GundamReviews

Gundam Ep. 16: Sayla’s Agony

0
Summary

The White Base travels across the Asian desert to rendezvous with a messenger from Gen. Revil. Chef Tamura brings Bright a hamburger and tells him that the ship is running low on salt. A jeep is detected on approach to the ship, and the White Base deploys its weapons and lands. Bright, Ryu and Kai go outside and find a wounded soldier in the jeep. Bright gives a pass phrase, and the soldier gives the correct answer. He’s taken to the infirmary and tells Bright about Odessa Day, which is the EFF’s operation to take back the mines held by Kycilia’s officer M’Quve. The soldier says that capturing the Odessa mines could change the course of the war, so the White Base is to participate in the battle. Bright tries to ask the soldier for more information, but the soldier dies. As Amuro repairs the Gundam, Fraw brings him food and tells him they are out of salt. A salt lake is located nearby, and Bright decides to take a brief detour to it to get salt for Tamura. Elsewhere, Ramba and Hamon travel in a Gallop across the desert, and he tries to contact M’Quve. A lackey named Uragan says M’Quve is unavailable, but he will provide Ramba with whatever info he needs. M’Quve isn’t happy about Ramba being in the area because he doesn’t want Dozle to find out about what he’s doing. He’s informed that the White Base is in the area, and he tells Ramba about it so that they will attack. Ramba decides to set up an ambush with the Gallop, his Gouf and two Zakus. The White Base arrives at the lake and finds it dried out. It turns out the lake moves, so they begin a search for it. The Gallop approaches, and Bright wonders what it is. Amuro says he’ll go out with the Gundam, despite not knowing what the enemy is. As he suits up for combat, Sayla suddenly launches in the Gundam. He asks Job what happened, and Job answers that Sayla told him she had special orders.

The G-forces of the Gundam prove too much for Sayla, and she vomits inside the cockpit. She needs to contact the Zeon, but she’s attacked by Ramba. He attacks with his Gouf, and Sayla is no match for him. Amuro launches in the Guncannon to help Sayla. He wants to switch to the Gundam, but he can’t contact her. Ramba disappears, and Sayla walks right into a trap Ramba has set up. He uses the heat rod to cut the Gundam’s right foot in half. Amuro prevents him from getting near the Gundam, and Ramba begins attacking Amuro relentlessly with his heat rod. He wants to force Amuro into hand-to-hand combat, but he has to divert his attention when the Guntank attacks him. As the Gallop opens fire, a soldier asks Hamon why they can’t use the Zanzibar to attack, so she explains it’s an experimental ship. Amuro is attacked by Acous, and he destroys the Zaku when it runs out of ammo. Cozun grabs the Gundam and tries to destroy the main camera so he can capture it. Ramba’s shield is damaged by the Guntank, and he orders Cozun to fall back. Cozun tries to escape, but Amuro blocks his path and knocks him out. The Gallop retreats, and Amuro drags the Zaku back to the White Base while the Guntank tows the Gundam back. Bright asks Sayla what she was doing, and she says she wanted to prove women could fight as well as men. Bright says he’s very disappointed in her and thought she was smart. For her actions, Bright and Mirai decide to put her in the brig for three days. Ryu takes her down to the brig, and she sees Fraw delivering food to Cozun. She takes the food and asks about Char. He tells her Char lost his position for failing to protect Garma. The White Base finds another lake with salt water.

Commentary

This episode was in the second movie for the most part. The parts involving the quest for salt were cut. I’m personally glad for that, because I think Tamura was making too big a deal out of the need for salt. Sayla wanted to find out about Char, but she chose a really stupid way to do it. Ramba is an ace, and she could have been killed. Amuro handles himself well enough with just the Guncannon, but I don’t think it’s a match for the Gouf. We hear first mention of Operation Odessa, which the White Base was a part of in the series, but not in the movies. We’re also introduced to the corpse-like M’Quve, a dandy looking man who also has a greater role in the series than he did in the movie. I don’t know what he’s doing with those mines, but it’s something he doesn’t want any of Dozle’s men to find out about.

Overall Rating
3.5/5
Mobile Suit Gundam Info


Director(s):

Yoshiyuki Tomino
Ryoji Fujiwara (movie 1)

Writer(s):
Yoshiyuki Tomino
Masaru Yamamoto
Kenichi Matsuzaki
Yoshihisa Araki
Hiroyuki Hoshiyama

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Yoshiyuki Tomino

Character Designer:
Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

Musical Composer(s):
Yuji Matsuyama
Takeo Watanabe

Format:
43 episodes; 3 compilation movies

Airdates:
Japan 04.07.1979 – 01.26.1980
U.S. 07.23.2001 – 09.12.2001

Theatrical Release:
Japan 03.14.1981 – 03.13.1982

Comments

Comments are closed.