Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode 6: A Gloomy Song
Written by: Ichirō Ōkouchi
Directed and Storyboarded by: Akihiro Saitō
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Six: A Gloomy Song (鬱陶しい歌, Utoshii Uta) is the sixth episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.
Confronting Prospera, Belmeria tries to interrogate her about the truth behind Aerial and her plans for revenge, only for Prospera to remark on Peil's Enhanced Person project, shutting her up. Reporting on having smoked out the other "Witch", Prospera confidently declares her trust in Suletta and Aerial to win their upcoming duel against Elan and the Pharact.
That night, the girls of Earth House discuss Elan's abrupt change in behavior, while Miorine chides Suletta for accepting the duel without consulting her, stating she won't forgive her if she loses. Following Elan's victory over him, Guel is cut off from Jeturk House's resources, and kicked from the dormitory; he is later seen watching Suletta and Elan's duel while camping out in the woods. Shaddiq oversees the preparations for the duel between Elan and Suletta, with Elan intending to claim Aerial if he wins. Suletta, however, cannot think of a stake in the coming fight. Shaddiq tells her it's fine, so long as she decides by the day of the duel. As the meeting adjourns, Shaddiq expresses his own interest in Suletta after having seen Guel and Elan so radically change since her arrival.
Returning to Earth House, Suletta informs her dorm mates the duel is to take place in space outside the Front, which they note could be difficult with Aerial lacking a thruster unit, especially as Martin fearfully recognizes Peil's reputation for high mobility. With little money to their name and doubting any other Houses would let them borrow one, Nika suggests they build their own. Despite what parts they are able to buy being in decrepit condition, Chuchu expresses her absolute confidence in Nika's ability to make it work, while Martin laments that the deficit from the purchase may mean they won't be able to eat the following month. Ojelo and Nuno tell Suletta they've bet what they have left on the duel, and if she wins, it'll cover the costs of the thrusters. If she loses though, they'll go bankrupt.
Waking from a vague dream of a candle flame during his physical, Belmeria notes Elan he was moaning in his sleep, though he brushes it off as insignificant to the tests. Informing him that he should have no issues in the coming battle, Elan infers this means he won't survive a subsequent one. The real Elan Ceres then enters the room, smugly taunting his surrogate about his gloomy attitude, and the possibility of being given his own life again should he win the duel. #4, however, seems indifferent to the possibility, causing Elan to question why he accepted the role of his body double, knowing he would have to deal with the "cursed" Gundam. #4 only comments that he was already cursed long before that.
Outside Asticassia, Suletta and Aerial test their newly constructed thruster pack with Nika, who questions Suletta's resolve to fight Elan. Recognizing Elan was likely only nice to her as part of a plan, Suletta admits to feeling dumb, which Miorine reaffirms, calling Suletta annoying much as Elan had. But where Elan was cold, Miorine lights a fire in Suletta, encouraging her with her own mantra of moving forward. Nika teases Miorine as having already forgiven Suletta, which she deflects. Emboldened by Miorine's speech, Suletta lands in Peil House's hangar to try and talk to Elan, only for his own housemates to admit they don't have much contact with him. Convincing them to let her use their intercom, Suletta eventually gets Elan's attention by singing "Happy Birthday", though his only response is to coldly dismiss her again.
The day of the duel arrives, and Elan and Suletta face off outside the school with Suletta determined to find out more about Elan, making that her stake if she wins. The duel begins with Nika's thruster pack performing flawlessly, Elan then immediately granting Suletta's request, angrily going on the offensive while ranting to her about everything she has that he doesn't. The Pharact's advanced speed and mobility leave Earth House distressed that Suletta is at a severe disadvantage, especially after he deploys his bits to try and stun Aerial. Managing to stun one of Suletta's own bits, he takes aim to destroy it, only for the others to defend their paralyzed "comrade", destroying Elan's bits to free it. Remarking that Suletta's control is superior to his, Elan tries to put more distance between them, while Suletta struggles to catch up.
Raising the Pharact's Permet Score to Four to no avail, Elan starts to suffer from a severe data storm, leaving him susceptible to Suletta and Aerial's attacks, though he manages to shoot off Aerial's backpack. The infuriated Enhanced Person, believing himself on the brink of death, unleashes all of his Gundam's bits in an effort to take Suletta down with him. Despite apparently being hit by the stun beams, Aerial suddenly unleashes a pulse that knocks out the Pharact's bits and immobilizes the suit, briefly incapacitating Elan. When he recovers, he experiences a vision of childish silhouettes laughing out in space, before they come into focus as Aerial's bits surrounding him. Unleashing a torrent of beam fire, they eviscerate the Pharact despite its attempts to dodge, one shot blowing through its blade antenna, winning the duel. With his Gundam incapacitated, Elan is left dazed, but begins to more clearly remember his birthday before Suletta rescues him from his disintegrating mobile suit, assuring him that she'd be happy to celebrate his birthday with him, just like the person in his memories.
After the fight, Suletta and Miorine await Elan, who is late for their arranged meeting. Miorine takes her leave, with Suletta singing Happy Birthday to herself as she continues to wait. Elsewhere, Elan sings the song to himself as well as he is strung up and executed by the Peil Technologies CEOs over Belmeria's objections.
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A Gloomy Song provides examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Question: The beginning has Belmeria trying to criticize Elnora for using Suletta as a guinea pig for her Gundam. Elnora immediately counters by coldly asking Belmeria how many test subjects she had to go through for her Enhanced Person project.
- Call-Back: Suletta sings "Happy Birthday", the same song Ericht sang with her father as he expires back in the Prologue, twice here, the first time to draw out Elan's attention and the second by herself. Elan also sings it as he meets his end, just like Nadim Samaya.
- Clone by Conversion: Elan, Enhanced Person Number 4, is revealed to be have had his face reconstructed and memories wiped to serve as a Body Double for the original Elan, who is very much still alive and present. This lets the real Elan reap the benefits of using a GUND system on his behalf, while both covering up its use and leaving someone else to suffer the consequences. He even mockingly offers to have his clone's face returned to him if he wins.
- Downer Ending: Despite things seemingly looking up for Elan after his defeat, Suletta is unaware that her defeating him led to his execution. She is left waiting for him to arrive without knowing his fate.Suletta Mercury: Will you be here soon, Elan-san?
- Dramatic Irony: The episode ends with Suletta sitting and waiting happily for Elan to show up while at the same time, the viewer is treated to the scene of his disposal, singing the same "Happy Birthday" song as Suletta.
- Face Death with Dignity: Elan Number Four spends his final moments calmly and softly singing "Happy Birthday" with a small smile on his face.Elan Ceres: Happy birthday to— [gets wiped out]
- Forced from Their Home: Guel, for losing in a duel despite being banned from dueling, is not just cut off from any of his father's company's resources, but also gets evicted from Jeturk House. He's later shown living in a tent in the woods in school.
- Go Out with a Smile: This iteration of Elan meets his end with a smile on his face, cherishing the memory of having once been loved.
- Mythology Gag:
- It turns out that the Elan we know, or Enhanced Person Number Four, had his face borrowed from the real Elan, just like Full Frontal borrowing Char's face, serves as the real Elan's body double, almost like Meer Campbell serving as a body double to Lacus Clyne, and has multiple versions of Elan like him, akin to Ple/Puru having another version of herself such as Ple-2. Like those body doubles and people whose faces were borrowed from other folks in the Gundam franchise, Elan Number 4 ends up dying.
- Like the Gundam Barbatos before her, Aerial is launched while placed horizontally. The Barbatos, however, was launched forward with its face facing the catapult sled while Aerial is launched while on her back, feet first.
- Suletta pulls a maneuver that would have perfectly dodged Elan's surprise leg beam rifle attack, if not for the addition of her new booster pack. This calls to mind when Mika and Barbatos took hits from McGillis to the boosters due to lack of experience with having those parts.
- Aerial emits a pulse that deactivates the Gundam Pharact's bits, just like the Unicorn Gundam in Destroy Mode deactivating the Kshatriya's funnels with its NT-D system. The only difference is that the Pharact also gets immobilized as well and the Pharact's bits are mercifully left alone instead of being used against Elan, unlike the Kshatriya which gets attacked by its own funnels.
- Suletta calls Elan out of the damaged Gundam Pharact, just like Seabook calling Cecily as she is floating in space. The only difference is that the background is the sun, while Cecily and Seabook are in space with the moon in the background.
- Suletta also has a talk with Elan while floating in zero gravity, akin to Amuro and Char. The big difference, however, is that Amuro and Char are talking about Newtypes and are still at each others' necks, while Suletta and Elan are discussing the latter's past.
- Properly Paranoid: Miorine was right to tell Suletta to stay away from Elan because the real Elan reveals that Peil wants to obtain her.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In the previous episode, Elan openly revealed he had a Gundam, without even the bare protection of no data storms to pretend it's something else. There is not a word about punishing Peil for this blatant violation of the Agreement, by all indications for no other reason than because Peil is a more important corporation than Suletta's own.
- Tomato Surprise: Previously, the difference in ages between Eri in the prologue and Suletta in the present implied a thirteen year gap inbetween. In this episode, Belmeria states it was twenty-one years ago, raising many serious questions.
- Villainous Breakdown: Throughout the duel, Elan slowly loses his cool while moping about Suletta having everything he doesn't, not helped by the fact that he pushes his Permet Score to four. By the time he tries to move in for the finishing blow, he's a raving, fuming mess.Elan Ceres: Belmeria Winston... Your diagnosis missed the mark... But even so... I'LL AT LEAST DENY YOUR WORTH, SULETTA MERCURY!!!!!!!!!!
- Wham Episode: Two revelations concerning the story pop up and unexpectedly alter everything we know of everybody. To wit...
- Belmeria reveals that 21 years have passed since the raid on Fólksvangr. Suletta is only 17, and it doesn't match the time frame of what age Eri should be since the prologue happened on Eri's fourth birthday.
- It turns out that the Elan we know is a Body Double for the real Elan Ceres who runs tests on Peil's own Gundam, the Pharact while he sits back and reaps the results. Said body double is easily disposable, as the ending has him killed for failing the Peil Tech CEOs, making him the first major character to die in the series proper and signalling the fact that anybody can perish now.
- Wham Line: Belmeria Winston drops a bombshell concerning the time skip between this show and the prologue, causing everything we know about Suletta and her mom to turn muddier...Belmeria: It's no use taking revenge for a 21-year-old...
- You Have Failed Me:
- Guel is kicked out of Jeturk House for losing his duel in the previous episode by order of Vim. The only silver lining in this is that he isn't expelled from the academy entirely.
- The final scene of this episode has the Peil Tech CEOs eliminate Elan with something resembling a laser cannon for disobeying their orders.
