Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Episode 16

The Dort arc concluded in a big way today on Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans with the deaths of several named characters. It was a revolution on an enormous scale—and yet very intimate at the same time. A series of moments between Fumitan and Kudelia ran parallel to a public demonstration, hurtling us toward an emotionally shattering conclusion.

For most of us watching Iron-Blooded Orphans, it's Kudelia we relate to more so than Fumitan. Sure, she's considered super rich in this show's world for having paper books and candy, but we have that stuff, too. That's why it's impossible not to see Kudelia's naive effort toward leaving her “small world” as anything but noble. Kudelia is just one little rich girl, but thanks to Fumitan, she's devoted her entire life to ending injustice. What's amazing, both to Fumitan and to viewers, is that even as she realizes the extent of her own privilege and how the other half lives, her vision remains unwavering. It's this single-minded focus that makes Kudelia easy to take advantage of, but also easy to like and want to rescue.

That's why so much of today's episode is about Fumitan's internal conflict. Poor Fumitan—if she had only been able to make up her mind to protect Kudelia much earlier, she wouldn't have had to die. But the dramatic and conclusive event occurs solely because it took Fumitan so long to decide whose side she wanted to be on. Fumitan occupies an interesting liminal space in this world's class system. As a former Mars slum inhabitant, she found work as Kudelia's maid and has always had plenty of food, clean clothes, and a place to sleep, provided she could get the bitter taste of her own precarious servitude out of her mouth. Clearly, she's never been fully successful, or she wouldn't have gotten involved in a plot to have Kudelia martyred. And on a much smaller scale, she wouldn't continue to engage in the microaggression of leaving Kudelia alone on an unfamiliar street, with the princess never suspecting her maid of deceiving her.

Basically, the plan that Fumitan's employer has is very similar to the one in the Lion King where Scar plots to get Simba involved in an outside commotion so Mufasa has to save him. The fact that I'm using a Disney comparison should show you just how textbook this is, like planning a thoughtful plot took a backseat to conveying Kudelia and Fumitan's relationship. While Kudelia is ever more frantically searching for Fumitan on Dort 3, tensions are rising between the Space Costco unionists and their Gjallarhorn overlords. And sure enough, Kudelia, with that burdensome selfless heart of hers, does get involved in the thick of it. Could there be anything more overt than Kudelia holding a nameless unionist through her death throes? “I'm dying in the arms of the maiden of revolution,” she says, “It's like a fairytale." Caught on camera, this moment is bound to become a public call to arms all over the universe, but it's also a beautifully personal moment that only Kudelia and Fumitan understand. It reminds Fumitan of the photo in the paper “Book of Revolution,” and she knows what she must do.

This pivotal moment is sure to set the rest of the series' events in motion, at least on the political side. From the slum dwellers to the demonstrators to the people in power, everyone has a horse in this race, and this episode is sure to inform their upcoming decisions. It's meaningful without being emotionally manipulative, and even if the plot was overly simple, it still made my blood run cold. The Orphans have a lot to be angry about, and I wonder how they'll channel that rage once they're back in their Gundams.

Rating: B+

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is available streaming at Daisuki.net and Funimation.com.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.