even a CEO if they wanted to double down on this being a corporate world, they give no hints as to what positions they hold. Yet the viewer cannot even take it for granted that these are community leaders who deal with the Benerit Group since no other political institutions exist in this world. They directly mention the existence of conventional politicians elsewhere. Instead of giving intuitive cursory answers and letting the viewers fill in the blanks on their own, WFM only raises more questions. This can only be explained by incompetence or negligence when planning out the world, or as another deliberate attempt to create a complex and politically dramatic appearance without putting in the effort. Even the Earthian-Spacian split fails to be a compelling motivator of the conflict because it is arbitrary and ill-defined, even after two full seasons. The main issue is that because this is not a traditional political conflict, we cannot take it for granted that the two sides hold animosity toward each other because of their differing allegiance. Again the lack of any explanation of the political situation has come back to undermine this. It is never made clear if the Earth and the Fronts are in some kind of political union or if it is a colonialist type situation. So we lack even that as a means for inferring the implicit goals of the Earthians, be it independence, autonomy, or a more just and equitable union of the Earth sphere. What we are left with appears as more of a class conflict. Yet the writers treat the issue as something more akin to a difference of ethnicity, something inherent to a person and affects their outward appearance and that cannot really be changed. This is a significant issue since there is no difference between the two groups besides economic means. There is no meaningful or even visible cultural difference between Earthians and Spacians, with them seeming to both be heterogeneous groups. There are also no inherent differences would necessarily distinguish themselves from other humans, like with Newtypes or Coordinators. What is left is that the only distinction is their place of birth. Hypothetically, someone born on Earth but raised by Spacians in a wealthy environment would realistically have zero allegiance to an Earthian identity. If this were a conflict drawn on class lines, most people in this situation of adoption would be defenders of the status quo since they benefit from it and have entirely different mannerisms because of their upbringing. They would be unrecognisable as Earthians. Yet the characters of WFM treat the birthplace of someone as an overarching determinant without any comprehensible explanation. An eye-watering highlight from this is that if we were not told Shaddiq was part Earthian, the viewer would have no way to discern that. It renders the distinction unconvincing and shallow as a means motivator of conflict. It is a primarily class conflict, yet it is written as if it was related to race and ethnicity. And even then it is done without any particular depth and serves as a poor allegory for one. It cannot even be said that the viewer holds an unfair expectation of the complexity of the series. WFM continuously brings up and hints at complexity and complication in its world, like with the vague statement that corporations created 'war partitioning' for their own benefit, but never explains or explores any of it. WFM provokes the viewer to see its world as complex, warranting the drama it derives from the heavy themes it covers, yet not only fails to deliver but absconds from the responsibility to back up any of these hintings with some substance. It is perfectly acceptable for a series to have a simple, closer to black and white conflict for the sake of focusing narrative time and resources on characters with their more personal stakes and drama. The problem is that WFM constantly holds up the pretence that it is a complex, multi-layered conflict while lacking the actual depth to do so. In fact, it is incredulous how little exposition there is in this series despite the multiple deliberate attempts the series makes to complicate and layer issues on top of each other. Many other series, some Gundam ones included, stumble into the pitfall of relying too much on exposition to explain the complexities of the politics behind their worlds. But at the very least they provide the viewer with some understanding of the conflict. Without that, it is hard to see any of the fighting our characters are put through as having some meaning, or even cause, beyond just being for the sake of entertaining spectacle. Even if WFM wishes to evade its Gundam name and the legacy that comes with it when it comes to viewer expectation, it still draws heavily on many ideas from the series. This is a hallmark of Gundam at this point, and it is interesting to see a new riff or adaptation of what are now classic Gundam elements. Yet it is hypocritical to say that WFM cannot be compared to Gundam standards when it benefits from so many of their ideas. The most obvious thing it adapts is Prospera Mercury being a Char clone through and through with all the motivations and plot consequences archetypical to this character type. It is unfair to say that WFM must address in depth all Gundam themes to a tee because of this legacy. After all, each series is its own unique entity which have differing level of focus on different aspects of Gundam. Yet they cannot say they are a part of the series and choose to do away with explaining politics on some level, especially after they keep voluntarily bringing up how complex and central it is to the setting. In this, it is almost possible to call WFM an abject failure since it does not deliver on its promise and squanders its potential. We get no exploration on anything unique to a world where corporations are in control. Nothing about the dangers of corporate overreach or exploitation despite it being touted as a major flashpoint throughout the series on Earth. And nothing about the perils of the military-industrial complex and how that relates back thematically to meta-tension in Gundam of mobile suits being cool for the audience to watch yet also weapons of war. The little lip service we get of this is related almost entirely to the Ariel and the datastorm technology instead of the more grounded questions with mass-produced mobile suits. It leaves it all with the distinct impression that the corporate setting surrounding the Benerit Group and the economic oppression of Earth are nothing more than aesthetics. It is the aesthetics of a serious issue that is used to make the series appear deeper than it really is. A veneer to add gravity and drama to events without doing any the work to explore its causes or ramifications. For emphasis, WFM is constantly flaunting these themes and elements to the viewer instead of it being an unfair adult expectation placed on a juvenile action show. The failure to then satisfactorily explore this, even if it is just on the surface with only notional answers, is a major issue that detracts from things. It is an incredibly blatant failure in managing audience expectations. The only saving grace is then the show's characters, which are charming and exceedingly well voice-acted. The opening of many of the character mystery boxes has greatly eased WFM's reliance on uncertainty to create character drama. Though it still reveals how most characters have not grown so much as finally being shown to the audience and understood. Guel and Chuchu were still the highlights of the series again as the few characters with any real depth or different facets to them. It is obvious by now that this is a consequence of using an overwhelming number of character mystery boxes. A character cannot be developed if so much of their past and motivations remain hidden, which limited a vast majority of growth to Chuchu and Guel since they were the only real known quantities to the audience. They are the only ones that can have a change of character while the rest have 'reveals' of them. This even applies to Suletta, who is functionally a pawn with little agency until the final episodes of the season. While her character arc and story are still compelling enough, especially helped by Ichinose Kana's fantastic performance, having a character that the plot essentially happens to until the last moment does not make for an ideal protagonist. It is still serviceable, but it contributes in no small part to Guel feeling like the story's actual protagonist since he is put through the most conflict. This amount of choice and ramifications is usually reserved for the story's protagonist with how much growth and agency he receives. This is more of a structural issue than anything particularly wrong with the characters, but it does create this issue of audience expectation since Suletta's perspective is better suited to a different genre of show. There are some attempts to develop what would probably be considered tertiary characters like Martin and Lauda. But given how little time is spent with them with their initial characterisation and how quick the build-up is, it either feels flat, like in the case of Martin or rushed to the point of melodrama with Lauda. This comes back to a large overall pacing and tone issue that seems to plague the series. Past Gundam series have had far longer continuous runs, and it feels like WFM is suffering from having only 24 episodes to tell an entire Gundam story that usually runs for roughly double the length. It leads to it feeling like an abridged version of Gundam with a particularly tropey cast in how much their personality is exaggerated to speed up characterisation. In fact, this might also explain why so little has been developed about the larger politics of the series. Though instead of dialling it back, they still tried to have their cake and eat it too. The pacing issue and general time squeeze only really highlight itself with how little Minorine actually interacts with Suletta this season. The major flashpoint between them feels melodramatic with how little build-up it receives and the severity of their outburst. While it is appropriate to a degree for teenagers to react that emotively, it could certainly have done with more time to breath. The tonal whiplash of going from the Plant Quetta attacks, a seemingly paradigm-shifting event, back to attempting to play school heavily stretches believability. This seems like a consequence of having a two-season format which necessitated a climax midway even though the series had not finished what it wanted to do with Astacasia as a setting. It really does feel like another instance of wanting it both ways, having a dramatic conflict yet continuing to play around in the school setting indefinitely. To the show's credit, it is far more gruesome than usual with its depictions of the cost of war. And appropriately, it has some outstanding moments with how hard it is for characters like Guel and Chuchu to return to playing war in their duelling after seeing real combat. Yet a lot of this bloodshed has this distinct undertone of feeling like cheap shock value at times because of how incoherent the world is. Overall, Witch From Mercury feels incredibly botched in how vague its world is. While charming and lively, the characters can only take the series so far. Their believability is linked to the world they inhabit, and that element is constantly being eroded with every reminder of how vague it is and the needless complications of it without answers. And it feels like the world of WFM is almost irreparably damaged with how long it has gone without being properly explained. The entire premise of the Benerit Group feels like a cheap aesthetic choice with little merit. With how little they cover themes about corporations, it would have been better to stick to it being a world with more conventional political organisation. In fact, if the Astacasia School was a peacekeeper training academy, it might have made it feel far less out of place than some corporate high school. It is hard to recommend this despite WFM still being entertaining enough with its action and quirky characters. There is a lot to like, and will probably appeal to viewers less interested in the sci-fi's more cerebral or abstract aspects. But it is hard to say it is a good representative of the Gundam series with how little it cares about its themes, though it is definitely better than the average in terms of its character. Perhaps too much time was sacrificed from other elements for that. Given it is frustratingly vague and even vapid but still at least functionally entertaining as a story, a 5 out of 10 rating seems appropriate. It is entirely understandable why a viewer looking primarily for cool fights and character drama for entertainment would like WFM. In that, the show has succeeded. I would recommend it as a digestible modern taster of the Gundam aesthetics, though not as an archetypical representative of the series as a whole. But for viewers like myself who would like something more thematically interesting to chew on and think about, it hard to recommend it with how impossibly vague it is. Especially because WFM quite blatantly promised that to us yet did not deliver. It makes one wonder if it really just misses potential at times or deliberately stringing a major part of the usual Gundam audience along with the hopes of a political explanation.