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L.Gaim OVA Ep. 3: Full Metal Soldier

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Summary

Preita Quoize flies his heavy metal Pagorta through space toward Gastogal. Giwaza also heads down toward Gastogal on his Sarge Opus. Nei, Heckler and Anton arrive at Sveto. Inside Poseidal’s palace the other members of the Elite 13 arrive. Preita arrives and taunts Sai Quo Addar, saying an old man like him should be retired by now. Preita asks him if his granddaughter Leccee has contacted him. A hologram of Poseidal appears. Meanwhile, Daba’s group heads through a snowy region on the Turner. Daba is confident the Gastogal military won’t be able to pursue them through the tough conditions. Poseidal tells her Elite 13 to kill those traitors who are not following her, namely Daba. She declares whoever is able to do it will receive a promotion. Preita continues to taunt Sai, who punches him in the face. The Turner, meanwhile, has trouble making it through the storm and starts descending. It makes its way out of the snowstorm and into a large body of water where cliffs around it are collapsing into the ocean. Leccee explains the distorted gravity on this planet will eventually cause all land masses to vanish into the sea. The girls leave the bridge, and Lilith asks Leccee how she feels about being near her hometown. Amu and Leccee argue with each other. Later, Kyao talks to Leccee about where Sveto is. A transmission comes through from Sai, and tells Leccee not to rebel against Poseidal and that she has lowered everyone’s opinion of the Elite 13 due to her actions. He shows her an image of her parents and says they’ll be killed if she doesn’t return. Sai says he’d shoot the Turner down if Leccee wasn’t on it. Amu grabs Leccee and says she’s a hostage. Daba states Leccee will decide for herself whether or not to go. Sai warns them about what they’ll face if she doesn’t return. That night, Leccee heads to the dock to leave and Daba talks to her, but Leccee takes off on a Spirit. She is eventually spotted by a group of Bal-Buds that chase her and ends up running into Preita’s Pagorta. Leccee’s Spirit is no match for the Pagorta and she crashes into the sea and is captured. Sai is informed about Leccee being captured alive by Preita and heads off in a shuttle to where Leccee is being held. Daba tries to head out to rescue Leccee and Kyao stops him. Amu agrees with Daba and tells Kyao to change their course towards where Leccee is. Meanwhile, Leccee is hung tied up from the Pagorta. Sai thinks Preita is cruel, but Preita says he should thank him for being that nice to a traitor. Sai wonders what will happen if Daba doesn’t appear to rescue Leccee. Rockley and Baan arrive with a group of other heavy metals. A soldier tells Preita that Daba is approaching. Daba gets into the L.Gaim and takes off. He is immediately attacked by Nei in her heavy metal, the Salonz. A group of Graias soon appear and attack him as well. Daba maneuvers himself through a series of cliffs to escape from them. Nei surprises him from the water, but the Turner soon arrives to support Daba. The Graias focus their attention on the Turner while Nei continues to fight Daba. Nei again surprises Daba but Rockley, upset at her for attacking Daba before anyone else, stops her. Daba blows up some more Graias. Preita tells Sai to say goodbye to Leccee, for she will be killed in the newly completed bio-base, Zelda, the next day. Preita takes off with Leccee in tow. Daba destroys a Bal-Bud and spots the Pagorta, but Baan attacks him in his Bat-Shu. The Graias firing at the L.Gaim force Baan to back off. Kyao releases a smoke screen so Daba will be able to make it to the Turner and retreat. Sai, who had made it onto the Turner during the commotion, walks into the bridge and holds Kyao at gunpoint. Daba arrives on the Turner, but Kyao and Amu have already been tied up by Sai. Sai is able to take Daba at gunpoint as well. Daba is confident that even with the small numbers supporting the rebels now, more will follow. Sai pulls out two laser swords, forcing Daba to take out his. Daba attacks Sai. Meanwhile, on the bridge Lilith tries to help Kyao and Amu escape from their bonds. Daba and Sai continue to duel each other in the dock and Sai eventually overtakes him. Sai says it’s a pity that he’ll have to kill him, but he must do what Poseidal wants. Sai realizes that the L.Gaim resembles the Yaman Clan heavy metal Gayrahm and says he thought the Yaman were extinct. Kyao and Amu arrive and force Sai to relinquish his weapon. Daba wants to let Sai go rather than keep him as a hostage. He’d rather face Poseidal honorably than use Sai as a hostage. Daba gives Sai his weapon back and Sai immediately takes it out and puts it against Daba’s neck. Sai tells Daba that he shows too much mercy towards his enemy. He puts his weapon away and starts to leave. Daba asks Sai where Leccee is, and he tells her she’s at the bio-base Zelda, where she’ll be killed tomorrow. He says Poseidal herself will be showing up, but that they’ll be killed if they go there. Sai takes off in his craft. Kyao tells Daba he’ll work all night on the L.Gaim so Daba will be ready the next day.

The next day at Zelda, the Elite 13 and a large group of soldiers gather as Poseidal exits her ship. Preita shows her the captured Leccee and says that Daba will arrive soon and he’ll kill both him and Leccee. Preita asks Poseidal to have the other Elite 13 leave and for her to pull back the Ape. That way he can take care of Daba himself. Sai thinks it’s too dangerous, but Preita is confident that he’ll be able to do it while at the bio-base. Poseidal agrees to Preita’s request. Daba takes off from the Turner. Sai heads into the large statue at the center of the bio-base with Poseidal, and she explains they can control the bio-base from there. Daba spots Leccee and rushes towards the bio-base as its walls close and he just barely makes it inside in time. Daba heads towards Leccee but is immediately attacked. A large amount of energy gathers in the center of the bio-base and out from it walks the Pagorta. Daba fires at it with his buster launcher, but it has no effect. The Turner, which has lost contact with Daba, heads toward the bio-base but is attacked by an immense amount of lasers. The Turner fires at the gun turrets at the bio-base. Preita plays a piano in the Pagorta’s cockpit and declares it’s the music of Daba’s funeral. Preita attacks Daba and quickly takes the L.Gaim down with a single blow. The L.Gaim gets back up and cuts off part of the Pagorta’s shoulder. Poseidal gives orders to increase the energy in the bio-base. Preita tosses the L.Gaim aside with ease and tons of metal columns start rising in the bio-base. Preita’s power continues to rise and overcome the L.Gaim from afar. Preita pushes the L.Gaim to the edge of the metal column it is on and they both fall off of it. Daba manages to dispel the Pagorta’s energy field and injure Preita. Preita soon gets back up though and attacks the severely weakened L.Gaim. Preita’s power rises even more and Poseidal wonders if he’ll be able to handle it. The Pagorta holds its energy saber near the L.Gaim’s head, but at the last minute Daba is able to thrust it into the Pagorta itself. Preita, asking for even more power from Poseidal, heads into the energy field at the center of the bio-base and is vaporized. The energy shoots all over the bio-base, which starts to collapse. The statue Poseidal is in starts to collapse and she is informed that they won’t be able to escape. Daba heads towards the head of the statue to attack Poseidal, but the energy in his beam saber runs out, so he’s unable to finish the job. Daba tries to fly into the statue on the Flicker, but noticing Leccee hanging for her life below, he goes down to rescue her. Sai tells Poseidal he can’t work for her anymore and leaves. Daba pulls Leccee to safety, and she says with the Elite 13 not here, now is the best time to get Poseidal. Sai arrives, requesting another duel. Leccee grabs Daba’s beam sword and says she’ll take care of this. Sai forces Leccee off a ledge and the energy in her beam sword runs out. Sai charges at her for the kill, but Daba pulls him back at the last minute. Daba says he’s got to protect his ally Leccee, even if he dies doing it. Sai turns off the energy in his weapon. Poseidal escapes from the bio-base. Sai tells Leccee that her parents have escaped from Gastogal. The Turner arrives at the bio-base and is met by a gargantuan force of heavy metals, including the rest of the Elite 13. Daba heads to the L.Gaim and Leccee suddenly realizes that her grandfather is gone. Daba flies out and confronts Nei in the L.Gaim. Sai heads out from the bio-base in the Ape and tells Nei that they should leave Daba alone this time since he bested Preita in their duel. He doesn’t think the Elite 13 should attack their enemy when they are beaten down. The Turner is allowed to escape, and Leccee thanks Sai for helping them. Sai says he wants to spend the rest of his life somewhere peaceful but wonders if he’ll ever see Leccee again. Sai wishes Daba good luck and heads off. Daba says to head to Sveto. In space, Poseidal talks to her bio-sensor, Olibee.

Commentary

The final L.Gaim OVA is overwhelmingly better than the first two for the simple fact that it’s all new material, while the other two were for the most part lousy recaps. “Full Metal Soldier,” which by my estimation probably takes place just before episode 22 of the TV series, is a fairly well put together stand alone story. It works well on its own, or in connection with the series as well. While it does not really add that much to the overall plot, we are presented with some new characters and heavy metals. The final two members of Poseidal’s Elite 13 are introduced. The first, Sai Quo Addar, is actually Leccee’s grandfather, which certainly helps our heroes a lot in the end. Had he not been related to her, I doubt things would have turned out as good at the conclusion of the battle. The second, Preita Quoize, is quite the odd character. The fact that he has a piano built into his heavy metal which he plays during battle is about as off the wall as you can think of. His heavy metal, the Pagorta, as well as Nei’s new one, the Salonz, are about as impressively designed as anything we saw in the series. Unfortunately for L.Gaim fans, this OVA would be the final anime production we’d get for the franchise. Luckily it ended on a pretty good high note after the utter failure of the first two OVAs.

Overall Rating
4/5

L.Gaim Info

Director:
Yoshiyuki Tomino

Writer(s):
Sukehiro Tomita
Hiroshi Ohnogi
Jiyu Watanabe
Asami Watanane

Mechanical Designer(s):
Mamoru Nagano
Hidetoshi Omori

Character Designer:
Mamoru Nagano

Musical Composer:
Kei Wakakusa

Format:
54 episodes (TV); 3 episodes (OVA)

Airdates:
Japan 02.04.1984 – 02.23.1985
Streaming 02.17.2017

Video Release (OVA):
Japan 11.05.1986 – 03.28.1987

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