

Warning: This review contains some spoilers

Get that corn outta my face!

There's no mobile suit fighting this time around in "Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans Episode 4: The Price of Life," but we do get a bit of fisticuffs by a cornfield. If I can pick two words to describe protagonist Mikazuki, it would be "ticking timebomb."

Anyway, things start out peacefully enough after Episode 3's fateful duel as the renamed Tekkadan works out the logistics for carrying out their original job to escort Kudelia to Earth. This means hiring a guide to get them safely to their destination while avoiding the long arms of Gjallarhorn and their plotting nemesis Coral Conrad.

Unfortunately for a bunch of young'uns with no experience running a company, they have no contacts. As someone who covers business, the old adage is true that it's not what you know but who you know sometimes, especially for a fledgling company that's trying to get off the ground literally and figuratively. So they end up turning to one of the last remaining adults in the room in Todo.


Todo and his mustache then quickly proceed to start scheming, which should really come as no surprise to anyone. The guy is practically a walking caricature of a slimeball who's not to be trusted and the only thing that would be a real surprise is if he ends up turning out to be an honorable person. Which kind of makes me disappointed in how easily Orga deferred to Todo on such an important matter as picking their guide without even putting tabs on the dude. At least bug his phone calls or something. For all of Eugene's incessant whining, he's actually right this time around about questioning Todo's trustworthiness. Heck, why not ask Fumitan? As influential as Kudelia's family is, you'd think she'd know someone who knows someone and set something up without Kudelia's sellout dad finding out.

Anyway, Orga should really know better given how much time he has spent with Todo, who's also bringing out the old Gundam theme of kids vs. adults, by the way. Speaking of questionable adults, any old dude who video chats with a young girl while being half naked as sweat dripped down his flabby chest and everywhere else should lose the right to earn anybody's trust about his judgment. Forget corn, I want that stuff outta my face times a hundred.

Meanwhile, Tekketsu's main heroine gets to decompress and spend some time picking corn at Miss Sakura's field at Mikazuki's prodding. Knowing Mikazuki, however, this little side trip isn't just for cheering Kudelia up. It's also to show her the harsh reality and suffering that the less privileged class have to go through, with even a large corn crop yielding very little money thanks to economic exploitation. Then there's the issue of Human Debris such as Akihiro, who are people sold for money and essentially have no rights. Say what you will about Iron-Blooded Orphans story but it certainly doesn't shy away from serious and uncomfortable topics.

The cornfield adventure also leads to a chance encounter with Gjallarhorn inspectors McGillis and Gaelio, who are wising up to the literally hard-headed Conrad's tricks and uncovering details about the failed assault on CGS. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding causes Setsuna F. T-800 Yuy Mikazuki to lose his cool yet again. Uh, that's not the way you apologize to someone you almost killed, dude. For all his natural intuition and skills as a fighter, I definitely wouldn't want Mikazuki as he is right now being in charge of any decision making as he follows his raw instincts way too much. In that sense, he's almost like an animal, which makes the animalistic design of the Barbatos quite fitting. At the same time, it also provides a lot of room for character progression and I hope Mikazuki does show some growth as a character in the future as opposed to just being Orga's fighting yes man. By the way, kids, if a stranger suddenly offers you candy in real life, be wary of them, OK?

All in all, I'm liking Iron-Blooded Orphans direction so far, which has included a nice balance of storytelling and action despite the lack of giant robot fights this week. I especially like how it manages to get an emotional response from the viewer mostly by presenting uncomfortable but serious topics that have roots in real-world problems as opposed to solely relying on the cheap plot device of just killing people left and right. Granted, there have been deaths for sure but they aren't forced and work well within the framework of the story.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to next week's episode, Beyond the Red Sky, which is shaping up to involve the long-awaited trip to space. Plus, it's got space battles, so we'll finally see how the Calamity War relic, the Gundam Barbatos, fares in zero-gravity skirmishes.

Now about getting that corn outta my face...


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