At the prestigious Asticassia School of Technology, an academy charged with educating the children of prominent corporations, disputes between students are settled by duels between mobile suits.
After traveling from a secluded colony on Mercury, Suletta finds herself in a duel with the best pilot in school after witnessing him arguing with his fiancee.
When she wins the duel, she not only wins the hand of his fiancee, but is under suspicion for her mech being a previously banned form of mobile suit – GUND-ARM – a type of mobile suit that syncs with the pilot, but greatly harms them.
Suletta continues to stumble her way through school, leaving many impressed and suspicious in her wake as machinations begin to start unfolding in their small section of the universe.
The director specifically said this was a Gundam meant to appeal to young anime fans not interested in Gundam, which of course upset older Gundam fans. While it takes some time, it starts to show that real Gundam charm while also front-loading visually stunning fights. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, head on down below.
Anime Like Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury
For Fans of Dueling Mechs
G Gundam
After Earth became uninhabitable, the nations that once populated Earth remain divided still in separate floating space colonies. In order to resolve disputes between the colonies, they are invited to the Intergalactic Gundam Fight Tournament which also decides who will oversee the colonies as a whole.
This Gundam Fight invites nations and their proxy pilots to battle one-on-one. One such pilot is Neo-Japan’s Doman Kasshu who accepted the proxy piloting role in order to search for his brother – a criminal that murdered his family and made off with their Devil Gundam.
With his Shining Gundam, he travels from colony to colony looking for his brother, but also meeting pilots that may become his competition in the upcoming tournament.
The Witch From Mercury isn’t the first Gundam to focus on matters being settled by duels. However, while The Witch From Mercury confines those duels to a school, G Gundam is about settling conflicts between nations in Gundam duels rather than wars.
The premise of G Gundam is one that is occasionally very silly in how seriously it takes itself. It plays out more like a shounen battle anime with Gundams, having less of the traditional intergalactic intrigue that Gundam is most remembered for.
Gundam Build Fighter
While interest in Gundam Plastic Models as a hobby waned, their popularity surged when they started incorporating the use of Plavsky particles.
Now Gunpla enthusiasts are able to pit their builds against each other in virtual reality-based battles. Something culminating in the Gunpla World Tournament.
Sei Iori, the son of a finalist in the Gunpla World Tournament, hopes to reach the same level himself. However, while he is an expert builder, his battling skills leave something to be desired. However, a mysterious boy named Reiji quickly demonstrates his battle prowess and the boys decide to combine their talents.
Although innately different in that Gundam Build Fighters is about Gunpla rather than actual Gundam mechs, it actually shares quite a bit in common with The Witch From Mercury.
The most notable thing is that both series have dueling other pilots as a central element to the series. They fight in a system more like Yugioh’s virtual battling system in Gundam Build Fighters instead of for real like in The Witch From Mercury, however.
These series also have a more youthful tone to them. While Gundam can be intricate, serious, and dramatic, both of these Gundam series move away from that by featuring younger characters who very much act like it even if there is more menacing things happening around them.
For Fans of Girl’s Love Shipping Bait
Lycoris Recoil
In order to cut down on crime and terrorism, an organization called Direct Attack was formed. They take orphaned girls and turn them into agents that protect the country in the Lycoris program.
Takina is one gifted agent, but after a hostage situation leads to insubordination, she is transferred out of the main unit to a lower key branch of Lycoris ran out of a cafe.
Despite being paired with a famed, but more easy-going Lycoris prodigy Chisato while there, Takina is determined to get back into DA, but her new partner is determined to prove that there is more to life than just taking lives.
Both of these series, while having great bursts of action, tend to build up slowly to the larger plot that is happening in the show. While doing that, it is endearing you to the characters with cute slice of life shenanigans and strong girls love ship-baiting throughout.
That said, Lycoris Recoil does the better job at making you love its main cast while The Witch From Mercury has some ups and downs in that respect. However, being a Gundam series notable for its intrigues, The Witch From Mercury, when it finally gets there, does a better job at the overall plot.
Symphogear
Under constant assault by an alien race called Noise, society doesn’t know that the idol duo Zwei Wing use their songs to charge powerful weapons known as Symphogear to fight back.
After an attack at a concert, part of the duo sacrifices themselves to save a young girl, implanting a fragment of her Symphogear in that girl in her last moments.
Years later, that same girl awakens the power to defend humanity with the power of the Symphogear within her.
As Symphogears has magical girl-inspired combat, albeit the girls wear a more sci-fi sort of battle armor, they essentially are the mechs when it comes to combat.
However, what these series have most in common is the endless amount of girl’s love bait. However, Symphogears is a bit more “never admitted by perfectly obvious” when it comes to relationships whereas The Witch From Mercury has her engaged to a girl in the first episode.
Shipping bait aside, both shows are also rare shoujo action series featuring strong female characters that are each uniquely developed as they build relationships with each other.
Lapis Re-Lights
Leaving home behind, Tiara arrives at Flora Girls’ Academy and meets her old friend, Rosetta.
At this academy, they train young witches to use spells for combat as well as performing orchestras in order to power themselves up with harvested mana.
Unfortunately, Tiara finds out that the new group she is put into are all on the verge of failing.
Both series are school-based anime series that focus on a new transfer student to that school. After an event, they find themselves draw to students who are the outcasts in that school, but their presence helps elevate the lot of those outcasts.
While Suletta is a big ball of anxiety, Tiara is more your standard cheerful shoujo protagonist who inspires her peers with kindness.
While The Witch From Mercury has its school as co-ed, and thus is not quite as laden with opportunities for it, Lapis Re:Lights, taking place in an all-girls school, has myriad moments of girl’s love bait without ever fully diving into it.
For Fans of Unusual Schools
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Utena Tenjou lost her parents in a tragic incident.
In her despair, a prince came to cheer her up and gave her a ring with a rose emblem. This meeting left such a huge impact on her that she sought to become a prince herself.
Years later, she enrolls in a school that bears the same rose emblem as her ring only to be dragged into the world of Duelists who fight over a Rose Bride that is said to posses great power.
Wanting to prove her worth as a prince and taking offense that the Rose Bride is so objectified, Utena rises to the occasion.
It is hard to imagine that The Witch From Mercury wasn’t at least a little inspired by Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Both series take place in a special school for the elite in which a number of disputes are settled by duels.
The main character gets involved in one of these duels and at the end of its ends up with a bride who is the “chosen girl” that many people want to posses.
As they are her betrothed now and many want that position for their own selfish reasons, this drives some, but not all, of the conflict to follow.
The big difference is that Utena settles things with swords and The Witch From Mercury settles things with mechs. That, and Utena is really quite old at this point.
Food Wars
Ever since he was a child, Souma Yukihira helped his father cook in his restaurant, constantly challenging him to cook-offs in anticipation for the day when he would finally win.
However, when his father suddenly decides to leave to go on a trip around the world, Souma is sent to the Totsuki Culinary Academy, an elite cooking school where only the top 10 percent graduate.
Here, Souma learns that not only are some of his classmates top-tier chefs, but they also engage in intense competitions called ”food wars”.
Like The Witch From Mercury, Food Wars follows a red haired new student who almost immediately crosses the top dog of the ultra competitive school they are in. However, it isn’t mech duels they engage in in Food Wars, it is cooking duels.
While cooking duels seem silly, they are treated as seriously as duels between mechs in The Witch From Mercury. As things go on, you watch that transfer student continually trounce other opponents through these duels as they make friends with outcast students.
Aside from the difference in schools, the major difference between these two is the temperament of the main character. Suletta is anxious whereas Yukihira is nothing but cockiness. This leads to different character development explored over time. Yukihiria eventually comes to accept that there is so much more he needs to learn while Suletta gradually builds confidence.
Little Witch Academia
Although Atsuko is an ordinary girl, she became enamored by witches and magic by a magic show she saw as a kid hosted by a witch named Shiny Chariot.
Now, she has aspires to be a witch, taking the first step by joining a renowned academy for witches called Luna Nova Academy.
Although she faces hardship as a first generation witch and fan of Shiny Chariot, whom many consider a fraud, she and her two friends do their best each new day.
There are a few things in the school setting of The Witch From Mercury that gives off a bit of a Harry Potter vibe, and Little Witch Academia gives off even more of one.
Both series are about girls excited to start their new school, but they almost immediately get into some kind of trouble. Both main character often just kind of stumble into it too.
Both shows have great animation that make them a treat to watch whether it is action or school life shenanigans. However, The Witch From Mercury gets a little more intricate in plot as things go on while Little Witch Academia always remains somewhat light.
Kakegurui
Hyakkaou Private Academy is an institution for the elite of society with a very special curriculum.
These students are the children of the wealthiest people in the world, but they won’t need athletic prowess or book smarts for a successful life, they will need to know the art of the deal and how to read people.
So instead of traditional classes, this school features a curriculum of rigorous gambling where the winners live like kings and the losers suffer.
However, they haven’t seen anything yet until they meet new student Yumeko Jabami.
Both series take place in schools where wealthy capitalist send their children to apparently not learn much of any applicable subject, but to network and learn to be a shrewd businessperson themselves. As such, it makes it a rather large school full of jerks and the people they walk all over.
Both series feature new students coming to that elite school and immediately shaking up the power dynamic with their skills. Yumeko is a bit more intense and a lot more confident when compared to the Suletta and her quivering anxiety.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury? Let fans know in the comments section below.
