G-Witch Episode 3 Thoughts

Thoughts and impressions on G-Witch, Episode 3.

This episode brought a conclusion to the opening mini-arc while also setting up more threads to continue forwards. After Suletta’s wild first day of school, does she stick the landing?

Suletta’s Friendship Powers

Suletta returned as the focus this episode, and her interactions with everyone else show how far she’s come. While she still cowered from Guel the first few times she met and stumbled with the dueling oath, she was able to talk more comfortably with everyone she met, and I appreciated how earnest she was. Her standing up for Guel against Secelia was also a major turning point for him, and her honesty has bettered almost everyone she’s interacted with so far, which ties in to her whole “step forward, gain two” mantra that’s guided her so far. She was almost too honest with Guel about him losing the duel, but her conversations managed to give him almost a complete turnaround. She’s one of the few genuinely nice and honest people in this hyper-competitive industrialist world, which could be a good theme to continue through the show.

On the same line, I liked how simple her “list” of goals were. Despite all the craziness of the prologue and her upbringing, she just wants to do all the things that regular kids get to do. Even as she’s getting dragged along by Miroine, her mother, and all of the corporate people, I like that she’s determined to just live a normal life, even if she can’t always assert herself enough to do so. The “step forward” thing also helps to show that she’s aware of her lack of social skills but keeps pushing to better them.

Her largest flaw so far is still getting pushed around by the others around her. The moments she has stood up so far were on behalf of other people instead of herself, like challenging Juel to a duel for Miroine and later standing up for him in the dueling meeting. While it’s good that she’s able to attract other people through how she helps them, she still struggles with asserting herself, even if she tried with Miroine near the start. This isn’t a critique, as I think it’s an interesting angle to take with her, but I am hoping for her to grow in that area as the show goes along.

Also snatching another marriage partner on your second duel doesn’t hurt either, though how she’ll react to that next time.

Guel Mellows Out

I was worried that Guel would be a generic pampered thug, but this episode actually managed to make him a bit sympathetic, all the more impressive considering what he did to Miorine in the first episode. While we saw his father already slap him in the second episode, this one really lays it on how bad their relationship is where Vim views his son almost more a prop for his own pride than anything else. The adults have consistently told their kids to stop acting like children despite being more childish in a lot of ways. While “adults suck” isn’t a new theme for Gundam (or mecha), I at least like them trying to illustrate it with hypocrisy more.

Though he was still confrontational with Suletta earlier on, I really liked when she stood up for him against Secelia and his conversation with her afterwards. He was expecting her to humiliate him like everyone else, but the way she opened up about trying to move forward and liking her mother struck a chord with him, all without a more obvious internal dialogue thing.

While I’m used to stories about “pride” being rote, it was much more interesting here in that basically no one involved actually trusted him to win on his own, from the AI to the two posse girls messing with the weather control. He sounded so hurt when he realized this in the duel that I felt bad for him, and it was such a good turning point when he finally broke off from everything. Even though he was still competing against Suletta, I almost wanted to root for him when he began fighting on his own terms.

Him instantly asking for Suletta’s hand after she complimented him was unexpected, but considering that he’s probably never heard an honest compliment in his whole life, it’s understandable enough. If this starts a more permanent change into him being more of a friend, or even a doofus muscle, I’m all for it.

Best Buddies

Miroine still seems dead set on going to Earth despite going back for Suletta, but I appreciated that this episode gave a few moments to expand their relationship. While threat of the expulsion forces them to work together, she still did her part to help by flying out to fix the weather control, and she congratulated Suletta more earnestly than she ever has so far at the end. I think this is the first time she’s smiled in the show so far, but it felt well-earned considering all the two of them went through. Even if she’s still a bit dismissive to Suletta at points, the two of them still manage to bounce of each other very well. The banter over the “Mio-Mio” nickname at the end is adorable.

Although Miroine is still using Suletta for her goals, if less overtly than before, and bristles at some of her attempts to get closer, she still shows her care in other ways that keep it from feeling too manipulative. For all she insists that their marriage is only an arrangement of convenience, she shows a few very funny signs of jealousy from cocking her spade as soon as Elan approached, outing Suletta’s date wish right as she’s talking with him, and adding herself to Suletta’s contacts on her own after she added him. I get the sense that, like with everyone else, Suletta’s earnestness will gradually chip away at Miroine’s rougher edges, and I hope they get to have more moments where she can drop her dismissiveness when they’re together.

Prospera’s Un-Reveal

For all I speculated on how they were going to toy with Prospera’s identity, it was weirdly refreshing that she was confirmed as being Elnora in the first few minutes of the episode. Finding out that she got Vim to intervene by knowing of his assignation attempt at Delling showed how connected she is to all the politicking within Cathedra, so I’m expecting that she’ll continue to play a role as one of the major factions, especially if the Aerial keeps succeeding. The fake backstory she created and the dual-identity thing still makes me curious as to what happened between now and the Prologue given how much she altered her appearance, but I suppose that will all come later as Shaddiq probes more.

The larger question is her relationship with Suletta. While she does show genuine care for Suletta when she’s talking to her, she also deflects from really answering any of her questions about the “witch” or Gundam, which is still a bit manipulative considering she must have known that she’d get questioned for piloting something like the Aerial. Suletta’s intense trust and love only makes me wonder how hard that will come crashing down eventually if her mother starts taking things even further. It’s refreshing for a Gundam protag to have at least one alive parent, but I get the sense that something big will destroy their relationship.

Grounded Mecha Action

The Aerial-Darilbalde duel took up a good chunk of the episode’s B-Part, and it delivered in a big way. The movements and dodges all felt very natural and much more tactical than what Gundam usually does, and the uses of the remote drones from both of them led to some fun blocks and surprises that weren’t just the standard beam spam finisher. While I’m not overly concerned with “realism” in mecha combat, it was engaging to see weight to the movements that made each attack feel heavy and thus very gripping to watch. The best parts were Guel using the claw feet of the Daribalde as a desperation attack and Suletta’s finishing move using her saber to pivot herself against the Daribalde’s head and knock its horns off. I’m expecting the space dogfights will creep back in sooner or later and that this duel format won’t last the whole show, but it’s nice to see some more grounded fights to start things off.

My only complaint is that, while I understand it for making the fight more tense for the spectators, I hope the battle terrain will eventually get more color to it, since the previous two have been mostly grey. Also sticking with the show’s general approach to mecha outside the major duels, the four-armed craft Miroine piloted was CG, but at least her bumping around in the corridor looked decent enough.

Miscellany

• I know Chu-Chu called her the “princess of management strategy,” but is Miorine a remarkably bad pilot. Still, it works as another good contrast with Suletta.
• There weren’t any odd framing choices this go around, but a few seams here and there. That shot of Shaddiq lying on the grass looked like he was floating above it, and some of the in-betweens on Suletta and Guel at the end looked a bit jittery. Seems like the animation challenges are surprisingly more on the character side than the mecha side.
• The corporate politicking was mostly kept to the background this time, but I appreciate that it was still integrated enough through Vim’s interference and Shaddiq beginning to investigate on his own. Funny that the most laid-back guy of the main cast is also arguably the most antagonistic, at least in terms of tolerating his parent and getting pretty involved in the corporate scheming.
• Nika didn’t get as much to do, but her being a total tech nerd over the Aerial and cautiously smiling as Chu-chu does a racism was still fun. Again, I’m hoping that Suletta will get to interact with the earth friend group more casually like she does in the opening.
• While I can’t really judge Japanese voice acting, Lynn is easily the standout one so far with her deliveries of snarky dismissiveness and harsh befuddlement. Every “huh?!” she does is incredible.
• Confused Suletta Ending Count: 3. Although she wasn’t totally befuddled this time, the small confused “eh?” is almost funnier.  
• This episode managed to make a "use of drone tech feels dishonorable" thing way more impactful in a few minutes than Wing did in that 8+ episode plotline with Treize. Just saying.
• It’s helped her in social interactions, but I feel like the whole “move forward, gain two” thing is gonna set Suletta up for some dramatic failure sooner or later.
• Still really loving the music, especially all the synthy parts for the slower tracks and the chorus track used at the end of the fights.
• Elan does have a point about duels not being exactly fair given how each side gets their support staff, but not stopping a technical problem with the arena seems a bit odd. I guess it’s like how not every sports game has the same weather, but given the stakes decided by the duels, wouldn’t the participants want everything else to be even aside from their own resources?
• Also it doesn't really make for Miorine's visor to be up in that shot, but it also makes her reaction much funnier, so it's fine. 

Final Thoughts

This was a great conclusion to the opening arc that built on a lot of the earlier threads and had some solid continuing development. The mecha action especially held up, and already a lot of the characters are growing into more interesting directions. That said, I’m still hoping Suletta can catch a bit of a break in the next episode, and seeing the show move into a bit more of a status quo before the end-of-cour drama starts ratcheting.