Mobile Suit Gundam UC: Episode 5 'Black Unicorn' - First 8 Mins Streaming Video (English)
Video via Gundam.Info
Trailer #2 (ENG)
Mobile Suit
Gundam UC Episode 5 'The Black Unicorn' Trailer (Theatrical Release:
May 2012)
Gundam UC
Episode 5 'The Black Unicorn' Blu-ray (Release Date: Jun 8th 2012,
Price: 6090 yen)
Gundam UC
Episode 5 'The Black Unicorn' DVD (Release Date: Jun 8th 2012, Price:
5040 yen)
Episode
Synopsis via Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Official Website [Spoilers Below]:
Banagher is attacked
by the black mobile suit Banshee, and taken into custody. Backed into a corner,
he still continues to conceal the new coordinates leading to Laplace's Box which
were revealed by the Unicorn Gundam. Bright, the commander of the Londo Bell,
sees in Banagher the dignity and possibility shown by generations of Gundam
pilots, and he finds help from old firends he once fought beside.
Meanwhile, Mineva has
been handed over from Ronan to Martha, and she is transferred to the giant
transport plane Garuda as a pawn to make Banagher talk. The conflict surrounding
the Box soars to a high altitude and, finally, back into space...
As always, disappointing. I was thinking that perhaps this time Banagher will actually put up some decent fight, but he was thrashed in a blink of an eye. He's more of a whiner than any other Gundam protagonist. I hope this episode will allow him to develop into a more solid and cool-headed guy, otherwise we have another Kou Uraki.
ReplyDeleteOn the safe side, Banshee did appear with great dignity. I'm so happy I ended up with the OVA ver over the Final Battle one.
That's what we hope Bright Noa can do to Banagher.
DeleteWith the Bright Slap, Banagher can become a man to fight Angelo's Rozen Zulu, AE's Banshee, and Sinanju itself in hopely the Full Armor Unicorn!
Dont be too hard on Banagher, he was in no condition to fight because of Loni dying. Also he is more human than 90% of all the Gundam protagonists, he's realistic, most ppl his age would actually be worse off if they were in his place.
DeleteThat aside most people would have probably pissed themselves in fear and ran if something as menacing looking as the Banshee dropped out of the sky and proceeded to attack them
Ya totally agree. The Unicorn is a very big disappointment. I think it's most probably targeted at a younger audience aged 12 to 20, not for hardcore gundam fans over 30 for sure.
DeleteFirst of all, the creator of this episode don't understand a single thing about filmology. There's too many new characters in this episode and most of which are completely forgettable. After seeing 5 episode, I still have no clue who is the main character in this story, and who is who. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? And if Banagher is the main character, he's far from convincing. You expect a cool guy that is brave, manly, and willing to kill someone and willing to live with the consequence, to serve and protect his ideologies to be the main character.
Banagher is just a useless little girl. I understand he's a kid and all, but why the director put some pathetic worm as the main character still beats me. It kinda hints on that there will be a transformation into a man in the final two episode, probably just the last 10 minutes of episode will that happen.
Second of all, it's very unrealistic the way they handle the plot. It's just not plausible. Come on, it's a freaking war okay. It doesn't matter whether your friend or your father is KIA, it's freaking war, you keep fighting until you are dead. If I was Banagher, I see a black banshee coming to pick a fight, I would most certainly beat the crap out of him even if my own brother was killed 2 seconds ago. Also come on, ya right, you will put the hostile white unicorn pilot in the cockpit so that he can easily fight and escape. Come on, are the sorta "bad guys" really that dumb? You think it's Austin Powers comedy haha?
My recommendation is fire the director and in the next episode hire someone that has a solid knowledge of filmology. Also they should hire someone who have served in the Vietnman War and Second World War as consultants, so that they can capture proper human reactions in combat situations.
From my personal experience, people kicks into a condition black when faced with stress, some people call it robot mode or berserk mode. Your emotion shuts down and your reason and experience takes control of your body. It's like a black out, and after you are done, you realize it's all over, and you are surrounded by corpses.
And yes I agree with some other reviewers, in War there's no gentleman or cheater, there's only victors and losers, and history are written by victors. And they will bend the writings of the history books to reflect that. In another word, if the Axis has won the Second World War instead of the Allies, in that version of the history book, the Americans and the Chinese would had been depicted as master of evils and were properly dealt with and that they deserved to be dealt with.
just so you know, the OVA are based on the novels, so your directing your displease at the wrong people here.
DeleteI don't think that is fair. The Banshee came out of no where right after the defeat of the Shamblo. Banagher was already shook up because of Loni's death. Both pilots were in the state of shock (more so on Banagher), so going by his personality, it's not really surprising to see him get knocked out so quickly.
ReplyDeleteDon't be so childish, I think your mind haven't grow up all yet right!!!
DeleteThis is WAR!!!, there are no fair in war, War never fair.
People why try to risk at any cost to win a War, they can play dirty, they can play trick, they can send how many force they want, I think you still not yet understand what is war all about.
And For Banager not beat Banshee, he was in no condition of fight anymore how come u expect him to fight. What if u were Banager in that Condition saw some 1 try to save but can't and regret yourself, I think u wouldn't handle that and run away as far as possible right. GROW UP, Use your head don't be a childish mind life is not fair every time.
dude ur no need for rage man, for starters Anon is not implying that banagher to be all kick ass right after loni's death, though i mostly agree with the main reason being banaghers on personality. in fact we are all accepting that banagher was not in any condition to put up a fight due to said events in episode 4. secondly, Banagher needs more character development, (to those who have read the novel u will understand) and in a sense good ol bright is to to quite literally make a man out of people just like previous gundam protagonist/pilots. on another note, the banshee looks really badass, i cant wait to see the epic fight between the unicorn and the banshee
DeleteI agree with you mates, but in case you failed to notice, Loni was yet another victim of Banagher's inability to use the power he's been granted. First he losses the Special Forces guy because he cannot pull the trigger against Sinanju, then he kills of Gilboa and allows Loni to be fried by Riddhie. In each and single of the cases, had he retained even slight level of b*lls the case could've been different. On top of that, I'm getting tired of his sorry face every now and then, which is why I hope that his determination to hide another location of La+ is not yet another sign of him still being a whiny brat but rather matured and competent G protagonist. After all, we're reaching the climax. Even Kira Jesus overcame most of his crybaby attitudes by that point in original SEED.
ReplyDeleteHow else exactly could he have protected Loni from Riddhe? He couldve tried to cut off Delta Plus' arm, deflect the beam with Destroy Mode IE field, etc.
DeleteBut as a child/teen soldier, turned from a mere civilian with no other interest but to save people, torn for his 'duty' or can you say pressure from the darn Federation; it was always going to be a heartbreaking result. Coming up against ACE hardened pilots certainly doesnt help, these guys are good and hard to kill. Especially if you dont want to kill anyone. And the Second coming of Char was in the big red one that goes three times faster...
A major theme in Gundam, the Kidou Senshi, what was supposed to be the 'saviour', the Gundam, can turn into MAD-NUG, the antithesis of Gundam, in this case well sorta Banshee (ie when put in the wrong hands) or Unicorn Destroy Mode. Whether or not you choose to pull the trigger, unless you built the Gundam to save people, not to kill them (hmm Turn A, God gundam, Stargazer, 00 Qant/ELS Qant in a way) or build it solely for defense purposes, we are going to keep having situations like these. I guarantee you any sane person in Banagher's position wouldve more or less succumbed to the horrors of war, not knowing what the right thing to do is, surely not after you've got someone else's blood in your hands and conscience. Deciding on what you think in your heart and morals is right, whether you think that makes you a human being is completely up to you. This is the reason of duality, always a flip side to the coin.
It really is good in english dub as well
ReplyDeleteDelta Plus and Unicorn just fought the Zeon remnant/Shambloo battle, Marida comes into the fight with Banshee completely fresh with the advantage of knowing all the info she needs to know about Delta Plus and Unicorn while Riddhe and Banagher are caught completely off guard (and pretty exhausted) in a state of confusion by a mobile suit they never expected even existed. Banshee practically ambushes them both and you expect a "fair" or even a good fight.
ReplyDeleteYou realize Albert and Martha WAITED until Zeon and Shambloo tired out Riddhe and Banagher, especially Banagher before sending Banshee out there... Nevermind how you feel about Banagher. Banshee would have put an end to that conflict quickly regardless of who was piloting Unicorn due to sheer advantage.
Not to mention Banagher had already wasted his NT-D time. NT-D Banshee vs. damaged Delta Plus and a spent Unicorn. Come on...Again, they waited for the right moment to deploy Banshee to make a quick and swift attack and capture.
Deletethat's why it was a "mission" =P
DeleteI'm not even close to denying that, but it's not about good tactics or overwhelming power of Banshee itself, but rather Banagher and his attitude.
DeleteIf, by tiring, you mean just flying around or standing there and depending on NT-D then yes, Banagher was wasted. But, if we seriously look at the situation from a bystander perspective, the way he reacted was pretty retarded. Riddhie did his best while trying to fend off Banshee with DAMAGED Delta, whilst Banagher, clearly seeing the descending menace, simply stood there, crying and possibly unwilling to do anything. If I remember correctly, NT-D shuts down with closing the armor plates - which they obviously didn't do. The frame wasn't glowing but that could be the effect of the system not recognising Banagher for some time. He did have a breakdown after Loni's death, hence his 'will for fighting' wasn't really there for NT-D to respond to.
Using NT-D sucks up a lot of the pilot's energy whether the MS is flying around guns blazing or not. Remember the little fight Banagher and Loni had just exerting their psychommu force on each other, barely even moving their machines? That puts a big strain on them. NT-D has a limit for a reason.
DeleteAnyway, you're faulting Banagher for mourning the loss of another person he felt connected to, especially another newtype. Let's not forget it's that compassion that is allowing Banagher to break the La+ seals and why he was given the Unicorn in the first place. If he was the ultimate badass all the time or more like Riddhe or someone else some of you guys expect of him, they'd be getting nowhere with the Box.
My point is, this is about the right time for him to wake up from the retarded slumber he's been exposing us to. Three idiotic deaths are just one too many. We all remember Kamille losing his parents which started his innovation and that pretty damn important moment. Here, on the course of roughly 4hrs of screentime the writers are trying to impose FOUR of those (if we count Cardeas' death as a breakpoint too) and I cannot see the reason why. Seriously, why does he cry over the deaths of people he barely even met whilst the death of his classmates from the first episode left completely no impact on him not to mention his remaining friends.
ReplyDeleteAll this considered, his reaction to battlefield situations is, at the very least, retarded. He had previous MS and MA experience, he fought a series of battles so he's neither a newbie nor inexperienced to be resembling idiotic writing mistakes from the likes of SEED...
The author of Gundam UC is not Yoshiyuki Tomino, he got the permission to write the novel with his own depiction of the closure to the Zeon era.
ReplyDeleteHe is accumulation the climax to episode six, where Banager had to kill.... Full Frontal.
I guess they didn't bring back Beltorchika from the novel version.... Bummer.
I'm more disappointed that people are still expecting macho superheroes from Gundam when it has always been about humans, and civilians at that.
ReplyDeleteIt has nothing to do with that, cause we either get guys who are underdeveloped, therefore their inability to do anything gets really frustrating at some point (like Banagher) or straightup gundam idiots who have no room for grown up (like Setsuna or Heero). The truth is, that only sometimes this universe gets a decent protagonist who doesn't go through some moral bullcr*p every second episode and focuses on the main theme of the genre - war fought to achieve peace. If I recall only 08th MS team had that.
DeleteThis being said, I cannot say that leads like Amuro or Kamille, or Judau for that matter are bad. It's just that we get 50 episodes of development for them, whilst Banagher has only 6 and yet they're focusing only on explaining why he can or cannot cry over dead bodies. This is frustrating since I cannot really justify why a guy like that, with only one moral code, is the one befitted to open the La+. At least, they did hint that Banagher isn't a legit son to Cardeas. This explains why he had to leave the premises and remembers nothing of his dad.
And btw, since you can't or don't want to make your point clear, do yourself a favor and refrain from igniting any sort of flames. For once, this is a neat conversation we're having over here.
I'd say you were the one starting the flames, but since that will get us nowhere, I'm not going to continue down that road.
DeleteIf you think I was trolling, I wasn't; I really am frustrated with people expecting Banaghrr to be a soldier or a Bright slap to fix everything. He may be a decent pilot, but after failing to save someone yet again, he is in no condition I fight.
Your previous comments indicate that Banaghrr is to blame for the deaths of those around him; this is not true. His father died of his own choice, the spec ops guy died believing in Banagher, Gilnoa died of his own choice to protect Full Frontal, and Banaghrr just wasn't quick enough to stop Riddhe from taking the gun. In all those cases, Banagher was attempting to protect those around him.
In terms of his friends that apparently died, I'll admit that's kind of a plot hole. Still, they could have just been acquaintances.
What I'm trying to say is Banagher, like many Gundam pilots before him, has been forced to play soldier and is doing his absolute best to protect those around him while trying to remain distant from both tr federation and zeon.
And to be honest, the bright slap has always disgusted me. A military officer striking a civilian who voluntarily saved the lives of many people, and now is probably suffering shock? Good idea.
Anyways, I apologize if I came off as insulting. I'm just tired of people saying things so brashly.
About Banagher and the deaths...
DeleteI still am in for believing that it was HIS and HIS fault only (maybe except for Cardeas). Power brings responsibility and one should understand that or withdraw from whatever he or she is doing because doing so without fully believing in right or wrong will eventually cause people die. Banagher is given that power, he learn how to use it and yet when it comes to utilizing it he would rather argue with people (like with the Spec Ops guy saying: "Shoot them or they'll shoot you" and Banagher to that: "No! I don't want to!" - wth are you sitting there, just run away, Shinji would) than take any actions that would expose him to thinking or decision making. With all that Unicorn power he could've EASILY disabled Shambloo long before Loni overreacted and lost control over it, but he simply stood there trying to talk sense into here, like that ever work goddamit! It worked so great for Marida, good for him he managed to cease NT-D at the right moment.
The case repeats every now and then when people require some thinking from him. You can be childish and retrieve from fighting, or you can lose people, get slapped and start to grow up.
To reply to what Polish Gunpla Blog said, if Banagher had gotten his act together and took out Full Frontal when he first arrived on the field at the wreckage of the Laplace station wreckage, both Daguza and Gilboa would still be alive. Countering that however (and this is somewhat backed up from what I read of the details of the novels) is that Banagher still had not gained full control of the Unicorn Gundam. Think of it as an actually horse that had still not been completely tamed by its master.
ReplyDeleteAs for Loni though, I agree wholeheartedly. If he had engaged her in full blown combat, he might have disabled the Shamblo while leaving Loni mostly unharmed and well preventing the butcher's bill from going any higher than it already was. It makes me wonder why they didn't go with the novels (which had Dakar as the main target and Loni's father instead piloting the Shamblo and Loni trying to stop him). And if one is wondering, in the novel version, Banagher is the one who takes out the Shamblo.
Thus far a big concern of Banagher is that he should have realized what he was getting into the moment he got into the Unicorn Gundam for the first time, heck especially when he finds out who Audrey Burne truly is.
ReplyDeleteI can go for him not controling the unit completely until he descends into Earth Sphere, but later his indecisiveness and generic inability to do anything despite all the power he's been given is plain stupid.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I agree with you on that. Too bad the novels will probably never be translated. If they had gone more with the novels, I think the anger would have been lessened on Banagher's actions in episode 4.
ReplyDeleteAs of now, they have to do something pretty damm impressive in order for Banagher to regain his standing for it feels that episode 4 retarded Banagher's growth that we saw in the previous three episodes.
Oh and as for your comment about having another Kou Uraki, well I can think of worse to compare Banagher to (aka Kira Yamato during his early days on SEED).
ReplyDeletewhy is everyone expecting superhero protagonists?? Banagher is NOT Heero, Setsuna. I say Banagher's character is well written. All civilians plunged into war will act that way-- confused, hurt and eve shocked!! We must look at this shit in Banagher's perspective.
ReplyDeleteHe jumped into the Unicorn because he wanted to protect Audrey (without first knowing who she is).
He realized Audrey was actually a Zeon princess and is now completely confused which side to take. But Audrey is being threatened and so he goes to protect her (episode 2, again, without thinking about the consequences).
Then Daguza starts talking about responsibilities and shit in episode 3 and Banagher was like "wtf, I just wanted to protect that girl because she was going to get killed.."
He killed Gilboa and lost hope in himself.
The Captain starts talking about not giving up.
Banagher tries to pursue his beliefs about possibility but Riddhe just blew the entire shit of Shamblo . He is in shock, realizes he's not powerful enough.
Enter Banshee.
so people please, if you were thrown into a war like that, you'd be shit in seconds
Our problem is the fact that after all that crap you mentioned he still seems to never learn from experience.
DeleteThat is still bad writing. Had you been in his shoes you would've probably just run away from Unicorn, fighting and the other stuff. This is where Banagher is completely retarded - instead of getting his act out of the battlefield (where he clearly causes more confusion than good), since he does know he sucks big apples, he simply strives into one conflict after another, perhaps having good intentions but failing considerably at the time of choosing. Once more, none of the above you mentioned explains his retarded 'saviour' attitude when everyone can clearly see that he HAS to disable the Shambloo if he wants to SAVE Loni. The damn thing had limbs, a head to aim at... Had he only pulled his act together.
I'm sincerely hoping THAT was his breaking point. Otherwise he'll became easily forgettable protagonist at the end of this story.
ITT: Fags that aren't familiar of the story in the novel.
ReplyDeleteLol, Heero and Setsuna were trained as assassin and terrorist since they were little kids, of course they would not hesitate to pull the trigger even friends and allies, survival and missions are their top priority. They grew in chaos and death environments, later they have comrades who stand beside them and they got more humanity in them. Banagher is a boy who had normal life as a student, he never had any training in killing other people, and later he jumped into the unicorn to protect Minerva, he never fought in actual wars, never experienced pains. I would praise him for his will for not to kill others and wanting revenge even though he lost his dad, sure he made mistakes and fucked up shits but if it was another kid who got weaker mind and will that kid would probably go berserk apeshit and attack everyone on the spot.
ReplyDelete