Genre – Anime Science Fiction Action
Series* – 13 Episodes
Total Runtime* – 5 Hours 15 Minutes
Spoilers – Yes
*For this Arc
In cold open we see White-Haired Prettyboy and post-credits villain from Arc 1 both wake up from pods and post-credits villain announces that they are moving on to phase 2. The voiceover then informs us that it is 25 years after the events of the first arc, and the Earth-Mars war has been going on that whole time. Flit has been promoted to Federation Commander and demoted to secondary character. The role of protagonist will now be played by his son, Blond Boy. Flit’s hair at all ages has always been green. Either he obsessively dyed it from when his age was measured in the single digits, or he has a super-recessive mutation. Both of his children are blond, sharing the hair color of their mother, girl who had a crush on Flit in Arc 1.
In Arc 1, I wasn’t sure if ‘Grandfather’ was used for old man engineer as an honorific as is sometimes seen in Anime, but as the daughter calls him ‘Great-Grandfather’, I am now going to assume that he was in fact the grandfather of girl who had a crush on Flit. Oh, and it turns out his name is Vargas. He lives with the Asuno family in their mansion at the colony where Nora survivors had been evacuated to in the First arc, Tordia. He is not a significant character for most of this arc. But apparently being a Federation Admiral and Mobile Suit designer is a lucrative career given the size of the estate the Family has on Tordia. While these colonies are huge cylinders, there is a fixed amount of real estate on the interior substantially less than what an ordinary country can muster on Earth.
Anyway, we get introduced to Bonde Boy when he fights off some generic bullies harassing other members of his school’s Mobile Suit club. The whole dynamic made little sense. Hear me out. In the real world, a bunch of robotics nerds are going to attract negative attention. In universe, this is a society that has been at war for approximately four decades – ie, longer than any of these high schoolers have been alive. The elite of the elite of their military are the mobile suit pilots. So this is a club dedicated to building and operating walking tanks. That is not going to be on the same social rung as the modern day robotics club members.
I said approximately forty years, because this arc made some frustrating mistakes with their timeline. The start of the war is measured from “Angel’s fall”, the burning of Flit’s home colony fourteen years before the first arc. The second Arc is said to start twenty-five years after the attack on the asteroid base, or thirty nine years after Angel’s Fall. Later in the Arc, Flit mentions that at that point, it is now twenty-seven years after the attack on the Asteroid Base, or forty-one years after Angel’s Fall. Later, there is an explicit “One year later”… where it is still Forty-One years after Angel’s Fall. ARRRRG!
Aside from the exact dates being mushy, the passage of those several years isn’t felt in the show. The pacing is still quite fast and constant. There is no impression of downtime or passed years. Though you could infer it from context, if you really wanted to.
White-Haired Prettyboy shows up on Tordia as a transfer student to the local high school where Blond Boy attends. Now, after the reveal at the end of the first Arc, we find out that the Euros are really Vagans. I was tempted to start calling them Vegans, but I’ll stick with Euros. Turns out White-Haired Prettyboy is a Euro spy. Why enrolling in the local high school would be beneficial for a spy isn’t immediately obvious, until we find out that he’s here to find the Gundam. Befriending the kid of the creator/pilot of the Gundam is probably going to help find out where it’s hiding. For a while I was hoping this would turn into a slice of life sitcom where White-Haired Prettyboy has to hide the fact that he’s a spy and Blond Boy has to hide the fact that he’s the new Gundam pilot while having everyday high school hijinks. That didn’t happen. Oh, did I not mention about Blond Boy piloting the Gundam? Well, when White-Haired Prettyboy arrived, the Euros decided that it would be extra smart to do a recon in force to try to flush the Gundam out of hiding. Since they were trashing the colony and Flit was at work quite some days away, Blond Boy ran back home and Vargas threw him into the Gundam cockpit to fight them off.
Euros seem to have a knack for summoning Mobile Suits anywhere – even inside heavily defended federation colonies – as if they were being pulled from the aether. This brilliant plan… doesn’t go so well for infiltrating a spy. At graduation, Federation Security arrives to arrest White-Haired Prettyboy, since he’s not been that good at covering his tracks. The spy’s Handler takes Blond Boy’s Love Interest hostage long enough for escapes to be made. White-Haired Prettyboy and Handler make one more bid for the Gundam, and all of the sitcom secrets get outed as both realize that they are trying to kill someone who up until that point they had called friend.
Euros retreat, somehow escaping this heavily defended Federation colony to rejoin their forces. Blond Boy and Love Interest enlist in the Federation Military. Here, we find that the Federation has a nepotism problem, as there is apparently nothing in the regulations preventing Blond Boy from being placed under his father’s command. For a few episodes, we get some whining from Blond Boy that he doesn’t want people thinking he’s getting special treatment. Lets see… you are assigned to the larger force commanded by your father; on a ship whose senior officers are primarily old friends of your father; assigned to pilot the next generation of the Gundam on said ship; and wear a uniform that is a different color from everyone else on that ship. No, no special treatment at all.
Commander Wolf is back, though he is significantly less obnoxious, and is actually a borderline likable character now. Flit’s fat friend from Arc 1 is now the chief engineer on the Diva. I didn’t mention him in the previous review because he had zero impact on the plot. He doesn’t have much impact on the plot of this arc either, but he does have a daughter who is also a mobile suit pilot on the Diva. Like I said, Nepotism. And we find that the AGE system has been reconfigured to work with the second generation Gundam while the first has been switched to not need it. This way Flit still has his Mobile Suit while the current protagonist can have toy accessories new weapons systems thrown at him. Though to be fair, that only happens once during this arc.
Over on the Euro mobile base, Fearless Leader appoints White-Haired Prettyboy as the commander of the “Earth Occupation Forces” – a rather ambitiously named formation as the Earth is still solidly in Federation hands. We find out that White-Haired Prettyboy is the brother of Evil Kid from Arc 1. Evil Kid has grown up, so he’s now dubbed Evil Guy. Some of the Euro rank and file express concerns about having their lives in the hands of a kid like White-Haired Prettyboy. He goes and proves their concerns founded by throwing away a half dozen Mobile Suits to test the strength of the Diva’s defenses.
I’m beginning to see why this war is starting into its fifth decade.
The Diva arrives at “Big Ring”, the lynchpin station of the Earth’s defenses, and Flit’s home base. Blond Boy finds out that he is not a psychic. He gets petulant about that because he knows that White-Haired Prettyboy is and wants to get strong enough to defeat him. That’s kinda Blond Boy’s plot cycle. He finds new things to be petulant about and every so often stops whining about the old stuff. Unfortunately, it takes him most of the Arc to finally come to grips with the fact that he’s not able to level up in psychic ability in order to be stronger than White-Haired Prettyboy. Is there a form we can fill out to change protagonists? Well, we get a new one next Arc, so we can hold out until then.
Euros make a bid to attack Big Ring and get repulsed. With a tactical genius like White-Haired Prettyboy in command, I was sure they’d win. Around this time, White-Haired Prettyboy gets a headband to rein in his psychic abilities, as they are overstressing the mechanisms on his Mobile Suit. Not sure how that works, since they only seem to be precognitive and reaction time enhancers. But the visual style of the headband/visor is a callback to the visual design of a helmeted character from earlier Gundam installments whose name I do not know but whose image I have seen through cultural osmosis. To be honest, I think the headband works better than the helmet, visually.
Well, anyway, amidst the debris from the battle for Big Ring, the Federation forces find components which were manufactured by a Federation Company. Flit takes the Diva to said factory and sends in Lady Captain and Commander Wolf to investigate. The factory contains several Euro Mobile Suits who try to kill Commander Wolf and he sends a distress signal. Flit orders the Diva’s Mobile Suit wing in to deal with the situation. Blond Boy promptly loses it, going on a tirade about attacking enemy forces occupying a factory supplying the enemy with war materiel while currently firing on one of your own officers. All because said factory was in an urban area and there was the potential for collateral damage. Flit calmly points out that this is a decision for the commander to make. Blond Boy runs off and goes to wander the streets of said urban area while the rest of the Mobile Suit pilots go to engage the enemy.
Nearly getting blown up as collateral damage makes Blond Boy decide that it would be better to be in the cockpit of a highly advanced war machine than wandering out in the open. He joins the fight, and the Euros are defeated. The company men scuttle the factory to hide the evidence.
At this point, I was about to rant about the special treatment when Flit goes and throws Blond Boy in the brig for his shenanigans. As a reminder that in this world, actions have consequences, the episode ends with Creed from Arc 1 being released from prison after serving his sentence for mutiny. Creed tells Flit he has important information for him. Of course, Creed gets shanked before the handover by the kid of the asteroid base boss who himself gets gunned down by Federation Agents, tying up that lose end…
The Euro’s Fearless Leader declares that they need to make their push for Earth and that they need to capture a key colony as a staging area for the invasion. The elite psychic Mobile Suit pilots decide “screw that, we’re going to get some revenge for our fallen comrades” and attempt to attack the Diva. Evil Guy comes along, hoping to draw out Flit to kill him. Four unsupported Mobile suits, now matter how adept the pilots, do not do well. They add to their roster of fallen comrades and utterly fail at their objectives while weakening the attack force needed for Fearless Leader’s plan.
I can see why this war is in its fifth decade.
The Euros attack the colony they need to capture, throwing everything the Earth Occupation Forces have into the fray. We are reminded that character shields are not that powerful in this series as we start losing named characters. We lose cute glasses girl from the maintenance crew, the surviving psychic Mobile Suit pilots, the Hander, and Evil Guy mortally wounds Commander Wolf. You’d have thought Evil Guy would have learned his lesson about making the Gundam Pilot angry last time. Well, this sets off Blond Boy’s berserk button and he outright kills Evil Guy.
In all the fighting, the Euro Mobile Base is critically damaged, grazes the colony and begins to plummet towards Earth, on a trajectory that would be catastrophic for the people still living there. Both Blond Boy and White-Haired Prettyboy conclude that the only option to avoid destroying Earth, or at least wrecking it pretty badly, is to blow up the Mobile Base far enough out that the fragments won’t be as much of a bother. Neither side wants to destroy Earth, they just disagree on who should live there. Well… the self destruct isn’t working. Funny that, shoot a station to shit and it can’t blow itself up as easily.
I’m not sure if Blond Boy and White-Haired Prettyboy reconcile, but they at least work together, gathering up four of the colony-destroying munitions of the type that took down Nora in the first arc to shoot the power core. Amidst the wreckage of the Mobile Base are a bunch of Euro landing pods with their forces who go to ground upon reaching the surface. Blond Boy lands himself and finally reaches the epiphany of his character arc. What he really wanted to fight for was to defend others. Getting stronger than White-Haired Prettyboy was a red herring.
We get our one year later and Federation Prime Minister is giving a speech where we get the misplaced year from my earlier math. Blond Boy has repainted the Gundam all white in honor of the late Commander Wolf (who always flew an all white Mobile Suit). And Flit marches out on stage with MPs to arrest the Prime Minister. While Flit is accusing the politician of working with the Euros (he was playing both sides for personal gain), Euro Mobile Suits try to take out the stage so the Prime Minister can’t reveal any information. Blond Boy fights them off and kills Post-Credits Villain in a duel. We get our voiceover narration where we find that the Prime Minister got executed for treason, and there was a mass purge of Federation Muckity Mucks who’d been working with the Euros in some capacity or another. Turns out that was the information Creed had for Flit, and he had somehow still gotten a hold of it.
We get a single sequence where Blond Boy and Love Interest emerge from the church where they are Just Married™. Then we see White-Haired Prettyboy going into cold sleep. The Euros are not in great shape having lost all but two of their named characters – just Fearless Leader and White-Haired Prettyboy remain.
The annoying green ball did make some appearances and did speak, but by in large, the characters in this arc were more likable, relatable, and sensible. Except Blond Boy and the reckless Euro pilots. But their entitlement and ego is understandable given how spoilt their upbringings appeared to have been.
I would still say give it a try.
Production Code S01E08
There is no Nepotism in the Federation Military.
Did you mention this character in the previous post? I went back to look and couldn’t find anything that seemed to be a reference to him. (Yes, I’m assuming the villain’s gender.)
No, I did not.
Today I learned that T Rump is running for school board. He needs a good slogan.
Thr slogan should be “Wannafud?”
Rump: I’ll get shit done!
I will not be number 2!
RIP Jennifer.
I was always more of a Bailey guy, myself.
Me too
Me three
I see you found my official DA photo, Rhy.
Lol
I’d forgotten what a shitshow the Burt Reynolds divorce was. The tabloids had a field day.
Yeah, same, but not kick out, etc. On the short list of sitcoms from the golden age of sitcoms, WKRP definitely has a spot.
I was surprised to learn that she was that much older than me (16 years). 79. Good run.
One of the greatest lines in all television shows.
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly . . . . .
No. Les Nessman’s routine mispronunciations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUQ7XnnQ3ME
Beaten to death by a late-night mob on 4th Street downtown?
but seriously… Great show. Circa 1980 or so she and Burt were celeb royalty.
That’s sad. She seemed like a decent human being.
When the cops ask a guy if he has weapons on him and he says, “I am the weapon”, you know something bad is going to happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwGscN81FHQ
“I have tools, yes. I see that you do, as well.”
*mayhem ensues*
If mayor acts like this when arrested, I can only imagine how congress critters and governors behave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISCJZavHdQo
I can hardly wait to find out.
Gundam suffers from what all long running anime franchises do – there isn’t a great entry point for new fans. That issue coupled with my lack of love for giant robots never made me interested in the series.
Although the brand new “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX” is supposed to for usable for just this purpose. My Japanese teacher is currently watching it.
“supposed to for usable”
Japanese to English translation checks out.
“ In Arc 1, I wasn’t sure if ‘Grandfather’ was used for old man engineer as an honorific as is sometimes seen in Anime…”
I thought it was “Venerable Curmudgeon.”
Aren’t the White-Haired Prettyboys always the villain?
RJ is a Harry Potter fan. Confirmed.
+1 tear in the rain
More deminimis fucking by Trump. Personal exemption for US travelers in their luggage is being lowered from $800 to $200. Thanks asshole.
Is this some sexual proclivity the wingnuts are going after…?
It’s a very minimal perversion.
“minimal perversion” is my DJ name.
I’m layin’ tracks but not like pipe.
My eggplant is not quite ripe.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/suspending-duty-free-de-minimis-treatment-for-all-countries/
I don’t speak legalese. What does any of that actually mean in plain English?
It means you have to declare at $200 and pay a duty.
Previously foreign shipments under $800 was not taxed. So you could order from Amazon overseas or eBay, etc without a surcharge duty if under that. Now any shipment will have duty ( based on the country of origin/manufacture, not shipment) levied. And most package companies charge an additional fixed fee for the convenience of clearing your package for you. DHL is ~20 + percentage of package value. UPS is about 2-3x of that.
Apparently similar rollback for goods you bring with you via plane, but I can’t find a source to back up that claim so I’d say im wrong about that part.
And because USPS isn’t set up to collect duty, they’re going to charge a flat $80/$200 on each package, depending on what country it comes from.
Guess I’m not getting my plane calendars this year. Fuck that orange sack of shit.
Holy shit. This article is only 14 years old but it feels like it was written in the last century. I had no idea who the fuck he was, but my friend in Japan did. He was frequently on TV and he did English language translations of many classic pieces of Japanese literature.
Once, years later, when Keene was visiting China, he was taken to a museum of Japanese atrocities. “There were life-size dolls with heads on the floor and all the rest of it,” Keene recalls, his face contorting. “And, worst of all, there were troops of Chinese children being led through. I was just so heartbroken by that. They deliberately inculcated hatred. These terrible things happened, yes. But you must get on with it.”
These are sensitive matters, that still dog Asian politics. I could ask why Keene seems more troubled by Chinese propaganda than by Japanese atrocities.
Interspersed with this is the lunch menu of course.
Lunch with the FT: Donald Keene
By David Pilling
The US academic is revered for a long life dedicated to Japan and its culture. Over French cuisine in Tokyo, he talks to David Pilling about his decision to quit America and to become, at the age of 89, a Japanese citizen
When shit gets real.
I knew! I have a couple Osamu Dazai books he translated and remember reading about him. It’s quite possible I read that Lunch with the FT, though that I don’t remember. I was a subscriber in that time.
Planned nap from 5pm-7pm turned into 5-11pm. So now I’m awake when I would normally be going to sleep so I can wake up in four hours.
This is overcome-able. I predict I’ll reawaken again and perhaps say hello first to y’all sleepophiles tomorrow morn. (Yes! It *IS* still ‘tomorrow’ and not ‘today!’ I kinda win! Fuck you, Extended Nap Man!)
Someone mentioned earlier that a soccer fan got booted for wearing a MAGA hat…
LOL I was just watching a game in Seattle and the camera happened to settle on a flag for an explicitly (“trained”) Marxist organization being proudly waved by one of the far-left radicals that routinely populate the “supporters” section.
Funny, that.
It’s exasperating the dummies find Marxism/Communism to be acceptable.
They aren’t dummies. They KNOW they will be the top men.
Just ask them.
I like soccer as a game but it’s so ridiculously left-coded in this county that it drives me away.
Because they constantly fake injuries and very little gets done?
It’s the same in every “western” country. The stadiums are full of antifa ratfuckers and there is constant “antiracism” flapdoodle – you thought the NFL was getting bad, soccer is 10x worse.
They’re still kneeling to BLM in England, FFS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Lenin_(Seattle)
Awaken! Begin your work, my pets. I’ll be having lunch as you begin. Monday morn shoppers tend to be those who either couldn’t, or fucked up /forgot to get something over the weekend they kinda needed. Often coffee or work shit. And.
“All major Las Vegas Strip casinos are now unionized in historic labor victory” — That bodes well. Who the fuck doesn’t wanna go to a union strip club?! I hope the proudly display their affiliation and unionized benefits. That rings the Lust Bell.
Never been, but did deliver sandwiches to the strip club in Evansville when I was a delivery driver for Jimmy Johns. Autumn tipped well.
suh’ fam
whats goody
/hey from the (419)
O frabjous Monday.
Callooh! Callay!
Good morning, Ted’S., homey, and EfE!
*presses 1 for English*
😆
Good morning, U! How are you today?
I stayed up too late, but there’s a chance there’s a second pepper starting 🤞 (No connection between the two)
Oh, I hope so! 😃🤞 (no bell pepper emoji on laptop 😞)
How are things with you?
Good! Got to dive right into month end work since I was off Friday, but I already have a good head start. I even have the Board minutes from last month done! 😁
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!
Time for the next board meeting?
Not until the third Tuesday of the month.
Ted’S….. I got nuthin’. 😕
The day before patch day?
Patch day is the Wednesday after the third Tuesday?
Second Wednesday after Microsoft’s patch tuesday, which is the second tuesday of the month.
In the days of “Scudda Hoo” Natalie was but 11 YO, as was I.
Thanks, TEd,s
Second Wednesday after the second Tuesday…. I don’t know if I can set up a recurring task in Outlook with those criteria. 🤔
No.
Which is why I set up Patch tuesday and we file the change paperwork for the patching.
I thought everyone set up Patch Tuesday so it wouldn’t interfere with their playing World of Warcraft?
Does not Compute.
Is Sean on Vacay again?
Still. It started before the weekend.
Slacker. (him not you)
🤪
Mornin’, reprobates!
Looks like we picked the right week to hang out at the beach. Sunny, low ’80s, perfect.
Good morning, ‘patzie! So glad conditions are ideal for your vacation! (Just watch out for earthquakes!)
Earthquakes, hah. Big 3.0. We missed it, we will return to North Jersey Friday to assess the destruction.
Obligatory. Make your own meme.
Happy Monday Glib dudes and Glib chicks!
🤓🌤️🕶️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_PAHbqq-o4
🎶🎶
Good morning, Sean! Thank goodness you’re here! You were sorely missed! 😉
☕️☺️
GM 🙂
““Oh, now I love her ad,” he told a gaggle of reporters before boarding Air Force One in Allentown, Pa.
“You’d be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That’s one I wouldn’t have known but I’m glad you told me that.
“If Sydney Sweeny is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.””
https://nypost.com/2025/08/04/us-news/trump-praises-sydney-sweeney-after-learning-shes-a-registered-republican-as-woke-mob-torches-her-american-eagle-jeans-ad/
I’m surprised he managed not to use the word “huge”.
In other big boob news,
“Nancy Mace launches campaign for South Carolina governor ”
https://nypost.com/2025/08/04/us-news/nancy-mace-launches-campaign-for-south-carolina-governor/
Saw a pic w her. That was my first reaction.
“Nice rack.”
Good morning!
A new work week a new round of “following up with [subject], where
the fuckis the [work product] you owe me?”