Gundam AGE Episode 10
What They Say:
A larger UE detachment assaults Fardain. Zalam and Euba join together to protect the populace. The Diva joins the battle, ambushing the oncoming UE. Then, the UE battleship arrives. Against this fierce foe, resolves waver. Zalam’s leader Don Boyage attempts to inspire his men from the front lines, but… As the desperate fight unfolds, Flit’s rage boils over, and he equips a new Ware the AGE System has generated–Spallow. Can Flit defend Fardain!?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Though the way the group came together was obvious to be sure with the two syndicate sides and what Grodek was bringing to the table with Flit and Woolf, it hit all the right notes in the last couple of episodes. Getting some time on the G-Exes and what it means and the kind of way that Grodek is going to run this operation with only some lip service to military style makes a lot of sense. Playing loose with what you can do with a mobile suit will work to their advantage in the long run and with what counts – dealing with the enemy. And the enemy is definitely ready to take down Fardain now as a sizeable assault group has arrived and is making a definitive push against the colony.
Not surprisingly, even though Zalam and Euba have said that this won’t change anything in Fardain, they’re working well together since they’re both men of experience and do understand the need to work together when they understand the threat. There’s some good scale here as Flit is thrown into the battle and the number of mobile suits are impressive on the enemy side. The action definitely dominates here as the two sides fight it out and it’s quite engaging to watch since the choreography is decent and there are some real losses within the battle that reminds you that the show is playing in a similar vein to past ones in that there will be casualties. We also see that on the Diva, there are those that are thinking big picture as we learn how Adams requested reinforcements from the Federation proper, which is not something you’d expect from this ship based on its circumstances. Interestingly, they’re not able to get any but the command structure wishes for the Diva’s success, which is a solid acknowledgment that they might not have gotten.
Those losses do help to reinforce the fight itself and gies it the energy and enthusiasm it needs to really move forward. Especially for Flit since he’s now losing people he knows and has spent time with rather than just faceless military types. That pushes his emotions a bit, but it’s still kept relatively in check, which is a good thing to see. But it is an event that overall starts to drain on him and you can see the whole thing taking its toll, which again is good to see because you have to factor in his age and mental capacity to handling such things. The fight does get nicely resolved here, even if things do wrap up a little too easily, and we get to see that there are definitely some twists afoot in the future as we get the nod towards Desil as well.
In Summary:
Gundam AGE doesn’t do much revolutionary here and in some ways it doesn’t really progress much either. What we get is a largely action packed episode that gives us mobile suit fights against the UE, some deaths along the way and a few nuggets going forward to work with when it comes to a couple of the characters and the nature of the Diva. That’s not a bad thing in the slightest because action is what a lot of Gundam fans want and it works here to showcase more of how the UE is operating on top of getting the small tidbit with Desil in relation to them. It does leave me wanting to know more about what they’re really up to and what their true goals are, but I know we’ve got a bit of time before that happens.
Grade: B
Streamed By: YouTube