Anime / Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

"If you run, you gain one; but if you move forward, you gain two."^*Pictured above: Miorine Rembran (left) and Suletta Mercury (right). Behind them is XVX-016RN Gundam Aerial Rebuild.

"Humanity was born in the cradle of Earth. Our bodies are far too fragile for us to venture into space. Just as an infant has to put on clothes, humanity must don the GUND to truly go out into space."

— Dr. Cardo Nabo

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (機動戦士ガンダム 水星の魔女, Kidō Senshi Gandamu Suisei no Majo) is a 2022 Gundam anime television series. An Action Prologue project to introduce the story and world, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury PROLOGUE, premiered in July 2022, with the full series airing starting in October 2022.

Set in the year 122 of the Ad Stella (A.S.) calendar, an era when a multitude of corporations entered space and built a huge economic system. A lone girl from the remote planet Mercury transfers to the Asticassia School of Technology, run by the Benerit Group which dominates the mobile suit industry.

Her name is Suletta Mercury. With a scarlet light burning in her pure heart, this girl walks step by step through a new world.

Witch From Mercury was noted by Sunrise and the creators as being the first Gundam anime TV series to feature a female protagonist,^note and the fourth overall, as various spin-off media such as Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED CE.73: Stargazer and Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight AXIS featured female protagonists before her. Also a few OVAs of standalone short stories featured a female protagonist for an episode. It is also the first mainline Gundam series to premiere in the Japanese Reiwa (2019-present) period and the first new (non-Gunpla based) alternate universe Gundam series since 2015's Iron-Blooded Orphans.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer, Trailer 2.

The Prologue can be seen here. The series proper began airing in October 2022, via Ani-One Asia (for Asia Region) and Crunchyroll (for Western regions) with Gundaminfo joining in on December 31, 2022. A short web novel Cradle Planet ties the lyrics of the theme song to the plot and covers the intervening years between the prologue and the first episode is available in Japanese and English on the official website. As of January 29-30, 2023, without any prior announcement, the English dub of the series began streaming on Crunchyroll, starting with the Prologue. As of February 1, 2023, the dub and its cast have been announced in proper, set to stream from February 5, 2023.

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Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury provides examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: CGI is used whenever there's a sweeping camera pan, or on the rare occasion when the mobile suits are stationary or out of focus; with the usual hand-drawn animation brought in for general movement and fight scenes. CGI is also used for any instances involving ships, Quiet Zero, or other moving transport, but is done to fit in with the background elements, while the mobile suits, Haros, and smaller vehicles, including Aerial's Attack Drones when flying independent of the main mech, are rendered out in standard Cel Shaded animation.
  • Aerial's 3D model, often used for several of those wide shots, gets repurposed as a 3D model utilized by Earth House for their commercial for GUND-ARM Inc.
• Absurdly Powerful Student Council:
  • The Dueling Committee is made up of students and oversees duels at the school, and duels decide everything. By right, any Asticassia student can challenge another to a duel and demand any boon for winning, ranging from an apology for perceived wrongs, to ownership of the loser's mobile suit, to expulsion from the school, meaning that the dueling committee has absurd power for being a student-run organization, especially since they don't appear to have any oversight from the school board. In the very first episode, the Dueling Committee's blessing lets Suletta become the fiance of the daughter of the most powerful man in the solar system (though this is an unusual case as Delling had promised Miorine's hand in marriage to the best duelist at the school).
  • Episodes 8 and 9 show that Shaddiq has the power to unilaterally change the school regulations regarding student startups, which becomes part of his plot to seize control of Gund-Arm from Miorine.
• Academy of Adventure: The Asticassia School of Technology, which is one of the top schools in the Earth sphere covering every subject on Mobile Suits from research and development, piloting, and even business management. Students are even allowed to bring their own personal Mobile Suits and fight in duels with them. The school is also backed by the massive Benerit Group with the children of many of its most prominent executives attending. Not to mention, not even Asticassia is completely isolated from the corporate machinations within the Benerit Group.
• Accidental Proposal: Suletta ends up in an engagement with Miorine Rembran after defeating Guel Jeturk, due to becoming the school's Holder (top duelist), who is also meant to be Miorine's future spouse and thus the inheritor of his stake of the Benerit Group, which owns the school.
• Actually Pretty Funny: In the first episode, when Suletta inadvertantly insults Guel by calling him a 'pushy suitor' for Miorine, it causes Petra Itta and Felsi Rollo, who were giving Miorine a hard time, a laugh at Guel's expense.
• Ascended Meme: A post by the official Gundam North American Twitter implies something terrible would happen if Suletta reciprocated Guel's love, playing off the fandom joke that the series inverts Bury Your Gays.
  You saw what happened in Episode 20 - stop shipping them or else
• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 15 takes place entirely on Earth and focuses on Guel and the aftermath of his accidental patricide three episodes prior as he's taken hostage by the Dawn of Fold resistance group. Though Guel himself is largely secondary to the focus on Dawn of Fold, particularly Olcott and several Mauve Shirts. Miorine only shows up in two scenes, and Suletta herself is completely absent with not so much as a cameo.
• Adults Are Useless:
  • If they aren't treating their own children as pawns in their schemes or being killed, they're utterly useless in actually dealing with important situations. In large part thanks to Delling being in a position of power that effectively overrules any opinion the opposition might have against him.
  • The faculty of Asticassia School of Technology are also completely apathetic if not openly hostile when it comes to the safety and well-being of its students and are generally incompetent when it comes to doing their jobs, even going so far as to brush aside any responsibility when called out for not telling students what to do.
  • Subverted in Episode 20. It initially looks like Shaddiq's team and Norea are giving the Dominicus Corps - professional special forces - a hard time in combat. However, by the end of the battle, it's clear that the Corps was holding back just so that they could take them alive, and as far as we can see, they haven't even been scratched.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • In Episode 12, Vim, who has been nothing but cruel to his son Guel, dies telling Guel he's happy that he's safe.
  • In Episode 14, Sophie dies shortly after revealing that she fights because it's the only way she can get the food and shelter she needs to survive. Her wingman Norea is very clearly holding back tears when she recovers her body and her Gundam.
• And the Rest: When Miorine needs the help of Earth House to make the preparations for the formal creation of her new company, she gives Martin, Lilique, and Till specific roles, before turning to Suletta and "the others". Chuchu is annoyed by her choice of words.
• Anti-Magic: In keeping with the theme of Gundam pilots as 'witches', the Dominicus Corps possesses Antidote weapons that generate fields capable of shutting down Gundam technology within its radius of effect. This levels the playing field against Gundams, which otherwise have a flat advantage over regular mobile suits.
• Anyone Can Die: Episode 6 sees Elan #4 killed off despite being promoted as one of the main characters, establishing fairly heavy stakes early on. However, this is subverted as the show goes on as, despite killing off some of the major characters (such as Vim Jeturk, Sophie, Feng Jun, and Norea) none of the main cast die, all of them managing to make it out alive by the ending.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Nearly all Ad Stella technology operates using a substance called Permet, a special element mined throughout the solar system (particularly on Mercury and the Moon) that can share information between its particles; these connections are referred to as "Permet Links". It can be mixed with both structural materials and propellants, and serves as the basis for GUND augmentations to the human body. Gundams^note Properly GUND-Arms: Mobile Suits equipped with the GUND-Format OS are capable of drawing on increasingly high "Scores" from it on-command to increase performance, but at the cost of risking the pilot's life from the information feedback, dubbed a "Data Storm". Properly harnessed, a Data Storm can be used to remotely override control of any device that utilizes a Permet Link.
• Arc Words: "...if you move forward, you gain two." Seen in the Interquel short story, and each episode so far. As the anime goes on, it starts examining its significance to Suletta and other people who adopt it from her. On one hand, Suletta sees it as a "spell" her mother taught her to face adversity rather than run. On the other hand, it also serves Prospera as a way of compelling Suletta into any act.
• Armor Is Useless: Zigzagged. Mobile suit cockpits are shown to be able to withstand the reduced-power beam weapons used during Asticassia duels. Otherwise beams go through the rest of the armor like tissue paper, low power or no. Heavier armor like the Darilbalde's shoulder-mounted shields are shown to resist full-power beams, but not fully ward them off.
• Artificial Family Member: Both the Lfrith and Aerial. The former is referred to as family by the Vanadis Institute crew and Ericht becomes jealous when it takes the attention away from her birthday. The latter is very close to Suletta to the point they consider each other as sisters and Elnora actually called Aerial her daughter. However, it turns out that Aerial is Ericht and it's Suletta who's the artificial one since she is a clone of Eri.
• Artificial Limbs: The GUND Format was originally developed to combat the health effects of long-term habitation in space, and have by the prologue of the series have progressed to include fully-functioning artificial limbs and organs, with Elnora Samaya having a right arm that is able to act like a real one. Amusingly, it is revealed by it suddenly running out of battery just as she is about to place a candle on her daughter's birthday cake.
• Artificial Outdoors Display: Prevalent throughout Asticassia, producing the illusion that the school is situated somewhere sunny outdoors (although the ground still obviously curves upward). It helps that the school genuinely does contain outdoors environments and is full of grass and woodlands, so the display is almost seamless. In particular, every time a duel takes place, the arena is shown switching its walls and ceiling from starfield to a more planetary environment.
• Attack Drone: All Gundams use the GUND Format to direct remote weapons of some variety, referred to broadly as "GUND Bits":
  • Lfrith and Aerial/Aerial Rebuild use Bit Staves, which can operate independently to attack enemies or form up to create a barrier that can block enemy beams.
  • The Lfrith Pre-Production Model makes use of a simpler form of drone by launching what is basically homing mines that latch onto enemy mobile suits before exploding.
  • Pharact uses Corax bits, which operate in pairs to project electromagnetic beams that disable individual components on the mobile suits hit by the beams.
  • Lfrith Ur and Lfrith Thorn use Gundvolvas, MS-type bits that have all the functionality of regular mobile suits but which are piloted remotely.
  • Schwarzette is equipped with several GUND Bits which can combine into a giant greatsword, in contrast to Lfrith/Aerial's shield.
  • Quiet Zero takes this trope up to 200, not only deploying dozens if not hundreds of Gundnodes -each a mobile suit like the Gundvolva- but the Gundnodes can also equip an optional weapons system that grants them four regular GUND-Bits of their own.
  • Non-Gundams also make extensive use of remote weapons, typically wire-guided:
    • The Beguir-Beu has a pair of wire-guided Non-Kinetic Pods, which can extend to increase the range of its Antidote. Its successor, the Beguir-Pente, can launch its shield on a wire for much the same purpose.
    • The Darilbalde makes use of an advanced Decision-Making Extension AI to operate drones without wires or GUND-Format, including both arms wielding the Beam Anchor and Beam Kunai, up to four replacement arms on the back that are equipped with beam sabers instead of hands, two shields, and the feet which can become claws and use wires to deliver an electric shock to the target.
    • The Michaelis's right arm is a wire-guided Beam Bracer, which is equipped with a combination beam gun/saber and can also deliver Antidote. Its left arm can be equipped with a Lance Bracer which is also wire-guided but otherwise has no special features.
    • The Demi Barding is able to detach its entire backpack and have it act as a wire guided support unit.
• Bait-and-Switch: In the second episode, following Suletta's arrest, Miorine is approached by one of the people who were supposed to extract and escort her to Earth. It appears Miorine decides to go through this opportunity and abandon Suletta to her fate. A few scenes later, it is revealed that she sacrificed this opportunity in order to confront her father and protect Suletta which culminates in her using her father's rules against him by challenging him to a duel to force him to recognize her engagement to Suletta.
• Bayonet Ya: The Dilanza Sol's' standard beam rifles can produce elongated beam bayonets that can double as short swords in close quarter combat.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition:
  • A variation; the prologue ends with Nadim, having sacrificed himself to save Elnora and Ericht, singing 'Happy Birthday' to Eri, who happily picks up the song, unaware that her father is dead as her home colony is destroyed.
  • Used both metaphorically and literally in episode six. At the conclusion of their duel Suletta encourages Elan to think of that day as his birthday and in the episode's closing he sings "Happy Birthday" to himself just as he's incinerated on the orders of the Peil CEOs.
  • Used purely metaphorically in episode 17 with the app used to shut down Aerial, sabotage the duel, and take away everything precious to Suletta playing "Happy Birthday" as a jingle when in-use.
  • Episode 18 reveals Suletta's earliest memory when she witnessed Ericht's "death" and rebirth within the Lfrith, while herself a newborn infant.
• Bisexual Love Triangle:
  • Suletta intervening against Guel and then beating him in a duel leads to her taking his place as future groom to Miorine. Though Suletta and Miorine's relationship begins as cover to buy Miorine time to escape to Earth, the two girls grow to care for each other more and more. Meanwhile, Guel falls for Suletta after she beats him twice, and after some growth he confesses his feelings to her. She appreciates the sentiment but indicates that she's already devoted to Miorine. Unfortunately, Miorine decides to drive Suletta away for her own good despite her own feelings for Suletta and plots with Guel to have him retake the Holder position. Suletta ultimately manages to regain the Holder title from Guel in Episode 22. Afterwards, Guel permanently stands out of the way as Suletta and Miorine reconcile, and Suletta helps Miorine get back on her feet after Lady Prospera breaks her spirit.
  • Another Love Triangle is briefly formed between Suletta, Miorine, and Elan, thanks to Suletta's persistent interest in getting to know Elan, something that annoys Miorine. It's brief because, right as it seems Elan 4 has opened up to Suletta, he is executed for his failures. Albeit, while the original Elan keeps Suletta convinced he’s the same person, leaving her with the belief she still has some actual intimacy with him, Miorine rescues Suletta and Aerial so spectacularly in the same episode that Suletta’s focus starts to shift to Miorine anyway.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Being older, outdated mobile suits, Desultors are equipped with wrist-mounted heat blades in lieu of the standard beam sabers ubiquitous to most suits.
• Book Ends:
  • The first and last episode of the first season end with a shot of the Aerial kneeling. However, Miorine's attitude towards Suletta is completely reversed between the two.
  • In Episode 1, Suletta saves Miorine alone in space and Miorine headbutts her for it. In Episode 24, Miorine (along with Chuchu and the Demi Barding) saves Suletta alone in space after the final battle. When she becomes unresponsive, Miorine becomes desperate and headbutts her accidentally, waking her up.
• Brain/Computer Interface: The series makes use of a less invasive version. Mobile suits make use of a connection with the pilot via Permet, facilitated through either their spacesuit or a simple vest which is then hooked up to the machine allowing for greater control. GUND is a more advanced version, providing Gundams with their name and distinct advantage in battle.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Witch From Mercury is the first mainline Gundam TV series to focus on a female protagonist, all previous TV series being led by a male protagonist up to this point.
  • Suletta is the franchise's first LGBTQ protagonist. Her growing relationship with Miorine is fundamental to the series' plot and ultimately culminates in the two being Happily Married by the epilogue.
  • Although Prospera is not the franchise's first female Char archetype in a broader sense (Katejina from Victory beat her by decades), she is the first one that wears the mask.
  • Attack Drones are usually reserved for the Mid-Season Upgrade/end-of-season units used by the protagonists and antagonists; e.g. Nu, Strike Freedom, AGE-FX, 00 Qan[T], Zeong, Sazabi, Providence Gundam, and so on. The Aerial, Lfrith, and the Beguir-Beu on the other hand, have them from the start.
  • A minor one but it is also the first Gundam TV series to have a lead mobile suit with blue beam weaponry. Most series have it be pink, like in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and occasionally green, like in the AU series from the 90s (G, Wing and X).
  • While most Gundam protagonists grew up in space as Suletta did, almost all of them spend a significant amount of time on Earth. Largely because the series has a primary setting in Asticassia, Suletta is near unique for never setting foot on Earth until some time during the Distant Finale.
• Capitalism Is Bad: A large part of why the Earth Sphere is in the shape that it is is because of the Benerit Group, a massive corporate body which exploits the people of Earth for cheap labor and is filled with greedy executives all making power plays, at the expense of common civilians.
• Central Theme:
  • On a broader level, the series deals with the usual Gundam staples: the dangers of emerging technology being co-opted for militaristic purposes, political corruption and ambition, the dark side of capitalism, and the all-consuming effects of vengeance. There's also a strong undercurrent of how even noble intentions can and will be corrupted by extreme methods.
  • In the same vein as Revolutionary Girl Utena, there is a strong current of examining how relationships and familial love can be wielded as a weapon of control by abusers, who see the abused as tools and not people. This is reflected most in the two main characters of Miorine and Suletta: Miorine is all too aware of how her father exerts control and influence over her life and fights against it, while Suletta is blissfully unaware of how her mother uses love to manipulate her and allows it.
  • Trust and openness. Several conflicts in the series occur as a result of characters hiding secrets and/or closing themselves off to others and bottling their emotions. It’s only after said characters learn to trust one another and be open and truthful with each other that they are able to move forward.
• Cerebus Call-Back: Episodes 1 and 12 both end on a shot of Aerial kneeling down on one knee after defeating an enemy. Only instead of Suletta winning a duel and Miorine telling her "Nice to meet you, my groom." Suletta has used her mobile suit to graphically turn a gunman into paste and Miorine's words are a horrified "Murderer...!".
• Cerebus Syndrome: Apart from the Prologue, the series starts as a fairly lighthearted high school series with a sci-fi spin with some darker underpinnings sprinkled about. In the second season, those dark themes break to the surface and the high school events become more and more sporadic as the familiar Gundam trappings take center stage.
• Character Tics: Members of the Jeturk bloodline have a habit of playing with their hair, like Vim and his father as well as Vim's son, Lauda Neill.
• Computer Equals Monitor: Guel's able to disable the Darilbalde's autopilot AI simply by breaking the control panel's display screen with his fist.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Averted in Episode 12. The Wave-Motion Gun used by Aerial Rebuild melts the legs of a Mobile Suit who dodged the beam, but was still close to it.
• Convenient Color Change: Clothes and pilot suits supplied by the Asticassia School of Technology are able to change colors and markings on the fly by way of an app. Demonstrated by Suletta's pilot suit and subsequently school uniform changing to reflect her status as 'Holder' upon activation by Miorine.
• Cosmic Deadline: It has been noted that the show moved at a very slow pace during the first season before then shifting to a breakneck pace during the second with a lot of plot points being resolved very quickly and concepts ending up underexplained.
• Create Your Own Villain: The Dawn of Fold terrorist organization, which undertake several devastating attacks on Benerit Group sites, was born out of the resentment Earthians feel for the way the wealthy Spacian elite have exploited Earth and left its people to the vultures. Norea du Noc expresses an outright hatred of Spacians for the way they have devastated Earth, while Sophie Pulone is part of the group for the sake of things she was robbed of as an orphan.
• Culture Clash: Suletta from the backwater Mercury hasn't heard of same-sex marriages while Miorine says it's unremarkable at Asticassia, suggesting the Mercury culture is a little behind the times.
• Darker and Edgier: The second half of the anime is noticeably darker than the first half, continuing on with the much darker tone from Episodes 11 and 12 as Suletta is put through a Trauma Conga Line, Miorine breaking Suletta's heart to try and save her from Prospera's manipulations, and the latter re-igniting hostilities between Earthians and Spacians, if not outright starting a war.
• Deflector Shields: The Gundam Lfrith and Aerial are shown to have some kind of protective barrier around their physical shields that deflects incoming beam weapons. Supplementary materials reveals that the Gundam Schwarzette posesses this feature as well, though it never got to use it in the actual show. Asticassia's Artificial Outdoors Displays are protected by something similar, preventing stray shots from ventilating the space station's walls during duels. Those only work with the green, low-output beam weapons enforced by the school's dueling rules, however.
• Development Hell: An in universe example with the Schwarzette. Supplementary materials reveal that it was originally built as a successor to the Darilbalde, meant to improve on it in all aspects. However it ran into a long string of problems, most notably repeated issues with the control system and eventually those problems lead to the line being put on ice. Once Gundams resurfaced and Vim obtained data from Prospera, the control systems were reworked to use the GUND-Format, turning the Schwarzette into a Gundam.
• Disappears into Light: After having created an enormous data storm that could reach the Space Assembly League's laser cannon, the four Gundams responsible, Calibarn, Aerial, Pharact and Schwarzette as well as the entirety of Quiet Zero all suffer a breakdown on the molecular level that results in them vanishing into little motes of light with nothing left after they are gone.
• Ditch the Bodyguards: Miorine's ability to do this repeatedly is justified early on: Delling never bothers to vet her bodyguards and it's an open secret that he doesn't care much for his daughter personally. The guards are quickly demonstrated to be lazy, unobservant, and willing to ignore any bullying Miorine might be experiencing.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Episode 1 establishes a big case of this for the series going forward: by the end of her first day at her new school, Suletta has unwittingly saved the life of the man that is the revenge target of her mother, while simultaneously getting engaged to his daughter, all without knowing about their connection. On top of that, the Cradle Planet web novel reveals that Suletta's mother sent her to Asticassia precisely so she could use the duels there to get closer to Miorine and thus to her father, the target of her revenge. Suletta wasn't told that and still achieved that objective within a single day.
  • In the last episode of the first season, Sophie destroys part of the external wall of Plant Quetta while fighting a Mobile Suit without knowing her target, Delling, was on the other side. Sophie and the rest of Dawn of Fold would later leave the place when reinforcements arrive, declaring their mission to be a failure, unawares that they did, in fact, seriously wound Delling.
• Duels Decide Everything: At Asticassia, it's written in the school rules that anything can be decided with a duel, whether it be for honor, material gain, or even the rights to marriage. As Guel summarizes in the first episode:
  Guel Jeturk: Here at this school, right and wrong are decided though duels.
• Dying Town: Mercury, Suletta's adoptive hometown, is described as such by her. There are few other children there, and its sole purpose as a Permet mining colony is being superseded by the fact that Permet can now be mined from the Moon at less cost. Suletta's ultimate goal for going to Asticassia is to open a similar school on Mercury and draw people back to it.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Most of the main cast survive the final encounter with the SAL after being saved by Ericht. Miorine dissolves the Benerit Group, giving all their assets to Earthian corporations, with Quiet Zero and the Gundams disintegrating in the data storm after shutting the SAL's weapon down completely. Following a 3-year time skip, most of the characters are living in peace as they rebuild. Even Shaddiq, who is in prison for his crimes, is satisfied with the outcome, all thanks to Miorine, and accepts being the scapegoat for Quiet Zero so that Elnora can live freely with her family.
• Empathic Weapon: While a Gundam being this on some level is nothing new, the novel that came with the opening theme, "The Blessing", is written entirely from the Aerial's point of view, revealing that it is both fully conscious and capable of thinking for itself.
• Engagement Challenge: The dueling system at Asticassia is one, as Delling set it up so that the best duelist would win his daughter's hand in marriage. Since he is the head of the largest corporation and Miorine is his heir, this means vast amounts of wealth and power are part of the deal.
• Evolving Credits:
  • The first opening has the Lfrith Ur and Thorn appear behind Delling starting halfway through the season and then replaces Delling and Prospera with Sophie and Norea after they are introduced.
  • The second opening goes through a couple changes, possibly the most updated opening in Gundam history, with five total versions over the course of 12 episodes.
    • Ericht's ghostly silhouette becomes her fully detailed spirit once she is revealed to be the Gundam Aerial.
    • Once Guel rejoins the main cast, his appearance changes and he's depicted as walking towards the camera, rather than away from it, to reflect his newfound resolve. The group shot of him, Elan, and Shaddiq also changes to have Guel front and center.
    • After Aerial is plugged into Quiet Zero, the opening includes an ominous overlay of her alongside the vague visual of Quiet Zero which had always been present.
    • Episode 23's opening switches out the scene of Aerial fighting Lfrith Ur & Thorn for one of Calibarn and the Demi Barding fighting Aerial and her Gundnodes, the shots of the Pharact, Darilbalde and Michaelis with the Schwarzette, and transitions to Suletta, this time with Permet markings, piloting Calibarn rather than Aerial.
• Expository Theme Tune: The first opening theme, "The Blessing" by YOASOBI, has been confirmed to be sung from Gundam Aerial's perspective, describing how it will always be besides Suletta in her fight against her cursed destiny.
• Fantastic Racism: A Gundam staple with an interesting inversion of sorts. Unlike virtually every other entry where it's the elites of the Earth Sphere oppressing the Spacenoids, it's the elites of the Spacians oppressing the Earthians. Even more, certain Spacians look down on other Spacians, with Suletta being referred to as a "country bumpkin". On the other side of things, Chuchu looks down on all Spacians because of how Spacian conglomerates oppress Earthians, although she starts to grow out of this after meeting Suletta and Miorine.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Frequently how Gundam protagonists first acquire their machines. In Eri's case, she is initially invited into the Gundam Lfrith's cockpit by Cardo. Cardo's stated reason is to help her understand what her mother is working towards but she also takes the opportunity to 'register' Eri to the Gundam. During the assault on their base, Elnora joins Eri in the cockpit and is shocked when the Lfrith recognises Eri as the pilot. This means that Eri takes the crown from Uso Ewin as the youngest to fall into the cockpit, being four.
• Fiction 500: Delling, and arguably the other heads of the big three companies. Delling was able to invest 7.2 billion credits in Miorine's spur-of-the-moment company without batting an eye. Peil was ready to suffer a 120 billion credit loss as part of a gambit to destroy Gundam Aerial alongside Shin Sei.
• Fictional United Nations: The Space Assembly League is a legislative body that resolves disputes between humanity's various space colonies, though this isn't mentioned until nearly twenty episodes after they first get name-dropped. A subtle but long-running plot thread deals with their opposition to the Benerit Group's military-industrial corporatocracy. While it's true the Benerit Group is made up of inhumane war profiteers, the means the Space Assembly League uses to undermine them are no less awful, from arming terrorists who principally target the League's own citizens, to deploying a superweapon fully intending to cause enormous collateral damage.
• Fight Off the Kryptonite: "Antidotes" are weapons that emit fields that shut down GUND-Format technology within their radius, rendering any Gundams within it sitting ducks. However, upping the Permet Score to four or higher nullifies the Antidote, though this places a severe, sometimes fatal strain on the pilot.
• First Day of School Episode: Episode 1 is Suletta's first day at Asticassia, and indeed her first day at any sort of school. It's not clear if she manages to attend any classes before she gets roped into a duel with the school's top duelist, who she defeats almost instantly, conferring on her the title of Holder and an engagement to the heir of a vast corporate empire.
• Flawed Prototype:
  • In the prologue, the Pre-Production Model Gundam Lfrith was an attempt to adopt the GUND technology for use in mobile suits. However, controlling a whole mobile suit and all of its systems is a lot more complicated than just controlling a limb or two. As such, the system tended to cause high-volume information overflow, called "Data Storms", to affect the pilot, leading to all kinds of unpleasant health effects. While a set of limiters were added as a patchwork fix, that also defeated the whole point of using the GUND Format in the first place. The Gundam Lfrith proper was meant to find a way to fix this issue.
  • The Gundam Calibarn was developed alongside the Lfrith units, but is notable for having no Data Storm filters, meaning anyone piloting it would experience the neural backlash that Permet Scores exist to mitigate. The Space Assembly League even refers to it as a "monster".
• Foreshadowing: In the first episode, after botching Miorine's escape attempt, Suletta insists she'll "take responsibility" for it. While she only meant helping Miorine get her freedom, several onlookers tease the two since the phrase implies a marriage proposal, usually because of an unplanned pregnancy. At the end of the episode, Suletta defeats Guel, which marks her as Miorine's new fiancé and ally, meaning that she has indeed "taken responsibility" for Miorine's well-being, in both senses.
  • Also in episode 1, a group of mean girls tease Suletta; when she tells them she came to the school because her mother told her too, they mockingly ask if she also told Suletta to wear her headband, which Suletta obliviously replies to with an earnest "Of course!" Suletta's Blind Obedience to her mother becomes a much more serious matter from episode 12 onward, with her even admitting to Miorine in episode 16 that she would kill if her mother told her to.
  • In Episode 10, Petra was seen looking at the Earth House crew with Lauda. Felsi, who always appeared with Petra before this point, was nowhere to be seen. Episode 14 implied that Petra has a crush on Lauda, and Felsi didn't know about it until that episode.
  • Right before he loses to Suletta, Elan/Enhanced Person Number Four sees a vision of a child-like silhouette in place of Aerial, and seems to have a realization about who it is right before Aerial's GUND-Bits take his Gundam apart. Later, Sophie does the same right before she dies, except this time the person she sees is shown directly to the audience to be Eri, something immediately followed by Prosera confirming she turned her daughter Eri into Aerial.
• For Your Own Good: At the end of Episode 17, Miorine shuts down Aerial and causes Suletta to lose both Aerial and her title as Holder, internally justifying her actions this way even though she has to break Suletta's heart. Then, Episode 18 has Eri also cast Suletta away, claiming that she no longer needs a pilot with Aerial having reached Permet Score 8. After telling Suletta to go back to school and departing with Aerial, Prospera suggests they could have taken her with them, but agrees with Eri that Suletta deserves to live freely, revealing Eri to have shared in Miorine's motivation. Suletta ultimately comes to understand why Eri did this in Episode 19, and acknowledges that she was completely ignorant.
• Four Is Death:
  • The prologue takes place on Ericht’s fourth birthday, and ends with her father dying, aside from the multiple pilots Ms. Ericht slaughtered during the prologue's climactic battle and nearly everyone the little girl and her mom knows getting killed earlier.
  • Also, raising the Permet Score to level 4 is potentially fatal for the pilot.
  • In the fifth episode, it's revealed that the "Elan Ceres" we've been introduced to is also known as "Enhanced Person Number Four". He doesn't survive the events of episode six.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: The series has a large cast, split into several factions. The Benerit Group, the largest organization in the setting, is made of many companies, each with their own agenda and plans to advance it, and Asticassia students are similarly split into factions based on their parent companies. And there are still other organizations that join the plot later on, like Dawn of Fold and the Space Assembly League. As a result, episodes of the second season, which happen after the plot becomes more serious, frequently jump through a dozen different characters and places, as each side starts moving to fulfill their goals.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The prologue has a news broadcast including a poll asking "What issue do you want policymakers to spend time discussing?". The top issue for Earthians is poverty reduction (hinting that Earth is struggling economically), while the top issue for spacians is defense/security (hinting that spacians feel threatened).
  • In episode 1, Elan Ceres can be seen reading "A World of Will and Representation" by Arthur Schopenhauer, a book inspired by the transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant.
  • When Sophie and Norea start attending Asticassia in the second cour, Elan looks at their student IDs, which can be read in full.
  • In episode 14, there's a flashback to Nika reading an Asticassia brochure, which is fully readable.
  • In close ups that show Suletta's hands during the epilogue, you can sometimes see that two of her fingernails are trimmed much shorter and smoother than the others. Yeah.
• Future Food Is Artificial: It is heavily implied that Suletta mostly had artificial food during her time living on Mercury given that she doesn't know what a tomato is past that something can be tomato flavored. While Mercury is something of a backwater, episode 14 also shows two Spacians grossed out at being offered fresh goat milk by Earth House, suggesting even more affluent colonies have their own restrictions.
• Gambit Pileup: So many backstabbing, conspiracy and scheming goes on within the Benerit Group between rivaling executives that it can be hard to keep track of at times.
• Grand Theft Prototype: Played with.
  • In Episode 1 Miorine tries to steal the Aerial to take Suletta's place in her duel with Guel. Not only was Miorine not aware of the Aerial's status as a Gundam, she also does poorly with it since she isn't really a pilot in training (she's in the Management track in their school).
  • In episode 16, Enhanced Person Number Five attempts to steal Aerial only for Eri to manifest in front of him, raise his Permet score to near-lethal levels and throw him out.
• Gratuitous Latin: "Alea jacta est" ("the die is cast") is spoken by a duel's observer to approve it.
• The Hecate Sisters: Following the "witch" motif, the three people most directly involved with the Gundam Lfrith are Ericht (maiden), Elnora (mother) and Dr. Cardo Nabo (crone).
• Hide Your Lesbians: Suletta and Miorine are engaged for most of the show's runtime, their romantic arc is the focal point of the show, they openly discuss a potential marriage with clear joy, and during the Distant Finale the two are shown wearing rings and Suletta's sibling refers to Miorine as "sister-in-law." Despite this, a magazine that referred to them directly as "married" (quoting a statement from one of the voice actresses) had this mention edited out of the digital version, and an official statement from Bandai could be read as saying that their relationship is "up to the viewer."
• Hope Spot: In Episode 19, Miorine manages to get the Earth Independence Movement leaders to agree to put their protests on hold until after the Benerit presidential election, having won them over with a display of the GUND legs she and Earth House built along with her earnest desire for open and equal dialogue. Unfortunately, Prospera ruins the negotiations by destroying a bunker full of Gundams, inciting a renewed riot between the volatile Earthian and Spacians forces. Believing Miorine at least partially culpable, the protest leaders walk out on her.
• Hufflepuff House:
  • Besides Earth House and the Houses of the three biggest companies, Asticassia is made of many other Houses associated with smaller companies, none of which have a role in the story. The only house besides the main four to have recurring named characters is Burion, the house Secelia and Rouji belong to, but while its name is mentioned in the series, what it does is largely All There in the Manual (it's responsible for maintaining Asticassia facilities, and it's the developer of the Demi series. The latter fact is not mentioned in-series until Episode 20, and the former is only indirectly alluded to in the epilogue). Similarly, you won't even find out what the names of the other companies/houses are just by watching the series.
  • Peil Technologies is in an odd position in that while the company is just as important to the plot as the other big names, their house in Asticassia is basically irrelevant. Elan is the only named character from that house, and the other students are left in the dark about what the company truly does, meaning they are excluded from the plot. The only time we visit Peil House is when Suletta goes there to try to speak with Elan in Episode 6.
• Immoral Journalist: In episode 4, the media covers for the brutal suppression of an Earthian workers protest by demonizing the Earthians as violent and claiming they attacked first.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Guel misses several shots after Suletta takes Gundam Aerial back from Miorine, even when the Gundam is doing nothing but standing up from the ground. He is only able to land a shot when it's already powered up and able to deploy its shield.
• Industrialized Mercury: Mercury serves as a mining colony in the Ad Stella timeline. It is considered quite out of the way and a dangerous place to live and work.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • An interesting case with the series is revealed in the Prologue with the titular Gundams, as it is in fact a common nickname for the machines. The proper name is GUND-Arms, a name coming from the GUND-Format system they are using, a medical technology that was coopted into military use.
  • In the season 1 finale, the members of the Dawn of Fold refer to Dominicus Corps as "the Witch Hunters", for their role in destroying Gundams.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In Episode 19, as a result of Kenanji recognizing Sedo using a nickname from Shaddiq's days in Grassley's orphanage academy, he and Guel are able to connect the dots and realize that Shaddiq is behind the Dawn of Fold attacks on Plant Quetta and Asticassia, with Guel passing their discovery onto Miorine.
  • In Episode 20, Lauda learns that Guel is the one who killed their father after eavesdropping on his conversation with Shaddiq during their fight.
  • In Episode 21, Suletta reveals to the Earth House the Vanadis Incident and her origins as Ericht's Repli-Child.
• Karmic Jackpot: Guel's attempt to save Seethia in Episode 15, while unsuccessful, benefits him in the long run.
  • First, later in the episode, it's implied to be why Olcott spares him and lets him go free, allowing him to make his way back to space.
  • Later on, in Episode 19, Sedo is grateful to Guel for his attempt, and this leads to Sedo mentioning "the Prince," allowing Guel and Kenanji to deduce that Shaddiq was behind the attacks on Plant Quetta and the Open Campus.
• Latex Space Suit: Zigzagged. The space suits used in the series ranks as perhaps the most diverse set of suits in any Gundam series. Some suits are only slightly less bulky than those used in real life while yet others are incredibly form fitting that really shows of parts of the pilot's figure with even more suits somewhere in between.
• Lighter and Softer: Relatively so compared to the previous mainline series. Apart from a Downer Beginning, the first half resembles a high school drama show with mechas and some corporate shenanigans involved, where mentions of armed conflict are largely limited to the background. Despite a darker turn in the second half, what with some major characters dying and the aforementioned conflict coming to the fore, the series ends on a relatively happier note, with most of the major characters surviving and the conflict resolved with as little bloodshed as possible.
• Literary Allusion Title: The series Subtitle evokes the Robert Emmett McDowell sci-fi Short Story that entered the Public Domain 2 years before its release, Red Witch of Mercury, and much like that story the female lead has bright red hair.
• Meaningful Echo: At the climax of the second episode, Miorine repeats Suletta’s Survival Mantra before using her own father’s rules against him to challenge him to a duel in order to protect Suletta and force him to recognize their engagement if he loses.
• MegaCorp: Witch From Mercury is set in a future dominated by corporations, with the greatest of them being the Benerit Group, a Zaibatsu-style conglomerate that's comprised of several smaller corporate powerhouses, which are all locked in power struggles against each other and the leadership itself. This in turn affects everyone else who lives in their shadow, especially the students of Asticassia.
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • The Gundam Aerial reappears in the last 2 episodes of first season, now repaired and upgraded into Gundam Aerial Rebuild after being heavily damaged in the team duel against Shaddiq's team.
  • In Episode 20, Norea's rampage destroys the Earth House dormitory alongside Chuchu's Demi Trainer. In response to the attack, Secelia decides to lend the Demi Barding, House Burion's latest prototype, to Chuchu in order to help defend the school.
  • Near the end of the second season, when the Aerial/Ericht goes with Prospera in Quiet Zero, Suletta gains the Gundam Calibarn to take on her mother and sister.
• Might Makes Right: The Asticassia School of Technology runs on a heavily darwinist mindset where strength, be it physical or metaphorical like through resources, is valued above all else. Even things that one would call cheating are seen as fair game and just clever use of what you have. This is to the point that even should a fight break out there is nothing really done about it by the teachers or management as it is seen as just another extension of this.
• Mood Whiplash: After the very dark prologue, Episode 1 is decidedly more upbeat and optimistic at first. But then it goes back to the people responsible for the horrors of the prologue, with one of them attempting to commit murder for purely selfish reasons, once again changing the mood.
• Mook Mobile: With the Benerit Group dominating the mobile suit industry, many of its subsidiaries have their own line of mass-produced mobile suits to compete with each other in dueling and in the corporate world.
  • Jeturk Heavy Machinery has the Dilanza, a bulky and heavily-armored mobile suit that excel in close combat with its large frame and beam sabers. It is also popular to customize the Dilanza with large polearm weapons.
  • Peil Technology has the Zowort, a sleek unit with a large backpack that contains either thrusters or heavy guns, allowing it to fight as hit-and-run Attackers or heavy support.
  • Grassley Defense System has the Heindree, a balanced mobile suit with the standard loadout of beam saber, carrying shield, and beam rifle. Grassley also develops the Beguir series, which serves as an Elite Mook equipped with anti-GUND technology.
  • House Burion, who is responsible for maintaining Asticassia facilities, also develops the Demi series. The Demis are notably weaker than mobile suits created by the "Big 3," and mostly serve as training units for pilots and engineers. Students have to customize their Demi Trainer if they hope to stand a chance against a "Big 3" mobile suit, while even the military-grade Demi Garrison relies on sheer numbers.
• Mythical Motifs:
  • In addition to the obvious witch symbolism of Gundams as a whole, the Gundams developed by the Vanadis Institute and Ochs Earth seem to follow a Norse Mythology theme.
    • The name Vanadis itself is a kenning for Freyja, meaning "The (female) spirit of the Vanir".
    • The station that the Lfrith is researched at is called Fólkvangr, after the realm of Asgard ruled by Freyja, and where half the honorable dead went after death.
    • Norea and Sophie's Gundams, which were developed by Ochs Earth in secret, are named Lfrith Ur and Thorn, after Nordic runes representing an aurochs and a jötunn respectively.
    • The Gundvölvas, remote-controlled smaller Gundams controlled by Norea and Sophie, are named after Völva, a seer in Norse mythology who foretold Ragnarök.
    • GUND, the technological paradigm that allows for Gundams, is phonetically similar to the Old Norse world "gandr", typically associated with magic or supernatural beings like the world serpent Jörmungandr.
  • The Tickbalang, Peil Technologies's flight support system for mobile suits, is based on the tikbalang, a creature from Filipino mythology which is popularly depicted as half-man, half-horse.
• Non-Heteronormative Society: According to Miorine, it is not uncommon that two women would marry in this setting, even commenting that Mercury must be oddly conservative for Suletta to be weirded out at the idea of having another woman as her fiancée.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: There's an unspoken rule in duels that cheating and external influence is allowed as long as it can't be traced back to the perpetrator. The underlying logic of this is that more capable duelists should be able to find ways to skirt the rules to their advantage. If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: After the events of Plant Quetta, it is made clear that the previous status quo has been shattered despite the veneer of normalcy. After the Open Campus incident, even that brief illusion is torn to shreds. The following episodes only pile on the tension, making it all the clearer that there is no going back to the lighthearted way things used to be — and Episode 20 acts as the final nail in the coffin when a second incident on Asticassia's grounds leaves the school in ruins and several students either killed or grievously injured.
• Not the Intended Use: The GUND Format system was originally meant to be used for prosthetics and cybernetic augmentations to assist in prolonged activity in non-Earth environments. Scaling it up to control something as big & complex as a mobile suit put immense strain on pilots that would often result in crippling injuries or even death. Public outcry against these 'Gundams' gave Delling Rembran the excuse he needed to have everyone on Fólkvangr executed to wipe out Ochs Earth and their Gundam program.
• Official Couple: Suletta and Miorine's relationship is the centerpiece of the narrative. While their engagement at the end of the first episode is initially transactional, the two gradually grow closer over the course of the story. Come the epilogue, they are Happily Married, rings and all.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Dawn of Fold is an Earthian terror organization. Reflecting Earth's impoverished state, they operate out of temporary headquarters made from ruined buildings and make use of outdated technology like trucks, ballistic weapons, and obsolete mobile suits, and are shown to stand little chance against top-of-the-line Spacian hardware... except for the fact that they also possess two Gundams and a host of Permet-controlled Gundvolva drones, all of previously unseen make. It isn't yet clear how a guerrilla militia got their hands on that kind of technology; while they're implied to be receiving arms and funding from Shaddiq, two brand-new Gundams, let alone a small army of Gundam-adjacent Mecha-Mooks, are harder to explain. This is a hint that the backing for Dawn of Fold goes much higher than one company heir and all the way to the government itself.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The entire academy has a collective one in the first episode when they witness Suletta, a transfer student who is an absolute nobody, effortlessly defeat the school's top duelist. This is even moreso among the more educated students like Elan who immediately recognize Aerial's fighting style as that of a Gundam.
  • Another massive one occurs in Episode 14, when Norea and Sophie launch their attack during the Rumble Ring and begin killing people.
• Our Witches Are Different: Here, the term "witch" is applied metaphorically to people who can build or pilot Gundams, a potent but dangerous and forbidden technology.
• One-Woman Wail: Presents in the soundtrack whenever Eri/Suletta is fighting on the Gundam and using the GUND System. It is evocative of a witch chanting a spell.
• Power at a Price:
  • Piloting mobile suits in the A.S. timeline involves a direct connection between the pilot and the suit via Permet Link. Gundams use a more advanced version called the GUND Format, originally an interface for prosthetics and medical support in space. This gives Gundams a significant advantage over conventional mobile suits by boosting reaction time, but presents severe physical risk to the pilot, similar to the Alaya-Vijnana System; short-term effects manifest as pain, hyperventilation, and exhaustion, and at higher Permet Scores (representing the level of linkage between the Gundam and its pilot), "data storms" start overwhelming the pilot's mind and body, causing unimaginable agony, physical damage and hallucinations before leaving the pilot either catatonic or dead.
  • Aerial is a notable aversion to this, as Suletta doesn't appear to suffer any ill effects whilst piloting her, and when Elan pilots Aerial himself, he's shocked to discover that raising the Permet Score doesn't activate the GUND enhancements that are slowly killing him. Additionally, Suletta and Aerial together have demonstrated the ability to go as high as Permet Score 8 without any ill effects. Ultimately, Aerial's ability to let her pilots activate her GUND systems so freely turns out to be largely because Ericht has been bearing the load of activating and maintaining the Permet Link, with no actual problems due to her perfect tolerance for the GUND Format and synchronization with the data storm.
• Power Glows: All of the GUND-Format equipped mobile suits have plates distributed across their frames known as Shell Units that glow whenever the system is activated. Red is the default, with Aerial's turning blue at Score 6, then white at Score 8, while Gundams she overrides turn purple. Gundam Schwarzette has a unique red-purple gradient. After combining with Aerial's GUND-Bits and going beyond Score 8, Calibarn emits a rainbow radiance.
• Power Levels: GUND Format-equipped mobile suits all have pre-calibrated performance levels in place known as Permet Score, which greatly increased performance at each level, but in exchange greatly strain the pilot as they raise the Score. At lower levels, the effects are negligible, but starting at Score 3, the negative side effects start to become increasingly severe. The goal with the Lfrith was to allow for the suits' higher functions to be used without causing side effects. Aerial seems to be the culmination of such efforts, reaching a Permet Score as high as 6 without Suletta even noticing. Prospera's endgame involves bringing Aerial up to Permet Score 8, making her almost wholly unstoppable — and in the end, Suletta's assistance leads them to achieve a Permet Score even higher than that, at which point Gundam Calibarn alone is capable of hijacking communications across the Earth Sphere, something Prospera had built a massive space fortress to try and facilitate.
• Primary-Color Champion: As is tradition, the Gundam Aerial possesses the typical white, red, blue and yellow lead Gundam colors. Amusingly, the colors get lampshaded in the first episode with some students noting that it looks like someone tried to represent some countries flag with the color choice. Ultimately inverted as the Mid-Season Upgrade Aerial Rebuild becomes The Dragon to Prospera's Big Bad.
• Private Military Contractors: The Dominicus Corps act as military within corporate controlled space, and are fully under the employ of the Benerit Group.
• Privately Owned Society: The world of the Ad Stella timeline is a Corporatocracy with pretty much everything being run by a huge conglomerate of corporations bordering on being straight up feudal in nature, right down to the justice system.
• The Purge: This occurs in the prologue when Delling Rembran sends a full military force to exterminate everybody in Ochs Earth, forcing Elnora and Ericht into hiding.
• Reclaimed by Nature: What few shots we see of Earth show abandoned and overgrown railway stations, cities, and highways, with humans living among the ruins. This does not appear to be the majority of the planet, however, as properly urbanized areas are shown in other scenes.
• Recurring Element: Haros are shown performing various roles around the school.
• Recycled In Space: The Witch From Mercury is The Tempest by William Shakespeare, recycled into a mecha show.
• Recycled Trailer Music: The first teaser uses "Last Breath" by J.T. Peterson to set the general mood for the series.
• Retcon: At the end of Suletta and Elan's duel, Elan's cockpit was burned red hot by one of Aerial's GUND-Bits. However, it's later established that all school mobile suits have a regulation program that prevents them from targeting the cockpit, so this shot was removed in the Blu-Ray release.
• Riddle for the Ages: Several questions are left unanswered by the end of the show:
  • What was the source of Eri's perfect synchronization with data storms? Suletta proves that it can't be fully explained by genetics alone, but what other factor could be involved remains a mystery.
  • The extent of Notrette Rembran's involvement in the plot. She was the originator of Quiet Zero, and may have literally been part of it in some way as she had sufficient hand in its development before she died to insert a backdoor into its OS specifically for Miorine's use, and its impenetrable data storm experienced a mysterious weakening after Miorine was threatened.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Suletta and Miorine's relationship as groom and bride is initially transactional, with Suletta agreeing to it to make up for messing up Miorine's escape and Miorine seeing Suletta as a convenient shield to keep away suitors while she plots her next escape. By the time they are meant to get married, Suletta fully embraces the idea and Miorine visibly struggles to carry out her plan to drive Suletta away for her own good when she hears how enthusiastic Suletta is about their wedding. Ultimately, they work things out and are Happily Married by the epilogue.
• Romantic Ride Sharing: Shortly after Suletta and Miorine grow notably closer thanks to the incubation party, the two ride a scooter together and share a tender, private moment beneath the starry sky. Of course, Suletta steers while Miorine leans her cheek on Suletta's back and hides a fond smile.
• Rule of Symbolism: Pretty much everything surrounding the Gundams and their outlawing is meant to be evocative of European Witch Hunts.
  • During the prologue episode, the Mobile Suit Development Council bans all GUND technology, and establishes an "auditing organization" called Cathedra to "maintain order and ethics" in Mobile Suit technology. Given that a "cathedra" is the throne of a church bishop, and the organization with such a name is led by The Fundamentalist Delling, who refers to GUND technology as belonging to "witches", the ensuing crackdown on Gundams is evocative of a religious inquisition. Delling even refers to Cathedra as "The Hammer of Witches", the most common English translation for the Malleus Maleficarum
  • Gundams are built and researched at Fólkvangr, named for the seat of Freyja in Norse mythology. Freyja is the goddess of Sorcery (or witchcraft), and a pagan goddess that would be targeted by Catholic inquisitors.
  • The word Gund is phonetically similar to Gandr, the Norse word for witchcraft.
  • The Beguir line all incorporate crosses in their designs, with cross-shaped visors for the Beguir-Beu and Michaelis, cross-shaped angelic wings for the Beguir-Beu, and cross-shaped shields for the Beguir-Pente. Given that they are equiped with the Antidote system that counters Gundams, it gives the impression of holy crusaders cleansing the (supposedly) wicked.
  • In episode 7, Suletta is put on a show trial in front of a massive crowd accusing her of being a witch, with no chance of defending herself. A literal Witch Trial.
  • In episode 12, Norea refers to the Dominicus Corps, who undertook the attack on Fólkvangr, as "the witch hunters".
  • Episode 14 reveals that Aerial exhibits none of the negative effects of the GUND-format because it contains the mind of Ericht Samaya, who buffers them for her pilot. In other words, Lady Prospera gave up her firstborn child in exchange for the power/knowledge to create Aerial.
  • In episode 18, Suletta meets the Children of the Coven - Eri and her "Repli-Child" clones, who thus make up a Witches' Coven. Eri, Suletta and eleven clones together make 13, the number of witches commonly assumed to be in a coven.
  • The Gundam Schwarzette has horns and cloven feet like a goat, calling to mind the specifically European superstition of witches riding, among other things, goats to the Witches' Sabbath, being easy to compare to some old European depictions of the Devil.
  • Gundam Calibarn's main armament is a combination beam cannon/thruster unit, with the design having the silhouette of a broomstick, giving the impression of a witch flying a broom when deployed. The one difference is that the gun is kept under the arm rather than between the legs.
  • Finally, episodes are released on Sundays, the day of the Sabbath in Christianity. As in, Witches' Sabbath.
• Running Gag: The first three episodes end with Suletta's shocked face.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Given that many of the students are effectively proxies in political wars between various Mega Corps, this is to be expected. Pilots are to use whatever resources they can muster to maintain & protect their mobile suits as well as field a support team, with very few restrictions on outside interference or active sabotage in place. Did your opponent get a new high-spec mobile suit and rig the weather systems for a duel? They're just using their resouces better. Did The Bully black out your suit's cameras right before a field exam? That's your fault for not doing proper maintenance & security. It practically becomes "If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying".
• Second Act Break Up: Occurs right on time two-thirds of the way through the show and on Miorine's 17th birthday. Miorine deliberately drives Suletta away and makes her lose her Holder status, breaking their engagement just when they would have started wedding planning. They both spend the next few episodes wallowing post-breakup.
• Sequel Escalation: While the 1st season focuses on the dueling matches and school life with the space politics on the side, Episodes 11 and 12 slowly move the story out of the school and into the bigger setting where the situation on Earth is shown which includes the involvement of the terrorist group. In the 2nd season, while the story goes back into the school setting, some of the characters are more involved with space politics with the growing Earthian-Spacian conflict affecting the school and the number of life-or-death battles increases.
• She Is the King: Whomever the Holder is also referred to the Groom of Miorine no matter the gender.
• Shout-Out:
  • Several major plot elements are reminiscent of Revolutionary Girl Utena, along with some more specific reference:
    • Some shots in Episode 1 are strikingly similar to the first episode of Utena.
    • Chuchu's nickname and large hair poofs reference Anthy's pet Chu-Chu, an undersized monkey (often mistaken for a mouse) with large ears.
    • More Utena imagery shows up in the second ending sequence. Aerial is depicted plunging her hand into Suletta's chest similar to how Utena would draw her sword from Anthy's chest while Suletta and Miorine's dance later in the sequence harkens back to Utena and Anthy's rose garden dance from The Movie.
  • There are also several references to The Tempest, which involves the sorceror Prospero (Lady Prospera) and his daughter being exiled to a remote island, and plotting on the man who exiled him with the help of a servant spirit named Ariel, who can create storms. Episode 21 even introduces Calibarn, a Gundam described as a monster, based on Prospero's monstrous slave Caliban.
  • Suletta and Miorine bear a resemblance to Ruby and Weiss in terms of both their red/white hair colours, and how their personalities play off one another.
  • The Gundam Pharact (Used by Elen Ceres) strongly resembles a color swap of the Dangaioh.
  • Lady Prospera's mask which only covers the upper part of her head, her prosthetic right arm, as well as her having a science-related job and her quest for vengeance gives her similarities to Joji Yuki/Riderman.
  • After getting kicked out of Asticassia, Guel becomes a construction worker named Bob.
  • The ship commandeered by Dawn of Fold in Episodes 10 & 11 that Guel was working on is the "Kashtanka", a Russian short story about an abused dog who becomes lost, but comes to lead a happier life, only to ultimately return to her original, abusive household, mirroring Guel's own journey.
  • The bloody events that happened in Episode 19 and 20 respectively are similar to two Sunrise works written by Ichiro Okouchi, doubling as Company Cross References: the Massacre Princess Incident in Code Geass and the massacre of Sakimori High School students in Valvrave the Liberator.
  • Gundam Calibarn has several all wrapped into one powerful package:
    • The name is a mix of Caliban the monstrous servant in The Tempest and Caliburn, the sword in the stone that only King Arthur could wield.
    • The combination rocket booster and cannon brings to mind a witch's broom, and most closely resembles the weapon ridden by Izetta, another red-headed witch.
    • The stance the Calibarn takes and the animation style of the cannon blasts is reflective of "The White Devil". No, not Amuro — Nanoha, which is jokingly referred to as an honorary Gundam series.
• Sniping the Cockpit: The practice of shooting the cockpit is actively defied by the school regulations; not only are beams at a lower output and the cockpits themselves reinforced to withstand it, but Mobile Suits also carry software that stops them from aiming at the cockpit. When Sophie and Norea show up during the Battle Royale, they immediately make it clear why these things are in place: Norea shoots the cockpit of one of the contestants at full power, killing the pilot. Six episodes later, this karmically happens to Norea herself by a Dominicus sniper, during her second rampage through Asticassia.
• Spoiler Opening: Downplayed, because it's of the "doesn't seem like anything until it's actually revealed in the show" sort, but Quiet Zero's structure has always been there in the second opening, during the transition from the main title to the sinking Miorine. However, because it's masked by red streaks, most wouldn't be able to make out any distinct shape until the station's reveal in Episode 21.
• Stealth Pun: Prospera Mercury is a Char archetype. “Suisei”, phonetically, is Japanese for both “Mercury” (水星) and “Comet” (彗星).
• The Stinger: Part 1 ends with Miorine trying to get her injured father to safety only to be cornered by a terrorist. Suletta arrives in time with Aerial to save them by squashing the terrorist like a fly. However, Miorine is horrified by what she witnessed. It doesn't help that Suletta clumsily steps out of the Gundam, still in her happy-go-lucky mood, and extends her bloody hand while cheerfully telling her that she's here to save her. Because of the way Suletta acted, Miorine calls her a murderer.
• Stylistic Suck: The advertisement the Earth House makes for GUND-ARM Inc. pretty accurately reflects what it looks like when students without much experience in video editing try to make a commercial. Suletta is clearly barely holding it together during the whole thing and keeps changing positions to indicate where the footage was edited, the Aerial has a visible outline from the green screen the Earth House filmed her in front of and does not change lighting when the sun sets, the goat wanders into frame at one point, and the part where Suletta and the Aerial form a heart shape with their arms has the Aerial's right arm inflate to be able to reach over her head.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: While happy endings aren't unheard of in Gundam, and the show was certainly setting up for it, the surprising part is that no one dies in the final episodes, despite the show having had plenty of deaths and lots of death flags up until that point. Felsi prevents Lauda and Guel from killing each other, and Suletta manages to force a solution that keeps everyone alive, even seemingly doomed characters like Ericht.
• Suspicious Spending: At one point, Feng Jun manages to dig up that the repairs and refurbishment for the Aerial near the end of the first cour involved a suspicious amount of money, far more than what would be necessary for the repairs of a single mobile suit as well as what a company as small as Shin Sei would realistically be able to muster. While she didn't know it at the time, she had found the first couple of clues for the Quiet Zero project.
• Time Skip: The Prologue takes place on Ericht's fourth birthday. When the series starts, Suletta is 17 years old, suggesting 13 years and change have passed. Then episode 6 opens with Belmeria starting to say that Prospera's revenge plot is 21-years-old.
• Title Drop: From Sophie in episode 11:
  Sophie: "Nice to meet you, Ms. Witch from Mercury."
• Trash the Set: Episode 20 shows Asticassia on the verge of destruction as Norea goes on a rampage to kill everyone. Even Miorine's greenhouse is not safe as a Demi Garrison steps on it.
• Tron Lines: A characteristic of Gundams in this timeline is the presence of "shell units", black glass panels that light up with these when the Gundam activates its GUND functions. These are described as control terminals that enable the transmission and processing of vast amounts of data between the Gundam and its pilot. From Permet Score 1 to 4 the lines are red, around Permet Score 6 they turn blue, and at Permet Score 8, they turn white.
• Unexplained Recovery: In the epilogue it's never explained exactly how Ericht continues to live on in Suletta's keychain following the Aerial's complete destruction, only that Suletta somehow was responsible for transferring her consciousness between them. Even Ericht herself admits she has no idea how it works.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Poor Suletta ended up at the receiving end of two of these within days of each other:
  • First was after she wins her first duel against Guel; Miorine transfers Guel's Holder status to Suletta... Which apparently makes her Miorine's fiancé, the latter expressly declaring Suletta her "Groom". Cue Suletta freaking out, saying that she's a girl, and Miorine noting that apparently Mercurians are conservative on their views of marriage. Suletta's expression must be seen to be believed.
  • Later on, Suletta ends up winning her rematch against Guel who, upon disembarking his Mobile Suit and ending up face-to-face with her, immediately grabs her hand, kneels, and asks for her hand in marriage. Suletta could initially muster an "Eh?" in response, until the following episode reveals that she immediately refused out of shock, and fled away on the Aerial right after.
• Wall Pin of Love: Miorine does this to Suletta accidentally at the end of episode 2, thanks to Zero G.
• War for Fun and Profit: Episode 15 reveals that the Benerit Group finances the development of space through war partitioning. This term is never adequately defined in the show proper, but official material outlines that several proxy factions on Earth are made to perpetually fight each other, and they all purchase weaponry from the Group, effectively creating a corporate-controlled state of continuous war on Earth.
• We Need a Distraction: In Episode 22, the plan to deal with Quiet Zero boils down to Suletta acting as a diversion to keep Aerial and Lady Prospera busy while Miorine’s group infiltrates Quiet Zero to shut it down.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 6, in spades.It's been 21 years since the prologue, and Suletta is only 17, which doesn't match the time frame of what age Eri *should* be since the prologue happened on Eri's fourth birthday. The Elan we know is confirmed as not just a body double, but a disposable one, making him the first character to die since the prologue and establishing that the school setting doesn't mean the cast is safe.
  • Episode 12 drastically changes the nature of the story, setting it on a Darker and Edgier path. Delling gets mortally wounded while protecting Miorine during the terrorist attack on Plant Quetta. Guel accidentally kills his own father while escaping, much to his horror. Then, in The Stinger, a terrorist is about to kill Miorine and Delling until Suletta in Aerial arrives in time and crushes the terrorist like a bug. Miorine is traumatized by both the brutality of the killing and Suletta's calm and cheerful nature right after doing so, leading Miorine to call Suletta a murderer.
  • Episode 14 answers some of the questions regarding Gundam Aerial after Belmeria confronts Prospera about Ericht's status. Prospera reveals that Ericht is inside Gundam Aerial, much to Belmeria's horror meaning that she turned her own daughter into a mobile suit. In the same episode, Norea and Sophie attack the school during the duels but Sophie dies after exerting herself with her Permet score.
  • Episode 17 ends with Suletta losing her duel against Guel due to Miorine shutting Aerial down as part of an arrangement with Prospera. As a result, Suletta loses her position as the Holder and with it her engagement to Miorine, with Jeturk House claiming Aerial as well. And to twist the knife further, Miorine coldly admits the role she played in front of Suletta who was already on the verge of breaking down, acting like she was still just using Suletta, all so she'll no longer be involved in Prospera's plotting.
  • Episode 18 reveals Suletta's origins as a "Repli-Child", a clone based on Eri's DNA, who make up the "Children of the Coven", with Suletta's role being a stand-in and pilot while Aerial's Permet Network developed. Immediately after revealing this, Eri claims she no longer needs a pilot after having reached Permet Score 8, and with Suletta's role fulfilled, casts her out, ejecting her into space. Prospera then appears, confirms everything Suletta was told, leaving her with a rescue beacon and a suggestion to return to the school, before departing with Aerial. The episode ends with Suletta, alone, abandoned, and devoid of purpose, crying in the cold, quiet emptiness of space.
  • Episode 19 shows Guel learning that Shaddiq is responsible for the attack on Plant Quetta and on Asticassia and warning Miorine about it. Feng Jun tells Belmeria that Ochs Earth still exists and is supported by the Space Assembly League, meaning they're supplying the Dawn of Fold with Gundams. However, Feng Jun is shot by Prospera's right-hand man, Godoy, entrusting Guston to protect Belmeria as she's the key witness. And just when Miorine and the Earth leaders finally reach an agreement, Prospera screws everything up by doing a False Flag Operation to cause chaos so she and Aerial can destroy a cache of Gundams supplied by Ochs Earth. Miorine winds up taking the brunt of the blame for the incident, both from the media and herself as she looks out over the destruction.
  • Episode 20 has Guel confront Shaddiq about what he learned in the previous episode, fighting and eventually capturing him with the help of Front Security, but in the process Lauda learns that Guel killed their father. On top of that, Shaddiq has Norea remotely freed from confinement while he and the other members of Grassley House attempt to fight off Guel and Front Security; in her rage and grief, Norea goes on a rampage through Asticassia, destroying the school campus and injuring or killing many students with her Gundams.
  • Episode 21 sees the Space Assembly League declaring a forced intervention against the Benerit Group. However, their entire fleet is wiped out by Quiet Zero under the control of Aerial and Prospera. Meanwhile, Guston and Belmeria tell Suletta and Earth House about Quiet Zero and ask for Suletta's help to stop her mother. However, Suletta admits she can't do much to stop Prospera — knowing Prospera would not listen to her — and tells everybody what she knows of the Vanadis Incident and her origins as a repli-child. She then decides to pilot the Gundam Calibarn so she can speak to both Prospera and Ericht again even though she'll have no protection against the Calibarn's data storms. Elsewhere, Lauda is in the midst of a rage-filled emotional breakdown as he prepares to board the Gundam Schwarzette, blaming Miorine for the tragedies that have befallen his family and friends.
  • Episode 23 has Miorine and her group successfully infiltrating Quiet Zero and shutting it down with the use of Notrette Rembran's secret code that she left for her daughter. However, the Space Assembly League reveal their interplanetary weapon called the ILTS which they use to attempt to destroy Quiet Zero. Ericht sacrifices herself to stop the blast by blocking it with Aerial.
• Wham Line:
  • Right at start of Episode 6, Belmeria drops a line that turns upside down everything we thought we knew about Suletta and her mother, while also raising a lot of new questions.
    Belmeria: It's no use taking revenge for a 21-year-old...
  • In Episode 14, Belmeria asks Prospera about Suletta being unaffected by Permet data storms, outright stating that it means someone else is controlling the GUND-Bits. Prospera's answer confirms Belmeria's suspicions about Ericht Samaya's whereabouts.
    Belmeria: You had another daughter. Where is Ericht Samaya now?
    Prospera: She's there. Right at Suletta's side.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The series finale shows the fate of the characters three years after the end of the story:
  • Miorine and Suletta have gotten married. While Miorine works to help Earthians affected by the Quinharbor attacks with the assistance of the former members of Grassley House, Suletta recovers from piloting Calibarn alongside her mother in the countryside, expressing an interest in building a school on Earth. Ericht, meanwhile, had gotten transferred into Suletta's keychain, from which she nags her sister and sister-in-law.
  • Shaddiq remains in prison and is about to stand trial for his actions around Plant Quetta, having also taken responsibility for Quiet Zero despite having no role in it.
  • Elan #5 travels around the world, looking for the lake that Norea sketched in her notebook, bemoaning that she didn't note where it actually is.
  • Nika leaves prison after serving her sentence for being complicit in Shaddiq's crimes, and is greeted by her friends from Earth House. Nika has also received certification for a job, and her friends tell her that Chuchu is working in space with Rouji.
  • Guel is working together with Secelia and the real Elan Ceres in restoring Jeturk Heavy Machinery, keeping Asticassia open, and hiring more people to work alongside the members of the Jeturk House in maintaining the school. Petra is undergoing rehabilitation with prosthetic legs, waiting on being tested for GUND prosthetics, while being supported by Lauda.
  • The four Peil CEOs are in a retirement home after losing all their assets thanks to Miorine dissolving the Benerit Group. Meanwhile, the other former members of the Benerit Group, such as Delling and Sarius, are facing public hearings for the Quinharbor and Quiet Zero attacks, and it's shown that the surviving families are still angry at them. Sabina notes that there's a possibility for Spacians to take back the Benerit Group's assets from Earth, but Miorine accepts that possibility while insisting that they have to continue doing what they can in spite of that possibility.
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • To The Tempest by William Shakespeare: A person of some authority and nobility (Prospero, Elnora/Prospera) is usurped and exiled with their daughter (Miranda, Ericht), leading them to becoming ruler of a deserted location (the island, Mercury). Years later, the person plans revenge on those who wronged them (Antonio, Delling) with the help of an entity named Ariel/Aerial, a plan which involves having their daughter marry the heir to the one they want revenge on (Ferdinand, Miorine).
  • The series also has many major plot elements derived from Revolutionary Girl Utena, a franchise where series writer Ichiro Okuchi wrote two novelisations. The setting is an academy where the student council oversees duels between students, where a "bride" (Anthy, Miorine) is the prize most fought over, and the protagonist is another girl that ends up winning unexpectedly (Utena, Suletta). The twist is that each one's personality (and skin tone) more resembles the other's counterpart. One of them is also being heavily manipulated by a family member (Akio, Prospera) who exploits the other's protectiveness. Then she betrays said protector before later becoming The Scapegoat for the world; though in the case of Anthy, she had been like this for centuries, while Miorine just became one following the incident orchestrated by Prospera.
• The Worf Effect: Subverted in episode 9. Shaddiq knows his opponents well enough to go after Chuchu first, and take her down... but doesn't make sure to put her out of commission before focusing on Suletta. He pays for it dearly.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Downplayed. At Asticassia, the top Mobile Suit duelist is known as the Holder, and is granted certain privileges, including the betrothal of Miorine Rembran. When Suletta defeats Guel to force an apology out of him, she realizes too late that this makes her the newest Holder, Miorine's fiance, and potentially an inheritor of the entire Benerit Group.

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"May all blessings find their way to you, I'm wishing it."