Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Episode 18

Leave it to Mari Okada to shake up the traditional Gundam formula of expressing the majority of the show's emotional moments through battle. As Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans continues, Gundam battles have gone from every other episode to perhaps one in every three. In fact, this episode utilizes the lack of Gundam battling as a major plot point. I'm still itching for more Gundam battles, but this thoughtful and poignant episode has started to convince me that the noncombatants of the show have their own ways of battling that are just as interesting to watch.

Fittingly, an episode titled “Voice” has some of the most impactful one-liners we've heard so far. It all begins with Kudelia's speech, directed at Gjallarhorn and heard 'round the galaxy. Kudelia dares Gjallarhorn to shoot down her ship if her words are false, and what do you know, they let her pass! "She's amazing,” Mikazuki says, "she stopped them with just her voice." This isn't even the nicest thing Mikazuki says about Kudelia this episode. That honor goes to the line's followup: “Even Orga can't do that.” For Mikazuki, it's definitely the most flattering thing he could consider sharing.

Mikazuki is pretty amazing himself. When the mysterious masked man inserts himself into Tekkadan's business, they get halfway through negotiations without suspecting who he really is. Later, Mikazuki recognizes “the chocolate man” immediately, presumably only by his voice. (I love how these episode titles tend to have multiple meanings and references.) This is actually the first time we get 100% confirmation that the masked man is indeed McGillis, though I've never suspected anyone else. With this latest development, McGillis takes the role of the masked man from Gundam immemorial, putting him in a liminal space to interact with both sides of the war without committing to either. He's a wrench in the machine designed to show that conflict isn't ever black and white, and I just hope he comes up with a cool name to go with his mask like his predecessors have done.

McGillis's request leads back to Kudelia because ultimately, this episode is her story. You know how somebody's mom will die in some stories in order to give the hero more motivation to unleash his full potential? I feel like that's what happened with Kudelia and Fumitan. She's constantly thinking of Fumitan in this episode, clutching the friendship necklace she gave her, all while growing more and more powerful without noticing the change. “She's like a different person,” Mikazuki observes. The episode culminates in Atra taking another step toward forming the three-way romance of her dreams, bringing Kudelia and Mikazuki closer while unwittingly growing closer with them both herself. I can't help but adore these three.

And yet, there's so much going on that neither I nor Tekkadan understand yet. “They do business by outwitting each other,” Orga observes of Naze and his associates, “We're just scurrying around their feet.” They're at a major disadvantage in a universe that considers them less than human, a point carried home by Bauduin's insistence to Ein that people who have had the Alaya-Vijnana System surgery aren't even people anymore. Instead, the world is governed by a bunch of older men and women that we get a glimpse of for the first time in this episode—I can only assume these are the Seven Stars we've heard so much about. My biggest complaint is that the current pacing previews new characters and ideas without giving me time to process them. If you're going to focus the series on drama and dialogue instead of expression through fighting, I'm going to need a little more help keeping track of it all.

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.