anime dominion

In tradition of a Gundam franchise, usually there is a major antagonist who wore a mask to hide his/her identity. Hardcore Gundam followers would know about the one and only red comet, Char Aznable who wore a mask while fighting the original RX 78. Then, there were Zech Marquis from Wing Gundam, Neo Roanoku from Gundam Seed Destiny, and Mister Bushido from Gundam 00. With no exception, Gundam in reconguista followed the tradition that went back from the beginning of Gundam history by introducing a blue haired, mask wearing pilot. His name was simply called mask and he was taking the one of the more advanced mobile suits in Capital army to continue the failed mission from the last episode. I think it was very easy to know the real identity of the mask person since his facial and hair figure really matched Belri's best friend, Luin (except if Sunrise tried to fool us by making him a completely different person or maybe a clone/twin).

In my impression, the fifth episode of Gundam in reconguista tried to wove the intricate story of the possibility of Bellri defected to the pirate side. A new character, Mick Jack, came to the Megafauna while bringing her new mobile suit code named Hecate. Another important aspect from last episode that I forgot to write was about Aida's real name. Her last name was not Reyhunton but Surugan and interestingly enough, she was in the line of being the successor of the throne / princess of the one of the nations; Ameria. In addition, Clim Nick mentioned that the G-self unit was produced in Towasanga and based from the unit origin, Raraiya Monday also possibly came from that place albeit losing her memory. Later on, Belri and Noredo followed Aida to the bridge. Belri said that he might not agreed to the late Captain Cahill's plan but he would protect the Megafauna to make amend of his action that killed the captain

The G-self unit also had it own jet/ flight compartment that look similar to a core fighter of the original Gundam. During the maintenance, Capital Army along with the ace pilot Mask appeared and moved closer to the ship. Belri decided to sortie using the G-self but it core fighter was in the middle of maintenance. The ship mechanic; Happa asked him to get inside the core fighter unit. Meanwhile, Aida gave a support fire using a red G-self like mobile suits named Arcane.

The Capital guards used a caitsith formation, which sacrificing the unit in the front to let the other break through the enemy formation, and managed to damage one of the space pirate's mobile suit. Klim Nick duel the Mask in a one and one air battle. The mask mobile suit appeared bigger than Klim's Montero and its lasers broke Klim's riffle. However, Klim still managed to retaliate by throwing the javelin to the Mask's chest unit.

Bellri could not move the core fighter and it made the G-self unit inoperable in a heated situation. With no other option, Happa called the bridge asking the captain to convey a message to Aida. The captain then asked Aida to grab the core fighter, with Bellri still inside, and put it manually to the back of G-self unit. Well, the core fighter suddenly flew off and Bellri had to move to the battlefield using only a core fighter equipped with only a machine gun. At the time Belri managed to drop a water ball down to the mask unit. It instantly explode and drown the unit like in an raging ocean, which made the mask surprised. Suddenly, the auto pilot for the core fighter started and its moved back to the Megafauna. The G-self docking process was completed and Bellri flew it to help Klim's already decapitated unit. Then, with a hand rotating motion, G-self break through the Mask finger laser and it landed a double slash to the enemy. The mask felt that his calculation was wrong so he took the initiative and left the battlefield

Finally, The space pirate with the help of Belri once again succeed in driving away the Capital Army. As the next successor of the line, Aida had an obligation to give gratitude to Belri as he helped them get away from another crises. She was bursting in tears in the elevator just after telling Belri that she appreciated his work. It seemed that she hated the very moment when she had to say thank to the person who killed her lover. In my humble opinion, I don't think the way Sunrise tried to show Aida's emotion to the viewer would be effective. After all, we barely know about Captain Cahill and his background story was not enough to send us to feel sympathetic to Aida's sentiment. Unknown to her, Belri and Noredo, still hoping to get back to the Capital guards, planned to escape from the space pirate with Noredo also claimed that she got the information of the Megafauna. As from the preview for the next episode I know that the escape plan might fail entirely and Bellri might end up working as a space pirate due to his mistake (possibly a fatal mistake that turned him as the enemy of the Capital Tower).

If you haven't watch the episode, I suggested that you stop reading right now as the writing would spoil the events of the episode and ruining your enjoyment in following the story

I know what you feel unknown background character :)

In living memory of Captain Cahill

Raraiya used charm

It's very ineffective

Raraiya (grumpy) "my charm failed" .. Noredo and Nobell (laughing)

Raraiya wonder if Noredo should forget Belrii and Date Chuchumy instead :D

Spoiler warning

If you haven't watch the episode, I suggested that you stop reading right now as the writing would spoil the events of the episode and ruining your enjoyment in following the story

This episode have just finished airing and I managed to watch the episode in a very tight schedule. The third episode deal mainly with how Belri and his friends end up joining the band of the pirate. I though this episode was quite simple and straight forward. The pirate girl is back in custody, one of her friend tried to do solo mission to retrieve her, the main character along with the three girls accidentally got inside the G-self cockpit, the pirate girl brought the main and the two girls back to the pirate headquarters.

After the end of the small skirmish between the G-self and the space pirates mobile suits, the capital guard military took Aida as their prisoner again. Since she was not a part of the army, standard army procedure did not work on her and she had no right to defend herself. Belri still feeling a bit guilty for killing her superior watched her closely. Nuredo Nug, the red haired cheerleader kept getting angry on him whenever he looked at her. Back to his mansion, Belri asked her mother; the director, to release Aida from the detainment, which made Nuredo threw a sarcastic remark; saying the he was fallen in love to her. In the following morning, he tried to visit Aida secretly but once again Nuredo tagged along. It was pretty obvious who got crush to whom in this series.

In the pirate hideout, Klim Nick, a young pilot just found out that their captain; cahill, was killed in action. Knowing that Aida was now in the capital custody, he took his mobile suit to take her back. Certainly, he was very confident to his own ability as he decided to take on the mission alone. One interesting feature that I found was that the seat in the cockpit also have a working toilet in it.

Back to the capital, Belri and Nuredo met with Colonel Cumpa to talk about Aida. Then, she met Belri and told him to leave her as the colonel have treated her well and he should not worry about her well being. Regardless of her anger toward Belri for killing Cahill, he retaliated by saying that their action also damage the capital tower. One interesting note was how Belri cited about not repeating the same mistake as the universal century. So, there is a possibility that the series will give a flashback to the universal century, in which the original Gundam series happened. There was still a mystery about the word “mistake” as it still not fully explained to the audience but I was more or less wanting to know about the series relation to its predecessor.

Suddenly as they were having arguments, Klim Nick threatened the capital tower to give lady Aida back. The Capital retaliated by sending their mobile suits yet, he proved his skill in piloting through taking down some of the capital's mobile suits. The reason why he was more capable was because he had more experience in real battles while his opponents barely encountered the real battlefield. Aida took the chance to get inside the G-self cockpit but Raraiya, Belri, and Nuredo also followed her. In the end, Aida explained to Klim Nick that she was in a good condition and ordered him to cease his attack. In the end of the episode, she piloted the G-self unit back to the pirate's hideout

With the main characters went into the pirate hideout, it was possible that they will end up becoming the enemy of the capital tower (while I still just making a simple assumption). What will happen to Belri and Nuredo in the enemy's den? Will they become a hostage? Or did they end up joining the pirate in order to stop the Capital's energy monopolization. Let's wait for the next chapter to find out how the events work out.

It has been some time since I saw a Gundam franchise and in this 2014, Sunrise presented us with Gundam in reqonguista. The first impression when I got after watching the first episode was how retro the feel of the show. The characters resembled the characters from the early period of Gundam especially from zeta, double zeta, and turn A Gundam. Even the style of the hair and the eyes pretty much imitating it's long previous incarnation. In addition, the opening music was remixed with the 8 bit tune, which resemble a bit of those retro Nintendo tunes. With Tomino being its head director, it was obvious that this time around, Sunrise tried to create a series dedicated to their die-hard veteran watcher.

The story main character was Bellri Zenam, who worked as a capital guard members. This time around Sunrise tried to make the series turned into a more realistic sense as Bellri, while he was still a young cadet, had experience in piloting a mobile suit. So, there will be no instant pilot prodigy like Kira Yamato, who never take any piloting crash course yet still capable of moving a highly advanced Gundam in his first try. It seems like the tone of the series also turned more serious right from the beginning with instantly visualized how the Gundam moves and react just likes its previous incarnations. The last gundam that I saw (Gundam OO) made the Gundams look like super mobile suits, which each unit could moved extremely fast and break hundreds of other mobile suits in an instant (Trans Arms).

Gundam in reqonguista was started with one hour special, which consist of two episodes and I think it would be more time efficient to write the two episodes in one writing. The first episode, “Nazo no mobile suits”(misterious mobile suits) started with two mobile suits chased a Gundam like mobile suit in the earth's atmosphere. One of the units managed to catch the it and from the hatch, a young girl in tan and white hair fell from the cockpit. The chaser managed to retrieve the girl and put her under their custody. Then, the scene moved to a giant space elevator in where Belri and his classmates was having their usual daily meeting complete with some cheerleaders trying to cheer them up along the way.

The Gundam reappeared once again, in which it was called a G-self unit. This time, a young lass spice pirate named Aida Reyhunton piloted the G-self unit. I was wondering how could the same unit reappear again with a new pilot. Since Raraiya was captured, the capital guard should have confiscate the G-self but with Aida piloted the exact same unit, it meant that there were two identical units. The problem was that the first episode did not explain about how did Aida ended up piloted the G-self if it was already taken by the capital guard. Regardless of the plot hole, Belri showed his skill in this episode as he managed to bring enough trouble to the G-self using a standard mobile suits known as Rectem. Then, With the help of his seniors, they captured the G-self and took Aida in their custody. The girl in tan, whose current name was Raraiya Monday, reacted to the G-self unit although she barely talked at all during her time in custody

The second episode of the show entitled G-self kidou, which literally means “G-self started” took place some time after Belri operated the G-self. The students/cadets have returned from the space elevators along with the captured Aida Reyhunton. The episode start with some introduction to the people in the capital like the Pope and Belri's parent. The brief moment of peace got disturbed as the space pirates that entered the earth atmosphere in the first episode, were trying to retrieve Aida and the G-self unit. They invaded the capital using mobile suits and the small scale war happened.

With the prisoner tower got bombarded in the ensuing battle, Belri and his company tried their best to rescue Aida that was sent there. They reunited and with no other option, they went to the place in where the G-self unit was kept. Aida tried to enter G-self cockpit but Belri interfered and ended up sitting in the main seat. As the space pirate mobile suits were getting closer, Belri activated the G-self and started the unit. He fend off the assailant and in order to defend themselves, he stabbed the enemy mobile suit right in the cockpit. What ironic was the enemy's pilot was Aida's superior; Cahill and by the look of how she desperately sobbed to his dead, it obvious that she was having a special feeling for him and Belri just killed the man

While I was thinking that the plot might still need some work. I appreciate how eager sunrise tried to get the Gundam back its root. For example, there were only one type of Gundam that I have seen in the first two episodes, which mean they really intend to focus the anime in the plot and story development. It was very contrast with the previous series, in which they seemed very eager to introduce new mobile suits so that we could “collect” (buy) the plastics models later on. Also, the story tone have gone more serious and darker in theme with introducing the theme of death and sadness of losing a beloved one through war in its early episodes. There will be many questions that need to be answered like who was the real name of Raraiya monday, the technology behind the G-self, and who were behind the space pirates and their real motives. However, it was still to early for the series so I think some mysteries will be explained later on. As for now, I will try to see how the story of this 2014 Gundam develop

For the opening act, Rinka took Ayumu one on one in a training match. Well in the first encounter, Ayumu was like a totally jerk ass who act a bit like misogynist. What surprised me was how he managed to beat Rinka using a simple maneuver although later on it was explained that he used his Esper Magic to read Rinka's mind. His power was a bit similar to Murasaki while his was more on the future probability. To make it simple, he could predict what will happen in the near future that way he could read Rinka's next movement. Even if she was more skilled in combat, he could use the move that deflected the attack and used the opening to counter.

After finding out about Ayumu power, Rinka devised the plan to win against him. She knew that while he could read the near future, his reaction time was slower than her plus he did not have a strong physical body either. So, Rinka trained rigorously with his father to increase her speed and reaction time. In the other place, Murasaki practiced her clairvoyant using a card until she found the weapons that Rinka used when fighting the Yakuza. Out of sudden her power activated and she could imagine how Rinka used the Tonfa and she ended up replicating her movement, which unfortunately took a victim :P

We got a bit of glance of Ayumu's mother who worked as a politician. What ironic was she hate espers very much and considered them as a monster. It made Ayumu quite sad because she did not know that her own son was an esper and with the election date got closer, she already planned an agenda to get rid of esp user in the Tokyo. I think this slightly portrayed the idea that even in the Tokyo Esp world, being different will be treated unjustly and discriminated. Even if the cause of the Esper Magic was from the third party influence (the professor), normal civilian like Ayumu's mother judged esper as a pest that need to get rid off.

In the next training match, Rinka used a passive stance. This time around, Ayumu was at total disadvantages as every movement that he used only end in his lose. When he took the initiative to attack, his future reading only made his movement slower. In fact, Rinka used Ayumu's aggressive attack to counter every move and beat him up. Not only that Rinka's training made her faster than Ayumu but also his future reading failed to see any winning chance, which secured Rinka's victory. Not enough with the embarrassment from Rinka, Murasaki beat him using her clairvoyant magic. She could imitate the moves of the previous owner of any material that she grabbed and what interest me was she grabbed a nunchaku and performed its previous owner's moves to him. 

The last part of the episode was what made this episode a bit more interesting. When Murasaki and Ayumu walked from training, they came across Ayumu's mother who introduced her agenda for the passerby. Suddenly, a staunch built man with a rough and long medium hair struck the podium with lighting. He was an esp Magic user specialist at inducing electricity and he intend to kill Ayumu's mother. This was the difficult part came in as Kobushi and Rinka was not in the scene and Ayumu and Murasaki lack real combat experience. The tension came when Ayumu's magic showed an image of the bulky man electrocuted his mother and he had to think faster to save themselves from the man. The clock kept tickling until he realized to break the water pipe and let the pouring water to create distraction and in the nick of time, Murasaki performed a spinning kick to the man.

The problem was solved but now Ayumu mother knew that her son was also an Esp. Will it create tension between them? As cliché as it is sound, we were nearing the end of Tokyo Esp for the first season and I was still not finished writing most of the newest episode. I think it will be a very late update for the series while the fall season was already started. I think I need to find a new series and start from the scratch