GundamReviews

Gundam Ep. 9: Fly, Gundam!

0
Summary

Fraw goes door-to-door to tell people to eat. She goes to Amuro’s quarters and finds him laying on the bed. She tries to examine him, but he wants her to leave her alone. He says he hasn’t been able to get any sleep since they left Side 7 because all he can see is his battles. He then goes on to say that the White Base is being used by the EFF as a mere decoy to distract the Zeon. Later, Fraw finds Kai arguing with the ship’s cook Tamura about his rations. Kai wants to get more food like Amuro and Ryu since he’s a pilot too. Amuro sees an old man steal a kid’s food and gives the kid his own. Later, Kikka, Katz and Letz steal tomatoes and give one to Amuro. Bright receives orders from headquarters that they are to head for the open sea. Since they are so low on ammo, Reed suggests abandoning the ship. Bright wonders what the point of that would be when they’ve fought so hard to defend the ship. He orders Amuro to go on patrol, but Amuro refuses. Ryu thinks that Amuro must be exhausted, so he and Kai go out on patrol in Core Fighters. Soon after leaving they spot a Gaw carrier and turn around. Garma wants to launch in a Dopp and attack, but Char convinces him they should follow the Core Fighters back to White Base. The Core Fighters return and are converted to Guntank and Guncannon. Amuro refuses to launch, and Fraw tries to convince him to fight. Bright comes down and yells at Amuro. Amuro wants to know why they fight, and Bright counters that it isn’t the time to be philosophical. Amuro says he shouldn’t have to do things just because he can, and he tells Bright to pilot the Gundam. Bright answers that he would if he could and punches Amuro. He says he’s sick of Amuro’s childish tantrums and that he won’t take any more of it.

Kai, Hayato and Ryu find it difficult to fight off all the Dopps. Garma launches in a custom colored Dopp and quickly realizes that the enemy is fighting without the Gundam. Bright slaps Amuro several times, and Amuro says that because of that he’ll never get in the Gundam again. Bright says he’s disappointed and thought Amuro could surpass Char’s skills. He says he doesn’t want to see Amuro’s face and returns to the bridge. Fraw declares that she’ll pilot the Gundam, and Amuro tells her that would be impossible. On the Gaw, Char sabotages a communications circuit and decides to only watch the battle instead of participating in it. Amuro launches with the plan of jumping in the air to get the Dopps. In this manner, he’s able to easily destroy seven Dopps with support from the Guncannon and Guntank. He spots Garma’s Dopp and slices off one of the wings. Garma decides to lead him right into the path of the Gaw’s beam cannon. Garma tries to contact the Gaw, but he gets no response. Amuro chases Garma, and he nearly runs into an EFF Medea supply plane that warns him about the Gaw. Garma sees the disconnected circuit and asks Char what’s going on, so Char explains he was following Garma’s orders not to interfere. He also says he had no doubt about Garma’s piloting skills, and he didn’t fire earlier because Garma was in front of the Medea. Matilda Ajan, the captain of the Medea, delivers supplies to the White Base. She is acting under orders of General Revil to take Reed, his crew and the injured civilians off the ship. Bright asks if they will get more supplies, and Matilda says that’ll probably happen once they break out of Zeon airspace. Matilda thanks Amuro for saving her Medea from the Gaw and says he might be a psychic. Amuro blushes and says he isn’t a psychic.

Commentary

Here’s an episode that somewhat appeared in the movie. There’s quite a few developments here, such as the conflict between Amuro and Bright reaching a boiling point. Bright explodes and gives Amuro a good beating, but it’s his personal disgust that helps Amuro get off his ass and fight. Char is quite devious in this episode with his sabotage of the Gaw’s communication circuit. It looks like he wanted Garma to be killed in an unfortunate “accident.” Compared to the movie, this shows Char trying to take advantage of an earlier situation to try to kill Garma. Those who have seen the movie know something big is coming up. In this episode we’re also introduced to the lovely Matilda, who becomes the poster girl for every teenaged guy on the White Base. They are still kids, so what do you expect?

Overall Rating
4/5
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.