Category: Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Short Synopsis: Setsuna and Saji rush in to stop Memento Mori II (oh, and this post has semi-spoilers for the endings of Gundam Wing and Zeta Gundam, for those who haven’t seen them yet)
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
Oh boy, this episode pretty much ranks among the best that Gundam 00 has shown so far. Even if the final parts become horrible (see below), this was a worthy mid-climax. Not only did the orbital elevator indeed fall, the results of it were what made it awesome. It’s already established that pretty much most of the parties apart from the Innovators and the A-Laws top executives aren’t pure evil, so in the end it was great to see everyone preventing the huge amount of rubble that fell from destroying an entire city. It was well built up, with some great results.

It’s a shame that 00 Raiser yet again pulled a power from out of thin air (the incredibly long light saber; this really has to stop somewhere, right?), but ah well. It’s also a shame that Sergei and Hercule died so sudden, but their deaths were memorable. It’s also good to see that Saji for once didn’t whine.

This is also the first time this series has truly impressed me with its eye candy. For the most part, I don’t really care about the graphics of this series, since they’re nowhere near as interesting many different sorts of anime, but I do have to say that those long-distance shots of the orbital elevator in this episode looked really sweet.

Having said that, though, having watched Zeta Gundam recently has made me a bit wary of its confusion. Especially since this series uses lots of references to past Gundam series. The last thing I’d want in this series is a killing frenzy which sends half the cast into emo-mode for the final bunch of episodes. I’d much rather have the final part of this series refer to the finale of Gundam wing, with the huge-ass battleship. Gundam Wing may have done a lot of things wrong, but the finale was pretty good, and at least none of the characters became emo in its final parts. At this point, we’ve seen foreshadowing for both possibilities: on one hand the damage that the elevator caused in this episode is only a fraction of what would happen if a full-sized huge battleship would crash down on earth, while on the other hand Sergei’s death has set Marie in a huge rage for revenge, and remember that Saji and Louise have yet to settle their differences.

Short Synopsis: A-Laws launches its counterattack after last episode’s coup.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
The more I watch this series, the more insignificant Gundam Wing becomes. It really was one of the first series I watched, before I discovered fansubs, so its always going to remain something special for me, but the more I watch this series, the more I’m reminded at the huge obvious flaws of this series. Take the coup for example: it was there, it came from out of nowhere and the Rockefeller Foundation vanished completely into thin air when it was done: we never saw any of is characters back. No retaliation whatsoever.

This episode however showed that A-Laws isn’t giving up so easily, and even Pang Hercule’s fraction isn’t on the good side of the moral scale either: he simply wants to get rid of A-Laws, but does reckon that sacrifices have to be made. This episode overall was a unique one for this series in the way that it didn’t focus on close combat, but instead of high-scale political warfare between the two parties. A-Laws for example sends in a squad of robots that kill civilians, and then edit the image footage of this battle, to make it look like Hercule’s forces are the bastards. And at the end of the episode, they reveal yet another Memento Mori, about to wipe out the enemy forces.

It’s going to be interesting once the Innovators start involving themselves with this political polygon, but unfortunately it seems that they’re just going to sit by and watch everyone kill each other.

Short Synopsis: The Ptolemy is tracked down and the innovators again continue their attack, while Setsuna is away and injured.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Haha! Finally the thing that I’ve been anticipating the most in this series happened: the coup d’etat. Now the fun is really going to start. Let’s see whether that was something that the innovators took into account. My guess is that they too never saw it coming, otherwise they wouldn’t be unleashing an attack at the last possible minute. This coup is definitely going to take care of the one-sidedness of the politics so far in the second season so far (with A-Laws being the equivalent of an evil empire and all).

I’m also glad that in this episode, Saji and Louise finally knew their place: simply as side characters. The battle in this episode put them against each other again, but instead of completely claiming all of the focus their scenes were short and to the point. That’s definitely making their appearance a whole lot more bearable.

The big focus of this episode instead was on Setsuna and Marina, who got to spend some quality time together. Let’s hope that this is going to inspire her to actually DO something relevant to the plot (in fact, it’s going to be interesting to see how Kataron is going to evolve after the coup).

And it has also finally happened: Celestial Beings aren’t the only ones with a Trans-am anymore, and I can already see the system being mass produced before the end of the series, degrading Lockon and Allelujah’s mobile suits to your average custom suits. Tieria’s special powers also have been pretty much useless throughout the series, so the only advantage that the celestial beings have right now is 00-Riser’s mysterious communication powers. Unlike the first season, there’s really not much room anymore for the creators to give any upgrades to the Gundams, so right now it’s going to be a matter of seeing how long they can survive.

Unlike certain other Sunrise series, this show has already shown that this is a series where people die when they’re killed, so the corpses should start falling pretty soon. After all, Gundam 00 has been a show with many references to past Gundam series (and at the same time it managed to keep its own identity, unlike Gundam Seed which if I understood correctly simply completely copied the UC timeline), so I doubt that the creators aren’t going to ignore Tomino’s “nickname”.

Short Synopsis: Gundam goes Macross as the Ptolemy needs to escape last episode’s battlefield.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Haha! I knew it! Sunrise is really planning to make this the next Gundam Wing: a coup d’etat is brewing inside A-Laws, and the way it looks like it’s actually going to be well executed. I remember how the rebel forces in Gundam Wing came from bloody nowhere, but in this series it’s instead carefully introduced, before it finally can hit its climax. At this point, I can only wonder how the creators can bring back Marina Ismael to the Relena-clone that she once was…

This episode was also great in terms of original content. I like the added bit of irony that Ribbons was the one who scouted Setsuna in the first place, and made him a Gundam Pilot. That also just show that innovators age a bit different from normal human beings. Either that or Rivonze was a very gifted child…

Then there’s of course the Macross-ish singing, which for once didn’t save a good guy, but rather kept a villain alive. I’m really not a fan of the invisible speakers that Marina somehow managed to conjure out of nowhere, but he idea is nice and I wonder how far the creators can bring it. At the moment, the Gundams are at the top of their abilities, and I don’t think that they’re going to get much stronger than they are now, so it’s now up to A-Laws (and the future rebels who plan the coup d’etat) to catch up with them in terms of technology again, and this episode showed the first steps to it, in terms of Mister Bushido’s new mobile suit. I have a strong suspicion that he’s one of the people planning the Coup d’etat, especially because of his connections with Zechs.

Also, there seems to be indeed a spy on board of the Ptolemy, but it doesn’t seem to be Anew Returner. It’s probably someone who’s been in the shadows for a while… how about the new girl who replaced Lichty in the second season?

As expected, this episode showed the new OP, while we have to wait an episode for the new ED. And as expected, it’s a nice song with nice visuals, but nothing really special. It’s a pity, since Gundam Wing was the one with the best OPs of any Gundam I’ve seen so far.

Short Synopsis: Celestial Being and Kataron both try to destroy Memento Mori.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
I must say, that even though it was a pretty straightforward episode, it nonetheless was the perfect closure for the third quarter of Gundam 00, and definitely the best episode of the second season so far. At this pace, it’s going to easily surpass the first season. It’s also good to see that the white -haired commander is gone now.

This article is a pretty interesting one, and it shows that anime staff do check the opinions on the net. Unfortunately, on the wrong places such as 2channel… It also confirms a suspicion I’ve had for some time now: the producers indeed were quite limited in coming up with the storyline for this series. I really think that the “Mr. Bushido”-part was thought up by some crazy Sunrise executive who apart from that wasn’t that involved with this series, which is only confirmed by the guy’s glaring absence in any action so far. My biggest problem with Sunrise is with their top executives, who try way too much to make their series sell, rather than the actual production staff. Especially Mizushima did a great job of dragging Gundam back from the pit where Gundam Seed Destiny left it.

The question is of course where this series is going to go after this. Memento Mori is destroyed now, but I doubt that the innovators are going to give up that easily. The huge space fortress is also still missing, so I wonder when that one’s going to show up, although right now I haven’t seen any indication or hint as to how and why the thing will have to be built.

One thing that annoys me though is that these innovators refuse to die after being pwned by Setsuna. They always manage to escape in some sort of escape capsule, even though most other unimportant soldiers simply die when they’re shot. I guess that that’s the privilege of having your own custom built machine, but it remains a bit jarring.

Short Synopsis: Saji and Louise angst about each other.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10 (Lacking)
So, yeah. As the synopsis does suspect: this wasn’t the most exciting episode. I really hoped that Saji and Louise grew up during the past twelve episodes, but they still kept angsting like there was no tomorrow. The concept between the two of them really is fine: two former lovers who end up at opposing sides; it really has potential. If only the two of them weren’t such immature brats. What actually gets me the most is the huge amount of airtime that’s spent on the two of them, while the series really has so many better uses for that.

Anyway, what I did like was the one-sidedness of the war against Kataron. These guys really don’t stand a chance against the super-weapons, especially now that their main space fleet has been wiped out. After they’re taken care of, Kataron is going to run out of opponents aside from the celestial beings, so it’s about time that we’re introduced to the final party in this series. With all the references to past Gundam Franchises, I’m almost positive that the creators are also going to use a few Gundam Wing references, where the Roquefeller foundation was simply brought down by inner conflict. We’ve already seen that a lot of the members of A-Laws don’t agree with their extreme measures, so who knows?

It’s also interesting that finally Ribbons is running into something that he didn’t expect. Finally we see more sides of the guy, which is a good thing.

Short Synopsis: Celestial Being’s home base gets discovered.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
Ah, I must say that this episode ranks among the best episodes of the second season so far. After the build-up it’s finally time for some serious developments, and I really wonder what the celestial beings are going to do now, now that they’ve lost their home base. All that’s left is to make the innovators move away from the evil overlords that they currently are, and I’ll be entirely happy.

And more references to the original Gundam this episode: multiple parts. While it’s not as extreme as splitting an entire mecha in three, the docking scene really reminded me of the “transformation sequences” of the original Gundam. I also liked how the rivalry between Sumeragi and Mannequin is starting to look more and more interesting.

Regarding Anew, it seems that there’s a more complex story behind her than simply being a traitor. When Revive sent his mind crush through the Ptolemy, her reaction wasn’t like someone who had successfully deceived everyone and felt that she accomplished her mission. It felt more like “crap, they found out!”, suggesting that she betrayed the Innovators instead. In the meantime, Nena demonstrates once again that something’s seriously wrong with her, as she plans to kill off Wan Liu Ming because she can’t touch Ali Al Sarshes.

And I must say that it was quite a strange way for the creators to make Saji and Louise find out about each other. Just let the whole transcendental plane that everyone was in become a central part of the story, and not as a cheap Deus ex Machina to bring these two people together. It’s good that Saji finally gained his sense of duty, and let’s hope that he’s not going back into emo-mode in the next episode.

Short Synopsis: Rivonze reveals a destructive death-ray from his arsenal, the final Innovators get introduced and a certain crazy deranged returns.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Okay, just when you thought that those innovator names couldn’t get any weirder after Revive Revival. “Bring Stability”, “Anew Returner”, “Healing Care”… you’d wonder whether these guys are trying to prove a point or something. And the weird names are one thing; I actually think that they’re simple code names, but why doesn’t Rivonze have such a ridiculous name, I wonder? If they’re going to create a patter, why shouldn’t the leader be called something as Imake Anewworld, or whatever.

In any case, in order to create this new world, the Innovators have another typical Gundam staple on their hands: the incredibly huge death ray, this time nicknamed Memento Mori. It’s getting fired surprisingly early, though. Its power in the other Gundam series is that it couldn’t be used often due to the huge energy consumption, but when it was used, then things turned out baaaad. An overuse of such a huge weapon… well, Code Geass showed that to us. The whole thing loses impact. But then again, it would be bad for this series to follow too much into the footsteps of the other Gundams, and of course, firing it from one of the energy towers does explain why it can be fired quite easily, although I do want to see countries running out of energy in the next episode.

The cliff-hanger of this episode was a pretty bad one, simply because it was so incredibly obvious that Sergei is just going to survive. It’s a bit too predictable. On the other hand, I didn’t see Hallelujah’s return coming, even though that one was built up nicely by a few subtle hints. This also confirms that Soma Peries hasn’t completely left, and I wonder what’s going to happen if she ends up against Hallelujah.

Anew Returner obviously is a spy, having been sent by Wang Liu Mei, but the question still remains how exactly she’s related to the Innovators: is she like Nena, or instead a direct subordinate of Rivonze? I could have sworn seeing her somewhere with the other Innovators at one point, so I guess it’s the latter.

What the series now needs to do is make sure of the political repercussions of the Memento Mori death ray. Surely, people are going to doubt the good intentions of A-Laws when they’re firing at their own people and allies, and the resistance against these people should increase.

Short Synopsis: Ptolemy launches into space again.
Highlights: Mostly build-up, but solid build-up.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
And so the Ptolemy is back into space again. Most of this episode was spent on building up, and a few small fight, like Tieria vs Ali al Sarshes. What especially striked me was that Tieria is turning from the most mature member of the four Gundam-pilots into he least mature one. At this point, he’s the only one who is still being driven by negative emotions as revenge: Setsuna grew up, Allelujah got rid of Hallelujah and met Marie, and Neil got replaced by Lyle, who was even more mature than himself.

On other news, my fears got confirmed in this episode by showing the male version of Nena (ugh… guys with pink hair should NEVER be allowed in anime). My guess is that there are eight innovators in total, where the final two are the new pilot recruited by A-Laws and the mysterious man or woman in the preview are the final two. The question still remains where they came from. With the original Gundam-series, this was explained by a simple genetic trait that only pops up very rarely, but with every innovator having a male and female version, you have to wonder whether Nena’s brothers were her genuine brothers, or that she simply was adopted. It’s also interesting that unlike newtypes, innovators don’t have improved physical abilities, but instead have “The Third”-like powers, of being able to hack into any machinery you’d like.

Short Synopsis: No fighting this time, instead: plot development. And a cross-dressing Tieria…
Highlights: Nice developments!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Ah, finally it’s time for this series to reveal what the final stage of Aeolia Shenberg’s plan was. He wasn’t just an overambitious Mother Teresa who simply hoped to achieve a world without war, but also one where humanity could make great leaps of advancements into space. Now Wan Lui Ming’s role in the whole series also becomes clear: she wants to see humanity enter space, and doesn’t care how it happens. Now that the Innovators are closer to achieving that goal, it obviously doesn’t come as much of a surprise to see her on their side now.

Meanwhile, I’m glad that this episode also introduced some of the small scale politics back into the series, with the plans to reorganize the Middle East. I wonder what kind of effect that will have with Marina Ismael. I can really see her being the Relena of this series, where at one point she’s going to take back the control over the region in an attempt to set right the mistakes she made.

And I must say, that more and more references to past Gundam series keep popping up, especially in the second season: Enhanced Soldiers vs. Newtypes, Setsuna F. Seiei starts to resemble Heero Yui more and more, there’s Mr Bushido of course, the deserted island, and Marina vs. Relena. Still, despite the references, I’m glad that this series manages to retain its own goals and identity. The things I’ve read about Gundam Seed seem to indicate that nearly everything inside it was ripped off past Gundam-series.

Tieria in a dress was an interesting piece of fanservice by the way. But I guess that if he didn’t dress up as a woman, people would start to recognize him, but that still makes me wonder why he used a purple wig, instead of a more neutral colour. That’s one thing that’s kept bugging me about this series: the ridiculous hair colours. I know it’s anime and all, but they remain annoying. It works much better if people just walk around in colours that actually exist. Especially since the only people who seem to be affected by these colours are the ones important to the plot…

In this episode we also learn that Louise’s father is a great financer of the A-Laws. That explains her high position, and likeliness of being involved at important places. It makes sense, although she ended up living next to Setsuna in the first episode of the first season a bit too conveniently. Still, I’m glad to see that she’s maturing really fast. The only thing I ask of her is not to go emo like Saji’s doing. There’s a fine line between genuine drama and downright emo, and Saji’s been continuing to hop over that line through the process of the series (thankfully though, he’s the only one so far, and I’d like to keep it that way).