I'm a big meanie. For those curious, I re-reviewed this because I despise my original review. Also, don't forget Englewood Book 2 is on Kickstarter for those who missed out on the first crowdfund! Grab it today! Only about a month to get orders in! www.kickstarter.com/projects/micahcurtis/englewood-the-born-in-blood-saga
You helped me put into words that clarify why I too felt disappointed with this series overall. And if the original creators had just as much confidence in their execution as Prospera would with her gatling gun arm, then this series would've gave the Tanuki girl a corporate hell wherein she can rise above, instead of a half baked Ultimate Girl Utena wannabe that didn't go anywhere, not even to the carwash.
The single biggest issue I have with Witch is a simple one. It is BLATANTLY cut short. So much of Witch feels like a show that was written for 2 seasons, made explicitly with that in mind, and then at the halfway point was informed that they were only getting a single season, and weren't given the time to adjust.
From what I heard before the show really became successful when it aired, Bandai got cold feet and only wanted it to be 25 episodes, thinking it was going to do poorly based off of whatever projection metrics they were using. They were obviously wrong, but it was too late and the show was already done in planning to be 25 episodes.
No it was 2 season since the beginning, which is what we got, 2 season, it's the director and writer's duty to write for 2 season, what did they did? Well with how everyone seems to think that they got "cut short", it sure goes well Honestly just look at the writer portfolio, he doesn't always make good stuff
@t3dweipin193 a standard Gundam 'season' is 25 eps, look at 00 and IBO, it's only with the newer ones that it got halved The final 2-3 WFM episodes do feel a lot more rushed (plot, not quality) and a lot of important setups remain unexplained/unresolved
@@thomastsuihn And a normal season is 13 episode, they might call it 2 cour but it's literally 2 season, literally from the start that they said they're going to experiment with WFM, hence the out of norm episode count, Oh and the unresolved plotpoint? How about spreading it throughout 2 season instead of cramping it into a single season, which is exactly what they did, cramping it into second season, oh and add a lot more shit as well they got 2 season, they fumbled it, and now people thinks it got cut short despite the fact that they didn't, it's written that way(like shit) and you all have to deal with it, no amount of "oh they rushed it" can save that mess
The Witch from mercury had the potential to be a "reverse zeta Gundam" where earthnoids and mercurians fights against a totalitarian spacenoid regime, but they decided to throw It away for High school drama
I also love the main Gundam, Aerial. The design is cool and more "feminine" than other Gundam, except Nobel Gundam. Also I love the drone based mecha. The shield are made of small drones that could become a gun is really amazing design. Calibarn also have a very unique design as well. It has "witch broom", just unique never seen before design.
I actually enjoyed the love story in Gundam 08th MS myself, as well as Kamille and Fa's relationship too. I also loved Heero and Relena's relationship too. That being said, G Gundam and Gundam X have the GOAT romance stories.
@@leo11lim Yeah it was not healthy at all. Then again reminds me of the common relationship trope irl “girl with daddy issues ending up with renegade guy”
I believe that arranged marriage could make a good story, albeit it's very difficult. This one is not that good romance. Also I still bitter about how the "splat" doesn't lead anything to the plot. It just.... exist. It become nothing. Despite it could become a great plot.
It always amuses me when an attempt to create a protagonist for "modern audiences" or "representation" ends up creating a OP girlboss with "plot" bisexuality.
By the end I just sorta said "Ill wait for the Super Robot Wars version of the story fix it. Never seen the last 2 episodes because Im sure Ill appreciate the reworked moments a lot more when Suletta probably has like Shinn Asuka and Kamille Bidan as wingmen aboard a flagship with Bright who could honestly fix a lot of characters and toxic relationships with his legendary hands.
If you include the manga, Suletta isn't even the first female protagonist. Granted it was never finished, but there is this Gundam manga Ecole Du Ciel. The protagonist, and gundam pilot, is a girl named Asuna Elmarit
I actually liked WFM, but I was so dissatisfied by the ending that I ended up reading a fanfic to get the proper fix I was looking for. “The Witch from Mercury and The Druid of Harmony.” I really am so astonished when fanfic authors that understand the series will do better than a whole team of writers and directors.
@@Xeno-The-Wanderer I would say that while it does follow the story. There are a lot of divisions within the plot, characters, and politics that come into play. Likewise, there is a lot of breathing room that the fic has and it takes its time with introducing new/oc characters and improving the original characters. It is very advanced for a fanfic. Characters like Cecilia actually serve a purpose, and certain segments that are brought of within this video of shortcomings the anime has have been fixed or improved upon within this story. It is obvious who Suletta is going to end up with, there is more of a focus on the politics while blending in the school life, and it follows the dark tone of Gundam UC.
I actually came across the fan fiction in question myself and I agree it is leagues better than the actual show. While I do have my complaints about specific things as I am currently within 45 chapters right now, I won't deny that the things that the story does, I'm still mad that the anime never really was able to do. Like it made me like Suletta, I can understand Miorine, Guel is getting more of a focus and most of the side characters are way better.
The problem with witch from mercury is there was no gundam in gundam because Ariel is an EVA LOL. At least Suletta was ok in getting in the giant robot.
Prospera committed literal war crimes but she got absolutely no commupance. And somehow she lost the usage of her legs but Suletta is still A-OK after using so much permet even after Aerial wasn't "protecting" her anymore. Absolute garbage. But yeah, I agree that Suletta CARRIED the show in her shoulders, hard. On a re-watch, the show is terrible and the plotlines went nowhere. Without Suletta, the show would be absolute bottom tier Gundam.
@@TysonRex37 Still got off easy. Prospera has to use a wheelchair. And Eri somehow lives in the little keychain. The ending is still absolute garbage and the story overall wasted its characters. The series only has 2 good things: Great animation for mecha action and Suletta as a character. Everything else sucks.
Its sad the school setting had such a focus. The corporate conflict and the flipping of the earth v space dynamic was a really big breath of fresh air from the more WW2 or War of Independance vibes the series usually has, or even the mob story of IBO. The heavier usage of remote weapons out the gate was also really neat. A women-led, lesbian romance series could have been fine, but it feels weird they weren't willing to take her seriously. Also yeah, Miorine is horrible. Every OP/Ed you'd see them together looking cute, or even in the promotional stuff. Then in show she'd just come off as abusive.
I'm really a UC fan, Zeta's my favorite, but personally I enjoyed GWitch. But I do wish they just made a new UC series rather than make more alternate timelines.
problem with uc is two things, theres not much more to tell with the OYW and middle period points of the timeline, and late UC is such a landmine thanks to financial failures of f91 and Victory Bandai is just too skiddish to go beyond Hathaway at this point. As much as people want to see Crossbone adapted into an anime that'll only happen if they reboot the f91 story.
"The Reason that Witch From Mercury failed was essentially because Sunrise (and yes I'm aware that Sunrise has been folded into Bandai Namco now) Still chose to Screw Over the same Writer for Code Geass. The Same Mistake has been made by cutting his show short and cutting very important plot details out that enhanced the show's story that needed to be there." -Des Shinta's Multiple Part Code Geass Review Defending Witch from Mercury's stumblings as a tangent 55:11 - 1:08:29
Don’t think the guy is a good source, rarely seems to give any sources from what I’ve watched and I’ve watched at least a good 18 hours of his content. Seems to come off as very biased in his views no matter how well researched he “presents” himself to be
@@Demiurge13 his rants do come across that way, trying to enjoy someone talk about the subject and suddenly it becomes a rant about the industry or politics for like 5-15… 25 minutes heck maybe 30 one time where I actually stopped watching an SRW video and quit entirely and SRW doesn’t have enough discussion in video form which is the sad part
@@Xeno-The-Wanderer I honestly Like Deshinta Reviews. I like In-depth he is about the material. Cause I’m also into Looking at Videos Where Studio Meddling is a thing. What’s Solid about him Doing that though, is Because he’s Pointing Out Where Bandai-Namco and Sunrise Has F***ed Up! And THEY F*** UP ALOT! The Fact that he has SO MUCH to Say about CODE GEASS Alone is both Good and Bad! As Yes, he does make Great Points and Clues us in on the Stumbling blocks of Where the Creators Fumbled! And as a Writer, I appreciate wanting to know that! But on the Bad side, he 4 Videos that Are Literally “12 HOURS LONG!!” I don’t dislike the guy for that, But Definitely have to pace myself! But due to that, Just Shows how Bandai-Namco and Sunrise often Fumbled the Ball! And it only serves to further cause further divisions with the Creator, the Fanbase, and the ruins any genuinely good content that such shows put forth. And that’s a real shame. Just look up the Director “Kaos” who Worked on Ballistics: Ecks Vs Severs! That Film Actually Could’ve Been Better had The Studio Company Behind it Not tried to Turn the Director’s original movie into The MATRIX! Look it up! The Shit That happened behind the scenes shows Why Hollywood is Crumbling!
One gripe I really have is how we never really see how a lot of the perpetrators don’t get punishments, especially the Peil tech hags who just snagged a vacation, or the terrorist guy on earth that attacked the Plant We also never really saw what resulted out of the decision to sell the group’s stuff to earth, nor do we see a resolution to the Earth-Space political conflict especially after what happened during Miorine’s visit Shaddiq also just got a free pass I also wish we got more of the economic tensions each company was getting through because a Gundam has appeared, and no one ever was punished for making a Gundam of their own just because they want to beat Aerial
@@Peasham I know about the selling of the assets What I want to know is the aftermath of it towards Earth after it was established to become a wasteland - its stable sure but it would’ve been good to know where those resources went or how they’re used That and we never see the Peil tech hags get some sort of punishment We never see Shaddiq’s resolution We never see if and when the terror attack on Quetta was revealed and/or resolved We also never see what becomes of the mobile suit situation especially after the obsession with gundams in the picture, and we never see how the remaining companies of the group have extended/expanded on their technologies and whatever
I wanted a serious female gundam pilot lead so bad. I was extremely put off when I watched the prologue thinking the mom would be the pilot but realized that wasn't happening
We ended up just getting a Gundam version of the Western Mary "it's literally me" Sue. Which was only highlighted by Guell's excellent character arc. Guel was generally the poster child for many of the show's problems due to the fact that he felt superfluous here due to the quality of his writing.
@@Peasham Premise. But not un author’s trick that artificially holds the plot together and is even used as an excuse for the ending he needs. But why am I explaining anything to a ridiculously arrogant dude with the logic of “you’re not a fan/new fan if you don’t agree with me!” ? I don't need any more new arguments if you're literally saying "ha, this show's idea is bad, but there were other shows with such a bad idea"
With mask like that, she could be a "char clone". But I guess that plan is scrapped somewhere around pilot episode and episode one. Such a wasted potential
Frankly, I was hoping this was going to be ending up in a conflict where the big bad was the equivalent or Anaheim Electronics/the military industrial complex causing at least one big war to happen dragging in the main cast. Also for once Earth being the kicked under dog rising up against it's opressors, that could've been neat...if I'm wording this right. Either way, potentially good foundations squandered.
Not necessarily the first time earth was the victim as G Gundam had that occur though they did not have the ability to fight back but the fighters experiencing it and meeting the locals would be able to at least help deal with those causing problems in the area
@@Peasham That may be, but it could've been more interesting. Either way I had gotten bored of it before the end of the first half of it. It wasn't bad necessarily in my mind, I just got no enjoyment out of it.
Wanted to believe in this series. At the end of season one, it ended on such a high cliffhanger to the point, I thought to myself, '2 seasons are not gonna be enough'. I was thinking that perhaps this will go up to 4th season, but I hoped too much. This the most incomplete Gundam series by far, right after Iron Blooded Orphans. Seems like Bandai and Sunrise are trying out something new, I get it, but they both completely misses out what the Gundam series are known to be and trying to fill the missing aspects of what makes Gundam series a Gundam series with gimmicks. It's not like I didn't enjoy WfM nor IBO, but they are lacking. World building is also left incomplete. I only wish Bandai and Sunrise would take it more seriously and invest more, so better flowing storytelling can be achieved. I wish they stop retconning the already completed series (Gundam Wing, cough cough) and focus onward with one damn good projects, one at a time. Addition: I completely forgot. Bandai was really really recklessly trying to push the AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline at the same time and diverted all the production resources and gunpla production to that series and ended up with trash anime and unsold plastic kits. I do believe that AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline production had at least influenced the failures of Witch from Mercury.
Witch from Mercury Season 1 was what got my wife interested in Gundam because she really though it was gonna be Revolutionary Gundam Suletta and the Happy Birthday episode is the one that got her hooked. Personally I was really into it because of the whole Suletta is Eri's clone and the concept of a sentient mobile suit. Too bad the show lost focus on what made it interesting and yes, the ending was really rushed. I REALLY thought Quiet Zero would be Suletta becoming one with Eri and the Permet field.
This Gundam series was written as if they never really knew what they wanted to tell, story wise. It was basically a Frankenstein monster of different Gundam series mashed together. You have Gundam 00, Gundam Wing, IBO, and if I didn't know any better bits of Gundam Unicorn as well for good luck. It was so all over the place I honestly stopped watching because I didn't have a reason to watch.
I feel like Suletta never got a proper reckoning with her mother. Miorine just kinda smacks Prospera down and says "Stop it." and then TIMESKIP ALL WOUNDS HEALED! That shoulda been the biggest conflict resolution and it didn't even HAPPEN on screen.
Well you pretty much nailed my gripes with this show. They pulled too many good ideas and stumbled around not getting anything done. I just felt intense disappointment, really. Ideas that were interesting and could have gone somewhere went completely unexplored.
The Seed comparison is odd for me. While I loathe Seed, and yet I'm not terribly sold on G-Witch, it seems to me like G-Witch is like a bizarro Seed. The main pilot of G-Witch starts the show bizarrely enigmatic, out of focus, and armed with a stupidly OP beam spammer who wins all her fights without breaking a sweat, only to have that machine incapacitated and gets saddled with a technically humbler machine about three quarters into the show as aspects of who she is as a character _finally_ start to settle in. This is as opposed to Seed, which starts relatively well in the Strike episodes, especially regarding Kira's more understandable disdain with the mess he'd gotten himself into, which then goes downhill fast when Kira "steals" the Freedom and beam spams his way through every fight and becomes a completely inert non-character who always wins. And it doesn't stop there. In G-Witch, the redhead is an incredibly sweet dark-skinned foreigner with plenty of hands-on technical experience who stays a virgin and survives the show. ...Seed has Flay. While I personally like Flay more (or what Flay should have been if Seed had a single functional character arc), that's more due to my own preference for and fascination with _absurdly_ flawed characters, especially when the character in question actually has some self-awareness in this area. Think of it like rooting for a moral underdog. You want to see them change and grow, ideally keeping the best aspects of their old life with a reorientation towards nobler goals. (See also Kazami from Build Divers ReRise.) Suletta, on the other hand, doesn't need to change a bit. She very clearly is who she is, and the only thing the show needs to do is open the damn box so we can see who she is for ourselves. (See also _May_ from Build Divers ReRise.) She tomato-pastes a guy with a mobile suit without a second thought. Something's clearly going on in that noggin. Perhaps this has more to do with completely unrelated pieces of media, but when all this was being set up, my thought was less intrigue and more "I'm gonna' be so pissed when this doesn't go anywhere...", as I have seen too many mystery boxes open to reveal jack all. This mystery paradoxically made Suletta a lot more boring in my estimation, particularly early on, as I was psyching myself up for her to be utterly devoid of substance in the end. It would be _neat_ if nice things happened to the nice person, but ngl, I secretly wanted to see the tanuki get kicked down a flight of stairs. (As a reminder, it wasn't Flay being the Cosmic Era's chew toy that I had a problem with. It was that she wanted to make amends and got cut off at the pass that bothered me.) Fortunately (for me, if not Suletta), as I eluded to, this impromptu downstairs somersault actually kinda' happens. When Suletta loses the Aerial (in a scene symbolic of childbirth, no less), she gets forced to actually start making decisions for herself. For the whole show, Aerial had been bailing Suletta out in increasingly BS fashion, but also served as her most stalwart friend and confidant. Having to not just fight _without_ Aerial but _against_ Aerial forced Suletta to start trusting herself and becoming her own person, making her own judgment calls. She had to be convinced to fight when it was clear that she was the only one skilled enough to keep up with Aerial, and just barely at that. Suletta got confronted with the notion that her lifelong friend and technically older sister was on the wrong side, and she was the only one who could do anything about it. ...Not unlike Kira's earliest fights with Athrun, come to think of it. Bizarro Seed strikes (ha) again. On the topic of my preference for the absurdly flawed, Guel was by far my favorite character. He certainly had his ups and downs in terms of how G-Witch used him, largely due to the completely ass pacing of the earlier portions of the show. For the big scary bully to come around and actually fight alongside Suletta at the end is precisely what I'm talking about. (I could've taken or left him proposing to Suletta.) The Darilbalde fight in particular was a great early moment of him choosing to stand on his own two feet instead of having a super-suit bail him out... unlike what Suletta was doing. Of course he got walloped again (MC-chan gotta' MC-chan), but of all the Aerial's nonsensical squash matches (Pharact deserved better), this one definitely stung the most. Guel's impact on Season 1 and dubious promises of G-Witch getting back into Gundam proper territory were the only things getting me through the first season. And while I praised Guel joining Suletta for the final battle, the specific details of what he did in that fight were lacking. I did not give an iota of a crap about Guel's opponent in that fight. I barely remember who Guel fought or about what, which isn't groovy. All told, G-Witch was definitely a not-for-me series in every sense. It didn't so much offend my intelligence, like Seed or Wing. The high school screwing around is just not my cup of tea, but I can imagine respecting someone for whom it is. Prospera is such a paint-by-numbers Char Clone, neither reaching the heights of a McGillis Fareed or Full Frontal, nor being a Rau Le Creuset or Mr. Bushido. If one were just getting into Gundam and Prospera was your first Char Clone, you've at least gotten the jist of what the archetype is and why it's so beloved. G-Witch was an attempt to draw in a radically different kind of audience, and managed to do so without being _painfully_ condescending or idiotic. If you want to dive into Gundam for the first time and get soaked head to toe in uncompromised complexity, 00 is that way. Or, if you want the best of the best of the best and don't care how much of your free time has to die in the process, the UC is down the hall. But if you're looking for a more modern-weeb-friendly setting that will gradually ease you into more typical Gundam fare, try G-Witch.
To me the witch of Mercury has is a series that tries to be many things (manly Gundam, FullMetal Panic, and yuri series) but failed because of the pacing and the rush ending. I feel if they give the series a little more time to develop and editing some scene, the witch of Mercury could’ve been a fantastic series. But instead it became above average at best.
Gundam school in a Super Serious Setting was always going to be an uphill battle, but man, they did not make writing out of that hole any easier for themselves with the not-romance.
Taking elements from ff8 would probably be the wiser option. A military school designed to train super soldiers from youth and have it focus on how the youth react the escalating conflict in the missions they go on.
I…I don’t know how you got here. Like I do but. Like if you take a good faith approach to the show I think it would be fair to say your characterization of Miorine is overly harsh and ignores the nuance of her upbringing and how that plays out during the series. She’s shown multiple times during s1 to come to Suletta’s defense in spite of having easy ways out; Laying the groundwork for her and Suletta’s relationship. What’s more, and this is certainly not unique to you, is that what some people “wanted” the show to be and what the show ultimately was going for just didn’t line up which seems to default people into thinking this was somehow “lesser than”. Also you made a nice point early on about this being a Japanese product for Japanese fans only then to kind of forget that by saying shippers somehow had some Grand Authority to Change the Direction of the Whole Ass Show and like…w h a t? It can’t be closed off from the western culture war while simultaneously catering to it. That makes no sense. It’s my personal opinion that it was higher ups in Bandai that meddled in the show, particularly the second half. Lauda had no business being in schwarzette I think we can all agree. And guels arc was a slapdash mess thrown together poorly. No this to me stinks of corporate interference. It wouldn’t be the first time Bandai has no fucking idea what the writers were gunning for and then haphazardly tried to course correct. I know the director said it was always supposed to be only 24 episodes but damn if s1 didn’t feel like it was made for a longer show. I also think your dismissal of the show writers intentions is just…bad? Like who commissions artists and not expect them to insert themselves or their message in there? Right Bandai didn’t hire these people to create an already prepared to the point script. They hired them to make something. Like this makes me question about what you think artistry is as a whole. Like how could you Not expect them to have their own message? Was this your typical Gundam entry with the Usual Gundam trappings? No. Was it ever aiming to be? No. And if you find that boring that is 100% well within your right. But as I said before the more I listened to your video the more it came off as a bad faith engagement with the media. I should cap this off by saying I’m a cis dude with a kid and a wife going into our 15th year of our relationship. I’m not some trend pusher before you discount my opinion.
My biggest thing was missed potential. Everything felt truncated, with underdeveloped plotlines, and interesting mech designs that never seem to get enough time. One thing I feel would have been interesting was the mention of the Drone War and the general idea of AI-run funnels, which would have been interesting to see more of. Generally it feels like it was supposed to be multiple seasons and that they had more ideas than they knew what to do with.
@@ReigoVassal Not only that, the lack of straight forward exposition actually HURTS the show over all because it mean important information tends to be missed or forgotten, leading things to come off as out right confusing. Add the fact that a lot of characters jump ship and change factions at the drop of a hat with little if any explanation(that makes sense anyway), said factions are poorly defined and blend together to much and most characters range from bland and forgettable to annoying as hell to just plain unlikable... yeah. G-Recon had WAAAAY more problems then just pacing.
Ugh... I remember the zeitgeist. Criticism was strictly forbidden over on r/Gundam, then the final episode dropped and everything changed. People were still cagey but disappointment was near universal. Despite some positives, for me WfM alternated between feeling like a slog and being incredibly frustrating. I would have been fine with all the school-based interpersonal stuff if it served as a foil to the conflict that followed. Unfortunately, despite the constant teasing none of it ever materialized. I'm left feeling like the more interesting elements only made it into the story because Bandai kept complaining the series wasn't Gundam enough. I'm also not sure why the writers thought retelling the Tempest was a good idea, but this wasn't the series for it. One last thing, am I the only one who feels like this series was trying to be the antithesis to IBO?
r/gundam was the biggest dickrider of the show and even after the ending airs trying to criticize the show ur still labelled as phobic and downvoted to hell
I was planning to watch this show awhile back since my friend who wasnt even into gundam watched season 1 and told me its great. Me being lazy and binging Patlabor pushed it into my to watch list, I was still pretty confident that it could be good since I heard so much praise from it online. Fast forward to now and I discover how the show truly is and how (as always) politics and shippers came in to ruin the fun. Idk if I should even watch it anymore because I really dont want it to be a waste of time
If you don’t mind a bad second half, the first half is a pretty good first quarter of a gundam series and the prologue is generally well received for the most part even those who dislike G Witch as a product enjoy the prologue… unfortunate that the rest fumbled the beginning’s good/decent settup
The only positives for me were the mechanical designs and the OSTs. The actual storyline was just disappointing. Honestly expected some corporate dystopia and I instead got a highschool drama story.
Tried to wait for this anime finish so I can binge watch it but after all the said issues above, I had to drop it. Sure the mech designs are nice but man the story is just awful. The interesting plot of reverse earthnoid and spacenoids issue was such a waste. The fact that they focused more on the poorly written Teenage romance drama really made me disappointed. Shippers and Yuri shippers having meltdowns when bandai said the whole Yuri marriage isn't canon was just beautiful. That said, didn't Tomino himself said he didn't like the show...kinda tells volumes.
The fact ambivalence towards "representation" is considered "bigoted" or "woke" depending on who you talk to is a sad statement on the modern discourse. Otherwise, Witch from Mercury was just ok to me. Nowhere near bad, but far from great.
I will stand by my love for G-Gundam until the day I leave this planet. Every time you mention it in a video that isn’t about the show its self brings a smile to my face.
My biggest problem was I couldn't even get myself past the big half of the series in the school. The prologue was tbh, the best thing I've seen from Gundam for... maybe a decade or more, I was super excited for what it promised. Then school.... school.... and more school... oh, and dramatic misunderstanding due to "I'm doing it for your best interest"/simply not communicating. I don't really care about romances in Gundam, just... from prior experience nothing ever really ends well for our protagonists or their loved ones, so I really dont care too much about the shipping. But tbh, seeing protag being throw aside for episodes just for a fake emotional beat that... did not end up improving her character was very... Annoying. Yes annoying, not even disappointing, because at that point I was not expecting anything satisfying. It doesn't help that the romance does not at all convince the audience of it, like it does not even try, because both are so young, and the protag's mentality so young and needy its just a car crash waiting to happen. The fact that the other party is not at all mature in any shape or form does not help either. The twists with main villain was good, in a sense, surprisingly ok villain, my only grip is that our seemingly best villain in a while did not go through with her plan, like this isn't Naruto, Gundam protags does NOT have talk-no jutsu. Stakes... its weird but I think the easy and casual topics and non-war related stakes involved in the 1st half of the series made it really hard to take any stakes in the later half seriously. The fact that our villain is alive and somehow not at all locked up is hilarious, any other gundam series she'd be locked up with her limbs shackled, if not straight up sent to a shooting range. Its worse because shippers somehow think Gundam represent them... =.= Gundam it self as a concept was born after WWII, everything about the franchise and series is about war, in every single Gundam series, romance(&their deaths) are simply a device to another's character growth. Worse still are the opportunities missed: Bob, amazing character writing, but somehow have no part at all in the later conflicts. Suletta, actually a pretty well written protagonist that deserves better friends, partners, and mentors, Gundam have always had very good mentor archetypes that dif protags run into, but sadly I dont think Suletta got any. Too much screen time were given to non-important characters that... would not have changed the story any if they weren't there, so pretty annoying, especially when I feel like there s so much I want to see of Suletta as she grows into a more independent and self-efficient character.
Agreed with everything. I don't know if this show with 30-52 EPi would have been any better seeing how much the 2nd season they fumbled it. Also I didn't care for any of the mecha design on this show, I found most of them to be ugly besides the spare few like the Gundvolva and Chuchu's Demi Barding. But I look at Ariel and think its a good looking suit till the bug like eye, and wide hips/waste and just kind of go wtf...
One small addition. After the show finished some writers did come out and say that initially the show was supposed to have been that sci fi cyberpunk like show about earth and space conflict with the student cast being stuck in the middle. But as production was as started and first few Ep’s got made by the first writer it kind off fucked the show and the set up and it became a production mess. Sadly can’t find those tweets but they are somewhere .
@@doctoranimationda5491 I believe I found it as a commented on at least A post talking about it mentioning that the School concept wasn’t initially part of the setting
Me and my gundam circle were really hyped for a cyberpunk like series but we just kept getting school drama. My personal issue would be they wasted any point of it being a school with the lack of world building. But yes the second season dropping the ball it did without being able to shift from the pure school drama hurt, we basically just got a repeat of the school being wrecked so fem kamille could eject herself out of the show.
Let’s be honest here: they had WAY too much material for just 25 episodes. Cutting out certain characters and plotlines would’ve reduced the amount of content needed to flesh things out. It also would’ve put primary focus on the overarching conflict pertaining to Prospera. The show needed a full rewrite, or at least another year in development before releasing. Cut out half of Earth house, remove the Dawn of Fold barring Sophie and Norea, instead have them be Earthian mercenaries disguised as school delinquents hired by Shaddiq to attack Plant Quatta. Have the show entirely set in space, so you can fully flesh out the world above Earth, letting any side material like Vanadis heart tell stories set on Earth. And finally, put more emphasis on the SCHOOL. If you’re not gonna use the focal point of this show, why even bother having at all? Give us time to spend with the characters, let them have some chemistry together. Let us as the audience see them as characters whom we either love or hate. Bottom line, this show had all the time it needed. It just wasted it all on pointless crap that’d be removed after the first draft.
Man, this was the most disappointing show. There were scenes that were absolutely amazing...that all lead to nothing. Guels trip to earth, Prospera telling the Miorine about her trauma...those were great...in the backdrop of a bad show. The ending was so awful. Suletta did have to grow on me, but I ended the first season liking her. The shippers were truly awful,I can see how they hurt the show. Prospera could have been great, but wasnt
My problem with WfM is that it felt VERY rushed in the back half of the series. I'm almost certain the original idea was for a full second run of 24 episodes to be made after they got done with the first season and went on break, only for Execs to change plans after the end of it, forcing the team to adapt best they could. This was probably done because they wanted something relatively quick to pump out a bunch of new model kits and boost sales, hence why there are what feel like more than the usual amount of suits introduced in the series. You can't convince me that they didn't get halfway through production of S2 before they were told they needed to wrap it up in the last few episodes. The problems I don't have with the series is with any of the characters. They're honestly all set up very well and (where actually followed through with) have good character arcs. And yes, I do include the MCs and their relationship in that; I'll take an interestingly problematic relationship over a boring perfect one in media any day. Like honestly, can't think of a complaint with them beyond not having enough followthrough as a result of the aforementioned conspiracy theory. They spent the entire first season setting them all up and had it been paid off it would've been great. Shame it wasn't for most of them. The endgame of the show was also a great idea, again rushed and truncated to mediocrity. Seriously, it makes too much sense that my conspiracy theory is correct. 4:10 Unfortunately, it is actually a thing in many lesbian relationships for one of the partners to be abusive. No idea if it is more or less than the average between other types of relationships, but I do know of a few relationships in my life that are really kinda shit. Personally, I think its more down to lack of available alternatives why they end up in relationships like that, and also one of the reasons why I think people should be a lot more open about their sexuality and home life.
I was still interested in where it would go. It was a good show overall. My issues were with its plot and some characters. The pacing of the plot was unusual. It goes from absolutely barreling through the story to extremely slow at a drop of a hat. Space outside the school and Benerit Group felt underdeveloped .The geopolitics and corporate conflict was mediocre to me . Some characters are just there to fill space and don’t have much of a personality like Shaddiq’s harem and even some of Earth House. I swear some of them look the same. Characters like El0n and Kenanji( the guy that killed Eri’s dad) just exist and don’t really do anything because the show doesn’t know what to do with them which is another issue it has. Shaddiq’s plan was pretty underwhelming. It felt like MUH BAEL 2.0 and sullied his character. While it’s still a good show , it’s just not for me. I’m definitely not part of its target audience.
No issue with the whole video but regarding the Zeitgeist part, didn't you do a previous video called "The Witch from Mercury ended as a woke, rushed mess"? I noticed it's unlisted. I'm just wondering if you changed your mind on certain things about the show? I still think it's mid and should've gone all the way the main character's relationship. I also like the mech designs.
I loved this show. A new, refreshing take and new characters. New names, graphics, the reversal of the underdog, and the fact that the main lead protagonist's mom was the Char/Full Frontal.
I've never thought that representation/diversity indicates quality in fiction. Good representation is good and bad representation is bad. Sometimes a diverse range of characters make for a good story and sometimes they don't.
I think the biggest issue with representation is that ppl who get to see folks who vaguely match their appearance don’t care and others who want hyper specific representation are too loud. What your avg person is actually asking for is say, if your story takes place in setting that do not require monochromatic races then just throw some diversity in there. Sci fi in America has a weird tendency to default to certain things then over correct in the wrong ways. Unfortunately the topic was taken over by again, ppl that don’t even care about the series to begin with. Now with gundam as a long term fan I have wondered where the black characters were because it isn’t a story that’s strictly Japanese nationality people but learning about how and who the Japanese learned to draw black people from I kinda gave up on it. However alternate universes tend to have the most exaggerated non nationality characters so that’s also a bad taking point. I do wish we could have more stories without so much poor discourse but again, flames are being fueled by folks with politics on both sides in a never ending and stupid culture war
I think Eri should have told Prospera "I'm not your daughter", and Prospera should have fundamentally come to terms with that, and that Suletta should have been the one to make her understand that. In this sense, the real message should have been about not chasing ghosts of the past or imagined futures, and instead focusing on the present, but we didn't get that. Pulling that punch really, really sucked. Toxic fandoms pressuring creators are an issue on both political sides, and ultimately a human problem rather than a political problem born of unhealthy parasocial relationships with creators and media. Social media pressure isn't a new phenomenon: Even in the days of mail and phonecalls, folks would get contact-counterattack and creators. What tends to happen in the context of politics is one group has normalized this as market response, and the other are still regularly making the news because "oh no, the gays" still scores clicks with the bigot crowd. Not big on the gate-keepy stuff, especially given Gundam's original domestic history. Folks as an audience always project themselves onto work, regardless of who they are. Unfortunately this is an easy shortcut to making a story or source of emotional drama in a story easy to click with, as opposed to making a more esoteric source of emotional drama empathizable. On this front, I'd blame economics as a whole, which really is the primary factor which hurts media the most on these fronts and is why the 2000's cyberpunk boom came crashing down so hard. I will say on the front of relatability, you probably already score pretty high with most stories: You don't seem particularly gay, and you sound male, probably American and white passing. Every story is essentially made for you already whether you realize it or not, and you're roughly the same form and social mindset as most presentations of heroism. A lot of us are very fatigued that we're only ever sidekicks or support characters. Let the other kids have a turn at being hero, man.
WfM had an amazing first impression, then did nothing for the rest of the series. I wanted to like it, but unfortunately it was boring. Which is arguably a worse sin than being bad (like age) or confusing (like G recco)
What's probably the worst thing to me is I was more interested in the backstory of the crazy girl then the main protag and deurotag. As characters i felt they were flat and even at the conclusion was like "okay they did the plot so what"
Ah, this makes me feel a lot better about disliking it. I got into Gundam earlier this year, worked my way through everything, and it really struck me when I first heard "Mama, they're like Candles!" I thought I was getting more depressing Gundam war stories... what I got was a high school and a yuri subplot that tried to be more than a subplot. Listen, I watch these things to see the big robots fight, maybe get attached to a character or two, then watch it all fall into place at the climax. This one didn't really do that for me. The fights were really cool eye candy, and I still really like them, but they just don't have any of the thematic weight or interest that Gundam is known for (Well, "known for" when it's at its best, anyway). Also, before I get absolutely destroyed by people that love this show: I love the first Hathaway's Flash. The really entrenched Gundam fans *do not* like the first Hathaway's Flash film (and that's an understatement). It's okay to like something, but being honest about the faults in media you love is the first step towards making better stories.
It was good tasting some freshness from an almost half-a-century-old franchise like Gundam. Bandai-Namco can't keep bloating UC and CE timelines forever to justify selling new Gunpla and merch after all. Despite its downs, I think the show fulfilled an important goal: appeal to a younger audience. A long-lived franchise like Gundam needs new blood in order to keep being relevant. Old fan's loyalty and cash is good but they don't live forever after all. Before the show aired, producer Takuya Okamoto said in an interview he was worried teens were not interested in Gundam because they think it is old people stuff (and therefore cringe/uncool). That explains decisions like the teen-romance-drama and school setting. War and politics-heavy plots can be quite boring even for old timers like me and doesn't connect at all with the younglings so they tried to balance out things with relatable stuff for them. I was already prepared for those before watching episode 1 so it was not a shock nor a disappointment for me because I already understood the motivations behind. I hope the producers after working on WfM know better than ever what works and what does not work well with a younger target audience when more Gundam-ish classic plot and world setting is involved (not doing what AGE did was a good start already). At least now they are less insecure about putting a female protagonist on a Gundam TV show instead of only risking such "audacious" move on side-story and spin-off material. I think WfM was balancing teen-romance-drama and world-geopolitics fairly well on season 1 but then tumbled on its feet. I could feel that in season 2's fast-in-a-bad-way pacing. It was a shame some MSs didn't got proper screen time (look what they did to mah boi Schwarzette). Gundam animation is made to sell merch and gunpla after all. At least I liked most of the kid characters. And that comes from someone who finds most kids in Gundam quite annoying. I still have hope tho. I hope Gundam keeps going on for another 50 years and Beyond The Time.
The only reason I kept watching it is I thought it was going somewhere. They wanted this show to be zoomer's intro to Gundam and I thought all of the show up until the last few episodes (where I found out it was just ending there) was going for a slow burn on setting up a more 'proper' Gundam conflict that would also fit into the themes of coming of age: -I thought Prospera was going to be the 'disc one final boss'. She gets defeated, but the ensuing chaos and damage her revenge quest creates turns the delicate web of corporate politics on its head and creates a ripple effect of chaos. The villain is defeated yet all hell break loose. -Guel and Miorine take over their parents job as respective CEO and whatnot....and now their arc in season 2 is coming to term with the fact that, for all their naive childish rebellious side, they still ended up in the same place as their old man. They try to balance their responsabilities with trying to make the world a better place/help the rest of the cast that is fighting in their mechs from behind the scenes. -Suletta has to come to term she was never really a 'person' so far but just a cloned puppet of her mom. Thus Suletta being a wet fart of a character who does nothing get recontextualized and she has to deal with all of this and grow as a person. -Delling come back...and is the new bad guy, because its what the prologue had set him up to be. Now I don't really know wtf his plan would have been or what he would have done, but now Season 2 would have seen a reversal with Miorine being the one dealing with her father being the antagonist, much like how for Suletta it was her mother. That's where I thought this show was going, but nope. It just...ended. In a wet fart. There was potential for a meaningful story with theme there and it was all fucking wasted for a bullshit rushed ending where things just happen for no reason.
The biggest problem is that it was limited by it's episode count. I assumed we would have more than just 25 episodes, but it's short lifespan killed it for me. The show needed more time to breathe and develop itself, but only have a handful of episodes ended up hurting its story progression and character development. Things were wrapped up so quickly and introduced with barely any time to digest them. It felt more like trying too hard to get cool concepts in the series without having the time to properly pay them off. I hope in the future we can get more side manga and maybe some OVAs or movies to help expand on the Ad Stella universe
So i didn't dislike WFM but i actual am a fan of some of the Mobile suit designs, since some of them were made by some Armored Core mecha designers. the Zowort being one of my personal favorite ones.
When they made a big deal about the Gundam because it uses bits, and then almost immediately showed a mobile suit doing the exact same thing without batting an eye, I lost most of my interest. The show just didn't put in the screentime to explain the context of the setting for me to care.
16:22 I would like to thank you for this. A lot of GWitch fans tend to overlook on how poorly Miorine is written and how bad she treated Suletta just because they are in a gay romance. Marina and Setsuna have more chemistry than Sulleta and Miorine, even though they view each other platonically.
I mean… I liked it. About my only complaint is that it’s short and rushes a bunch towards the end. As a consequence, we really don’t get to know some of the side characters all that well. Otherwise, pretty good serious. Totally get where people are coming from critically, though.
Witch from mercury had its moment that I enjoyed. The mech animation was fluid and gripping to me. But the characters and story just didn't interest me all that much. I was curious if the mech animation was a blend of cg and hand animation?
I liked Witch From Mercury, until I watched Adolescence Of Utena. The whole school and romance side of WFM was heavily inspired by Revolutionary Girl Utena, but it did it much worse than it's source of inspiration. Meanwhile the normal Gundam stuff was very rushed. I still like the show though, and hope to see some of it's ideas explored further in the future- I do think that their cyberpunk ideas are very relevant now, and I do like muh representation, particularly when the writing is good. TBH I find a lack of representation is more unplaeasant to me in badly written anime, because when A character has no interesting traits, and no similarities to me, there is nothing to latch onto.
Even after all these years I still stand by what I said about this show. I wanted to like it, in fact the prologue got me fully invested but then after watching season one all the way up to the end of it, Outside of one character and the cool mobile suit designs, The show was a complete mess from season one. Didn't care about any of the characters outside of the one character(Guel) surprisingly, our main heroine had no real character arc or development and the relationship was not believable at all. And then season 2 happened where there were hints of things that were better and how even the only character I liked had a better character arc that expanded upon from the previous season and he had the best episode in the entire second season, But then when we get to the ending and the lack of any real stakes in the fights and nothing was explained properly....... I just gave up. I don't get what's up with sunrise and their recent modern gundam endeavors where the finales for each have always been garbage, so I don't know what the future holds for the anime side of things. But Hey at least the model kits have been pretty good and Suletta, Guel and Seceilla are the best characters in the show and I wish Suletta and Guel were in a way better series. Here is hoping they get placed in a new super robot wars game if it ever comes out.
12:31 Funny you say that, since Code Geass season 2 destroys the escalation that season 1 had built up by resetting the status quo. This mistake doesn't seem out of character of him
Your video here, having reminded me of my own watch through of the series, inspired me to tackle the idea of doing a retake on the whole show. Combining elements the show did well and some new ideas that I myself had regarding it before actually sitting down to watch it. Trimming the near obesity-tier fat the show has, focusing more on the corporate and political aspects of the show, and making the series as a whole something great! Yeah I’ll have to throw out certain things that made it popular but I’m trading that for an overall better story that uses the concepts the show tried to use in a better way. It’s still in the planning stage but it’ll be called The Witch from Mercury - Retake
Most people that like this show because of the GL. When i commented about how it wasn’t well executed including the romance on r/gundam and i guess OP hated my comment lol
@@user-pm8fs8mn8k i agree tbh. I still stand by my word and say i don’t like this show One of my friends watched it claiming she was excited to meet the lesbians and me was omg that’s lame. And whenever she asks me about my opinion about the first episodes my respond was it doesn’t feel like Gundam and she was like ok grandpa Funny i know
@@hashimalz Damn, sorry you have that friend 😅 I get that tastes differ...however, Witch is at best a mediocre show and does not really deserve the name "Gundam" attached to it. But it attracted a crowd and I hope they will go away soon. I'd rather deal with IBO fans than Witch ones 😅
@@user-pm8fs8mn8k thank you but it’s funny, i don’t mean to call her out but you know as someone who liked Gundam with Wing since i was 8 and consumed few other (i love gundam but i still haven’t watch everything but i will) I found Mercury strays away from Gundam message that the series tries to convey, but you know opinions. I am for instance still think 00 season two is really good but i understand why people not hold it high as the first season.
Did this guy not watch Zeta gundam? Camille is the first female lead of a Gundam series. Unless we're saying that Quattro was actually the MC of that show.
WoM felt rushed. A lot of story buildup that got cut short and could've been better if it had gotten the minimum of 50 episodes that other Gundam series gets.
Didn't Whitch get canned cause they wanted to focus on the gundam metaverse so they rushed Whitch. Cause honestly the axis flash at the end fells so out of place. Honestly ghe whome ending does. There's no consequences for the characters
Man this is a great video. The prologue episode was great but i didnt make it past episode 1. Everyone i see online praises this garbage and i just dont get it. Glad you were able to sit thru it and break it down cuz i couldnt do it....even as a huge Gundam fan
Speaking of Gundam Seed, have you watched Gundam Seed Freedom? To me, it felt like a fan service movie for Gundam Seed fans, me myself included. And to me, it pretty much redeemed themselves for the failure that is Gundam Seed Destiny. And the title of Freedom actually fits pretty well in the movie's theme, and not just the name of the main's Gundam. Though if you are looking for the ongoing conflict from the past 2 series, it doesn't have much here in the movie.
wasted to much ep on the school setting and less about the corporate conflicts and proper closure. having the mechs just vanish like a dying digimon and then the terrorist mom just got off scot free was just another stick up the viewers ass. did they got scared to repeat what they did for the finale of IBO?
In first half of the anime I was expecting the school life to end permanently and afterwards I had trouble being interested in watching the anime. And its been a while because the other Gundam series I had a worse experience where Reconguista in G and Victory Gundam.
I'm a big meanie. For those curious, I re-reviewed this because I despise my original review. Also, don't forget Englewood Book 2 is on Kickstarter for those who missed out on the first crowdfund! Grab it today! Only about a month to get orders in!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/micahcurtis/englewood-the-born-in-blood-saga
please do a video essay on titanfall 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First video by tou ive watched and just from from you talking about shippers has made me subscribe!
Hey Micah where's that video on the witch for mercury I can't seem to find it what happened to it?
You helped me put into words that clarify why I too felt disappointed with this series overall. And if the original creators had just as much confidence in their execution as Prospera would with her gatling gun arm, then this series would've gave the Tanuki girl a corporate hell wherein she can rise above, instead of a half baked Ultimate Girl Utena wannabe that didn't go anywhere, not even to the carwash.
The single biggest issue I have with Witch is a simple one. It is BLATANTLY cut short. So much of Witch feels like a show that was written for 2 seasons, made explicitly with that in mind, and then at the halfway point was informed that they were only getting a single season, and weren't given the time to adjust.
From what I heard before the show really became successful when it aired, Bandai got cold feet and only wanted it to be 25 episodes, thinking it was going to do poorly based off of whatever projection metrics they were using. They were obviously wrong, but it was too late and the show was already done in planning to be 25 episodes.
No it was 2 season since the beginning, which is what we got, 2 season, it's the director and writer's duty to write for 2 season, what did they did?
Well with how everyone seems to think that they got "cut short", it sure goes well
Honestly just look at the writer portfolio, he doesn't always make good stuff
@t3dweipin193 a standard Gundam 'season' is 25 eps, look at 00 and IBO, it's only with the newer ones that it got halved
The final 2-3 WFM episodes do feel a lot more rushed (plot, not quality) and a lot of important setups remain unexplained/unresolved
@@thomastsuihn And a normal season is 13 episode, they might call it 2 cour but it's literally 2 season, literally from the start that they said they're going to experiment with WFM, hence the out of norm episode count,
Oh and the unresolved plotpoint? How about spreading it throughout 2 season instead of cramping it into a single season, which is exactly what they did, cramping it into second season, oh and add a lot more shit as well
they got 2 season, they fumbled it, and now people thinks it got cut short despite the fact that they didn't, it's written that way(like shit) and you all have to deal with it, no amount of "oh they rushed it" can save that mess
Yep, I felt it during climax session. Me and friend were falsely hoping "oh, they probably have third cour or something" What a sham3
The Witch from mercury had the potential to be a "reverse zeta Gundam" where earthnoids and mercurians fights against a totalitarian spacenoid regime, but they decided to throw It away for High school drama
@@Peasham the way you described the Witch from mercury made It look like tankie material
@@Peasham You described what you wanted witch from mercury to be
@@Splitz_66 Ignore Peasham! He's a troll that only resorts to sophist contortions and pettyfogging.
Oh, @Peasham is a tankie. That explains a lot.
@@Splitz_66 what's a tankie?
One thing I did love was the clear difference in mech design from different companies it felt more natural
I also love the main Gundam, Aerial. The design is cool and more "feminine" than other Gundam, except Nobel Gundam.
Also I love the drone based mecha. The shield are made of small drones that could become a gun is really amazing design.
Calibarn also have a very unique design as well. It has "witch broom", just unique never seen before design.
My problem with WfM it is doesn't read as a "Gundam anime", instrad it reads as a "sci-fi high-school girl drama anime with mecha side content".
Basically "Revolutionary Girl Utena" with a Gundam.
Yeah it felt like a sci fi high school drama.
That is so true. I literally skipped the dialog and only watched the fights
I actually enjoyed the love story in Gundam 08th MS myself, as well as Kamille and Fa's relationship too. I also loved Heero and Relena's relationship too. That being said, G Gundam and Gundam X have the GOAT romance stories.
Heero releana have a crappy relationship
@@leo11lim Yeah it was not healthy at all. Then again reminds me of the common relationship trope irl “girl with daddy issues ending up with renegade guy”
I believe that arranged marriage could make a good story, albeit it's very difficult.
This one is not that good romance.
Also I still bitter about how the "splat" doesn't lead anything to the plot. It just.... exist. It become nothing. Despite it could become a great plot.
Man Gundam seed to me felt like a teenage romance drama. Kira was cucking his friend 😮.
Be a chad, do victory.
It's gonna be done at some point, I promise.
@@BigMicahC Legend
@@BigMicahCbetter get ready to stand up then ahahah
Oh yeah, and beam saber doesnt have gender, and age of consent btw 😂
You wanna make a 'representational' character, write someone with complex and relatable thoughts, feelings, struggles, and ideals
It always amuses me when an attempt to create a protagonist for "modern audiences" or "representation" ends up creating a OP girlboss with "plot" bisexuality.
@@Peasham Oh my god, someone has a different opinion about the show than me! Outrageous!
@@Peasham Did you get personal so quickly? Hah, you're pathetic.
Like Gotoh Hitori? Aka Bocchi the rock
@@Peasham I can totally see you trying to tie another show into this since you can't defend G-Witch directly.
By the end I just sorta said "Ill wait for the Super Robot Wars version of the story fix it. Never seen the last 2 episodes because Im sure Ill appreciate the reworked moments a lot more when Suletta probably has like Shinn Asuka and Kamille Bidan as wingmen aboard a flagship with Bright who could honestly fix a lot of characters and toxic relationships with his legendary hands.
Your blunt approach to the mediocrity of this series and the vultures that surround it was quite welcoming.
If you include the manga, Suletta isn't even the first female protagonist. Granted it was never finished, but there is this Gundam manga Ecole Du Ciel. The protagonist, and gundam pilot, is a girl named Asuna Elmarit
I actually liked WFM, but I was so dissatisfied by the ending that I ended up reading a fanfic to get the proper fix I was looking for.
“The Witch from Mercury and The Druid of Harmony.”
I really am so astonished when fanfic authors that understand the series will do better than a whole team of writers and directors.
So how does it go about things in terms of how it relates to the story, divergence? Side story kinda? Full on rewrite?
@@Xeno-The-Wanderer I would say that while it does follow the story. There are a lot of divisions within the plot, characters, and politics that come into play. Likewise, there is a lot of breathing room that the fic has and it takes its time with introducing new/oc characters and improving the original characters.
It is very advanced for a fanfic. Characters like Cecilia actually serve a purpose, and certain segments that are brought of within this video of shortcomings the anime has have been fixed or improved upon within this story.
It is obvious who Suletta is going to end up with, there is more of a focus on the politics while blending in the school life, and it follows the dark tone of Gundam UC.
@@tonyplays8083 I’ll have to keep the name in mind then, thanks
I actually came across the fan fiction in question myself and I agree it is leagues better than the actual show. While I do have my complaints about specific things as I am currently within 45 chapters right now, I won't deny that the things that the story does, I'm still mad that the anime never really was able to do. Like it made me like Suletta, I can understand Miorine, Guel is getting more of a focus and most of the side characters are way better.
The problem with witch from mercury is there was no gundam in gundam because Ariel is an EVA LOL. At least Suletta was ok in getting in the giant robot.
Prospera committed literal war crimes but she got absolutely no commupance. And somehow she lost the usage of her legs but Suletta is still A-OK after using so much permet even after Aerial wasn't "protecting" her anymore.
Absolute garbage. But yeah, I agree that Suletta CARRIED the show in her shoulders, hard. On a re-watch, the show is terrible and the plotlines went nowhere. Without Suletta, the show would be absolute bottom tier Gundam.
I found it so weird in the final EP why isn't she locked up somewhere with all her limbs restricted and locked-if not actually given a death sentence.
@@156892 Apparently, because Shaddiq took the fall for everything. And everyone was 100% ok with that.
Terrible writing.
Suletta is not A-OK. You see Suletta years later with scars and needing crutches. While being a clone of someone who fully synced with the data storm.
@@TysonRex37 Still got off easy. Prospera has to use a wheelchair. And Eri somehow lives in the little keychain.
The ending is still absolute garbage and the story overall wasted its characters.
The series only has 2 good things: Great animation for mecha action and Suletta as a character.
Everything else sucks.
Its sad the school setting had such a focus. The corporate conflict and the flipping of the earth v space dynamic was a really big breath of fresh air from the more WW2 or War of Independance vibes the series usually has, or even the mob story of IBO. The heavier usage of remote weapons out the gate was also really neat. A women-led, lesbian romance series could have been fine, but it feels weird they weren't willing to take her seriously.
Also yeah, Miorine is horrible. Every OP/Ed you'd see them together looking cute, or even in the promotional stuff. Then in show she'd just come off as abusive.
I'm really a UC fan, Zeta's my favorite, but personally I enjoyed GWitch. But I do wish they just made a new UC series rather than make more alternate timelines.
I both agree and disagree and I pretty much also fall into your same story, just Unicorn is my favorite as it's what I started with
problem with uc is two things, theres not much more to tell with the OYW and middle period points of the timeline, and late UC is such a landmine thanks to financial failures of f91 and Victory Bandai is just too skiddish to go beyond Hathaway at this point. As much as people want to see Crossbone adapted into an anime that'll only happen if they reboot the f91 story.
Same but 0083: Stardust Memories
I would like to see the uc timeline in regards to when Judau went with colonists to the Centauri system.
"The Reason that Witch From Mercury failed was essentially because Sunrise (and yes I'm aware that Sunrise has been folded into Bandai Namco now) Still chose to Screw Over the same Writer for Code Geass. The Same Mistake has been made by cutting his show short and cutting very important plot details out that enhanced the show's story that needed to be there."
-Des Shinta's Multiple Part Code Geass Review Defending Witch from Mercury's stumblings as a tangent 55:11 - 1:08:29
Don’t think the guy is a good source, rarely seems to give any sources from what I’ve watched and I’ve watched at least a good 18 hours of his content. Seems to come off as very biased in his views no matter how well researched he “presents” himself to be
@@Xeno-The-Wanderer sounds like a propagandist
@@Demiurge13 his rants do come across that way, trying to enjoy someone talk about the subject and suddenly it becomes a rant about the industry or politics for like 5-15… 25 minutes heck maybe 30 one time where I actually stopped watching an SRW video and quit entirely and SRW doesn’t have enough discussion in video form which is the sad part
@@Xeno-The-Wanderer
I honestly Like Deshinta Reviews. I like In-depth he is about the material. Cause I’m also into Looking at Videos Where Studio Meddling is a thing.
What’s Solid about him Doing that though, is Because he’s Pointing Out Where Bandai-Namco and Sunrise Has F***ed Up! And THEY F*** UP ALOT!
The Fact that he has SO MUCH to Say about CODE GEASS Alone is both Good and Bad! As Yes, he does make Great Points and Clues us in on the Stumbling blocks of Where the Creators Fumbled! And as a Writer, I appreciate wanting to know that!
But on the Bad side, he 4 Videos that Are Literally “12 HOURS LONG!!” I don’t dislike the guy for that, But Definitely have to pace myself!
But due to that, Just Shows how Bandai-Namco and Sunrise often Fumbled the Ball! And it only serves to further cause further divisions with the Creator, the Fanbase, and the ruins any genuinely good content that such shows put forth. And that’s a real shame.
Just look up the Director “Kaos” who Worked on Ballistics: Ecks Vs Severs!
That Film Actually Could’ve Been Better had The Studio Company Behind it Not tried to Turn the Director’s original movie into The MATRIX!
Look it up! The Shit That happened behind the scenes shows Why Hollywood is Crumbling!
@@Xeno-The-Wanderer yea, we need more srw content for sure
I'm going to go ahead and say it if you need to see yourself represented to enjoy a piece of media then you're a narcissist
One gripe I really have is how we never really see how a lot of the perpetrators don’t get punishments, especially the Peil tech hags who just snagged a vacation, or the terrorist guy on earth that attacked the Plant
We also never really saw what resulted out of the decision to sell the group’s stuff to earth, nor do we see a resolution to the Earth-Space political conflict especially after what happened during Miorine’s visit
Shaddiq also just got a free pass
I also wish we got more of the economic tensions each company was getting through because a Gundam has appeared, and no one ever was punished for making a Gundam of their own just because they want to beat Aerial
@@Peasham I know about the selling of the assets
What I want to know is the aftermath of it towards Earth after it was established to become a wasteland - its stable sure but it would’ve been good to know where those resources went or how they’re used
That and we never see the Peil tech hags get some sort of punishment
We never see Shaddiq’s resolution
We never see if and when the terror attack on Quetta was revealed and/or resolved
We also never see what becomes of the mobile suit situation especially after the obsession with gundams in the picture, and we never see how the remaining companies of the group have extended/expanded on their technologies and whatever
I wanted a serious female gundam pilot lead so bad. I was extremely put off when I watched the prologue thinking the mom would be the pilot but realized that wasn't happening
We ended up just getting a Gundam version of the Western Mary "it's literally me" Sue. Which was only highlighted by Guell's excellent character arc. Guel was generally the poster child for many of the show's problems due to the fact that he felt superfluous here due to the quality of his writing.
@@Peasham badass and OP “I can do everything from the very beginning and no one will beat me fairly” are different things.
@@Peasham Premise. But not un author’s trick that artificially holds the plot together and is even used as an excuse for the ending he needs. But why am I explaining anything to a ridiculously arrogant dude with the logic of “you’re not a fan/new fan if you don’t agree with me!” ? I don't need any more new arguments if you're literally saying "ha, this show's idea is bad, but there were other shows with such a bad idea"
@@Peasham he's a tourist, what did you expect?
With mask like that, she could be a "char clone". But I guess that plan is scrapped somewhere around pilot episode and episode one.
Such a wasted potential
Frankly, I was hoping this was going to be ending up in a conflict where the big bad was the equivalent or Anaheim Electronics/the military industrial complex causing at least one big war to happen dragging in the main cast. Also for once Earth being the kicked under dog rising up against it's opressors, that could've been neat...if I'm wording this right.
Either way, potentially good foundations squandered.
Not necessarily the first time earth was the victim as G Gundam had that occur though they did not have the ability to fight back but the fighters experiencing it and meeting the locals would be able to at least help deal with those causing problems in the area
@@Peasham That may be, but it could've been more interesting. Either way I had gotten bored of it before the end of the first half of it. It wasn't bad necessarily in my mind, I just got no enjoyment out of it.
Wanted to believe in this series. At the end of season one, it ended on such a high cliffhanger to the point, I thought to myself, '2 seasons are not gonna be enough'. I was thinking that perhaps this will go up to 4th season, but I hoped too much.
This the most incomplete Gundam series by far, right after Iron Blooded Orphans.
Seems like Bandai and Sunrise are trying out something new, I get it, but they both completely misses out what the Gundam series are known to be and trying to fill the missing aspects of what makes Gundam series a Gundam series with gimmicks.
It's not like I didn't enjoy WfM nor IBO, but they are lacking. World building is also left incomplete. I only wish Bandai and Sunrise would take it more seriously and invest more, so better flowing storytelling can be achieved. I wish they stop retconning the already completed series (Gundam Wing, cough cough) and focus onward with one damn good projects, one at a time.
Addition: I completely forgot. Bandai was really really recklessly trying to push the AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline at the same time and diverted all the production resources and gunpla production to that series and ended up with trash anime and unsold plastic kits. I do believe that AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline production had at least influenced the failures of Witch from Mercury.
Witch from Mercury Season 1 was what got my wife interested in Gundam because she really though it was gonna be Revolutionary Gundam Suletta and the Happy Birthday episode is the one that got her hooked. Personally I was really into it because of the whole Suletta is Eri's clone and the concept of a sentient mobile suit. Too bad the show lost focus on what made it interesting and yes, the ending was really rushed. I REALLY thought Quiet Zero would be Suletta becoming one with Eri and the Permet field.
Ugh that would have been a more interesting story than what got told.
This Gundam series was written as if they never really knew what they wanted to tell, story wise. It was basically a Frankenstein monster of different Gundam series mashed together.
You have Gundam 00, Gundam Wing, IBO, and if I didn't know any better bits of Gundam Unicorn as well for good luck. It was so all over the place I honestly stopped watching because I didn't have a reason to watch.
I feel like Suletta never got a proper reckoning with her mother. Miorine just kinda smacks Prospera down and says "Stop it." and then TIMESKIP ALL WOUNDS HEALED! That shoulda been the biggest conflict resolution and it didn't even HAPPEN on screen.
The effing war just gone like afterthought
Well you pretty much nailed my gripes with this show. They pulled too many good ideas and stumbled around not getting anything done. I just felt intense disappointment, really. Ideas that were interesting and could have gone somewhere went completely unexplored.
Because in most cases, these ideas were added only for the appearance of depth and interest, and not for actual development.
That seems to be a recurring problem with a lot of Gundam shows. Feels like Gundam Seed all over again because of that.
The Seed comparison is odd for me. While I loathe Seed, and yet I'm not terribly sold on G-Witch, it seems to me like G-Witch is like a bizarro Seed. The main pilot of G-Witch starts the show bizarrely enigmatic, out of focus, and armed with a stupidly OP beam spammer who wins all her fights without breaking a sweat, only to have that machine incapacitated and gets saddled with a technically humbler machine about three quarters into the show as aspects of who she is as a character _finally_ start to settle in. This is as opposed to Seed, which starts relatively well in the Strike episodes, especially regarding Kira's more understandable disdain with the mess he'd gotten himself into, which then goes downhill fast when Kira "steals" the Freedom and beam spams his way through every fight and becomes a completely inert non-character who always wins.
And it doesn't stop there. In G-Witch, the redhead is an incredibly sweet dark-skinned foreigner with plenty of hands-on technical experience who stays a virgin and survives the show. ...Seed has Flay. While I personally like Flay more (or what Flay should have been if Seed had a single functional character arc), that's more due to my own preference for and fascination with _absurdly_ flawed characters, especially when the character in question actually has some self-awareness in this area. Think of it like rooting for a moral underdog. You want to see them change and grow, ideally keeping the best aspects of their old life with a reorientation towards nobler goals. (See also Kazami from Build Divers ReRise.)
Suletta, on the other hand, doesn't need to change a bit. She very clearly is who she is, and the only thing the show needs to do is open the damn box so we can see who she is for ourselves. (See also _May_ from Build Divers ReRise.) She tomato-pastes a guy with a mobile suit without a second thought. Something's clearly going on in that noggin. Perhaps this has more to do with completely unrelated pieces of media, but when all this was being set up, my thought was less intrigue and more "I'm gonna' be so pissed when this doesn't go anywhere...", as I have seen too many mystery boxes open to reveal jack all. This mystery paradoxically made Suletta a lot more boring in my estimation, particularly early on, as I was psyching myself up for her to be utterly devoid of substance in the end. It would be _neat_ if nice things happened to the nice person, but ngl, I secretly wanted to see the tanuki get kicked down a flight of stairs. (As a reminder, it wasn't Flay being the Cosmic Era's chew toy that I had a problem with. It was that she wanted to make amends and got cut off at the pass that bothered me.)
Fortunately (for me, if not Suletta), as I eluded to, this impromptu downstairs somersault actually kinda' happens. When Suletta loses the Aerial (in a scene symbolic of childbirth, no less), she gets forced to actually start making decisions for herself. For the whole show, Aerial had been bailing Suletta out in increasingly BS fashion, but also served as her most stalwart friend and confidant. Having to not just fight _without_ Aerial but _against_ Aerial forced Suletta to start trusting herself and becoming her own person, making her own judgment calls. She had to be convinced to fight when it was clear that she was the only one skilled enough to keep up with Aerial, and just barely at that. Suletta got confronted with the notion that her lifelong friend and technically older sister was on the wrong side, and she was the only one who could do anything about it. ...Not unlike Kira's earliest fights with Athrun, come to think of it. Bizarro Seed strikes (ha) again.
On the topic of my preference for the absurdly flawed, Guel was by far my favorite character. He certainly had his ups and downs in terms of how G-Witch used him, largely due to the completely ass pacing of the earlier portions of the show. For the big scary bully to come around and actually fight alongside Suletta at the end is precisely what I'm talking about. (I could've taken or left him proposing to Suletta.) The Darilbalde fight in particular was a great early moment of him choosing to stand on his own two feet instead of having a super-suit bail him out... unlike what Suletta was doing. Of course he got walloped again (MC-chan gotta' MC-chan), but of all the Aerial's nonsensical squash matches (Pharact deserved better), this one definitely stung the most. Guel's impact on Season 1 and dubious promises of G-Witch getting back into Gundam proper territory were the only things getting me through the first season. And while I praised Guel joining Suletta for the final battle, the specific details of what he did in that fight were lacking. I did not give an iota of a crap about Guel's opponent in that fight. I barely remember who Guel fought or about what, which isn't groovy.
All told, G-Witch was definitely a not-for-me series in every sense. It didn't so much offend my intelligence, like Seed or Wing. The high school screwing around is just not my cup of tea, but I can imagine respecting someone for whom it is. Prospera is such a paint-by-numbers Char Clone, neither reaching the heights of a McGillis Fareed or Full Frontal, nor being a Rau Le Creuset or Mr. Bushido. If one were just getting into Gundam and Prospera was your first Char Clone, you've at least gotten the jist of what the archetype is and why it's so beloved. G-Witch was an attempt to draw in a radically different kind of audience, and managed to do so without being _painfully_ condescending or idiotic. If you want to dive into Gundam for the first time and get soaked head to toe in uncompromised complexity, 00 is that way. Or, if you want the best of the best of the best and don't care how much of your free time has to die in the process, the UC is down the hall. But if you're looking for a more modern-weeb-friendly setting that will gradually ease you into more typical Gundam fare, try G-Witch.
To me the witch of Mercury has is a series that tries to be many things (manly Gundam, FullMetal Panic, and yuri series) but failed because of the pacing and the rush ending. I feel if they give the series a little more time to develop and editing some scene, the witch of Mercury could’ve been a fantastic series. But instead it became above average at best.
And also shifting writers
I do feel, at least in first season, writer knew what they doing. Second season gone sprinting, and fumbled in the climax
if they kept it simple as "Utena in Space", dollar bills be rollin' home.
i kid, ofc.
Shippers ruin everything.
Looking at you, RWBY
Where’d shippers come in?
@@MechasterReal pretty much from day 1, but they really started getting bad after Tumblr breached containment
@@DurtyDan shippers didn’t try to change anything Suletta and Mio were an official couple
@@MechasterReal I thought you were talking about RWBY.
Shippers just made G-Witch annoying to talk about.
Gundam school in a Super Serious Setting was always going to be an uphill battle, but man, they did not make writing out of that hole any easier for themselves with the not-romance.
Taking elements from ff8 would probably be the wiser option. A military school designed to train super soldiers from youth and have it focus on how the youth react the escalating conflict in the missions they go on.
Off-topic but I wanna see a Gundam AU where the Char clone is the true protagonist
It already exists, its a novel series written by Tomino called gaia gear, takes place UC 203.
Code Geass is kinda' that, except for some wrong colors. There _is_ a notable red suit. It's on his side. He doesn't ever pilot it.
I…I don’t know how you got here. Like I do but. Like if you take a good faith approach to the show I think it would be fair to say your characterization of Miorine is overly harsh and ignores the nuance of her upbringing and how that plays out during the series.
She’s shown multiple times during s1 to come to Suletta’s defense in spite of having easy ways out; Laying the groundwork for her and Suletta’s relationship.
What’s more, and this is certainly not unique to you, is that what some people “wanted” the show to be and what the show ultimately was going for just didn’t line up which seems to default people into thinking this was somehow “lesser than”.
Also you made a nice point early on about this being a Japanese product for Japanese fans only then to kind of forget that by saying shippers somehow had some Grand Authority to Change the Direction of the Whole Ass Show and like…w h a t? It can’t be closed off from the western culture war while simultaneously catering to it. That makes no sense.
It’s my personal opinion that it was higher ups in Bandai that meddled in the show, particularly the second half. Lauda had no business being in schwarzette I think we can all agree. And guels arc was a slapdash mess thrown together poorly.
No this to me stinks of corporate interference. It wouldn’t be the first time Bandai has no fucking idea what the writers were gunning for and then haphazardly tried to course correct. I know the director said it was always supposed to be only 24 episodes but damn if s1 didn’t feel like it was made for a longer show.
I also think your dismissal of the show writers intentions is just…bad? Like who commissions artists and not expect them to insert themselves or their message in there? Right Bandai didn’t hire these people to create an already prepared to the point script. They hired them to make something. Like this makes me question about what you think artistry is as a whole. Like how could you Not expect them to have their own message?
Was this your typical Gundam entry with the Usual Gundam trappings? No. Was it ever aiming to be? No. And if you find that boring that is 100% well within your right. But as I said before the more I listened to your video the more it came off as a bad faith engagement with the media.
I should cap this off by saying I’m a cis dude with a kid and a wife going into our 15th year of our relationship. I’m not some trend pusher before you discount my opinion.
My biggest thing was missed potential. Everything felt truncated, with underdeveloped plotlines, and interesting mech designs that never seem to get enough time. One thing I feel would have been interesting was the mention of the Drone War and the general idea of AI-run funnels, which would have been interesting to see more of. Generally it feels like it was supposed to be multiple seasons and that they had more ideas than they knew what to do with.
Meh, it wasn't great, but I've seen way, way worse.
G Recon and AGE being the bigger examples, and do I even need to mention Metaverse?
g reco wasn't that bad, but age yea i'll give you that one
G recon is bad because of rushed plot that goes too fast without time to flesh out the story.
If it has better pacing then it would be good.
@@ReigoVassal Not only that, the lack of straight forward exposition actually HURTS the show over all because it mean important information tends to be missed or forgotten, leading things to come off as out right confusing.
Add the fact that a lot of characters jump ship and change factions at the drop of a hat with little if any explanation(that makes sense anyway), said factions are poorly defined and blend together to much and most characters range from bland and forgettable to annoying as hell to just plain unlikable... yeah.
G-Recon had WAAAAY more problems then just pacing.
@@MasterSwo-MK that's falls to "rushed" category. The jumping faction needs to be fleshed out. Not everything need to be exposition dump
@@ReigoVassal No, but it shouldn't have been a flippant conversation between side characters that was blink and you miss it either.
That blunt approach earned you a like, so keep it up bro.
Ugh... I remember the zeitgeist. Criticism was strictly forbidden over on r/Gundam, then the final episode dropped and everything changed. People were still cagey but disappointment was near universal.
Despite some positives, for me WfM alternated between feeling like a slog and being incredibly frustrating. I would have been fine with all the school-based interpersonal stuff if it served as a foil to the conflict that followed. Unfortunately, despite the constant teasing none of it ever materialized. I'm left feeling like the more interesting elements only made it into the story because Bandai kept complaining the series wasn't Gundam enough. I'm also not sure why the writers thought retelling the Tempest was a good idea, but this wasn't the series for it.
One last thing, am I the only one who feels like this series was trying to be the antithesis to IBO?
r/gundam was the biggest dickrider of the show and even after the ending airs trying to criticize the show ur still labelled as phobic and downvoted to hell
I was planning to watch this show awhile back since my friend who wasnt even into gundam watched season 1 and told me its great. Me being lazy and binging Patlabor pushed it into my to watch list, I was still pretty confident that it could be good since I heard so much praise from it online. Fast forward to now and I discover how the show truly is and how (as always) politics and shippers came in to ruin the fun. Idk if I should even watch it anymore because I really dont want it to be a waste of time
If you don’t mind a bad second half, the first half is a pretty good first quarter of a gundam series and the prologue is generally well received for the most part even those who dislike G Witch as a product enjoy the prologue… unfortunate that the rest fumbled the beginning’s good/decent settup
it's what always happens when tourists and fake fans infiltrate and want to coopt something
The only positives for me were the mechanical designs and the OSTs. The actual storyline was just disappointing.
Honestly expected some corporate dystopia and I instead got a highschool drama story.
Well said. On that note, the only thing I like with WFM are the MS designs.
Tried to wait for this anime finish so I can binge watch it but after all the said issues above, I had to drop it. Sure the mech designs are nice but man the story is just awful. The interesting plot of reverse earthnoid and spacenoids issue was such a waste. The fact that they focused more on the poorly written Teenage romance drama really made me disappointed.
Shippers and Yuri shippers having meltdowns when bandai said the whole Yuri marriage isn't canon was just beautiful. That said, didn't Tomino himself said he didn't like the show...kinda tells volumes.
The fact ambivalence towards "representation" is considered "bigoted" or "woke" depending on who you talk to is a sad statement on the modern discourse. Otherwise, Witch from Mercury was just ok to me. Nowhere near bad, but far from great.
that's because the entertainment industries so messed it up, they have only themselves to blame
I will stand by my love for G-Gundam until the day I leave this planet. Every time you mention it in a video that isn’t about the show its self brings a smile to my face.
My biggest problem was I couldn't even get myself past the big half of the series in the school.
The prologue was tbh, the best thing I've seen from Gundam for... maybe a decade or more, I was super excited for what it promised.
Then school.... school.... and more school... oh, and dramatic misunderstanding due to "I'm doing it for your best interest"/simply not communicating.
I don't really care about romances in Gundam, just... from prior experience nothing ever really ends well for our protagonists or their loved ones, so I really dont care too much about the shipping. But tbh, seeing protag being throw aside for episodes just for a fake emotional beat that... did not end up improving her character was very... Annoying. Yes annoying, not even disappointing, because at that point I was not expecting anything satisfying. It doesn't help that the romance does not at all convince the audience of it, like it does not even try, because both are so young, and the protag's mentality so young and needy its just a car crash waiting to happen. The fact that the other party is not at all mature in any shape or form does not help either.
The twists with main villain was good, in a sense, surprisingly ok villain, my only grip is that our seemingly best villain in a while did not go through with her plan, like this isn't Naruto, Gundam protags does NOT have talk-no jutsu.
Stakes... its weird but I think the easy and casual topics and non-war related stakes involved in the 1st half of the series made it really hard to take any stakes in the later half seriously. The fact that our villain is alive and somehow not at all locked up is hilarious, any other gundam series she'd be locked up with her limbs shackled, if not straight up sent to a shooting range.
Its worse because shippers somehow think Gundam represent them... =.= Gundam it self as a concept was born after WWII, everything about the franchise and series is about war, in every single Gundam series, romance(&their deaths) are simply a device to another's character growth.
Worse still are the opportunities missed: Bob, amazing character writing, but somehow have no part at all in the later conflicts. Suletta, actually a pretty well written protagonist that deserves better friends, partners, and mentors, Gundam have always had very good mentor archetypes that dif protags run into, but sadly I dont think Suletta got any. Too much screen time were given to non-important characters that... would not have changed the story any if they weren't there, so pretty annoying, especially when I feel like there s so much I want to see of Suletta as she grows into a more independent and self-efficient character.
The only Gundam romance I care about is the blonde guy and the muscle chick from Stardust Memories lmao
Agreed with everything. I don't know if this show with 30-52 EPi would have been any better seeing how much the 2nd season they fumbled it.
Also I didn't care for any of the mecha design on this show, I found most of them to be ugly besides the spare few like the Gundvolva and Chuchu's Demi Barding. But I look at Ariel and think its a good looking suit till the bug like eye, and wide hips/waste and just kind of go wtf...
When a gundam fan with Eyes and good taste reviews WFM. Well said.
It missed the mark of what gundam series should be.
One small addition.
After the show finished some writers did come out and say that initially the show was supposed to have been that sci fi cyberpunk like show about earth and space conflict with the student cast being stuck in the middle. But as production was as started and first few Ep’s got made by the first writer it kind off fucked the show and the set up and it became a production mess. Sadly can’t find those tweets but they are somewhere .
If that's the case it definitely shows.
I recall mention there was no thought to having a school initially but it came about after the prologue was made
@@Xeno-The-Wanderer yep. Exactly that sadly I lost the Twitter link to that account that said it.
@@doctoranimationda5491 I believe I found it as a commented on at least A post talking about it mentioning that the School concept wasn’t initially part of the setting
@@Xeno-The-Wanderer if you can please send me the name of that account or post it would be great.
Me and my gundam circle were really hyped for a cyberpunk like series but we just kept getting school drama. My personal issue would be they wasted any point of it being a school with the lack of world building.
But yes the second season dropping the ball it did without being able to shift from the pure school drama hurt, we basically just got a repeat of the school being wrecked so fem kamille could eject herself out of the show.
at least the model kits were pretty good.
Still waiting for more 00 content after the seed hype XD
Let’s be honest here: they had WAY too much material for just 25 episodes. Cutting out certain characters and plotlines would’ve reduced the amount of content needed to flesh things out. It also would’ve put primary focus on the overarching conflict pertaining to Prospera.
The show needed a full rewrite, or at least another year in development before releasing. Cut out half of Earth house, remove the Dawn of Fold barring Sophie and Norea, instead have them be Earthian mercenaries disguised as school delinquents hired by Shaddiq to attack Plant Quatta. Have the show entirely set in space, so you can fully flesh out the world above Earth, letting any side material like Vanadis heart tell stories set on Earth. And finally, put more emphasis on the SCHOOL. If you’re not gonna use the focal point of this show, why even bother having at all? Give us time to spend with the characters, let them have some chemistry together. Let us as the audience see them as characters whom we either love or hate.
Bottom line, this show had all the time it needed. It just wasted it all on pointless crap that’d be removed after the first draft.
Man, this was the most disappointing show. There were scenes that were absolutely amazing...that all lead to nothing. Guels trip to earth, Prospera telling the Miorine about her trauma...those were great...in the backdrop of a bad show. The ending was so awful.
Suletta did have to grow on me, but I ended the first season liking her. The shippers were truly awful,I can see how they hurt the show. Prospera could have been great, but wasnt
My problem with WfM is that it felt VERY rushed in the back half of the series. I'm almost certain the original idea was for a full second run of 24 episodes to be made after they got done with the first season and went on break, only for Execs to change plans after the end of it, forcing the team to adapt best they could. This was probably done because they wanted something relatively quick to pump out a bunch of new model kits and boost sales, hence why there are what feel like more than the usual amount of suits introduced in the series. You can't convince me that they didn't get halfway through production of S2 before they were told they needed to wrap it up in the last few episodes.
The problems I don't have with the series is with any of the characters. They're honestly all set up very well and (where actually followed through with) have good character arcs. And yes, I do include the MCs and their relationship in that; I'll take an interestingly problematic relationship over a boring perfect one in media any day. Like honestly, can't think of a complaint with them beyond not having enough followthrough as a result of the aforementioned conspiracy theory. They spent the entire first season setting them all up and had it been paid off it would've been great. Shame it wasn't for most of them.
The endgame of the show was also a great idea, again rushed and truncated to mediocrity. Seriously, it makes too much sense that my conspiracy theory is correct.
4:10 Unfortunately, it is actually a thing in many lesbian relationships for one of the partners to be abusive. No idea if it is more or less than the average between other types of relationships, but I do know of a few relationships in my life that are really kinda shit. Personally, I think its more down to lack of available alternatives why they end up in relationships like that, and also one of the reasons why I think people should be a lot more open about their sexuality and home life.
Ending was rushed. It needed like 3 more episodes. But honestly the fights, the music the sound design, the characters. We're all damn awesome
I was still interested in where it would go. It was a good show overall. My issues were with its plot and some characters. The pacing of the plot was unusual. It goes from absolutely barreling through the story to extremely slow at a drop of a hat. Space outside the school and Benerit Group felt underdeveloped .The geopolitics and corporate conflict was mediocre to me . Some characters are just there to fill space and don’t have much of a personality like Shaddiq’s harem and even some of Earth House. I swear some of them look the same. Characters like El0n and Kenanji( the guy that killed Eri’s dad) just exist and don’t really do anything because the show doesn’t know what to do with them which is another issue it has. Shaddiq’s plan was pretty underwhelming. It felt like MUH BAEL 2.0 and sullied his character. While it’s still a good show , it’s just not for me. I’m definitely not part of its target audience.
Sounds to me that this is the nu gundam breaker of gundam shows, focusing on cringy VN nonsense and not enough on the conflict and the mobile suits
No issue with the whole video but regarding the Zeitgeist part, didn't you do a previous video called "The Witch from Mercury ended as a woke, rushed mess"? I noticed it's unlisted. I'm just wondering if you changed your mind on certain things about the show? I still think it's mid and should've gone all the way the main character's relationship. I also like the mech designs.
I loved this show. A new, refreshing take and new characters. New names, graphics, the reversal of the underdog, and the fact that the main lead protagonist's mom was the Char/Full Frontal.
I've never thought that representation/diversity indicates quality in fiction.
Good representation is good and bad representation is bad.
Sometimes a diverse range of characters make for a good story and sometimes they don't.
never thought I would jumpscared by tos violation prompt
I think the biggest issue with representation is that ppl who get to see folks who vaguely match their appearance don’t care and others who want hyper specific representation are too loud. What your avg person is actually asking for is say, if your story takes place in setting that do not require monochromatic races then just throw some diversity in there. Sci fi in America has a weird tendency to default to certain things then over correct in the wrong ways. Unfortunately the topic was taken over by again, ppl that don’t even care about the series to begin with. Now with gundam as a long term fan I have wondered where the black characters were because it isn’t a story that’s strictly Japanese nationality people but learning about how and who the Japanese learned to draw black people from I kinda gave up on it. However alternate universes tend to have the most exaggerated non nationality characters so that’s also a bad taking point. I do wish we could have more stories without so much poor discourse but again, flames are being fueled by folks with politics on both sides in a never ending and stupid culture war
I tried to like WoM but its just a worse Code Geass. Only saving grace was the mech design but even that was iffy.
Witch From Mercury but the show didn't happened in Mercury.
?????
I think Eri should have told Prospera "I'm not your daughter", and Prospera should have fundamentally come to terms with that, and that Suletta should have been the one to make her understand that. In this sense, the real message should have been about not chasing ghosts of the past or imagined futures, and instead focusing on the present, but we didn't get that. Pulling that punch really, really sucked.
Toxic fandoms pressuring creators are an issue on both political sides, and ultimately a human problem rather than a political problem born of unhealthy parasocial relationships with creators and media. Social media pressure isn't a new phenomenon: Even in the days of mail and phonecalls, folks would get contact-counterattack and creators. What tends to happen in the context of politics is one group has normalized this as market response, and the other are still regularly making the news because "oh no, the gays" still scores clicks with the bigot crowd.
Not big on the gate-keepy stuff, especially given Gundam's original domestic history. Folks as an audience always project themselves onto work, regardless of who they are. Unfortunately this is an easy shortcut to making a story or source of emotional drama in a story easy to click with, as opposed to making a more esoteric source of emotional drama empathizable. On this front, I'd blame economics as a whole, which really is the primary factor which hurts media the most on these fronts and is why the 2000's cyberpunk boom came crashing down so hard.
I will say on the front of relatability, you probably already score pretty high with most stories: You don't seem particularly gay, and you sound male, probably American and white passing. Every story is essentially made for you already whether you realize it or not, and you're roughly the same form and social mindset as most presentations of heroism. A lot of us are very fatigued that we're only ever sidekicks or support characters. Let the other kids have a turn at being hero, man.
WfM had an amazing first impression, then did nothing for the rest of the series. I wanted to like it, but unfortunately it was boring. Which is arguably a worse sin than being bad (like age) or confusing (like G recco)
The worst gundam series with best gunpla kit 😅
What's probably the worst thing to me is I was more interested in the backstory of the crazy girl then the main protag and deurotag. As characters i felt they were flat and even at the conclusion was like "okay they did the plot so what"
Ah, this makes me feel a lot better about disliking it. I got into Gundam earlier this year, worked my way through everything, and it really struck me when I first heard "Mama, they're like Candles!"
I thought I was getting more depressing Gundam war stories... what I got was a high school and a yuri subplot that tried to be more than a subplot. Listen, I watch these things to see the big robots fight, maybe get attached to a character or two, then watch it all fall into place at the climax. This one didn't really do that for me. The fights were really cool eye candy, and I still really like them, but they just don't have any of the thematic weight or interest that Gundam is known for (Well, "known for" when it's at its best, anyway).
Also, before I get absolutely destroyed by people that love this show: I love the first Hathaway's Flash. The really entrenched Gundam fans *do not* like the first Hathaway's Flash film (and that's an understatement). It's okay to like something, but being honest about the faults in media you love is the first step towards making better stories.
It was good tasting some freshness from an almost half-a-century-old franchise like Gundam. Bandai-Namco can't keep bloating UC and CE timelines forever to justify selling new Gunpla and merch after all.
Despite its downs, I think the show fulfilled an important goal: appeal to a younger audience. A long-lived franchise like Gundam needs new blood in order to keep being relevant. Old fan's loyalty and cash is good but they don't live forever after all. Before the show aired, producer Takuya Okamoto said in an interview he was worried teens were not interested in Gundam because they think it is old people stuff (and therefore cringe/uncool). That explains decisions like the teen-romance-drama and school setting. War and politics-heavy plots can be quite boring even for old timers like me and doesn't connect at all with the younglings so they tried to balance out things with relatable stuff for them. I was already prepared for those before watching episode 1 so it was not a shock nor a disappointment for me because I already understood the motivations behind.
I hope the producers after working on WfM know better than ever what works and what does not work well with a younger target audience when more Gundam-ish classic plot and world setting is involved (not doing what AGE did was a good start already). At least now they are less insecure about putting a female protagonist on a Gundam TV show instead of only risking such "audacious" move on side-story and spin-off material.
I think WfM was balancing teen-romance-drama and world-geopolitics fairly well on season 1 but then tumbled on its feet. I could feel that in season 2's fast-in-a-bad-way pacing. It was a shame some MSs didn't got proper screen time (look what they did to mah boi Schwarzette). Gundam animation is made to sell merch and gunpla after all. At least I liked most of the kid characters. And that comes from someone who finds most kids in Gundam quite annoying.
I still have hope tho. I hope Gundam keeps going on for another 50 years and Beyond The Time.
The only reason I kept watching it is I thought it was going somewhere. They wanted this show to be zoomer's intro to Gundam and I thought all of the show up until the last few episodes (where I found out it was just ending there) was going for a slow burn on setting up a more 'proper' Gundam conflict that would also fit into the themes of coming of age:
-I thought Prospera was going to be the 'disc one final boss'. She gets defeated, but the ensuing chaos and damage her revenge quest creates turns the delicate web of corporate politics on its head and creates a ripple effect of chaos. The villain is defeated yet all hell break loose.
-Guel and Miorine take over their parents job as respective CEO and whatnot....and now their arc in season 2 is coming to term with the fact that, for all their naive childish rebellious side, they still ended up in the same place as their old man. They try to balance their responsabilities with trying to make the world a better place/help the rest of the cast that is fighting in their mechs from behind the scenes.
-Suletta has to come to term she was never really a 'person' so far but just a cloned puppet of her mom. Thus Suletta being a wet fart of a character who does nothing get recontextualized and she has to deal with all of this and grow as a person.
-Delling come back...and is the new bad guy, because its what the prologue had set him up to be. Now I don't really know wtf his plan would have been or what he would have done, but now Season 2 would have seen a reversal with Miorine being the one dealing with her father being the antagonist, much like how for Suletta it was her mother.
That's where I thought this show was going, but nope. It just...ended. In a wet fart. There was potential for a meaningful story with theme there and it was all fucking wasted for a bullshit rushed ending where things just happen for no reason.
The biggest problem is that it was limited by it's episode count. I assumed we would have more than just 25 episodes, but it's short lifespan killed it for me. The show needed more time to breathe and develop itself, but only have a handful of episodes ended up hurting its story progression and character development. Things were wrapped up so quickly and introduced with barely any time to digest them. It felt more like trying too hard to get cool concepts in the series without having the time to properly pay them off. I hope in the future we can get more side manga and maybe some OVAs or movies to help expand on the Ad Stella universe
i feel this show has material to go to multiple season but they cut it short, a lot of the things in the anime just feel incomplete for me
the last actually likable female 'good guy' pilot to me were Roux. she was confident, a total girlboss, and kicks ass
So i didn't dislike WFM but i actual am a fan of some of the Mobile suit designs, since some of them were made by some Armored Core mecha designers. the Zowort being one of my personal favorite ones.
When they made a big deal about the Gundam because it uses bits, and then almost immediately showed a mobile suit doing the exact same thing without batting an eye, I lost most of my interest. The show just didn't put in the screentime to explain the context of the setting for me to care.
16:22 I would like to thank you for this.
A lot of GWitch fans tend to overlook on how poorly Miorine is written and how bad she treated Suletta just because they are in a gay romance.
Marina and Setsuna have more chemistry than Sulleta and Miorine, even though they view each other platonically.
I mean… I liked it. About my only complaint is that it’s short and rushes a bunch towards the end. As a consequence, we really don’t get to know some of the side characters all that well.
Otherwise, pretty good serious. Totally get where people are coming from critically, though.
Witch from mercury had its moment that I enjoyed. The mech animation was fluid and gripping to me. But the characters and story just didn't interest me all that much. I was curious if the mech animation was a blend of cg and hand animation?
I liked Witch From Mercury, until I watched Adolescence Of Utena. The whole school and romance side of WFM was heavily inspired by Revolutionary Girl Utena, but it did it much worse than it's source of inspiration. Meanwhile the normal Gundam stuff was very rushed. I still like the show though, and hope to see some of it's ideas explored further in the future- I do think that their cyberpunk ideas are very relevant now, and I do like muh representation, particularly when the writing is good. TBH I find a lack of representation is more unplaeasant to me in badly written anime, because when A character has no interesting traits, and no similarities to me, there is nothing to latch onto.
Suletta being the most interesting character? I thought for a while it was Guel because he had a character arc that people liked.
Even after all these years I still stand by what I said about this show. I wanted to like it, in fact the prologue got me fully invested but then after watching season one all the way up to the end of it, Outside of one character and the cool mobile suit designs, The show was a complete mess from season one. Didn't care about any of the characters outside of the one character(Guel) surprisingly, our main heroine had no real character arc or development and the relationship was not believable at all. And then season 2 happened where there were hints of things that were better and how even the only character I liked had a better character arc that expanded upon from the previous season and he had the best episode in the entire second season, But then when we get to the ending and the lack of any real stakes in the fights and nothing was explained properly....... I just gave up. I don't get what's up with sunrise and their recent modern gundam endeavors where the finales for each have always been garbage, so I don't know what the future holds for the anime side of things. But Hey at least the model kits have been pretty good and Suletta, Guel and Seceilla are the best characters in the show and I wish Suletta and Guel were in a way better series. Here is hoping they get placed in a new super robot wars game if it ever comes out.
17:42 Wouldn't a male V also be able to have a romance option with Judy, or is it a lesbian only option?
Can I just point out that war in pocket has a female protagonist piloting the titular gundam
12:31 Funny you say that, since Code Geass season 2 destroys the escalation that season 1 had built up by resetting the status quo. This mistake doesn't seem out of character of him
Your video here, having reminded me of my own watch through of the series, inspired me to tackle the idea of doing a retake on the whole show. Combining elements the show did well and some new ideas that I myself had regarding it before actually sitting down to watch it. Trimming the near obesity-tier fat the show has, focusing more on the corporate and political aspects of the show, and making the series as a whole something great! Yeah I’ll have to throw out certain things that made it popular but I’m trading that for an overall better story that uses the concepts the show tried to use in a better way. It’s still in the planning stage but it’ll be called The Witch from Mercury - Retake
Most people that like this show because of the GL. When i commented about how it wasn’t well executed including the romance on r/gundam and i guess OP hated my comment lol
Reddit is the worst place for Gundam stuff...they love their arranged girl marriage more than anything there
@@user-pm8fs8mn8k i agree tbh. I still stand by my word and say i don’t like this show
One of my friends watched it claiming she was excited to meet the lesbians and me was omg that’s lame. And whenever she asks me about my opinion about the first episodes my respond was it doesn’t feel like Gundam and she was like ok grandpa
Funny i know
@@hashimalz Damn, sorry you have that friend 😅 I get that tastes differ...however, Witch is at best a mediocre show and does not really deserve the name "Gundam" attached to it. But it attracted a crowd and I hope they will go away soon. I'd rather deal with IBO fans than Witch ones 😅
@@user-pm8fs8mn8k thank you but it’s funny, i don’t mean to call her out but you know as someone who liked Gundam with Wing since i was 8 and consumed few other (i love gundam but i still haven’t watch everything but i will)
I found Mercury strays away from Gundam message that the series tries to convey, but you know opinions.
I am for instance still think 00 season two is really good but i understand why people not hold it high as the first season.
Did this guy not watch Zeta gundam? Camille is the first female lead of a Gundam series. Unless we're saying that Quattro was actually the MC of that show.
"Kamille's a man's name and I'm a man!" - Kamille Bidan
WoM felt rushed. A lot of story buildup that got cut short and could've been better if it had gotten the minimum of 50 episodes that other Gundam series gets.
UC fan here.
I enjoyed WfM.
I thought it was great. I like all the characters.
Not mad at your take at all.
OMG that bit around 4 min had me absolutely rolling on the floor lmao
Didn't Whitch get canned cause they wanted to focus on the gundam metaverse so they rushed Whitch. Cause honestly the axis flash at the end fells so out of place. Honestly ghe whome ending does. There's no consequences for the characters
It was just too short
or too long if you thought it was trash
Isn't g recoa a bigger failure?
Man this is a great video. The prologue episode was great but i didnt make it past episode 1.
Everyone i see online praises this garbage and i just dont get it. Glad you were able to sit thru it and break it down cuz i couldnt do it....even as a huge Gundam fan
I only think that guel is a main character in this series. suletta? she's forgettable and don't have that character development.
I actually gave a chance to that gundam virtual MMO anime that did rpg things. I liked it a lot. This, I just can't.
Speaking of Gundam Seed, have you watched Gundam Seed Freedom? To me, it felt like a fan service movie for Gundam Seed fans, me myself included. And to me, it pretty much redeemed themselves for the failure that is Gundam Seed Destiny. And the title of Freedom actually fits pretty well in the movie's theme, and not just the name of the main's Gundam.
Though if you are looking for the ongoing conflict from the past 2 series, it doesn't have much here in the movie.
I was also turned off from the academy bs. It felt like they were really trying to playing it up to the slice of life crowd
wasted to much ep on the school setting and less about the corporate conflicts and proper closure. having the mechs just vanish like a dying digimon and then the terrorist mom just got off scot free was just another stick up the viewers ass. did they got scared to repeat what they did for the finale of IBO?
In first half of the anime I was expecting the school life to end permanently and afterwards I had trouble being interested in watching the anime. And its been a while because the other Gundam series I had a worse experience where Reconguista in G and Victory Gundam.