{"id":26657,"date":"2025-09-20T02:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T02:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/26657\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T02:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T02:30:08","slug":"the-dan-da-dan-finales-best-gundam-reference-keeps-us-all-in-the-thrall-of-the-red-comet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/26657\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Dan Da Dan’ Finale’s Best ‘Gundam’ Reference Keeps Us All in the Thrall of the Red Comet"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been a lot to love in\u00a0Dan Da Dan\u2018s sophomore season<\/a>, but the late arrival of the latest addition to Momo and Okarun\u2019s oddball friend group, Kinta Sakata, has been a delight. Manga readers already knew that the character\u2019s debut would herald some wild moments<\/a> from the series being adapted, but one of the absolute highlights of seeing Kinta\u2019s transition from page to screen as a huge mecha otaku is just how much the anime has completely embraced the character as a vehicle for\u00a0Mobile Suit Gundam\u00a0references.<\/p>\n

\"Io9spoiler\"<\/p>\n

Kinta has served as a mecha geek\u2019s fever dream in his brief appearances on the show so far. But this week\u2019s season finale, \u201cClash! Space Kaiju vs. Giant Robot!\u201d gave Kinta and\u00a0Dan Da Dan alike their best homage to Gundam so far.<\/p>\n

Early on in the battle between Kinta and the gang\u2019s nanoskin-forged giant Buddha robot and the mysterious Kaiju<\/a> that\u2019s been threatening them, the mecha is badly damaged and magically repaired by the nanoskin\u2019s psychic abilities into a new, shining golden form for round two. A distraught Okarun, who was promptly ejected out of the robot as the battle began alongside Evil Eye, watches as the reforged mecha charges back into combat, flinging the kaiju around\u2026 and then suddenly, the show switches to slow motion, as we see, faded frame-by-frame, the golden Buddha rise up from its knees into a standing pose.<\/p>\n

\"Dan\u00a9 Science Saru <\/p>\n

Then, we cut inside the cockpit to Kinta himself, who is similarly animated in that framey slo-mo as he arches his head back and a smile emerges across his face. It\u2019s a tiny moment, but anyone who\u2019s as obsessed with the original Mobile Suit Gundam as Kinta apparently is will recognize the homage immediately: he\u2019s pulling a Char Aznable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The moment\u00a0Dan Da Dan is creating comes from an iconic scene in the 1979 anime\u2019s 29th episode, \u201cTragedy In Jaburo.\u201d Having expertly taken out several Federation suits right in front of a shocked Amuro Ray, reeling as he realizes the pilot of the new red enemy unit must be Char, we\u2019re treated to the Z\u2019Gok\u2019s stylish, slow-motion rise, the cut to Char in the cockpit grinning with confident glee, and his iconic theme music<\/a>, \u201cGallant Char,\u201d kicks in.<\/p>\n

The episode marks the first time Amuro and Char actually went into battle with each other in over a dozen episodes, after Char largely exits the picture of the show\u2019s second act once the Gundam and the White Base make their way to Earth.<\/p>\n

Char had only actually returned from being off-screen a few episodes prior (in an episode aptly named \u201cChar Returns\u201d), slowly preparing for his next encounter with the Gundam and its mysterious pilot, so when he stands before the Gundam with his new mobile suit, the aquatic-based Z\u2019Gok, the moment is filled with palpable tension. It\u2019s a brilliantly stylized moment, an important chapter in Char and Amuro\u2019s rivalry and relationship<\/a>, and the exact kind of deep-cut reference a fanboy like Kinta would be dying to make while living out his mecha piloting dream.<\/p>\n

And it shouldn\u2019t be surprising to anyone who\u2019s paid attention to the character so far that he\u2019s in the thrall of the Red Comet<\/a>, as\u00a0Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX so aptly put it earlier this year. From arriving on the scene singing the insert song \u201cChar ga Kuru<\/a>\u201d and recreating animation frame poses from the 1979 classic to giving his summoned robot a classic Gundam V-Fin head ornament, the fin funnels of the Nu Gundam, and even the shoulder armor of a Zaku, Kinta has been portrayed as a loving bundle of homages to the original Gundam so far.<\/p>\n

Although the moment in\u00a0Dan Da Dan doesn\u2019t use \u201cGallant Char\u201d itself (perhaps a wise lesson learned after the season\u2019s previous issues<\/a> with musical homage), the backing does honor it, kicking in a brief staccato set of brass notes as Kinta smirks that are taken right from the original piece.<\/p>\n

Giving him a nod to the foundational mecha anime in\u00a0Dan Da Dan\u2018s all-out Kaiju\/Robot scrap was only fitting. If you\u2019re living your nerdy giant mecha dream, why not follow in the steps of one of the best to ever do it<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been a lot to love in\u00a0Dan Da Dan\u2018s sophomore season, but the late arrival of the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[13913,23339,22220,146,85,46,23340,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-26657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-anime","9":"tag-char-aznable","10":"tag-dan-da-dan","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-mobile-suit-gundam","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}