English Dub Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans “McGillis Fareed”

You never want your name to be the whole title of a Gundam episode.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

News of Orga’s death spreads fast, first to Nobliss (whose goons shot him), then back to Tekkadan through Ride. The boys aren’t unfazed by this, but need to keep pressing on in his memory. The tunnel out is nearly done, but they’ve still got the authorities staring them down at every corner. Surprisingly, Mikazuki gathers everyone outside, using his Gundam as a podium. He tells them that he’ll follow Orga’s final orders and will crush anyone who stands in his way…look, there’s a reason he’s not usually the one giving the speeches.

Well, okay, he uses Orga’s final orders of never stopping and living on to quell the stirring feelings of vengeance and rage building up in the group, and to his credit, it works. Not bad for a first time public speaker.

The morning comes and with it the plan to escape. Mika, Akihiro, Dante, and Hush lead intercept, Eugene and some of the younglings on rear support, with Eugene taking Orga’s custom Shiden (which is officially named “Orga’s Shiden”, for Christ’s sake!). They’ll be holding off Gjallerhorn forces while the rest of them make it through the tunnel. After that, well…they don’t have time to think about that as the fighting starts up. Hush is the first to take a mortal blow. Mika manages to save him from dying quickly, but Hush tells him to move on ahead.

Papa Bauduin arrives to pick up Almiria, but she insists on staying to wait for McGillis to return so they can face his sins as husband and wife. McGillis himself gathers his remaining troops and thanks them for all they’ve done before telling them to leave the ship. He also has one last talk with Todo, telling him one last confusing bit of madness about being alone and freedom. He then takes their last ship out into space to face Rustal, colliding it with one of the enemy ships to reveal himself in Bael. With the power of one of the oldest and most powerful Gundam Frames, he manages to wipe out swathes of Rustal’s forces while ranting about leaving behind the discrimination against those without background or family names. This is halted by the arrival of Gaelio for their final rematch. Despite the fact that they’ve said all they can possibly say, they sure are talkative. Rustal refuses to send reinforcements until the fight is over (which kind of defeats the point of reinforcements in the first place, but okay). Gaelio brings forth all of the Ein AI’s strength to land a major strike, forcing McGillis to sacrifice Bael to escape. Bleeding out and desperately clinging to life and the idea of his new world, he makes his way up an elevator to kill Rustal…only to be stopped by Gaelio. The two duel one last time, Gaelio blocking a headshot with his mask and McGillis on death’s door. The truth finally comes out as McGillis confesses that his time with him and Carta almost made him forget his vengeance and ambitions, which he ultimately couldn’t let go of. And Gaelio can’t let go of his friend, even as he dies in his grip.

Rustal reflects on the loss of his greatest enemy as he plans to draw the curtain on this operation, and Tekkadan holds their last stand.

OUR TAKE

Despite all the action, this really felt more like a setup for the finale. We needed this buffer to allow Tekkadan to react to losing their leader, as well as prepare for their final battle to keep everyone else alive. Mikazuki takes on a leadership role for the first and probably last time, and reacts to the death of his closest friend in really the only way we know he could. I’ll get more into what I think of this when I analyze his character as a whole in the season review, but given all the time we’ve seen him spend and develop alongside Orga throughout the story, seeing him actually try to move on from really losing him was probably the last big step forward we hadn’t seen besides potentially becoming a father. Though after having the “physically distant loved one reacts to main character’s death” moment with Kudelia and Atra that we’ve had with Almiria for McGillis and even Mika with Orga last episode, things aren’t looking good for his prognosis. Guess we’ll see.

Although, Tekkadan still manage to take up a fair amount of the focus, making the title a bit of a misnomer. McGillis’ end was certainly tragic and fittingly at the hands of the one person who managed to survive his machinations. He was sort of the third main character of the show (or at least became that once Kudelia lets go of the reins), and in a different recent Gundam show, he’d probably be the main villain at the center of all the conflict. He’s just one of the many ways Iron-Blooded Orphans has set itself apart from even its own franchise, and his loss is a real shame, even if his shit-eating grin basically marked him for death right off the bat.

Next week, the finale, and we see if this show can channel it’s creator’s “Kill Em All” spirit.