[Mobile Suit Gundam AGE 47]

No. I’m not saying this makes up for the entire Kio arc. Also, there’s one more episode for it to all go to waste. But, for 20 or so minutes, I was reminded of the show I loved all year; the show I was so ready to proclaim as the best TV Gundam anime since Turn A Gundam, or even better than it. This episode won’t make sense of all the narrative turns, and stylistic decisions over the last 15 or so episodes, but I will celebrate it.

Yes. I’m reminded of how Mobile Suit Z Gundam completely tanked before the last three episodes… with the high point being the penultimate one (“Casualties of War”), but Mobile Suit Gundam AGE dug itself a far, far deeper hole, and the episode in question does NOT give the same shock and power Z Gundam’s did, despite being more melodramatically named “Flash of Despair.”

Having said all that, I can now celebrate what I really enjoyed watching this weekend. What’s amazing is how it barely involves Flit doing awesome things!

Kio did not get to fight in his own way.

No, the show didn’t “set Kio straight,” but rather the episode took the spotlight nearly completely away from Kio. Thus, I can easily rationalize the defensive move he pulled here as just any other defensive move from a lead pilot in Gundam. What happens when we don’t see Kio fighting?

Characters die, as soldiers do, in big battles.

A whole bunch of people get to do soldier-y, things. A lot of what I like about Gundam happens. That’s what.

Fram

She dies, something I know will happen. When it finally does, it was pretty good. Instead of a confession before heading out, which would’ve been very awkward to watch given the sequences surrounding it, we just get to see her farewell to Zeheart just as she gives him the resolve to sacrifice her. This isn’t just one of those girls who stands in front of the beam to save Jerid. Fram was consistently throwing herself at the Federation for Zeheart’s sake.

Zeheart fires, as he accepts her devotion. The beam kills Fram, who was dying anyway, and takes out the “undesirables” like Zanald and his forces. This attack not only was supposed to destroy the Gundams and the Federation vanguard, but also purge the Vagan of the weak-minded. Only that it failed, only accomplishing the latter. It’s all cool, made better by Fram’s sad farewell.

Zeheart and Asem

I’ll set aside my disappointment for Asem’s ascendance as a pilot, as it’s really the payment to purchase this emotional resolution. Asem defeats Zeheart, Gundam vs. Gundam, in a straightforward duel with no gimmicks. Zeheart is interesting because his death offers no apology. He went as far as his commitment took him, and that was all the way. There was no corruption, like say, Char. If Zeheart was a fool, then he was a consistent, valiant fool.

Instead of redemption, we were given something else: the affirmation of love, of friendship. Zeheart remembers youth, and how it really was to be happy. That is what his time with Asem was. It was only right that Asem did him in, to remind him of what he chose to give up for his ideals.

Asem shows up HUGE in this battle. His pirate ship rescues the Diva’s crew. His pirate Gundam takes his father’s and son’s mobile suits to safety away from the Vagan super beam. And only after all this, he defeats Zeheart. Asem and Zeheart saved the Earth from the plummeting Zeon fortress once, and Asem now defeats Vagan’s most valiant warrior.

This episode establishes Asem as major character of worth in the show, a worthy lead, at least to stand beside Flit as an interesting, morally compromised character asked to become a hero standing at the vanguard of humanity.

One more episode to go, and it’s going to be split between Flit, Ezelcant’s avatar, and Kio.

[Eureka seveN AO Episode 19]

Never mind. She may never be normal.

With this episode, The show has cemented it’s path to conclusion. It will be Pied Piper against the World. And Ao fighting himself and Elena over the ethical decision to use the Quartz Gun. And these paths are not mutually exclusive. And the Johansson book has (probably) predicted all of this.

Blanc was a conniving leader until the end. The deals he makes are made with the full knowledge of the predictions of the Johansson book. And with this knowledge, he sets up Pied Piper to continue the new directive. Until last episode, Secrets were the enemy, with Scub to be protected. But the change in course is cemented with a secret pact with the Secrets, with Japan as the executor on behalf of the Secrets. But there is one other person that has been shown to religious read the book, and it’s the Japanese officer Nakamura. I’m interested in seeing how he reads into the prophecy, and what he will do to hinder or help Pied Piper. He might even become the prophet Ao needs to drive his decision to use the Quartz Gun.

And when it comes to the Quartz Gun, no one is more direct about it’s use than Elena. Elena above all realizes the stakes. After being torn from her time line by Eureka, she understand that the only way to correct the situation is to start eliminating the Quartz not only in the present, but also in the past. But he actions in the second half of this show are interesting. Rather than stick close to Ao, and force him into making a decision, she defects to the Allied forces. As nothing she’s done has made any sense until now, I’m guessing this latest action wont until the very end.

And the man wielding the gun, Ao, is at the crossroads of his ethical dilemma. Bones has made it all to obvious that Ao sees using the quartz gun is a matter of right and wrong. It’s as if Ao has completely missed the point that using the gun will change how history has played out. he could very easily use it to make changes to the present. He misses the whole idea of parallel time lines, causality, and such. I guess I can’t blame him, he is only 12. But while he debates what is right or wrong, he is missing his goal of trying to reach his mother, which can only happen if he changes the timeline. I remember the hardest decisions I had to make in Junior High was whether I was going to wear shorts or jeans to school.

How do I think this will all end? I think the resurgence of Truth will be the push needed to fire the Quartz Gun. It will be the only way Truth can be destroyed. And to destroy him, Ao will fire with all of the pent of rage, releasing the guns true power. This release will reset the time line, restoring Ao to the future, where we will see him, reunited with Eureka and Renton.  To save the timeline, and Eureka, he must destroy the past created by the Scub, and the lives of the people it has effected.

What do you think?

[Mobile Suit Gundam AGE 48]

Thank you everyone for following my coverage of the show. I didn’t think it was possible for me to complete a year-long episodic coverage in a consistent, timely manner. But I did it, and I’m very thankful for the community of readers who stopped by, left comments, and enriched my experience of watching Gundam for a whole year.

[Eureka seveN AO Episode 20]

Loyalty and Allegiance seem to be a very fluid concept in this show. In a short span, we have both Ao and Elena defecting to the other side. We have Big Blue World dropping Generation Bleu and declaring them rogue. And the remaining members of Team Harlequin joining up against Pied Piper. To me, it’s all contradictory to the guiding principles of the original series.

As we’ve written and commented on before in this series, where Eureka 7 had heart, this show has politics. And in these most recent episodes, the politics has led to alliances and contracts. The alliances are being made that will form the final conflict at the end of this show. The most fitting alliance is between Pied Piper and the Secrets, with the Japanese nation acting in proxy for much of it. Both are outcasts and pariahs. Both have objective that are contradictory to the rest of the world. This alliance, while execute in good faith, almost seems to hang on by a thread with so much distrust between the Secrets and their former enemies. But the secrets are a very logical life form. They uphold their in of the deal with a certain mechanical efficiency, to the point of destroying their own to fulfill the agreement.

And the members of Pied Piper are fitting into their roles nicely. Ao’s piloting skills, and flying discipline, even impressing his Japanese flight leader. Ao is beginning to understand the plight of the Japanese people he saw as an enemy for so long. Fleur is also taking on her new role as company president with ease. Strangely, it didn’t strike me as odd that she would show such little remorse over her father’s death. The way her emotions have been at times, large events do little to shock her. So when you add in the resentment for her dad, it’s hardly surprising that she would show such little grief at this point. I’m going to venture that at some point, and emotional break down will be in her future.

And last, but not least, we have Elena. She has definitely reached an emotional breaking point. Her belief that she is associated with a much later future, combined with her hatred for Eureka, has left her completely unhinged at times. But she’s the one character that, in my humble opinion, seems to act with a true sense of emotion. While Ao pines for his mother, and Fleur refuses to acknowledge her father, Elena feels a true sense of desperation to get back to where she believe she belongs. She is willing to abandon all bonds and allegiances to make her goal a reality. Just like the slap she gave Fleur, I see her being that final catalyst to pushing this show to it’s breaking point.

In all honesty, this show really has me stretching for more that just an episode summary. Every week seems just a little more rushed, and a little more scattered. My hope is that for episode 22, and the future 23 and 24, that we’ll see all of this tied together in a meaningful, if not logical, way.

[Eureka seveN Episode 21]

As Otou at Sea Slugs laments, the “plot twists” are set up to try to drive you to feel surprised. They want you to go “holy cow, I didn’t expect that”.  But honestly, I don’t think us as the audience are all that surprised any more. It would be more surprising if the show would finish one continuous thought, before randomly dropping something new on top of us. And with that, let’s dig into the last AO episode for the next two months.

Is anyone else wondering when Ao will finally take Truth head on? Ao has been given the ultimate equalizer; the Quartz Gun. At any point, he can just end Truth’s mad rage. But every time they confront each other, he refuses to pull the trigger. We’ve seen Ao reach the edge of letting his emotions go. But for whatever reason, he just wont let go on Truth. Of course it would be too anticlimactic if he killed him too soon.

Truth has now reached the ultimate final boss state. He’s part Secret, part Scub, and he’s merged with and IFO. The three powers present in this universe are all summed up in this one life form. In this final form, he’s reached a point where he can now act on his destructive mind-set. As Truth attacks Ao, he creates a massive wave of trapar, that is released into the surrounding areas. While it was disruptive to the IFO’s it has another effect. Remember all those Coral Carriers that are piloting IFOs in the area? Well, with increased trapar, comes a faster take over of the Scub in the human body. Such a convenient thing.

And in this weeks “Who’s side are you on” contest, we have a couple returnees. Elena makes her return to a very uninterested Ivica. And Team Harlequin, along with Mama Hannah, are teaming up with Pied Piper. Why doesn’t anyone care what side people are on?

On a less critical note, I’m glad to see Naru and Ao sit down together like they used to. That relationship had reached an odd and strange state. But with Naru bringing Ao to her, they have a chance to have some time with just the two of them. A little bit of Ao childhood innocence is found again, as he blushes after holding her hand. The scene as they sit and have dinner relives some of that early chemistry that we had between the two of them at the beginning of the show. The misunderstanding that Ao has about her relationship to Truth shows how clueless he still is to her feelings for him. She has always wanted to join him as an equal, to “fly with him”. Maybe with these two, we’ll get to relive a little bit of the love line that the original series had.

But, the last three minutes of this show sets the stage for the end of this series. We get to see a small hint at the come. We find Renton, in a search across time and space in search of Eureka. Along with a fantastic looking Nirvash, they rush into a Seven Swell Scub Burst in search of her. Even with that funny white patch on his head, Renton is a welcome site to this show. The dramatic union we’ve all been hoping for may actually happen. But, there is a long two month wait before we can see it.

As you can see, today marks a special, but sad day. Today, We Remember Love ends its’ fantastic run. From a humble beginning, it has become the place to discuss the Gundam and Macross universe. The unique writing, and engaging comment section, has made this more than a blog, and more like a community. In the short time I have been a part of it, I have found it to be an engaging place, one where an amalgamation of passion filled ideas come together to make post more than a one-sided conversation.

So I wanted to leave this final word as my way of saying thanks to Ghostlightning. When he offered to let me write at his blog, I was a bit nervous. As many of you know, I am not a quarter the Gundam or Macross fan that Ghost is. My interest, while science fiction in nature for the most part, are in other shows. But Ghost welcome me with open arms. For my early posts, he provided an editorial review, helping to develop a style and format that would not only benefit his blog, but help me improve as well. I found that I enjoyed being a part of WRL. And as I got more rooted into the WRL, I got to know Ghost better as well. As a fellow dad, and of girls at that, we share very similar situations, even half a world a part. I got to know Ghost the person, and over time, considered him a friend.

So, Thank You. Thank you for the opportunity you game me to explore my ability to write. Thank you for the lessons in blogging that you taught me. Thank you for the mentoring you gave.

The anime, and blogging world in general, will miss We Remember Love. But we all are looking forward to what you have in store next.

JA

This was easier than I thought.

I fought the idea hard, but acknowledged the following things:

1. I have, one way or another, made blog posts about every animated work of the Macross franchise (those with available subtitled editions in English).
2. After four years to this day October 13, 2012; I have said everything that I feel personally important as a fan of anime and manga.
3. While I have become a lot more concise and efficient in the craft of blog post writing, particularly in 2012; in conjunction with the above I feel that my best days of making blog posts about anime are behind me.
4. Blogging anime was an incredible opportunity for me to become productive and good at something during a difficult time in my life and career (particularly the years 2009 to about a few months ago). I am in a different place in my life right now where I derive less utility from hobbies compared to the crafts I am compensated for (business development, human resources, operations management, and entrepreneurship in general); and compared to playing with my 2-year old daughter and raising my lovely wife.

I don’t mean to be glib about this at all. The rest of my post is dedicated to the blog I started with Mechafetish; nurtured by so many friends and contributors I met online through this hobby; and invigorated by so much discussion from fans of anime and manga that I feel so lucky to engage through this space.

First, a few apologies.

I mentioned that I was working on a more detailed post for Mobile Suit Gundam AGE as a whole; and I did have a post in mind that would say what I feel were important things about the anime I love beyond Gundam, I chose to not do it anymore. I no longer had the energy – and perhaps the chops to pull it off. I felt it took a lot of skill and effort to re-state things I said in other posts in a powerful and entertaining way. I just have to consider this as one of the many failures of the We Remember Love project.

I intended to see Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn through, matching each episode with a flurry of blog posts. I will no longer do so.

Lastly, this is for those who shared with me shows, manga, music they liked or loved – for failing to take up their invitations to watch, read, and listen to these pieces. For these people, who thought my experience would be enriched by these titles, my apologies; especially if you hoped that I would make blog posts about them.

No excuses, only my apologies.

Secondly, a few thanks.

There ought to be many thanks – I know this to be true and I do remember all of you whom I owe. I will only mention a few directly. I will thank these not for friendship, and camaraderie – if I followed that road there will be way too many people to mention here. I acknowledge these for their contribution to my craft of anime blog post making.

First of all, Mechafetish – from whom I found vigor and renewed voraciousness for all things anime from around 2006; and particularly for introducing me to Gunbuster, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and perhaps most importantly my initially reluctant and belligerent but now retardedly awesome love for everything Gundam. From our many conversations about anime, he came up with the best name for an anime blog: “We Remember Love” (right up there with “The Mistakes of Youth”).

Secondly, The Animanachronism. He is my first blogging idol. From him I valued substantive content.

Thirdly, otou-san; while I knew I could write with verve and dramatic flourish, from him I valued dry humor without cheap snark (not that I totally abstained from indulging in such every now and then) and possibilities in content development and presentation. From the slide shows to the panels of talking heads – all these I did based on his stuff.

Fourthly, Digibro; from whom I learned the value of working fast and intensely on incredibly big blog posts.

Finally, LBrevis for telling me to “write the damn blog post myself” when I asked her to write something about Cowboy Bebop on October 13, 2008. I did, and “Hard Luck Woman” became the first blog post on WRL.

Now, some milestones over these four years.

I won’t get into specifics, but I wrote over 700 blog posts in WRL and other places. WRL itself has over 700 posts from many different contributors but most notably JoeAnimated who truly came into his own as a blogger of WRL. This place is his house too, and I speak for him here when I say he’s very thankful for all you readers and commenters who joined him in Mysterious Girl X, and Eureka SeveN Astral Ocean. ; which in no fault of his, will no longer feature in WRL. You can follow his blog posts at Anime Audiolog.

With his content, as well as a few dozen collaborators and contributors over the years, WRL’s pages were viewed well over 2,000,000 times, with over 1,000 subscribers via RSS, WordPress, and email. There are over 25,000 comments; half of which are responses by WRL authors (mostly me) and backlinks to previous posts. Still, that’s a lot of discussion, especially considering the number of words per comment is something I haven’t taken into account.

While I don’t think of these as internet-shattering achievements, I am not one to take them for granted as well. I put in a great amount of effort for WRL and I love it that I and perhaps the other contributors feel even a fraction of the gratification I felt over the years, and most especially now.

Then, I want to bring your attention to posts and/or post series that I particularly favor. Why? Partly because I’m proud of them, partly because I find them trivially interesting, and partly because they accomplish something I may or may not set out to do so. I will organize them chronologically as best I could.

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

So here we are at the end of things. I won’t shut down the blog, as I may find myself wanting to respond to comments as they sometimes come years after the publication of a certain post. But for all intents and purposes, We Remember Love ends its four-year run.

I need to make one thing clear. The only thing I am certain of is that this is a farewell to WRL. I am not going away, albeit I may participate far less, watch less shows, be less available over chat/twitter, etc. If ever I do make blog posts about anime again, it will not be on We Remember Love. This place, to me, rightly or wrongly, represents a kind of consistency and quality that I would like to remember as an achievement, and not piss away with the tentative steps of possible returns.

Thank you all to the contributors, comrades, collaborators; thank you to all the regular, sometimes, and passerby readers; and thank you to all who’ve left comments here on We Remember Love.

“Belonging is the very best thing there is.” – Faye Valentine