Gundam: The Witch from Mercury — How Japanese Fans Look Back on It: "Watching Guel's stock crash and then moon was the funniest part."
機動戦士ガンダム 水星の魔女、日本のファンが振り返る
“Watching Guel's stock crash and then absolutely moon was the funniest part.”
グエルくんの株の下がり方と上がり方がおもろかった
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury — Sunrise's first TV Gundam led by a female pilot — is the entry English fans most often hear was "a phenomenon" in Japan, but rarely get to see why. On a Japanese fan-reaction thread built around its Episode 1 hook (Suletta's "I'm a girl, though…" / Miorine's "Nice to meet you, my groom"), the most-liked Japanese comments aren't relitigating the divisive ending — they're nostalgic. The recurring themes: how the cast's "stock" violently crashed and soared (poor, beloved Guel and his infamous tent-and-part-time-job arc spawning the "Guel Camping" meme; Suletta being nicknamed the "Mercury tanuki"); how the show's wholesome school-yuri surface kept getting yanked back into brutal Gundam reality ("Stop it!", the tomato, the gut-punch prologue); and a very Japanese piece of media history — the wave of "Lycoris Recoil refugees" who flooded in for the yuri right as it aired, then got hit with YOASOBI's "Shukufuku" going viral. It closes on the kind of one-line verdict only a longtime Gundam fan would land.
Scroll while you watch
Japanese fan reactions (excerpted from 85)
- @ヤマ-y3z👍 51
"Mercury tanuki," "Guel Camping"… man, these old fandom memes take me back lol
｢水星たぬき｣とか｢グエキャン△｣とかなつかしいなw
- @user-np9zj2ul1👍 6
Suletta, as thick-skinned and unbothered as an actual tanuki. And Guel suddenly starting to camp out — I was DYING lol
狸のように図太いスレッタ 急にキャンプしだすグエルほんま草やったわ
- @ガチタン雷電👍 6
Gotta be Guel. The fact that he ends up living in a tent and working a part-time job genuinely blew my mind.
『グエル』だな。グエルがテント生活して、バイト生活したのが凄くビックリした
- @JohnDoe-yl1ul👍 2
The way Guel's popularity climbed up from rock bottom is just hilarious lol
グエル人気が底から上がっていったのホント草
- @KarasuTenngu-l5z👍 2
The cast's stock prices swung so violently… I never imagined Guel (a.k.a. "Bob") and Felsi would end up that beloved.
登場人物の株の乱高下が激しかった…グエル(ボブ)やフェルシーがあんなに人気キャラになるとは思わなかったのだ
- @す翔翔👍 1
Partway through, the "Comet Tanuki" and "Guel Camping" bits kicked off and I literally stopped being able to follow the actual plot.
途中から彗星のタヌキとグエキャンが始まったから本編が頭に入ってこなくなった。
- @八尾奈海👍 12
I've never once cared about a Gundam protagonist before, but I love Suletta.
ガンダムで主人公好きになること全然無かったけどスレッタは好き
- @gsavanna3494👍 34
The protagonist had way more mental fortitude than I expected. I figured the masked mother was going to be a worse-than-Franklin garbage parent, but she actually had real love in there. I braced for a hopeless story, and instead everyone — side characters included — pulled their own minds back together and it landed on a reasonably happy ending. And Chuchu, despite how she looks, turned out to be a real stand-up gal.
思ってたより主人公が強メンタルだった 母親がマスクとか、フランクリン超えのクソ親かと思いきや、割と愛情あった 救いのない話になるかと思いきや、脇役含めて皆自力でメンタル立て直してそれなりにハッピーエンドになった チュチュパイセンが見た目に反して割と男前だった
- @必殺通行人👍 2
Suletta was so well-mannered, and her little-animal reactions were adorable 😄 And — let's not forget — our man Guel 👍
スレッタは品行方正で小動物みたいなリアクションが可愛かった😄 あと、忘れちゃいけないグエルさん👍️
- @yf9346👍 1
Going from that crushingly heavy prologue straight into a yuri romance in Episode 1 — I genuinely had no idea what was happening lol
超重苦しいプロローグからの1話で百合物が始まって、何が起こったか分からんかったｗ
- @イヌ犬-c7x👍 1
The "Episode 0" prologue was so dead-serious that the tonal whiplash nearly gave me a cold.
0話がガチすぎて温度差で風邪ひいてたわ
- @ドルくえ-y5y👍 2
Early on I thought it was going to be school × Gundam × slice-of-life, and then the tomato suddenly arrived and I just sat there stunned. I'd started Gundam with Iron-Blooded Orphans, so I was watching like "oh, Gundam can be this cozy?"… and then it went, ah, no, THIS is what Gundam is. Good memories.
最初の方は学園×ガンダム×日常系なのかと思ってたら 急にトマト来て唖然としたよね ガンダム見始めたの鉄血からだったから ガンダムってぼのぼの系もあるのか〜って見てたらあ、やっぱりガンダムってこうなんや…ってなった思い出
- @DDtakaD👍 8
That "Stop… it!" ✋ moment is when it yanks you right back to reality — oh, right, this was a Gundam show after all.
やめなっ……さい！✋で あぁ……これガンダム作品だったわって現実に引き戻されたよね
- @たってぃ0111👍 5
It's like Revolutionary Girl Utena simmered in a Gundam-flavored broth with a dash of Valvrave spice. And the awkward part is, the scenes doing their own original thing are more fun than the ones paying homage to the old Gundam shows.
少女革命ウテナにガンダム味のスープ入れてヴァルブレイヴのスパイス入れて煮た様な作品。 困ったことにガンダムシリーズ旧作のオマージュ入れるより、独自路線のシーンの方が面白いのですよね。
- @83_Z👍 13
At the time, the wave of "Lycoris Recoil refugees" crashing in and actually growing the new-viewer base was hilarious — and then YOASOBI's "Shukufuku" going stupidly viral and pulling in even MORE people was even funnier.
当時リコリコ難民が押し寄せてきて結果的に新規層増えたの草だったしその後YOASOBIの祝福がクソバズって更に増えたのも更に草
- @noname-qh6xu👍 12
L y c o r i s R e f u g e e S h e l t e r
リ コ リ ス 難 民 避 難 所
- @matsuken0927👍 1
It aired right after Lycoris Recoil ended, so the sudden hit of yuri made it pop off instantly. And then the people who came in for that got it hammered home — via that one "birthday song" scene — that, oh, this is a Gundam show.
当時はリコリコの放送終了直後だったのもあって唐突な百合の供給で一気に跳ねた そうして入ってきた人達が例のバースデーソングでこの作品がガンダムであることを叩きつけられてた
- @showflatkk.3288👍 2
A huge number of Lycoris Recoil refugees who'd just watched one yuri through to the end were looking for the next — the timing was perfect. Also, that "So Mercury's pretty old-fashioned, huh" line really got me.
百合を見届けたリコリコ難民が大量にいてタイミングが良かったってのもある あと、「水星ってお堅いのね」がグッときた
- @白鐘双樹👍 1
"So Mercury's pretty old-fashioned." — "Over here, this is perfectly normal."
水星ってお堅いのね。こっちじゃ当たり前よ。
- @ひでき-c6g👍 1
I went in thinking of it as the Suletta × Miorine yuri Gundam, but the official line was literally "this is not yuri" — and after a story like THAT, denying it is a bit of a stretch, c'mon.
スレッタ×ミオリネの百合のガンダムと思ってたけど、公式は百合ではありませんて書いてあったけど あんなストーリーで百合を否定なんて無理があるぞー
- @New-yukkuriIFch👍 1
It started as a political marriage, and somewhere along the way our tanuki girl had fallen for real — so cute.
最初は政略結婚だったのにいつの間にか本気になっちゃってたタヌキちゃん可愛いね
- @笹見👍 15
The ending did feel like Miorine sort of forced it to wrap up. Even so — yuri label aside — I love Suletta and Miorine so much, just as two people who are partners, that I could watch them forever (*´ω｀*)
最後はミオリネが無理矢理終わらせた感がある それでも、スレッタとミオリネの2人は百合だからとか関係無く人間のパートナーとして永遠に見ていられるくらい好き(*´ω｀*)
- @十六夜久遠-l5n👍 1
"Suletta-mama." Honestly, seeing two women side-by-side in the ads, I figured: after the macho Iron-Blooded Orphans, now it's a "yuri academy" show, huh… but with the two leads' personalities and that murky, messy world — it turned out to be the most genuinely "human" Gundam in ages.
スレッタママ。まぁ、広告で女性ツーショットを観て「漢臭い鉄血」の次は「百合学園」ものかぁ・・・だったんだけど、百合二輪の性格にドロドロ世界・・・久しぶりに「人間臭い」ガンダムだったなぁ。
- @sheephead541👍 18
I'm not sure any other show has ever made me want a proper two-cour, two-season treatment THIS badly.
こんなに2期構成でやってくれと思った作品も無いかも知れない
- @ポイズンベリー-h2p👍 1
It just didn't have enough episodes. The pacing in the back half was genuinely pushing it too hard.
話数が足らんのだよ、話数が。 さすがに後半のストーリー展開のテンポは無理があり過ぎたと思う。
- @フクザク👍 1
Witch from Mercury was great. I wish they'd given it four cours. Suletta's my favorite, I think.
水星の魔女は面白かったよ。 4クールやって欲しかった。 スレッタが一番かな
- @denden-daiko👍 1
On one of the overseas Gundam fan sites, just the fact that it was yuri had the furious crowds on both sides nearly throwing hands — it was an absolute mess lol. With all the LGBT discourse, there's a certain segment that reacts with a terrifying degree of allergy to anything in that lane. The moment you try to go "relax, it's just an anime, ahaha," you get pummeled by both sides at once.
海外のガンダムファンサイトの1つで百合だってだけで両サイドのマジギレ勢がガチ喧嘩に近い状態でめちゃくちゃ荒れてたよ（笑）LGBT云々の流れで、そっち系の話に恐ろしいほどアレルギーを示す層が一定数いるからね。アニメのネタだよあはははなんてやった日には両サイドからボコボコにされる。
- @ねことこ👍 1
I loved Suletta so much I looked forward to it every single week. The mobile suit designs are my favorite of any recent show, too. It'd been ages since something made me excited enough to watch it live AND then listen to the official radio show after.
スレッタが好きすぎて毎週楽しみだった MSのデザインもここ最近の作品の中で一番好き リアタイした後公式ラジオ聴くくらい楽しみだったのは久しぶりだった
- @yoshiyan1868👍 13
"A female lead is great, but I kinda want an old-school Gundam with a male lead" → Hathaway's Flash. Are we due for one more of those mood-swing waves cold enough to catch a cold from?
女性主人公も良いけど、男性主人公の昔ながらのガンダムを見たいなー→閃光のハサウェイ というテンション寒暖差で風邪ひきそうな波が後もう一回あるのかな？
- @foevermeatl3980👍 1
Part of why it blew up is that Iron-Blooded Orphans went… the way it did, so the expectations had built up. Witch from Mercury was carrying all of that.
人気出たのはオルフェンズがアレ過ぎたからその分、、期待はあったよね水星は
More from Japan
📺 AnimeAnimeYouTubeWhy Kaiju No. 8 Never Caught Fire in Japan: Japanese Fans React — "They Made a Mediocre Story... Mediocre."
Kaiju No. 8 was one of the biggest manga launches of its era — 14 million copies in print, a glossy Production I.G anime, an OP by an internationally famous band. So Western fans are often surprised to learn it left a lot of Japanese readers cold. This reaction thread, built around a Japanese fan-critic's video literally titled "Why didn't the Kaiju No. 8 anime catch on," is one of the bluntest looks you'll find at that homegrown disappointment. The recurring themes: that the genuinely great opening hook — a middle-aged ex-kaiju-cleanup worker using his cleanup know-how to fight monsters — got quietly abandoned the moment Kafka joined the Defense Force; that these "kaiju" feel less like Godzilla and more like talking, human-sized people in monster suits; that the much-memed "left elbow, right elbow" copy-paste panel became a punchline; and that fans kept name-dropping a different manga, Rai Rai Rai, as "the Kaiju No. 8 we actually wanted." The most quietly devastating line in the whole thread isn't even an insult — it's a correction to the video's own title.
1534 comments
📺 AnimeAnimeYouTubeWhy Did Levi Survive Attack on Titan? Japanese Fans React — "He Wasn't Lucky. The Brigade Is Worth One Levi."
Levi Ackerman walking out of Attack on Titan alive is one of the manga's quietest miracles — a fan-favorite everyone was bracing to lose, who somehow made it to the final page. A Japanese reaction clip revisiting his survival blew up, and the most-liked Japanese comments turn it into the debate the West never quite settles in English: was it luck, or was it the point? The thread opens on the franchise's most-quoted scrap of dialogue — "Levi is worth an entire brigade" — and the running joke that the truer reading is the reverse: this brigade is worth one Levi. From there the recurring themes were two: the very Japanese reading-experience of following the series purely terrified of when Levi would finally die ("the story took a back seat"), and a serious, citation-heavy fan theory that his survival was never luck at all — that an awakened Ackerman senses lethal danger through the Paths, the way only he and Mikasa flinched at Zeke's rockslide from inside the airship. The luck-camp pushes back, the theory-camp digs in, and somewhere in the middle someone just says he's too short to hit. It lands on the only conclusion the comment section could reach about a 160cm man who dodges everything.
845 comments
📺 AnimeAnimeYouTubeBlue Lock Ch. 350: Japanese Fans React to Ego Benching Rin — "This Finally Feels Like Blue Lock Again"
Blue Lock's latest chapter (350) had coach Jinpachi Ego go fully unhinged again — benching Itoshi Rin, the series' perennial No. 1, right after Japan's loss to France, while Isagi volunteered for the bench himself. The most-liked Japanese reactions split three ways: a genuine re-reading of Ego's philosophy (the top comment realizes his "if you doubt me" line isn't "if you can't follow my theory" but "if you don't believe Blue Lock can make you the world's best"); a wave of dark glee at the untouchable Rin finally getting dropped; and a flood of in-jokes only Japanese readers catch — most of all the panel parodying "The one who's cut is Kaz, Kazu Miura," the coach's infamous real-life line dropping the national-team king from the 1998 World Cup squad. The recurring theme was relief: after months of "this had turned into a normal soccer manga," fans felt Blue Lock remember it was always supposed to be an insane death game, and it lands on the kind of one-line verdict that only a Japanese fan refreshing the chapter at midnight would write.
480 comments
📺 AnimeAnimeYouTubeDANDADAN's "Strongest Yokai" Reveal: Japanese Fans React — "She's the Most Famous Ghost in Japan. Of Course She's Strong."
DANDADAN dropped its "strongest yokai" reveal — and the figure who answered Turbo Granny's call turned out to be Hanako-san, the toilet ghost every Japanese kid grows up terrified of. The most-liked Japanese reactions didn't gush about the art; they explained the rules. The recurring theme was a piece of folklore logic English fans rarely get told: in this world a yokai's power scales with how famous and how feared it is, and Hanako — the undisputed queen of Japanese school ghost stories — outranks almost everything. From there the thread became a crash course only Japanese fans could give: the real 1950s urban-legend origins behind Hanako, why a spirit is near-unbeatable inside its own "territory" (a rule the series set up all the way back in the original Turbo Granny fight), Jujutsu Kaisen jokes about the toilet being her literal "domain expansion," and a running fan tier-list of which legendary Japanese ghosts could possibly be stronger. And underneath all the lore talk, the same warm note kept surfacing about a certain old lady fans can't stop loving.
205 comments