For so long as Gundam has existed as a franchise, the specter of its first main antagonistic standout, Char Aznable, has lingered over it. And that’s not unintentioned on Gundam’s half—for nearly as lengthy the collection has grown, it has put morally doubtful individuals in face masks and coined the “Char Clone” trope as a collection hallmark. However its newest try at following Char’s footsteps in Witch From Mercury is already standing out as a frontrunner among the many imitators.
From the second we first glimpsed her, the masked determine of Woman Prospperiod Mercury—rapidly revealed to be the pseudonym of Elnora Samaya, the mom of Witch From Mercury’s protagonist Suletta—has had Gundam followers primed for her shadowy intentions. In any case, they know: if a personality in Gundam is sporting a face masks, they’re as much as no good, following within the footsteps of generations of half-masked villains which have been all the pieces from ruminations on the revenge-driven archetype Char was within the authentic Cell Swimsuit Gundam to literal clones of the person himself. So when the shoe lastly began dropping, and Propsera started pulling an increasing number of strings behind the scenes throughout Witch From Mercury’s first and presently airing second seasons, it was much less of a shock and extra of an inevitability.
However even then, as Prospera’s intentions have turn into clearer, especially in season two, that inevitability has not stopped her from having an electrifying, sinister presence on display that has catapulted her to the entrance runners of not simply the very best Gundam villains of the fashionable franchise, however maybe all the collection, full cease. Mamiko Noto’s gorgeous efficiency sees Professionalspperiod activate a dime from cool, but charming motherly affirmations to calculated, medical strategist, and but in each side of her masks—on prime of her literal one finishing the Char Clone visible id—she hides a roiling sea of indignant feelings simply beneath each line or dramatic ojou-sama chuckle. Her intent, and her emotionality, is an ever-present menace lingering in each second she’s on-screen, all the time feeling like they’re on the verge of bursting out.
What actually elevates Prospera as a villain, nevertheless, and seen most clearly in the newest episodes of Witch From Mercury, is simply how clearly she suits the mode of the Char Clone archetype higher than nearly every other “Clone” in Gundam’s historical past. It’s not simply within the direct parallels between Prospera and Char, in fact. They’re each pushed to avenge the dying of a cherished one (Professionalspperiod’s husband, killed in Witch From Mercury’s prologue, and Char’s father, betrayed by the fascistic Zabi household earlier than the occasions of Cell Swimsuit Gundam), they usually each select to enact that revenge by infiltrating the higher echelons of their targets underneath an alternate id. It’s not even in each characters’ understanding of masks, each literal and metaphorical, as they placed on and forged off varied social faces—Char as a daring chief, a loyal soldier, the turncoat revolutionary id Quattro Bajeena in Zeta Gundam, and his eventual return as commander of Neo-Zeon in Char’s Counterattack; Prospera because the ace pilot, enterprise magnate, and doting mom within the eyes of Suletta—to maintain their true intentions hidden nicely beneath their floor.
What actually hyperlinks each Char and Prospera, and makes the latter certainly one of Gundam’s simplest ruminations on the Char Clone as an idea, is how Woman Prospera understands what made Char so iconic within the first place. Being “a Char” is as a lot a efficiency because the aforementioned masked performances, and that with the specter of their villainous intentions there’s, in maybe equal components, a theatricality to their characters that the majority different Char Clones fail to grasp. They’re typically one or the opposite, a full-on psychotic villain that simply occurs to put on a masks, or a theatrical dandy whose emulations of the outside Char-esque hallmarks shouldn’t be matched by a equally advanced interiority.
Prospera straddles each the merciless villainy and the camp drama of Char extremely nicely. That’s very true in this week’s episode 16, “Cycle of Sin,” which introduced a tighter deal with Prospera as a personality because the collection’ narrative has taken an increasingly darker turn. It covers her in a broad stroke that lets Prospera flit between these completely different selves so delightfully—we start along with her dramatically explaining to her fellow “Witch” Belmeria simply what actually happened to her first daughter Eri, and simply how far she’s prepared to go to protect Eri’s reminiscence. When she makes a shock go to to Suletta at her faculty, simply as Suletta’s closest confidant and would-be-bride Miorine has returned to her orbit, she turns into the doting mom determine, blunting her more durable edge to everybody however Miorine.
Lastly, when Miorine realizes the true extent of simply how deeply and horrifically Prospera has cast Suletta right into a weapon of her vengeance and confronts her, we get to see the Shakespearean plot unfold. An icy Prospera pulls Miorine near psychotically whisper in her ear the reality of her ache, why she hates Miorine’s household so deeply, and why she’s prepared to do something to destroy it from inside. And even that is finished so grandly and theatrically, mixing the completely different masks of Prospera and Char alike in a singularly compelling second.
It’s that understanding of the duality of a Char Clone—that being an efficient one requires greater than merely placing on a domino masks and performing some evil plotting—that makes Woman Prospera certainly one of Gundam’s simplest explorations of the thought because the man himself. And despite the fact that her story is way from over, it solely makes us an increasing number of excited to see if Witch From Mercury can stick the touchdown and ship a franchise-great villain.
Cell Swimsuit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury season two is streaming now on Crunchyroll, with episodes releasing weekly on Sundays.
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