ninthfeather | Ninth Yells About G-Tekketsu Episode 10

This episode was stressful. If you have not watched it yet, get out of the tag, make yourself some warm soup, find a blanket, and buckle in.

If you have watched it, head under the cut for musing on backstory, near misses, and the Isaribi’s newest passenger.

THANK YOU MIKAZUKI JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME.

I am seriously very nervous though because Akihiro was in the preview but they were a little cagier about Takaki and that was a lot of touching backstory and talking about his family and potential for emotional pain to invest in one character without killing him. He is thirteen. Please no stop. Why are all the little children in danger….oh wait it’s because they’re all children WHY SUNRISE?

Next episode will probably hurt.

Speaking of backstory, holy crap this episode. I have not faltered in my need to hug Akihiro, in fact it has intensified. A lot. I am a longtime FMA fandom veteran, nothing does me in like separated brother stories. Same goes for Atra. You could see Kudelia registering the full awfulness of Atra’s story as it was told, and I love how they wrote Atra as clearly not thinking it was a big deal that she was starved for days over screwing up at work as young child. Also, at least for me, both of these stories were worse because they weren’t sci-fi-horror—this is crap that has happened and continues to happen to actual people in the real world. Starvation, child labor and of course more slavery and orphaning…this show is still not pulling its punches.

Kudelia’s a bit more of a special case. Her father trying to kill her is a little further out there…while attempted murder and parental abuse are both real as well, in real life parents don’t often send armies after their kids. And I have to admit that I was a bit outraged, at first, when she followed Atra’s story up with “I envy you…” but what she said made sense. Atra found a home with the Tekkadan, and given how surprised both the viewers and Kudelia were by what had happened to her, it’s obvious that she was able to heal there. Kudelia, meanwhile, reveals that she’s feeling isolated as the Tekkadan is coming together…and Atra’s reaction is adorable and horribly awkward all at once. First, her impassioned insistence that it’s a mistake, because fathers love their children (she’s probably dreamed about having one, poor child) and then her determination that now that Kudelia’s family, they can just share Mika, like the Turbines.

I don’t necessarily approve of it as a solution to the love triangle but Atra setting her sights on it means that we should be seeing less love triangle shenanigans, and that, I’m on board for.*

Speaking of love…I’m pretty sure the show is trying to set something up between Merribit and Orga. Which, okay, first—I like Merribit. She’s got a nice character design, Rie Tanaka voices her, she’s very serene but in a way that suggests she might just be waiting for things to get ugly because she knows she’ll be the only one who still has her head on straight. I really liked her interaction with Orga last episode, too. But this episode…I dunno. It felt like they were trying to make some sort of chemistry-through-interpersonal-tension with that discussion in the elevator, but I didn’t really feel it. Also, I seriously need to know how old Orga is before I decide to ship anything. Age-difference ships where one person is significantly under 18 are not an interest of mine.

Biscuit continues to delight me. He’s incredibly thoughtful, his sisters are adorable, and I hope Merribit makes his job easier rather than more difficult. Like, seriously, all the best to Biscuit, period. I wonder if his grandmother sent him to school for a while, and that’s why he can read? Hmm…

Other things I enjoyed: Lafter being perceptive about Akihiro’s moods, Nady (the old man/Gundam mechanic) continuing to remember that Mikazuki is a kid, and, while I love him, the fact that we had almost an entire episode of side character development. Mikazuki was barely there. Orga was a little important and so was Kudelia. But, honestly, this week was mostly about Atra, Akihiro, Takaki and Biscuit. And that’s kind of lovely, when you think about it–that the side cast could properly carry an episode like that.

Now, if the show could just refrain from killing them all off we’d be set.

Questions: What’s even going on with Yamagi and Norba? Are we going to get to see Masahiro (Akihiro’s brother) someday? How is Merribit going to fit into the Tekkadan?

Predictions: I do not want it so much, but Takaki is probably going to die. Kudelia and Merribit are going to have a one-on-one discussion as soon as the plot allows and it will be very interesting.

*A note from the 2018 version of Ninth who's archiving these posts: I'm Christian, and I grew up pretty conservative. I don't have a problem with LGBTQIA+ relationships or the people in them. I never really have, but I have in the past had some pretty out-of-date views, because that's what I grew up with and we are all learning and unlearning things as we go. To tell you the truth, I'm still not terribly comfortable with the idea of polyamory, but it's possible that could change. Just know that even if I'm not as comfortable as I could be with poly relationships and polyshipping, I still have no intention of being unpleasant to anyone who is involved in a relationship like that. If I can be pleasant to the several "friends" on Facebook who only keep me around so they can sell me leggings/essential oils/home goods, I can certainly be personable to someone I differ with ideologically.