#lacroa

Last time on SD Gundam Force, Deathscythe gave Tallgeese the Evil Sword Epyon with which to fight with, but his true goal was to create the Berserker Epyon.

Episode 32: Epyon’s Assault!

Okay, on top of a major crack forming (Looks like the Gundam Force Triple Attack did it), Captain scans the Berserker Epyon and determines he has the combined strength of not just Tallgeese, but the Griffin and Mercurius & Vayeate. And Epyon is hungry for more!

On the lower deck, Zapper’s gang have mixed feelings about the current situation. And by mixed, I mean everyone else is worried about Epyon, while Zapper wants to get back to cleaning.

Epyon goes on the attack, beating Zero away easily and putting the others on the defensive. Captain compares his speed and mobility to GunEagle. As the battle goes on, Zapper’s gang get pretty excited at seeing the Gundams get beaten. That’s when Genkimaru shows up to see what’s the matter. But when Epyon spots the kid Musha he makes him his next target.

Cobramaru senses the dangerous presence, and instantly breaks free of his stick prison. Meanwhile, Genkimaru flees from Epyon’s lunges, but soon finds himself cornered. But Cobramaru shows up to fend off Epyon, noting that he needs Genkimaru alive for his mission.

Not to be outdone, Bakunetsumaru fires off his Kenpu Tenkyo-Ken at Epyon. Shute tells him off, and Bakunetsumaru realizes that his attack could cause another crack to form- and indeed it does. As the Gundamusai rockets away from the crack, Zero fights Epyon. However’s he’s soon outmatched and facing down the business end of Epyon’s sword. However, Zero doesn’t despair, thinking back to Princess Rele. He will not be beaten here!

Zero’s conviction causes Fenn’s feather to glow, sending out a beam of light from his chest stone. That beam becomes a beacon, bringing a familiar face to the battle.

Fenn, the Feather Dragon!

Zero and Fenn merge, transforing the Knight Gundam into Zero Custom, Knight of Silver Wings. But this is just what Deathscythe wanted. He sent out the Evil Sword Epyon to find the Feather Dragon, and endangering Zero did just that. “All according to keikaku.”

Zero summons his Twin Buster Swords and does battle with Epyon. He does much better with Fenn’s power, but Epyon isn’t beaten yet. In Gundam Wing, the Epyon Gundam could turn into a Mobile Armor mode, which resembled a two-headed dragon. Berserker Epyon can also turn into two-headed dragon, and this one breaths tornados and lightning from each mouth!

Also, I like how instead of a light show, Epyon’s transformation is done by shifting his parts. It’s like he’s a Transformer, robots in disguise.

Deathscythe commands the Wyvern Epyon to bring him the Feather Dragon, and shows a bit of his true form. As Epyon grabs Zero with his claws, the magic sigil grows into a giant portal, and the Wyvern starts to push Zero through it. Captain orders RAIMI to take the Gundamusai into the magic circle, and while the ship complies, RAIMI notes that this is putting a lot of stress on the engines.

The other side of the portal is none other than the desolate kingdom of Lacroa. As they fly through the skies of his old home, Zero sees that there’s now a giant black forcefield over Lacroa Castle. And on a balcony is the petrified princess, Rele! And by her side of Deathscythe, who continually proves to be both a creep and a jerk by calling Zero, “The Feather Dragon that merged with Zero”

Epyon flies Zero away from the castle. As the Gundamusai follows, its engines start to give and the ship goes down. Zero wants to go save his princess, but Epyon is really insistent on getting his mid-Knight snack. As they fight, the Gundamusai tilts and swerves to avoid hitting rock formations. This causes Zapper’s Gang to fall off, along with Genkimaru! Seeing this, both Cobramaru and Bakunetsumaru jump off the ship after him, and that’s the last we’ll see of them for a few episodes.

Zero and Epyon continue their duel, but Zero clearly can’t concentrate and is put on the defensive. The Gundamusai finally completes its emergency-landing, and Captain orders the main cannons to shoot at Epyon. The cannon-fire gives Zero the opening he needs for his super-mode’s new attack, which comes with new stock footage.

“Super Spirit-Magic…"

“Infinity Winds!”

The attack destroys Epyon, causing him to explode into countless Mmns. So does that mean all spirits in Lacroa are made of Mmns? Are Mmns basically spirit molecules? Zero explains that spirits in Lacroa are never truly gone. Both Epyon and the Griffin have become Mmns and returned to the earth and forest, to be the life force of Lacroa.

As Fenn separates from Zero, the Winged Knight muses that at long last, he’s returned to save Lacroa.

This meeting takes place underground, since the Zako Soldiers fell off the Gundamusai. Since they don’t have their screen, visuals have to be provided by Zako projection.

The talk about Epyon, and how the Evil Sword Epyon absorbed Tallgeese and became the Berserker Epyon. The other Zako Chef from episode 8 skips by, gushing at how Tallgeese became a Gundam. Zako 3 wonders if the Berserker Gundam is a Gundam, or a spirit.

A Pawn Leo shows up to explain, since the Zakos are too dumb about Lacroa stuff to answer anything. On top of ticking off the hosts, Pawn Leo states that Epyon is both a Gundam and a spirit combined. But Zako 2 wonders how a Gundam and a spirit can be combined? Pawn Leo guesses that the spirits might also be made of Gundanium. The Zakos assume that the Feather Dragon, Griffin, and even the Mmns are technically Gundams too. Even they realize how strange that sounds, so Pawn Leo tells them to skip it, as clearly they aren’t smart enough to figure out the answer. This gets him the boot.

Remember the SD Gundam anime that aired on Toonami during the early 200s and then just dropped off without a real conclusion, only for the second half of the series to be released on a special DVD set about a decade later (I assume)? Well, while reception to SDG was...divided here in the west, Japan had a different view of it, and that soon led to a full-fledged manga-version of the series.

A series of about 20 chapters were made. This wasn’t a shot-for-shot remake of the anime, however. Instead, it was condensed revision of the series, generally the same concept- The Dark Axis is on the loose, 3 Gundams and an eager boy jump up to defend- but done in a drastically different way. Taking advantage of the art style, chapters were filled to the brim with sight gags, and battles were completed in a far more drastic style than you could accomplish on television. For example;

(Fun, huh?)

The downside was that this abbreviated storytelling meant that certain characters were given a far less amount of screen time and focus than they had in the anime, and story arcs were possibly rushed. For example, in the anime, Lacroa wasn’t restored until the end of the series, but in the manga, the kingdom was fixed right at the end of the Deathscythe arc. And Genkimaru, a prominent fixture of the second season, didn’t appear until the Gundamusai arrived at Ark.