Wednesday beckons... and therefore it is time for...
GundamGAF's Victory Gundam Rewatch:-
Episode 2 DVD
"The Meeting with the Machine that Day"
"Mashin to Atta Hi" (マシンと会った日
Anyway.
THIS is the episode the show was meant to start with. Seriously.
It is now instead dealt with as a flashback episode to the events that happened prior to the 1st aired episode on the DVD.
The next episode also deals with the 2nd and final portion of the flashback, sequentially speaking.
The show only moves on in time again at the end of the 3rd episode heading into the 4th episode.
Location:- Kassarelia
Time:- 3 days prior to the events of the 1st episode
Usso (paragliding) and Shakti are living the carefree, peaceful life that any child would love to have, until....
He gets his first encoounter with the League Militiare/Vespa folk during a chance encounter between a Core Fighter piloted by Ms Marbet and her brief conflict with some Vespa Yellow Jackets.
Usso shows off some real balls for a kid his age by latching onto and then attempting to take over Chronicle Ashers MS which he ultimately succeeds in doing.
Usso Evin v Chronicle Asher score = 1 : 0 (technically 1 : 1, since Asher 'wins' the soon to come encounter in the 1st episode which happens in the future since this is a flashback)
The kid does not fear heights nor death at all lol.
We also learn that Chronicle Asher is also related by blood to the Queen via an offhand remark by his team mate.
Marvet goes down, gets injured, and the rest as they say, is now Gundam Victory history.
Back to Usso, he shows his chops for mechas right in this episode itself. He has never piloted a Vespa MS in his life and possesses an affinity towards the machine right away after a few initial adjustments. Just like every other talented UC MS protagonist ever.
Another major plot point introduced in this episode is
Usso's relationship with Katejina Loos. They seem to be great pen pals of sorts at this moment. It's really hard to imagine that things would get sour between them in the future at this point. He actually feels the need to get her out of danger from the impending bombing of Woowig in this episode.
What else is worthy of note? He meets up with some other immigrants from Largaine who "elect" to join the LM eventually, after witnessing the destruction of Woowig by the Zanscare Empire.
The concept of the
"Guillotine" is also mentioned for the first time in the series to decribe the
"Tool Of Oppression" used by the Zanscare Empire to exert their will onto the populace.
Episode rounds off with a mini duel between Usso and an Asher subordinate. Usso does his thing, and takes down his first Mobile Suit in the series, chronologically speaking.
All in all it was an okay episode, and a desperately needed one after the lack of context and proper introductions in the 1st episode. Together with the next one , they help flesh out the background and the motivations of the characters whom we'll be following for the next 49+ episodes.
I'll also be keeping a cumulative kill count for prominent character deaths in each episode. This is supposed to be the UC series with highest body count after all.
Tomino Kill Count:- 0
B