The Fall 2022 anime season has begun, with Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury being one of the first shows to premiere with an impressive episode 1. Studio Sunrise is in charge of the production, and this is a standalone Gundam project. This means you don’t need any previous knowledge on the franchise, though there is already a prequel episode you can watch to learn more about the protagonist Suletta’s past.
The story follows Suletta as she transfers to the Asticassia School of Technology from Mercury. She’s extremely shy and awkward around people, but still forces herself to do what she thinks is right. This leads to a quick meeting with Miorine Rembran, who is the daughter of Delling Rembran (familiar from the prologue episode) and wants to escape from the school. Miorine tells Suletta to take responsibility for what she did, which the timid girl accepts and begins to ask how she can help.
The school has a rule where everything is decided by duels, even marriage partners. That’s what happened to Miorine, who is engaged to the classic ‘spoiled brat’ character Guel Jeturk. He’s the son of another influential character and the number 1 pilot at the school. We see that Miorine is growing tomatoes, which Guel insults as pretending to be on Earth. Suletta had never tried a real tomato before, so she is impressed by the taste, to which Miorine says it’s a specific breed made by her mother. When Guel arrives and tries to force Miorine to go live with him, Suletta spanks him and accepts the challenge to a duel. Although her character seems like the typical shy-but-overpowered trope, it felt refreshing to see that she didn’t hesitate to stand up for what she thought was right and waste time contemplating over it.
While I’m not much of a Gundam (or even mecha) fan, I thought the pilot fight scenes were impressive. Suletta’s Aerial quickly demolishes Guel and leaves everyone shocked at what an actual GUNDAM can do. There’s more characters that made appearances, but we’re yet to learn who they are and what their roles will be. In the end, we just see that the victory means Suletta is now the Holder (number 1 pilot), which further means that she’s engaged to Miorine. In addition, this prevented the death of Delling, who was almost assassinated by Guel’s father to secure the marriage between their children. The fact Suletta accidentally saved the man who was largely to blame for the prologue episode’s events is interesting, and I can’t wait to see how they end up interacting throughout the anime.
You can watch the anime on Crunchyroll, and also vote for it as the best show in week 1!
All images via Crunchyroll
© Sotsu / Sunrise / MBS