“Barbatos”

Sundays on Daisuki

Mikazuki drives away the Gjallarhorn forces in Gundam Barbatos, leaving both sides time to lick their wounds and prepare their next move.

Iro’s thoughts

I’m still undecided on whether I liked this episode or not. It’s generally a good idea to give the audience a bit of breathing room to let everything soak in, but the pace of G-Tekketsu‘s premiere was so on-point that it’s jarring to hit the brakes so hard. Little of note actually happens this week as the writing shifting gears to a more expository mode, which again isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, the first episode already implied most of what we’re now told outright, which leads to a bit of a dull watch. At the very least, I can appreciate at the very least that Kudelia immediately understands that her father is in on the whole assassination attempt thing, and that Mikazuki is still willing to take her down a peg over her privileged way of thinking.

Speaking of Mikazuki, he’s still the weak link of the cast. I mentioned in our First Look that it’s a good thing his lack of personality is characterized in conjunction with his relationship with Orga, but the “lack of personality” bit is already getting old. We already have so many blank-slate protagonists in anime, and I would really prefer that we don’t end up with yet another. Others have noted the pair’s similarities to Gurren Lagann‘s Simon and Kamina, but Simon at least had a personality and different moods. Mikazuki is conspicuously dull, and I can only hope the show actually leverages this to do something. I suppose we’ll see as things move forward.

Random Stuff

• Casualties on the Chryse side of the battle total at 108. Of course.
• Barbatos itself is named after the 8th demon of the Ars Goetia, and consequently its serial number during boot-up is ASW-G-08. The Ars Goetia demons also feature prominently in Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic as the names of the various djinn.
• Various bits and bobs on Barbatos not yet acquired in the show are visible in the OP/ED.
• Where the robots themselves are involved, I’ve always liked the “Gundam [X]” naming scheme over the “[X] Gundam” one. Not sure why.
• Cookie and Cracker Griffon. Incredible.