Gundam Age ep 26 review

    Back to reviews again. This one is truly worth a mention. I'd probably say it's the favourite of all the eps I've watched so far. You can truly feel a slant in angle as the story matures and gets darker. Let's get down to the things to note, bad and good. I'll start with the small ones first:

Diva's MS team is lame. Other than Woolf's G-Bouncer and the Gundam, the other guys are just cannon fodder and comedy. It's hard to imagine this squadron holding up the most important ship in the EFF's fleet. I wished they would have developed the other characters more and gave them better suits rather than the Genoaces. Perhaps this will surface later in the series, I don't know. Time will tell...

It's official. Age has the biggest-ass beam cannon evaaaaaaaaar! So we see some really cool fireworks here with electron-whatevers that form a big ring around which photons accelerate. They call it the photon ring ray. (I hear there's actually a real-life engine like this somewhere in Europe, not to shoot rays of course, but to accelerate atoms in a similar fashion for the study of quantum physics. But if the whole contraption goes up in smoke, it might end the universe by creating a black hole. No shit.) So then the Diva's photon cannon fires through said ring and BOOM you get a bigger beam! Sounds good, looks killer, but the result is kinda anti-climantic. Apparently Vagans have a Gigantes Shield that can deflect the beam, and that was what happened. meh.

Asemu Asuno is starting to get on my nerves. Yes, seriously, this boy is obsessed with his Daddy issues and being an X-Rounder. He grapples with self-worth and esteem problems, and all this was endearing at first, but it's seriously starting to grate, and the last thing you want is for your audience to get annoyed with the lead character. Especially so when he is the cause of death for probably the most likeable and heroic character in the show - Woolf. Which brings us to the next point.

Woolf's death is both good and bad. Bad 'cos I kinda knew he was gonna go from the start. True heroes like him usually don't last. He was like Lockon in the 00 series. He is that person in real life, that friend you once knew, or that colleague in the office, who possesses true grit and potential, and yet is usually overlooked in favour of someone who just came around at the right time with a knack for the limelight - in this case, Flit. Woolf was never handed a Gundam, but he could fly with the best of 'em, and he defeated an X-Rounder single-handedly. But alas, we all knew he was never meant to be the star. Still I would have wanted him to stick around longer for the G-Bouncer to evolve into something else and be worthy of the MG kit treatment. It's looking unlikely now, of course.

But Woolf had to die - cos someone great must go, to make way for someone greater. And it seems to be a habit with the Age series, where the death of a loved one of the protaganist galvanises him into action. It happened with Flit and Yuri. Now it's happening with Asemu and Woolf. Woolf gets KO'ed saving Asemu's sorry ass. And Asemu goes berserk. Which makes for really good pyrotechnics and fight sequences as we see him dismember Desil's suit. Which brings us to another point -

I really like that Asemu is a non X-Rounder. And maaaaan the scene where he goes berserk is the finest fight sequence yet! You would think that like Flit or Setsuna's Innovator, he would achieve his ultimate enlightenment by the end of the series, but it's starting to look like Asemu will forever be a plain human. And yet, be something totally different and better than an X-Rounder. That's a smart story angle to play with. Woolf's death is a prelude to Asemu's ascendancy. It was truly a touching scene to see a bloodied Woolf saying he expects great things from his young ward. And to become someone greater than an X Rounder. This culminates in a classic made-for-movie scene where desperate Desil, in his death throes, asks the begging question 'What are you????' as the Gundam dismantles him. Asemu's answer - "I am.....SUPER PILOT!!!!" LOL. It kinda sent goose bumps but also some cringes down my spine cos seriously guys, don't you wished they could have come up with a better term than 'Super Pilot'?!? Even 'HUMAN' would be better. Or just "I AM ASEMU ASUNO!". But no. They had to have 'Super Pilot'. Sigh. Still, nice turn of plot by Sunrise.

What the hell is an X-Rounder. So what now? They can control suits???? That's kinda like Banager in Unicorn isn't it?? We saw Desil commanding the suits of two members of his elite squad against their will. This certainly piques our curiosity. If Desil has that power, imagine what Zeheart has. Which beggars another point -

Desil is Zeheart's brother! I dont know if I missed this out earlier in the series, but it was revealed here as a surviving soldier mocks Zeheart about "watching your own brother die". What's more poignant is that Zeheart utters "I've said I'll get there." We see a hardening of the anti-heroe's resolve; another tinge of darkness to the series. Which I like. And speaking of darkness...

Flit is Mr Heartache Central. I like it that this series doesnt shy away from the morbidness of death, something which it seemed to do when it was in the more kiddy phase of the Age 1 era. Now we're killing off characters dear to the first generation. First Captain Grodek, now, Woolf. We see Flit once again in silent anguish as he learns of his former mentor's death - "You're leaving me again." Awww. Heart-wrenching.

Overall, I would say this is a good episode. I like dark characters and a tragic plot where a hero emerges, so this is definitely picking up for me. Plus it's an epic battle scene, probably the biggest one yet for the series, and it left me hanging for the next one with Asemu totally gone berserk, and Flit taking out in the Age-1, with a perculiar-looking backpack booster extension. Hmmm... Not since the 00 series has an Age ep ended with such a cliff-hanger in my opinion. Stay tuned!