Ninth Yells About G-Tekketsu Episode 6

 This week on Social Justice in Space…

 

The Calamity War, Fumitan’s ascension to someone important to the plot, whatever the heck Orga and Mikazuki’s relationship dynamics even are and Kudelia bringing people happiness…I have a lot to say about this episode and all of it is spoilers.

 

So, to the content under the cut!

 

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The Calamity War’s overt, clearly deliberate evoking of colonialism themes, combined with the stuff I’ve been noticing over previous episodes and this episode’s frank discussion of the Tekkadan boys’ options in life has me pretty happy over the sheer amount of political statements being made. Like, the “Social Justice in Space” thing was a joke—mostly because “social justice” is a term that has at this point been rendered essentially meaningless by the sheer number of different meanings it’s been assigned—but Tekketsu seems very blatantly concerned with societal issues. Conveniently for those of us watching from various English-speaking countries, many of the issues that are being touched on—opportunity inequality, extreme poverty, and colonialism, to name some—are shared issues.  Interestingly, none of them are the horror of war.  Obviously, we’re going to get there.  The child soldier thing’s been touched on, and I doubt that opening scene with Mikazuki and Orga will remain unexplained.  But there’s been a surprising, almost refreshing amount of focus on ideological messages that aren’t war is hell in the first few episodes and I’m sort of shocked by it.

 

Speaking of all of this—Kudelia’s teaching!  I literally shouted “Yes!  Literacy!” while watching that scene and it’s probably good that no one was around to stare at me while I did it.  After listening to her explain the situation she was trying to negotiate in—and I loved the way that exposition was structured, it felt natural and it showed Kudelia’s, Atra’s, and Mikazuki’s characters too—I was really impressed with how patient she was.  Someone more full of themselves might not have been so understanding about their lack of current events knowledge.  The fact that she then decided to teach not just Mika but the other boys writing was so great.  Like, she’s trying so hard to make everything that’s awful about the situation just a little less bad.  And, on that note, Mikazuki’s attempt at writing his name…ugh, I have feelings about it.

 

Speaking of that—I am starting to have some hesitation about my previous brotp feelings for Mikazuki and Orga.  To be clearer—their relationship, as portrayed in this episode, is not healthy and I am concerned.  Like, seriously, what happened to these children? That Orga, who’s pretty much a tactical genius, will take borderline stupid risks because Mikazuki is looking to him for direction—that Mikazuki, who is strong and competent in his own right, will trust in Orga blindly to the point of ignoring conversations he should probably be in on?  They’re starting to look a little co-dependent to me and I am concerned; the writer for this series worked on Anohana and while I did not watch that I got the impression that the overview of the plot was dead childhood friend comes back and highlights the dysfunction in all of her former clubmates’ current relationships.  So she’s more than capable of doing something like this.  But it is not a thing I want.  Do not make me doubt the brotp, please.

 

The other thing I am very much doubting is my initial dismissal of Fumitan.  I thought the writers were just going to have her sit in the background; that’s not happening and I am thrilled to be wrong.  Granted, I’m still not sure if she’s actually on the Tekkadan’s side, or if she’s been reporting back to either Kudelia’s father or someone else with Gjallarhorn all this time—she’s been looking kind of shifty—but I am thrilled regardless. If I am offered a dynamic female bridge crew member, I will take her; if I am offered a dynamic female villain, I’ll take her, too!  Either way, competent adult female, which is always great.

 

My final comment is on that ending, and the preview—the lady from the opening is apparently in the next episode, which is cool, and so is Maruba, which isn’t so great.  I’m interested to see if the Tekkadan actually fights with him, if they negotiate, if he gets pulled into the standoff with Gjallarhorn…if he does, it could be disastrous, since there’s a chance he has personnel files.  Sure, Chocolate Man McGillis and His Friend Gaelio have seen Mikazuki, but that’s different from knowing his age and having records of the implant surgeries he had.  I doubt that’s what will happen, but it’s interesting to think about what the results would be if it did.

 

Questions: What kind of trauma caused Mikazuki and Orga’s current relationship?  What is Fumitan’s deal, anyways–is her shiftiness a red herring or is she actually untrustworthy? Why isn’t Ein being sent for a post-combat psych eval at this point?

Predictions: Chocolate Man is still my bet for Char Clone. I am increasingly worried about Orga’s life expectancy.