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wlwcatalogue · 10 months

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Yuri Subtext (?) Anime List

A supplement to my earlier yuri anime masterlist, this list covers anime which aren’t marketed as yuri but which prominently feature F/F pairs, whether canonical or subtext! Since subtext is so subjective, this post only includes series which I’ve actually watched, and so is by no means intended to be comprehensive.

Also, since the above description would not cover certain series with well-known yuri pairings, I've also included a few "bonus rounds" for the curious (although these are still limited to series I have watched).

At-a-glance list:

Revolutionary Girl Utena (39 episodes + 1 movie, 1997)

NOIR (26 episodes, 2001)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (12 episodes, 2011)

Haibane Renmei (13 episodes, 2002)

.hack//SIGN (26 episodes, 2002)

Read or Die / R.O.D. the TV (26 episodes, 2003)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (24 episodes, 2022)

Black Rock Shooter (8 episodes, 2010)

Izetta: The Last Witch (12 episodes, 2016)

Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll (movie, 2019)

Canaan (13 episodes, 2009)

Ga-Rei: Zero (12 episodes, 2008)

Bonus rounds:

Sailor Moon S3 (38 episodes, 1994) (subtext)

Mai-Hime (26 episodes, 2004) (canon)

Psycho-Pass (41 episodes + 3 movies, 2012) (canon)

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (24 episodes + movie, 2020) (canon)

Summaries under the cut!

1. Revolutionary Girl Utena (39 episodes + 1 movie, 1997) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

(Copied from the Yuri Anime Masterlist post, since technically it wasn’t marketed as yuri)

When she was a child, Tenjou Utena (Kawakami Tomoko) was saved by a passerby prince, so she decided that she too wanted to become a prince as an adult. Fast forward to high school, and she hasn’t forgotten that conviction: Utena gets sucked into a series of duels while trying to protect her best friend’s honour. After winning the first duel, she becomes ‘engaged’ to the eccentric “Rose Bride” Himemiya Anthy (Fuchizaki Yuriko), and the two start living together in the same dormitory.

First things first: there are a million content warnings for this series, including implied rape, sexual assault, incest, and homophobia. Although the issues are handled well (in my opinion), it does go to very dark places, so those wanting a light, fun anime to unwind to should look elsewhere. Second, this series is very much a psychological drama utilising the episodic duels as a way of hone in on Utena’s opponents and their stories, so Utena and Anthy’s relationship – though important – is definitely not the focus of the anime. Third, the TV series is limited to hinting at the romantic relationship between Utena and Anthy, not to mention that they spend most of the series being little more than acquaintances rather than actual friends. The movie Adolescence (which can be taken as a retelling or sequel, depending on your perspective) is much more explicit on this front, but also suffers from a significantly shorter runtime and a much more opaque approach to storytelling.

That being said! If you’re okay with all of the above, this series is pretty much essential. The simplistic premise belies a much more complex and nuanced story about gender roles, sexuality, and human relationships and remains one of the smartest anime ever made, over twenty years on.

2. NOIR (26 episodes, 2001) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

The first in anime studio Bee Train’s “girls with guns” trilogy, NOIR follows globetrotting assassin duo Mireille Bouquet (Mitsuishi Kotono) and Yuumura Kirika (Kuwashima Houko) as they partner up to search for Kirika’s missing memories and the truth behind Mireille’s parents’ deaths. The series is pleasingly restrained despite the sensational premise, alternating between “business trips” to far-flung locations and snapshots of the pair’s domestic life in Mireille’s Paris apartment, and devoting more time to the unfolding of the relationship between the prickly Mireille and puppy-like Kirika than to action sequences. I won't say too much due to spoilers, but their relationship numbers among my favorites due to how naturally it is developed throughout and how it is very much at the heart of the series both narratively and thematically.

This is also the first anime soundtrack entirely composed by the legendary Kajiura Yuki, heralding a long collaboration with director Mashimo Kouichi, and her mix of classical and modern sounds provides the perfect accompaniment to NOIR’s atmospheric cityscapes. Also, for fans of Mitsuishi’s work (Sailor Moon! Utena! Evangelion!), I’d say NOIR is a must-watch for her performance alone; her Mireille is brittle and proud, and she brings so much humanity and nuance to the role. In fact, I don’t care if you’re a fan of Mitsuishi or Kajiura or assassins or whatever, please just try the first episode— this anime deserves way more love!

3. Puella Magi Madoka Magica (12 episodes, 2011) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

Puella Magi Madoka Magica opens with ordinary middle school girl Kaname Madoka (Yuuki Aoi) standing in the ruins of her hometown, watching as a lone girl struggles to defend what remains of the city against a much more powerful enemy. A little rabbit-like creature informs Madoka that the girl is sure to lose without her help, and so Madoka decides to become a magical girl right then and there— at which point she wakes up and dismisses it as a strange nightmare. But then that very day, her school receives a new transfer student who looks just like that mysterious girl, and she also finds a hurt animal that closely resembles the rabbit-like creature from her dream. Madoka is then faced with certain questions: do magical girls actually exist, and will she become one herself?

Since Madoka Magica was all the rage back in the early 2010s, I don’t think it too much of a spoiler to say that the cheery first three episodes hide a dark, gritty story which uses the concept of magical girls to explore the tumultuousness of adolescence. The queer subtext only comes in at the end but tight plotting and inventive presentation make this show a quick watch— and if you’re the type who likes queerness in fiction to be intense, world-shakingly significant, and a wee bit problematic, the payoff should be more than enough. A word of warning: there is a movie sequel called Rebellion, but if you’re happy with the ending of the anime, it’s best not to watch it (although I love the movie, myself).

Side note: I won’t go into it too much due to spoilers but if you liked Madoka Magica you might want to check out Serial Experiments Lain – even if most of it is utterly incomprehensible (as it was to me), it’s worth watching until the very end (wink). Also, for the rare fan of Rebellion, Adolescence of Utena is a must-watch if you haven’t checked it out already; so much can be said about its conceptual and aesthetic influences on Rebellion!

4. Haibane Renmei (13 episodes, 2002) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

(Note: slight spoilers about the tone and overall themes of the show – but I think it’s necessary for the purpose of writing a more representative summary.)

Written by ABe Yoshitoshi – character designer of cult classic anime Serial Experiments Lain and author of the very unfinished manga which this show adapts and significantly develops – Haibane Renmei starts off as a light-fantasy slice-of-life anime following freshly-arrived Rakka (Hirohashi Ryou) as she searches for a suitable job in the town of Glie, before transforming into a nuanced exploration of grief and depression about halfway through. To say more would be really too spoilery, but I just want to say that this has probably the most grounded and sensitive depiction of depression I have seen in an anime; it shows that sometimes people struggle even if everyone around them is kind and supportive, but remains hopeful about the healing power of time and understanding. The subtext is between the protagonist and Reki (Noda Junko), the first person she meets, who also helps her get acclimatised to her new life in Glie. Again, I won’t say more, but their relationship really is wonderful. That being said, this show does touch upon suicide and suicidal ideation in the course of discussing these themes, so please steer clear if that is something you are wary of.

5. .hack//SIGN (26 episodes, 2002) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

A standalone spinoff of the .hack PS2 games, this show was the most well-known anime about players getting trapped inside a multiplayer game before Sword Art Online’s arrival in 2012 (ironically, Kajiura Yuki composed the music for both). Rather than being an action-adventure story about a heroic protagonist trying to find a way back to the real world, SIGN stands out as an introspective piece, far more interested in the psychology of those who play online games and the issues of human connection and identity. In fact, the female protagonist is all too happy to remain within the MMORPG as male player-avatar Tsukasa (Saiga Mitsuki) after becoming unable to log out; the story is more about how the player grows to accept the real world with the help of the other players she meets, rather than about figuring out the exit route.

On the F/F side, some way into the series, Tsukasa makes an instant connection with fellow player-character Subaru (Nazuka Kaori) and they soon start spending a lot of time together. I really love their scenes together; the series' masterful use of body language, framing, and music all comes together to create these beautifully tender moments of intimacy. Although there’s no kiss scene nor explicit discussion of dating etc., a lot of the other characters talk about their relationship and perceive it as being romantic, to the point where one gets homophobically “worried” about Subaru when they find out that the player controlling male avatar Tsukasa is female. Tsukasa and Subaru's relationship becomes a lynchpin for both characters' development, and in general is used to illustrate the series' underlying themes in a thoughtful and heartwarming way.

6. Read or Die / R.O.D. the TV (26 episodes, 2003) Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

A spinoff of the Read or Die series which takes more from espionage thrillers and Hong Kong action flicks than shounen anime, R.O.D. the TV takes the unusual approach of starting with its main character - elite paper-maniuplating superspy Yomiko Readman (Miura Rieko) - being nowhere to be seen after burning down the British Library in a dramatic resignation announcement. Instead of focusing on her, or the spy agencies clashing in her absence, the story instead follows her friend Sumiregawa Nenene (Yukino Satsuki), who joins up with a trio of sisters with paper-manipulating powers and criminal connections in her quest to find out what happened to Yomiko. The queerness is mainly implied through Nenene's focus on Yomiko, which is unrequited and sadly fizzles out narratively speaking in the back half. Unfortunately, this is coupled with an increased focus on more heteronormative topics, such as Yomiko's grief over her dead male lover, and the child one of the characters had with the villain of the OVA. That being said, I also want to shout out this series' surprisingly earnest depiction of budding queerness in a young (like, elementary-school young) side character - something that is rare in fiction even now.

7. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (24 episodes, 2022) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

The most recent entry on this list by far (the final episode aired just a day ago at time of writing), The Witch from Mercury initially seems to forgo the Gundam franchise’s usual grand scale, being set in an academy run by the corporate giant Benerit Group. Main character and new student Suletta Mercury (Ichinose Kana) - the franchise’s first female protagonist since its beginnings in 1979 - accidentally bumbles her way into fighting a mecha duel, and, when she wins, is shocked to find that she is now engaged to the sole heiress of that self-same corporate giant, her classmate Miorine Rembran (Lynn). So far so Utena, but after the first episode, things start to diverge significantly: though the duels continue, the focus shifts to how big-picture tensions such as the manoeuvring within the Benerit Group and the conflict between the space colonisers and people on Earth play out within the student body, and how the arrival of Suletta and her mysteriously cutting-edge mecha start to shake up the status quo… until things come to an explosive head.

For those who curious about G-Witch due to Suletta and Miorine, but who wouldn’t normally be interested in Gundam or space operas, I’ll just say that if the hype has led you to expect a big queer romance where Suletta and Miorine shout their love from the rooftops, well, that’s not how it goes. It’s a mecha anime first and foremost, after all! But lower your expectations and you may be pleasantly surprised. Season 1 offers plenty to enjoy in terms of Suletta’s earnest attempts to be a good “bridegroom” and the tsundere Miorine’s bouts of jealousy over Suletta. And while their relationship takes a bit of a back seat in Season 2 due to there being So Much going on, it remains one of the key elements of the series and their scenes together are the emotional peaks of the season.

Side note: Some might criticise Gundam for taking so long to have a female main character, but let’s not forget about how the even older Ultraman (1966), Kamen Rider (1971), and Super Sentai (1975) franchises still have not had a single mainline series featuring a female protagonist… Come on guys, I’m dying for a female-led Kamen Rider over here!

8. Black Rock Shooter (8 episodes, 2010) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

One of the two anime inspired by the Hatsune Miku song of the same name, this Okada Mari-penned series hones in on the passionate friendships and jealousies of a group of middle-school girls. In a twist that feels informed by the psychological allegory of the popular Persona games, this interpersonal drama plays out in the surreal battle world of the music video, with the titular Black Rock Shooter being the main character’s alter-ego. Of particular interest is the first half’s focus on the blossoming friendship between protagonist Kuroi Mato (Hanazawa Kana) and her shy classmate Takanashi Yomi (Sawashiro Miyuki), which has strong overtones of two girls developing crushes on each other – it doesn’t go smoothly, but hey, that’s life.

9. Izetta: The Last Witch (12 episodes, 2016) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

Set during what is basically World War 2, Izetta: The Last Witch asks the daring question of “What if a small European country about to be invaded by alternate-history Nazi Germany could fight back with magic… and what if it was (subtextually) yuri?” The show follows politically-minded princess Finé as she and her best friend (read: girlfriend) Izetta think up ways to leverage the latter’s witchy gifts to save the country from invasion – a rare case of a military anime where female characters are significantly involved at the strategic stage. Those who enjoy the classic princess-and-knight trope may find something to like as long as they are fine with Finé and Izetta not having much relationship development (as their dynamic is established from the start) and them not having many one-on-one scenes together (as the series’ main focus is on the political manoeuvring). Note that this show is also pretty heavy on the fanservice – IIRC there was at least one moment of egregious sexualisation per episode.

Side note: those who like Izetta may also want to check out Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing, a female-focused dieselpunk anime with a lot of military strategizing and a very cool world setting, though Izetta is better-paced and the main relationship is much more plot-significant. (That being said I do like the relationship between Fam side characters Tatiana and Alistair… Tatiana is probably the adult character with the most screentime in Fam, being the main characters’ commanding officer, and although it’s very background, she has this cutely settled dynamic with former piloting partner turned wife right-hand woman Alistair.)

10. Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll (movie, 2019) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

(Note: this entry’s a slightly weird one, it only covers the first 40 minutes of this movie due to it being basically two episodic stories smushed together into a single package, and only the earlier story is relevant to this list.)

In this standalone spinoff of the Violet Evergarden anime series – itself an adaptation of the light novel series by Akatsuki Kana – the titular protagonist Violet (Ishikawa Yui) takes a break from ghostwriting letters to serve as companion to aloof young noblewoman Isabella York (Kotobuki Minako) in her last months of finishing school. The story is a quiet coming-of-age tale focusing on how the kind (and rather dashing!) Violet helps Isabella to open up, or, in simpler terms, it’s fodder for butler-and-lady fans. Don’t get your hopes up too much, though: Violet learning about her romantic feelings for her deceased male superior is one of the main throughlines of the anime, and this (half of the) movie also ends with a heterosexual arranged marriage for Isabella. That being said, this movie is really a feast for the eyes, its historical-fantasy setting being brought out with beautiful backgrounds and detailed linework, so it’s worth checking out if you don’t mind the very Class S narrative.

Side note: if you want F/F butler-and-lady or princess-and-knight vibes I would really recommend watching Fate/Zero for Saber and Irisviel – yes Irisviel is already married to one of the (male) main characters and yes Saber is absolutely the main love interest for the famously-straight Fate/stay night, but their dynamic is really good and Saber gets to wear a stylish suit and be all chivalrous to a woman… Please watch the third episode of season 1 at least…

11. Canaan (13 episodes, 2009) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

There’s quite a lot going on in Canaan – perhaps unsurprisingly so for a spinoff of the FMV visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble, which is famous for its intertwined storylines – but in true action-movie blockbuster style, all you really need to know is that the titular mercenary Canaan (Sawashiro Miyuki) is on a hunt for her mentor’s protégé-turned-murderer, and a lot of flashy fighting is involved. Also, there's no need to worry if you haven't played the original game, as Canaan is pretty much a standalone work and all of the significant characters are original to the anime. Yuri-minded viewers may enjoy her clashes with the villain Alphard (Sakamoto Maaya), but the main source of F/F subtext is her relationship with the young photographer Maria (Nanjo Yoshino), for whom she cares deeply and must rescue on multiple occasions. However, do be warned that the one canonically queer character in the show – Alphard’s subordinate Liang Qi (Tanaka Rie), who is fixated on her boss – is handled very badly, being portrayed as a raving predatory lesbian who is mocked, rejected, and finally killed by the object of her affections. Canaan and Maria’s relationship is also framed very definitively as friendship by the end of the series, although they don’t get paired off with male characters. IIRC there’s also some fanservice but I can’t remember the details as it was a long time ago, sorry.

12. Ga-Rei: Zero (12 episodes, 2008) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

Back in the old days, I had heard this show talked about in the same breath as yuri classics such as Kannazuki no Miko and Mai-Hime, and, well, like those series it comes with significant caveats (though thankfully there is no sexual assault). Although it’s a prequel to the Ga-Rei manga by Segawa Hajime, the anime is basically standalone and focuses on original characters Kagura (Chihara Minori) and Yomi (Mizuhara Kaoru), the latter of whom welcomes protagonist Kagura into her family and demon-hunting squad, only to leave the team in a devastating betrayal. After the explosive opening, the series jumps back to explore the events leading up to that point; fans of director Aoki Ei’s work on Fate/Zero should note that the dark tone disappears in the third episode and never quite comes back even when things get serious. Viewers should also keep their F/F expectations in check, since despite the premise I would say the series is more plot- than character-focused, and on top of that a significant amount of time is devoted to Yomi’s relationship with her male fiancé (Yomi and Kagura have more screentime together, but there’s not much development whereas Yomi and her fiancé are given a whole romantic arc). There is one very fanservicey scene between Kagura and Yomi in a car early on (in episode 3?) which viewers may want to skip, but IIRC it’s an outlier and the rest of the series is nowhere near as bad.

Bonus Rounds

1. Sailor Moon S / Season 3 (38 episodes, 1994) (subtext) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

Possibly the most widely-known F/F couple in anime, Haruka and Michiru (Ogata Megumi and Katsuki Masako, respectively), make their first appearance in episode 3 of the third season as mysterious newcomers who refuse to work alongside the Sailor Senshi. Apart from being consistently framed as an ideal couple throughout (they practically cruise to victory in a couple’s contest in episode 5 of S3), they also get some juicy narrative moments, being the main subject of the excellent episodes 17 and 21 – the latter being the mid-season climax. They return in S5 but I haven’t watched that season yet.

Side note: Utena fans may be particularly interested to hear that the aforementioned Haruka-and-Michiru-centric episodes 17 and 21 are helmed by key Utena creatives. Both were written by Enokido Yoji, Utena's lead scriptwriter, while episode 17 was directed by Igarashi Takuya (who storyboarded 5 Utena episodes) and episode 21 was directed by Utena director Ikuhara Kunihiko himself.

2. Mai-Hime (26 episodes, 2004) (canon) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

Way back when, Mai-Hime was very popular among yuri fans for including a canonically queer female character who was in love with another female character… even though, like in Kannazuki no Miko which was broadcast the same year, she commits sexual assault against her. For those still curious, Mai-Hime starts out as a quirky fighting-monsters-and-going to school anime but turns into a battle royale where characters fight each other using robots – the twist being that the robots symbolise their love for the person most precious to them, and if destroyed, that person will die. The queer storyline comes in only in the last quarter or so, but is compellingly told and at least the queer character isn’t quite as maniacal or otherwise demonised compared to some others (looking at you, Liang Qi in Canaan). It's a fun reveal, so I won't spoil it here even if you're likely to have heard of it already.

3. Psycho-Pass (41 episodes + 3 movies, 2012) (canon) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

Psycho-Pass is set in a dystopian world where people are rated on their criminal tendencies; the main characters’ job as police officers is to arrest those whose tendencies exceed a certain level. The F/F is canon but very, very background; one of the surprise twists of the finale is that forensics expert Karanomori Shion (Sawashiro Miyuki), whose appearance screams “sexy doctor character” but is played with surprising warmth by Sawashiro, is actually in a relationship with seemingly aloof field officer Kunizuka Yayoi (Itou Shizuka). I only watched the first season and so can’t comment on the rest, but apparently they are still in a relationship in the third season.

4. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (24 episodes + movie, 2020) (canon) - Anime News Network | MyAnimeList

An adaptation of Yamaguchi Satoru’s popular light novel series, this show headed the wave of reincarnated-villainess isekai, focusing on the bumbling Catarina Claes (Uchida Maaya) – in actuality an otaku who has been reincarnated into an otome game – as she tries desperately to remove her character’s image as a villainess and thereby inadvertently attracts the attentions of many a suitor. Among this reverse harem are three female characters Maria Campbell (Hayami Saori), Mary Hunt (Okasaki Miho), and Sophia Ascart (Minase Inori).

While the female suitors’ romantic interest in Catarina is generally not undermined or played as a joke, they are not necessarily treated as equally valid options compared to the male suitors - it doesn't feel like Catarina has a real chance of ending up with any of the female characters. I've heard this starts becoming more obvious in S2 (which I haven't watched), which apparently focuses on Catarina's relationship development with one particular male suitor compared to the others. Also, the VN spinoff had 6 routes in total (all 4 male suitors + 2 original male characters) but did not include a single female route, despite being non-canon in nature.

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the-eeveekins · 8 months

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Time to get some things off my chest I've been holding onto for a while, especially with regards to the Gundam community and G-Witch.

A solid chunk of the complaints I see about the show boil down to: person/place/thing wasn't as developed or given as much screentime as it would have if the show was 50 episodes, and it's potential was wasted as a result. And it just feels like a chunk of Gundam fans cannot get over a show NOT being 50 episodes, and that things can only reach their full potential if they are 50 episodes.

There's almost no adjustment of expectations for what the level of development, detail and screentime would be for a 24-25 episode length series. Just the belief that because it's less than the amount you'd find in a 50 episode series, it's automatically inferior.

And the way some people describe what they expected out of certain things, you can absolutely tell that they've been spoiled by the UC and don't have even remotely realistic expectations for a fresh AU without any sequels or supplemental content. The UC has been around for 40+ years with so much content to the point that nearly every minute detail has been explained and even over-explained. And certain fans have gotten so used to having every little detail spoonfed to them about a series that anything less is lacking or a plot hole.

Like, I seriously recall someone complaining that G-Witch didn't explain the treaty or agreement that banned the use of physical ammunition in space and that it was a plot hole! Or that the show didn't explain where Peil was getting it's doubles from? Or what characters like Guel and Shaddiq were like growing up?

Yes, G-Witch undercooked some of it's elements, probably because they expected to get more episodes than they did and added enough side and background content to give them 50 episodes worth of stuff if it got extended. But wanting the show to explore the detailed background of every side character, faction and location isn't something you're going to get in most AUs. Especially one that was only 25 episodes and more focused on telling a Shakespearean tale of two families than a large political war drama like most series.

And lastly, most of the complaints about the character development can be boiled down to one thing: most anime fans are used to having a character's thoughts and emotions spoonfed to them. G-Witch never once gets into the heads of it's characters and lets your hear their thoughts or feelings, leaving up to the viewer to interpret them based on their actions, reactions and knowledge of the character. And in a medium dominated by battle shounen, where characters constantly explain their every action and you constantly see every thought, I think a lot of people have gotten terrible at understanding character development that doesn't rely on it.

It's why there's so many complaints about Suletta not developing at all until late S2 despite developing a TON over the course of the show, because the show doesn't slap you in the face explaining it to you. Her personality doesn't go through a major change in the show because it doesn't need to, and S1 clearly shows her gaining more confidence and stuttering less around others as the season progresses. It's honestly not that subtle at all, the show just doesn't spend time explaining to you that it's happening, it just shows it happening. And that goes for a LOT of elements in the show people claim were too subtle or not explained well enough.

It's also why so many people claim Guel has the most development in the show, because his personality has to change drastically due to how awful he was (and tbf, he still ends the series as a pretty awful guy), and since it's such a major change, people claim he has the most developed character arc in the show because it's not subtle in any way.

It's not like G-Witch is a perfect show or free from criticism, but holy shit so many of the complaints I see boil down to unrealistic expectations of a two cour series or poor media comprehension/literacy. And that's not even getting into the people just hating on the show because they're sexist or homophobic.

#sorry it's a long rant #but it's been heavy on my chest for a while #g witch #the witch from mercury #gundam the witch from mercury #gundam

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i-heart-hxh · 1 month

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Hi...Can I ask, what are your KilluGon fav moments? And what are your fav personal headcanons about them? Also, do you have any fav ships (from any fandom) that the dynamics remind you of KilluGon? Thanks if you want to answer....

Hello!

Thank you for asking! This post will get way too long if I answer all your questions, so here's a post where I talk about some of my fav HxH moments (4/5 of which are KilluGon related), and here's my Headcanons tag to see some of the headcanons I've posted or approved of previously. I'm sure I'll revisit similar questions to these over time as well.

I haven't had anyone ask about ships that remind me of KilluGon though, and it's a fun question to answer! I think KilluGon is very unique, so these might not be incredibly similar, but I'm focusing on ships that give me a similar feeling or have commonalities that I think are worth mentioning. I enjoy all of these ships to varying degrees!

I'm going to stay away from ships from big, currently popular shounen series that people typically bring up in comparison with HxH (JJK, HeroAca, etc.), both because the ships I've come across in those don't actually remind me of KilluGon very deeply, and also because it's more fun to recommend ships/series people may not have heard of already!

Reki Kyan and Langa Hasegawa (Sk8 the Infinity)

I'm all but certain these two were based off Gon and Killua in part--the personalities of the two and dynamic between them feels fairly similar, and the antagonist of the series, Adam, also strongly feels like he's based off of Hisoka. The series itself is less serious/dark than HxH so the intensity isn't the same, but they definitely have a similar strong friendship basis and mutual adoration to Gon and Killua.

Suletta Mercury and Miorine Rembran (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury)

Suletta is straightforward, somewhat oblivious, and grew up isolated from others (a bit like Gon), and Miorine is confident, tsundere, and trying to escape the influence of her rich and powerful family (a bit like Killua), and the two hit it off quickly and find joy and inspiration to keep going in each other. The degree to which they influence, support, and adore each other feels familiar. There are some later developments (spoilers) that remind me of Gon and Killua as well.

Yuki Sanada and Haru (Tsuritama)

Yuki, who has severe anxiety, ends up having his life transformed when the strange and overly friendly Haru appears suddenly. There's a real cuteness, joyfulness, and closeness between them that reminds me of Gon and Killua, and the way they help each other understand the world differently and change each others' perspectives as well.

Maru and Kiruko (Tengoku Daimakyou / Heavenly Delusion)

I can't say too much about this ship because I don't want to spoil any surprises, but let's just say in at least one major way it's not how it appears. Maru (the blond one) shares several commonalities with Killua, though he's at least a bit more straightforward in his emotions like Gon; while Kiruko is somewhat more tsundere initially (due to understandable past reasons). Their bond reminds me of Gon and Killua in that they travel all around together and develop a very close friendship and devotion to one another, and while one is more openly affectionate the other holds back more initially.

(This series contains some mature content, including a depiction of sexual assault, so please be careful when checking it out, but it's fantastic!)

Shindou Hikaru and Touya Akira (Hikaru no Go)

These two are rivals and obviously Gon and Killua are not, but at the same time there's a certain intensity and degree of being obsessed with each other than reminds me of KilluGon, as well as things like their bickering and the degree to which the series revolves around their connection. It's been a long time since I read the manga so I admittedly can't remember all the details, but I feel like it's maybe a few steps closer to Gon and Killua than, say, Hinata and Kageyama from Haikyuu (though that's also a great rivals -> friends ship that has some commonalities with KilluGon). It has a strong canon basis and I remember really enjoying how their bond develops!

Riko and Reg (Made in Abyss)

Riko is an adventurous, plucky girl who goes on a dangerous journey to find her missing parent, while Reg the robot boy supports her on their adventure (and semi-secretly adores her). Reg is also voiced by Mariya Ise, Killua's seiyuu, so it's hard not make the comparison! The personalities of the two are definitely similar and their bond feels familiar.

(Made in Abyss looks cute but it contains a great deal of upsetting/potentially triggering content, please be careful if you decide to watch or read it! It's amazing, but definitely not a series that will appeal to everyone.)

I hope people looking for similar ships might enjoy checking these series out!

#hxh #hunter x hunter #killugon #gonkillu #asks #dnana-2809-blog #my posts #sk8 the infinity #gundam witch from mercury #tsuritama #hikaru no go #hikago #tengoku daimakyou #heavenly delusion #made in abyss #long post

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quirkwizard · 4 months

Note

You haven't gotten a lot of Non Quirk questions in a while, so I wanted to send one that I think would be fun. What do you think would be the favorite anime/series of each 1-A Character? I know Tokoyami would be a Jujutsu Kaisen fan, but the rest I'm not sure.

Can I just say how much I appreciate questions like these? It's always really fun to get questions unrelated to Quirks outside of Quirks, especially more light hearted, character focused questions like these. I appreciate you sending this in and encourage more non-Quirk related questions. That aside, I will expand this to include manga as well. There are some choices on here that I think are perfect, but I know that certain animes aren't the best adaptation.

Sato: Food Wars. Maybe Toriko if you want something more on brand with him. I would say more about it, but that would imply there is anything deeper to read into with Sato.

Koda: Pokémon. There really isn't anything complicated about this choice. Just a fun, lighthearted series with wonderous creatures under the main character's control.

Mineta: Without question, it's Kill La Kill. He's actually one of the few people who are able to read into it on a deeper level and what it's trying to say but nobody believes him.

Denki: I don't know, Seven Deadly Sins? Kaminari just seems like he would be the most basic, go with whatever's is the most popular kind of fan, never really commiting to anything for too long.

Tsuyu: I think she would be into cute and happy series. Something light and fun that puts a smile on your face and could enjoy with other people around. Think something like Spy x Family.

Sero: Maybe Steins' Gate? He's on the same level as Denki, but it's usually more along with critics are going with then general audiences and at least takes some time to think about it.

Ojiro: Pretty much any heavily technical fighting anime, like Hajime no Ippo, but has a special place in his heart for Dragon Ball Z. Who knew that a martial artist with a tail would hit a chord with Ojiro?

Hagakure: I think her being into Sailor Moon would make sense. Something fun and flashy. I could easily see her using her reflective powers to do the whole Moon Prisim Power thing.

Aoyama: I could see him being kind of anime snob, being more interested in really old animes like Revolutionary Girl Utena or Rose of Versailles. Just something really pretty looking for his Bishonen soul.

Mina: Again, another character like Denki, but instead of focusing on shonen, she's more into whatever is popular with rom coms or slice of life, like Don't Bully Me Nagatoro or Dress Up My Darling.

Jiro: I honestly see her being more pulled towards the soundtrack of an anime rather then it's content. Though I do think she'd be interested in Cowboy Bebop with it's general "cool" feeling to it.

Tokoyami: He certainly seems like the guy that would be into the whatever edgy anime flavor of the month. First Death Note, then Tokyo Ghoul, and most recently Jujutsu Kiasen.

Shoji: He'd be into the Berserk manga. Just one of that people that reads super mess up stuff and is one of the chilliest people around. The only time he gets angry is when you mention any of the adaptations.

Kirishima: His favorite would be Gurren Lagann and there is nothing you can do to change my mind. It's just too perfect. That being said, if you want to pick something more ongoing, I'd say Jojo's Bizarre Adventure for obvious reasons.

Uraraka: I think she'd be into One Piece. I'm not sure why exactly I picked that out, I just think that she would like it. Maybe it's the mix of good, light heart adventures, lots of action and heart renching movement that makes me think she'd like it.

Tenya: Pretty much anything related to Gundam. I could see him being into the mechanics of the robots and the amount of stragy involved in the fights. Out of all of them though, his favorite would be the objectively best Gundam series: G Gundam.

Bakugou: Bakugou is both sides of the deep Naruto fan coin. He's simultaneously the guy that's actually reading into it and understanding what's it's saying, but also the obnoxious dude bro that talks about it like it's the greatest manga ever without question.

Shoto: It was honestly really hard to think of anything for him. He just doesn't seem like the kind of that would be into it. I was tempted on Fire Force for a joke, but I like the choice of Fruits Basket better. I feel like the complications of family and bonds would speak to him.

Momo: I was tempted to go with Doctor Stone, but I had to go with Fullmetal Alchemist. She's definitely one of those people who slaves over all the little details and themes in whatever she is watch, her face glowing as she talks about Elric's character and journey.

Izuku: I really wanted to pick One Punch Man for obvious reasons, but I think he'd be more pulled towards Hunter x Hunter. I think he'd especially be interested in the power system that's one of the few in all of manga that doesn't have to do with whatever you're born with.

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genshingorlsrevengeance · 2 months

Text

OC Story: 916

Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2

Prologue - "Sing a Song"

Genre: Scifi (Mecha) Content Warning: General descriptions of violence, long text jumpscare after you press Keep Reading lmao Word Count: 8.9k

A/N: TIME TO WRITE BOOTLEG GUNDAM LETS GOOOOOOO, more in depth author's note at the end. Thanks for taking the time to read this, if you do! Feedback is appreciated!

========

“Doctor Moreau, do you think we go to heaven?” asked the small girl.

Doctor Moreau stopped typing for a moment as her eyes glanced over the terminal, seeing the child laying on the operating table, standing out from the rest of the clean black walls and white tiles. The room was supported with soft lights illuminating the room, complemented by the blue screens and dizzying amount of automated surgical equipment quietly whirring into position.

Moreau pushed her aging white hair away from her eyes, looking at the child, subject designated 403. 403 was about seven, she barely stood up to Moreau’s stomach and had long black hair that stopped at her shoulders. The light blue gown was slightly too big for her, the sleeves extending over most of her hands and just revealing her fingers. Seeing her face again reminded Doctor Moreau of 403's rather inquisitive nature.

“Why are you asking that, 403?” Moreau replied, her tone indifferent. Her fingers went back to typing as she sighed. “If you’re worried about the procedure, the chips are perfectly safe to implant. There has been no previous record of anyone dying from-”

“-But I’m going to die after.”

“...What?”

“After the chip goes into me. Will the others and I go to heaven?”

The question had caught the doctor completely off guard. Moreau had answered questions such as, “Will this hurt?”, or “Do I have to?”. This question was something she could not answer with her usual dismissive tone. She sat up straight in her seat now and turned to look at the child. 403's eyes were still fixated on the ceiling.

“Why are you so certain you’re going to die, 403?”

“That’s what my brother told me. When the chip goes into our brain, we’re sent off to die.”

The girl’s voice stated it as a matter of fact. There was no confusion in her tone of what was to become of her. Doctor Moreau had no response as she stared at 403 with her mouth slightly open. The child simply turned her head, facing her and expectantly waiting for an answer.

“... I certainly hope there’s a heaven, 403. I’m sure heaven will allow good kids like you and your brother.”

“What about my friends? Will they-”

“We’re about to begin the surgery. Please face up towards the light and close your eyes.” Moreau bluntly cut off the conversation.

403 pouted, but complied. It was clear that the answer did not satisfy her as much as she wanted it to. Doctor Moreau took a second to recover and focus back on the job at hand. Facing back towards the terminal, she began typing once more. With the input of several passwords and confirmations, the surgery to implant the combat data-chip into 403’s brain would commence. Afterwards, she would be sent to her brother’s unit, and be deployed to the battlefield.

Just like all the others.

This room had always been nothing out of the ordinary to Moreau. The same procedure had been repeated more times than she could count and yet why did this one make it so hard to breathe all of a sudden?

“Doctor Moreau?”

“Yes, 403?”

“Can I ask one more thing?”

“You may.”

“Can I listen to that song you always play? The one that goes ‘Lalalalala~’? I want to hear it one more time before I sleep. I really like it.”

Doctor Moreau’s lips suddenly dried up as she once again stopped typing. With a slightly trembling hand, she turned to the radio sitting on her desk and nodded.

“...Of course, 403. No more questions, please.”

She could see the smile form on 403’s lips as the mask was gently put onto her face, the anesthesia slowly starting to pump into 403’s lungs.

“...Thank you.”

Doctor Moreau swallowed hard as her finger pressed the on switch of her old radio. Despite being in such a high tech surgical room, her radio was comically outdated. It was a small gray oval-like object that only had a speaker and a few buttons. To even put music in it, she had to insert a smaller rectangle that contained the songs in it via tape. It was a gift from her father when she was 403’s age, the thought of their roles being reversed not lost on the doctor.

‘Sing, sing a songLet the world sing alongSing of love there could beSing for you and for me…~’

Doctor Moreau could hear 403 softly hum along to the song as her voice gradually became quieter, and eventually turning into soft breathing. The whirring of the surgical equipment and the radio being the only things in the room left making noise. The only remaining step was for Doctor Moreau to approve the procedure to implant the chip into 403’s brain.

“Is there heaven…” the doctor quietly repeated the question to herself, attempting to ignore 403’s startling self awareness of the situation.

"Authorization confirmed, Implant procedure beginning.” A deep robotic voice rang out across the room as the sound of a drill began drowning out the other equipment. Doctor Moreau sat on her chair as she closed her eyes, waiting for the procedure to be done and turning off the radio in the process.

“For me, I don’t think so…Heaven was lost to me long ago.”

...

‘Sing, sing a song Make it simple to last Your whole life long~’

The Doctor was snapped out of her melancholy as the music continued playing. Sighing, she moved to turn it off for good.

“Piece of junk is starting to-” She stopped as her finger was about to hit the switch.

The radio was still off.

Listening closely again, Moreau realized the singing was coming outside of the door.

‘Don't worry that it's notGood enough for anyoneElse to hear~’

Creeping towards the door, the doctor put her ears to it and heard what sounded like a chorus singing. The song wasn’t over the intercom, otherwise the voice would be far clearer.

Instead it sounded like-

A sudden sense of dread hit the doctor as she swung the doors open and ran towards the hangar. Multiple guards and scientists were opening the doors along the long gray hallway, joining Moreau and investigating what the noise was. When they finally got to the railing after the doors slid open, none of them could speak.

‘Just sing, sing a song(Just sing, sing a song)Just sing, sing a song~’

Inside the massive hangar stood rows of countless Soldats, giant bipedal machines that stood several meters tall, lined up next to each other as if they were statues. Their bulky legs stood firmly in place and the compact yet slender arms did not move an inch.

The only things moving were their horned box-like heads, slowly moving side to side in perfect sync. Each of the voices emerging from the Soldats were different but singing in perfect harmony.

Their normally offline and horizontal segregated visors were suddenly flickering to life with blue lights, illuminating the large dark room with bright blue rays.

‘La la la la la, la la la laLa la la la la la laaaaa~’

Doctor Moreau could hear the voices of security guards rushing down the stairs to halt the singing, shouting orders at the others to back away.

However, the doctor could only hear their cheerful singing along with her breathing becoming noticeably shorter with each second, feeling her chest tighten.

Once again, the question 403 springed up to the forefront of her mind.

“Is there heaven?”

====

ONE YEAR LATER…

====

“Welcome to the Dyson Incorporated headquarters!” A cheery female robotic voice echoed across the entry hall.

A man and woman in navy blue uniforms stepped into the building, being greeted by a similarly sharp dressed man in a white business suit. His stomach bulged over his pants and the man himself was at shoulder height, but looked relatively healthy. Excluding the large amounts of sweat coming down his forehead.

“Captain Alana, Lieutenant Justeen!” The large man cheerfully said, extending his arms. “I must say, you are here quite earlier than I expected!”

Captain Alana was a tall and dark skinned man, his hair mostly bald but containing some hair towards the back. His posture stood tall and proper. Lieutenant Justeen stood slightly lower than Alana. Her skin was noticeably paler than anyone else present in the room, her dark brown ponytail complementing her slim figure. Of all the details that stood out, it was her unfriendly eyes that came to the front of attention, seemingly glaring daggers at President Sumner.

Captain Alana stepped forward, extending his hand and offering a friendly smile. “President Sumner, we apologize about the sudden arrival. We had finished our duties faster than we expected as well, and simply could not wait to see how your projects were coming along.”

“The Florence government hopes that your new project has been producing results, President Sumner.” Lieutenant Justeen blankly stated.

“A-ah, of course ma’am! The company has been hard at work to make sure your investment is well rewarded!” The president replied, trying his best to not sound intimidated by the lieutenant. “If you could follow me this way, please! I will direct you two towards our presentation room!”

The captain raised an eyebrow at the lieutenant, but she only shook her head unapologetically. They followed the president out of the comfortable entrance hall and towards light blue hallways, passing by several office workers who looked startled by the presence of the two soldiers. The security guards they passed by remained in place and only offered a nod, however they seemed to grip tightly onto the rifles they held in place, fingers off the trigger.

“Admittedly, we don’t have everything prepared just yet, since we weren't expecting you for at least another hour. I must apologize greatly that I have to ask for you all to wait in this room while we get situated!” The president gestured towards an open door that had rows of chairs and a large screen on the furthest wall.

Inside were two security guards and a woman dressed in a blue suit at the opposite end. The captain bowed while the lieutenant continued to stare at the president.

“No apologies needed, President Sumner. In fact, we should be the ones apologizing for the intrusion.” Captain Alana glanced at the Lieutenant before she too finally showed some modicum of decorum.

“Please, excuse us, sir.” Lieutenant Justeen added, her tone remaining unchanged.

“I will be back in about half an hour, please do ask any questions to our lovely guide in the room. Now if you’ll excuse me,” President Sumner bowed towards Captain Alana before quickly darting away and towards the elevator.

The two of them stepped into the room and took a seat towards the back, having a view of the screen turning on and the guards who were remaining in place.

“If I may ask, what kind of presentation will we be watching?” Captain Alana turned towards the woman in the back, asking with a smile on his face.

“Ah, I’m glad you asked! The short film we’ll be watching is about how Dyson Incorporated is helping the Florence Government with our myriad of technological developments!”

The captain extended his smile to his lieutenant, but the vacant expression on her face told him that she wanted this over with. They turned to the screen while the room darkened and the screen came to life.

“With only the brightest minds that can match the sun, Dyson Incorporated paves the way toward the future with our revolutionary technology!”

It was the same robotic woman’s voice who greeted them at the entrance voicing over the presentation. Both of them had no doubt it was pre recorded and continued to say nothing.

“We here at Dyson have well over five thousand employees stationed across the globe, but it’s here at our Headquarters where the most talented engineers and scientists perform their work! We are currently the lead developers on electrical household appliances, vehicles for both recreational and military use, lightning fast connections to the internet, and our top of the line Soldat d'aciers are second to none!”

Pictures of giant bipedal machines stood side by side with soldiers, all smiling with the Soldat cutely giving a thumbs up. As the presentation went on, it continued displaying more and more pictures of the Soldat, Dyson Incorporated’s crown product. Both the captain and lieutenant couldn’t deny their effectiveness. The Florence Government had incorporated them well into the military, to the point where entire divisions were based around them. But they knew this already. And the woman behind them knew it too.

“You’re stalling.” Justeen dryly remarked, turning towards the woman.

“I-I beg your pardon?”

The guards tensed up before Alana raised his hand.

“My apologies, Lieutenant Justeen is rather impatient. What she means to say is that this information is already known to our military. Is there a part speaking about the Dyson Soldat pilots?”

“Ah, I see, that’s what you mean! Well, I do not blame you for wanting to know more about them. Our pilots are our most treasured and respected employees of the company!” The woman’s smile was barely held as Justeen continued to stare through her.

The woman typed something on the keyboard as the video began to skip ahead, getting to the section they were truly interested in.

“Hello, my name is Doctor Moreau, one of the lead scientists behind our Soldat program. While our machines are certainly impressive, they are only as effective thanks to the brave volunteers at Dyson! Our pilots are expertly trained by combat instructors to ensure minimum damages caused to their surroundings, while also keeping costs down on repairs on their Soldats!”

On the screen were many pilots standing next to their Soldats, all wearing helmets that obscured their faces while showing camaraderie, some arms over each other’s shoulders while others gave fist bumps. It was nothing too out of the ordinary, especially for military personnel.

“You know, these Soldat pilots have saved the lives of my men on numerous occasions, yet I’ve never actually spoken to any of them outside of their suit. Are any of these pilots currently at headquarters today? I would certainly like to meet some of the brave men and women who've been representing the best of Dyson.” Alana asked, his inflection not rising above a normal tone.

“Unfortunately, they’re all currently on duty elsewhere as far as I’m aware.” The woman tilted her head at the question. The expression in her eyes seemed like she was telling the truth despite her nervousness.

The guards on the other hand suddenly tensed up at the question, doubly so when Justeen glanced in their direction.

“Your company keeps their state of the art Soldat’s at this building, correct?” Justeen asked, standing up. Even though they were standing several feet away and behind an entire row of chairs and a counter, the woman still backed up, intimidated.

“Y-Yes, ma’am.”

“Then I presume you're still keeping the same Soldat’s who suddenly went ballistic and attacked our training base here?”

The presentation stopped, with the guards giving each other a quick glance while the Captain’s smile started to fade.

“O-Of course not! As soon as we received word about what happened, we had the Soldat’s dismantled and the pilots responsible punished! That whole ordeal was a terrible incid-”

Justeen slammed her fist on one of the chairs, knocking it over and prompting the guards to reach for their pistols.

“The slaughter we saw that day can't be passed off as just an incident! The screaming, the singing…! Not only are those trainees dead, but so are your precious goddamn products!”

“That’s enough, Justeen.” Alana raised his hand, looking at the guards who still had their guns drawn at the lieutenant. “She isn’t the one responsible for what happened…At least, not directly.”

The guards turned their attention onto Alana.

“Six months ago, we were told that we’d receive further information about what happened that day within due time. Am I to believe that a company as great as Dyson still hasn’t found the answer?”

“Sir,” One of the guards spoke up, pointing his pistol at Alana. “I think it’s time for you two to leave.”

Alana simply sighed and stood up, adjusting his collar.

“I suppose it is. Let’s start wrapping things up.”

One of the vents suddenly swung open as a figure in black dropped down and grabbed the left guard, disarming him and choking him out with an arm tightly wrapped around his neck. The other guard never had time to register what was happening before Justeen knocked the pistol out his hand, and slammed her fist into his face, knocking him out instantly.

The woman let out a yelp before quickly covering her mouth, her eyes growing wide as more figures dressed in black with vests and goggles leapt down from the open vent, carrying SMGs in their hands. The soldiers hand-signaled to each other as they began cuffing the guards.

“Like I said ma’am,” Alana continued as he put his hands behind his back. “We know you’re not directly to blame, but all that being said, we’re going to need you to answer as many questions as you can. What exactly is happening here?”

Justeen and a soldier approached the woman, but gently gestured for her to stand down and allow them to cuff her. Tears welled up in her eyes but she silently nodded as she was forced down, and had her hands behind her back.

“I-I only know that we’ve been getting rid of information and files before you all arrived! I was told by my manager we were supposed to hurry, and I swear to god that’s all I know!”

One of the soldiers approached the captain.

"Sir, security systems are offline. They're completely in the dark."

Alana calmly nodded and turned to Justeen.

“Take a squad and find our inside-man. I’ll find out anything else that I'm able to.”

“Yes, sir. Bravo, with me!”

Justeen grabbed both the security guards’ pistols, one for her, the other to a soldier. Clicking the safety off, her and a group of four departed the room silently. Alana stepped towards the woman and got on one knee as one soldier sat the woman upright.

“Do you know what information you’ve been disposing of, ma’am?”

====

Sweat ran off of Doctor Moreau’s head, but she did not bother wiping it off. She stood inside the surgery room, though this time there was no patient on the operating table. She hurriedly typed several confirmations onto the keyboard as a progress bar appeared on the screen. Another scientist quickly opened the door, scaring her but quickly readjusted herself.

“Moreau, are the files deleted yet? Florence Military reps have already arrived!”

“What?! Why are they- Er, yes I’m deleting them right now.”

“Good, we need to hurry and transfer the generation two EH’s offsite.”

“I’ll be right behind you. I must approve a few more deletions.”

The scientist nodded at her answer and departed. When the door closed again, the doctor sighed in relief. The progress bar showed ‘Data Transfer Complete’ before she unplugged a small flash drive. She opened a screen and confirmed who was on the list of transferring out of headquarters. There were twelve, and only twelve, generation two enhanced humans. Though she recognized every number, there was one that she specifically was looking for.

“916,” Moreau whispered to herself. He had the generation one chip implanted into him and was to undergo surgery procedures directly after 403, but he was put off the queue due to unforeseen complications with 403. Before she could recall the horror she witnessed that day, she put her mind back to the present. No one would remember any of the atrocities committed here if she failed to act now. Seeing the radio beside her reminded Moreau exactly why she was doing this. Taking the tape out of the radio, she put it in her pocket. Finally clenching the flash drive in her hand, she closed the screen and left the implant surgery room.

Moreau entered the hallway and found where the scientist had gone. Quickly and quietly following after them, she saw the sign of the door. ‘Enhanced Human Testing’. Her breathing shortened as she stepped forth and saw the row of twelve children standing completely still, staring blankly into space even as she walked in front of them. The scientist stood in front of a door, trying to swipe his card through a reader. He turned when he heard Moreau enter, but turned his attention back to the door.

“Ah, there you are. Help me with this door, it’s not accepting my credentials for some reason!”

The doctor checked outside and looked both ways down the hallway. Security personnel were too busy escorting out the higher ups and scientists, and no one would dare interfere with their work. Perfect.

“Here, let me try.” Moreau said as she grabbed a wrench.

The scientist turned around only to be met with a wrench to his head, dropping on the floor and twitching. Moreau turned around and saw the kids did not even budge an inch despite the apparent mutiny. It disgusted her all the more how detached they were, and that she was the cause of it.

“916, step forward.” She commanded, though she did not need to find out where he was. She could see him already, but it was more to give her some precious few seconds to brace herself for what was coming.

916 did as she commanded, stepping forward without so much as blinking. He was eight, with dark blue hair and even darker violet eyes, standing much shorter than the other children. Everyone in the room wasn’t wearing a shirt and so Moreau could see the wires that protrude from their spines and into their chests. Their number designations were written onto their necks so that in the event they were killed, they could easily be identified and brought back to examine their combat data.

“What’s the status of your behavioral inhibitor chip?” Moreau questioned as she ran over to the terminal behind them, plugging in the same flash drive into a port.

“No anomalies detected.” The child replied emotionlessly. He did not sound that different from the company’s robotic greeting voice. Hearing his voice made Moreau cringe, her fists balling up in frustration. Another reminder of what she’s done.

“Your memories are unaffected?”

“No ma’am.”

“Recite the incident report of EH-403 on August 12, 1164.”

“EH-403 after Implant surgery displayed signs of communicating with other generation one EH’s, despite it being only possible when conscious. This caused a neural degradation of the pilots mind and due to negligence from maintenance, were left unrepaired. This caused her and other generation one EH’s to go rampant on a Florence Government training facility, leading to the recall and termination of all twenty four generation one pilots and accelerated production of generation two. EH-916 was excluded due to his extensive data for the generation two pilots.”

Moreau was pained to remember what exactly happened, but was relieved that the files she hid away hadn’t been discovered. The accident was supposed to be scrapped and erased from history, but after what she saw in the hangar the day of her surgery, she couldn’t just forget it.

“That Captain better be good on his word…” She muttered to herself while searching for any other information that could condemn Dyson.

She brought up screens that displayed the status of every generation two Enhanced Humans, their inhibitor chips registering as operating within normal parameters. She moved to put in the command to disable them all before stealing another glance at 916. He remained completely still, not even turning his head to the moaning scientist on the floor. Neither did any of the children next to him.

“If you can still be given a normal life, then I can make up for at least just a little for what I’ve done to you all.” Clenching her fists as the progress bar on the screen began, Moreau wiped away a tear that threatened to fall down her right cheek. Of all the kids she had augmented, only twelve might be saved today. If only she could turn back the clock and save every single generation one child, she thought to herself.

Double checking the files she began to read the report of the termination of all EH’s of generation one. Corporate wanted them taken off site due to the true nature of generation one EH’s and away from the public eyes of the employees. However, during the transport to one of many remote bases, communication was suddenly cut off. When security arrived to investigate, the vehicles in charge of the transfer were completely obliterated, and robotic limbs were strewn everywhere, far more than they could count. Explosion marks and bullet casings littered the scene, though it appeared there was no attack from the outside. Even when they attempted to scan them, they couldn’t properly register whose remains belonged to the correct owner.

The higher ups attributed it to the machines destroying themselves conveniently, and ultimately were able to save far more money than paying engineers and scientists to break them down. And in a strange way, she was thankful they decided to do no further investigation. That meant 916 could find them. His communication chip that allowed him to contact his fellow EH’s could possibly find the-

…No. That wasn’t 916’s decision. He needed to be free, just like the rest of the kids with him.

Moreau turned to face him again, and still he did not move. Once the behavioral chips were disabled, it was up to them to do whatever they wanted. The progress bar on the screen flashed green, Moreau typing in a password and almost slammed the keyboard when it asked her to disable the chips. The other children in the room blinked several times before they looked around, confused. They turned to each other, then to 916 who remained unaffected, then finally to Moreau.

“...You’re free. All of you, you’re free. Find the Florence government soldiers, they’ll get you out of here safely, and avoid Dyson security!” Moreau sounded as if she were about to break down in tears, seeing the lights in their eyes slowly return as they got a better sense of their surroundings. The tiny patter of their feet was the only sound as they quickly left, one of them pulling on the arm of 916 who only turned his head blankly.

“He’ll join you shortly, go!” Moreau commanded. The child tilted their head in slight confusion before leaving him behind. Since 916 was intended to be a generation one Enhanced Human, his chip was far more primitive than the others. While theirs could be remotely triggered, 916’s had to be manually removed. Making sure no one could take control of their lives again, Moreau entered a kill command on the terminal and deleted all the relevant files, making sure her flash drive only contained the data of their reports and not any of the commands.

“916, follow me,” she calmly said, going to the implant surgery room as 916 tagged along.

====

The main hangar was bustling with activity, with white Soldats covered in blue and gray stripes detaching a fuel pipe from a plane as the hangar doors opened to reveal a massive runway. The Soldats were Dyson standard issue, their bulky legs stomping around the concrete while the compact and slender arms put the pipe away and reached for large rifles that fit into their hands. Their horned box-like heads were slowly moving left to right, examining their surroundings. The voices emitting from the machines were distinctly adults, shouting to get the plane moving as soon as possible. Their visors shone a bright blue that showed every single one of them was ready for a fight.

President Sumner did not care about the Soldats he had seen hundreds of times before guarding him, and muttered several obscenities underneath his breath as the plane door opened, many security personnel stepping out of his way.

“What the fuck do we pay high security wages for if you can’t even detect a single government vehicle arriving?!” He shouted at the chief of security.

“Sir, we can’t seem to contact our outside teams. I think it’s possible that-”

“I don’t want conjecture, I want definitive answers, god damn it! Have we deleted all the files yet?!”

‘Yes sir, we have.”

“Good, now get us out of here before they suspect something already!”

The security chief was about to ask about the remaining staff inside headquarters, but decided to keep his mouth shut. Instead, he knocked twice on the pilot’s cabin, signaling for them to take off. The president sighed as he sat in one of the chairs as he felt the plane begin to slowly move forward.

“This is just a political shitstorm waiting to happen. Well captain, I’ll be long gone by the time you-”

President Sumner was rocked out of his thoughts as the entire plane shook violently, making many members shout out in terror while security struggled to remain still. The sounds of gunfire erupted around the plane before several of the Soldats were hit by single shots, many of them falling completely onto the ground while some had their arms blown away and remained still, looking as shocked as the others who weren’t in the bipedal machines.

“Put your weapons down!” An unfamiliar yet commanding voice shouted, loud enough for everyone outside and inside headquarters to hear. “Under authority of the Florence Military Police, we hereby place everyone working under Dyson Incorporated under arrest for the crimes of kidnapping, illegal incorporation of government assets, and bribery! Put your weapons down and surrender peacefully, we are authorized to use force!”

Several Soldats came into view with headlamps bright enough to overpower even the runway lights, all colored in a dark brown and seemed far bulkier than Dyson’s machines who were skimpily armored in comparison. They had no such colored stripes to make them stand out, with the only color separation being their joints connecting each armor piece and limb. Everything about the machines were far more compact and looked as if they could take a beating, though they stood a meter shorter than Dyson’s Soldats. Their head visors were all one large piece of red glass, staring down every company employee.

“I am not being caught by a bunch of federal dogs! ORDER THE MEN TO ATTACK BACK!” The president shouted. With a single nod, the chief of security reached for his transceiver and spoke calmly.

“Fire at will.”

With a single command, the Soldats in the room raised their weapons to open fire, before getting completely shredded by concentrated and disciplined shots, each nailing them straight through the cockpit in the chest or exploding limbs apart. Machines fell to the floor as parts of the plane were caught by Dyson Soldat stray fire, and came tumbling down with all the people inside screaming as it did so. The empty field and hills surrounding Dyson headquarters suddenly became a warzone, with the company deploying their Soldats from the hangars and hidden bunkers that emerged from the ground, some of them getting shot as soon as they appeared.

Florence Soldats emerged from hiding on top of the hills as they aimed their shots carefully at the flailing security mechs, some of the company stray fire hitting the headquarter building, shattering glass and steel and sending it tumbling towards the ground floor. Several of the Dyson Soldats emerged with grenade launchers and fired them at the hills, causing dirt and rocks to soar upwards into the air and onto the already stained machines. Though a few of the Florence Soldats were caught by the explosions and gunfire, they were shot wildly and mostly into the heavily armored parts, letting them shrug it off and continue firing.

“Shit, where did they come from?!” One of the Dyson guards shouted over the comms.

“Don’t fire wildly, dumbasses! Shoot carefully, you’re hitting our own damn building!”

“How did our radar not pick them u-?!” Another one was cut off as a well placed shot went straight through the guard’s cockpit. The machine’s finger was still attached to the trigger as it fell down, the bullets hitting and forming a line of damage across the windows of the upper section of the building.

Compared to the Florence Soldats, the guards were panicking as they aimed wildly and spun around, only landing shots on their enemy’s armor or their own building they were supposed to protect. The soldiers slowly closed in the building, making sure each threat was eliminated one at a time, whether it was by a disabling or a lethal shot. The soldats marched rigidly, the heavy thump of their machinery echoing across the battlefield. The Dyson guards attempted to dodge but were taken out easily as their Soldats moved in straight lines firing wildly, or were just standing completely still. One of the soldiers who was examining the battlefield from a distance with a pair of electronic binoculars just clicked his tongue.

“Aren’t these supposed to be the people who made ‘top of the line’ Soldats or whatever crap they were spouting?”

The soldier next to him just shrugged as he looked back to their own mechs who were kneeling and out of sight. Many more APC’s and Florence Soldats stood behind them, ready to engage if the need arrived.

“They’re a corporation, those guys are probably just paid to tell people they’ll shoot if someone gets too close. Besides, what do you expect when you have Special Forces executing the operation?”

“Heh, explains the bullying I’m seeing…Wait, a sec, the hell are Special Forces doing here, shouldn’t this have been left to us grunts?”

“Apparently it’s got something to do with the nature of the pilots…Hang on, we’re getting the signal to secure the front entrance. Looks like the guards near there are taken care of.”

‘Roger, let’s go.”

====

“Warning! Warning! Facility under attack, evacuate to the nearest shelter immediately. Follow Security personnel and instructions. Warning-”

Moreau’s ears rang as she felt blood rush down her head, brushing aside some of the glass and bits of rubble off her. Inside the surgery room was now a massive hole that revealed the chaos going on outside. She moved to stand up but felt her leg immediately give out. Looking downwards, there was a massive piece of shrapnel that was embedded into the flesh, making her scream in pain as she tried to touch it. Her eyes went wide as she turned to the operating table where 916 was laying. The right part of his head had his scalp visible with the hair surrounding it shaved off, revealing where the behavioral chip was put inside.

While there were scrapes and minor bleeding around his body, thankfully none of the equipment landed on him and was instead scattered around the floor. He was still knocked out from the anesthesia, but she couldn’t tell how long they were knocked out for. Hopefully the blast hadn’t just killed him, but she had no way to check since the terminal was in pieces on the floor.

“If we stay here any longer, we’re going to die! I’m not waiting around for the Florence soldiers…!” With the adrenaline pumping into her body, she stood up despite the burning pain overwhelming her leg and the rest of the body screaming in agony. She went to pick up 916’s small frame into her arms and rushed towards the hallway and to one of the hangars meant for the Enhanced Humans.

Limping across the halls for nearly ten minutes and leaving a trail of blood, Moreau was able to carry 916 and almost to the door before another explosion rocked the building and caused parts of the walls to collapse. Almost dropping them and slamming against the wall she yelped in pain as she felt a sharp stinging pain near her abdomen. Looking down and she realized it wasn’t just her leg that had shrapnel, there were more pieces jutting out the sides of her stomach. When she recognized that, she almost dropped to the floor again, but she clenched her teeth with tears of pain flooding down. She couldn’t stop here, not now.

Slamming the door open into one of the backup hangars, inside were multiple Dyson Soldats, specifically meant for the generation two pilots. Feeling her strength slowly sap, she activated the elevator to bring them up to the cockpit and had it opened, putting 916 inside. Looking at their scalp, her fingers slowly reached for the chip’s handle and gave it a gentle tug. This was the last step that required her presence.

916 slowly opened his eyes and blinked repeatedly, looking downward and recognizing that he was in the cockpit of a R1-N0. And in front of him was Doctor Moreau, who was bleeding profusely and coughing up blood.

“...Doctor, you’re dying,” 916 said, his voice slightly rising above the usual monotone she was used to. She smiled at that. He was able to make his own decisions now.

Cough “I know. Seems a bit too good for me, doesn’t it?” Her bloodied hands first crushed the implant chip, causing even more blood to fall out before it fell limp, Moreau laughing weakly.

“You’ll experience some dizziness after a few days but the symptoms will subside. The rest of your combat chips will remain in you since I wasn’t able to get it out in time.”

“They took longer because I’m an older model.-”

“Don’t…Don’t say that. You’re more than just a product…”

916 did not say anything else as her hand struggled to get up. 916 moved his hand to help her, but she shoved his arm away. Before she fully got up, she reached for something in her pocket and tossed it to 916.

“This is…” 916 looked at the tape with the word ‘Sing’ written on it. “403 showed me this song.”

“It’s yours. If there’s anything positive leaving here, I want it to come with you.”

“What are my orders?”

“Hah…you’re free, why are you asking-”

“I do not know how to act freely. I only know my orders.”

Again she laughed, though this time it was barely audible. She smiled at him, the blood seeping from her head, stomach, and lips. A sight that would startle anyone else, 916 only blinked in mild confusion. They both remained silent as the sounds of gunfire and explosions echoed distantly outside the hangar, soft rumblings occurring every other few moments.

“Death really is too good for me…Your orders are these: get the hell away from here as fast as you can. Don’t trust any Dyson employee. Live your life to the fullest, and don’t waste this chance…”

Moreau fell to her knees as she closed the cockpit, the tactical screens coming to life and 916 felt his spine connect to the chair, the suit suddenly springing upwards. The main camera displayed in front of him, and he could see the doctor on the floor, curled up as the life signs on her began to fade. The hand of his Soldat slowly raised upwards and picked her up, as if to comfort the dying woman. Moreau looked up and saw the horned head staring right at her. She did not even need to see the cockpit open to know what his face was like. She threw her blood soaked lab coat with the flash drive safely tucked into its pocket and threw it away from the Soldat.

“...If you can…Put the tape inside the right console. I’d…like to listen to it, one more time…”

916 grunted in affirmation, though she couldn’t hear that. The right console in the cockpit stored his communications and had a slot that could contain mission data. And at Moreau’s request, it could also fit small tapes in the odd event of classified data needing to be stored more subtly. The very idea of it was quite strange to him, but he decided to go along with it…Did he always think of it that way? He had been inside the R1-N0 on at least twenty different deployments, yet he swore he never had an opinion about it before.

The Soldat began to broadcast a tune that echoed throughout the entire hangar. What 916 did not realize was that he had the song on an open channel, meaning everyone in the vicinity could hear it as clearly as he did.

‘Sing, sing a song Let the world sing along~’

====

Many Florence Soldats stopped their firing and turned to their comms, frowning and trying to find the source of the music.

“The hell is this?” “Is that music?” “I think I know this song.” “Sir, the source is coming from inside the building!” “Didn’t this play at the training site…?!”

‘Sing of love there could be Sing for you and for me~’

The Dyson guards suddenly snapped around towards the direction of an unopened hangar, many of them trembling in their cockpits.

“It’s…It’s that fucking song again!” “Weren’t the EH’s taken care of?!” “G-GUNS READY! FORGET ABOUT THE FEDS!” “Oh god, please no…!”

‘Sing, sing a song Make it simple to last Your whole life long~’

Alana and several soldiers looked at the intercom, listening to the music playing as they secured the main lobby. Many of the employees looked frightened at the song while the kids they were escorting suddenly started humming along, albeit emotionlessly.

“What’s happening…?” Alana thought to himself, a sense of dread suddenly washing over his calm battle instincts.

‘Don't worry that it's not Good enough for anyone Else to hear~’

Justeen and a squad burst through a door with a blood trail coming out of it and found a singular Dyson Soldat blasting music, with a scientist slowly bleeding in its hand. The head seemed to be moving in sync with the music, but did not appear to be hostile despite the fact it saw them.

“Shit, is that our man?” Justeen grumbled, pointing her pistol at the Soldat.

‘Just sing, sing a song

(Just sing, sing a song)

Just sing, sing a song’

916 wasn’t smiling as he listened to the song, but it made him feel at ease. A few years ago, 403, her brother, and several other generation one pilots listened to this song together in the waiting rooms. It made those nights much more bearable, being able to ignore the cold of the facility simply by just having sung together. Pleasant. That was not a word he had used in a while. Cold, feeling at ease, many other feelings 916 did not know the words for, but it made him feel something. All he felt was beginning to overwhelm his senses. 916 called to memory about 403’s brother after listening to the song. He had asked a simple question.

‘La la la la la—’

The song stopped as 916’s battle instincts kicked in and he slammed his right fist against the communications console…Then, a feeling he did know the word for, though it was the tip of his tongue. He remembered the words 403 asked that had caused the incident, what had caused the guards to open fire and hit the trainee center, what had caused all the generation one members to go rampant. What had taken his only friends away. He always knew the feeling, and thanks to Moreau he had remembered. It was thanks to Moreau, those feelings were taken away in the first place.

His facial expression remained unchanged, but his pupils dilated as the hud in front of him showed a rise in heartbeat. He finally remembered the name for the feeling. Anger.

He finally remembered the question.

“...Doctor Moreau. Is there heaven?” 916 asked.

“...Isn’t that voice coming from the Soldat?” One of the soldiers next to Justeen asked. The Soldat’s head was looking at the doctor, and finally the squad began connecting the dots.

“...Is…Is that a child?!” Justeen asked, her mind fully comprehending the horror that was unfolding itself.

“All 403 wanted was just an answer…” 916 stated, his heartbeat spiking further up.

“...Isn’t that voice coming from the Soldat?” One of the soldiers next to Justeen asked. The Soldat’s head was looking at the doctor, and finally the squad began connecting the dots.

“...Is…Is that a child?!” Justeen asked, her mind fully comprehending the horror that was unfolding itself.

“All 403 wanted was just an answer…” 916 stated, his heartbeat spiking further up.

“ONE OF THOSE GEN ONE FREAKS IS IN THE SOLDAT!” A Dyson guard shouted in the comms channel. A channel that everyone could hear. 916’s violet eyes quickly turned to red as a deep robotic voice echoed within the machine.

“CE-DRIVE ACTIVATED.”

Justeen saw the visor of the Soldat turn scarlet as the fist suddenly clenched, making a sickening crushing noise as blood gushed and seeped through the fingers. The head jerked towards the hangar door as the Soldat crouched, then ignited its thrusters to crash through it.

Both sides witnessed the speed of which an unopened hangar suddenly burst with a Dyson Soldat, shrapnel flying through the ground and shattering the silence and door alike. Its visor was completely red and it was unarmed, making it stand out from its fellow machines. The head suddenly jerked again towards one of the Dyson guards and leapt with an unnatural agility.

It landed on top of the Dyson Soldat it singled out, one of its hands quickly reaching through the chest and tearing out its cockpit and stomping on it like a wild beast. The guards began to open fire with their rifles, but not before it quickly used its thrusters to speed away from the gunfire, no one able to land their shots anywhere near it. The Florence Soldats quickly stepped back and watched in horror as this lone Dyson Soldat tore through its own ranks.

“S-Sir what the hell is that?!” One of the horrified Florence soldiers shouted, narrowly dodging one of the stray shots. “No way that’s just a guard!”

“That thing’s way too bulky to be moving around like a human! How the-?!”

“Pull back, pull back!” The officer commanded, everyone trying their best to get out of the way.

916 felt the electric surge throughout his whole body, his spine connected to the R1-N0 enhanced his awareness, his combat performance, but also his emotions. Though his face did not change, his rapid breathing, the dilating pupils and the rush of adrenaline told him exactly what to feel. Rage. Rage against the ones who took the lives of his friends. Of his own.

916’s R1-N0 crashed straight into another of the Dyson guards, using their mech to block incoming bullets, most of the bullets bouncing off the armor as he sped towards another guard. Putting its fist through the cockpit and the other at the waist, 916 tore the machine in half. He threw the upper half aside and used its legs as a bludgeoning weapon, completely caving in the torso of the one shooting and slid past it. From the perspective of everyone else, he had just accomplished that feat within ten seconds.

He felt blood rushing down his nose, as his breathing became more frantic and rapid. Though there was combat data rushing into his brain, he was not using a single bit of it, instead relying on pure instinct to tear them apart and escape. Grabbing one of the rifles on the ground, the R1-N0 hurtled towards the back of the headquarters and fired single shots at the main cameras of the suits, disabling them and causing them to panic and shoot wildly. The soldiers would deal with them first before getting to him. The part of him that wanted to ask why there were soldiers even present was buried by the one telling him he needed to flee.

Many of the soldiers got out of the way as the R1-N0 destroyed every single Dyson Guard, though many of them realized it was actively ignoring their presence. Or rather, it did not seem to care if they were there at all.

916 hurtled down the open field and towards one of the hangars that was opening and revealed two more Dyson guards. Inside was an emergency tunnel that would lead towards the border of the country and outside of Florence jurisdiction in case of emergencies of being found out. The guards had no chance to even react before 916 slammed into one of them, slamming the finger on the gun’s trigger at the other’s cockpit and making sure to hit the generator inside with its hail of bullets, causing it to create a miniature explosion.

The way behind him caved in with rocks and metal falling as he grabbed the mech he slammed into, using its body to block the tunnel and used the remaining ammo to detonate the other guard in the same manner. There was a small bus traveling through the middle, which he could only assume were scientists and soldiers, and barrelled right through them, sending the machine toppling and into the railing on its side.

916’s breathing finally started to stabilize as his consciousness began to fade, his eyes turning back into violet. His eyes struggled to remain open as the autopilot initiated, and kept driving forward.

…

David had just received word about some kind of skirmish happening at the borders of Florence and Cumbria, and was sent alongside his PMC to ensure it would not break out into Cumbria. David’s dark skin glistened in the sun, his muscles almost ripping out of his tank top, brushing back his brushed up black hair. He almost felt insulted that he was hired for such a boring job. He sighed to himself as he and the other mercenaries stood outside their Soldats, standing around doing nothing.

Each of their Soldats was unique, David’s was a glorified tank with arms, standing only a meter taller than an actual tank, but was engineered to have a head, massive battle cannons mounted on the shoulders, and machine guns on the arms. Part of him wondered if some crackhead designed the thing, but he couldn’t deny how effective it was. Meanwhile, the men serving under him were Florence Military Soldats salvaged from black markets and empty battlefields, but with markings and mismatched armor plates to set them apart. Was it the best? Hell no, not by a long shot, but it’d get the job done. Especially an uneventful border patrol like this.

“Boss, think any actions gonna come to us?” One of the younger voices spoke out.

“Psh, if we’re lucky,” David replied. “But you know what happens if some shit does show up. Florence is gonna cry bloody murder it ain’t them who’s breaking the treaty. Probably gonna blame it on people like us.”

“To be fair boss, not exactly untrue.” A female voice chimed in.

“Heh. Didn’t say we weren’t to blame.” David replied, chuckling.

He sat on the side of his Soldat, his legs hitting the tank tread as he contemplated what to even do with the money they would get from this job. On one hand, it was easy enough to where even the rookies could do it in their sleep. On the other, said rookies would have zero experience in case an actual fight broke out- Something in the distance caught his eye. The ground was slowly starting to move upwards, revealing a large metallic door.

“...What in the-?” David muttered to himself, raising an eyebrow. The other mercenaries saw the same thing, and immediately got into their cockpits and aimed their weapons at it. Getting into his tank Soldat, he aimed the cannons right at the door.

“No one fire until my go!” David shouted into his comms, his finger ready on the trigger.

What the hell was Florence doing? If they launched an actual invasion there’s no way both sides would not resort to firing everything they got in response- His thoughts were cut off as the door had a noticeable clang ring out from behind it. Something very heavy just collided into the door, but it did not seem to have an intention to come out. Two of the mercenaries slowly approached it, moving as tactically as they could as their machines moved to pry the doors open while having their weapons still at the ready.

When they finally opened it, everyone braced themselves for an attack, only to find a single R1-N0 Soldat standing on the opposite side, the white armor completely stained in dirt and blast marks. The notorious blue visor it had was flickering between black and red. It then shut off for good as it collapsed onto its back, causing a small dust cloud to form and stain the white even further.

David scanned the Soldat and saw that its systems had gone completely offline. The two mercenaries by the door checked inside and saw nothing. Nothing on their scanners for miles on end, and with two diverging paths at the end of it. There was no telling where it came from. The female merc got out of her Soldat and investigated the cockpit. Her eyes went wide as she reached for her earpiece.

“Boss there’s a kid in the seat!” She shouted right before going to grab the child out of it.

The other mercenaries surrounded the area to make sure an ambush wasn’t waiting to happen, while securing the perimeter. David stepped out of his Soldat and got a closer look at the child himself. He had a bloodstain below his nose, and his spine was protruding out in a way that made him feel sick, and that was not even including all the wires connecting it and his chest.

“Is he alive?” David asked.

“Think so. Kid looks like he went through hell…”

“Sure looks like it…Are those numbers on his neck?”

“It says…Nine-One-Six…?”

=======

PROLOGUE: END

A/N: HOLY CRAP, you actually reached down here, thank you SO SO much for reading this! I know that was a lot of words thrown at you, but I hope it was at least an enjoyable read! There's a lot more to come, so if you're at all interested in this story, stay tuned! See ya at Chapter 1! - Chris Side note: Chat GPT is HORRIFYING. I used it as a feedback machine to make sure what I was writing was coming across correctly, and it got every one of my intentions correct. Even my foreshadowing. WHAT HAS TECHNOLOGY DONE

#916 #oc story #original story #mecha story #oc scifi story #long post #long chapter

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putschki1969 · 8 months

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FictionJunction Station Express Railway Newsletter Vol.09 Scans

Here are my HQ scans of the latest FJS fan club magazine.

Vol.02 | Vol. 03 | Vol.04 | Vol.05 | Vol.06 | Vol.07 | Vol.08

❗This is Fan Club EXCLUSIVE content❗ ❗PERSONAL USE ONLY❗ Do ❗NOT SHARE❗ on other sites

I haven't scanned the previous two issues (yet) because there's nothing too exciting in them. This time there's a lot of coverage of their Fan Club events and a huge interview with Yuki Kajiura and Yasunori Mori (Mr. M - Yuki's manager).

I've learned so much about Yuki reading through this interview. Most of it is probably common knowledge to longtime Yuki Kajiura fans but I've always focused on Kalafina so I am by no means an expert when it comes to Yuki herself. I initially started reading this to find out whether they would say something interesting about Kalafina but they didn't really. Of course there was a substantial section dedicated to them but it was mostly stuff we already knew. As for Yuki, I particularly liked the part where they talked about their very first years together, how she and Mori met and how Yuki ended up signing up with Space Craft in 1993. I had no idea she had such a rough start to her career. Apparently no one was interested in See-Saw's music in the 90s because it was too hard to sing. That's one of the main reasons Chiaki Ishikawa decided to pursue a solo-career instead. During the first few years, she was still living with her parents, taking on part-time jobs and living off of roughly a thousand dollars a month from her music, making much less than during her previous job as office worker. Yuki praises Mori and Space Craft for always having her back, for being straightforward with her, for never making any false promises, for having enormous patience with her, for never forcing her to take on work that didn't interest her, for ensuring she was able to gain experience and steadily build a solid catalog for herself instead of smothering her with countless job offers just to milk her. She didn't get a good gig until 1998 when she was offered to do the soundtrack for a Playstation series called "Yarudora - Double Cast". Her earlier jobs hadn't brought in a lot of money but since the game was distributed by Sony she got to sign a very lucrative royalty contract (according to Yuki, Sony are apparently very adamant about music creators beings paid fairly). From then onwards, she was free of all her debts. Her next big breakthrough was her collaboration with Yuuka on Gundam SEED. Yuki says that if "Akatsuki no Kuruma" hadn't been such a huge hit, she would never have been offered the Kara no Kyoukai project which ultimately resulted in the birth of Kalafina.

Those of you who have been around for a while know that I've always been somewhat of an advocate for Space Craft and this interview just enforces my opinion of them. They have done some shitty stuff of course but overall they are pretty decent as far as Japanese talent agencies are concerned. Yuki then goes on to talk about her strong desire to remain at Space Craft for however long it would take to repay all the kindness that she received. That might explain why she was with them for such a long time (she signed up with them back in 1993)

Regarding Kalafina, here are some of the highlights:

Sony was close to despair when they held their audition for Kalafina because none of the singers had the necessary skill-set to sing Yuki's music which is pretty much how Wakana and Keiko got their appointed positions (because they had already had experience working with her)

Maya was eventually deemed unfit for this type of work because she was still in high school at that time

Kalafina was Yuki's all-time favourite project because she got to do whatever she wanted. There were no taboos whatsoever. Even when it came to tie-ins and insert songs, she had a lot of creative freedom because most of the creators in charge trusted her judgement.

I wish they had at least mentioned Yuki's departure from Space Craft and the "disbandment" but I guess they didn't wanna go there...

#kalafina #yuki kajiura #kajiura yuki #yasunori mori #space craft #scans #my scans #yk scans #keiko scans #fjs #fictionjunction station #fan club exclusive content

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shinoposting · 7 months

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You are one of the few quality Shino blogs on here and I just wanted to get this off my chest (since he’s my fav character)! Everyone seems to think Shino’s favorite animated movie would be Disney’s A Bug’s Life but I honestly see him liking Roald Dahl’s/Henry Selick’s James and the Giant Peach or Ghibli’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind much MUCH more. Do you have any HC’s for the types of media content Shino would like to watch/read in a more modern setting?

The Bug's Life jokes are classic flanderization. Happens to side characters all the time, I just try to ignore it now.

Honestly bug boy has VERY gothic sensibilities. I see him liking a lot of tech-noir media. Naruto is a bit anachronistic but for the most part the setting is based on Kishi's 80s childhood, meaning that Shino could have easily seen early tech-noir movies. I think Shibi is into classic noir films, so it sort of fits in with this theme of...wanting to be like his dad, but also his own person. If that makes sense.

As for KIDS' media? Before finding his niche I think he would be drawn to underrated and strange, dark fantasy, things that other kids might find too scary like The Black Cauldron. Ironically though, not a fan of Nightmare Before Christmas. Come on, why's the guy who's full of bugs gotta be the villain? For that reason a lot of media involving insects or arachnids are off the table; he's quite easily offended when it comes to bugs.

I have not seen Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind myself but on a cursory google search these bugs definitely look like something he would be interested in. I can imagine him filling a whole notebook with ideas and diagrams....

Printed media...we know he likes shonen manga, and western comics are also implied. It seems like Shino preferred Marvel and Torune preferred DC?

I can't talk much on books really, I haven't been able to enjoy a book for many many years (personal reasons) so outside of YouTube reviews of known trash fires I really have no idea what's going on in the world of words on paper.

And for shows, Nat Geo and the like are a given, but I also have a longstanding headcanon that Shino really likes Gundam. We've never gotten to see his room, but I think he would have a whole glass case of custom-painted models. My only basis for this is that it was popular at the time and Shino is a big fucking nerd, detail-oriented, content to work with forceps...and robots are a lot like bugs, if you think about it (but not too hard). Maybe he watched the show with Torune when they were little.

Oops. That was longer than I intended it to be. Well, I hope that answered your question!

#naruto #naruto headcanons #shino #shino aburame #aburame shino #long post?#headcanon zone #askbox

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astrarobotica · 1 year

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Apart from all of the ridiculous theories around the show (some of which may be true! but for me it's too early to assume anything) the most interesting thing about The Witch from Mercury is that there's no hot war occurring during the first season, at least not one the viewer knows about or any of the characters are participating in.

I've mostly just watched UC content, and in nearly every series or film, there's a war occurring throughout the entire plot. Conflict is a constant, and while the battles can be intense, there isn't a lot of build-up to the action; there's conflict, and there's the downtime in-between.

The viewer becomes used to this pattern, and while character deaths may be surprising, you ultimately know that in any given episode there's probably going to be a battle and someone might die.

But this isn't the case in The Witch from Mercury. The prologue is typical Gundam fare, but it's set two decades before the main series. The majority of the series revolves around teens at an elite space academy. There's plenty of drama, and there are dark secrets beneath the surface. And even though the characters have "duels" with each other, it's just a competition; no one really gets hurt (well, except for that one thing).

The show lulls the viewer into a sense of comfort; it's funny and wholesome, even between the corporate/academic drama. You know there's a possibility of things becoming very serious, but it's a matter of when and how. And when the plot is set into action, it builds over the course of the last few episodes, and only during the final episode of the season does everything explode.

I've never seen Gundam build tension like this show. The other series I've watched hardly build tension at all, they feel heavy-handed compared to this. That's not a bad thing, but it makes The Witch from Mercury so much more effective in that way. There's no real danger for the majority of the season, and then suddenly everything falls apart. In other series, the main cast loses their innocence in the first twenty minutes. Here it takes a full twelve episodes, and the battle is more intense and shocking than anything I've seen in Gundam, not because of the battle itself, but because of time it took to reach that point, and I can't stop thinking about it.

#gundam #mobile suit gundam #the witch from mercury #witch from mercury #g witch

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whypolar · 8 months

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Gundam Unicorn OVA 4: At the Bottom of the Gravity Well

I thought the last one was the prettiest, and they might have one-upped themselves again. The shot composition alone...!

...This is a really weird one to talk about. Probably my most opinionated post so far, and even longer than the last one. This monster is over 15k words, I'm so sorry.

The sixth Unicorn novel is an extremely frustrating experience for me. It's my least favourite of the books by a wide margin, and it comes at you very suddenly after the first five, which I think are generally interesting and a lot of fun.

OVA 4 covers the plot of the sixth novel. It removed everything I disliked about the book, and replaced it all with something much better.

...And then it found entirely new ways to annoy me, by removing or otherwise fucking around with several novel scenes that were already good. Yes, it's Riddhe again.

I'm genuinely kind of baffled.

Still, overall it was a far more enjoyable experience than its novel equivalent. I'm going to talk about novel stuff right away this time, because it's kind of unavoidable. The OVA is very different, right from the first scene.

(Previous posts: Day of the Unicorn, The Second Coming of Char, The Ghost of Laplace)

FYI: I'm saving detailed discussion of any particularly disturbing or otherwise sensitive novel-only content for the end, in the last two sections. There will be content warnings listed under the headings for those sections.

Major structural changes: Dakar and Torrington

This is a huge change, right out of the gate. The attack on Dakar is where the main conflict of the novel takes place, but here it's already ending in the very first scene! For a while I wondered if they were going to return and attack it again, but it quickly became clear that wasn't the case.

Syam and Gael make an appearance. They don't tell us anything new, I don't think-- and we've seen that colony drop flashback before too, haven't we? I could be wrong. Regardless, I think they're mostly just making sure the audience doesn't forget Syam and Gael exist while everything else is going on. Probably a good idea.

We know a lot more about Syam's deal right from the get-go in the books, because it's literally prologue. I feel like significantly less has been explained here about his history and the history of the Vist Foundation-- but it's admittedly hard for me to keep straight what we've been told in previous OVAs vs. any gaps I may be filling in with prior knowledge.

I do wonder how they're going to handle him going forward. Are they going to infodump a bunch of relevant history and character motivation further on? Are they just going to refuse to elaborate on certain things?

Because they've been skipping over smaller character details about Syam that we learn through Cardeas, Martha, and Gael, he seems to be presented as a lot more... straightforwardly benevolent, at least on the surface. Almost ethereal, even. I think novel Syam has more of an edge, even if he's supposedly feeling repentant now that he's a sad old man.

Oh, and Gael. Gael was shot by Alberto on the Argama during the Palau battle, in the fifth novel. Maybe something equivalent to that is coming in the next OVA, on the Ra Cailum instead? They could also just skip it, since he survives and appears after that anyway.

This Zee Zulu was not present for the novel scene I'm about to discuss, but consider this: I like aquatic mobile suits.

The novel opens like this, with the Shamblo destroying a submarine. The context is different than the anime equivalent, since Dakar hasn't happened yet and there are no other mobile suits present. Nobody in the Federation is aware the Shamblo even exists yet.

The submarine in the novel was searching for the Garancieres, since it was believed based on the trajectory that it would have landed in the ocean (as opposed to the desert, where it actually ended up). One of the sonar operators picks up some strange noise, but it doesn't fit the profile of what they're looking for, so his superior tells him to ignore it. This was a mistake. The Shamblo-- also searching for the Garancieres-- tears their hull apart, killing everyone on board.

Instead of Dakar, the main conflict in OVA 4 takes place in and around Torrington Base-- a location from the seventh novel. They've essentially moved Loni's arc forward, and combined it with another battle.

I originally assumed this might have been a censorship concern, but a whole bunch of civilian casualties still happen, so... seems more about wanting to get to Torrington faster. I was very surprised when they didn't censor the woman with the baby on the fire escape. I remember reading the novel equivalent and thinking "oh, they're cutting that for sure". Shows what I know.

The novel version of Torrington doesn't have any civilian infrastructure around to damage. It's an extremely remote and backwater location.

Even with the addition of a nearby city, putting the coordinates in Torrington is significantly less callous on Cardeas' part than having them in Dakar. Programming the La+ program so they have to activate the NT-D in the middle of the Federation capital is stupid as shit, assuming your goal isn't to kill a bunch of random noncombatants. Novel Banagher's explanation for why he might have done it is so generous that it just kinda makes me sad.

I'm sorry Banagher, I know you're still traumatized because he exploded, but your dad doesn't give a shit about other people. He prioritizes poetic imagery in his treasure hunt over the lives of human beings. He zapped your brain as a child to check whether you could pilot the robot good. He sucks, Banagher.

The Parliament building as a location does give a much more direct clue to the nature of the Box-- the Federation charter is on the ground floor, and we're told through character dialogue that it's a replica of the original that was destroyed at Laplace.

This montage of all the scattered Zeon forces on Earth mobilizing might be my favourite sequence in the film. This is another situation where I wish I could include images for all of it. Don't even get me started on the music in this part. God, it's so sick. Cool fucking robot. (Image of a child holding a rifle flying over my head)

Yonem Kirks was originally a character from novel 7. He had nothing to do with Loni, as she was already dead when he was introduced. He was actually the leader of the group of Zeon remnants who picked up the transmission requesting assistance for the attack on Torrington. He would have been in the place of that nameless beardy guy up there, whose face we never fully get to see. He is eventually killed by Marida in the Banshee.

OVA 4 recasts Kirks as a surrogate father figure for Loni. In the novel, Loni's father is still alive, and he's also one of the main reasons that book six is my least favourite. You'll see.

Loni takes over her father’s original role as a character, but with everything I hated about him stripped out. I think that rules. I initially thought they were going to put Kirks in his role, but what they went with was definitely more interesting.

I'll talk more about Loni at the end of this post, since she's the core of the whole arc. She's a substantially different character in each version. I will also explain exactly what her dad's deal is in the book, and why I do not like it.

Let me get this out of my system first.

The Character Assassination of Riddhe Marcenas

Imagine: an interesting character is rewritten so that everything you liked is either downplayed or removed, and then your least favourite aspect of their personality or story is inflated to become their most important character trait. This is what experiencing anime Riddhe is like for me.

I feel like I'm being pranked. Literally, the degree to which they are systematically removing all his most interesting and sympathetic qualities is starting to feel like a running gag. It's not just things being cut for time, either; they've changed dialogue and body language in ways that can only be deliberate. Someone clearly decided that changing Riddhe's personality was necessary, and I can't figure out why.

I got mad enough about this to make a diagram. I didn't even realize just how much I apparently liked this guy until they took him away.

Riddhe becoming increasingly closed off, obsessive, and myopic is a significant degeneration, and it happens over a fairly long stretch of plot. It's interesting because we're given time to get used to this guy as a positive force before watching him spiral, and he's clearly still trying to be good even as he self-destructs. That's how it feels for the characters, and that's ideally how it should feel for the audience.

If he's just kind of a self-absorbed dickhead from the start, what's the point? Where's the juice? Where's the drama? Why should we care, on an emotional level, whether or not it's still possible to pull him back from the cliff?

Look, I admit that I was less cartoonishly mad about this on the second watch. I can imagine a more charitable reading of this character than my bitter little hater response. I'm sure the anime version works fine for people who haven't read the novels, or who have but don't care about the original character, or at least don't find the new version as deeply unlikable as I do. But it makes me so crazy.

I'm going to go through his scenes, so you can see exactly what I mean.

Riddhe & Ronan

Riddhe's first scene in the OVA is his conversation with Ronan. This is a scene from the fifth novel-- if you read my post on OVA 3, you may remember my surprise that there was so little of Riddhe and Mineva doing stuff on Earth. Clearly, some of it was pushed foward to be in this one instead. Sure. Fine.

In the novel version of this scene, Riddhe is waiting alone in his father's office. Two other people come by to speak to him before Ronan arrives. I'm fine with these conversations getting cut for time, but I do think they're interesting, so I'm going to go over them.

First is the Butler, Doillon-- the novel's fan translation spells it Dwiyon. Doillon is described as a father figure to Riddhe, and clearly one he feels more positively about than Ronan. Doillon tells Riddhe that he missed him, and asks him not to leave again. He says that he's old and will likely die soon, and he's worried about the family-- Ronan is also getting older, and his health is declining (heart issues).

We also meet Riddhe's older sister, Cynthia, who either doesn't exist in the OVA or is off doing vivacious socialite things elsewhere. She also tries to convince Riddhe to come home. She asks him about Audrey, tells him she's cute, and insists they both come to a party she's hosting later.

There's some discussion of Riddhe's mother, both in narration and dialogue. We're reminded that she's ill (unspecified) and living in a nursing home. It's implied that she might have had some kind of nervous breakdown because of "the political world," but it's unclear whether that means she was a politician herself, or if it was more about her involvement with Ronan.

At this point Ronan comes in, and everyone else gets shooed out.

OVA Riddhe's demeanour around Ronan is... curious? Maybe nervous, and a little dismissive, but trying to act respectful. He's very goofy, rubbernecking and trying eavesdrop on Ronan's phone call. It would be cute, if he didn't piss me off so badly within the next five minutes. Ronan, meanwhile, feels very distant, keeping his back turned away for much of the scene.

The novel relationship is extremely tense and hostile, and a lot of that energy comes from Riddhe. He has to deliberately restrain himself from being aggressive and getting angry during this scene, because he's aware he needs his father's authority if he's going to keep Mineva safe.

Riddhe hates being in his family's house. He does not like his father, and is constantly on edge when he's around. In many scenes, he deliberately avoids even looking at him. When we're told that Riddhe "ran away", the connotations of that are very different from in the OVA, where it sounds like he just left on a fanciful whim.

So the familial relationship is different. Fine. I think it's less interesting, but I can live with it.

Here's where I start getting mad:

Ronan accusing Riddhe of being in love with Mineva and suggesting that this is the reason he brought her to Earth is an anime-only addition.

Obviously, a character in a story believing something doesn't make it an objective fact. The framing, however, implies that Ronan is correct: Riddhe has a dramatic startle reaction, they've failed to establish any other strong motivation, and immediately after this scene he goes and proposes to her.

The scene where Riddhe talks to Mineva is a combination of two different scenes from the novel-- first the hug on the balcony, and later the proposal. The original two scenes have completely different (and incompatible) tones, and they're separated by a good amount of time, as well. There's also another scene between them, with Riddhe riding his horse, so I'll talk a little about that too.

The way these scenes have been combined not only fully re-centres Riddhe's character around being in love with Mineva, but it also makes him way more invasive and pushy. I fucking hate this guy. He sucks! Where's my boy!!!!

The Balcony Scene

The balcony scene takes place during the dinner party held by Riddhe's sister and her husband, after Riddhe has had his conversation with Ronan. The guests are mostly wealthy older women, the wives of important men.

Mineva is cautious and a bit intimidated. She is introduced as Audrey Burne, and stated to be the daughter of one of Ronan's connections. Riddhe is obviously sulking, refusing to speak to the point where he won't even respond to direct questions and his sister has to carry the conversation for him.

The guests begin gossiping about the recent terrorist attack on Industrial 7. The way they discuss the deaths is not particularly respectful. They talk about Zeon and spacenoids in general almost as if they're inhuman aliens. Cynthia tries to steer the conversation elsewhere. Mineva is horribly uncomfortable.

Riddhe stands up and leaves the table without saying anything. Mineva isn't able to find a good opportunity to leave and go look for him until 10 minutes later. She eventually finds him on the balcony facing the courtyard.

“I’m sorry” the voice entered her ears, and she looked forward, staring right at Riddhe’s back as he still looked forward. She lowered her face and said, “There’s no need for you to apologize...” “I feel that this is reality too. If I continue to remain in Neo Zeon, I wouldn’t know all of these things.” This might be a good chance to learn. Mineva muttered in her depressed heart, but she could not find any words to overcome these words that were full of such prejudice. She thought that mutual understanding was just a dream, and she remained unable to breathe in this helplessness of hers. “That’s not it.” Riddhe said as his shoulders trembled, and he clenched his hands that were on the handrails tightly. “That’s not what I want to talk about…” ... [His shoulders trembled,] probably because he was crying. That was not an emotion that could be caused by a breakdown in talks between him and Ronan, and Mineva sensed that there was a greater despair and sense of loss here, “Riddhe…” she called him, and approached his trembling figure. Suddenly, that back profile left the handrails, and Riddhe turned to Mineva, his chest filling her sights. Mineva was hugged around the shoulders as she was pulled to him, and he embraced her in his clutches. “I’m sorry, I…I actually brought you to such a unthinkable place…!” ... “No matter what, I’ll protect you well no matter what, so please stay here, stay by me…don’t leave me alone…” Water droplets that had warmth dripped on her hair, wetting her forehead. Why is he crying? What’s causing him so much pain? At that moment, Mineva had no sense of uneasiness or disgust as she felt Riddhe’s trembling body with her own. She hesitated over whether she should put her arms around him, and she looked at the sky that was entering the night from past the shoulders wearing the military uniform.

It's just... a completely different scene, with a completely different context.

Look at the description of that hug! Is that the impression you got from the hug in the anime, that Mineva felt at ease? The only person whose feelings we can tell for certain in that scene is Riddhe, and Mineva seems uncomfortable and unhappy both before and after the conversation.

The scene ends here. We get a continuation much later, as the final scene of the novel.

Mineva is alone in her room, several hours after the conversation on the balcony. We're told that Riddhe ran away from the house immediately afterward, without looking at her or explaining what had him so upset. She wonders what he's doing now, then wonders what she's doing. She feels helpless and lost, and rather unlike herself. In the past, she has always been very decisive. These confused, conflicted feelings are strange and unfamiliar to her.

When she looks up at the sky and asks Banagher what she should do, one of the stars is implied to be the Unicorn falling through the atmosphere. I think that imagery is really lovely.

Riddhe Horsegirl Moments

A couple days later, Mineva watches from a distance as Riddhe rides his horse. She is impressed by how in sync they are and how much trust there must be between them, but she also thinks that the horse is clearly picking up on Riddhe's anger and seems anxious.

(Right before this scene, when Ronan is watching Riddhe out the window, we're told that Riddhe deliberately learned a second, different riding style than the one popular with upper-class people that he was originally taught, because he thought it was boring. lol)

Cynthia comes out onto the terrace to talk to Mineva. They talk about Riddhe, and Cynthia describes her perception of his personality. The fan translation is kind of garbled here, but I'll include the passage anyway:

Cynthia looked down at Riddhe that was riding on the horse, “He’s really a useless child.” She sighed as she mused, and Mineva did not feel comfortable hearing this. “He’s always been like this in the past, always unable to hide what he was thinking, and never cared about the people around him when he put his mind to him. He’s already everywhere at once, but he’s attracted to small details for some reason, so he’ll always bear everything by himself alone.” This is really a rather accurate correct analysis. Mineva felt impressed that Riddhe’s relative was able to see through him so thoroughly, but felt a little depressed as she thought about how she had not been talking to Riddhe during this while...

Jp text for the list of traits:

「昔からそう。一途で、隠し事ができなくて、思い込んだら脇目も振らずに突っ走っちゃう。そのくせ、変に気が回るもんだから、ひとりでいろいろ抱え込んじゃうのよね」

Possible alt translation (I have no expertise, take with salt just as you would the other):

"It's always been that way. He's single-minded, can't hide anything, and when he makes up his mind, he rushes forward without looking the other way. Despite that, he's strangely anxious, so he takes on a lot of things by himself."

We're then told exactly how long Mineva has been staying at the Marcenas residence (3 days), and what the atmosphere has been like in the house. Riddhe is barely around, apparently busy repairing the Delta Plus. Ronan and Cynthia's husband Patrick avoid Mineva entirely. Cynthia and Doillon are the only people she has to spend time with, and neither of them is aware of her true identity.

Cynthia assures Mineva that Riddhe will probably get over whatever is bothering him soon enough and be back to his old self, but Mineva feels an ominous certainty that she's wrong.

My impression of novel Mineva is that she generally likes Riddhe and enjoys his company. She worries about him, and feels lonely when he starts becoming increasingly distant and angry. She doesn't like that she can see him changing, and she can tell that he's hurting. It's upsetting to her! She had just gotten to know this guy, and suddenly he's acting like a stranger again.

I have a hard time believing that OVA Mineva has enjoyed being in the same room with Riddhe at any point. She seems pragmatic and politely disinterested at best. Her body language with people she clearly likes-- Banagher, or hell, even the guy in the diner-- is very different.

The Most Depressing Proposal in the World

The dialogue of the proposal itself and Mineva's rejection is basically the same. Everything else about Riddhe's behaviour and body language is completely different.

They even completely inverted the exchange when he opens the door! In the novel, Riddhe asks if he can come in, and Mineva replies "this is your house, isn't it," but in the anime, he opens the door without asking and she's upset about the presumption.

It's such a small thing, but it's a clear signal to me that these changes are purposeful. They had zero reason to do that, unless they want to change the audience's perception of Riddhe and his relationship to Mineva. This suggests to me that they're not failing to adapt the novel character, but intentionally replacing him with something different. But... why? To what end?

This scene happens right after we learn that Riddhe is being sent to serve under Bright on the Ra Cailum. The context of the proposal is him telling her he's leaving.

Mineva has been in the house for at least ten days at this point. She has been feeling increasingly anxious and constrained, and by now she feels a strong desire to leave.

Riddhe is very distant and stiff. He tells her he's leaving, and apologizes. This is when he finally tells her about his conversation with Ronan, how the Marcenas family and the Vist Foundation "are like two mirrors facing each other," and that his family likely intends to use her as a hostage.

Then we get the proposal. It's so vaguely delivered that Mineva literally does not understand what he's asking at first. Not only does he not hug her, he's not even looking at her. He has a weird little twitch when bringing up his dad. The whole thing is miserable and kind of pathetic.

“So... can you become a member of our family?” In contrast, Riddhe said this without turning around to look. Mineva did not understand what he was saying to her as she frowned. “How about you abandon Zeon and the Zabi family, and become a member of the Marcenas family? In that case, my dad will—” To Riddhe, the last words were probably something he did not expect. His eyelids twitched, and he seemed to recover as he went quiet and lowered his eyes that were once facing Mineva. “…Even if it’s just a formality, this meaningless war will end like that, and you’ll be free.” “Do you feel…that can be considered freedom?” Mineva too lowered her sights, her heart feeling the sand-like bitterness. These words sounded too tragic to both the speaker and the listener, and even though they were just a few connected words, she could understand that her body and mind were gradually being contaminated. Something very important was starting to fall off, unable to be retrieved again—this kind of disappointment spread in her heart.

I'm sure Riddhe does think a marriage would reduce the danger she's in, but this is still a selfish question. He probably even knows it. It's just not the same kind of selfish as if he had barged into her room uninvited and proposed immediately during a fit of emotion because he's apparently madly in love with her, good grief.

Not even Riddhe wants to be "a member of his family." He had refused to speak to them for three years, well before he had the family secret dropped on him. But we're supposed to believe he thinks pulling Mineva into that is a good idea? Please. He is horrified by the idea of being alone with them.

He wants Mineva to stay because she's the only outside person he has left to hold onto, because he cut off all his other established positive relationships when he helped her escape.

Personally, I think that kind of total alienation is a lot more psychologically interesting than just being freshly upset and smitten with her!

Even though he knew how many risks he was taking, I think Riddhe was still telling himself he'd be able to wriggle out of it eventually. He'd use his dad's authority to secure Mineva's safety, and then he'd wait for another chance to run away and be a pilot again later.

Being told about the Box was the nail in the coffin for that, because it gave him a new, permanent sense of obligation to re-affiliate with his family, to "take responsibility for their sins." Perceived moral obligation is Riddhe's kryptonite.

The anime cut the conversation here, right after the rejection. Do you want to know what Riddhe's next line of dialogue is?

“Sorry, forget what I just said.”

lol. lmao even.

Like the anime, this conversation is the catalyst for Mineva running away. The scene in the diner is from Novel 7, as is Martha demanding Ronan give her Mineva. It all happens after Riddhe leaves.

The Ra Cailum

The Tri-Stars are not happy to have Riddhe on their ship.

When Riddhe first approaches the Ra Cailum in the Delta Plus and attempts to board, they actively antagonize him in their own mobile suits: they physically get in his way, don't respond to his hails, and one of them even fires on him.

Riddhe pulls off a dramatic maneuver to get past them, and this impresses them enough for the squad leader to say "alright, you've convinced me that you're more than just a useless nepotism hire."

They did not have authorization to do this. All four of them get dragged into Bright's office immediately after getting out of their suits. The Tri-Stars lie about what happened to avoid further trouble, and Riddhe goes along with the cover story. Bright orders the Tri-Stars to go clean the deck, and they leave.

The incident confirmed in Riddhe's mind that he's being given special treatment, so he brings it up to Bright:

The reason why the Tri-Stars would pull such petty tricks on him was because news of him being given special treatment was spread through the ship. He was already mentally prepared about being viewed as an irritant, but he could not stand being treated as a troublesome VIP and being unable to do anything. He stared at the back that had no intent of looking back at him and continued to emphasize with a restrained tone. “I’ve been through battle before. Please don’t remove me from dangerous missions just because I have to keep watch—” “DON’T BE NAÏVE!” Bright turned around to let out a roar that pierced through the pilot suit, causing goosebumps on Riddhe’s skin.

This conversation hits different when the "dangerous" situations Riddhe keeps putting himself in are on the extreme end even for a military pilot.

Novel Riddhe's disregard for his own safety is remarkable. I talked about it some in the last post, but after the conversation with his dad it takes on a more desperate tone. There is something very clearly wrong with this guy, and every time other people die around him it gets a little worse.

When I call Riddhe "borderline suicidal," I'm not saying he's consciously trying to kill himself, to be clear. He's not trying to get shot down on purpose-- quite the opposite.

I have no intention of dying. Right now, I don’t have a reason for that, before I can redeem the crimes of this cursed bloodline of mine— he muttered in his frozen heart, “Yes”, answered, and saluted.

The reckless death drive and the belief he has an obligation to stay alive can coexist without coming into conflict because they're ultimately coming from the same place and serving the same goal. He needs to keep existing in order to protect other people, and he needs to protect other people in order to justify having ever existed in the first place.

Or, basically: if you die, you only get to sacrifice yourself once, but so long as you survive you can keep doing it forever.

(And of course, what he thinks in the abstract while safely tucked away in an office is also different from how he behaves in actual combat, when people around him are dying.)

You'll get new examples when I get to what Riddhe does during the battle of Dakar. For now, we'll finish up the conversation with Bright.

Bright tells Riddhe to come back alive in both versions, but in the novel he also tells him to go clean the deck with the Tri-Stars if he wants to be treated like a normal pilot.

Nigel, the leader of the Tri-Stars, is waiting outside the door when Riddhe leaves Bright's office. Riddhe sighs and tells him he's going to help clean the deck. Nigel tells him he's too rigid, and he's going to end up wasting his talent. He doesn't let up even when Riddhe tries to be deferential:

... Riddhe instinctively looked away and said, “I won’t cause trouble for you.” ... but Nigel moved away from the wall and spoke, “You’re a rookie who doesn’t even know the meaning of the word team? Well, us Tri-Stars do whatever we want, and there’s no need for us to give you suggestions, but I’ll shoot you down from behind if you dare to pull the Ra Cailum fleet down. You better remember that.”

The equivalent to this line in the OVA seems a lot friendlier and more like banter. I think he's being truthful here, or at the very least genuinely trying to intimidate Riddhe.

Riddhe realizes Nigel still doesn't trust him and is continuing to treat him like an outsider. He thinks that maybe it's for the best, and responds with sarcastic praise.

Then we get this truly astounding line which I'm almost certain is a translation error, but I need you to see it anyway:

“Your sarcasm ain’t half bad there. Are you saying that us idiots who only know how to train are having a group orgy or something?”

Well I wasn't thinking it before but I'm certainly thinking it now. Why are you being so unwelcoming and excluding Riddhe from the group orgy, Nigel?

(The Japanese is "おれたちは訓練バカの仲良しグループってわけか？", if you want to check it yourself. Unless I'm missing some contextual innuendo, I'm pretty sure there is no reference to an orgy here. The phrase that got turned into that means "a group of close friends." He's basically saying "You think we aren't real soldiers and this is just a social club?"

I'm so disappointed. I wish this one was real. I was hoping to at least find a common crude idiom, like how people use "circlejerk" in English.)

Ahem.

Riddhe's attempt to be aloof fails; he immediately admits he's feeling envious and wants to feel included in the group. Nigel is clearly surprised by this, and seeds are planted for the Tri-Stars to come around.

This is important because when the attack on Dakar begins, Riddhe is initially told he isn't allowed to launch because he doesn't belong to any existing squadron. He's eventually given permission to launch with the Tri-Stars, after Nigel vouches for him.

Riddhe and Banagher vs. The Shamblo

The OVA actually reverses Riddhe and Banagher's respective roles here. Novel Riddhe engages the Shamblo well before Banagher is even on the field.

As the Ra Cailum approaches Dakar, they get a clearer picture of the situation. Bright realizes things are worse than they thought, and they need to rethink their approach.

Riddhe requests to be sent ahead on his own, to distract the enemy while the main forces land. He manages to make a convincing argument as to how he can do this without being shot down, and Nigel vouches for him again, so Bright agrees to let him scout ahead.

Riddhe launches on his own, without the Tri-Stars. He thinks about Mihiro and the Argama crew briefly while talking to the communications operator, which is sweet.

As Riddhe approaches the Shamblo, he realizes there are still civilians nearby who haven't finished evacuating. He also spots a GM III, part of Dakar's security forces, and watches it fire missiles even though the pilot should have been able to see the people on the street. Riddhe is furious.

The “GM III” continued to fire its beam rifle wildly at the road covered with dust and smoke. Riddhe grabbed the arm of the [mobile suit] and pulled it to the blind spot of the collapsed department store. (Khairul was killed…!) as the pilot continued to ramble on, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Riddhe used the communication channel to yell out at him, “Why are you using missiles at such a place!? There’re still people in the city!) (But we can’t let that guy approach the parliament hall…) “For the sake of your pride, you…!”

But then the Shamblo does its laser bits thing, so the GM ends up exploding. A lot of mobile suits nearby explode, in fact (RIP Guntank squad), and fleeing civilians get crushed quite gruesomely.

This is the point where Riddhe's death wish instinct activates, and "scouting" turns into "I need to engage the enemy and tank aggro right now."

“There’s no reason for them to die because of such a thing…!” If this is a tragedy caused by the “Box”. Riddhe let the machine transform, duck low, charge forward and squeezed the trigger of the beam rifle to its maximum. The beams that were deflected by the bits ripped apart the dust, grazing past the head of the “Delta Plus”. The machine then stood on the road in front of several blocks and started firing again. “Get over here!!!” he did not care that the reflected beams grazed past his shields as he let the “Delta Plus” leap up again. “I won’t let you kill anyone else. Just make me the only victim of the “Box”…!” The beam rifle continued to let out shots, and the beams that were reflected back in less than a second shook the machine. Riddhe continued to launch his attacks fervently as he forced the machine to retreat back to the coast. Anyway, I have to let the mobile armor retreat [from] the city and buy time for the civilians to evacuate. How long can I last? His mind that was thinking about this could not work at all, and the “Delta Plus” continued to shoot in a suicidal manner as it danced around the skies above Dakar.

Banagher sees and recognizes the Delta Plus on the monitor just before his fight with Zinnerman. His scenes are intercut with Riddhe and Loni's perspective on the battlefield.

Loni-- a very different character from her OVA counterpart-- keeps picking up on Riddhe's thoughts during combat. She attempts to convince her father that they should change course to avoid the civilians, but he refuses.

Riddhe helps a GM pilot in a damaged suit and tries to convince them to retreat, but they aren't having it. They tell him they're going to get under the Shamblo's feet, and they want him to shoot their suit so it will explode.

Obviously it's normal to feel fucked up about that kind of request, but it's still darkly funny to me how freaked out Riddhe gets, given his behaviour during this entire battle. Self sacrifice... not Riddhe? Death of friendly pilot not Riddhe??? No! No!!! Unacceptable!!!!

It's not Riddhe's choice to make, though. The GM rushes the Shamblo, where it is promptly torn apart and trampled. Riddhe manages to break through his hesitation and fires, but the Shamblo blocks the beam.

Then it fucking gets him. If you remember what I said about the OVA reversing the roles, the bit where the Unicorn gets grabbed by the claws happens to the Delta Plus instead.

The back of the “Delta Plus” was slammed hard onto the road, and the machine was half buried in the cracked asphalt. The large claws grabbed the lower half of the machine to restrain it, while the other claw rose slowly over the head of the “Delta Plus”, showing its malice that it was trying to dice it up as it opened its sharp blades. Riddhe sensed that his body was going to be crushed by this impact and scattered apart as he gritted his bloodied teeth. Is this the end? I can’t do anything, I’ll die here without being able to save anyone. As Riddhe’s concussed mind eked out these thoughts, How annoying, he muttered in his heart...

So then instead of Riddhe breaking off from the Tri-Stars to help Banagher, we get Banagher finally arriving on the scene and swooping in to save Riddhe from getting pureed.

They team up. The Unicorn isn't as manoeuvrable under Earth's gravity and atmospheric conditions as it is in space, so the Delta Plus basically becomes its flight unit.

Banagher is the one who fires the shot and destroys the Shamblo. He's very upset about Loni's death, but there's no moral dilemma or conflict between him and Riddhe.

Loni's situation is very different. She was probably already going to die whether they destroyed the Shamblo or not, and since it had multiple pilots, her death alone would not have stopped its rampage. I'll go over this again in more detail during her section. For now, the point I'm trying to make is that the novel version of this scene emphasizes that Riddhe and Banagher have a positive relationship.

I really get along with this guy instinctively. Riddhe hid this bittersweet reality inside his heart as he went full throttle and let the machine remain as low as possible.

[...]

The thrill when they were accelerating for each other as they raced caused all his senses to sharpen. If only I can remain at that moment of ecstasy.

The OVA scene is about... the opposite of that.

I still can't believe OVA Riddhe looks angry when Banagher's plan works and the Shamblo stops attacking the first time. He fucking scowls? Are you mad you're being proven wrong? That's more important to you in this situation than preventing more deaths? Distinctly un-Riddhelike priorities!

With the Shamblo gone, Riddhe is ordered to capture the Gundam.

The conversation they have about this is significantly longer. There's a lot of Riddhe failing to talk himself into killing Banagher after he refuses to surrender.

He's extremely torn up about it. Because Riddhe likes Banagher.

The metals bellowed as they touched each other, and the voice of the pilot rang within the interaction window. The “Unicorn Gundam” was touching the “Delta Plus” on the shoulder as it opened the communication circuit. ... (I never thought that I would meet you here in such a way…is Audrey alright? Did you make contact with the “Nahel Argama”—) Banagher intended to lean the body forward as he talked. However, Riddhe did not look at the other party’s face. He held his breath and fulfilled what he had to do at this point. The “Delta Plus” shook aside the hand resting on its shoulder ... The “Gundam” tripped, and by the time it managed to steady itself with the AMBAC, the “Delta Plus” was aiming its beam rifle at the abdomen. (Mr Riddhe…!?) “I’ve received an order to capture that “Gundam”. Get off that cockpit, Banagher.” Luckily, the visuals on the communication window were cut off the moment the interaction channel was removed. (Mr Riddhe, why…!) Riddhe merely let Banaher’s outcry chide his ears as his hand holding onto the control stick was trembling. “Don’t call me as if we’re close with each other. Without you, things wouldn’t end up like that…!” (Why’s that so? Mr Riddhe, Audrey—) “You and the “Gundam” are obstacles preventing this Audrey you speak of—Mineva from living peacefully. Get off!” My chest is going to break open. At this rate, I’ll go crazy too—just like this mobile armor that lies dead in front of me. Riddhe lowered his eyes and waited for Banagher to answer in a prayer. I feel you’re a man of your word. I’ll leave Audrey to you. The boy with such strong-willed eyes actually used those words to lay a curse on him and bind him, and though he hoped that the other party would step aside after realizing what was going on—

The things he says about Mineva here are interesting. I think it's very representative of the kind of weird rigid thinking Riddhe has, that even as he tries to talk himself into literally killing Banagher, he still considers the promise to take care of Audrey binding and unassailable.

It's also kind of fascinating that he considers protecting her to be something that he owes to Banagher specifically at all, enough to apparently consider it a burden, given that he had already taken action to do it himself before they ever had that conversation.

Even though he's stubborn and historically disobedient to authority figures like his father, Riddhe is still very... rules-brained, I guess, in his own way. He gets "stuck" on specific things people say to him like this a lot, particularly in the context of morality or a sense of duty.

Banagher won't get out of the Gundam, even at gunpoint. He doesn't understand why Riddhe is acting the way he is, and he wants an explanation.

And here's the important part:

When Banagher calls Riddhe's bluff and Riddhe cannot bring himself to shoot him, Riddhe tells Banangher to flee before anyone else can arrive to capture him.

Yes! He actively decides to disobey orders and let Banagher escape! That's the moment that the 'Black Unicorn' drops in on them! It has to show up for the plot to work, because Riddhe has already backed down as a threat!!!

And Riddhe's still focused on Banagher, even after the Banshee drops a bunch of rubble on his mobile suit. He's stuck there in his unresponsive machine, yelling at Banagher to run away.

There is hostility between Banagher and Riddhe during the Torrington fight in book 7, but the equivalent of that confrontation is presumably something for next time... there are still like, three more emotional bombshells that need to be dropped on Riddhe before he stops instinctively treating Banagher like an ally.

Do you see how, cumulatively, this might as well be a completely different guy?

I've been trying to avoid spoiling anything that happens later in the novels as much as possible, even though I assume most people reading these posts have either already seen the full anime or don't care about spoilers at all. But I simply must say. Holy shit. You're going to have this guy kill a fan favourite character? This guy? Worse Riddhe? I'm wincing just thinking about how apocalyptically fucking mad people must have been. I am imagining the forum posts in my mind's eye, and they're bad.

As much as I love complaining, I do think changes made in any adaptation deserve to be considered in their own right. Even if I don't like them. I've been thinking a lot about what these changes might mean, and what purpose they might serve.

Some possible narrative reasons for Worse Riddhe I came up with:

They needed him to kill this version of Loni in place of Banahger -- I think regular Riddhe would also be willing to kill Loni, once it became obvious that Banagher's plan had failed the first time. She's an enemy combatant who is deliberately killing civilians, and she's either unwilling or unable to stop.

To justify Mineva running away sooner -- as in, they thought if he was too likeable, the audience wouldn't understand why she wanted to leave. This wouldn't be a problem in the first place if they hadn't pushed his scenes forward so they had to happen all at once. Either way, Mineva would have many good reasons to want to leave without Worse Riddhe. Riddhe is only person she really has in her corner-- and then he tells her she's in an unsafe place, and then he leaves.

They were worried he might overshadow Banagher…? I don't think reducing Riddhe's role in on-screen combat would necessitate changing his personality. Also, this is just not something I personally give a shit about. Multiple important characters is not a problem. Banagher would absolutely still get to be cool and heroic. C'mon.

They think the new characterization is likeable / endearing, and the audience is supposed to find the increased focus on unrequited romantic interest in Mineva sympathetic-- [perplexed vocalization]

They think if Riddhe is more naive and jealous from the beginning, bringing him around will be more meaningful, from the angle of "Look, even this guy can be reached through the power of communication and not giving up on a possibility" -- Oo-hoo-oooh, I don't like how plausible this one feels. I can see the exact reasoning that might lead to it. I don't like it.

They're going to do something totally new with him later that never would have occurred to me -- I guess that could save it for me as an artistic decision, if it's interesting enough. Bit of a scary thought, though. What's up your sleeve?

If anyone else has theories or opinions about the rationale here, I'm all ears. I'd love to come up with something good enough to feel even 25% less annoyed about it.

Anyway, we've covered all my Riddhe grievances. Let's move on.

Frontal and Angelo are barely in this one, which is novel accurate.

They get their own section anyway, because they're always important to ME!!!

I get so excited every time Frontal shows up, regardless of context. The Sinanju theme starts playing and I'm already having the time of my life. He's literally just standing there and giving exposition. Embarrassing.

I love how visibly mad Angelo gets every time Zinnerman talks back to Frontal. He's hysterical.

Here's novel Loni experiencing Frontal's uncanny deepfake vibes:

The masked face spoke on the monitor, and Loni did not feel that it was the face of a human. The nose bridge and the lips under the mask were too refined, and the thick blond hair reminded her of a puppet. Am I seeing a complete artificial image here? she felt some goosebumps as she stared at Full Frontal, who was calmly smiling.

Banagher and Zinnerman

Banagher and Zinnerman's relationship is probably the one major story element that changed the least from the page to screen. I'm really glad that's the case. Their scenes together were some of the most enjoyable parts of the book.

There are still slight differences, as is inevitable.

Zinnerman is softer on Banagher in the anime. I think they probably did this just to make it even more shocking when he starts slamming him around and pointing a gun at him later. Novel Zinnerman is a bit more roundabout with how he expresses affection, and also more aggressive.

Zinnerman doesn't hit Banagher in the anime at all until their big fight, but in the novels he does it a number of times. He hits him twice when he's sitting around catatonic at the crash site, and that wasn't even the first time in the series (the first was all the way back on Palau, because Banagher was mouthing off when they drop him off to stay with Gilboa).

They have a confrontation before they head out into the desert, and it's a precursor to the conversation they have while traveling. The two conversations are about the exact same subjects, with the second mostly being a gentler reiteration, so I can see why they'd only keep one. The anime also shifts some of the aggressive energy from Zinnerman to Flaste, instead, by having him yell at Banagher and throw him around.

The scene that's only in the novel, is... scarier, for lack of a better word? Banagher starts out even more dramatically unresponsive and defeated, he ends up getting angrier, and Zinnerman is a lot more threatening.

On Banagher's condition at the crash site:

... he had no sense of will to live on by himself, and he would not ingest food if it was not prepared. If he was left alone, he would just sit around blankly for the entire day. ... There were no effects no matter what they did, whether they tried to threaten him or please him; he would not resist, but he would not show any form of will on his own. ...

On Banagher's internal mental state:

You killed him. You killed Gilboa, Tikva’s father. He had no intention of attacking, and you simply shot him. Tikva’s pitiful for not having a father now. You and him have no fathers. You killed him, and you killed a lot a people—

[...]

We can just run through this desert, Banagher thought. The sunlight can burn the skin, blood my head, dry up all the fluids in my body, and I’ll just become dust. Even the lead in my stomach and this cursed family blood of mine will be burnt to nothing. If I can do that, the “Unicorn” will never move again, the “Gundam” won’t awaken again; I won’t have to kill others, I won’t be killed, and the “Laplace Box” will be sealed forever— And then what? The abnormally cold voice interrupted to end the delusions. The impulse that rose in Banagher’s body quickly wilted as fatigue struck his mind. He found it difficult to think, curled back his body without doing anything and became a stone block like before.

Banagher's despair is also where the title of both the novel and the OVA comes from.

This place is really the bottom of a gravity well, Banagher admitted. His body and mind were tied to the bottom, so heavy that they were unable to move at all. Space felt so distant, and his soul was the only thing melting from his crouched body that was like dust. This is a one and only cog that can make decisions on its own. Don’t lose it—Mr Daguza did say it. I don’t want to lose it, I lost it unwillingly, but I really can’t hang on now. If I try to put it on, my body will break apart. I just want to sit here without thinking and without asking for anything. I’ll keep sitting until my heart melts completely…

And then Zinnerman comes in, and tells him him they're going on a trip. Sorry, you're getting a big chunk of excerpts here, because I really like this entire conversation.

Zinnerman was standing there. His hulking figure was standing there angrily “Stand up.” as he growled with a deep voice. Banagher immediately lost interest in the person who arrived, and immediately lowered his sight. “There’s a town 60km away. I’m going to walk there and get help, and you’re coming with me.” Are you kidding me? a slight electrical flow passed through Banagher’s mind as he lifted his eyes again. He saw the bearded face that was not smiling, and lazily looked down again. At this moment, Zinnerman’s hand grabbed him by the torso, and the body, which had its center of gravity at the back, was immediately dragged off the floor. “How long are you going to mope around here!?” The angry words roared into Banagher’s ears as the sand fell from his limp swaying body. His feet would not listen as his body was supported by hand grabbing him by the chest. However, Zinnerman’s hand that was holding this weight showed no signs of shaking at all. “We’ll leave after sunset. Get into the ship immediately. We need to prepare a lot of things if we want to pass through the desert.”

[...]

“Duty? I did my duty. I rode on the mobile suit and sank a Neo Zeon terrorist. Is that not enough? How many more must I kill?” Only this time did Banagher look right at Zinnerman in the eyes and spoke directly to him. What duty and responsibility? It ended up like this after I listened to those words. As he thought about how he would not be fooled again and intended to stand on his feet, a blunt sound rang in his mind as his world exploded. The body that was punched aside landed hard onto the floor, and the burning hot taste of sand spread in his mouth. The face that was buried in the sand started to ache, and Banagher’s body was trembling as he heard Zinnerman say, “You can deny us all you want.” “But don’t you dare think of yourself as a victim and throw a tantrum at me. I can still recognize it if the one that shot down Gilboa is a pilot, but not a brat who doesn’t have any resolve.”

[...]

The lead in Banagher’s stomach was burning, and he forcefully spat the sand that became dirt in his [mouth.] “I didn’t do this on my own will…” he muttered as he wiped away the blood on the corner of his mouth. “Someone else forced me to ride on a mobile suit, and things ended up like this before I even knew what happened. If you’re not going to forgive me, just kill me. Don’t beat around the bush and talk about something like duty; can’t you just harden your heart and kill me…!?” Zinnerman’s hard fist was still clenched as he answered with his trembling eyelids. See, this man talks big, but he’s no different from those guys who want the “Box”. Banagher said, “You don’t dare to do so anyway.” Banagher said with his busted lips that were curled up. “If I die, the “Unicorn” won’t move. If you can’t extract the data of the “Box”, you’ll just let this treasure rot. No matter how you hate me, it’s impossible for you to kill—” The second impact struck his face, ... “[Those] big shots may think that way, but we’re different”, Zinnerman growled, ... “It doesn’t matter what happens to the “Box”. My ship doesn’t have the room to feed someone like you who has no will to live.” The burly figure became a shadow as it moved towards Banagher, blocking his sights. The eyes of a killer were glittering somehow deep within, just like the first time, and Banagher clenched his hands together with the sand. Banagher stared at the two black eyeballs that were not showing any light, and exerted strength to stiffen his trembling knees. He tried his best to let his trembling body stand up, and glared at Zinnerman with all his strength. Do it if you can. I’ll spit my blood on you once I’m beaten down. As he was driven by this unknown temper, his swaying body was about to straighten, and Zinnerman showed some teeth on his ominous looking face. Before he could understand that it was a smile, he was gently nudged back and landed on his backside. “What kind of expression is that?” Zinnerman gave a wry look, and this was an unexpected response to Banagher as he looked back. “Someone who can give that kind of expression will not collapse that easily. Hurry up and get ready. The desert won’t listen to any excuses humans make.” Zinnerman finished and walked away. Are you serious? Banagher wanted to open his mouth and ask, but was unable to let out a sound as his wildly pounding heart spread the feeling of this fear that came a moment later. His body that was unneeded by anyone and self-neglected continued to give the sound of life stubbornly— “Damn it!” Banagher groaned as he kicked the sand at his feet. The blood that rushed up his body caused him to recall the heat, and the large amount of sweat that suddenly started to flow out evaporated before they dripped.

I really love this scene, and I miss furious blood-spitting Banagher, but I also liked the little sand-throwing tantrum they added to the conversation in the anime, so I can't complain too much. Other than that, the argument in the desert is basically the same.

Then we get the story about Globe. This is another scene where the music really stood out to me -- the track is called "Desert," and I think it's beautiful.

I like how they take advantage of the desert setting to show it to you visually in the form of Banagher seeing mirages, as well the hot wind in the desert evoking the heat from the burning town. It's a clever sequence.

I'll be coming back to Globe in a later section. The story and its telling has been altered in significant ways, although it serves the exact same purpose in the narrative for Zinnerman's motivation. Put a pin in it.

The conversation at the campsite is pretty much exactly the same in both versions, except the novel also describes ancient cave paintings on the stone walls they're using for shelter.

The novel has one more travel scene after this, where they get caught in a simoom and have a harrowing near-death experience. This is where Banagher really thinks through his feelings and resolves that he needs to live. As soon as the storm passes, they realize they're right outside their destination and start laughing hysterically from relief.

The novel also has several scenes where the two of them spend time with Loni in the city, scouting Dakar on foot before the operation. These are mostly about establishing setting, progressing the plot, and strengthening Banagher's connection to Loni, though there are some small Zinnerman moments I thought were charming.

Here's Zinnerman buying Banagher a beer:

Zinnerman suddenly raised his hand and called the waitress beside him. “Another beer please. For him.” He said with a nonchalant look on his face as he pointed at Banagher, wanting him to continue talking. “I’m still underaged, you know!?” Banagher then gave a shocked expression right back as his momentum was worn out. “Just drink. Today’s a special day.” “What’s special…” “You’ve become an adult. There’s no punishment for celebrating a little anyway.” A warm smile Banagher had never seen before caused him to feel some warmth in his stomach. He felt embarrassed, and thought that he could not look back anymore as he turned his stare to the sea surface that was dyed sunset.

The fight they have during the operation plays out pretty much the same, in both action and dialogue. Zinnerman does cause less lasting visible damage to Banagher in the OVA, though-- he's described as having his face noticeably bruised and banged up in the novel.

I do think novel Banagher knew civilian casualties were a possibility going in (in a way that OVA Banagher possibly did not consider at all, since the target is explicitly military). What horrified him was the deliberate act of murdering innocent people-- similar to novel Loni's feelings, in fact.

Even if he's rationalizing, Zinnerman's response of "you should have expected this" is still much truer about Dakar than Torrington. Come on, Banagher, you didn't consider there might be serious collateral damage if we walk the giant metal laser monster into a major metropolitan area? You saw what happened to Industrial 7. They could have just as easily destroyed that hotel by accident.

Such a good scene, though. Both versions. Get his ass.

Marida, Martha, and Alberto

There's a lot going on here. I'll start with the easy stuff.

Since Gael was on the Argama at the end of Novel 5, he goes to the bridge and tells them not to let Martha's ship capture the Unicorn. His mission had failed, and Alberto was successfully transferred to Martha's ship with Marida.

Gael warns Banagher through transmission not to trust Alberto and not to follow his instructions. He also tells him explicitly that Alberto killed Cardeas.

Alberto then cuts off Gael's transmission and admits to doing so. He explains his reasons, and then says some fairly cruel things to Banagher. It's clear that this conversation contributed to Banagher's intense despair in the desert; he even quotes Alberto directly at one point.

(The Foundation can’t live on without the Box. But that man intended to bring the “Box” outside.) ... (The Foundation has the “Box”. As long as this fact doesn’t change, it doesn’t matter even if the “Box” doesn’t exist. The key to opening the “Box” has no reason to exist. As long as we can destroy the “Unicorn”, everything will be back to normal. Don’t you understand? To a lot of people, you’re the seed of disaster.) ... (If you want to hate, hate father. Hate our father.) The voice pierced through Banagher’s chest, and then, there was a physical impact that rocked the cockpit. The connected ignition bolt was activated, and the traction wire was severed from the shuttle right from the end.

[...]

Banagher’s vision started to spin in a confusing manner, and the plasma air flow continued to blow by the cockpit. The temperature in the machine gradually rose, and the warning alarms continued to sway amidst the burning hot air. Nobody will save me. There’s no worth in saving me. Everything I know about is wrong. Banagher yelled with a voice that did not make a sound. I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be sitting in this, even my birth onto this Earth is wrong— Banagher’ yell was vaporized by the additional heat, and the color of flames gradually covered everything.

With the line cut, the Garancieres moves in to grab the Unicorn instead. Banagher has passed out, but the Unicorn begins moving entirely on its own. Again it's described as looking like a devil, which is particularly fitting when it's basically fucking on fire. Zinnerman looks at its face and thinks it looks like it's smiling. I love that.

The head of the “Unicorn Gundam” that resembled a human face peeked through the bridge window, and the camera outside the ship was capturing a visual of its glowing eyes. It was an icy cold stare, and those eyes were staring at Zinnerman and company coldly as if it was grading the people inside the ship— “Is that thing…moving by itself?”

[...]

Zinnerman did not have time to shout out as his back hit the ceiling, and he tumbled onto the floor. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that the “Gundam” above him was narrowing its eyes in a smile with its back against the plasma glow. The machine with the appearance of a white devil was definitely smiling, and its body was swaying amidst the vortex that swelled like a mirage.

In book five, it's easy to read the passage with Alberto and not be entirely sure whether the tether being cut was the intention from the start, if it was something Martha ordered, etc. In book six we get explicit confirmation that Alberto made a snap decision at that moment to kill Banagher. He has weird guilt-induced visions of a young Banagher while walking around the cyber-Newtype lab.

... Alberto suddenly went quiet as he stopped in his tracks, as he sensed someone moving at the corner leading to the elevator hall. At a corner of the passage that was somewhat dim because of energy conservation, there was a black shadow popping out from a corner. That shadow moved lightly, forming the shape of a human, and became a shadow of a 4, 5 year old child as it stared right back from the corner. Those familiar eyes looked like they were about to be etched in Alberto’s eyes, and he could not help but look away. Haven’t you had enough already? Alberto thought as he widened his tense eyes with fear. The child who looked eerily similar to Banagher Links suddenly disappeared, and the shadow of the foliage plant placed at the corner was dragged along the floor.

[...]

The white machine fell into the scorching abyss as the traction wire was snapped—he recalled that scene and asked himself whether it was the correct decision. At that time, he merely had the impulse of wanted to get rid of the “Unicorn” from his eyes, and he did not remember making a sane decision. That was because he was scared, and he hated the eyes of the “Unicorn” pilot that were the same as Cardeas—Banagher Links, who was protected by the machine Cardeas put so much effort in making, and who appeared several times in front of him. Those eyes that could overlap his own when he looked into the mirror looked like they would reveal the sins he committed over and over again…

There's a bit more detail given as to the history about the Newtype lab, and why it still exists despite being shuttered. We also learn that it's rumoured to be haunted by the gruesome ghosts of children, who presumably died during experimentation. Alberto is not having a good time, and blames his hallucinations on the rumours.

Now I need to talk about the thorny part:

A lot of the stuff from the novels surrounding Alberto, Martha and Marida that got removed in the anime is related to sexual violence.

Book six has an extreme amount of sexual violence in general.

Content warning for this section: rape / sexual assault, csa, incest. If at any point you want to skip past it, scroll down to the heading and image for Loni's section. SERIOUSLY. I'M NOT KIDDING.

Since I was already talking about Alberto, I'll start there:

Martha and Alberto have an incestuous relationship.

I'm being pretty thorough with my current reread. I'm paying attention to everything, even stuff I don't especially like or find immediately interesting. If anything ever seems really out there, I try to crosscheck the Japanese (for as much as that helps, as a non-speaker). My previous read was much more casual, and I definitely started skimming whenever the incest came up.

As I continue reading into novel seven and beyond, I'm finding that it is... more relevant and also more severe than I remembered. I actually double-checked some scenes from later novels because I was wondering about something, and I'm fairly certain now that the implication is that Martha started grooming Alberto when he was a young teenager. That detail in particular significantly re-frames the kind of antagonist she is, for me.

You can already read sexual malice or eroticism into her interactions with various characters (Marida...), but that's not the same as being a canonical child sexual abuser. It's not like CCA Char stringing Quess along to manipulate her into the robot, or Haman trying and failing to seduce Judau in ZZ. There's no less damning explanation, and it's too prominent for "I pretend I do not see it" to feel like a viable reaction.

Unfortunately for the part of me that just wants to gleefully watch a sexy middle-aged lady be unrelentingly manipulative and terrible to everyone, I think continuing to ignore it would be failing to engage honestly with the text.

But hey, it's not in the anime. Anime Martha, at least, still gets to evil in the uncomplicated and fun kind of way.

I'm definitely going to be paying more attention to this aspect of Alberto as I reread. Unlike the other characters with csa backstories, I do not have any kind of developed opinions about how his is handled...

I wanted to get Martha and Alberto out of the way first because their Whole Situation spans multiple books. They are far from the most prominent instance of sexual violence in book six specifically. They only get three or so lines of unsettling innuendo, if I'm remembering right.

It's not a problem that sexual violence exists in the novels-- some of it is thematically or narratively interesting, and even important to why I'm so attached to certain characters. The problem is the sheer amount of it that gets thrown at you all at once, and how gratuitous it can get. Book six in particular overshoots 'shocking' and 'emotional', right into 'annoying'. It's excessive to the point of feeling stupid, and it cheapens scenes that I think could otherwise be resonant and meaningful.

This is something that's true of many (though not all) of the things I don't like in the Unicorn books-- they feel like frustrating over-extensions of things I did like about them. It's like Fukui doesn't know where to stop, and just takes bigger and bigger swings until it just becomes grossly self-indulgent (or in worse cases, reveals some kind of unpleasant bias).

I still remember reading Marida's backstory in book 5 for the first time and thinking I liked how it was handled, only for next book to go back and do it again but worse. Amazing.

There's a nightmare sequence when she's being brainwashed that has a sudden rape in the middle. It's more graphic than her backstory, which was often explained through metaphor, focused on Marida's emotions, implied through environmental details in the aftermath, etc. This one is just Fukui literally describing an assault to you.

She eventually kills her assailant, but is horrified to look and find the corpse is Zinnerman. Maybe that could have gotten me as a grossout horror moment if it wasn't the endcap for a sequence I didn't like, in a book that's already full of this shit. It's also just not necessarily the kind of shock factor I'm looking for from Gundam specifically. Whatever.

We're later told that the content of the brainwashing is based on Martha, but it's not explained exactly what that means (at least, it is unclear in the English fan translation). The nightmare does start out with Marida witnessing a snippet of Martha's childhood where she attends her father's funeral. Does it draw on her memories? Her worldview? Is it some kind of automatic generative process, or did she write it like a script? We don't know.

At the end of the nightmare, Marida sees herself as a child crying over Zinnerman's body, as an obvious parallel to the funeral of Martha's father at the beginning. I liked this. Shame about the middle.

I said I would come back to Globe. The novel version of the story has significant discussion of rape, including of children. When I compare the fan translation to the Japanese version, some of the lines might be slightly mistranslated, but the actual meanings are never describing anything less grotesque. One of them seems to actually be saying something worse than I had assumed, which is impressive.

The story in the anime states there were no survivors, which is not the case in the book, although there were certainly many horrible deaths.

(The novel tells us directly that a specific character is a survivor of the massacre at Globe. I've already been told that the backstory I'm talking about was cut from the anime, so I guess it's a moot point.

But since the story is being told by Flaste, it's not like some small number of survivors unrelated to him would necessarily be something he'd know about, I guess...)

Flaste also tells Banagher that there was footage of the violence at Globe that ended up being circulated on the black market. Attempting to track down and eliminate the source of the videos is what led to them finding Marida, since she was trafficked through the same network.

I'm done with this part. Unfortunately, the next section is possibly even more thorny.

Loni and Mahdi Garvey

Content warning for this section: racism / orientalism / islamophobia, allusions to real life terrorist attacks, one brief reference to sexual violence. The worst of it is over after you get to the heading "Who is Loni?", but if you want to skip all the way to the conclusion you can always scroll down to the last two images (Loni crying + the Shamblo with the destroyed cockpit).

The novel version of the Shamblo requires multiple pilots. The attack on Dakar is carried out by Loni, her two brothers Walid and Abbas, and her father Mahdi.

Novel Loni is generally a voice of mercy and restraint, although she still willingly participates in the operation. Much of her original dialogue during combat has been given to Kirks in the OVA.

Mahdi Garvey is the vengeful, resentful force that wants to punish the Federation for its crimes and destroy its symbols. He is the one who orders attacks on unrelated buildings and refuses to change course to reduce collateral damage, much like OVA Loni does-- however, he is significantly more resistant to being reasoned with than she is, and never has any moments of doubt or regret.

Walid and Abbas have very little agency. I can't remember a single notable line of dialogue from either of them, nor any traits that differentiate them. They're just kind of there in the background, usually doing whatever what Mahdi tells them to do.

All of these characters are explicitly Muslim in the novels.

One of the very first things we're told about Mahdi is that he has multiple wives and many children, but that Loni and her siblings are the 'purest' of his bloodline. We learn this after the destruction of the Federation submarine, while he tells them not to look away from the blood and entrails of the enemies they just killed. We later learn that he harbours a deep grudge not only against the Federation, but specifically against "White Men" -- he usually calls them Franks in Japanese.

I hate this character. I was so relieved when I heard they removed him from the anime. Most important call they made in the entire production, I think.

(The fan translation incorrectly translates "multiple wives and many children" as "many wives and many concubines," so English readers get an even worse first impression, by the way. I made sure to check everything I'm going to complain about in this section so I'm not slandering Fukui for the translator's mistakes.)

Mahdi talks about his religion quite a bit, but he's not portrayed as a religious extremist. He is not a fundamentalist. He doesn't seem to believe his quest for vengeance is something he is divinely commanded to do, although he certainly believes it is morally justified. He's completely fine with his unveiled daughter driving on her own to go pick up two unrelated, non-Muslim men (but he definitely expects her to give him lots of Muslim grandchildren).

His grievances with the Federation don't involve any particular hostility to secularism. He is angry about the Federation officially saying God is dead at the start of the Universal Century, and about the extraction of wealth from Muslim countries that he believes was an intentional destruction of Islamic society-- but I think those are entirely different issues.

You could try to make calls on whether this choice, or any other individual choice made about this character, is less or more offensive than the alternative-- but I think it's beside the point.

Mahdi isn't a Muslim because Islam is specifically important to his motivations; Mahdi is a Muslim because of what that is supposed to represent to the audience. Mahdi is a Muslim because because of the symbol of the Muslim terrorist in the global consciousness, and because Fukui wanted to invoke imagery of 9/11. His character is inherently a bit incoherent, because he's an amalgam of stereotypes about The Other.

I get the feeling a significant part of the research process for this character was looking at the wikipedia page for Osama Bin Laden. I assume Fukui made him less militantly religious than obvious real-life inspirations either because he believed it would be less controversial, or because it meant he wouldn't have to do as much research about Islam.

The through-line from the better-handled themes of the first five books that eventually leads to the terrible destination of Mahdi Garvey is pretty easy to see. It was deeply, deeply frustrating for me to get invested in the way the series acknowledged and engaged with global structural racism (even when it occasionally got a little clumsy or heavy-handed), only for it to drop this on me six books in.

I actually think this mess of a character was probably intended to be a complex, terrible-but-understandable antagonist? I'm completely serious. That's the whole reason it works to transpose his general motivations onto Loni, after removing all the stereotypes and real-world cultural references.

Mahdi is textually compared to Zinnerman (vengeance for the deaths of loved ones and injustice and violence against one's people), and Zinnerman is obviously framed as sympathetic. Mahdi pretty much has the same kind of backstory framework, just with "Muslims" instead of the fictional "Zeon."

Mahdi is also explicitly textually compared to Alberto (inheritor of an established family legacy and all the pressure that entails). Alberto is complicated, but I think he's also a sympathetic antagonist.

And then there's the very first character we meet in the novels, Syam. Syam is also a man from the Middle East who was negatively affected by the Federation's cultural imperialism, and Syam also participates in a terrorist attack. There's even a mention that the guys who recruited him were infiltrating religious institutions, though Syam was not brought in that way, and the religions in question are left unspecified.

Maybe you're wondering why I was so annoyed that Syam's backstory was removed, given I'm glad that Mahdi's was cut. The way they're handled is significantly different.

When he participates in the attack on Laplace, Syam is a nobody with rational motivations to do something awful. His backstory is there to talk about the material conditions and pressures that foment terrorism, including terrorism targeting oppressive governments, and the ways that powerful people take advantage of the desperate.

Mahdi is arguably sort of also that, but it's delivered through the lens of a deranged islamophobic caricature. lol

Syam's story is also a lot vaguer than Mahdi's, when it comes to real-world details. I'm sure there are criticisms one could make of that, too, but I still believe it's preferable in this case. The more you increase the specificity of real-world details in your future scifi world, the more knowledge or personal experience with the subject you need to pull it off convincingly.

Also, Syam not being white made our protagonist explicitly multiracial by extension, which I liked.

(Perhaps interesting: Loni seems to think of Banagher as being within the category of "Frank", but I'm pretty sure Mahdi identified him on sight as someone with "non-Western" heritage. This does not lead him to treat Banagher with any more respect or courtesy, however. Calling Banagher "the Key to the Box" is significantly more dehumanizing in his mouth than Loni's.)

Here's a quote that I think represents Mahdi at his most understandable and humanized. It happens right before he has the Shamblo blow up a hotel full of people out of spite, lmao:

Loni ignored her two brothers who were unable to speak up as she got up from her seat and gave a tense look at her father. Mahdi took her stare “Loni, [those people mocked me].” ... “[A barbarian] who’ll only imitate the white men on the surface, but [still hangs a knife on his waist]…that’s how those people viewed me. Whether it’s the receptionist, the [doorman], or any guest that brushed by, I can tell from their eyes even if they wouldn’t say it. Those people sold their souls to the society of white men, no matter the color of the skin. To those people, we’re just caged animals, pitiful beasts that are reared in the zoo to exchange for the self-satisfaction of a multi-cultural society.” Am I crazy? Mahdi asked himself in a corner of his mind, Then let me go crazy. and then answered his own question as he looked away from the speechless Loni. Father, grandfather, Loni’s mother, they all died in despair and hatred. I could only keep living to vent the regrets of those souls. I interacted with top-class education and culture in those white men’s society, and continued to be an alien that hated them. I tasted the feelings of bitterness, deceit and infidelity, I lived through such a life full of oxymorons, and it’s to be expected that I’ll lose my mind, but it’s all for this day. What should I do if I don’t unleash my madness? Who’s the one causing me to go mad!?

(I made edits to his dialogue here to more closely match the Japanese. The original fan translation said "those people used to mock us," and continued to use plural throughout the explanation, but the original line refers specifically to himself. I'm pretty sure it's specifically about when he was recently there, for his meeting with Banagher and Zinnerman.)

Again, the revenge narrative is basically the same thing we get from Zinnerman. And that part about feeling alienated from whiteness and being looked-down upon even as a highly educated, culturally assimilated person-- that's a real experience of racism! I've heard this sentiment from people in real life!

The problem is that Fukui put that sentiment in the mouth of a character who's a mishmash of stereotypes based on cultural fears that the non-Muslim world has about Muslim men.

The problem is that the only explicitly Muslim characters in this series exist to be terrorists in a heavy-handed 9/11 reference.

Another side note: the bit about the knife. Mahdi carries around a shamshir. When it was first mentioned I was just like "okay, he has a sword. Maybe it's a family heirloom or something." When Banagher notices it, he interprets it as representing racial / cultural pride as a person from the Middle East. Okay.

Fukui knows most of the obvious things about Islam. He knows about daily prayers, and that Muslim women often cover their hair and dress modestly. He knows that idolatry is a sin. He knows that Muslims are not wholly uniform in beliefs and practices. He knows the phrase "inshallah". I'm skeptical about his familiarity with the contents of the Quran beyond that, or the concepts of sunnah / hadith, or the differences between any specific major branches of Islam.

("Inshallah" comes up because Full Frontal says it as an ostensible gesture of cultural respect and cooperation, and Mahdi begrudgingly responds in kind with "Sieg Zeon". Hm.)

There's a bit where Loni gives an explanation to Banagher that liberal Muslims exist, which I guess might be necessary for an audience unfamiliar with Islam. It doesn't feel much like the kind of explanation an actual Muslim woman would give when asked why she doesn't cover her hair and/or face, though. It also immediately gets used as an excuse to scare Banagher with an example of supposed fundamentalist Muslim beliefs (basically, 'if I had been from one of those groups, seeing my looks would mean you either have to marry me or be executed').

Sorry to keep going on asides, but I actually recently watched a youtube video that contrasted Fukui's use of Islam in Unicorn with Ohtagaki's use of Buddhism in Thunderbolt. Since I'm currently reading the Thunderbolt manga, I thought it was interesting.

It amused me a little how the essayist skirts around specifically calling Unicorn's portrayal offensive or bigoted, instead settling for calling it "cringe."

You get the picture, right? I'm sure I could keep dredging up more examples, but I'll move on to how the events play out.

The Shamblo attacks the city as planned. Mahdi is bloodthirsty and vengeful, Loni is troubled, and the brothers are just kind of there. Mahdi has the Shamblo deliberately blow up an unrelated hotel.

Riddhe is flying around, witnessing everyone exploding and having a nervous beakdown about it. Mahdi refuses to change course to reduce civilian casualties when Loni asks.

Banagher fights Zinnerman, launches in the Unicorn, and saves Riddhe from getting crumpled like an empty soda can. Riddhe starts carrying Banagher around so they can do sick aerial stunts.

Then Mahdi has the Shamblo attack "The Trade Center." Fuck off, Fukui. You hack.

Since Loni is hooked into the psycommu, she hears all the deaths as they happen. This is finally too much for her, and she pulls off the helmet and begs her father to stop. Enraged, Mahdi yells at Loni about her mother's death.

The exposition here feels very awkward. Mahdi just drops this story on the reader at the last minute while chastising Loni, who obviously already knew about it. This really didn't need to be treated like a reveal.

“We should have expressed our thoughts sufficiently. I learned that Allah has a merciful and understanding heart. if we continue to massacre, we’ll be defying God.” She climbed up the ladder beside the seat and approached the captain’s seat. “What are you doing? Get back to your seat.” Mahdi growled, but Loni ignored him as she approached. “There are women and children on the Federation streets too. Father, please show mercy…” “Shut up! Did you forget how your mother died!?” [...] “Your mother killed a Federation soldier in the midst of the chaos after the war. She killed a despicable soldier who intended to rape a Muslim female in a refugee camp. The jury was completely one-sided, your mother was sentenced to death, and I couldn’t do anything to save her. I could only let your mother die all just to protect the trust of the company, all just to protect the cursed inheritance as a “Descendant of Dubai”! I endured everything all for the sake of this moment. I’m going to use this “Shamblo” to wreck the parliament hall and prompt all the Muslims to rise up. Our family’s tragic wish will be fulfilled soon, and now even you want to betray me?” The tears rolled down his suddenly widened eyes, dampening his face. This isn’t father. It’s impossible for such a man to be my father. Loni thought, but felt that this might be the first time she was seeing her father’s true state, ...

Realizing she cannot change his mind, Loni pulls a gun on her father. However, he pulls out his own gun and shoots her instead. As she loses consciousness, she reaches out to Banagher with her mind.

The Shamblo's bits are no longer effective without Loni controlling them. Hearing Loni's dying voice telling him to take down the machine, Banagher destroys the Shamblo.

Loni's brothers start arguing with Mahdi after he shoots Loni, but that doesn't save them by leading to a change of heart. They die alongside him in the cockpit.

Who is Loni?

Obviously, Loni is a Lalah archetype. She's one of at least three slightly different Lalah allusions in these books, which is kind of a lot, but I do like that one of them is a man.

Both versions of Loni's death scene have references to Lalah's dialogue in First Gundam ("I finally got to meet you," "It's sad, isn't it?").

Her eyes in the novel are green, also like Lalah. Because of her eye colour, Banagher mentally compares her to Audrey, and also... to his mom. The joke writes itself.

Banagher has significantly more face-to-face interaction with Loni in the novel than the OVA. Because of this, his relationship to her is more personal, at least before they get into each other's heads.

Novel Loni is knowledgeable, patient, and fond of children. She tells Banagher she wants to have ten kids.

She's a nice girl, I guess. It's not really possible to divorce her portrayal as a character from the portrayal of her father, Islam, and Muslims generally. The logic is built into her. I much prefer the character the OVA gave us.

They didn't have to change her character in order to remove the references to Islam. They could have just as easily kept Mahdi as the antagonist while making the Muslims-Zeon swap. I do like what they did, though.

By taking her father's role while also still retaining some of her own, Loni becomes even more central to her arc. She gets to be the primary antagonist and the person that Banagher wants to save. I think it's cool.

Like I said before, I try to avoid getting too deep into spoilers for later novels, but Loni's death in the novel has a number of things in common with the death of another female character that happens later. They're a little too similar for me. I'm sure it's an intentional parallel, but there's not enough contrast for me to find it juicy... I just don't think the narrative actually needs two different female characters to heroically sacrifice themselves so a male character can feel sad about shooting them. Of the two, Loni was the better choice for a rewrite, since this arc needed one anyway.

She still dies, obviously, and Banagher is still sad. There's even still a Lalah callback-- but it's a distinctly different kind of tragedy than the one that happens later. Barring any unexpected future changes, I personally think it's an improvement.

Look! A major theme!

Loni's father is still a presence in the OVA, in much the same way Loni's grandparents were for Mahdi in the novel. This is a story about ghosts of the past.

Tying Loni's rampage in the anime to a runaway psycommu is an interesting difference, especially given she says "Father?" right before it goes haywire. There's almost an insinuation that the machine is possessed.

This works as a metaphor, but if Mahdi was the previous pilot it could theoretically be literal, in much the same way that Neo Zeon managed to get some kind of Essence of Char from the Sazabi's Psycho-Frame when they created Frontal. Mahdi also presumably still developed and built the Shamblo, whether he piloted it or not.

"That isn't her, she's being enslaved."

Loni does describe her father as being swallowed or consumed by the machine in the novel, and she also describes the Shamblo itself as a force "leading people down the wrong path". I definitely interpreted this as metaphorical, though. Loni was the only one with her brain actually hooked into the psycommu.

They did a good job emphasizing the weight of family history as a theme in the OVA. The hands that reach down and pull Banagher's psychic projection away from her face! Again, I love the potential implications.

It's possible there's supplemental information or interviews about this somewhere, but I kind of prefer not having specific lore explanations behind what's happening in these scenes. I like the ambiguity.

Another interesting detail about OVA Loni is the explicit statement of "there's nothing left for me" / "there's no place for me" as a reason why she cannot stop.

This isn't part of her character in the novel, nor Mahdi's, even if loss and being consumed by revenge obviously is. I really like that it adds another connection to Zinnerman and Flaste's dialogue about how they felt after Globe.

I can't stop thinking about how easily I could draw a compelling parallel between the OVA version of Loni and the novel version Riddhe. They simply do not exist in the same universe. They both only ever passingly overhear the less interesting version of each other-- assuming they even notice the other as an individual at all, rather than just an enemy machine.

It's sad, isn't it?

I really like this visual. The hand motif strikes again...

The novel ends with Riddhe and Banagher both knocked out by the Banshee. It also reveals that Marida is the pilot, since Banagher senses her presence. The OVA places its cliffhanger a little earlier, right after the initial reveal.

I'm excited to watch the next one. We've hit the point where I feel like I'm starting to lose my "advantage", so to speak, in terms of knowing what's coming. It's exciting! I enjoy watching these a lot. Even when I dislike a change, I still like thinking and writing about it.

Sorry for the sheer length of this beast, and a huge thank you to the handful of dedicated Unicorn fans following me who are always excited and encouraging. Knowing anyone out there gets something out of these makes my day, and I appreciate your thoughtful responses. ✌️

I'm so glad to be done with novel six. Holy shit.

#remibloggue #gundam #gundam unicorn

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