The Gundam: Witch From Mercury - Review That No One Asked For (Season 1)

Whelp bois. It's finally here. The Gundam anime that doesn't in fact require One Piece levels of commitment in order to enjoy. You can finally watch big Pacific Rim baddies duke it out without any previous context - and frankly, that’s a big win. If you’re a fan of Trash Taste, you may have already heard Garnt advocate for how underappreciated this anime is. In terms of its season, it received very little hype compared to some of the other heavy hitters. Well, I’m here to give you the spoiler-free, and then spoiler-filled, review as to why I gave this anime the rating that I did.

Spoiler-Free Section

In my experience, I’ve found that many Westerners are kind of intimidated by mech animes, or simply don’t like their concept. Many people I know who are heavy anime fans have strayed away from shows like Eva, Code Geass, 86, Darlinn and the Franxx, or of course, Gundam. It’s kind of difficult for me to understand why this may be the case, although I imagine that Gundam’s extensive history, dominance, and establishment of the genre may have something to do with it. For me, as someone who watched Gundam as a child and bought figurines from Japan (but never got invested in the series), I was excited to have a low-commitment version of the series.

Okay - now that we’ve got all that bullshit out of the way, who would I recommend this anime to? In terms of vibe (I’m so sorry), I think Mercury matches Licorice Recoil fairly well. There’s *cough cough* gay girls in both as well as similar anime tropes in each (think unnecessary emotional breakdowns, similar comedic timing, etc.). Frankly, the two primary characters in each respective show are essentially the same. There’s the typical cool and cold character, and sweet and wholesome hero. I will say, however, that Chisato is much more based than Suletta (more on that in the spoiler section). I also imagine that those who enjoyed 86 may also enjoy this show, although to a lesser extent.

Is it worth the watch?

Uuuuuhhhhh. Yes and no. The pacing is fine. There aren’t many boring episodes and there are plenty of Gundam fights for those who are into action. With that said, I kind of wish some of the duels lasted longer than they do. There are many “big” fights that last only half an episode, which is quite short for anime standards. One thing that I definitely will give credit to is the amount of production quality. The animation looks pretty great, the sound design is well-engineered, and the music is aight (the intro bops tho). It’s clear that a good amount of time and money was put into the production and it’s come out looking pretty squeaky clean. Unfortunately, the story hardly keeps up with these other positive aspects (much like Demon Slayer lol). This anime suffers from “trying to do too much syndrome.” It’s a romance, a comedy, an action, a mecha, a dystopian (kinda) fiction, a political drama, a war show, etc. etc. In doing this, especially within the short time span of 12 episodes, we get to dive very little into each character (all of which are basically flat characters other than Mirorine, whose development is both predictable and frankly, boring). The relationships between the characters do change, but sometimes suddenly and rather inexplicably (also in spoilers). I’ll also say that there are themes of racism and discrimination in this show and they are Extremely half-assed. The consequences of racism results in so little that they may as well not have even put it in the show.

One trope that we’ve seen all too often come back in a show about corporate warfare is uh, well you guessed it, High School! Wooohooo! Yes, am I fucking hyped to watch 16-year-old girls change the course of the geomechapolitical climate. Yes, there is a reason that it takes place in a school. It’s not completely irrelevant; however, for it is so unnecessary and would make a billion times more sense for it to take place in a college (though school just doesn’t make that much sense in the corporate world anyway). Also, while I’m happy for Japan’s sake that there is more LGBTQ+ representation in anime these days (They are currently trying to legalize gay marriage), it feels shoehorned in here in places where it shows up. In this way, it mimics the racism also included in the show. Ultimately, I think normie anime watchers may enjoy this one, but if you have a watch list, I wouldn’t put this near the top. If you’re looking for things to watch then, well… it’s okay. Come in with low expectations and you may actually like it a lot. Do that, form your opinions, and come back for the spoiler section. Feel free to argue with me down below. I’ll appreciate that.

Review: Spoiler Section

Characters: Let me be super frank. Many characters in this show are horrendous. They are forgettable, flat characters who randomly have cheesy moments to try and inject emotion into the story. Suletta is an annoying protagonist who seems to suffer from a large amount of anxiety (kind of similar to Bocchi). That said, her characteristics don’t serve the plot like Bocchi does. She’s just kind of overly anxious for no reason. Mirorine’s father, who sacrifices himself at the end of the show to save her, is hardly an emotional moment. He’s depicted as a SHINJI BAD LEVEL DAD and by the last episode we are expected to suddenly believe he cared for his daughter the entire time and was trying to blah blah blah. Yes, I’m sure people can argue that he helped fund her start-up, but he’s so oppressive that it doesn’t seem to make up for it. It’s not as though he suggested she start the company, she did so on her own will in a glorious act of desperation.

There are some good characters though. Suletta’s mom is decently well-done. Over the course of the show, we get to see just how evil she is. She goes from seeming as sweet as Suletta, to being a manipulative monster with an angelic exterior. I particularly like the scene where she reframes her motto about stepping forward and goads Suletta into stepping over a line covered in the blood of a mercenary she just killed (Don’t get me wrong - there are good moments in this show). In this way, she is extremely similar to Makima from Chainsaw Man (although I will fight you to the death that Makima is done much better). She is also successful in contrasting Suletta's purity and innocence.

One thing that my sexy man Garnt said he liked about the show was that he enjoyed that it was finally a mecha that wasn’t about war. What’s confusing about this to me though, is why corporate entities in the show would even need giant robo suits that literally explode people. I mean, there are dystopian aspects to the show, but they just don’t lean into this enough to justify having machines like this. I think Edgerunners does a much better job of justifying their use of violence through a somewhat similar environment. I mean yes, duh, the show is in the Gundam universe, but as someone who came in blind, I honestly would have preferred a war anime lol.

Ultimately, there are some good portions that I really did enjoy in the show, but in terms of scenes I’ve seen from Gundam and what I grew up with, I just felt that this was a little bit cheesy and tried to do way too many things. Thus - 6/10