Kim's match reviews and pop culture emporium

 Interesting match to start off disk thirteen. The match is more even than i was coming into it but I will admit that's probably on me for underrating Yasuko's threat potential. There's a call and response desperation in this match I enjoy with Yasuko targeting Bull's arm and back while Bull targets Yasuko's head and abdomen with both targeting the legs of the other in the latter stages. Bull eventually gets the win via a straight cover with head trap. Great performance from Bull and better than expected from Yasuko with Bull's punches being very much my speed. I don't think Yasuko provided quite enough threat to warrant an 8 but a solid 7.7/10

 The heels blitz Mika at the start and Pantera destroys her with a swanton and senton for the quick pin. There's a fun exchange between Pantera and Chigusa ending with Chigusa missing a top rope senton leading to her getting pinned surprisingly early given her stature. There's a short moment of getting her head targeted which was shorter than i remembered from the firsts watch. There's some fun work on Chigusa's knee. Nakame and Condor both get eliminated with the final four being Bull vs Hisako Hotta and Chigusa. Bull shows real grit eliminating both Hisako and Hotta but the attrition catches up to her and she ends up being pinned by Chigusa via German suplex. The vibes were more intense in the first elimination match but i think this is a better match even if the weaknesses of being in the churn heavy AJW environment remain. 8/10 Super fun disk return to form and the hype is back

The Angels jump the alliance at the bell and double team Bull to start. The control is fleeting as soon as the double team ends Nakano blasts Tateno right away and the heels take and maintain control wrecking Tateno's abdomen. There is a quick tag to Yamazaki but the alliance swarms her at point of entry and we double face in peril. The endgame for the first fall is Tateno being German suplexed for the pin. The second fall starts off with the heels continuing to work over Tateno. The pivot in control comes about by the faces targeting one of dump's legs to great effect. Decent striking starts the shift from Tateno solidified by typically really compelling submission work from Yamazaki. The faces get the second fall by forcing Dump to ringside to recover and blasting Bull with a German for the three count. The match predictably breaks down into chaos by the end leading to a no contest and titles vacated. On a pure imput level this match is an 8.5/10 but it took me longer cause t...

 So the big talking point for phase shift down has to be the exchange between Athrun and Kira. It's interesting the difference between the pacing of physical travel in Seed relative to the pacing of emotional beats and combat. Purely in the context of the Archangel crew Kira's position is really sympathetic but the minute it buts up against the reveal of Athrun's mother having died in the bloody valentine massacre it makes his insistence read differently but maybe that's just me. I appreciate how distinct The Creuset team's approaches are portrayed during this mission with Yzak being obsessed with his pride, Athrun being really emotionally conflicted, Dearka being a slightly more sensible Yzak cause he's very task focused as i read him. Nicol's easily my favorite zaft supporting character. I appreciate mu getting Kira out of his hyperventilating state post battle and with regards to Sai and Flay they Feel like Athrun and lacus without the awareness at least ...

 We start off with some trading of arm holds with some fun top wrist lock stuff. It seems like Chigusa takes the edge in the arm damage department. Devil responds eventually by pulling Chigusa on to the apron and ramming her head first into the turnbuckle pole and afterwards whipping Chigusa into the railing at ringside. She keeps focused on the back adding in some mean leg work to neutralize or at least attempt to neutralize the kicks. The notable spots being a bow and arrow lock and a Romero special. There is a sick punch exchange which devil wins and struggling over piledrivers. The finish is a time limit draw. Another 9 for me if a bit weaker than there last encounter

 My memory was preparing me to come into the episode post three parter that pacing tightened up. The readers can officially put the clown makeup on me. It's reasurring on the one hand that tolle and the others affirm after revealing that Kira is a coordinator but still sideeyeing them for not questioning flay's silence. It gives off a vibe of conditional white allyship. The payoff to mu persuading Kira to pilot the strike again is his friends joining the bridge of the archangel is really sweet. Le Creuset's scene with Athrun was really uncomfortable for me cause I had to ask if I were a grunt in this squad would I have doubts given what the characters know now? My answer is no. 9/10

 The youngsters attack at the bell. Both teams target each others arms which is fun. the control is fairly loose for this early section though i do love the touch that Nagahori has very obviously been working on her mat game so that at least in spurts she can go hold for hold. I still prefer Ogura on the mat cause there's more of an illusion of danger when she's getting folks in subs whereas with Nagahori it rarely feels like she can control the scramble long term. the notable control segments come from Ogura missing a senton which the crush girls target mercilessly and the crush girls show vulnerability in the form of Chigusa's knee once again buckling. Eventually attrition catches up and Ogura gets pinned via armtrap german. not quite great but really fun match to start the year. 7.7/10

Finally at the end of this three part premier and man the profiling really stands out in a way it didn't to ten year old me both as a poc fan and a disabled fan. The fact that the first thing the earth forces guards do when they find out kira is a coordinator is point there weapons is horrifying in a really effective way. Also i am heavily sideeyeing tolle for the low key bigotry when Kira's asleep. Something I can't help but notice is how much of the earth forces and even the central kids are white or white passing. That leads to the moments of bigotry hitting a very specific way in my thirties. I do think seed like a lot of gundam falls into the mutant metaphor trap of the fictional marginalization subsuming actual vectors of bigotry. Though it does kinda make sense that these kids are most presumably monied to some degree which i find interesting. At the risk of being controversial Miguel's a prick. I like how much damage is needed to necessitate evacuating a colony ...

Wanted a bit of distance from this match before writing about it. Dump gets two quick eliminations on Kimura and Hirata. Really fun to see the lariat being elevated to finisher level. Just going to go through the big beats. the team of Nagahori and Ogura continue to impress and get the most sustained offense iirc. There's a really good extended face in peril segment which i love. Both teams get eliminations and it ends up being a three on one against chigusa in the end. Chigusa is able to eliminate bull and saito but the attrition catches up to her against dump when those two are the last man standing. It's a very well executed match but I think the thing that's keeping me from calling it great is the churn in talent meaning i don't know what to look out for so the eliminations in the middle fall a bit flat. 7.6 but open to reconsideration.

 And we get to it's name is gundam. In retrospective i could've combined episodes one and two together in the context of this series cause it really feels like a two or three parter. In the interesting twist on universal century stuff it's interesting that our protagonist has minimal interaction with the masked antagonist in the form of Rau and that the char clone is split with Mu having the moniker and being an ally. All the beats of the battle between the ginn and the strike work really well even now. I was a little harsh when i've thought about this series in the intervening time about how readily Kira was able to reprogram the strike but watching in quick succession it works a lot better for me. Both Miguel's attitude towards Murrue piloting the strike and Murrue outright stating that it's a war between Coordinators and Naturals gives big race war vibes while the bioethics thing is also present. I'm kind of sideeyeing Murrue for not acknowledging the blo...

Two decades since i first saw Mobile suit Gundam seed as a ten year old on Cartoon network. the opening narration works really well for me here as well as it did back then. The kids are all charming enough though Kuzzey and Miriallia kind of feel the most like background which is interesting to note. I completely forgot about flay and Sai's engagement. I do kind of wish that not all the kids of note that are allies are white passing. Really interesting that program Kira is in is comp sci in a facility that we find out by the end is associated with the Earth forces military. All the stuff with Cagali sticks out and hits a lot harder on this rewatch. The attack and that moment of realization between Kira and Athrun is chef kiss worthy. The episode in a void is for me an instant classic paced to perfection even if i can't shake the thought that having five gundams might be a mistake for a uc esque au though i wonder how much of that choice was influenced by wing. Also hot take See...

Maybe my first time watching this. The press conference ends with Dump going wild and brandishing a fucking whole chicken. Bless 80s Joshi. The match itself is essentially a long face in peril segment on Chigusa lots of good sneaky use of weaponry by Dump including what i presume to be fucking sword. The fact that she attacks the ref before the bell to the point the ref blades which fucking rules. Chigusa's offense only comes in very short super intense bursts defined by strikes and rollups. Eventually Chigusa bleeds to the point where she eventually does a bloodsport degree of staggered selling which i love. Eventually Chigusa ends up winning by schoolboy which i surprisingly love because it forgoes the typical epic exchange. Dump storms to the back in the aftermath and Chigusa has to goad her ego to get her to appear to get shaved. 10/10 instant classic even if it's more typical than the first encounter.

 The first fall is super quick ending in a single chop by Omori onto Hotta's face for the three count. The second fall is defined by the battle between Hotta and Uno where Uno is capable of landing shots but Hotta can land the heavier ones. Uno has more of the control via combining with Omori while Omori also gets some work done on Chigusa. As things get slower in turns of double teams Hotta's power makes the difference via the use of two argentine backbreaker slams for the win. The third fall is where the rookies take a slight step back but still contribute the third fall is defined by Omori targeting Chigusa's back and abdomen. It seems like Omori and Uno will get enough damage done to get the win on Chigusa but Uno accidently dropkicks Omori giving Chigusa enough time to roll up Omori for the win. It's fun to see the stars of the 90s as young kids I think Hotta is more self sufficient in terms of how she's portrayed but Uno gets more offense in on Chigusa. 7.5-8/...

 Asuka's return match from injury and it is a hellish return bout in terms of difficulty. Dump gets into it with the ref multiple times prior to the bell ringing and once it does Asuka strikes fast and hard with a dropkick and a top rope missile drop kick for the two. An interesting pin in this early sequence is an attempt to get Dump into a sharpshooter failing but using the slingshot position that puts Dump into to go for a pin. The offense doesn't last long as the numbers come into play quickly with the focus of the peril segment being laser focused on Asuka's back. Surprisingly might be my favorite Dump control segment in terms of being more than vibes and size based. The comeback begins with a sunset flip and a string of offense that unfortunately ends in vain as Asuka loses via a lariat splash combo. Really fun way to start disk 13 but not quite great wanted a bit more danger for Dump from Asuka's comeback. 7.7/10