Review by Chris

February 14, 2003

Katejina destroys any mobile suits that come near Uso and Cronicle, regardless of what side they're from. Cronicle says that Uso doesn't understand his pain as Maria's brother in having to fight Kagatie. Kagatie and Mutterma panic and don't understand what's going on. On Angel Halo, Shakti asks all the control room operators to leave because she doesn't know what's going to happen. She says that Angel Halo breaking apart was caused by the psychickers wishing for peace. Uso and Cronicle crash into a mountain, and Odelo knocks Cronicle aside so that Uso can escape. Uso, Odelo and Tomache escape and hide inside one of the ring fragments floating in the air. Kagatie decides that he will go back to Angel Halo to try to stop what is going on, but Mutterma thinks that is too dangerous. The ruined Jeanne D'Arc appears before them and drifts towards them on a collision course. Kagatie escapes in his Croaking shuttle just as the Jeanne D'Arc crashes into his ship and kills Mutterma. The psycommu system causes Shakti to react defensively to the explosion. Odelo calls Uso his brother and tells him he should listen to his elders. They return to the battle, and Katejina tries to attack Uso again. Odelo slams into her and brings her close to Angel Halo's core. The two of them see a strange light, and Katejina feels nauseous while Odelo is unable to attack. She comes back to her senses and slices into the Gunblastor and knocks it away. Odelo thinks that he can hear his mother praising him as his Gunblastor explodes. Shakti feels Odelo's death, as well as the deaths of everyone else she knew. On the White Ark, Elischa holds Odelo's necklace and cries uncontrollably because she can feel that he's dead. Uso continues to fight with Cronicle on Angel Halo's surface, and he uses his wings of light to slice off the Rig Contio's legs. He then uses his two beam sabers to slice into the torso. The Rig Contio tumbles away on the ring's surface, and Cronicle sees Maria as he dies.

Inside Angel Halo, Kagatie loses his mind and imagines that Maria is sitting in her chair. He starts shooting at the chair, and a ring fragment smashes the room and kills him. The ring fragments of Angel Halo begin to reform in odd ships and head back into space. As they fly away, they take Zanscare and Federation ships with him. The V2 Gundam's legs are pinned between two combining ring fragments, and Katejina lands next to Uso. She gets out of her cockpit and says that because she loves Cronicle he is the only one she can go to now. She says the battle is over and asks Uso to kill her. He says she doesn't have to die, and she says she wants to die in his arms and jumps over to him. Uso grabs Katejina, and she stabs him in the back with a knife. He falls off the V2 Gundam, but Haro grabs him with its mouth and saves him. Uso manages to break free of the ring fragments and looks for Shakti. On the White Ark, Karlmann suddenly begins to speak and asks Shakti to come back. Uso wants to destroy Angel Halo's central ring, but the spirit of Odelo tells him that if he does that Shakti will die. Uso goes inside the ring, but the spirits of Oliver and Junko tell him to go outside. The spirits of the Shrike Team direct Uso to another ring, and he finds Katejina waiting inside for him. She sees the spirits of all the dead League Militaire people coming at her, and she fires her mega beam cannon. Uso activates his wings of light and uses them as a cloak to deflect Katejina's shot. The explosive force causes the central ring to break apart. The V2 Gundam begins to lose power, and Uso cries because he can't see Shakti. A glowing ring with Shakti inside floats by, and Uso grabs her. Months after the war's end, Uso and his surviving friends have settled in Kassarelia. A very pregnant Marbet visits Oliver's grave, and Elischa visits Odelo's. As Shakti does laundry in the river, a blind beggar woman passes by on a hovercraft and asks for help to find Woowig. Flanders barks, and Shakti sees that the blind woman is Katejina. She offers to give Katejina a new compass, and Karlmann says hello to her. When everyone returns and asks who that woman was, Shakti says it was a lost traveler. Uso runs off to play with Karlmann, and Shakti cries alone.

Well, this was an epic and bloody finale that surpasses that of even Z Gundam. Even though more people survived this cataclysmic final battle, more people also died throughout the course of the series. As a whole, this series is quite grim and spares no opportunity to show the horrors of war. Maybe this had something to do with Tomino's reported depression at the time. However, even with all the savage death that occurs, there is a brief ray of light at the end. Despite all the suffering, life continues with people like baby Karlmann and Marbet and Oliver's unborn child. Despite the odds, Uso manages to defeat Cronicle and Katejina, killing him and leaving her a blind beggar. Katejina really was a sick and twisted person, and this was evident even in the beginning of the series. Her evil causes the deaths of many people, including Odelo and the Shrikes. But she gets what she deserves, as does the brutal and scheming Kagatie. Will the bloodstained history of the Universal Century ever end in peace? Since this is the last produced UC series, perhaps we'll never know, but it is a fitting end to the saga.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

<<back to Victory Gundam episodes