Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Two: Cursed Mobile Suit
Written by: Ichirō Ōkouchi
Directed by: Tatsuma Minamikawa
Storyboarded by: Tomoki Kyoda
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Two: Cursed Mobile Suit ((呪いのモビルスーツ, Noroi no Mobiru Sūtsu) is the second episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.
In the aftermath of Suletta's victory over Guel, the Dueling Committee report her and Aerial on suspicion of being a Gundam. While Miorine explains that she does not intend to marry Suletta and only desires to escape to Earth, the feed of the battleground to the school is blocked, and they are suddenly surrounded by the Front's defense force mobile suits. Miorine and Suletta try to object to the accusations of Aerial being a Gundam, but the soldiers overrule their claims.
After being arrested, Aerial is searched for signs of GUND systems, while Suletta is interrogated for connections to Vanadis. Meanwhile, the Benerit Group holds a meeting to observe the interrogation, discussing the girl, her mobile suit, and the company which supposedly built it, the Shin Sei Development Corporation. Vim angrily demands the results of the duel be rendered void, while Sarius Zenelli, CEO of Grassley Defense Systems, cites how that would simply be for Vim's own benefit. Interrupting the meeting, Delling orders Shin Sei's representative to be summoned for an inquiry.
Back at Asticassia, the students gossip about the duel while Shaddiq Zenelli of the Dueling Committee meets with fellow member Elan Ceres before departing, having been summoned to the upcoming inquiry. Miorine returns to her greenhouse to fix the damage Guel caused when three of his housemates who had harassed her with him approach, having been sent to help with the repairs on Guel's behalf; two of them, Petra Itta and Felsi Rollo, taunt Miorine over Suletta getting interrogated and potentially expelled. The news shocks Miorine, who leaves the trio to fix her greenhouse while she looks into Suletta's fate.
Meanwhile, Nika and two other students research and discuss the Shin Sei Development Corporation from Mercury over lunch. Nika is awed by the corporation's feat in building a mobile suit, while one of her housemates, Martin Upmont, wonders if anything would have been different if Suletta's supporter was higher ranked in the Benerit Group, lamenting how "Earthians" like them are looked down on, while Chuatury "Chuchu" Palunch expresses her own disdain for "Spacians" just as two Spacian girls drive the three from their table.
Miorine tries to see Suletta, but is turned away under Delling's orders, growing even more furious when she learns her father has decided to remove her from school to personally arrange her marriage. While she vents her frustrations playing a phone game in a toilet cubicle, a woman who had witnessed her ditching her handlers approaches her, revealing herself as a co-conspirator in her last failed escape attempt, offering the white-haired girl another chance to do so. After some hesitation, Miroine accepts.
At the Benerit Group Headquarters, Delling is informed of Miorine's disappearance, but is unconcerned, claiming he knows exactly where she's going and how to catch her. Asking when the inquiry will begin, he is told Shin Sei's representative has just arrived. Meanwhile, Vim berates Guel for losing the duel before he is informed of a surprise visitor - Shin Sei's representative and president, the masked Lady Prospera. Thinking she wants his help in swaying Delling, she instead suggests that he is the one who should be asking for her help. Elsewhere, waiting in her cell, a tearful Suletta is brought a meal by Elan, who expresses interest in learning more about her.
The inquiry begins with Lady Prospera denying the accusations concerning Aerial, despite evidence presented by Shaddiq. Prospera instead claims they are more conventional if advanced drones unrelated to Gundams, citing her bionic arm and eye-mask as reasons for the advancements brought on by the harsh conditions of Mercury. Reaching an impasse, Delling simply proclaims Aerial as a Gundam regardless of evidence or defense, when the inquiry is interrupted by Miorine. Taking the mantra Suletta had taught her during the duel to heart, she challenges her father's ruling. While Delling seems prepared to brush her off, Vim manages to divide the gathered inquisition, claiming he wants to redeem his company after his son's loss. Later, Miorine rushes into Suletta's cell to inform her of the duel; one which, if she loses, will result in her expulsion from school and the destruction of Aerial.
Somewhere in space, a test run involving a mysterious red mobile suit takes place. The new machine proves to be fast and deadly, easily destroying two test Dilanzas with brutal efficiency.
Yuugen’s (end card illustrator)’s official Twitter
Cursed Mobile Suit provides examples of:
- Absence of Evidence: Lady Prospera says the Aerial isn't a Gundam despite its abnormal Permet scores because Suletta didn't experience a data storm, which as everyone knows is the infamous side effect of piloting a Gundam. The committee recognizes that this doesn't mean it's not a Gundam, but Prospera shoots back that they can't prove it is one, either. Of course, the audience knows Suletta didn't experience a data storm because of her abnormally high tolerance (or perhaps outright immunity) for GUND-Arm technology.
- Abusive Parents:
- Vim outright hits Guel for losing the duel against Suletta, making it clear that he only cares about his corporation's status.
- Likewise, Delling continues his sterling record of excellent parenting. As soon as he doesn't like the result of the duel, he intends to force Miorine to quit school and find a groom for her himself.
- Bait-and-Switch: It seems as if Miorine is escaping with her escort and leaving Suletta to her fate. A few scenes later it is shown that she sacrificed her escape attempt to confront her father and protect Suletta. She even challenges him to a duel to force him to accept her engagement to Suletta.
- Blunt "Yes": When Miorine questions her father if he thinks he’s some kind of king, he outright tells her he does.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Miorine quietly says "If you move forward you gain two", which Suletta taught her in the first episode before she challenges her father to a duel.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Miorine storms into the inquiry room to give Delling a piece of her mind, challenging him on his controlling nature yet refusal to follow his own rules.
- Celibate Hero: When teased by Shaddiq on the possibility on him liking Suletta after he questions her status as a witch, Elan vehemently denies it and states that he will never fall in love.
- Engagement Challenge: The entire school is technically one, as Delling set up the system intentionally so that the best duelist would win his daughter's hand in marriage and inherit the company. Until someone he doesn't like wins, in which case he cancels the whole plan.Miorine: At least obey your own rules!
- Foregone Conclusion: No matter how the duel goes, the opening depicts Suletta happily attending school garbed in her Holder attire.
- Hypocrite: Miorine calls out Delling that he set up a Darwinian system where Duels Decide Everything, but the second he got a result he didn't like, he voided the results, branded the winner a criminal, and decided to pull Miorine out in order to render the entire point of the system moot.
- Kangaroo Court: The Witch Trial on Aerial goes as well as a regular witch trial. Suletta is locked up and unable to defend herself while her fate is being decided upon. Despite not having sufficient evidence that Aerial is a Gundam, Delling is already dead-set on having her scrapped, and declares it a Gundam anyways on the grounds of Screw the Rules, I Make Them!. Thanks to Miorine's involvement, it moves on to Trial by Combat.
- Kick the Dog: Twofold.
- While the teacher Nika talks to lets her off with a warning for lending Suletta her student notebook, when Nika inquires when Suletta will return, he retorts "An Earthian like you should stay out of this".
- The Spacian girl who spit in Nika’s food has no reason to do so as Nika already was leaving without making a fuss.
- Meaningful Echo: Miorine repeats Suletta's mantra from the first episode before challenging her father to a duel.Miorine: If you move forward, you gain two...
- Mythology Gag:
- Elan giving Suletta food and gaining an interest in her bears very stark similarities to Crowley Hamon doing likewise when she and Ramba Ral encountered Amuro in an eatery. The only difference is that Suletta didn't have any food when Elan approached her in her confinement while Amuro had finished his loaf of bread when Hamon orders some more food for him.
- Miorine tells the Jeturk House bullies that if they do anything to her tomatoes, she'll kill them. Her head is turned to face them à la Heero Yuy when he told Relena that he'll kill her, albeit mirrored.
- Pet the Dog:
- For all his flaws, Guel is at least a man of his words. Despite the duel result being voided he still sends his underlings to fix up Miorine's greenhouse.
- Elan is usually aloof towards most things but he visits Suletta when she is imprisoned and gives her a meal, which she is very grateful for.
- Miorine may be abrasive and aloof towards Suletta, but she is still grateful and considerate to her. She gives up her chance to escape in order to save Suletta and Aerial.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Delling decides the Aerial is a Gundam, and therefore illegal. Period. While of course he's right, he doesn't offer any justification such as "I think you're trying to trick me" or "better safe than sorry." It's his decision, and that's the end of it.Prospera: Why?
Delling: Because I say so. - Ship Tease: For Suletta and Miorine, despite Miorine’s desire to escape her father and go to Earth, she gives up her best opportunity in order to confront her father and protect Suletta. She even demands that Suletta stays as her fiance as her winning condition.
- The Stinger: A new red machine, the Darilbalde, is tested somewhere in the depths of space where it easily picks off two test Dilanzas with its fast speeds and deadly weaponry.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Suletta unleashing the Aerial in the last episode has a lot of consequences for her, nearly costing her her place at the school and getting the Aerial scrapped. It's only Miorine's intervention that gives her a second chance.
