English Dub Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans “Lit by a Blazing Sun”

I fought the law and the law won.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

McMurdo makes final arrangements for dealing with Naze’s situation, telling Mikazuki and Hush that they aren’t to interfere with Gjallerhorn, and assuring Naze that he’ll be sure to keep the girls in the family. Orga, meanwhile, is having none of it. Naze’s been his guide, his mentor, his BROTHER through all of this, and after all that, he’s just supposed to walk away and leave him to die when he needs help? What kind of family could Tekkadan claim to be if they didn’t even lift a finger to someone who’s been by their side this long?

Well, seems Akihiro and Shino feel the same way and have come up with a plan. Gjallerhorn’s fleets are closing in, so Naze’s probably going make anyone not fighting evacuate first. Akihiro, Shino, and Ride will then come in with their mobile suits and cutting edge booster packs (god, even describing it makes it sound like a commercial) under the guise of simply testing new equipment, then go to pick up the evacuees and place them in protective custody as civilians without alerting the fleets to Tekkadan’s presence. Just because they can’t save Naze doesn’t mean they can’t save some lives.

The Turbines begin their evacuation, with Naze saying he’ll act as a decoy to let the rest get away and only Amida staying behind (and seeing through to his true intent, sacrificing himself and taking the blame so that the rest of the family can go free). Iok’s troops head out in full force, completely and utterly surrounding them while Orga, Mika, and everyone restlessly wait for the oncoming storm.

In a futile attempt to end the fight before it begins, Naze sends out a beacon of surrender, but Iok, in a true display of pure dickishness, ignores it and preps a team to use the exact type of illegal weapon they framed Naze for supposedly having to attack them and the fleeing transports. Naze manages to make a smokescreen to cover their escape, but not before a second strike hits, slowing them down even more. They’re sitting ducks for incoming suits, made worse when Julieta enters the fight in her new Julia model.

Finally, Tekkadan arrives to escort them to safety, and giving Naze and Amida their second wind. Amida trounces Julieta easily, and Naze tries one more time to hail a surrender but Iok turns it down again, tearing the ship apart with every bullet he has. Another volley of rail guns finally snuff Amida out too, though not before she lands a final shot directly at Iok’s main ship. Damn plot armor. Not willing to let her go gently into that cold night alone, Naze sets the ship to ramming speed, charging forward while Iok cowers behind his captain’s chair, and exploding gloriously upon hitting a nearby vessel of the fleet.

Tears are shed, both from within and out, for the Turbines.

OUR TAKE

This is the first step of many towards to the show’s conclusion, and a true signifier of the ever-grimmer tone we’ll see going forward. IBO has never been shy about killing off likable members of the cast, and this is no exception, but the utter annihilation of the Hammerhead on top of Naze and Amida’s final moments is a signifier in the truest sense that you can’t go home again. Literally, for Lafter, Azee, and the rest, but most definitely for the show.

Though that’s not to say they don’t go down in a blaze of glory. The sudden flashback exposition of previously unknown backstory was a pretty big giveaway for longtime anime watchers that death was closing in, but certainly they did these characters a service going out the way they did. Questionable comments made on men and women aside, the Turbines have always represented the concept of fully functioning and loving family for Tekkadan, with Naze even teaching Orga the concept near the beginning of the show. And so, the best way to close the book on the Turbine patriarch would of course be protecting his family to the bitter end, while the matriarch gets in a few good spankings on an enemy pilot for good measure.

I’ve made no secret of my total annoyance with Iok as a character, mainly in how he seems to just cause problems and suffer no repercussions before going on to cause even more problems, but here was a time where he seemed actually…menacing. A bit, at least. When it comes to whether I like or hate a character, that impression mainly comes down to whether they are good at convincing me to feel about them the way they intend me to feel. So, a character we are meant to love to hate like King Joffrey from Game of Thrones or Tyrell from Mr. Robot only succeeds in my mind if they can actually get me to hate them for what actions they take. I’m not entirely what we’ve been supposed to feel about Iok up until this point since his bumbling has brought nothing to the table other than forced comedy, but actually being in command of an operation that kills off two main supporting characters while being an embodiment of all the worst traits in Gjallerhorn (ruthlessness, hypocrisy, cowardice, etc.) and managing to succeed with all of those with the gleeful and naive face of a child almost convinces me that he could be a major threat going forward. Almost. We’ll see where he takes it from here, but he could very well have a bright future ahead of being my mental punching bag instead of just an instant eye-roll and face-palm generator. As we enter the final ten episodes, he’ll have a lot of competition for best villain as the stakes continue to rise.