English Dub Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans “Hunter of Angels”

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner…

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

After brief recap of the last few moments of the last episode, we cut to…one month later. Okay, a dozen episodes left didn’t exactly have me thinking the show was going to end with this fight, but as we’ll soon see, wrapping up the fight isn’t exactly going to take up much time.

Anyway, one month after the fight with the Mobile Armor, Orga meets with McMurdo to explain things, specifically this whole “Sovereign of Mars” business they’ve got going on with McGillis. That kind of title doesn’t exactly reek of “subservience to the space mob”.

So, with that as our framing device, we catch up with the last few minutes of the battle, and I MEAN last few minutes. It’s a particularly gruesome and intense fight, verging ever so slightly into Gurren Lagann or even Evangelion territory (what with all the blood and dismemberment), with Mikazuki dealing the final blow with a nearby giant sword.

Back to the future (present?), Orga tries to spin this mess in a more digestible way: Tekkaden is under Teiwaz, so if Gjallerhorn believes Tekkaden is a force to be a strong enough force to kill some centuries-old ancient horror, then this can only help Teiwaz’s rep in the long run. As a sign of good faith, he hands McMurdo the sakazuki cup he drank from when they joined Teiwaz, and assures him that any inconvenience he causes will be more than an understandable reason to cut ties with Tekkaden. McMurdo…allows this. As of this moment, there’s more reward than risk from this deal, but these are uncharted and very choppy waters, so if Orga steps out of line in any way, he’s in for a McMurderrin.

What they don’t know is Jasley’s own ties to Rustal, a likely better and more stable link than McGillis’ lack of experience and duplicitous nature. Guess we’ll see how all that shakes out soon.

The remaining Seven Stars meet to discuss the Mobile Armor incident, with McGillis falling back on his original intent to only investigate the machine, while Iok’s paranoia fumbled the investigation and nearly doomed Mars. Seems Mikazuki being the one to finish it off helped cover ol’ Blondie’s tracks, and even with Iok pitching a fit and proclaiming that McGillis was after the Order that comes with killing an Armor, no one comes to second these suspicions. You probably know by now that I’m all too happy to see Iok get a good verbal spanking now and then, but this seems a bit too spelled out for us, so much so that Rustal has to outright tell him and threaten him with being formally ghosted if he keeps running his mouth. Now, obviously, this sort of lecture has helped Iok see the errors of his ways and learn a bit of subterfuge to be a much more interesting and competent adversary for McGillis moving forward…

…I’m just kidding. He’s going to tap that Teiwaz connection with Jasley to “make his own life shine brighter for the men who died for him.” Barf.

Oh yeah, and Julieta is going to pilot some new mech.

Orga meets with Naze later that day to catch his breath, though seems everything’s all lined up for when they pull this off. I mean, it’s either they do that or…yeah.

Back to the past as we see the direct aftermath of the Armor fight, with Mikazuki unable to disconnect from Barbatos until he wakes up. When he finally comes to, things seem fine. Until he tries to stand.

Orga tells Naze that Mikazuki has lost the use of his entire right side, an exacerbation of the effects he suffered protecting Makanai. But even with this, Orga has to push on to get his happy ending for his family.

Kudelia and Atra visit the now non-ambulatory Mika in bed. The corn harvest is apparently coming up, but this’ll be the first time he’ll be unable to help. Not that he seems to mind, being more insistent than ever to just be in Barbados, where he can still move. The girls are unnerved by this calmness, scared what might happen next time he goes out to fight, and Atra even begging to Kudelia to get him to just settle down in the family way by just straight up putting a baby in her.

Back with McGillis, he gets confirmation from Isurugi that his violet-haired bud from last season, Gaelio Bauduin, is indeed dead, as well as getting his minion’s thoughts on Mikazuki’s previous fight. It was…powerful, but something to be feared. McGillis connects these two seemingly unrelated points to conclude that even if Gaelio is alive under Rustal’s command, he’s not strong enough to stand against not only a power like the Barbatos, but McGillis’ newly committed vision for revolution.

Lastly, beyond setting up repair work for Mika, Orga is torn between his ambitions to give his friends better lives and what those ambitions are doing to Mika, his closest and oldest friend. His unwavering loyalty has been helpful, to say the least, but it’s nothing short of heartbreaking to watch as it drives him to be little more than a husk of his former self. Orga goes to see him to recommit himself, but can’t hide his concern. Mika tells him there’s an unexpected benefit to all this: He always wondered what he would do once the fighting was all over, but now that piloting the Barbatos is the only place he can be himself, he doesn’t have to worry about a life after the fighting. Now he can only live to fight. And he’ll fight for Orga as long as it takes.

OUR TAKE

JESUS, that was a heavy one. While this dealt mainly with the after-effects of such a huge fight that we’ve been following the past few weeks, the main focus was really on the main BFFs, Orga and Mika. Orga continues on his tightrope walk to take a shortcut to find happiness for his family, as well as what he’s doing to them as he makes these choices. Or, possibly even worse, what he might be doing if he doesn’t. At this point, there’s no turning back. It’s all or nothing, winner takes all.

Mikazuki’s characterization is one of the more divisive aspects of the show amongst its fans, with some suggesting he’s barely a character at all. Personally, I see him as a better portrayal of the Flat Character Arc, where the actions a character takes are meant more to impact those around them than themselves. We certainly see this here, with his ever weakening physical state tearing up his loved ones as he keeps wanting to fight, even when the only way he can get around now is by having his lackey carry him around like a knapsack. It’s harrowing stuff, and I can only see it getting worse (in the best way) as we move onto the final fourth of the show.

Although I should bring up the off-putting nature of the time jumps. Given the title, you would think more time would be spent on the Mobile Armor and its adversity to the Gundam Frames, and it really doesn’t apply in any other way (aside from reminding me of a pretty good Red Hot Chili Peppers song). I can’t imagine there weren’t some scenes that could be cut from the last two episodes to have its defeat be the tail end of the last episode, but them’s the breaks. Not a deal breaker by any means, but still enough to knock it off an 8. Next week, the beginning of the end, and the final new OP and ED. Stay tuned.