Not Daily Pokemon: Chimecho

not daily pokemon: chimecho

(a first, this was commissioned by @/MintlyFresh_! )

Star Wars: X-Wing - Rogue Squadron #26 (Family Ties #1 of 2) Cover Art by John Nadeau

Tiny monk-in-training Garma from Daily Char.

With the introduction of the Gundam Asmoday/Asmodeus, it’s nice to have another suit to add to the rather small category of “suits with prevalent alternate spellings for their name” along with the ever-lovely Gundam Pixy/Pixie.

The Earth Federation: Spend thousands on multiple separate attempts to mass-produce the Zeta Gundam, including but not limited to: the ZII, the Mass Production Zeta Gundam, the Zeta plus series, the Re-Gz and the Rezel, before finally giving up and settling for Jegans.

Neo Zeon: Makes the Bawoo.

Perfection.

Since I did a post talking about all the Mass-Production units I liked in SEED/SEED Destiny, so I should probably talk about the Gundams I did like, especially now that I’m thinking about it with the new movie trailer.

Generally, I don’t have a high opinion of much of the Gundam-type mobile suits in the Cosmic Era, principally because I find they all look rather similar (that’ll happen when they’re all developed from the same five suits by only two factions). I’m also gonna be focusing primarily on suits that appeared in the animated series, since sidestories typically can afford to be a bit more “out-there” with the designs. The first three are the designs that I genuinely like and appreciate, whereas the last two have asterisks attached.

First up, the Infinite Justice. Narrowly makes it into the top spot for me. A good part of it is the novelty of having a bright pink Gundam, I admit. But I do love how, where the Strike freedom decides to add funnels and more guns with which to shoot people, the IJ instead gets a bunch of blades. Like not only is it pink, but it’ll also cut you. It’s still well-armed in the ranged department though, having a beam rifle, “fortis” beam cannons and a bunch of beam boomerangs. I do like the original justice Gundam as well, but the Infinite Justice just feels like a fuller vision of the concept, without being tied into resembling the Aegis too much, in contrast to the Strike Freedom, which felt like they nailed it first time and had to add a bunch of extra stuff on.

The Providence is a solid second, because I like the concept more than the execution. The background for the Providence is that it was supposed to be a heavy assault suit, but they had to retrofit it with the Dragoon tech in a hurry, hence the cabling on its chest and the system’s overall lack of integration. I love the concept of this, and the heavy weaponry it retains makes me imagine a sort of Full Armour Gundam 7th-style unit. I *think* that the whole Dragoon system on its back thing is supposed to give the appearance of a halo? So Rau is a sort of angel of destruction that Kira must stop? It doesn’t work, but I think that’s what they were going for. Providence is a pretty cool name though. I’m not really sure about the integrated beam saber/gun thing on its left arm, but its not bad. The Providence also gets a bump because I quite like Rau as a character, and this is his final unit.

Grabbing third (and bringing an end to the ranking) is the Akatsuki (specifically the Oowashi Akatsuki). The Akatsuki itself is this lovely melding of SEED’s Gundam Aesthetic with the Hyaku-Shiki, and I think it looks gorgeous. You can obviously see the Strike influence, but it’s blended together with elements closer to the Astray series and it all works rather well. Its sensibly armed with a shield and rifle with optional bayonet in addition to beam sabers. I should note that I specifically prefer the atmospheric-based Oowashi pack to the space Shiranui one. This is because the Oowashi pack actually looks like something - wings and two beam cannons evocative of those on the F91. The Shiranui’s just a big box with some funnels stuck on. I do like how the Akatsuki’s great against beam weaponry but crap against physical though, since it’s a nice reversal of fortunes compared to the start of SEED.

Now if only Cagalli actually did anything with it.

The Calamity is a bit of a cheat, since it’s at least partially here because it can become the Sword Calamity. I like a lot of artillery suits, and the Calamity is just my favourite here, mostly because of how sensible it’s weaponry is. Guns in the shield, beam weaponry fitted on the suit itself to take advantage of the generator, then a nice, lovely plasma-sabot bazooka to round out the armament. The only thing it’s really missing is a beam saber. It also makes the most of its integrated weaponry - most of its handheld and the backpack’s replaceable, but that “Scylla” cannon isn’t going anywhere. I also quite like the head. If we had had the Calamity instead of the Buster, I’d probably prefer it.

The Legend Gundam’s here because A) it’s got a nice head. And b) we saw virtually nothing of it in series. It’s here because I end up liking it when it (very-rarely) shows up in side content (like videogames), but it regards to the anime itself, it could charitably be described as “being there”.