The history of the world, in not-so-brief.
What They Say:
Episode #6: “As For Them”
The members of Tekkadan need a guide in order to reach Earth despite Gjallarhorn’s surveillance. To gain a powerful backer, they attempt to negotiate with Teiwaz, which is based in the Jupiter Sphere.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Last week’s episode was an action packed brawl that saw all sides of the brewing conflict come together for the first time. The downtime after the previous battle gives all sides time to reassess the situation. Gjallarhorn confirms that Coral is dead, and we get another history lesson info dump about Gundams and why they’re different from other mobile suits. Tekkadan is suddenly without a guide and safe passage to earth, and they have to make a difficult decision on which outside institution to place their trust in once again.
Kudelia’s servant has been holding back on her. Fumitan has some decent skills when it comes to communication systems, almost too decent. I have to wonder whom she actually serves, Kudelia’s mother perhaps? She must be reporting back to someone about Kudelia regularly, she’s way to conspicuous to not be someone’s spy.
Everyone else having a job or talent they can use while aboard leaves Kudelia struggling to feel useful once again until she decides to teach the kids how to read. Hopefully she stops moping about being useless for a time. She seems to feel that Mika is judging her every move, and she’s not the only one. Orga tells Biscuit much the same, that he feels obligated to do right by Mika. Surprisingly, Mika’s life goal is to start a farm of his own, and he feels that learning to read will help him study up on plants. I’m more than a little surprised that Mika has well-realized dreams for his future.
The majority of this episode is spent in the land of exposition. Every character interaction was mostly a rehash of political or mechanical details, from the history of Gundams to who runs the solar system. With the number of organizations pissed off at Tekkadan growing, Orga has no choice but to reach out to the shady Teiwaz group, despite not having a contact there to reach out to. This puts the more tactical-minded members of the team on edge. However, there’s one last loose end to tie up, as the former leader of CGS suddenly calls. Turns out he wants his spaceship back!
In Summary:
Iron-Blooded Orphans pauses to catch its breath. With the first attempt to reach earth a bust it’s time for Orga to come up with a plan B. I feel like much of the information being present here is information we already knew, either from promotional material or gleaned from previous episodes. The most interesting new bit of information is how Orga sees his relationship with Mika. While at first it appeared that Mika was reliant on Orga it might actually be the other way around. It looks like we’re about to meet the last big player, and where the story goes from here is anyone’s guess.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Hulu, Daisuki, Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Youtube in select regions. Phew!
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.10.3, via Safari 8.0.6, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your mileage may vary.
