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Victory Gundam Ep. 16: Reineforce, Lift Off

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Summary

In space, Uso’s shuttle approaches the solar power battery station Hiland. Marbet sees that BESPA has already been there and wonders what they could want with Hiland. At Arti Gibraltar, Duker and Renda hide in the ocean with their transformable Galguyu mobile suits. On the surface, Shahkti, Suzy, Karlmann and Flanders hide inside the cockpit of a Gun-EZ. The EFF has given the battleship Reineforce to the League Militaire, and preparations are made for takeoff. Gomez is introduced to Juca Meilasch, one of the few surviving pilots from the Bagley Team’s failed attack on Keilas Guilie. She can’t believe she’s going back into space again so quickly, but she’s willing to do anything to get back at BESPA. All mobile suits are loaded aboard the Reineforce, and the kids sneak off and hide in a room. As the escort fleet casts off in the water, Duker and Renda attack with their Galguyu amphibious mobile suits. Juca spots them and wants to fight, but there aren’t enough mobile suits. Duker jumps onto a light cruiser and fires missiles at the bridge, and Renda does the same on another ship. Junko attacks Duker, but he hides in the water where her beam rifle is ineffective. Peggie attacks Renda and slices off one of the Galguyu’s arms. When Duker sees this, he comes to Renda’s aid and they escape together. Even though they didn’t get all the ships, Duker figures they did well enough by destroying two light cruisers. Gomez orders the ships to takeoff, and a tugboat takes off and tows the Reineforce out of the water. As the Reineforce flies out of the atmosphere, another damaged Salamis burns up on re-entry. Elsewhere, a BESPA Sinope class patrol ship carrying two Zoloats approaches Uso’s shuttle. The BESPA officers ask why they have the Victory Gundam, and the captain says the League Militaire must have hidden it there. Misaki Izawa wants to seize it, and Uso asks if they are going to use it in battle. Izawa then decides to take the shuttle into custody, despite the captain’s objections. The BESPA officers force everyone to transfer over to the Sinope. Izawa asks Uso why he’s in space, and he responds that he’s looking for his parents. On the Sinope, Uso meets a bunch of other kids.

The BESPA officers tie up Marbet and tell the kids not to talk. The three kids Martina Klansky, Karel Masaryk and Brasta Jellines explain they are the children of the Hiland workers and were taken hostage by BESPA because they want to use the Hiland energy satellite. As they think of a plan to escape, the two Zoloats dock on the ship and the pilots head for the cabin. The Sinope takes off with the PCST shuttle in tow. Uso sends Haro over to Marbet so that it can cut her ropes. Haro and Odelo then rush into the cockpit, and Odelo fires a glue gun to stick a pilot to a wall while Marbet throws a pesticide spray into the cockpit. Uso fires a wire gun to trap the pilots in the cockpit, and everyone heads for a rear hatch. Warren uses the glue gun to seal the hatch, but the pilots exit the ship via another hatch. Uso reaches the Victory Gundam first and takes off. He tries to fire at the docked Zoloats but misses. He then smashes the Sinope‘s thrusters and helps the PCST shuttle turn around so that it can escape. One of the Zoloat pilots reaches his suit and finds that even the inside has been filled with pesticide spray. Uso attacks but decides he can’t use his beam rifle because if the Zoloat exploded it would destroy the PCST shuttle as well. The Zoloat pilot then begins to fire beam wires from a distance, which confuses Uso because he doesn’t know the pilot’s location. Martina thinks Uso might be a Newtype, but Karel thinks Uso is just a normal kid from Earth. The Zoloat pilot decides to finish off Uso and fires his beam rifle at the Victory Gundam. Uso separates the Bottom Fighter and avoids the blast. He then rushes the Zoloat and slices apart the beam rifle. He forces the pilot to get out and begins towing the Zoloat to where the Bottom Fighter is. The pilot moves against Uso’s demands and Uso catches him after throwing him into space. Marbet meets with Izawa in space and agrees to turn over the Zoloat and its pilot. Izawa says it’s unforgivable to involve children in war, and Marbet says they have no other choice to stop Zanscare’s guillotine. Uso hands the Zoloat pilot over and rests for a moment after the long battle.

Commentary

The story seems to be really getting into motion now that characters are starting to move into space. In the first half of the episode we’re introduced to another female pilot, Juca Meilasch. It seems the EFF finally might be getting its act together by giving the Reineforce to the League Militaire. However, they didn’t provide any cover for the ships, which certainly didn’t help when they were attacked by Duker and Renda. Those Galguyu suits seem to have some problems, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be inside a leaky underwater mobile suit. The second half mostly focuses on Uso and the kids of Hiland evading BESPA. As in other series, Uso is not used to fighting in space and doesn’t perform so well at first. However, he will have to adapt if he plans to stay in space.

Overall Rating
4/5

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