YMMV / Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

• Accidental Innuendo: Episode 23 has Felsi saving Guel from nearly dying by shooting sticky, white fluid onto his Dilanza before it explodes.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Were Guel's string of misses against a completely stationary Aerial just a case of bad aim? Or was it a display of his sense of fair play, not wanting to hit an unpiloted suit, and shooting just to intimidate Suletta? His shot once Aerial moves is right on target.
  • Regarding Miorine's abrasive behaviour towards Suletta: Just a common case of a Tsundere not being honest with her feelings? Or is it an attempt to keep her at arms length without getting too attached, since she still plans to run away to Earth? On the same note, does Miorine keep lashing out whenever Suletta is with Elan because she really doesn't trust him since he's part of the three branches, or is she being a Clingy Jealous Girl who doesn't want someone getting between her and Suletta? Could it be a mixture of both?
  • In episode 7, did Delling fund Miorine's venture as a Pet the Dog moment, because he liked to see her begging before him and would have something to hold over her, or because he's expecting her to see things his way by researching the GUND Format? In addition, is his hostile takeover to stop the GUND-Format technology a power grab for selfish reasons or does he have genuine belief that a weapon that harms its pilots is unethical?
  • Shaddiq's actions post episode 9. While he states that breaking up the Benerit Group was something that he had always planned to do due to their narrow-mindedness, the fact that he's only spurred into action after Miorine thoroughly rejects him make it easy to interpret his actions as being at least in part motivated by spite. Not helping his case is the fact that when Sabina voices concerns about Miorine being potentially caught in the crossfire of Dawn of Fold's strike on Plant Quetta his response is a casual, callous dismissal.
  • Suletta has had a flood of these. Just how many of her actions are truly her own and what kind of person is she truly underneath the surface. Is she just naïve? Is she self deluded? Brainwashed? Or just a stone cold killer who just got her first taste of the real deal. After episode 12, speculations and interpretations got wild.
  • Is Nika's meekness and conflict avoidance a natural part of her personality or is it her deliberately not endangering her allegiance as a spy for the Dawn of Fold?
  • In Episode 17, Is Aerial telling Suletta "I'm sorry" because she's unable to stop from being shut down or because she's in on the plan to get Suletta away from her mother? As it turns out in Episode 18, both are wrong.
  • In Episode 22, Did Guel actually try to win or was this his way of making up for his participation in their previous fixed duel and him restoring Suletta to, what he saw as, her proper position as Miorine's groom. Alternatively, was this a Secret Test of Character regarding Suletta's resolve to support Miorine, and Guel wanted to be sure that Suletta was up to the task? Could it be a mixture?
• Applicability: Some American viewers found Sophie and Norea’s attack in episode 14 and Norea’s rampage in episode 20 reminiscent of school shootings.
• Ass Pull: The show ends up suffering from some instances of plot points and events happening suddenly without any real foreshadowing, most likely as a result of the rushed final act. Some examples include:
  • While the existence of a Gundam named after the character Caliban was popular speculation since the beginning for those familiar with The Tempest, the casual mention of Gundam Calibarn came out of nowhere and has no foreshadowing. The only things that Guston mentioned about its origins is that the Calibarn is a Gundam confiscated by the Space Assembly League during the Vanadis Incident and that's it.
  • The Space Assembly League having a massive Kill Sat also came absolutely out of nowhere, with Kenanji only saying after its introduction that he heard rumors about it.
  • The final confrontation of the series, which involves several characters who are beyond the shadow of a doubt dead coming in to help Suletta and friends at an important time of need and convince Prospera that everyone she is attempting to enact revenge for is proud of her. Also Eri survived by going into a keychain which not even the in-universe characters seem able to explain.
  • Eri saying that Prospera gave up revenge for her sake is extremely confusing, given that in Cradle Planet, Prospera explicitly stated that she sent Suletta to Asticassia for revenge. We're never told when and why she changed her mind.
  • With Gundams being such a hot button issue in the setting, it's awfully convenient that Suletta is able to activate some kind of power from Calibarn that causes not just the entire Quiet Zero station, but also the Gundams Calibarn, Pharact, and Schwarzette to dissolve away into nothing without firing a single shot. A physics defying feat that wasn't indicated to even be possible up until that point.
• Audience-Alienating Ending: The show began with schisms between franchise fans over tone, themes, world-building, and character demographics. The ending deepened that divide and some fans felt alienated by it. Some see the final battles against Quiet Zero and the Space Assembly League as rushed and anticlimactic, with the latter especially notorious for ending on a near-literal Deus ex Machina in which Suletta defeats the League's Kill Sat by reaching Permet Score 9 with minimal build-up or foreshadowing. Much like the previous series, none of the primary villains (Prospera, Delling, and the four Peil CEOs) receive punishment for their crimes; Prospera in particular is Easily Forgiven by her family, with Shaddiq taking responsibility for Quiet Zero, the most the Peil CEOs suffer is indefinite house arrest, and while Delling is shown to be standing trial for his crimes, it's left ambiguous if he'll actually be convicted. The subplots regarding the Dawn of Fold, Earth's deterioration, and the looming war between the Earthians and Spacians are left inconclusive, and some of the overarching questions, such as why Eri has perfect compatibility with the GUND Format, are unexplained. This was compounded with many side characters that had been prominent in the first half of the show being sidelined. All in all, while the ending is happy, especially for a Gundam story, some felt that it was too rushed to be fully satisfied with, and considered it an over correction of the previous series' bleak ending.
• Awesome Art: The mechanical design for this series is on a standard unseen in most other mecha series to date - Sunrise hired four mechanical designers to do the Mobile Suits of the four major corporations, giving each corporation a very distinct look. These four aren't small names, either:
  • JNTHED (real name Juntaro Saito) is the mechanical designer for Ochs Earth and the Aerial, and provided assets for the Metal Gear games from Ghost Babel all the way up to Peace Walker.
  • Wataru Inata designed the Mobile Suits from Peil Technologies, has extensive work on Armored Core For Answer, and was also the lead 2D designer on Xenoblade Chronicles X.
  • Ippei Gyobu handles the mechanical design for Jeturk Heavy Machinery, and is a returning face from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and Gundam Build Divers.
  • Kanetaka Ebikawa is in charge of the designs for Grassley Defense Systems, and is also a returning face from 00, AGE, and Gundam Build Fighters.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: When the series revealed that Suletta and Eri were not the same person, and Eri lived on inside the Aerial, so few people were surprised that it bordered on an Internal Reveal. The series had dropped so much foreshadowing that something about the official events didn't add up that it was really the only explanation that made any sense. The only reason it doesn't end up being revealed earlier than near the start of the second cour is that no character barring Prospera has the level of information about it that the audience possesses, with Belmeria, the character who puts the pieces together, knowing considerably less—no other character even knows that Suletta and Eri should be the same person, or even that Eri existed at all.
• Cargo Ship: Elan Ceres has stated that he will never fall in love "with a person." Several people have been quick to point out that Aerial is a sentient Mobile Suit, not a person.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • The series wastes no time in delivering one when Suletta literally delivers Laser-Guided Karma to Guel.
  • Chuchu beating down the two racist bullies in Episode 4 after they sabotaged her and Suletta, causing the latter to cry.
  • After a long Trauma Conga Line of losses and traumatic experiences, Guel in episode 20 is able to narrowly defeat Shaddiq in a duel that also served to further solidify how petulant and self-centered Shaddiq always was.
  • In Episode 22, Suletta successfully defeats Guel in a fencing match that restores her position as the Holder. Shortly afterwards, Suletta is successfully able to pull Miorine out of her depressive spiral that she had been on after being wrapped up on Lady Prospera's schemes for the past few episodes. This leads to the two of them working together with other characters in an Avengers Assemble montage to face Lady Prospera. The episode ends with Suletta declaring she is there to stop Lady Prospera and Aerial while also managing to destroy a number of Quiet Zero's defenses which definitely showcase Suletta is a skilled pilot without Eri's help.
  • For those frustrated with either of the Jeturk brothers' Idiot Ball moments, having Felsi call both of them out in Episode 23 for almost killing each other right in front of Quiet Zero is a very satisfying moment.
  • Also from Episode 23, Miorine finally getting one over Prospera after getting played like a fiddle by her for much of the second cour when her plan succeeds in deactivating Quiet Zero, as well as Miorine giving Prospera a long overdue calling out over her horrible treatment of Suletta. Miorine ends up being the one to give her mercy while telling Prospera that they’ll be family because she intends to marry Suletta much to Prospera’s dismay.
  • After spending the entire series scheming, backstabbing and killing anyone they deemed expendable, the Peil CEOs finally get their comeuppance in the final episode when Miorine officially dissolves the Benerit Group and redistributes their assets and stocks to Earth-based companies. To add insult to injury, the real Elan Ceres then declares his resignation from the company and goes to work for Peil’s rival Jeturk. As a final cherry on top, the epilogue reveals that the CEOs have become so destitute that they now reside in a nursing home.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Episode 12's splattering of a terrorist beneath the Aerial Rebuild's hand is meant to be sudden, shocking and completely catch the viewer off-guard. Then Suletta gets out of her cockpit, slips in the gore and acts like a clumsy slice-of-life girl without any consideration for what she just did. Unlike most cases, this is supposed to double down on the horror of the situation, but for the internet, once the shock wore off it became absolutely Bloody Hilarious and one of the biggest memes of the entire series.
• Die for Our Ship: Suffice to say, many fans are not keen on any character they perceive as being a potential threat to Suletta/Miorine, mainly yuri fans who have been burned by Bait-and-Switch Lesbians one too many times.
  • Guel's Wacky Marriage Proposal to Suletta in episode three got him this treatment from some fans, whether from the aforementioned SuleMio shippers or even those who still are not fully on-board with Guel as a character especially after Episode 5.
  • Elan or more specifically Enchanced Person #4 gets hit with this hard since his official debut in Episode 2 due to canonically having an interest in Suletta, and Suletta herself seeming to have an interest in him as well (whether it is romantic or platonic is up to interpretation) which forms the bulk of Episode 5 and 6's narrative. You will not be surprised to find that some fans actually cheered when Elan #4 was dead at the end of Episode 6.
  • As of Episode 12, Sophie Pulone definitely got this treatment, due to her manifestation of her own twisted affection towards Suletta along with telling Suletta in Episode 14 she would happily kill Miorine if it meant getting her attention. She also dies at the end of Episode 14.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Chuchu has come out of nowhere to become a fan favorite, thanks to her cathartic right hook. It helps that her Memetic Hair makes her look like Iono.
  • Secelia Dote rapidly became a fan favorite thanks to her Fanservice-laden design and entertaining interactions with most of the story's characters, despite having very little relevance to the main plot in the opening episodes, especially compared to fellow Dueling Committee members Guel, Elan, and even Shaddiq. As the infamous Youtube toy reviewer Jobby the Hong succinctly puts it:
    Jobby: All she's done is sit on that couch, but Gun-DAMN!
    • Indeed, many fans desperately want her to stay on the couch. Every time we see her standing up, a massive disaster is underway.
  • Felsi Rollo is surprisingly popular in Japan despite being introduced as a Jerkass bully to Miorine, and to a lesser extent, Suletta, in the first few episodes, having spawned fanart and memes even in episodes that don't involve her or in episodes where she doesn't even appear at all! She gained further popularity among both western and eastern audiences after the second cour gave the Jeturk House characters a more sympathetic focus. Many fans have taken a liking to her Jerkass with a Heart of Gold personality and are clamoring for her to have a larger role. Following her Back-to-Back Badasses moment with fellow fan favorite Chuchu in Episode 20 while fending off Norea’s assault on the school, followed up by her saving the Jeturk brothers in Episode 23 while calling them out on the pointlessness of their feud, Felsi’s popularity further exploded, almost reaching that of the main duo themselves.
  • For such a minor character, Seethia gained a lot of popularity despite only appearing in one episode with many left wishing that she had survived and become something of a little sister figure to Guel.
  • Despite her minimal role, Sabina Fardin is also surprisingly popular, especially amongst Yuri fans/lesbians for her cool character design and personality. Her popularity only exploded further after Episode 16 had a Pet the Dog scene between her and Nika.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Due to the short story indicating that Elnora wanted Suletta to become close to Miorine through the dueling system, it seems possible that the 'extraction team' is affiliated with her, due to Miorine's supposed extraction point being in an area that crossed paths with Suletta's transport, and the extraction team only meeting Miorine at Suletta's time of need.
  • Due to the events of episode 6, some fans now have the theory that Suletta isn’t Eri, that she’s a clone of her and the real Eri is actually the Aerial. This is seeming supported by the English dub having different voice actresses for Suletta and Eri. Episode 14 ultimately confirms they are two different people with Episode 18 confirming Suletta is a clone.
  • Related to the above, Suletta being able to talk to Aerial's GUND-BITS has led to some believing they are powered by failed clones of the original Eri. Episode 18 confirms they are indeed clones as well.
  • Episode 12 has had some people suggesting that Prospera may have Suletta under some sort of brainwashing due to the Dissonant Serenity she's in at the end of the episode. Not helping matters is a tweet by Suletta's actress urging Miorine to try and wake Suletta up.
  • Suletta's stamina and strength has triggered some speculation on just how strong she is and if what is shown in the series is just some oversight or if there is some deeper meaning present, specifically if that when she was cloned that she was also genetically altered to be more physically capable and resilient than Ericht. There is also the fact that the series focuses heavily on developing cybernetics that would make it easier for humans to live in space.
  • The giant data storm created by Suletta in the end has been the source of its own speculation, specifically all the ghosts of past characters appearing. It has been noted of those present, only Elan #4's ghost have the Volcanic Veins just like Ericht whereas all the others do not. This mixed with past instances of GUND technology seeming to dig out deeply buried memories has lead to the speculation that aside from those two, all the other ghosts that appear are just brought forth from the memories of those caught in the data storm and are not true ones like Ericht and Elan #4.
• Evil Is Cool: Prospera Mercury is a calculating, emotionally/mentally manipulative, and borderline insane woman fully consumed by revenge, willing to use anyone she can influence as her pawns including her own daughter who never stops commiting atrocity after atrocity at the expense of everyone around her. Coupled with how she does this in such a charismatic and grandiose manner befitting a Char Clone which is supplemented further by Mamiko Noto's absolutely chilling performance; viewers cannot help but love AND hate her for it.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "G-Witch": the semi-official shortening of the full name of the series.
  • Suletta's Harem: Guel Jeturk, Elan Ceres, Shaddiq Zenelli, and Miorine Rembran, due to the initial character announcement making the premise seem similar to an Otome Game. ^Note"A seemingly unimportant girl from a less than prestigious background entering an environment where several important, handsome young men with different personalities take an interest in her; and makes friends with another girl from an important family that serves as her foil" is a common premise for this genre, moreso the hundreds of webnovels with an "otome game" premise. Reinforced by having at least 3 people interested in her by the end of episode 3 (Miorine, Guel, and Elan).
  • Gundam: Three Houses: A nickname derived from the parallels between the two works, as both are franchises with a traditional war focus but which begin in a seemingly lighthearted school setting while clear political tensions and darker plots boil under the surface, as well as several other broad character similarities^note For example, Suletta/Byleth being protagonists with something notably off about them, Miorine/Edelgard as standoffish white-haired heiresses to the most powerful faction in the setting, and Claude/Shaddiq being Middle Eastern-coded charmers with a shady side.
  • Space Weiss: Miorine Rembran, due to being a white-haired Rebellious Princess going against her MegaCorp-owning father who seems to have a friendship with a happy-go-lucky redhead.
  • Space Ruby: Likewise, Suletta Mercury has several traits of Ruby. Her social awkwardness, dynamic with the above Miorine, and losing a parent at a young age are the most prominent examples.
  • Japanese fans have taken to calling Suletta Tanuki-chan and relating her to a tanuki due to her Big Ol' Eyebrows. Working from there, the same fans then decided Mio is a kitsune.
  • Suletta has also been compared to a tomato, due to her red hair and the scene of her eating one. Likewise, Miorine is compared to a white mushroom due to the shape of her hair.
  • "Cruel Jerk" for Guel Jeturk, due to his Jerkass behavior. There is also Gue L Jeturk for his constant losing streaks. Then by extension, the rest of Jeturk House is mockingly called "Jobturk House" due to its members' reputation for jobbing to other characters whether in mobile suit fights or in corporate politics.
  • Gundam Evangelion for the theory of Suletta being a clone and the real Eri being inside Aerial. Even more comparisons were made after Episode 14 confirmed Eri is indeed Aerial.
  • As of Episode 6, Elan (Enhanced Human #4) has received the nickname El4n, and the current one referred to as El5n. The "original" Elan is sometimes referred to as El0n or Elan Musk, along with other nicknames like Elan Prime, Elan Original Flavor, etc.
  • After the events of Episode 8, Shaddiq managed to earn the nickname "Shady Diq", partly due to his act of playing both sides of the GUND-Arm issue, and partly because he's surrounded by female students of the Grassley House at the end of the episode.
  • Bob the Builder for Guel in Episode 10, owing to his appearance and helmet making him resemble said character, as well as “Bob” being his alias as a blue-collar worker.
  • South Korean fans nicknamed Guel Jeturk as Guel Jun-pyo, after the character Goo Junpyo in Boys Before Flowers as they are similar in being the heirs to the richest families in school, and they have similar personalities as jerks with a heart of gold.
  • The Gundam Aerial's name got alternatively spelled as "aERIal" by fans after Episode 14 reveals that Ericht Samaya somehow became the Aerial. Eri herself is often referred to as "Space Oomfie".
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Many fans of the series are also detractors of DARLING in the FRANXX, a mecha anime from CloverWorks that gained a lot of infamy from other mecha anime since 2018, Gundam included. Reasons include its overall premise, the Darker and Edgier tone, the mecha designs, the villains, the romance between the two main characters being (initially) more toxic than Suletta and Miorine's, and its Bittersweet Ending. In other words, DarliFra is everything The Witch from Mercury is not.
  • The series would also clash with Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, particularly those who are introduced to the franchise through the latter. The conflict usually stems from the Lighter and Softer tone of The Witch from Mercury, with Iron-Blooded Orphans fans claiming that it should be Darker and Edgier and that there should be many deaths. They even disparaged the ending for being too happy and that it should have a Bittersweet Ending with some of the main characters dying. The Witch from Mercury fans retorted this saying that the show doesn't need to be very dark like some of the previous entries because it's in a different setting and pointed out that the previous shows before Iron-Blooded Orphans had the main cast surviving in the past and earning their happy endings, and IBO subverting this by having the villains win and kill most of the heroes was too mean-spirited of an ending. Likewise, they find that needlessly killing off characters just for the sake of shock value to be detrimental to viewer investment. Meanwhile, a third faction consisting of “Universal Century-only” fans and some others dislike both series, IBO for being excessively Darker and Edgier and G-Witch for being excessively Lighter and Softer, and accuse both series of bringing in fans who only care about shipping the characters to the exclusion of everything else (and this in turn has been accused of being an attempt to gatekeep the series). Ironically, most fanart enjoys depicting Mikazuki and Suletta as friends, and the general mecha fandom would love to see how both series interact in Super Robot Wars, including detractors of both series who want SRW to fix the issues they have, as SRW is known for doing.
• Fanfic Fuel: The moment where Suletta is left floating in space with a distress beacon has provided the jumping-off point for multiple crossovers.
• Foe Yay Shipping: After Episode 9, fans have started shipping Lilique Kadoka Lipati and Renee Costa together due to the latter's petty one-sided rivalry over the former being seen as amusing, thus leading fans to wish they would get more interactions with each other.
• Fountain of Memes: Guel Jeturk managed to become a hotbed of memes in the fandom due to his Butt-Monkey status—from getting his ass smacked to camping in the woods to going under the name of Bob as a blue collar worker, every action he seems to take seems to increase his memetic status. See the Memetic Mutation page for examples.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • After Lycoris Recoil ended, many of its fans turned to this series for their Yuri-flavored action fix.
  • Similarly, Birdie Wing, also a Yuri-flavored action show, also from Sunrise (or rather its subsidiary), just like G-Witch.
  • Fans of Revolutionary Girl Utena have also become fans of this series, due to G-Witch having several blatant homages to the former, especially since Ichirō Ōkouchi also wrote the Utena novels.
  • Naturally, there are quite a few mecha series that overlap with this show, and the fans would love to see the interactions come to fruition in a future Super Robot Wars installment. In fact, it's the first series to get its own page on This Very Wiki deticated to predictions on how it would be incorporated.
  • In addition to being a Yuri-flavored mecha show, fans who watched Cross Ange are quick to draw comparisons to a brunette female character (Prospera and Jill) manipulating the protagonist (Suletta and Ange) for their revenge plot against the Big Bad (Delling and Embryo).
  • The series has gained a lot of overlapping fans with The Big O largely thanks to its complex and interwoven plot with loads of tomato symbolism and mechs that are revealed to be sentient.
  • There are naturally a lot of Code Geass fans as Ichirō Ōkouchi wrote both series. This has led to a lot of parallels of the G-Witch cast to the Code Geass cast, and people that are terrified of G-Witch having similar tragedies in the future, which thankfully did not come to pass.
  • RWBY fans have also turned to this series because the two main characters have similar physical appearances, personalities and dynamics as Ruby and Weiss.
  • A number of Battletech fans have found favorable comparisons with their mainstay series and G-Witch due to the combination of psuedo-neofeudal dueling for prizes resembling the Trials of Possession for isorla amongst the Clans, and the atmosphere of corporate-political intrigue surrounding the conflict instigated over the GUND format, which in itself draws comparisons to Neurohelmet, Enhanced Imaging, and DNI (Direct Neural Interface) control systems used in Battlemech technology. Miorine's duel against her father's decisions is also framed as a mixture of a Trial of Refusal and a Trial of Grievance.
  • The series is also compared very favorably to Little Witch Academia, mainly due to the school setting as well as having a female main character associated with witches and her dynamic with a snobbish Deuteragonist.
  • Many fans of The Owl House who heard of this anime also go with this show as the pairing of Suletta and Miorine reminds them of Luz and Amity. It doesn't help that since former has ended, Lumity shippers come in for their Yuri-flavored action fix. Adding to this is that Witch from Mercury's 2nd Season started just the day after Owl House's series finale.
  • Between the first and second season, the Yuri Light Novel Series, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess, began airing its anime adaptation which was seen as a fine way to pass the time while the second season was in production.
  • Also with Kill la Kill, given the school premise and behind-the-scenes corporate conspiracy-related plots in both of their respective series. The fact that both of their respective protagonists' mothers are also the Big Bads (Ragyo Kiryuin and Prospera Mercury) who view their children as tools for their own nefarious goals, and Prospera being also compared to Ragyo also helps.
  • In a way coming full circle given how much Gundam inspired the franchise, the Lyrical Nanoha fandom has embraced the show with open arms due to its similarities in themes and character relationships, with some observant fans comparing Suletta’s character arc and her status as a “fake” clone daughter of Prospera’s to that of Fate Testarossa. The comparisons only got stronger after Suletta began piloting Gundam Calibarn in episode 22, whose primary weapon is a combination of a laser cannon and rocket booster shaped almost like a witch’s broom/staff, very similar to that of Nanoha’s trademark weapon Raising Heart. With G-Witch on the obvious radar for Super Robot Wars, and Nanoha being a popular choice for a surprise series, fans are hoping both make their debut together.
  • While Gundam and The IDOLMASTER's fandoms are already friendly with each other, it got a boost when Layla, a character in The Idol Master Cinderella Girls was revealed to be voiced by Kana Ichinose, Suletta's voice actress. Layla, a runaway girl from Dubai, has long blonde hair and tan skin and resembles a younger genderbent Shaddiq.
  • Both this series and Love Live! (Nijigasaki High School Idol Club in particular) would also get along to a lesser extent, since not only they're both made by the same animation studio, but also have Yuri undertones, though the former is far more explicit with the girl-on-girl romance.
  • While both Gundam and Kamen Rider fandoms are already friendly with each other thanks to the Compati Hero series, fans of two specific Kamen Rider shows are friendly towards this show:
    • Fans of The Witch from Mercury and its contemporary show Kamen Rider Geats overlaps with each other due to the Tanuki/Kitsune Contrast between Suletta and Miorine being comparable to Keiwa/Tycoon and Ace/Geats (The two of them even get the mecha-like Command Form, furthering the comparisons; as well as the revelation of Suletta's origin as a clone to Ericht compares to Neon's situation as a replacement to Akari).
    • Fans of The Witch from Mercury would also give Kamen Rider Gotchard a warm reception, mainly due to the school setting, the character chemistry between Houtaro and Rinne being similar to Suletta and Miorine's, and its Lighter and Softer tone. It also helps that Hotaro's surname is exactly the same as Suletta's Japanese VA.
  • There's a lot of friendliness with the Fire Emblem: Three Houses fandom due to the similar premises of high school drama amidst a backdrop of political and class conflict, as well as the Yuri Fan overlap due to Three Houses having multiple canonically queer female characters including several of the protagonists.
• Gateway Series: As mentioned under Just Here for Godzilla and Newbie Boom down below, Witch from Mercury has attracted newcomers (especially yuri fans) who got into this series to look into previous Gundam series, or even other mecha shows in general. However, it has also worked in the other direction, with several Gundam fans getting into other yuri shows, particularly Revolutionary Girl Utena.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Attentive viewers of the prologue noticed that Delling Rembran was referencing the Malleus Maleficarum as the attack on Folksvangr was underway, a piece of literature infamous for fueling the witch hunts among the common folk despite being banned by the church. Also, using Ochs Earth as a scapegoat for the GUND system deaths makes it a "witch hunt" in the political sense.
  • Just like most Gundam series, the series occasionally refers to the areas of space where the fronts (colonies) are located as numbered Lagranges. A Lagrange Point is an area of a solar system where the gravity of the celestial bodies evens out so that anything placed there will remain more or less in the exact same spot relative to the planet's orbit. In other words, a very good place to build permanent space colonies.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Suletta slap comes off a lot less funny after episode 12 after Suletta smacks a man to death with the Aerial's palm, falling out of the cockpit, and walking covered in said man's blood.
  • Suletta obliviously replying to a group of mean girls with an earnest "Of course!" when teased about coming to Asticassia or wearing her headband because her mother told her to comes off less amusing and more horrifying in hindsight with her Blind Obedience getting more of a focus from episode 12 onwards.
  • Cardo Nabo's impassioned speech in the prologue about how humanity needs Gundams like a child needs clothes since they are not physically equipped to handle the harsh environment of space turns a lot darker when it turns out she's right. Ericht, as a small child, really couldn't handle living in space and had to be transferred to the Lfrith just to survive, essentially acting as a full-body GUND-prosthetic just like she argued needed to happen.
  • The entire prologue is not about our hero being a prodigy. Instead, it's the Start of Darkness Villain Origin Story - of two villains!
• He's Just Hiding:
  • Some fans hope that Elan escaped from being incinerated by a laser cannon, despite being in a franchise where Anyone Can Die. However, the series finale shows him being alive as a Permet ghost within the data storm, along with Sophie, Norea and those who have died during the Vanadis Incident.
  • After Episode 20, there are fans who believed that Petra is not dead but critically injured with some theorizing that she will be saved with the use of the GUND legs. Then, Episode 21 reveals she's indeed alive and is in a critical state. The series finale reveals she's crippled but is undergoing rehabilitation where she would be tested with the GUND legs.
  • By the end of Episode 23, Ericht sacrifices herself to stop the Space Assembly League's colony laser from hitting Quiet Zero and everyone in it. Some fans believe that she might still be alive because Aerial remains intact despite the heavy damage it received from the laser. Turns out that she's still inside Aerial despite the blast and makes it out alive in the series finale, integrated inside the key chain of her sister.
  • In the same episode, many fans theorized that Notrette Rembran, Miorine's mother, is absorbed in Quiet Zero as she might be the one who stopped Ericht's Gundnodes from attacking Miorine and the Earth House, much to Ericht's dismay. This also explains why Deiling refused to show Miorine her mother's body as well as providing a concrete explanation for why he would partner up with Prospera for a project involving GUND tech.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Well, more heartwarming anyway. Due to scheduling conflicts, Episode 11 was delayed to Christmas which is viewed in a more romantic light in Japan. In that episode, Miorine and Suletta bridge their communication gap which includes Miorine confessing to Suletta how much she changed her life for the better and asking Suletta to stay by her side forever.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • As mentioned above in the fan-nickname of comparing the premise to an Otome Game. While Miorine is Suletta's foil, she ends up being engaged to her at the end of the first episode while Guel was an obstacle.
  • Prior to the series airing, Miorine was given the nickname "Space Weiss" due to her having many similarities to Weiss Schnee from RWBY. Fast-forward to the English dub where Elizabeth Maxwell (who voices Weiss' older sister Winter and commonly depicted as a Shipper on Deck for Whiterose) voices Elnora Samaya/Prospera Mercury whose plans involve Suletta and Miorine getting married to one another.
  • All the jokes about Suletta being visually compared to a raccoon come full circle in Episode 19, with Chuchu awkwardly catching Suletta foraging for food in the fridge in the dark. May also count as an Ascended Meme.
  • A year after Witch from Mercury ended, Yohei Akazami would participate in another mecha anime which similarly has his character rivaling the pilot of a sentient mecha, with said series itself has an element of same-sex relationship. To add insult to injury, his character offers himself to be piloted by the sentient mecha, who rejects him. And even further insult to injury is that said sentient mecha is voiced by Kenichi Suzumura, voice of Gundam SEED Destiny protagonist Shinn Asuka. Looks like trying to propose to Gundam protaganists isn't Guel's thing. And as if it couldn't get any more comedic, Smith dies and merges with Deathdrive Knuth, travelling back in time as Bravern. In other words, Guel ends up becoming the sentient mecha this time around.
• Ho Yay:
  • The scene in episode 8 of Shaddiq telling Guel to call him, claiming to be "quite fond" of Guel reads rather heavily as flirting.
  • Sophie obsessing over recordings of Suletta's fight, rambling to Norea about how amazing she is, and hoping to meet her one day could come across as a crush.
  • Sabina's fanclub in episode 9 is shown to be almost entirely female. This dovetails rather well with her affectionate treatment of Nika in episode 16. Given that Nika is smaller than Sabina, and, at that moment, was acting quite demure thanks to recent events, they ended up looking like the most classic yuri couple: an older, calmer and more popular student paired with an insecure younger girl.
• I Knew It!:
  • Episode 14 confirms the fan theory that Ericht Samaya is inside Gundam Aerial. The theory came about early in the show but was initially seen as a crackpot guess. It wasn't until Episode 6 that it truly gained momentum.
  • Before episode 17, a lot of fans predicted that Miorine would pull a Break Her Heart to Save Her by making Suletta lose a duel. Interestingly, a lot of these theories posed that Suletta would lose against Felsi, not Guel as was the case in the episode.
  • Episode 18 confirms Suletta is a clone of Eri’s DNA which many suspected following Episode 6 when it was revealed the Vandis incident happened 21 years ago rather than 13. The episode also confirmed the longstanding theory that the Gundam Schwarzette was a Jeturk machine built by Vim in secret.
  • Thanks to the high number of references to The Tempest, most fans predicted that there would be a Gundam named after Caliban, which ended up being true come episode 21. However, an unexpected twist to its name, Calibarn, was not predicted, neither was its reference to King Arthur.
  • Before the final episode, there were theories floating around that Gundam Calibarn would get pieces of Aerial incorporated into it. These turned out to be true come the final episode.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Among more critical fans, a common issue with the show is that the story crams itself to fit into 24 episodes, which some felt led to the ending being inadequate and rushed, unsatisfied with how some story threads were left unresolved (e.g. the ongoing conflict between the Earthians and Spacians and the mystery behind Nortrette Rembran's death). This is also why fans want to explore the Ad Stella universe more and hope for possible side stories and sequels.
• It Was His Sled: Elan Ceres has Body Doubles who would be the pilots for Peil's main mobile suit. The Elan whom Suletta meet in the school grounds is the fourth body double who dies in the sixth episode.
• Jerkass Woobie: Sophie Pulone is a violent Ax-Crazy Blood Knight who is part of a terrorist organization that is willing to kill anyone who dares gets in her way of the things she wants. However the things she wants consist of things a girl her age should normally have (food, shelter, comics, games, and a family) but was denied of due to being an orphan and from Earth's declining state. In the end, she meets her demise at the end of Episode 14 all while reaching out for an image of Ericht Samaya.
• Just Here for Godzilla: As a surprising inversion of the usual norm for most Gundam series (stand-alone or otherwise, at least not counting the Build sub-metaverse) the first episode drew in a large portion of yuri fandom who never had interest in Mecha before, and just wanted to see the relationship between Suletta and Miorine develop.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Once the Otome Game/Harem Route meme took life, Suletta was accepted by the fandom as a Harem Protagonist, which in turn opened the door to the possibility of her harem expanding. Thus, she is shipped not only with the people who actually show some interest (romantic or not) in her, like Miorine, Elan, and Guel, but also with other students she interacts with. The list includes fellow housemates Nika and Chuchu, other major characters like Shaddiq, and sometimes even people she barely knows in the show, like Secelia. And, of course, come episode 12, Sophie Pulone.
  • Nika's constantly shifting and uncertain allegiance has caused her to be paired with a lot of characters. Initially, people liked her with Chuchu, her best friend, but when her status as a reluctant mole became apparent, artwork of Shaddiq manipulating her romantically started cropping up. Her interactions with Suletta and Miorine have also fueled such fanworks, due to her being a reliable confidant to both girls. This is then followed by Norea's outburst at her spawning even crueler art, which was followed yet again by Sabina's genuinely kind treatment of her spawning far more wholesome art. In general, being connected to Earth House, Grassley, and Dawn of Fold means that about half the show's minor cast can be somewhat feasibly paired with her.
  • Secelia Dote is an Ensemble Dark Horse Ms. Fanservice with no clear romantic interest. If you look hard enough, you can find her paired with just about anyone—the most popular pick likely being her couch.
• LGBT Fanbase: The show has immediately attracted a following amongst queer women thanks to the relationship and engagement between Miorine and Suletta. It also helps that it is quickly established that gay marriage is normal and acceptable and nobody considers two girls being an item to be unusual (other than Suletta herself, who is criticized in-universe as being "conservative" for pointing it out).
• Love to Hate:
  • Prospera Mercury is seen by many fans as one of the most chilling Char Clones in the franchise, being calculating, emotionally manipulative, and a long-term planner who rarely gets a scene where she doesn't look like she is in control of everything and everyone around her. For many, she is both a hateable villain and one of the best things in the show.
  • Elan #5 is introduced as a scumbag out to manipulate Suletta by playing with her feelings. Yet, he chooses to do so by acting like the most cliched casanova ever, and when he is talking with people who know how he truly is like, he gets more cheerful and friendly, as if trying to say he is happy he can be open about how much of a bastard he is. Because of those traits, he obtained a reputation of being one of the most punchable characters in the series, and many fans who adore him for that.
• Magnificent Bastard: Prospera Mercury is Sulleta’s manipulative mother and the series’s Char Clone. Originally Elnora Samaya, test pilot for Gundam mobile suits for the Vanadis Institute, she and her daughter Ericht were forced to go on the run after Delling Rembran ordered the massacre of all people involved in the development of the Gund format. After Ericht’s consciousness was uploaded into Gundam Lfrith following the death of her body, Elnora swore revenge on the people who destroyed her life and decided to create a world where her daughter can be free. Taking the identity of Prospera, she teams up with Delling on for his Quiet Zero project to use it in her plan. She creates Sulleta from Ericht’s DNA and raises her to pilot the Gundam created from Lfrith, Aerial, in order to reach the Permet score necessary for her plan. Prospera sends Sulleta to Asticassia School, where she plans for her to become the Holder and fiancée to Delling’s daughter Miorine to further manipulate them both. When Delling is put in a coma, Prospera manipulates Miorine into running for president of the Benerit Group, even convincing her to go along with a plan that would result in Sulleta reaching Permat score 8. Using Miorine’s peace mission to Earth to destroy the Gundam used by the violent Dawn of Fold, Prospera takes control of Quiet Zero and plans to engulf Earth into a giant data storm for Ericht to live in. After her defeat, Prospera has a conversation with the ghosts of her dead loved ones, who convince her to let go of her revenge and embrace her new family.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Chuchu. This is in part due to the Catharsis Factor of her well-deserved punches to a pair of bullies (one of which was knocked out after a single punch), and in part due to her Memetic Hair, but either way, she has ascended to the hall of Gundam characters so badass, they don't need a giant robot to kick your ass. Bolstered by her firing the winning shot to snipe Shaddiq's mech in episode 9. Further enhanced on the Key Visual for the second cour, where unlike everyone else who is reaching out towards Suletta and Miorene, she has two fists out in front of her in a Superman flight pose.
  • After she saves Guel and chews out the Jeturk brothers for being stupid in episode 23, Felsi Rollo skyrocketed in popularity. Fans started making meme depicting her solving every possible conflict in Gundam with little difficulty, describing her as holding the only braincell in Jeturk house, and being much more deserving of the Schwarzette than its actual pilot. The sales of her mobile suit also skyrocketed.
• Memetic Hair:
  • Miorine's hair has such a large ahoge that fans have made multiple jokes about it, from calling her a cockatiel to describing her hair as having a Commander-Type Antenna.
  • Chuchu's gigantic hair puffs are the source of many jokes in the fandom, especially wondering how she can fit them into a skintight cap.^note Turns out such compressing hoodies really exist. A lot of fanart depicts her hair puffs as removable accessories that can be used as things like boxing gloves, pom-poms, or — since this is a Gundam series after all — Attack Drones. Also it reminds people of Iono for some reason.
• Memetic Loser:
  • After proposing to Suletta out of nowhere, being instantly rejected, and acting like a Tsundere when attempting to take back what he said, Guel ended up becoming the Butt-Monkey of the fandom. There are plenty of fan-works that portray him as a Hopeless Suitor who has the least amount of chance out of the entire cast of ending up with Suletta, and whose attempts to court Suletta all fail because he is so awkward with romantic matters. And that's when they are not portraying him as the bride to Suletta's groom. It also does not help that despite being introduced as the best pilot of the school, he's lost all of his on-screen mobile suit duels against major characters so far, giving him a reputation of a Jobber. And the first time he does win in a fight, he accidentally ends up killing his own father spiraling him towards a massive Freak Out. Continuing into season 2, Guel starts to fare better when piloting on paper, but other factors still make it a harrowing experience for him such that even when he delivers a very cathartic comeback victory against Shaddiq in episode 20, it's accompanied by his brother learning the truth of what happened to their father, potentially causing irreparable damage to the relationship between Guel and Lauda. Even in the epilogue he can't seem to catch a break, as he's last seen being forced into a business deal with the real Elan Ceres and Secelia.
    • As far as Mobile Suits go in this series, there is also Guel's Dilanza. Not only is it utterly decimated by Aerial in Episode 1, but compared to the Aerial whose Gunpla model kits are selling so well that stores can't keep them on shelves; kits for Guel's Dilanza have a hard time being emptied from shelves. There is also the tendency of those who did buy Guel's Dilanza kits but choose not to fully build it in order to replicate its destruction in the first episode.
    • Besides Guel, the entire Jeturk family line is seen as this. Despite being one of the big three companies of the Beneritt Group; their members/the company itself frequently suffers humiliating defeats and/or gets screwed over in some shape or form, to the point fans claim getting Ls must be hereditary for the Jeturk family, or wondering how did Jeturk Industries's stock did not crash from all the sheer misfortune that happened ever since Suletta set foot in school. It all culminates at the end of the first season where they end up getting betrayed by House Grassley, and Vim is ironically killed by his own son.
  • Shaddiq has picked up a bit of this reputation as the show's gone on. In addition to suffering an embarrassing defeat in the dueling ring (his tunnel vision leads to him getting sniped by a heavily damaged obsolete mobile suit that his shiny Ace Custom should've been able to eat for breakfast) his motivations for interfering with Miorine's company and enmity with Suletta have led to him being mocked for being an Entitled to Have You "nice guy", especially with Suletta's dancing and reciting the GUND-ARM Inc. jingle at the end of the duel being interpreted as unintentional teabagging at his expense to rub salt to his wound. More than a few fan works portray Miorine going out of her way to rub her engagement with Suletta in his face and him subsequently calling a hit on her father and shrugging her off as potential collateral damage is sometimes viewed as him lashing out. To add insult to injury, said Ace Custom, as well as Shaddiq-related merchandise has had terrible sales in real life. And this is taking into account that G-Witch has had absolutely absurd overall sales, the most for Gundam ever. It reaches its peak when he ends up being the only opponent for Guel, the other Memetic Loser, to straight-up defeat with no strings attached.
• Memetic Molester:
  • Before episode 9, Shaddiq, through his underhanded dealings with Nika and suspicious approach to Miorine and Suletta, ended up getting the meme 'SHADDICKED' dropped on him for his tendency to act creepy around the girls, with speculation that he has taken advantage of Nika being a big part of the accusations. The fact that he also had the Grassley House ladies on his squad as an almost-harem did not help his reputation one bit. On the other hand, this gets inverted totally after episode 9, where he is instead portrayed as being unsuccessful at getting the one girl he desires, and is not satisfied with the harem he somehow managed to gather up.
  • Thanks to Miorine calling her sex-crazed, many took Suletta as some kind of sex obsessed partner who is constantly out to bed her, with some pulling a Yandere spin on her thanks to episode 12. Of course, just as many portray it as Miorine simply projecting and that she is the one who is sex-crazed, even going so far as to try and take advantage of Suletta's Blind Obedience for some easy sex.
• Memetic Mutation: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Memetic Psychopath:
  • Nika in canon is a gentle and kind-hearted girl who refuses to engage in any sort of conflict, even when being discriminated upon. Doesn't stop fanartists from portraying her as Cute and Psycho with a hidden streak for bloodlust against Spacians. Her status as a spy for an Earthian Terrorist group just adds fuel to the fire.
  • Thanks to being an Empathic Weapon, Aerial is often depicted as being a Knight Templar Big Sister, despite being an eighteen-meter-tall Mobile Suit. If you make Suletta cry, expect to see Aerial's giant head with glowing red eyes outside your window soon after. She also doesn't take kindly to being stolen.
  • Some fans have made memes of Chuchu looking like Bask Om, given their shared tendency towards violent behavior and prejudice towards Spacenoids/Spacians.
  • Episode 12 has sent Suletta flying straight into this because of the ending with her gruesomely killing a terrorist who was threatening Miorine and her father in the most insanely brutal way available and then seeming to be completely unfazed by what she did.
• Memetic Troll:
  • Secelia thanks to her constant smug attitude and expressiveness makes her often one imagined by the fans as getting in under everyone's skins. This got further elevated after episode 18 where she caught Martin in his confession.
  • Prospera's cheerfully-manipulative interactions with Suletta and Miorine are exaggerated by parodies into trolling them for its own sake, enjoying herself like a schoolyard bully. The fact that most of Prospera's interactions with Miorine mainly consists of her getting under the latter's skin akin to that of an obnoxious parent-in-law terrorizing their child's spouse just adds to this.
  • Ericht gained this reputation by the end of the series, with fanworks portraying her as a mischievous and obnoxious sister-in-law to Miorine despite or even because she's now communicating through Suletta's Mr. Hot keychain.
• Moe: Both Suletta and Eri are/were absolute cutiepies, something the fandom saw right away when their character designs were revealed.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Peil Technologies also jumps the horizon. In addition to human experimentation, creating Enhanced Humans to pilot Gundams, when Elan Ceres fails to live up to their expectations, they execute him via complete and utter incineration with a laser cannon. Keep in mind he's a Body Double teenager. In episode 23 they, together with the League, attempt to do the same to Quiet Zero and everyone in Lagrange point 4 with a much bigger laser.
  • Though Prospera spends a lot of the series doing things that are at the very least morally ambiguous, most of them can be explained as a mix of Necessarily Evil, Pay Evil unto Evil, or things we simply don't know enough about to definitively judge her on. Her showing in episode 19, on the other hand, has her use Aerial's tech control to escalate a tense standoff into an out-and-out battle in a populated city, killing what must be dozens or hundreds of innocent people at minimum, simply to strengthen Miorine's position and gain cover for destroying an Ochs Earth hideout. At that point, it becomes clear that nothing is off-limits for her in the name of pursuing her vengeance.
  • Shaddiq already had plenty of blood on his hands, however unleashing an enraged Norea and her Gundvolves on the school in Episode 20 for the sole purpose of distracting the Cathedra forces was his worst action so far. He wanted nothing more from Norea than for her to destroy as much of the school and kill as many students as possible as he and his team escape (not that he cared if (and when) he doesn't).
• Most Wonderful Sound: The distincive, resonant "CHUNG" of Aerial's GUND-BITS deflecting incoming fire is an exquisite bit of sound design.
• More Popular Replacement: While Enhanced Person #4 was liked well enough, the fans and staff vastly perferred Enhanced Person #5 as the "main" Elan Ceres. Aside from more screentime to flesh him out, his more energetic and self-serving attitude, actions in the second half of the series, and especially his short development with Norea gave him the viewers' vote.
• Narm: Yes, Suletta crushing the terrorist flat with Aerial's palm resulting an explosion of blood is horrific. But at the same time with how over the top it ends up being compared to the gore shown previously, one can't help but find it ridiculous. The amount of dark jokes the fandom has made about it does not help.
• Older Than They Think:
  • There are some misunderstandings about what the "achievements" of the show are, likely resulting from people trying to shorten their sentences without realizing those sentences can turn into lies without precise wording:
    • From the moment the show was announced, people started spreading it was the first Gundam title to have a female protagonist. It's the first Gundam TV series to have a female protagonist, but the franchise already had titles who did the same before, like the Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel manga. Even counting only animated products, the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED CE.73: Stargazer ONA series had a female protagonist more than a decade before Witch From Mercury was even announced.
    • It's also not the first Gundam anime to have LGBT+ characters, only the first to have those as main characters. The title actually belongs to ∀ Gundam, which revealed in its last episode that Guin was in love with Loran all along.
  • Many fans were dismayed that the show only has 2 cours with 24 episodes considering that the previous Gundam TV shows are around 4 cours with more than 30 to 50 episodes in total. However, Gundam: Reconguista in G (which is directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino himself) has 2 cours as well with 26 episodes and like Witch from Mercury, it also has problems with its short length.
• Play-Along Meme: Much like Quattro Bajeena, Alex Dino and Montag before him, fans pretend they can't work out that "Bob" is in fact Guel. Some even go as far as treating them as two separate characters, with people praising "Bob" as more likeable and sympathetic compared to Guel. Even his official dub voice actor got in on the joke.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • "SuleMio" for Suletta/Miorine with "Mioletta" as a lesser-used name.
  • Chulsi or Felchu for Felsi/Chuchu, which gained popularity in the second cour.
• Preemptive Shipping: Yuri Fans were quick to pair Suletta Mercury with her classmate Miorine Rembran once the characters were announced. This was only exacerbated after a rather heart-pounding key visual◊ was unveiled. They felt quite vindicated when the first episode ended with Suletta becoming Miorine's fiancé. They end up getting married by the end of the series.
• Questionable Casting: Jill Harris as Suletta initially got flak for how Harris herself was a straight white actor while the character wasn’t. While she did stay in the role, many demanded that the role went to someone who was queer and a MENA actor.^note Suletta is not actually MENA as she was born on Mercury, but some people felt she was of MENA descent given that Ericht's father, Nadim Samaya, has an Arabic name.
• Self-Fanservice: Suletta is the more well-endowed one between her and Miorine, but not by much. However, fanworks love to exaggerate the size of Suletta's breasts, making her a Hidden Buxom, and turning her and Miorine into a Bust-Contrast Duo. It's also popular to slap the head of Suletta's Figure-rise Standard model kit onto the bustier 30 Minutes Sisters Type SO3 body for the same reason. Some fans also like to buff Suletta up due to her background of working in a planet like Mercury, making her have a more toned build sometimes to Amazonian Beauty levels. The fact that she is able to lift broken pieces of concrete with relative ease in Episode 20 has intensified that belief.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • A combination of Suletta being a Launcher of a Thousand Ships and Secelia being an Ensemble Dark Horse and Ms. Fanservice has made possible to find fanwork featuring Suletta/Secelia. In the actual show, they are rarely in the same room and the only time they interact directly with each other through the entire first cour is when Suletta stops Secelia from mocking Guel. After that, they aren't seen interacting until Episode 21.
  • Sabina/Nika has a small but dedicated following despite the two only having one scene together, where Sabina tends to Nika's wounds, offers her a position in Grassley House, and admits she's been watching her.
• Signature Scene:
  • Miorine declaring Suletta her new fiancee at the end of Episode 1 is by far the most discussed scene, responsible for launching thousands of fanarts and garnering the interest of people outside the Gundam fanbase. Even Japanese Twitter was flooded with Revolutionary Girl Utena references and yuri anime hashtags shortly after the episode aired.
  • Suletta crushing a terrorist into Ludicrous Gibs with Aerial's hand at the end of Episode 12 is another one, due to the stark Mood Whiplash the rest of the series was prior to that scene.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The show is a very slow burn at the start with the plot being mostly limited to various science fiction high school hijinks and it takes until the halfway point for the story to truly begin to pick up. While this helps characterize the cast, it can be tiresome for people who were waiting for more content like the prologue. Interestingly, the second half of the show run into the opposite problem, moving at a breakneck pace and leading to things not being fleshed out enough.
• Surprisingly Good Foreign Language: As of episode 4, the in-universe news broadcasts all appear to use perfectly appropriate English headlines, and the English on the protestors' signs is of similar quality. This is quite remarkable considering the franchise's history with Gratuitous English.
• Superlative Dubbing: The show’s English dub has earned a lot of praise, particularly for the casting of Jill Harris and Natalie Van Sistine as Suletta and Miorine respectively and the chemistry between the two leads, with Harris perfectly portraying Suletta’s kind and earnest nature and Van Sistine capturing both the abrasive and gentler sides of Miorine’s personality.
• Sweetness Aversion: Many viewers, especially those who were fans of older Gundam entries that had bittersweet or outright downer endings, criticized the show's finale as wrapping up a little too perfectly. Outside a few skirmishes, there was no climactic battle between the opposing parties involved, no named characters die, Prospera is convinced to give up her revenge plot with seemingly little effort, and all of the major conflicts of the show are either handwaved away or completely forgotten about. This is all in direct contrast to the Season 1 finale, which appeared to be setting up some form of tragedy between Suletta and Miorine, and Episode 20 where Asticassia is attacked resulting in the death of many students, which all came off as genuinely Shocking Moments.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The original Elan. You'd think that with the way he remained as a background character all throughout the whole show, he was being built up to be a major villain down the line that Suletta and company would have to fight against. However, it ended up never reaching a point for him to step into the limelight and takeover. Only in the last minute does the original Elan actually end up doing anything, and it's just to team up with Guel from a business standpoint.
  • The Dawn of Fold, particularly its leaders Naji and Olcott, who are played off as Well Intentioned Extremists who are fighting for Earthian rights, basically disappear from the plot after their Day in the Limelight in episode 15. They never again come into direct conflict with the protagonists, and we never get to find out their greater motivations for leading Dawn of Fold, or their exact relationships with Sophie and Norea..
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The breakneck pacing of the show from the second season onward has resulted in a lot of this:
  • Some fans were left disappointed in that the show didn't really follow through on its transhumanist themes and leanings that where established and hinted at in the prologue. The closest the show got to this was with Ericht and even then it is not really a focus.
  • Much drama is made over the Elan Ceres or at least Enhanced 4 being killed by the Peil executives for his failure and being replaced by Enhanced Person 5, who attempts to deceive Suletta by masquerading as him. However, Suletta finding out the truth of what happened to 4 is resolved almost completely offscreen, with only a few token sentences from Suletta and Enhanced Person 5 onscreen to acknowledge that it even happened.
  • Relatedly, after the first season depicts Elan more specifically, Elan 5 as a creepy Abhorrent Admirer who attempted to take advantage of Suletta, and the first half of the second season continues with that characterization, it's only after meeting Norea that Elan starts to change for the better. However, this is presented as a result of him glancing at her sketchbook, which all happens too fast to be a believable catalyst by itself, and likewise although he does sincerely apologize to Suletta for his behavior, it and the above are brushed over quickly, causing viewers to see it as extremely rushed.
  • The Reveal that the Space Assembly League secretly revived Ochs Earth and was covertly mass producing Gundams is never brought up again after the episode the reveal occurred in. Considering how big a taboo it is to dabble with Gundam technology, you would think that the main governing body for the Earth Sphere engaging in such research would have much greater ramifications.
  • Likewise, the reveal that the Space Assembly League has their own version of a Colony Laser disguised as a laser energy transfer facility, which they use to fire at the Benerit Group headquarters in an attempt to destroy it, is never brought up again.
• Tough Act to Follow: An in series example. Some viewers who liked the prologue and disliked the rest of the show felt like the series had such a strong start with the prologue that to them, the rest of the series just couldn't measure up to the precedent it set.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: There is a not insignificant portion of the fandom that reads Suletta as a trans woman, which is not too surprising considering how large of an LGBT Fanbase the show has. Fans with this interpretation often points to Suletta being significantly larger built than Miorine (best seen in episode 22, where she is nearly twice as broad and has much larger hands), and the fact that she apparently changed her name from the distinctly more masculine sounding Ericht in the past years. The latter point turning out to not be the case as Suletta is actually a clone of Ericht did little to disuade the reading.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Elan Ceres was thought by many a fan to be female. His surname being named after a Roman goddess didn't help matters. This confusion was quelled, when it was announced that his seiyuu would be Natsuki Hanae.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The animation, backgrounds, and general aesthetic are absolutely stellar and a treat to look at, with Suletta's first duel with Guel being very well-done.
• Woolseyism:
  • An accidental one by Crunchyroll. They mistakenly substituted the title for Episode 9 with "More Than a Childhood Friend, But Less Than Lovers", which was actually the title for that day's episode of More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers, before noticing and fixing it. The title still perfectly fits the episode, to the point some viewers didn't even realize it was a mistake.
  • In episode 10, Suletta responds to being asked about whether she got a good spot for Earth House to film another PR video with the punny "Suletta wasureta" (Suletta forgot):
    • Official English translations go with "Suletta forgetta" to maintain the pun.
    • In the Latin American Spanish subs, the same phrase was translated as "Suletta, olvidadiza neta" (Translated, roughly, as "Suletta, a complete klutz")
  • In episode 16 Miorine angrily confronts Prospera over her treatment of her daughter and swears that she won't let her control her any more, only for the other woman to suggest that Miorine will be the one controlling Suletta next in that case. The English subtitles have both use the phrase "have your way with her" which, while an accurate translation, carries a Double Entendre not present in the Japanese script that is nonetheless a nasty jab that is perfectly in character for Prospera to make at Miorine's expense.

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