There’s been a lot to love in Dan Da Dan‘s sophomore season, but the late arrival of the latest addition to Momo and Okarun’s oddball friend group, Kinta Sakata, has been a delight. Manga readers already knew that the character’s debut would herald some wild moments from the series being adapted, but one of the absolute highlights of seeing Kinta’s 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 Mobile Suit Gundam references.
Kinta has served as a mecha geek’s fever dream in his brief appearances on the show so far. But this week’s season finale, “Clash! Space Kaiju vs. Giant Robot!” gave Kinta and Dan Da Dan alike their best homage to Gundam so far.
Early on in the battle between Kinta and the gang’s nanoskin-forged giant Buddha robot and the mysterious Kaiju that’s been threatening them, the mecha is badly damaged and magically repaired by the nanoskin’s 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… 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.
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’s a tiny moment, but anyone who’s as obsessed with the original Mobile Suit Gundam as Kinta apparently is will recognize the homage immediately: he’s pulling a Char Aznable.
The moment Dan Da Dan is creating comes from an iconic scene in the 1979 anime’s 29th episode, “Tragedy In Jaburo.” 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’re treated to the Z’Gok’s stylish, slow-motion rise, the cut to Char in the cockpit grinning with confident glee, and his iconic theme music, “Gallant Char,” kicks in.
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’s second act once the Gundam and the White Base make their way to Earth.
Char had only actually returned from being off-screen a few episodes prior (in an episode aptly named “Char Returns”), 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’Gok, the moment is filled with palpable tension. It’s a brilliantly stylized moment, an important chapter in Char and Amuro’s rivalry and relationship, and the exact kind of deep-cut reference a fanboy like Kinta would be dying to make while living out his mecha piloting dream.
And it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who’s paid attention to the character so far that he’s in the thrall of the Red Comet, as Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX so aptly put it earlier this year. From arriving on the scene singing the insert song “Char ga Kuru” 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.
Although the moment in Dan Da Dan doesn’t use “Gallant Char” itself (perhaps a wise lesson learned after the season’s previous issues 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.
Giving him a nod to the foundational mecha anime in Dan Da Dan‘s all-out Kaiju/Robot scrap was only fitting. If you’re living your nerdy giant mecha dream, why not follow in the steps of one of the best to ever do it?
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