English Dub Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans “Awakening Calamity”

Calamity should get a snooze button.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Jasley discusses info he’s obtained from his spies at the Ares facility regarding Tekkaden’s new connections. He concludes that the big boss has only been letting their and Naze’s schemes slide because he’s gone senile, and that now is the time to take them out. As soon as he gets some big intel score, that is. Although given what happened to the last two minor antagonists that messed with Tekkaden, I don’t see much good ahead for Jasley.

Back on Mars, Eco and Yamagi finish tuning up the mobile suits while surveying the Flauros’ customization in a certain light-ish red color for Shino’s personal use. They still can’t figure out what to do with the other big thing they dug up, which doesn’t even seem to have a cockpit. Best thing to do now possibly checks with Gjallarhorn, now that they’re in an alliance with McGillis.

Orga finishes his meetings with Ares just in time to get McGillis’ call about the excavations, namely to shut it down. Turns out the big thing in the back of the mine is what’s known as a Mobile Armor (or at least this universe’s version of one), machines at the heart of the conflict that caused the Calamity War 300 years ago and seemed to cause the lion’s share of destruction and bloodshed, and the tinier unit they dug up was an accessory.

This is exactly what Jasley needs to get a deal with the Rustal faction, who he tips off. Rustal himself identifies the accessory as a “Pluma” and notes that the only way the war ended was when Agnika Kaieru and the founders of Gjallerhorn destroyed every Mobile Armor. Aside from this one, at least. Vidar perks up at this, noting that McGillis might be planning on destroying the armor personally, thus obtaining a valuable prize: The Order of the Seven Stars, a high honor that is given to anyone who can defeat a Mobile Armor, and would instantly grant the victor highest seniority amongst the group. By being the only member in centuries to have defeated one, he could instantly claim absolute power over them all. Iok volunteers to stop this assumed rebellion himself.

Everyone at Tekkaden gets their pay and either make plans to blow it all or just save it up. Hush flags down Mikazuki and Atra heading to Kudelia’s office and decides to tag along, dutiful lackey that he is. Once there, and after reading a familiar named elementary school developed by her company, they meet with Kudelia to discuss what to do with the newly earned pay and get Hush to join in. However, she remains concerned that they know too little about the world for their age, hence why the construction of schools and orphanages is so important.

McGillis arrives on Mars to a mixed reception, with Iok’s team not far behind. He and Isurugi explain that the reason the Mobile Armor went undiscovered as something to do with the Martian Half-Metal, which cloaked it from detection all this time. Furthermore, they shouldn’t bring any Mobile Suits near it, as they were made to destroy the Armors and will instantly activate it upon detection. This, of course, doesn’t stop SUPER GENIUS IOK from landing right smack dab next to it with his team, seeking McGillis’ arrest. And there must be some stupid in the air because Eco and The Chief decided to turn on the Pluma, which has rampaged through the hanger and wrecked all the suits. Naturally, all this concentrated stupid wakes up the Mobile Armor. Nice going, guys.

OUR TAKE

Quite the lore dump that was. This is probably the most amount of info we’ve gotten about the Calamity War in a single episode, and it’s certainly not the MOST clunky it could’ve been, but it’s not exactly a smooth gulp either. For one, we have this series’ version of the Mobile Armors, which in every other universe with them would be just a name for a non-human looking Mobile Suit, but there seems to be what happens when dragons meet Skynet. These things obviously didn’t create themselves, but the Suits were made specifically to fight and destroy them, so it seems like what this is leading to is a big revelation that Armors were just rogue prototypes of the Gundam Frames, which had to be made to clean up the mess the Armors made in the war.

There’s also some oddly specific info we learn about Gjallerhorn: The Order of the Seven Stars. The conclusion the Mighty Morphin Rustal Rangers come to about McGillis wanting to obtain it by killing the Armor isn’t exactly unfounded, but it’s what they do with that info that’s concerning. Rustal’s seemingly set up as the Big Bad of the season, so the benefits from this in almost every scenario, but Iok is just such an idiot that I don’t know how he doesn’t die by the end of next episode. Darth Vidar might just want him dead and gave him that info to get him there, so that checks out. That said, the idea of the Order is an achievement for essentially slaying an ancient monster seems to be contributing to this cyber-Arthurian motif I’ve seen before in other relatively recent mecha anime like Code Geass and Aldnoah Zero that I’m fearing is starting to be played out.

And lastly, on the stuff relating more to the character or overall story themes, I appreciated the focus on downtime at Tekkaden, especially with how the guys handle their paychecks and seeing Mikazuki and Atra going to Kudelia for help with their money. Kudelia’s kind of been put into the background so far in this half, so it was nice to see her using her resources to help kids who’ve been orphaned and don’t want all that iron blood in them.

Overall, kind of uneventful, but with some interesting world building and character development leading into another badass mech fight next week, which I can’t wait for.

SCORE
7/10