Gundam G-Witch episode 9 extended thoughts
Originally posted Dec 4, 2022
Obviously people have been talking a great deal about the latest episode, and for good reason. There's a lot going on and a lot to like about it. I want to talk about what a high mark in action and mecha choreography the duel is. Long post, but I guess that's what Cohost is for compared to the usual places.
Right from the start, Shaddiq going for a 6v6 format knowing Earth House doesn't have the resources or manpower to accept is a great establishment of his character. Guel was prideful, ready to take any comers. Elan was self assured in the Pharact's superiority. Shaddiq is chickenshit, and knows there's no point in playing a game he can't win. So he rigs it from the start, bringing his battle harem of painfully hot lady pilots.
During the duel itself, Earth House is hilariously out of their depth. Shaddiq knows Chuchu is the only competent pilot other than Suletta and isolates her first. Meanwhile the battle harem picks apart the rest of Earth House. But for all their supposed prowess, they're sloppy. Shaddiq delimbs Chuchu's Demi-Trainer but doesn't finish the job. The rest of his team get some flashy kills but notably, don't break their opponents' antennas. This ends up being the lynchpin of the fight.
Sabina, the unbelievably attractive alpha female of Shaddiq's battle harem does a very admirable job of keeping Suletta locked down with superior numbers and suppressive fire. They do a great job of portraying how a good pilot with less capable equipment would try to outmaneuver a single superior target. Sabina acquits herself very well throughout the fight, which makes sense. If you go back to episode 8, there's a moment where the school's dueling rankings are shown. Sabina is 5th, only behind the major characters.
Meanwhile, Shaddiq's detachable claw hand is kind of his only notable piloting stunt in this episode. It's good enough to catch Chuchu off guard while doing her best Tony Hawk Downhill Jam impression, but considering she's piloting a mobile suit exponentially less advanced than her competition, it feels like an F-22 fighting a biplane where the pilot is throwing hand grenades off the side. Sure you won, but how'd you let it get that close to begin with. Shoutout to Chuchu trying to club Shaddiq to death with her rifle though, that girl never gives up.
Chuchu just skating down a building like the Scopedog she's cosplaying. #G_Witch pic.twitter.com/vWbDDkrfpy
— Peyton (@Gee0Man) December 4, 2022
Six against one, Shaddiq's team slowly dismantles Suletta and the Aerial until we find out two things.
- The Aerial is functionally immune to Grassley's Anti-Gund tech.
- The Aerial might actually be more terrifying when Suletta is taking the reigns.
What follows is extremely gratifying robot murder as Suletta obliterates half of Shaddiq's battle harem in about 30 seconds. Shoutout to Sabina's pretty daring attempt at reenacting Piccolo's double kill of Goku and Raditz. I love the detail that now that Suletta is the one primarily in control of Aerial, she shoots first and then the Gund-Bits follow up for the kill, as opposed to earlier when she'd primarily rely on the Gund-Bits as her primary offensive weapon.
But it's still a 1v6 and Suletta hasn't quite reached the point where she can nonchalantly tally a bodycount like Amuro Ray. And this is my favorite part of the fight. With Aerial disabled and at Shaddiq's mercy, blessed are the meek.
Everyone's gotten so wrapped up in this intensely personal struggle that we've forgotten this duel is a game, and like all games, has a defined ruleset. Miorine, Till, Chuchu, and the rest of Earth House haven't forgotten. Chuchu lands the headshot to end all headshots, propped up on the corpses of her broken allies.
Where Shaddiq trusted no one but himself to land the killing blow, Earth House was ready to sneak the ball into the goal the moment nobody was looking. It's a fantastic conclusion to an excellently choreographed fight. This is mecha anime at its best, when it understands these giant bodies are proxies, tools to be used and broken to achieve our human goals. The best Gundams have always understood this and played with it in interesting ways, and G-Witch adds another tally.
