Turn A Gundam Staff, Production, and Episode Analyses – Episode #44 “The Enemy Starts Anew”

Turn A Gundam‘s forty-third episode was broadcast on Fuji TV on February 18, 2000.

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Dianna questions Agrippa: if he knew the true meaning behind the Dark History, why did he allow Gym Ghingham to take action? Fair question, but Agrippa maintains that they had only learned of the Turn A’s true nature after they had excavated the Turn X, which they would not have been able to do without Gym’s help. She orders him to stand down and halt the fighting on the Moon’s surface and on Earth, effectively dismantling the Dianna Counter. Agrippa however wonders if those on Earth would even obey such an order—their “fighting instinct” has already awakened, and it’s because of this end result that he opposed her Earth Return Plan for the past 300 years. There are a lot of particularly detailed character expressions during this scene, and for much of the episode, likely due to animation director Atsuo Tobe. This was the final episode he was scheduled as A.D., so he probably wanted to go out with a bang.

Merrybell, frightened by the Dark History’s visuals, begins attacking the Turn A before it can begin destroying the Moon’s cities. Loran claims that even if it’s a war machine there must be a good way to use it.

Dianna is dejected by Agrippa’s logic, so Kihel takes over for her in the verbal back-and-forth. At this point in the story, we know she basically sees eye-to-eye with Dianna. She asserts that the Moonrace can’t live under the Maintainer family’s protection forever—Earth has thousands of years of history, and they would eventually come to the Moon once their science advanced to such a stage. She uses Guin Lineford as an example, who interjects by saying he only wants to use the Moon’s technology to boost Earth’s industries. Their conversation is interrupted by riots which are erupting in Gengnham. They’re surrounding the White Palace and are attempting to take over the spaceport. The people want Agrippa to explain himself, now that Queen Dianna has returned, and the want the Earthers to leave. There are signs reading “Tell us truth”, “Recall the Dianna Counter from Earth!”, “No More Agrippa”, “No lie!”, and other such slogans. The crowd breaks through some of the barricades and the palace’s guards begin firing shots to calm them down. Harry reaches the spaceport and stops Sweatson Stero before he can sortie in his Mahiroo. Sweatson doesn’t seem to be afraid of the Dark History, instead excited at the fact that humanity will become warriors who fight with valor. Clearly he’s too far gone.

Agrippa declares that the Dark History has taken root in the people. At this point, Dianna has had enough of him and says his governing style does nothing but exacerbate the uneasiness of the masses. Guin questions if people would even get stirred up by 2,000 year-old history, and Lily follows up by saying she heard the Universal Century dates back a 10,000 years. The group’s back-and-forth continues, and Agrippa reiterates that he simply wanted the Moonrace to live their life in peace without ever being exposed to the truth of the Dark History. Kihel mentions that people on Earth were already beginning to “wake up”; it is impossible to run from the truth forever. Agrippa says that is her “fighting instinct” which is talking! They must eliminate people who will awaken the fighting instincts in others. Dianna calls out his hypocrisy—he whose “fighting instincts” are supposedly NOT awakened is apparently able to pull off all this treachery? She declares him beyond setting straight and brandishes a knife (where was she hiding that?). She has learned that “flesh and blood are needed to let flowers bloom”. Kihel joins her hands and together they charge towards Agrippa in an effort to assassinate him, but before they reach him he’s shot from behind by Midgard and falls to his death. Midgard says that after listening to her, he’s realized that Agrippa’s methods were wrong, so he chose to sully his hands in hopes of stabilizing the Moon’s societal systems (a dubious claim, but sure thing). He further says that Agrippa’s assessment of Dianna as an “undesirable element” was correct, to which she doesn’t deny. Midgard continues by saying to fully stabilize the Moon, he himself must be punished, and takes aim at Dianna. Kihel tries to shield her, but Dianna quickly causes chaos and confusion by re-opening the Dark History’s records. His shot falls astray, and Lily orders the Militia to subdue him. Thus ends the short-lived character of Agrippa Maintainer. I really like how Dianna and Agrippa juxtapose each other with respect to Moonrace politics. Dianna represents humanistic idealism & naivete, while Agrippa represents security & maintenance. While at odds, the two Houses continued to work together in tandem but came to head as the nation faced its biggest crises. Agrippa’s mindset and mentality was simply incompatible against the might of the Dark History.

Mahiroos enter the Winter Palace area, but Dianna instructs Militia members not to attack them with firearms or it’ll cause devastating damage, as ten million souls sleep within the cold sleep capsules. Midgard steals a security vehicle and makes an escape and heads to the spaceport, as Dianna and co. rendezvous with the Willghem. Dianna doesn’t believe that Guin will follow the same path as her, but he reiterates that he simply wants to use the Moon’s technology to bring peace to Earth. You can tell she doesn’t trust him, at all, and something is definitely brewing behind Guin’s façade. He quietly asks Sid to gather people and go to the Winter Palace and steal whatever data that he can, to maintain the balance of power between Earth and Moon. Dianna is given a change of clothes into her original Moonrace commander outfit, the one that Kihel actually wears for the majority of the show.

Sochie and Miashei have sortied to stop the Mahiroo Squad. Sochie interrupts Harry’s duel with Sweatson and begins flailing at him with a Gundam Hammer and actually gets the upperhand. Loran finally shows up in the White Doll (not sure how he magically arrived, but one can assume he casually dipped from his battle with Gym & Merrybell). Together with Sochie and Harry, they easily dismantle Sweatson’s Mahiroo. The Gendarme appears in the airspace fires upon the Militia, despite the cold sleep capsules housed in the area. Harry attempts to block the bombardment with his I-Field Barrier, however it’s Loran in the Turn A that protects everything with a “curtain of light”. Loran is pissed, yelling at them to think where they’re trying to fight. His rage activates the suit’s latent Moonlight Butterfly that disintegrates all of the laser beams the Gendarme is firing. Loran physically pushes back the Gendarme from the area with sheer power. Midgard’s mind is blown—he realizes in this moment that the Dark History was actually true, and that he’s done a terrible thing by making it unleash its full power. He runs out of the bridge through a bunch of corridors, yelling in frustration at his own sins and begging for Dianna Soreil’s forgiveness. He reaches a hatch, expecting to see the Turn A outside, but instead it’s Harry’s Gold SUMO, who hands Midgard a sweeping punishment and kills him.

Dianna suddenly appears on holographic screens across the city, ready to speak to her people. She apologizes for allowing the situation to on for so long, putting the blame on herself. She informs everyone that the Moonrace are humanity that was “reborn” out of the tragic history that was shown earlier, and she warns her people that they may be retracing such a path. She intends to overcome this challenge with everyone and create a new history. She believes it’s their duty to inform the people of Earth of this as well. They must spread human activity across the Earth and Moon to establish a cultural sphere that will last forever. Dianna believes that the time has come to reclaim a genuine way of existence and live and die as nature intended. It’s a moving speech, and one that is remiscent of Kihel’s speech at the Declaration of Statehood Ceremony in episode #18—an appeal to empathy and emotion and urging people to embrace an idealistic future.

Fran is impressed by her queen’s ability to quell the riots just by showing her face. Kihel recognizes her as the true “Queen Dianna”, and Harry is proud to belong to the Royal Guard that protects her. He additionally admits that it’s because of her that he was able to meet Kihel and that he now has two ladies to protect. What a sly fellow! Kihel asks him if his eyes will always be glued to Dianna, but he admits that he has eyes for another lady (aka Kihel). She’s happy with his response and smugly says that’s why he doesn’t take off those sunglasses. Guin is less impressed with Dianna’s speech, stating that she likes to use a lot of flowery language, and Gym chuckles at her naivete.