Turn A Gundam Staff, Production, and Episode Analyses – Episode #33 “The Taking of Manupichi”

Turn A Gundam‘s thirty-third episode was broadcast on Fuji TV on November 25, 1999.

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Joseph chases after Mayalito, who’s escaped to a nearby waterway. He questions why a member of the Maba clan is serving the Adeskan king. Shocked, she asks if he’s of Maba heritage as well. Apparently Joseph had been with the clan when he was three years old, and Adeskan warriors would kidnap orphans and abandon them at the foot of the mountains. This is where Sid found him and they were able to escape together. He tells her that there are other cities besides Manupichi and suggests that she need not continue living this dangerous life.

King Quautol is summoned to the plaza by a security guard manning the prison. Tarka’s followers want him to take action, because the myths are coming true; the sky has turned “red” and the “White Devil” has come to claim the Bough of Ades, and Quautol is not fit to rule them in this time of need. They urge him to slay the old king with his blade and take the throne—an Adeskan practice borrowed from James Frazer’s The Golden Bough. Quautol refuses to take up a blade to fight Tarka, so they bring out Loran and co. and threaten to behead them. Quautol appeals to Tarka and the crowd, stating that these outsides are here to destroy the “giants’ which have come from the “heavens” (the Dianna Counter gun batteries), but his words fall on deaf ears. Before they can behead Loran, explosions go off in the city; it’s Joseph throwing cocktails to cause a disruption. Mayalito rushes in to save Loran and co., and Quautol pushes back Tarka’s attacks.

The group escape to an area outside overlooking a river and wait for Quautol to rescue them by boat. Tarka gives chase, but Joseph quickly apprehends him. He claims that Quautol is a coward who won’t come to their rescue and instead has taken the opportunity to flee. Mayalito doesn’t want to hear such slander and reminds him of what happened in the past; when Tarka first challenged the old king in the past, he showed fear and backed off like a coward because he was terrified of shouldering the fate of his people. Quautol then went into hiding because he wanted to give Tarka time to become worthy of being a king. As Tarka reflects on all this, Quautol finally arrives in a boat and Loran and co. quickly jump in as more guards arrive. He takes them to the area where the Dianna Counter batteries are stationed. They split up into smaller groups to take them out simultaneously.

Sochie discusses plans with the Suicide Squad, and Miashei directs backup Militia planes which have arrived for the operation. An Armaiya-class ship is spotted by the Willghem’s radars, so Guin decides to push his assault ahead of schedule and orders Horace to prepare to fire the mega particle cannon. Kihel, who’s in confinement, notices that the Willghem is making moves. She feigns an emergency situation to force the security guard to open up and escapes with a fire extinguisher. She rushes towards the bridge and begs them to stop the attack. Guin informs her that a “mass driver” that is used to launch ships into space is located in this city, and they must obtain it. He reckons that since it’s nearly dawn that Loran and co. have likely already made their escape. Before Horace can continue his preparations, the Suicide Squad’s Borjarnons start climbing the mountainside and attack some of the WaDoms, in an effort to assist Loran and co.’s sneak attack. Loran and Quautol get pincered by a WaD, but Tarka appears out of nowhere to shoot it down with a spear catapult. It looks like he’s had a change of heart! They have decided to help clear a path to save the old king. Things have gotten chaotic—the turrets fire in retaliation and Militia airplanes provide support.

Loran and Quautol plant a bomb in one of the gun batteries, but they’re stopped by Dianna Counter soldiers who apprehend them. Mayalito comes in for the rescue, but not before the king is shot in the back. Realizing he doesn’t have much time left, he throws Loran off the turret, and tells him to fulfill his promise of deposing the nukes in space. He then calls out to Tarka to kill him and take his rightful place as the new king. Tarka obliges, and fires an arrow at the bag the king is holding. It’s filled with bombs, and the entire gun battery explodes into pieces. Both the king and Mayalito have perished. The Dianna Counter have been defeated, just as dawn arrives, making the Willghem call off its attack.

With tears in his eyes, Tarka is crowned the new King of Adeska. His people kneel to a new era of leadership. Tarka points to the sky to show Loran the Bough of Ades—a white streak of light, a waystation known as the Sackträger. Loran vows to head to space and hold his promise.

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