Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

The series's main protagonist, Suletta, a 17-year-old female Spacian and a second-year student in the piloting department representing Shin Sei Development Corporation, who transferred to the Asticassia School of Technology from Mercury. At Mercury, she was trained to be a mobile suit pilot from a young age and was later sent to the academy by her mother, Prospera Mercury, as part of a bigger revenge scheme against Delling Rembran, the CEO of the Benerit Group. She is shown to be a timid girl who has trouble communicating with people other than her mother; she also has a pathological need to be useful, both towards her housemates and her fiancée Miorine. Despite being a Spacian, she becomes affiliated with the Earth House. As the series progresses, Miorine becomes increasingly conspicuous and egregious on how Suletta is manipulated by Prospera, whose sway over her daughter is so great that she can command her to do anything from abandoning her dreams to committing cold-blooded murder. Suletta pilots the XVX-016 Gundam Aerial, a GUND-Format mobile suit developed by the Shin Sei Development Corporation on Mercury. Its main feature are the "Bit Staves", remote controlled drones that can be used both for offense and defense. It is later upgraded into the XVX-016RN Gundam Aerial Rebuild, which has extra thrusters for improved mobility as well as a new rifle that can combine with the Bit Staves to form a large cannon.

In the second season, she loses in a duel for the first time after a serious fight with mentally broken Guel and the intervention of Miorine, who betrays her in exchange for the opportunity to free Suletta from participating in her mother's cruel plans. Ultimately, the girl meets the spirit of the real Ericht in Aerial, where she reveals the secret of Suletta's origin as her clone and finally lost her connection with her and their mother. Following the events on Prospera's attack on Earth and the Dominicus raid on the academy, she fully found her resolve to correct things that she had done wrong. Following the Quiet Zero Incident, her body is starting to feel the side effects of the Data Storm infection done while piloting the Gundam Calibarn but she persevered further and unlocked the highest Permet Score ever done, stopping the Space Assembly League from firing the ILTS while giving time for Miorine to disband the Benerit Group and dissolve and sell all of its assets. Three years after the incident, she is married to Miorine while ongoing rehabilitation due to the strains on piloting the Gundam. Following the reveal of Prospera's true intentions and the discovery that Aerial contains the mind and biological code of Ericht Samaya, her formerly deceased eldest daughter, the Space Assembly League assigned Suletta to pilot the X-EX01 Gundam Calibarn, a prototype GUND-Format mobile suit developed by the Vanadis Institute and Ochs-Earth and was confiscated by the organization following the incident 21 years ago. People in the institute described the mobile suit as a "monster" due to its lack of Permet Code filtering needed to weather out data storms. It uses a broom-like propulsion unit that doubles as a beam rifle.

Other appearances

Suletta Mercury appears in Cradle Planet, a prequel novel to the anime. In the novel, she and her mother move to Mercury. The story is from the perspective of Suletta's mecha, Gundam Aerial, who considers Suletta a sister.^[8] Gundam Aerial provides a viewpoint for Suletta's backstory^[9] as Suletta goes to the Asticassia School of Technology, even though she does not know about Suletta's mother's plans for vengeance.^[8] Suletta also appears in a spin-off manga released in 2025, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: Seishun Frontier, presented as an alternative version of The Witch from Mercury where they are secondary school students in a "near-future Japan".^[10][11]

Suletta also appears in the Gundam game Gundam Evolution.^[12] Regarding media not in the Gundam franchise, she appears in Super Robot Wars Y^[13][14][15] and Monster Strike.^[16] Merchandise featuring or about her includes figures,^[17] barrettes,^[18] and cosplay pieces.^[19]

Popularity

Release of anime series and film Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom marked one of the franchise's milestones at the time, so Suletta was often used to promote the event, along with fellow well-known protagonist Kira Yamato, in many of the franchise's promotions, art, and merchandise.^[20][21][22] Suletta and Miorinne were also part of a sightseeing tour illustration project through 28 locations the series is broadcast on stations including three prefectures.^[23] She was nominated for Crunchyroll's "Must Protect at All Costs" Character in the 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards.^[24][25]

Critical response

James Whitbrook of Gizmodo called Suletta Mercury Gundam's "first-ever primary female protagonist".^[26] He stated that her relationship with Miorine Rembran allowed Gundam fans to see what a queer relationship is like.^[26] AnimeFeminist praised the usage of female characters in Gundam as main characters, claiming the franchise has a poor portrayal of them describes Suletta as "painfully anxious and an instant target for the cruelest students around her" and saw potential to the themes involving Suletta's and Miorine's origins.^[27] Polygon compared her story to Revolutionary Girl Utena and praised her characterization for being different for previous pessismitc protagonists looking for validation but instead a child who wants to befriend others in a slice-of-life story.^[28] Screen Rant noted that ever since the early episodes of the series, people started theorizing that Suletta is a clone of Prospera's real child who exists within Aerial. This is further supported by the commentary of how many years pass in between the prologue and the television series with supporting character Elan Ceres also being revealed as a clone dealing with a unstable body with the original appearing in the same episodes. According to Screen Rant, Suletta's relationship with Prospera instead comes across as unhealthy as the mother is actually manipulating the protagonist similar to one of the earliest antagonistic Gundam character Char Aznable whose iconic look is referenced by multiple Gundam antagonist including Prospera.^[29] SlashFilm noted parallels between Suletta's ignorance about the power of Aerial with modern audience's knowledge of the franchise which leads to a shocking event for the protagonist when Propspera confesses to her daughter that Aerial is one of multiple mechas labelled as Gundam that are commonly known for its usage in wars. This was further noted to appeal to producer Takuya Okamoto's idea of making Witch from Mercury appeal to modern audiences to know the what the franchise is known for, as he believed it was called "boring" during the release of the series.^[30]

The end of the first season of the Witch from Mercury featured Suletta piloting the Gundam Aerial to brutally kill a terrorist. Many viewers and commentators were caught off guard by the sudden act of violence, especially the imagery of Suletta's blood-stained hands and Miorine's horrified reaction.^[31][32] Anime News Network compared the finale to a major twist from Code Geass, another anime project worked by Ichirō Ōkouchi. Both the Witch from Mercury and Code Geass trended on social media as fans reacted to the gruesome scene in Gundam.^[33] Japan's Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization shared complaints from parents about the violent nature of the episode, with many finding it to be too graphic to show at the 5:00 PM timeslot when children are still up to watch it.^[34]