#gundam seven sword

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 5: It's (Dahlia of) Wednesday, My Dudes (2000-2010)

I apologize for nothing.

Welcome back to An Abbreviated History of Mecha! Last time we left off, the 90's had come and gone, bringing with it a whole cavalcade of mecha shows as well as Pokemon in its wake. Now the Torchics have come home to roost, as Pokemon explodes in popularity in the 2000's. This means that mecha shows can no longer rely on child audiences in order to make their money. Add onto this the slow shift into the modern seasonal format throughout the decade, and we begin to see the start of the decline of mecha.

Though not all is bad news, as a fair bit of mecha stories would come out and become some of the most iconic stories of the decade. Heck, this era of mecha stories is rife with at least three examples of "Not Like the Other Girl" mecha shows, two of which are pretty bizarre as "Not Like the Other Girl" shows.

So with that out of the way...

Wake up, Dann!

FLCL (2000)

So, uh... what a way to start, huh?

FLCL (pronounced fooly-cooly) is a Studio Gainax/Production I.G. OVA series made in 2000 supposedly as a way to relieve the studio's stress from working on a little series called Neon Genesis Evangelion. FLCL is, to put it lightly, very bizarre while also being surprisingly heartfelt.

FLCL was another major [adult swim]/Toonami series in the US, and like The Big O before it, the folks at Toonami would eventually reach out to Production I.G. to produce sequels that, in my opinion, generally fail to capture the energy of the original.

Bionicle (2001)

LEGO would release its BIONICLE line of Technic toys in 2001 as a last-ditch effort to save the company from financial ruin, and boy would it succeed. Building off of the success of Throwbots, BIONICLE would have a serialized adventure centered around the six Toa as they fought against the forces of the evil Makuta.

Bionicle would last throughout the decade as well as a little bit into the next, until LEGO, who was at a much better place financially at this point, decided that it was time to pull the plug on the series. Bionicle would receive a reboot in 2017 only to be shut down a few years later.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (2002), Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (2005), & Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom (2024)

Coming in with a bang, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED would air in 2002. The first series of the Cosmic Era timeline is, without a doubt, one of the most important entries in the entire Gundam franchise due to how it renewed interest in the franchise. Gundam SEED would also be the first series in the franchise to use digital animation over the more traditional cel animation.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED would be followed up with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny in 2005. There were plans for a movie releasing shortly after Destiny wrapped up its run, bit it wouldn't be until 2024 that the film, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, would finally release.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED is also a, shall we say, very contentious series to talk about. While it is almost always one of the most popular entries in Japan, the series is a lot more hotly debated about here in the west. A lot of people tend to downplay this series' importance (*cough*Professor Otaku*cough*). But that is not for me to say, as I have never really watched Gundam SEED or anything related to it.

Xenosaga (2002)

Returning to the director's chair in 2002, Tetsuya Takahashi and the newly formed Monolith Soft would release Xenosaga for the PlayStation 2. Acting as a spiritual successor to Xenogears, Xenosaga brings all of that complex Gnosticism goodness to a new console generation. Originally planned for six games in total, Xenosaga was ultimately cut down in size into three games.

Eventually, Monolith Soft would be bought out by Nintendo (if I had a nickel etc.), and Takahashi would be given another chance to explore the Xeno series once again. But that's a story for another time.

Diebuster/Gunbuster 2 (2004)

Releasing in 2004 as a sequel to 1989's Gunbuster, Diebuster would be the third of Gainax's Big Four series. If you're wondering why Diebuster is the fourth, that's because this OVA series would be the starting point for a lot of the members of the team that would give us Gurren Lagann in about four years.

With the slow death of Studio Gainax, both Diebuster and its older sister series Gunbuster would transfer ownership to Gaina (formerly Fukushima Gainax) at some point in the 2010's. Gaina has plans to make a Gunbuster 3, though that will have to wait until they at least wrap up production of Grendizer U later this year.

Megas XLR (2004)

Meanwhile, Cartoon Network would also see the release of the mecha parody series Megas XLR. Originally an alien robot whose head has been replaced with a car, this series would lovingly riff on a lot of the tropes present in old mecha shows like Mazinger Z and Getter Robo. Unlike most other shows at the time though, Megas XLR has become hard to find since it wrapped up its run. A lot of that has to do with, if I remember correctly, legal issues.

Gun X Sword (2005)

2005 would see AIC Productions release Gun X Sword, a mecha sci-fi/western mash-up directed by Goro Taniguchi. Set on the wasteland planet Endless Illusion, Gun X Sword pulls a lot of its aesthetic sensibilities from shows like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, though another show that may have helped influence Gun X Sword is...

Mobile Fighter G Gundam?! I really hope that's a stretch from me...

As a series, Gun X Sword is often left out of the conversation when it comes to 2000's mecha shows. A large part of that stems from people incorrectly assuming its just a ripoff of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, which is only remotely true due to some more superficial elements like the planet of Endless Illusion being similar to Trigun's Gunsmoke, and Van's name being a riff on Vash the Stampede (a joke early on is that Van is constantly changing his title).

Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven (2005)

In 1999, a group of former animators for Sunrise would leave to form Studio Bones. While they had worked on a fair bit of shows prior to 2005, including one RahXephon, Bones would come to be known for, among other shows, Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven (or just Eureka Seven for short). With a unique style and a focus on romance (specifically the romantic relationships present amongst the main cast), Eureka Seven would leave an indelible mark on a whole generation of mecha fans.

I would also argue, due in part to personal experience, that Eurkea Seven is one of the "Not Like the Other Girl" shows, though I think I can see why some might disagree: You need to have watched Eureka Seven first in order to make a claim like that, and boy is the original TV series hard to find online.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2007)

The year 2007 would see the publication of the first novel in the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn series. Gundam Unicorn would be an important series in the history of Gundam due to both its popularity and the fact that it represents a changing of the guard, as Universal Century Gundam stories would now be handled primarily by Harutoshi Fukui instead of series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino.

I think I'd also be remiss to point out that Fukui is a rather divisive figure when it comes to Gundam, as the original Gundam Unicorn light novels lean much more into fascist apologia than any other UC series. This would, thankfully, be almost entirely cut out in the animated adaptation of Unicorn that would air in the 2010's.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (2008)

2008 would see a trio of mecha shows that would more or less serve as a capstone to the 2000's as a decade. The first I will cover is Goro Taniguchi's Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Mixing in smaller mechs similar to that of Armored Trooper VOTOMs along with actual magic, Code Geass would cement its legacy amongst mecha shows by being one of the "Not Like the Other Girl" shows.

Which is weird, because the plot of Code Geass is that the show's equivalent of the British Empire is able to conquer most of the world through its use of the show's mecha, known in-universe as Knightmare Frames.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (2008)

Also releasing in 2008 is Sunrise's Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Leaning into real life elements like the rising awareness of terrorism while taking inspiration from Full Metal Panic, Gundam 00 would be the second of the three mecha stars of 2008. Whereas Gundam SEED would be Gundam's first foray into digital animation, Gundam 00 would up the ante in what is possible. If anything, part of Gundam SEED's legacy in the west is marred due to it's release being sandwiched between Turn A Gundam and Gundam 00, both of which are considered to be some of the best Gundam shows in terms of animation quality.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2008)

Capping off this post is Studio Gainax's final series of their Big Four, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Created as a celebration of mecha stories, with Getter Robo in particular being a primary inspiration, Gurren Lagann is oftentimes considered to be the single most HOT-BLOODED entry in the mecha canon. What helps is this series would build off of the general tone of shows like its big sister show Diebuster as well as the aforementioned Getter Robo. I would even argue that other shows such as Mobile Fighter G Gundam and The King of Braves GaoGaiGar also had a hand in shaping this series.

Gurren Lagann is also, bizarrely enough, one of the "Not Like the Other Girls" shows. If you thought Code Geass was a weird example, then Gurren Lagann is far and away the most perplexing example of these types of shows. At least the other three have a "plausible" explanation as to why they're considered to be different. Gurren Lagann is pretty similar in terms of character dynamics and themes, not that similar to pretty much every mecha show I just compared it to.

Conclusion

That more or less wraps up the 2000's in terms of major works in the mecha canon. It's not until the next decade that we really see mecha works go into a true dark age, though the nature of the dark age is largely overstated. The 2010's is marked by a lot of duds, though I will not touch on the two biggest duds of the decade in the next post. It should be noted that the 2010's also has some major hits scattered throughout the decade, though a lot of them tend to be legacy titles from existing works. We'll also see two major entries in the canon appear from western creators that will also homage the works of old.

I...

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“̵͇͗͂͠͝Ï̴͇̮̝̽̾ ̴̡̜̯̽̽͜f̵̠̘̈́̔̽ể̸͇̗͐͜l̸̻̟͓͉̀͆t̶̢̫̱̜̔́̾͠ ̸͈̙̜̟̊̅̈́t̵̗̟̤͓̿̂̂͑h̶̖͌͌e̶͕̣̅̒ ̵̡̞̀b̶̪̾̾̓̀ù̵̳͊͑͑ľ̸̢͕̺̭́ļ̸̛̰̈́̍̀é̵͈̯̳͐t̵̪̱̾͜ ̸͖͖̃t̵̥̓͆̄̕ȅ̷́̅͜͜a̵̬̘̙̻̋͆͠͠r̷͚̲̟̠̆̔̄̈ ̴̩̂̌̋t̵̨̳̆͜͠ḥ̸̥̿̈́̂̐r̵̩͇̀͛̿͗o̵̟̮̙͋ͅȕ̵̧̳̙̆g̷̜̜̏̐h̶̡̤͔̃̚͝ ̴̨͈́m̴̳̦̅̎̑̕e̷̼̼̣̭͑͝͠.̵͚̌ ̵̟̺͕̈̎̎́Į̵͕̿ͅ ̶̖͙̑͆̔͝f̶̠̉̂̃ḙ̸͝l̵̻̈́̌̈́̃t̷͇̣̱͐͋̀͆ ̸̙̲̎t̸͔̝̀͠h̶̛̜͔͋̿͌͜é̵̦̼̆̋̓ ̶̞̂̕b̴̰̲͈̽́̔u̶̯͛̇̓ḽ̸̭̮̘̔̇͋͘l̵̰̒̇̇ẹ̵͑͠t̵̡̼̫̙͌̈͆̃ ̸͉͙̀̓͒͝t̸͓̣̮͚̽̈́̽ē̷̬̲ą̷͇͙͐̈͑r̵͇̮̬̾ ̷͚̞͕̎͑ͅt̴̤̥̽̏͒ḩ̷̬̌͆́r̴̯̓̍̿̕õ̸̝͓ṳ̶͈̫͒̎͠g̴͍̯͒͌́h̸̰̯͖͕͊͗̕ ̶̳̫͛m̸͉̏̉̋͜e̸͖͉̭̱͗.̵͓̗̞͓́̏ ̷̺͕̖̀I̵̫̟͌̓̄̈́ ̶̢̞̯͗̾͂̽ͅf̸̲̝̖̈́͜ë̴̱͓́́l̸̫͓̪̆̾͝ţ̸̱̟̼͒ ̷̱̇̚t̵̲͔̻̋̏h̷̠͋ẽ̴̢̦̤̦̔ ̵̻̠̊p̴̞͗r̴̗͉͐̒͑e̷̘͙̼̩͊̾s̵͇̰͐s̶̪͔͚͛͌̍ű̴̱̪͖̌̊̎r̶̪̬̿̈́ḛ̷͐̐̑ ̸̝͙̉͗̎̑a̴͍̜̾̒͝n̸̡̹̓d̸̨̲͎͎̏̃̄ ̸̛̱̙̦̤͌͝͠ȉ̵̡̟̱͖͘t̷̢̛̥̉̀ ̷̛̺͖w̶̨͋ȃ̶̢͕̃s̷̢̤̦̀̊̈́͘ ̵̛̥̲̰̂͂͗͜m̵̦̋̔̀y̵̮͈̼͐̋ ̸̿��̥̹͕̦̄b̴͉͔̑͂̓ṛ̵̇̿̇o̵͖͎̗̰̊̾ẗ̶͙́̈́͑̀͜ͅh̶̢̺͉̖͌̔̓͝e̶̬͍̝̞͛r̵̗̩͛̐̂,̶̤͎͎̉̊̎ ̸̨̖͉̬̇͑̈̅h̸͇̏į̴͉̄̚s̷̨̝͈̽̓̅ ̴̟̩̃f̵̦͖̩͂̏ȉ̸̡̯̳̈́̈̾ś̶͙̺ṭ̵̜̯̭̓,̸̮̭̇̓ ̸͚̜̃̑ḿ̷̻͈̓y̸̡͌̊̓ ̵̞̈́̇c̷͍̘͌̃͜͠h̵͖̉͘e̸̮͙̊̎ş̵͚̚t̸̡̗́̈́͋̑͜,̸̜͋͠͝ ̷̧̣͎̙̓͌͝͝a̴̖̥̅n̶̡̯͆d̶̢̠͛̿ ̵̭̈́I̴͎͚̺̥͆̋̕ ̸̧̥͙̦̔w̷̭̐̈́å̵̢̙͔s̷̖̋̿ ̶̫̘̾͊l̴̨̧̙̐́a̸͎̹͕͕̔̓̾y̷̧͈͖͚̌̀̂̊i̴̠̝͗͌̕͘n̵͙̻͌̄g̸̛̥̯̹̫͝ ̷̣̔̋̀͠ọ̸̀̾̃̃n̵̰͐ ̷̼̄͂͗m̴̟͘y̵̩̻̺̪̎̽̐ ̴͔̹̀b̸̛͆ͅa̵̡̧̬̓c̴͇͝k̸̢̐̍̏́ ̸̼̠̳͕̑̃̏͝ä̷̫̣̂̓͝n̴̫̬̐ḓ̵̎̈͝ ̶̦͈̈́̆̓͜t̵̨͗̎̈h̶̭̗͔̣̋̑̆̕ę̷͈̗̰͑ ̷̛̪͎̞͒͌͝s̵̼̝̽͝͠ͅk̶̰̠̥̔͘y̸̝͐̆̓̈́ ̷͉͖̳̀̈w̸̛͇̝̭̺ȁ̶̳̥̰̐̉̄s̴͙̊̈ͅ ̶̟̐̿b̴̭̞͗̔̓l̴͉̰̓ų̴̒̓͘e̴͍̟̐̋,̷̡̀̎ ̷͈̈́̈́̉a̴͈̠̓n̴̽̾̊͜ͅd̴͙͍͇̲̾ ̴͇̭̩́̂͐m̸̛̭͉̈̒͂ỳ̴͙͔͉̾͂̽ ̴̻̙̊͝m̴̨̽̚o̵͍̠͆̓t̸̡̻͖̫̉̈́h̴̛̗̺̖̾ë̶̖r̷̥͗ ̵̟̱̞͖̎̿̒͝ḥ̷̂o̷̧̓̓ļ̵̻̜̊̇l̵̖̬̹͑ḛ̴͚̈̕r̵̪͈͈̭̄̈́̃́ȩ̴͇̥̽d̴̨̼͓̿̽͂ ̴̻͎̬̩̔͐́a̴̫͔͐̃̽t̶̩̏̏ ̷̦̭͋ȟ̴̺͚̤͖ḭ̸̝̺̐̆͗m̶̞̄̋͘͠ ̶͌ͅá̶͉̜̜̪̈́̆͂ń̵̘̪̮̉̃d̸͔̥̟͌͂͗͝ ̶̛̺̪̲̩́̑t̸͓̱͐̀͗͊h̴̠̮̄̐̽͝ę̶͔̏̈́̄͝ ̷̗̖̌̉͝ͅb̷̭̄̚u̷̮̎̇̃̀l̸͉̣̓l̵̦̺̟̔͗̾͜͝è̴̡͔̝̲̑͌ț̵̮̽ ̵͎̗̏̀ȟ̷̹̝͕̀́ȃ̷̪͒̋͜d̸̞̤͕̦̈́̑͠͝ ̸̻̤͆̈́̊͝n̶̼̆͌̑̈́ē̷̳͔̝͙͌́́v̷͍͙̻̘̈́ẽ̷̗̞̳̓͝͝ͅr̴̾̽͜͠ ̵̣̜̂̌͠ͅh̷̦̜̦͚̓i̴͓̠͖͐ţ̸̂̋̿̾ ̶͕̑̕̚ͅm̴̛̥̈́ế̸̟̠͔̳,̵̱͖̳̲̊ ̷̨͍͛a̶̗̞͝n̵̯͇̿̏̚d̸̙͎̭͆͊͠ ̶̬͍͐̇t̴̢̛̲̖̟h̴̙̿͗̎͜è̷͖̱̞́̇̀ ̵͉̆͘l̷̡̬̀̌̌̒e̷̢͋̈̃̓͜g̷̢̢͉͜͝ï̵̟͈͉̞̇̆̐o̴̺̜̒́̔͜n̸͉̏͌ṇ̷̀͝a̶̡̖̓̽͛̍i̸̬̮͂͋̕r̵̲̗̈ë̶̮́ ̵̨̣̓ẅ̷̲̹͓̗͗h̵̻͉̠̱͑̓o̶̹̱̺͉̕ ̶͖̝͚̎͆̂̓s̸̛̛̰͓͜h̵̤̐o̵̭̝̹̅̇͑͜͝t̴̠͊̋̾͐ ̴̠̰̞̟̇͒̾͠ḿ̸̟̤̗͈̊͗ȩ̸̟̏ ̸̻̀h̴͕͈̹̾͛͌̓a̵̻̬̝̰̅͛d̵̨̘̀ ̷̢̹͉͑̿͜n̷̯͔̏͊̌o̷͙̟͔̍t̸̢̮͖̋ ̶͈̞̀̒ͅy̸̠͈͋̿e̷̮̬͍͂͛̑t̵̝̓͐͜ͅ ̶̨̛͓̌̐͐p̵̳̏̎̌̕͜u̴̗̎́̉l̵̢̩̩͇̆̍l̴͚͗̀̔̅e̵̞̼̐̎́d̶̜̲̃͊̈́̚ ̴̨̡͍̀̀̚̚t̶̘͙̤͙̍͋̚͝h̷̢̯͋è̵̹̳͑͒ ̴̳͋t̷̰́r̸̛̭̭̪ĩ̵̯̭̄̄g̶̻̹̥̅͛̀͠g̴͍͓̻̑̿̈́ͅẽ̴̦̞͚̾̀r̴̥̖͈̭̂͆,̷͖͕̊͜͜ ̵̧̤̪̻́̕â̵̯͂n̶͖̊͝d̶͉̠̭̠͆͂ ̵̗̫̪̬͘͠s̸̫̫̱̫̚o̴̡̤̘͊͒̈́ ̸̙̯͋̋ͅÍ̸͕̃ ̶̬͂́͆͝k̵̬̻̊̀̋͝ï̵̪̫̖̜ḻ̶̡͐̈́̂̄l̴͍͎̘̙̊̐̅͠e̵͛ͅd̸͎̰̋̊̾ ̴͇͖̗̃̽͠ḩ̴̟̓̀͆̕ĩ̸͚͐̆ṃ̵̧͍͙̊.̴̮̰͗̓ ̵͈̿̄͐Ḯ̴͖͎̊ ̸͓͍̮̲̀͝͠ḏ̶̘̲̐͋̕r̷͍̔͜a̴̧̛n̵̘̾͗͝k̷̰̋͑͝ ̵̪͙͎̆ḑ̴̱͙̔̈ë̸̙̝́̿͝ë̴̻̓͝p̷͖͔̔̎̎ ̵̢̪̣́͆͠ȁ̴̭n̵̡̧̗͒̌d̸͉̠̔͘ ̴̺͔̠̟́ḵ̵̫̈́̀͛̕ḯ̸̪l̵̠͋̂͋ͅl̸̼̯̬̲͛e̸̯̯̿͜ͅd̶͚͚͕̺́ ̵͎̩̃h̶̪͚̏̚î̵̩͍͍̲̒͗m̵͈͘ͅ.̷͚̼̪̺͐̈́”̶͙̌̊͝

[thebladeblaster]

This kills me😅. We all know he has Shido’s voice, but it’s also their voices too.

Now I can’t I unhear Flynn as Nazeem and you can’t either. I can definitely hear him in Nurarihyon and Speedwagon. Also he’s Mikoto Suoh and Hawkmoth.

[gundamsanyoutub]

(PS4) GUNDAM EXTREME VS. MAXIBOOST ON - 00 SEVEN SWORD G

[wordsandrobots]

Huh. Actually -- since I'm stuff home sick and my brain refuses to shut up and let me sleep -- apropos of reblogging @superhelltubedotsys' post citing Barbatos Lupus Rex's status as a werewolf Gundam, I'm now thinking about the significance that has within Iron-Blooded Orphans (some spoilers follow).

Because Barbatos the demon has no association with wolves in the Ars Goetia. The nearest applicable part is "He giveth understanding of the singing of Birds, and of the Voices of other creatures, such as the barking of Dogs", which is fitting for Mikazuki and plays into the comparison between mobile armour Hashmal and a bird, but pointedly does not imply 'appears as a giant fuck-off wolf monster with a knife-tail'. That description would seem more appropriately applied to Amon, the immediately prior demon, number seven: "He appeareth like a Wolf with a Serpent’s tail, vomiting out of his mouth flames of fire . . ."

But of course, Gundam Barbatos' steady revision towards the Lupus Rex form is a drift away from its initial design. Exactly how much influence the Ars Goetia descriptions had on the Gundam project and how much they were just used as a naming convention is a little up in the air. Some do seem to be applicable (Zagan being a 'bull with gryphon wings', Flauros switching between the forms of a leopard and a man, etc.). Others . . . well, Bael is supposed to appear as either a toad, a cat, or a man, or all three at once, and while that has some applicability to McGillis' whole deal, it's not really a match for Gundam Bael's angelic form. Nor do the Gundam's abilities evoke demon!Bael's power to render someone invisible. However, I think we can safely conclude that, in-universe at least, the goetic demons are only pertinent to the Gundams' initial appearances and capabilities.

Barbatos' revisions throughout Season 1 are instead a gradual cannibalisation of various different sources of technology and weapons to get it back into fighting shape (Teiwaz technically restores it to its original appearance, but that doesn't last past the Dort arc; thereafter, we're back to bolting on any spare armour going). Barbatos Lupus then represents a significant step towards redefining it in line with the Chief's goal of creating an 'ultimate' version based on Mika's battle data, with Barbatos Lupus Rex being the end-point for that progression.

Put simply, Barbatos gradually becomes more and more tailored to Mikazuki, specifically. To digress for a moment, this forms a big part of my reasoning that Mika being able to use the katana properly at the climax of Season 1 represents the influence of Barbatos' original pilot; after this, he ditches that kind of weapon entirely. Even while fighting Hashmal, he reaches for the biggest club available (technically, a broad-sword, but so ridiculously huge nobody could call it a precision weapon). It's another interesting detail that Mika can't beat Ein in their final face-off by fighting like himself, which comes back around again as the back half of Season 2 kicks into gear.

Anyway, my point is this: being a werewolf is not inherently part of Barbatos' deal. Rather it represents Mikazuki's growing influence -- as you might thematically expect for a union with a character named after the moon (crescent moon, specifically, though I can't imagine the association wasn't intended given Tekkadan are wolf-coded in the text). And that's fascinating because as I've written about before, Barbatos and Mikazuki are the most blatant example of a devil's bargain in the show. The kid literally sells and arm and a leg (and an eye) for the power Barbatos can give him. And yet, the bestial aspects Barbatos takes on are rooted in Mika.

There's an echo of Gundam Wing's 'Gundams are a curse' refrain in IBO. These machines bring bad luck to everyone who pilots them, as a function of representing humanity subsumed by war. The inherent gamble of the Alaya-Vijnana, the overwhelming nature of the conflict they were built to end, the fact Gundams are never sufficient on their own to change the world -- it forms an unspoken counter-argument to McGillis' zealous faith in their status as symbols of transformation that is actually very in keeping with the demonological tradition from which they take their names. What they offer is costly and potentially damning, while also largely illusory when it comes to anything other than utter destruction. Indeed, Mikazuki is a living testament to how 'cursed' their pilots are.

It just happens that he was able to curse Barbatos back.

Because that's what Barbatos Lupus Rex is, isn't it? Put side by side with its original form, this is a clear degradation of a proud warrior into a savage beast. The same design elements persist, of course, yet by the end, it's near impossible to picture Barbatos as an elegant fighter making precision strikes with a honed sword. It has become a true berserker, tearing into its opponents with teeth and claws (well, claws and knife tail). As Tekkadan in general tend to, Mikazuki strips away the affectations of nobility and 'honourable' warfare in favour of brutal reality.

The detail of the Lupus Rex form merging parts of a mobile armour into a Gundam only heightens this. Weapons are weapons, whoever they serve and whatever guise they wear. Mikazuki is always honest about that. His awed response to Hashmal is of a piece with how easily he fits within Barbatos. He sees himself as equivalent to them -- has, in fact, constructed his entire identity around being so.

Thus, the lycanthropy he inflicts on Barbatos is of a kind that merely reveals the truth lurking under the skin. It was always an instrument of devastation. Now it looks the part.

[tinyozlion]

“Tallgeese”: Why Is It Called That?

Okay, so, I have a theory. 

 Bear with me a moment.  As far as I know, I’m the only person who thinks this might be the reason why the Tallgeese is called Tallgeese; I don’t know if it’s the RIGHT reason, but at least it's an explanation I think is etymologically and contextually feasible:

--If I may draw your attention to my man Tallgeese’s shield for a moment: you will see that it is a small, round buckler. Tallgeese is styled with a very fetching crest reminiscent of a Greek hoplite, and hoplites did indeed carry a round shield called an aspis. 

(Image from the Harvard collection)

However! There is another kind of small, round shield that was used in less ancient times called a targe, or targa, or the diminutive target, where we get the word “target" from. The targe was a shield used largely for jousting and dueling– something the Tallgeese excels at!

When full plate armor was developed around the late 14th century, knights switched from using large, triangular shields, to the smaller and variously shaped targe shields, specifically for the sport of jousting¹. If you're looking at shields from medieval Europe in a museum you'll see a lot of fancy-shaped ones labeled targes.

Much later, it became synonymous with the Scottish targe, which is a regular combat shield and not a jousting shield, but it shares the same name and more importantly, is a small, round buckler typically used with a sword-- like the Tallgeese uses!

(A Highland targe exhibited in the National Museum of Scotland)

--Which leads me to my main point:

If you were looking up cool words for round or otherwise knightly shields, you might well come across the word “targe”. And if you pass the word “targe”(especially if you pronounce the final ‘e’) or “targes” through a Japanese phonetic filter, you might well get something close to “Tōrugisu” (トールギス), which is the name of our mobile suit.

…It might not be the canonical explanation for the Tallgeese’s name (to the best of my knowledge, there isn’t one²) but at least it’s slightly more relevant to its theming than is a waterfowl of alarming height-- though perhaps only a tenth as horrifying on the field of battle. 

...Still I hear it in my dreams; the fell slapping of orange feet, the distant honk, the snapping beak...

________________

1) "The Seven Shields of Behaim: New Evidence": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 30, Nickel, Helmut (1995)

2) The Gundam Fan Wiki states in its Trivia section that: “The name Tallgeese is derived from the word "theurgist" (トールギスト), a ritualist who attempts to channel divine power to work miracles”. This is apparently from one of the SD Gundam games? Anyway, I find this source to be INCREDIBLY DUBIOUS.

[fortitude-nine-point-eight]

Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Episode 6, Seven Swords

[gremoria411]

A question I've been half-pondering since you posted some of your thoughts of G-Witch -- are there any series that you think do particularly neat things with design lineages (either aesthetically or otherwise)?

Obviously in G-Witch, you've got this lovely variety in mobile suit design, with each corporation having a different, easily-identifiable style. But there's also things like how both styles of 'suit in Gundam Wing (Gundams and Leos et al) trace back to Tallgeese, so you have a 'progenitor' mecha running around.

Oooh, that is a fun one. Off the top of my head I can think of around two series that do really interesting things with Mobile Suit Design Lineages, Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans and Mobile Suit Gundam 00, but Gundam Wing, Witch From Mercury, SEED and the Universal Century in General all have examples worth discussing.

Note: I hit the character limit here, so this post’ll just be part one, and contains my thoughts on 3/4 of the main units in 00. I’ll talk about the fourth and other series in a subsequent post.

Admittedly, most of these are the titular Gundam’s design lineage, but there’s enough grunts that are worth discussing too.

First of all, Gundam 00

I’ll fully admit the above graphic is overkill for what I’m going to actually be discussing, but I think the design lineages of the four main Gundam’s is very very good, because each unit is clearly delineated into a speciality. (I’m gonna define them by their Third Generation Entry, since that’s the ones in the first season of the show).

Exia - Blue, with a focus on close quarters combat (I.E. Swords, to the point its original developmental code was “Seven Swords”).

Dynames - Green, with a focus on long range and sniping.

Kyrios - Orange, a transforming mobile suit that has high mobility.

Virtue - Black and White (sometimes with purple), Initially seems to be the Heavy Weapon Gundam, then later you realise it’s just full of absolute bullshit. It’s great I love it.

The second season, movie and side manga all add to this development line, so you can see how each concept develops over time. It also provides alternate equipment options for the main units, variants on a theme if you will. (I’m going to ramble a lot here, so I’ll identify which unit I’m talking about in bold).

Exia, for example, is the melee Gundam, one of two Gundam’s designed to primarily deal with any traitors to Celestial Being (I should do an analysis post on 00 sometime……, anyway). It accomplishes this by incorporating weaponry specifically designed to get around GN defences which, at the time of its inception, is unique to celestial being (this is why it’s got solid swords in addition to beam weapons). Its immediate predecessor, the Astraea, is probably the most stable of the original second-generation gundams - it’s designed for melee combat and doesn’t incorporate much experimental systems into the mobile suit itself. Because of this stability, it’s typically used for testing weaponry slated for other Gundam’s, such as the proto GN Launcher. This is further evidenced when it’s modified into the Astraea F by the Celestial Being support organisation Fereshte, since it’s the mobile suit of choice for that organisation when circumstances don’t demand a different unit, again because of that versatility. The Exia’s successor is the 00 Gundam (which I habitually just roll into the 00 Raiser, since it’s only around for about three episodes). The 00 Gundam is fitted with two GN Drives instead of the standard one, which should give in a far greater output. In practice, it needs to be fitted with the 0 Raiser, a little stabilisation plane thing, in order to run stably. This becomes the standard loadout for the Gundam, and it becomes the 00 Raiser. The 00 Raiser has slightly less swords than its predecessor the Exia, but makes up for this by incorporating the Raiser Sword, which essentially turns the entire Gundam into a sword hilt. The 00 Gundam’s Variants, the 00 Seven Swords and XN Raiser are essentially the 00 Gundam with even more swords and bladed weapons bolted to the frame (I’d like to specifically call out the Seven Swords for having GN Katars, which is just neat, honestly). As Setsuna’s penultimate suit, we have the 00 Quanta, which dares to ask the question “laser-shooting psychic swords?”, and can also freely teleport, just in case you thought distance was going to make this easier. The 00 Quanta Full Saber is probably what you’d expect by this point - the 00 Quanta with a bunch of extra swords strapped to it. (The ELS Quanta’s not, strictly speaking, a combat Gundam, so I tend to look at it as its own thing). The Exia line starts off basic, but eventually takes the concept of “sword” to greater and more ridiculous levels.

Dynames, is a sniper, but it develops very differently to the other Gundams. The original Dynames and its successor Cherudim were developed for Neil Dylandy, an excellent sniper. However, the Cherudim and its successors were piloted by Neil’s brother Lyle instead. Lyle was not as good a sniper as his brother, and so his Gundam’s were subsequently reconfigured in order to be more effective in large-scale combat - rapid fire rifles and submachine guns as opposed to “true sniping”. So, though the line shares several visual elements and retains a focus on ranged combat, it changes with its pilot.The Dynames was armed rather simply - a sniper rifle and two pistols, with supplemental armour being added. This is likely a direct response to its predecessor, the Sadalsuud. The Sadalsuud is notable for two reasons - it was configured more as an information-gathering unit than a combat machine, and it was notably lacking in armour. The Sadalsuud F incorporated a pinpoint GN Field in order to get around this issue, but the Dynames simply incorporated more armour as a result (likely due to practicality). The Gundam Cherudim, Dynames successor, incorporated missile pods and GN shield bits in addition to its pistols and sniper rifle, with its GWHW/R pack adding GN Rifle bits to the mix, giving the Cherudim far more guns to use. Another equipment pack, the Cherudim SAGA, even went so far as to be a “Seven Guns” counterpart to the Exia’s “Seven Swords” philosophy. Lastly, there is the Gundam Zabanya, which incorporated GN Rifle Bits and GN Holster bits, casting off its original sniping specialisation for a mass battle focus. “You don’t need to be a better shot, you need to shoot more bullets”, indeed. The Dynames line shows the progression from scout, to sniper, to more sniper, to Gundam with a billion guns. This is directly due to the influence of its pilot and the difference between the brothers - Neil’s a Sniper, Lyle’s a Gunslinger and so the line is adjusted accordingly.

The Kyrios is probably the simplest to talk about, since it was piloted by Allelujah/Hallelujah Haptism and was designed to maximise its aerial profile. The Kyrios itself was armed with beam sabers, a beam submachine gun and claw shield, with various optional missile packs, typically used in quick strikes. Its immediate predecessor, the Aubulhool, was barely a mobile suit at all, being essentially a proof-of-concept for the transformation mechanism. Nonetheless, it would also be used as a quick strike craft by celestial being when required. The Arios is essentially the Kyrios but more so - it has a new rifle, and the original beam submachine guns and claw shield have now been integrated into the mobile suit itself. The GWHW/M pack gives it a missile pod and swaps the rifle out for a GN Cannon. The Arios is also unique in that it incorporates a support mech - the GN Archer, which is essentially a smaller, simpler Arios for all intents and purposes (it’s not on the chart, but it was adapted from the Gundam Artemie, the bee-looking Gundam at the top-right). The Arios Ascalon is essentially the Arios fitted with various pieces of equipment originally slated for other units - a GN sword from the Exia, missiles from the Dynames and a GN Launcher from the Virtue. This makes it far more versatile, while still retaining its excellent mobility. It’s another one I’m quite fond of, simply because I find the versatility appealing. That and I think the Arios looks good in red. The last unit in the line is the Gundam Harute - designed from the ground-up as a two-man space superiority fighter. It’s also designed to leverage the abilities of its two/three super-soldier pilots, incorporating the Marute Mode which allows its pilots to fight in-sync (it’s…. Not quite clear how it does this, but 00 runs with the “quantum innovators understanding” stuff quite a bit, so I’m not too concerned). The Harute also incorporates GN Sword Rifles, which are scissor gun-swords (fun), as well as GN Scissor bits and a nice lovely missile container on the rear. Kyrios and its derivatives are largely concerned with doing the same thing - a fast attack plane that’s also a Gundam. It’s a very good, very achievable concept, so it’s neat seeing how the line develops over time. I’d like to note that the Harute is basically a culmination of everything that came before it, but considering I’m quite fond of it, perhaps I’m a little biased there.

I’ll talk about Virtue and other series in a follow up to this post, since I managed to hit the character limit for the first time.

But in essence, I think 00 does interesting things with its Gundam Design Lineages because each unit has a specific role, so it’s interesting seeing how they develop within that role, and seeing how their pilots influence them. The vast amount of other units added in supplemental material further sheds light on the in-universe development patterns and general “goals” of each unit. Exia retains the sword focus, but takes it in more esoteric directions as Setsuna himself moves toward his awakening as an innovator, Dynames undergoes a shift from sniping to gunslinging when its original pilot dies and celestial being replaced him with his brother (which is a very weird process, now that I think about it). Kyrios basically hits the nail on the head first time with its mobility and fast attack focus, with Arios basically just adding armaments, however his eventual understanding with Marie enables the addition of the GN Archer and eventual development of the Zabanya, which raises its mobility to even greater heights. On the other side of the coin, the units seen during 00P and 00F provide context for their successors - what worked and what didn’t, and how they developed.

[jaybuilds]

You ever notice that the 30MM Energy Weapon kit has a real Gundam Seven Sword vibe to it?

I didn’t paint any of this, nor modify any of the parts; mainly wanted to see what I could come up with, using just stock parts alone.

[thedragonchilde]

G Gundam meta notes part seven, eps 39-44:

"The Ruthless Fight! Schwarz's Last Match"

-Schwarz is Domon's "surrogate master", huh

-NO KILL LIKE OVERKILL, DAMN, WONG

-drop that bombshell, Dr Mikamura!

-yeah Dr M seems very proud of Rain's “strong sense of responsibility”, I bet he encouraged that when she was growing up

-Akino can GET IT

-you know, they frame this Schwarz/Rain scene quite romantically, probably on accident

-the gang’s all here! And hm, Schwarz faced and beat the other Shuffles offscreen

-Sai agrees with me that Akino is hot

-interesting that Rain is still recognizable with the full mask and uniform, but Schwarz isn't

-the announcer is so chipper about such shitty circumstances, I love her

-it's okay, Rain, it makes sense that you wanna help even though you're mad at Domon - that Gundam is your baby

-Kyoji hasn't aged in twelve years, what the fuck

-”I finally realize I've been watching only you” really? You only just noticed, Rain?

-”and the strength of your love” that feels premature

-once again, “stronger together” is a lesson you keep learning and forgetting over and over, ugh

-there's a lot to dissect with this relationship in this episode specifically and I'm struggling with the words, but let's try

-from Domon's side, I can't help but notice his double-down eschewing of any support comes hot on the heels of his encounter with Master and being told that he should rely on his fists and not his emotions, so maybe he went too far the other way and took it as "right, emotional ties are stupid and get in the way"? Or tried to, anyway, because he's obviously very bad at this

"Battle Royal Begins! Devil Gundam Revived"

-from Rain's end, although we want to shout at her for thinking she needs to apologize when Domon was the one being a jerk, her explanation tells us that this is the culmination of an issue she's been dealing with at least since Allenby's been on the scene

-oh fuck me, Domon has such pretty brown eyes

-huh. It makes a certain kind of sense for someone going into a life-threatening situation to put off a love confession. Don't wanna admit to something you may not be around to act on. It's interesting that he's planning it though! I wonder how he would've said it the way he planned

-that was poetic, Sai

-”a fighter we all know” I guess Chibodee's famous even in comparison to the others?

-George pulling a Tuxedo Mask

-"AND NASTASHA"

-shame we never got a name for the announcer

-I was going to say who got to the battle royale shows who the rich countries are, but on second thought it's mostly down to who Wong enabled

-where did Rain get that uniform? 

-she's pretty cute with her hair up

-okay that is some unsettling animation for the DG reemergence

"Assault of the Four Evil Kings! Gundam Heaven's Sword"

-I love the dub’s confusion on what Michelo’s bird is called

-Mikamura was about to kill him!!

-”my hatred exploded!”

-okay, THIS is the juicy shit I'm here for! What starcrossed-families drama! What a petty reason to cause so much suffering for so many people!

-Schwarz would've been toast if Rain hadn't snuck in

-okay, the electrification scene is pretty brutal

-why would she thank you for calling her names? That's not “manners”, kids

-”the bonds we have as the Shuffle Alliance bring us together” they sure do! :)

-Rain cradling Schwarz’s jacket is quite the visual

-did she hurry up and program her MTS stats into Rising? 

-I love that they just know when they're gonna do a combination attack without actually talking about it

-I always giggle at sparkly Argo

-"C'mere, crazy bird! I'll make fried chicken outta ya!" He doesn't speak much, but it's priceless when he does

"Royal Counterattack! Ambush of the Grand Gundam"

-Nastasha reacts immediately after getting told something's a bad omen. Between that and the bit in a previous episode about a shooting star being bad luck on the colony, I see our logician has a superstitious streak!

-hell yeah, Shirley! Use that… engineering? My science skills are lacking

-I'm dying to know how she learned this actually

-"Stay alive!" gets me every fucking time

-"Helped by your friend again, I see. Still can't fight on your own!" See, this is the shit I was talking about!! Master Asia is putting some shitty ideas in Domon's head - and depending on how long he's felt this way about teams/friendships, was he a crappy Shuffle in his day? Or does he proclaim this because the Shuffle relationship fell apart?

-"how could I lose track of my bullets?" Gee, I wonder!!

-they both stowed booze in their cockpits ehehe

-"in the arms of the woman I love" which is,,, who, exactly, bro? This feels a little gratuitously "have I mentioned I am heterosexual today" tbh, or a censoring of polyamory if you wanna go that route

-no regrets, huh Chibodee? Done everything you wanted to do? That's,,, kind of sad actually

-"I woulda socked you in your conceited pretty face" :)

-Marie-Louise has no fear of death, pass it on

-okay, so George is the head of the family, that tells us he definitely doesn't have a dad 

-I wonder where they got a grenade

-George is the Hulk

-Chibodee admired Chapman, interesting

"Schwarz Rests in Grace! Domon's Tearful Attack"

-and it's cool to see his sharpshooting

-"simply too old for this" isn't he like fuckin 50

-you love him, Allenby? You've known him for a month, tops; you've imprinted on him like a baby chick! Not that I can blame you

-Domon has an "obedient nature"

-interesting that Schwarz sees Domon as obedient and Rain sees him as disobedient

-this boy's life is tragedy upon tragedy

-"Allenby of the Darkness" okay Wong, I don't believe in cringe, but you're pushing it

-Domon has the “perfect body”, does he, Master

-”remember the Shuffle Alliance crest on your hand” I wonder if Domon is thinking in this moment about how, as far as he knows, he's the only Shuffle remaining

-given the chance I could probably wax a little poetic on the 'crews with fallen fighters' shots 

-though now I wonder how they pulled through

"Farewell Master: Master Asia's Last Breath"

-this is another scene I have to watch peeking through my fingers, that red-hot pathos hits just right

-It never fucking ends for Domon, does it

-I really need to dig into how Master is able to control the gundam without ever suiting up

-Master bringing the worldbuilding themes together

-wait, Master knows it was a malfunction and still thinks it's a good idea? 

-”the Berserker system isn't working, why haven't you become normal again?” Have you forgotten about the DG cells so quickly?

-Dr Mikamura pledging to clear everything up is sad in context. How are they gonna fix everything?

-seriously, 'communicating with your fists' is so frickin cool!!

-Domon may not be at ease with his own emotions, but he's more perceptive than he realizes (though, I think I've said this before, only when he's paying attention)

-”the sad beautiful sound of souls” that's lovely coming from you, Chibodee

-anything that is allowed to be unashamedly emotional and poetic, and show that those things aren't at odds with masculinity, makes me feel some kind of way

-wait, you just said to watch out, but now you're refusing to move?

-y'all are foolhardy - did Sai get closer to the action?

-OM NOM GIMME THAT GOOD BLACK JOKER

-it occurs to me that the destruction of Earth started before the Gundam Fight, given the exodus to the colonies in the first place

-Lord Almighty, this is tragic for everyone involved and I am eating it up

[etes-secrecy-post]

Hi, before I explain my post, I want to say something important.

• What you see my blog has become a major overhaul. And despite the changes, I decided that my 2nd account will be now my artwork blog with a secret twist.

⚠️NEW RULE! (W/ BIGGER TEXT!)⚠️

⚠️ SO PLEASE DO NOT SHARE MY 2nd ACCOUNT TO EVERYONE! THIS SECRECY BLOG OF MINE IS FOR CLOSES FRIENDS ONLY!⚠️

• AND FOR MY CLOSES FRIENDS, DON’T REBLOG IT. INSTEAD, JUST COPY MY LINK AND PASTE IT ON YOUR TUMBLR POST! JUST BE SURE THE IMAGE WILL BE REMOVED AND THE ONLY LEFT WAS THE TEXT.

⚠️ SHARING LINKS, LIKE POSTS, REBLOG POSTS, STEALING MY SNAPSHOT PHOTOS/RECORDED VIDEOS/ARTWORKS (a.k.a. ART THIEVES) OR PLAGIARIZING FROM UNKNOWN TUMBLR STRANGERS WILL IMMEDIATELY BE BLOCKED, RIGHT AWAY!⚠️

😡 WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EVER LIKED & REBLOG MY SECRET POST! THIS IS FOR MY SECRET FRIENDS ONLY, NOT YOU! 😡

Okay? Capiche? Make sense? Good, now back to the post…↓

#Onthisday: Nov 21st, 2010

Title: Exia MuruKir

Yeah, I remember this moment when I was pumped up to see the premier of "Mobile Suit Gundam 00" on Cartoon Network Southeast Asia (Philippines). ⬛⬜📺🇵🇭 Thus, I decided to draw MuruKir suited up with his former armor before he gave it to a suitable character, years later. Namely, Comet from "Astroblast". But, you'll see him, someday. As well as its entire information. 😊

Nonetheless, this former armor of his was based on the GN-001 Gundam Exia from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 [CLICK ME!]. 🤖😁

Armament(s):

• GN Shield (attached to left forearm) • GN Vulcan x 2 (mounted on wrists) • Seven Swords System • GN Beam Dagger x 2 (stored on rear waist) • GN Beam Saber x 2 (stored on rear shoulders) • GN Long Blade (stored on hip) • GN Short Blade (stored on hip) • GN Sword (attached to right forearm)

Special Equipment and Feature(s):

• Optical Camouflage • Trans-Am System

MuruKir (Kirby OC) - created by ME! Armor (Mobile Suit Gundam 00) - Gundam series © Bandai Namco Filmworks, Inc. (SUNRISE), Sotsu

[kachikirby]

SD Gundam Gaiden Knights of the Round Table - Chapter 1: The Prince's Return

"There is one other story in the Saddrac World..."

"Britis Castle…FATHER!!!"

Crown Gundam is escorted from the burning Britis Castle by a knight named Formula (F90). The kingdom had been attacked by the Zabylonia empire and Crown needs to escape or he will be killed.

"For a kingdom of peace and justice like Britis to fall to Zabylonia…prince, justice will not always win…" "Justice has lost..?" "Justice means a good heart and correct use of power…in either case… justice has lost…"

The two are confronted by Evil Knight Zaku S. Formula tells Crown to head to the lake, a crazy idea as Zaku S says the MS Clan will drown in water. Formula jumps in with him, saying to have courage, as he will need it and the Knights of the Round to revive Britis.

Zaku S gloats, believing that the prince is dead and then a monster comes out of the water saying that Britis is not yet destroyed. Zabylonia continues their invasion, but they continue to hunt for the missing prince.

Seven years later, a Wiseman named Antonio is thrown out of a bar for being a drunk that talks about the fall of Zabylonia and revival of Britis. GM says that talking bad about Zabylonia will cause their monsters to attack. Then exactly that happens.

The village chief was attacked and robbed by Theif Kai. Theif Kai takes the chief's pendant and is also attacked. They also set the house on fire.

"Antonio, can't you use water magic?!" "I'm a wiseman. I can't use magic."

Then they turn to the rest of Belfast village and plan to set it on fire as well. This angers Antonio enough for him to take action by summoning Crown Gundam, turning his staff into the Vatras Sword. One of the monsters try to attack him, but he is stopped..

By GM!! GM reveals himself to be Crown Knight Gundam, the missing prince. Crown is fine with Antonio releasing his seal three years earlier than intended, and the Zabylonia force reacts as expected. Crown counters as expected.

Zaku S escapes, but he now knows where Crown is.

The battle begins.

End of Chapter 1.

Table of Contents

Next Chapter ->

[legend-of-zelda-voices]

Compilation Post

Yū Shimamura

Part 2

Other LoZ Roles: Princess Zelda (BotW)

(A few pictures on the right aren't LU, but they are by jojo56830)

First Role as Zelda: Skyward Sword

LoZ-Related Roles: Hyrule Warriors

Main LU character: Sky's Zelda (Sun)

Alternate LU Voice for: Wild's Zelda (Flora)

Some characters with the same voice:

Annie Leonhart (Attack on Titan), Haruka Haruno/Cure Flora (Precure), Female Team Plasma Grunt (Pokémon Black/White 2 Animation Trailer), Akiko Yosano (Bungo Stray Dogs), Shinobu Kawajiri (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), Asuka Hiragi (Tokyo Xanadu), Aelita Schaeffer Jpn. Dub (Code Lyoko), Gliss Jpn. Dub (Tinker Bell), Siune (Sword Art Online), Gloria (Bravely Default II), Tuareninya Veyron (Overlord), Aida Surugan (Gundam), Ichi Mezato (Mob Psycho 100 III)

...

In the game:

Skyward Sword

Breath of the Wild

Also thought this was interesting. It provides a more literal translation for the memories in BotW.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Original Post

_______________________

Singing

"Shinjitsu (Sora Shiranu Mushi No Ko Yo)" from Seven Knights Revolution: Hero Successor

Translated title: "Truth (Little Bugs Who Have Never Seen the Sky)"

This song is for the character Eunomia.

The video plays a segment of the song "Truth" that contains a shortened version of another song called "Little Bugs Who Have Never Seen the Sky" (which; in the other, longer version; is sung by someone else).

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Primal Place" from Go! Princess Precure!

This song is for the character Haruka Haruno/Cure Flora.

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Sleepless Legend" from Sword Art Online

This song is for the character Siune and six others. Siune has one line to herself and the rest of the time she sings with others.

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Princess no Jōken" from Go! Princess Precure!

Translated title: "Conditions of Being a Princess"

This song is for the character Haruka Haruno/Cure Flora and three others.

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Dreamin' Bloomin'" from Go! Princess Precure!

This song is for the character Haruka Haruno/Cure Flora.

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Be a Princess☆" from Go! Princess Precure!

This song is for the character Haruka Haruno/Cure Flora.

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"Tsuyoku, Yasashiku, Utsukushiku" from Go! Princess Precure!

Translated title: "Strongly, Gently, Beautifully"

This song is for the character Haruka Haruno/Cure Flora and three others.

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Joyful! Pretty Cure Christmas" from Go! Princess Precure!

Short Version (Lines are sung by different people)

Long Version here or in original post below.

This song is for the character Haruka Haruno/Cure Flora and three others.

Original Post with Lyrics

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"Slow Starter" from Digimon Universe: App Monsters

This song is a duet between Offmon and Yuujin.

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"Ballad of the Goddess" from Skyward Sword

Skyward Sword Zelda sings in-game, of course!

The specific versions of Ballad of the Goddess where she sings are called "Opening" and "Legendary Hero."

Original Post with Lyrics

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Part 1 - Click Here

[wordsandrobots]

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (Addendum 1)

[Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Addendum 1]

Calling this the first addendum because hopefully, at some point, I'll be doing another to cover the Baklazan Family's entry in the list. In the meantime, let's take a gander at the two 'suits released to the world since I wrapped up my posts on the Gundam frames.

ASW-G-16 Zepar

(With apologies to Gundam Info, who had a higher resolution version of this image than the actual MSV site).

When I separated the Gundam frames into groups for the purposes of not having an extremely over-long blog post, they naturally fell into three groups: relatively simple designs, armed relatively simply; more busy designs featuring some kind of added gimmick; and the freaks and weirdos representing increasingly arcane strategies for beating mobile armours. Seems the official designers intend this to be an actual in-story progression since Zepar, as a low-numbered machine, neatly fits into the first category.

Excepting the 'cape' of shield-wings, Zepar is remarkably unadorned, comparable to Barbatos in its straightforwardness. That a pilot armed only with a sword and shield should have gained a position among the Seven Stars speaks to Embrilla Kujan's skill. True, the shield is motorised so it can be turned into a large-bore drill (handy). But that in itself demonstrates this Gundam did its fighting at close range, further underlining Embrilla's capability. There are undoubted similarities here to Agnika Kaieru's trademark two-sword combat style, which probably looked very good in the late-War propaganda. Indeed, few of the other Gundams seem as gloriously heroic as this in their resting appearance. Put Bael and Zepar in the same place and you're looking at a pair of elegant warriors. Champion dragon-killers, here to save the human race!

Before we get too caught up in the aesthetics, however, let's consider the realities of the Calamity War's outcome. Going by the seating plan, and assuming this maps seniority within the Seven Stars (based on the Issues being positioned at the top of the table), the Kujans and the Fareeds lie at the bottom of the heap. This would actually track quite well with Iznario Fareed's scheming. Lacking the comfortable entrenchment of, say, the Falk Family, he sought to gain other advantages by breaking Gjallarhorn's ostensive political neutrality and acquiring allies among Earth's governments.

Perhaps this also explains why the Kujan Family apparently has connections to underworld figures such as Jasley Donomikols. I'm not going to claim any of the noble families are less than extensively corrupt. Gjallarhorn bends to realpolitik at all levels. But it is notable that the Kujans should have a relationship with the JPT Trust that possibly extends as far as getting them a Halfbeak class spaceship for their boss to ride around in. Is a Jupiter mobster not a rather petty ally for a high-placed house? Or does this represent the level on which such a low-ranked member of the elite can operate?

Without knowing much about Iok's father beyond his earning the adoration of his troops and the above-mentioned connection, it's hard to say for sure. If the Kujans are indeed the runts of the Seven Stars, it seems our red-glad knight was surpassed quite comfortably by peers using different, more pragmatic strategies. Given the drive towards greater complexity in later designs, we might take this to be something the people fighting the War were themselves aware of. At some point, the base Gundam form was judged insufficient for the task at hand.

Then again, the Kujan progenitor still made a place among the seven, however lowly. And, lest we forget, the Falk's Gundam was the fourth in the sequence. The simpler machines cannot be counted out just by virtue of being simpler.

From the Ars Goetia:

The Sixteenth Spirit is Zepar. He is a Great Duke, and appeareth in Red Apparel and Armour, like a Soldier. His office is to cause Women to love Men, and to bring them together in love. He also maketh them barren. He governeth 26 Legions of Inferior Spirits, and his Seal is this, which he obeyeth when he seeth it.

There's an obvious joke in here about preventing Iok's from having been around to screw everything up. That aside, Gundam Zepar is most exactly a 'soldier in red apparel'. Further, on the theme of love, its heroic appearance and the way that Iok's father is talked about in the series seem to mesh well together. Perhaps in Zepar we see the epitome of Gjallarhorn as a positive force -- on the surface, at least.

ASW-G-61 Zagan

16 at the bottom, 61 at the top. I wonder if that was on purpose? They share a designer out of fiction, and seem to share more design cues in-universe than most other pairs of Gundams we could pick. These are perhaps the pair it is most easily to look at and say 'the second is developing on the first'.

Anyway. Gundam Zagan. Original pilot: Arzona Issue. The most prolific mobile armour killer of the Seven Stars. Perhaps *the* most prolific of all the Gundams, depending on whether we assume Bael took the actual top spot and whether the Seven Stars bagged most armours overall, not just out of the surviving pilots.

If Zepar represents simplicity of form, Zagan is a triumph of function. Its numbering places it in the top third of the 72 frames, which by my breakdown classifies it as a freak, and, well. Those aren't just shields it's got there: they're Zagan's main weapons.

With three canonical fights against mobile armours under our belts, we can safely say the goal in such encounters is to rip the 'armour to bits. Whether it be Marchosias dicing Harael with a show of expert swordsmanship, Wiz and friends ganging up to wear down Mebahiah by sheer weight of numbers, or Mikazuki clobbering Hashmal until he gets an opening to stab it in the central processor, a certain degree of dismemberment seems par for the course. This ties into the 'medieval' combat style of the show, but also fits with the general sense that the 'armours are such juggernauts, their defences need to be peeled back to expose any trace of weakness.

A Gundam outfitted with a part of giant tin-openers, therefore, feels like exactly the kind of thing you'd want on the battlefield. Moreover, in his (brief) usage of Zagan, erstwhile Issue Family-supporter Londo Bron demonstrates the sheer brute strength of the machine, effortlessly dispatching a squad of three Grazes, including one he quite literally punches to death. Like Gusion in its Brewers form, this Gundam is built thick, the limbs set wide on the frame. It's the most brutish 'suit we've seen since Gamigin and where that appeared built for heavy-lifting, this one seems designed to be a berserker. Close-range, like Zepar, but discarding swords or spears in favour of crushing force.

Again, it reads as an extension of previous attempts, pushing the envelope in the pursuit of victory. Like Murmur, this looks like a case of incorporating the enemy's strengths: those claws would be at home on a mobile armour -- riffing on Ananel, perhaps? It is certainly building on the kind of equipment Marchosias used, moving from providing auxiliary limbs to making them the Gundam's primary offensive capability (remember, Marchosias' main weapon remained its long sword/club; the other articulated blades were in addition).

What strikes me most of all is how this circles around to what Barbatos will become under Tekkadan's watch. Gjallarhorn might assay the heroic appearance of Zepar, with ornate uniforms and aristocratic trappings, a proud bearing in the face of a grubby world. But the most powerful group among their leadership for three centuries was founded by someone who flew a machine like Zagan, which would be quite at home alongside Barbatos Lupus Rex.

All kingship is rooted, ultimately, in conquest and brutality. The trappings of honour and martial splendour among which Carta Issue dies in PD 323 are a veneer over the horror of a devastating war -- and the horrors required to end it.

One has to wonder what she would have made of her ancestor in their prime, tearing armours apart with their all four of their bare hands.

From the Ars Goetia:

The Sixty-first Spirit is Zagan. He is a Great King and President, appearing at first in the Form of a Bull with Gryphon's Wings; but after a while he putteth on Human Shape. He maketh Men Witty. He can turn Wine into Water, and Blood into Wine. He can turn all Metals into Coin of the Domninion that Metal is of. He can even make Fools Wise. He governeth 33 Legions of Spirits, and his Seal is this, etc.

'Bull with gryphon's wings' is a certainly an apt description of the form and with respect to what I was just talking about, putting on a human shape 'after a while' feels like a theme to run with more than in the other metamorphoses we've read about. Indeed, there is much here to do with the transformation of baser things into the stuff of civilisation: wit, wine, coin, even wisdom. Is this not what the Issues led, the refinement of an organisation dedicated to ending a war into the bastion of a new age? Or, if we are to be cynical about it, is it any surprise a demon's production of such things should only run skin-deep?

Other reference posts include:

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 1)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 2)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (corrigendum) [mainly covering my inability to recognise mythical wolves]

IBO reference notes on … three key Yamagi scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Shino scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Eugene scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Ride scenes

IBO reference notes on … the tone of the setting

IBO reference notes on … character parallels and counterpoints

IBO reference notes on … a perfect villain

IBO reference notes on … Iron-Blooded Orphans: Gekko

IBO reference notes on … an act of unspeakable cruelty

IBO reference notes on … original(ish) characters [this one is mainly fanfic]

IBO reference notes on … Kudelia’s decisions

IBO reference notes on … assorted head-canons

IBO reference notes on … actual, proper original characters [explicit fanfic – as in, actually fanfic. None of them have turned up in the smut yet]

IBO reference notes on … the aesthetics of the mobile frame

IBO reference notes on … mobile suit designations

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 1)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 2)

IBO reference notes on … the Gundams (part 3)

IBO reference notes on … the Turbines, or ‘Tekkadan done right’

[sanshiroiv]

00 Gundam Seven Sword G

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 113 Rundown

Kaguya-sama: Love is War: So we get the traditional ‘character that hasn’t shown up for half the series but is in the OP so we know it’s coming’ intro which seems to be an oddly common thing for slice of life anime nowadays. Yu Ishigami is fun, his manic paranoia adds some energy to scenes that are basically Romantic Death Note and his hyper awareness of social cues makes up for everyone else’s total blindness to them. He’s in trouble because he can accurately tell that Kaguya can and will murder someone at the drop of a hat and has definitely had assassination training so every time he thinks about her we get a Higurashi-inspired Rena aesthetic which is just  a fun Halloween look so good timing on this episode. Then there’s a bunch of bullshit internet questions that don’t amount to much except Kaguya KOing herself with the final answer and Yu thinking he has a thing for yanderes. The last segment confused me at first because Maid Lady is apparently going to the same school as Kaguya but ninjas her way out of any of the other council members ever seeing her so they don’t know she’s there so at first I thought she was like in her early twenties so I assumed she was undercover as a high schooler and acting in a deep cover as a gyaru with her own friend group to protect Kaguya but apparently she just… goes to the school and is ordered never to interact with Kaguya which is way less cool and obtuse than what I was thinking. Anyway they do Kaguya’s nails and the rest of the segment is just a ‘will he notice the change’ deal and he does instantly but he has a little monologue about treading the line between trying to be nice and compliment people without making them think you have an overinflated right to comment on their physical appearance which hit a little too close to home for anybody that’s socially awkward because geez that’s a hard thing to figure out. Anyway things are romantically inconclusive as always but this episode was fun overall.  

Inuyasha: It’s time for Koga’s spotlight episode and I always appreciate when we get some time for the side characters to have a serious fight. Renkotsu and Ginkotsu are standing just behind the barrier on Mt. Hakurei ready to snipe Koga with Ginkotsu’s cannons and they get his legs enough to slow him down before retreating behind the barrier and spawncamping him. Also Miroku has a sideplot about being determined to grab Sango’s butt despite the barrier purifying his lewd thoughts and forcing him to respect women, it doesn’t come to anything but it’s like a third of the episode and pretty funny so I thought I’d mention it. Koga pulls a Naruto and pops out of the ground when they think he’s dead and traps them on the outside of the barrier, slashing Renkotsu and stuffing his armor into Ginkotsu’s cannons to make him blow up. Now in the manga this is how Ginkotsu dies but in the anime they extend the fight a bit which is funny because Koga even says ‘You shouldn’t be alive’ after the explosion and they just have Ginkotsu’s cannons explode and give him MORE fuck off cannons that root him to the ground but basically make him the Gundam Heavyarms and also let him shoot his torso at Koga. Since Koga’s the master of dodging this isn’t too much of a problem but Ginkotsu self-detonates and gives Renkotsu his jewel shard. Overall this is probably THE Koga fight and gives him two Band of Seven kills which is pretty decent, always love me some Koga.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Elder Toguro completes the cycle of “Kuwabara’s about to be slammed into the ground but it’s a cliffhanger” by… slamming Kuwabara into the ground, kinda anticlimactic really. Still Kuwabara’s basically a Jedi at this point and is able to call his Spirit Hilt to him and chop up Toguro on the way. Luckily not only can the guy not die but he legit cannot shut up and Kuwabara gets angry enough to just make his sword into a giant fly swatter to dice Toguro before he can play musical chairs with his organs and wins the match. Sakyo tells everyone that if Yusuke win’s the final match he’ll let himself die if Koenma will do the same making the last big worth double points which if Yusuke won they wouldn’t need another win anyway because it’d be 3-1 but if the other dude is betting his life on the match you don’t wanna look like a bitch so Koenma agrees since if Toguro wins Koenma’s definitely gonna lose anyway so it really doesn’t change anything it just makes things more dramatic so the two joke characters don’t have to decide things if the bad guy wins. Sakyo goes on for a bit to Toguro about how he’s insane and just wants to bet and kill and shit and Setsuna’s like ‘awww poor just wants to torture animals and bet on people killing each other’. Anyway the final match is here and… Elder Toguro is back and he pulled a Mayuri Kurotsuchi and did emergency liquification to… bump the betting odds in Yusuke’s team’s favor? Like Sakyo mentions this too that Yusuke’s teams’ odds are now better than Toguro’s as far as the betting pool but like it’s not like Team Toguro was pulling any punches and Elder Toguro sure looked like he was trying to win that fight so idk how much bullshit this is supposed to be or if it’s an ‘even when we lose we win’ type deal. Anyway Elder Toguro still can’t shut the fuck up and offers to turn into a weapon for Younger Toguro while talking about what a slut Genkai was (his actual words) and Younger Bro is just like ‘you know what dude shut the fuck up’ and legit kicks him into a slushie and says he’s gonna have a fair fight against Yusuke. Like idk how legal Elder Toguro being a weapon for Younger in this fight would’ve been anyway but then again Sakyo literally is the rules committee at this point so who knows.

Fate/Apocrypha: We get the bulk of Mordred’s backstory which is basically how she loved Artoria until she found out she was her dad and then was like ‘I hate you dad’ because that’s what people do in Fate is hate their dads. And then something something Camland everyone’s dead. Everyone’s like ‘hey Assassin’s acting pretty sus’ and go out to fuck her up. Astolfo’s Master is just sitting in her underwear dismembering puppets, as one does and has resolved herself to save all her Command Seals for the purposes of femdom pegging Astolfo which, I get it, but also, eww. Fran’s Master decides to not take her with him to go check out the Jack the Ripper situation because… reasons I guess, like they say he can call her with a Command Seal if needed but like just bring her, one Servant isn’t gonna matter when you have 4-5 others as well as an army of golems defending the castle. Anyway Mordred and Jack fight but Chiron interrupts them and his Master turns into Doc Ock to fuck with Lion guy while Chiron proves that Gilgamesh isn’t the rule for Archers sucking at close range and just judo flips Mordred which I guess is enough to hurt her somehow despite most Servants being able to tank anything short of orbital bombardment but I guess if you hit the ground pretty hard that’s bad too.

Nisemonogatari: We thankfully skip over the incest kiss and cut to Kiyomi having taken half of Karen’s deadly bee virus. Having been slapped with the respect women stick by having shit go down with his sister, he meets Mayoi and doesn’t sexually assault her for once which makes the little girl even wonder if he’s the same fucking person which is harsh. Their conversation doesn’t go much of anywhere except the ‘my sisters are doing stupid shit and don’t have the vampire powers to back it up like I do so they’re foolish children’ thing we’ve been doing for the past three episodes. Eventually he arrives at Hitagi’s house and is like ‘Why are you hand-sharpening a hundred pencils like you’re on your way to stab the shit out of someone?’ and she’s like ‘Because I’m on my way to stab the shit out of someone, duh’ and they agree to confront Kaiki together on one condition that Hitagi will name later which she all but says is just for dramatic tension. Kiyomi gets home and Karen is gone, guess we should’ve let her suffer under the full virus a little longer so she wasn’t well enough to bail, this is why you get for solving your problems with incest. Tsukihi doesn’t know where Kaiki’s place is to track Karen but Karen might be heading there so Kiyomi has to track her down before she fucks up the meeting Hitagi has with him in a few hours. He calls Shinobu out who says she’s going to help him in the most tsundere way possible and they get a read on her position.

Speed Grapher: We resume our program of a naked diamond lady invading a drag queen strip club to capture a teenage girl that grants billionaires super powers… god this show is weird. The girls do their best to hold her off while Kagura and Saiga escape and obviously because she’s made of diamonds camera explosions don’t work on her. They duck out through a blowjob factory and there’s a high speed chase through the city that ends with Diamond Lady Koganei stabbing her hand through both Saiga’s motorcycle and Saiga himself like three times and taking off with Kagura. We learn that Euphorics basically have a decent healing factor as Suitengu’s already recovered from Kagura’s mom blowing his kneecaps out and Saiga’s more or less shrugging off multiple stabbings after a few hours and a good meal. Saiga holds the Bloodhound guy and his goons at camera-point to get them to tell him where Koganei took Kagura. Koganei calls Bloodhound dude and tells him she’s ransoming Kagura off for crates of diamonds instead of the shit they promised her and Saiga gets the address for Koganei’s mansion from them while Bloodhound boi is ready to let his enemies fight to the death and pick off the winner. Saiga goes to his camera guy to get a meal and heal up as well as a new camera while Koganei tells Kagura her backstory. Basically her husband was a rich simp that gave her diamonds all the time because she was a gold digger and eventually took out an insurance policy on himself and died to use that money for more diamonds and she feels bad about that and basically became a diamond-consuming monster after kissing Kagura to manifest the all-consuming lust for jewels she feels killed her husband as her jaded form of punishment on herself. Saiga shows up and she gets him to drop his camera but he pulls out spray pain to act as ‘focus points’ and hit her with a couple quick shots with the camera since the paint clouds the diamond and lets the impact of the explosion hit her head on, knocking her around a bit and breaking off one of her arms. They make a break for it while she’s down and Suitengu shows up and kills her with his weird hand tattoo thing which if he had that why did she ever think she could just ransom Kagura to them? He says he’s going to sell the broken bits of her diamond body to profit off her betrayal so they’re legit selling a diamond-encrusted corpse and that’s pretty dark. Kagura’s kind of having an existential crisis that her kisses turn people into monsters and wants to know what the fuck’s going on with that and so we’ll probably look into that next episode.

Durararax2: We start with Chikage coming to visit Kadota in the hospital after they bonded over beating the shit out of each other and now he’s in on the ‘fuck up whoever ran over Dota-chin’ club, which is of course the best club to be in. Izaya also goes to the hospital to get his head examined (fucking finally) after getting knocked around because one of his henchmen is very insistent about it, though this does give him a good chance to fuck with Anri who was there to tell Erika all about her Saika powers. Izaya goes on for a bit about how he’s gonna make sure Masaomi and Mikado kill each other in this gang war and Anri debates just using Saika on him to stop it but knows it could just all be part of his plan and she may not be able to stop herself if she uses Saika in hatred like that. Meanwhile now that her puppeteer boss is dead, Kujiragi does what any mastermind villain would do… buys out the party store’s supply of cat ear headbands and heads to a café. Turns out Kujiragi’s Ruri’s sister and their grandma sold her off to Yodogiri to basically be his supernatural slave before she ended up taking over the whole empire and now she’s just kinda vibing with freedom now that she doesn’t have to keep up the act anymore. Meanwhile turns out Izaya’s gang is kind of like herding cats because they all hate his guts and just wanna fuck shit up so it’s like unleashing half a dozen Jokers on the city and Haruna and Mamiya have decided to fuck shit up proper. Haruna confronts Anri and says she’s fine with a Saika-off in the streets but for now they should probably just talk. And Celty’s guild is just starting to get their shit together when they turn on the news and find out Mamiya swiped Celty’s head from Haruna and tossed it in some random bushes just to fuck with Izaya so now Celty’s head is in play again and all over the fucking news.

[gremoria411]

Just a little on the Gundam Asmoday/Asmodeus today (it apparently could’ve been called the Ashmodai, which is neat).

Okay, so the ASW-G-32 Gundam Asmoday is found by Wistario the Erda II crew (specifically Sinister) inside an Aridne Cocoon in the Debris zone. It’s specifically noted to be essentially brand new, with no records of it fighting in the calamity war, and a full complement of weapons ready to go. Based on this, and the fact that it seems to have its reactor hooked up to the cocoon, we can gauge one of two things. Either;

The Gundam wasn’t completed until either very late in the Calamity War, or just after, and thus didn’t have an opportunity to fight against the mobile armours.

This Cocoon relay station was apparently important enough to dedicate a Gundam frame just to keep it operational.

Based on the assumption that a bunch of regular ahab reactors would probably have done the job just fine, I think it’s more likely to be a case of it being completed late.

What makes this interesting is that we only know of one other Gundam frame that was completed late in the calamity war:

The ASW-G-71 Gundam Dantalion.

Now, because this is both at the end of the series (71/72) and because it’s stated that the Dantalion had been completed late, I had previously assumed that the Gundam Frames were completed sequentially. So, the ever-elusive ASW-G-70 Gundam Seere would have been completed just prior to the Dantalion, and the 72nd Gundam would have been completed after, possibly even being completed postwar (At a guess, either the Gundam Andromalius or Gundam Pruflas/Bufas - I’d be very interested in know what happened to it, since it’s be the most likely source as to any clue to the end of the calamity war and it’s immediate aftermath). But the Asmodeus implies something quite different. Unless its deployment was delayed for whatever reason, then it’s evidence that the Gundam frames may not have been built sequentially. (I’m not sure which it would be - it doesn’t seem to have any equipment that’d be too difficult to work with, being structured as a fairly direct combatant - gigant javelin as a sort of whip-sword to attack from a distance, smoke grenades and then grand tonfa’s up close, but then there’s plenty of other reasons for it to not have seen combat).

We do, however, know that Bael was the first. Add to that the seeming increase in complexity as the numbers climb (Dantalion appears simple but it has a bunch of add-on equipment not shown above, a lot of the 50’s and 60’s-series Gundams have fancy designs or systems, especially compared to the relative simplicity of the 00’s and 10’s), and we can guess that they were at least designed sequentially, with Asmoday’s presumed delay being an exception.

However, what I also think is interesting is where it was found. Inside an Ariadne Network Cocoon, big enough to be used as a harbour, administrative and let’s face it defensive point, in the network. Administered by the Falk Family (presumably headed by either Kalf Falk or his immediate successor), who already possess a Gundam Frame to their name - the Gundam Gamigin (shown above).

So what was the Asmodeus, for all intents and purposes a “phantom machine”, which exists on paper but was never actually deployed, doing there? Each Seven Stars Family or similar organisation within Gjallarhorn has precisely one Gundam Frame to their name, with no evidence of one family using multiple frames. I find it particularly interesting that it’s the Falk’s of all people that seem to have this frame - they’re one of the two families we know the absolute least about, the other being the Baklazan’s. Even then, most of the information we do know is what can be inferred from their Urdr Hunt point and their Gundam Frame. The only real supposition we can make is that they’re probably the oldest out of the Seven Stars - assuming no family got multiple Gundam Frames during the calamity war (which feels a fair assumption to make, given that we know absolutely nothing about any frames that were destroyed, implying no-ones really around to keep those records), then the ASW-G-04 Gamigin Gundam was likely deployed the earliest out of all the Seven Stars Gundam Frames, shortly after Bael (again, assuming sequential deployment). So it’s possible that the Falks were the longest surviving active participants in the Calamity war, besides Agnika Kaeru himself, of course. But it’s unclear why they would end up with another Gundam frame, and then not use it. A few possibilities:

The Intended Pilot for the Asmoday was killed before it could reach them, and the Falk’s didn’t have another pilot on hand to use it.

There was a Cocoon was involved in transporting the Gundams to their pilots, and it was kept at the cocoon until it’s recipient could be sorted out.

The Falks wanted extra “insurance” of their position once the Calamity War was over, and arranged for a second Gundam frame to be assigned to them somehow.

The Asmoday had nothing to do with the Falks, and it was left at the Cocoon by N as prize for Urdr Hunt participants.

It was salvaged from its transport during the war, and restored by the Falks.

In short, I don’t know why it was there and we’re probably not going to find out anytime soon, but it’s fun to think about. I would also like to point out that the Asmoday was also just…. Left there, which feels like it must have been purposeful in some way, but also means that the Falk’s didn’t recover it in the intervening 300 years.