Gundam AGE Episode 2 Review - By Team GG

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE - Episode 002 Review
*Spoilers Below*
Review by Team GG [RLZIII]

機動戦士ガンダムAGE
Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Episode 002「AGEの力」"The Power of AGE"

Introduction

The first review for Mobile Suit Gundam - Episode 001 was all over the place; with a new series there's just so much to cover. My goal with this review was to make it more focused and comprehensible. After the synopsis I'll give my thoughts about the episode. Enjoy!

Synopsis

A UE Gafran is outside of the colony Nora and attacks it with a large weapon. Inside it's evident that the colony is undergoing extreme damage. Grodek says that the Diva must be launched and Miles states that the colony will collapse in less than six hours. It's said that the colony must be evacuated, but Commander Bruzar says that because the escape pods only hold 100 people at a time that it would take too long to evacuate all of the citizens. Instead Bruzar says that the Diva is to be launched, and requests that Captain Dian Fonroid be contacted.

During a briefing, Commander Bruzar reveals his plan to evacuate all of the citizens to the core of Nora via the loading elevators and that the Diva will pull out the whole center of the colony and escape with it. After the briefing Grodek asks Commander Bruzar if he can update Captain Dian of the situation, and the Commander gives him permission.

Inside of the colony the intercom is telling all citizens to evacuate to the loading elevators. Vargas is instructing the move of the AGE Builder. Vargas tells Flit that he must be the one to move the Gundam to the battleship and instructs Flit to take the Gundam AGE's beam spray gun and shield in case he runs into a combat situation. Emily and Dique see Flit inside of the Gundam and he tells them to evacuate. Flit walks away with the Gundam AGE.

Dique tells Emily that they should go to the elevators but Emily leaves for the battleship instead so she can go with Flit. Meanwhile, Flit sees a young girl on a bridge alone. A billboard starts to fly at her and he shoots it with the beam spray gun to protect her. The girl runs away scared and Flit pursues her.

Dique drives Emily to the loading dock where the Diva is being held. Captain Dian tells them that they aren't allowed on the Diva and instead to evacuate like everyone else. When Dian leaves, Emily slips in to the loading dock anyway, and Dique reluctantly follows. Emily and Dique overhear Dian talking to the two other people that he's with; he states that the plan to pull out Nora's core is ridiculous and that he doesn't have to take orders from Commander Bruzar. He states that instead he takes orders only directly from the Earth Federation Command Center, and that his priority is to retreat the Diva and have it escape the colony.

Grodek appears after a bay door opens. After a quick introduction he shots the two people that are with Dian with a stun gun. He tells Dian that if he turns the output up on the stun gun that it can be deadly. Dian says that Grodek is committing a crime, however Grodek says that he'll take the punishment if necessary. As Grodek holds the stun gun to Dian's head, he forces Dian to drive off. Dique states that him and Emily overheard something they shouldn't have.

After the rest of the crew has already left, Miles tells Commander Bruzar that they should leave as well. The Commander says that he cannot leave as the only place to detach Nora's core is from inside the room he's in. He tells Miles to leave ahead of him as he can escape via a secret route. He says the Gundam may be the last remaining hope for humanity. Miles salutes him and leaves. The Commander says to himself that he can't believe he could tell a lie like that with a straight face.

Emily and Dique find their way to the Diva and they meet up with Vargas as he's loading the AGE Builder into the battleship.

Commander Bruzar's crew arrives inside of the Diva but the original crew can't be found. Adams attempts to locate the old crew's information in the computer system, but there's no data. Miles says that they'll have to launch the Diva themselves and commands everyone to their stations. Elsewhere we see Grodek at a remote location deleting data on the previous Diva crew, along with Captain Dian's data. He says to himself that he's going to take the Diva into his own hands.

Back inside of the colony we see that the girl that Flit met is still running from him and the Gundam. Flit tells the girl not to run as he's not the enemy and he exits the Gundam AGE's cockpit and sends himself down to the ground. He tells the girl not to be afraid of the Gundam as he built it himself. The girl hesitantly leaves with Flit after he says they must escape. We see Flit piloting in the cockpit with the young girl sitting in his lap. She says that she's sorry she was running from him. He introduces himself and she follows suit and states that her name is Yurin. Flit gets embarrassed for a moment, and then asks her why she was left behind in a place like this. There's a sudden explosion under the Gundam and it falls through the colony's ground.

Back on board the Diva, Miles asks Adams if he thinks there's something strange about the why that the UE is attacking. She thinks to herself that if the UE wanted to destroy the colony quickly that they could have just attacked the energy plants. Grodek shows up on the deck of the Diva and announces that he has been appointed the captain of the ship via orders directly from the Earth Federation Command Center, Big Ring. Adams confirms this in the computer system and nods to Miles. Captain Grodek gives the orders to launch the Diva and connect to Nora's core. Miles interjects that the Gundam is no yet on board, yet Captain Grodek says it will have to escape on its own. Miles tells the crew to prepare for launch.

Flit and Yurin are uninjured by the Gundam's fall. Flit states that they must have fallen down to the bulkhead level of the colony. Yurin mysteriously instructs Flit to go straight ahead in order to escape. When Flit questions how she knows where to go, she says to trust her.

The crew of the Diva detect a UE mobile suit approaching. Grodek orders the crew to level one battle stations. Flit, following Yurin's directions, comes to a dead end that's closed off by rubble. Yurin says that everything's fine; she then counts down from five and an explosion clears the way. The Gundam then goes into the hole created by the explosion and ends up outside of the colony in space. The Gundam immediately crashes into a UE Gafran. Flit tries to attack the UE Gafran with the beam spray gun but it clearly has no effect. The Gafran attacks back with a variety of beam attacks. Back inside of the colony, Vargas starts up the AGE System and AGE Builder. Flit states that the beam spray gun isn't having an effect on the UE. Flit asks if the AGE System has enough data to start up, and Vargas says enough data was collected from the battle earlier.

Vargas explains to Emily and Dique that Flit created the AGE System. He says the system is build from the principles of biological evolution and that by collecting data the system will recommend new armaments and upgrades to make the Gundam stronger. Dique states that the system's amazing. The AGE System quickly works and utilizes the AGE Builder and its high-speed molding machine to create a new beam rifle from raw material. Vargas explains that this beam rifle is special in that the beam itself actually spins at a high speed to make it more powerful. Vargas calls the new weapon to DOTS Rifle.

Flit's beam spray gun is destroyed by a beam shot from the UE. Vargas launches the newly created DOTS Rifle in a cargo box out into space so Flit can use it. The UE Gafran shoots the box which causes it to open up, and Flit catches the rifle with the Gundam. The Gafran charges a big beam shot from its tail and fires at the Gundam. Flit shoots the DOTS Rifle straight into the UE's beam and it overpowers the UE's beam shot and causes the Gafran to explode.

The Diva crew is excited that the Gundam won the battle, however the victory is short lived as new UE are detected coming toward them. Yurin tells Flit that the incoming UE are different from the last ones...

Thoughts

This episode was a bit slower and less action-packed than the previous one, but I foresee it being a bridge into the next couple of episodes. We are introduced to several new things here in this episode that seem to be quite important. First we see that Captain Grodek has something going on; we aren't quite sure if he's a "bad guy" quite yet, but he's definitely willing to do some pretty shady stuff to get his way. I'm very interested to see how this will develop as he is (at least for now) the Captain of our protagonist's battleship. We are also introduced to Yurin and her interesting abilities. While the kind of powers she displays aren't new to the Gundam franchise in the least, it's pretty rare that we are introduced to them this early on. I am curious as to how this will play out and what kind of part it will play throughout the series. Will her abilities mirror those of a Newtype from the Universal Century, or will they develop into something more original? While of course almost anything this early on is strictly speculation, I think it's safe to say we might get a Macross-style love triangle in the near future between Flit, Emily, and Yurin.

We are also introduced to the AGE System and AGE Builder. It's interesting to see how this works. We have a mix of singularity concepts and the use of a (highly advanced) 3D printer. I am curious to see what will come of this; according to the pre-release information about the series, the Gundam AGE-1 Titus and Gundam AGE-1 Spallow are supposed to have been suggested via the AGE System as well. The DOTS Rifle created by the system also employs a twist (haha, get it?) to the regular beam rifle; though I have a feeling that this won't actually play a big part in anything and instead is just an interested technology tidbit. Maybe I'm wrong, though.

I'm looking forward to how this first story arc will unfold; the first few episodes of a series can really make or break it. I want Gundam AGE to keep my attention, which so far it has.
Review by Team GG [RLZIII]