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Gundam Ep. 28: Across the Atlantic Ocean

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Summary

As the White Base heads for Jaburo, Amuro and Sayla practice docking the Gundam with the G-Fighter and manage to reduce their record time to 15 seconds. Elsewhere, Char’s Mad Angler sinks several EFF battleships. He wonders how Boone will get information from his spy. Miharu sneaks into Bright’s quarters to look for information, and Kai walks in and finds her. She says she ran away to be with him, but he doesn’t believe that. He takes her to his room, although Amuro sees them in a corridor together. He asks Amuro not to say anything about her until they reach South America, and Amuro agrees. Kai says he wants Miharu to stay in his room, and that the ship had better not be attacked before it reaches South America. He says that’s the only information he’ll give her before leaving. A Green Island Fishing Corporation plane piloted by Boone sends out a distress call and lands in the White Base. Boone uses the bathroom and calls Miharu, and she tells him the ship is heading for South America. Kai sees Miharu talking into her watch, and he realizes the “civilians” are spies. As the plane takes off he tells Bright that they’re Zeon, but Bright doesn’t believe him since he has no proof. Boone returns to the Mad Angler and reports to Char that the White Base is heading for South America, not the African front as expected. Char is fine with that because he has to spend some time watching the African front. Boone asks if he can use the mobile armor Grublo to get revenge for all his men that have been killed fighting the Gundam. Char agrees, and the Grublo launches with two Z’Goks in tow. As they approach, the White Base fires missiles at them. Miharu sees the kids and is shocked that they are on the ship. Amuro and Sayla agree to take off in the G-Armor and then separate. Boone fires missiles at the White Base and prepares to fight the Gundam.

Kai gets ready for battle and Miharu asks if she can help, but he says that she’s not even trained. She says that everyone else is fighting, and she doesn’t want to stand around. After Amuro and Sayla take off, Hayato launches in the Core Fighter just as the deck explodes. He fires his missiles at one of the Z’Goks, but he misses. Amuro and Sayla separate the G-Armor, and Amuro goes into the water with the Gundam to fight Grublo. He fires his beam rifle and discovers it only has half of its power underwater. Sayla fires at one of the Z’Goks and destroys it, but Boone fires missiles at her and damages the G-Fighter. The deck is damaged, so Bright orders Kai to use the Gunperry to destroy the other Z’Gok. When an explosion injures the kids, Miharu tells Kai she can’t stand there while those kids are in danger and her brother and sister are safe. He reluctantly agrees to let her go with him as a bombardier since Job is manning one of the cannons. Amuro manages to destroy one of the Grublo’s pincer arms, but it grabs his leg with the other. Miharu fires two missiles at the Z’Gok and misses, and the Z’Gok returns fire and damages the Gunperry. The damage doesn’t allow auto firing of the missiles, so Miharu goes down to the deck to fire them manually. The force of the missile taking off is so strong that it blows her out of the Gunperry, sending her falling to her death. The missile hits the Z’Gok and destroys it. The Grublo breaks the Gundam’s right leg in half, and Amuro rams his beam saber through the cockpit. After the battle, Kai cries over Miharu’s death, but no one has any clue who she was. Amuro tells Bright that she was a stowaway and that he he didn’t say anything because they were attacked right after he saw her. Alone in his room, Kai cries out and asks why Miharu had to die.

Commentary

Well, here is Kai’s big episode. His relationship with Miharu ends with her sudden sacrifice to destroy the Z’Gok. Now you really feel sorry for those poor little kids because they’re all alone. As this series has proven before, that’s just another example of the horrors of war. But this causes a change in Kai, because from this point on he’s no longer a smart ass coward. War has changed him, as it has Amuro and everyone else on the ship. That sort of realistic development is one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about the series since I saw the movies years ago. There’s still a long way left before the war ends, and plenty of more changes in store for the crew.

Overall Rating
4.5/5
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

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