Category: Mobile Suit Gundam 00

A Gundam 00-episode without any Saji?! Is it really possible! This episode proves that it is. Incidentally, it’s also one of the best episodes of this series yet, as this series finally sets itself apart from Gundam Wing, where the main cast just refused to die no matter what.

Right now, the thing that this series now needs to worry about is not to dive into some kind of vicious emo-circle because of the death of Lockon. It’s good that everyone’s moved, but that should be a sign for character-development. It shouldn’t be the green light for an emo-fest that’s about to happen.

I’m also getting a bit worried about the side-characters, though. The side characters have been dangerously neglected for the past few episodes. We’ve now seen plenty of the main characters. They’ve developed and all, but I can’t really say that about most of the people that the Celestial Beings are up against. Even Ali Al Sarshes never really changed. Of course, the rest of the first season probably won’t change that, because it needs to build up for the big twists at episode 25 (I still believe that the Celestial Beings will split up around that time), but it would be nice if the second season for Gundam 00 would actually pay some more attention to the side-characters.

Now here is an awesome episode! It’s episodes like this one where everything comes together. Not in an extreme way like in Code Geass, but through a logical flow of events, that actually makes sense. At least, for the biggest part. There were a few plot-twists that just were too perfectly timed together. Thankfully though, this series has always managed to keep these kinds of twists right within the boundaries, and not the biggest focus of the episode anyway.

Because this episode was really about the death of two of the trinities! Mihael and Johan, both gone, with only Nena surviving. It’s a pity that the most annoying of the three had to survive, but something tells me that that girl is about to get a lot of character-development. Just one thing: don’t make her and Setsuna become lovers! This just isn’t the series that needs teenage romance!

Saji also received less screen-time than ever (about two seconds), so overall, I’m quite happy about what went on. It was also surprising that Aolia Shenberg put himself in a sleep, to awaken when the world has changed. Well, he’s dead now, and revealed his final trump: full utilization of the GN-drives, and probably the last push that the Gundams will get. From here, they won’t get any new powers, and they’re just going to have to survive with the slight lead that they have.

As it turns out, the Trinities were never part of Aolia Shenberg. They were just developed at a later stage, and improved here and there. What’s interesting is that the developers never suspected the hidden powers in the real Gundams. It also turns out that the betrayer worked on the Trinity-camp, and he was probably the one who gave the Trinities their assignments. This is also why the GN-drives in the hands of the AEU, HRF and the Union also won’t get these extended powers.

What this series now needs to do is progress in a logical way. Coincidental slips like this one are fine once in a while, but it mustn’t get out of control, like what happened in Code Geass. I still believe that the first season will end with the Celestial Beings disbanded, and especially now that Aolia Shenberg is dead it looks more and more likely to happen.

Really, this series is getting more interesting with every episode now. With only just one test-battle, the new units have managed to damage one Gundam, which means that the defeat of the Gundams will be just a matter of time. If I had to guess, then the creators are indeed planning to make episode 25 some kind of huge turning-point, and it really seems like the second half of this series will be totally different from the first one.

Especially Sumeragi and Alejandro got a lot of attention in this episode (finally I can understand why Sumeragi has been selected as the tactical advisor), and Alejandro is proving to be a very interesting antagonist. The Gundam Meisters too were quite interesting in this episode, as we get to see what would happen if the Gundams were to abandon them. For Setsuna and Tieria, this is the biggest shock. Setsuna gets reminded of his time as a child-soldier, while Tieria just was too afraid to do anything, even when the back-up system returned.

Speaking of Setsuna, this guy is actually becoming one of my favourite characters of this series. I’m not sure what it is; his ideals are very simple and naive, and yet I like what the guy is trying to do. His ideals are clearly on the good side of the spectrum, but yet they’re not as one-sided as in for example the lead guy in Princess Mononoke.

But seriously… would it really be too much to ask for someone to just SHOOT Saji? Okay, I could have seen it coming that he would spend this entire episode mourning about his sister, but the fact remains that he’s been by far the most annoying character in this series.

Ah, finally. In this episode, the thing that I’ve been wishing for finally happened: The Union, HRF and AEU get themselves some access to Gundam-technology. Now, the Celestial Beings aren’t special anymore, and this anime can get started for real. We also get the next major villain confirmed and overall, this was a pretty good episode.

There’s just one thing: Saji. I really don’t like where this guy is going now that this episode killed off his sister. We’ve currently reached episode twenty, and every single character has become more likable, even the Trinities, apart from this kid. Really, what are the creators planning with him? He spends the current episode still being sad about what happened to Louise, and just imagine how he’ll go crazy when he finds out that his sister’s dead. He must have some kind of major role to be featured in every single episode, so I really hope that he won’t screw up this series with his pointless angst.

Also, I wonder who the traitor was that sold the Gundam-engines to the outside-world. At first, I thought that it was Alejandro again, but he was too busy in this episode with finding Veda’s location, so he couldn’t have done it. Speaking of the guy, I’m interested to know how he met that Livonze Almark, and how that guy has the same glowing eyes as Tieria and Nena.

This was probably the first real character-based episode of Gundam 00. The story has become a tad dull for the past few episodes, but thankfully the characters are making up for it. One of the things I like about them is how the creators know that their ideals are cheesy, and because of this, the characters themselves realize this too. The way this is used has become pretty interesting.

The fight unfortunately ends with both sides retreating, after Tieria realizes that the thing that Nena altered in Veda was the data in Nadleeh. Johann also reveals that he’s been watching the Gundam Meisters through Veda all along, and that Setsuna was involved with the organization that killed Lockon’s parents. We see the head of the United Nations (forgot his name) smile as this happens, and he also mentions that Stage 3 has begun now. He claims to be just an observer, but it seems that he knows every detail of the complot.

One thing that surprised me was how Nena was actually surprised when she saw Nadleeh, even though she was the one who hacked into Veda… The episode ends with a bunch of people, entering a mysterious base in Antartica. I’m not sure what was up with that, but we’ll probably learn this in a few episodes. The plot had better get moving fast now.

On a side-note: I did like how Lockon didn’t go all emo when he found out that Setsuna was affiliated with the ones who killed his parents.

Unbelievable. I don’t think that ten episodes ago, I would have expected to be glad when Setsuna showed up and acted on his own again, like he did at the end of this episode. It’s interesting how this guy has been fleshed out pretty well for the past eighteen episodes, and I hope that in the next episode, he’ll kick the Throne Gundams’ ass.

Basically in this episode we finally know why Saji and Louise have been included in this series in the first place. Louise turned out to be the victim of the first Gundam attack on civilians. She survived, but she lost her family and her hand, all at once. The culprit was basically Nena. It’s seriously been a while since I hated a character this much.

I realize how this of course is all of the creators’ intentions, but I have one major problem with the Throne Gundams, or the Trinities to be exact. In a way, they had it coming that they’d start attacking Civilians at one point, since there’s doesn’t seem to be any adult around them to keep them in check, unlike the original Gundam. Nena has basically the “dictator-syndrome”. My problem with this is that one of the reasons I came to like this series is how nearly everyone’s alignment is in sort-of a gray area. There’s nobody purely good, and nobody has been 100% evil so far.

But yeah, the Trinities are now basically portrayed as pure evil, and with this episode, they’ve also labelled the original Gundam Meisters as the good guys. This basically means that Gundam 00 is dangerously close to becoming a cheesy good vs evil-battle, instead of the political intrigue that made the previous episodes so enjoyable. I know that it’s only been three episodes since the Trinities have been introduced, but these guys seriously NEED some development! Why the heck did they end up piloting the Throne Gundams anyway?

A lot is going to depend on the next episode, and how the fight between Setsuna and the Throne Gundams will end. One major fight between them is okay, but I don’t want this series to end up with a long war between the original Gundams and the Throne ones. It’s annoying, this series was finally beginning to get developed, only to introduce some newly underdeveloped plot-devices who probably also need eight more episodes to fully unleash their potential.

Yup, indeed. The Throne Gundam Meisers are a bunch of inexperienced idiots, even more emotionally unstable than the original four Gundam Meisters. Both Michael and Nena have no sense of subtlety, and I especially dislike Michael. Ah well, at least they’re good for some development for the main cast. This episode reminded me again of why Tieria turned into my favourite characters for this series. He’s the only one who really tries to use his head. Setsuna is also turning more likable with every episode now that he too became sceptical of his mission.

Also, I don’t understand one thing… how did the Throne Gundam Meisers know that the professor finally found out their plans? Okay, I can understand the superpowerful Gundams. This episode also gave a pretty good reason for why everything took 200 years to finally get started, because the Gundams could only be created on Jupiter. But the l33t hax0rz skills of these people are starting to get a bit ridiculous. There’d better be a very good explanation, because you don’t just “hack” yourself into a random government institution and get away with it. Heck, if things go wrong, you can easily be traced back by the right expert.

And regarding Jupiter, it finally seems that the enemy has obtained some information about the Gundams in an abandoned space-station near Jupiter. Lockon’s flying ball also mistook the Throne Gundam’s flying ball for his brother, while it seems that this brother was actually left behind on the Jupiter Space-station. I do wonder, though, how did these people find out about Jupiter, six years before everyone else?

And on a completely unrelated note: Saji has to say goodbye to Louise, who heads off to Spain. And still there is no new connection whatsoever between the guy and the Gundams…

So, yes. This episode was for one half a recap, and for the other half it’s the proper introduction of the new Throne Gundams. Ah well, at least it was good for one thing: making me look forward to the next episode. Looking back at their intervention, while the presentation could have been better, it does make sense. I mean, Scheinberg had to have thought of the possibility that entire armies would end up against the Celestial Beings. Building in such a safety would be a great tactical move. It’s a real shame that none of the Gundams was captured, but I think that this is just going to be a simple matter of delaying the inevitable. It’s clear that the CBs have a lot of tricks up their sleeve, but these tricks have to run out at some point.

I don’t like the three new pilots of the Gundam Thrones, though. While I expect that they’ll work great when they’ll meat the normal Gundam Meisters (which is the reason why I’m looking forward to the next episode so much), on their own they seem really dull and uninspired. Especially the girl: she’s well-endowed, has a high-pitched voice, and doesn’t seem to be well-gifted in the intelligence-department.

One thing that could be interesting for the future episodes is how the three Throne Gundam Meisters lack one important thing: battle experience. Their Gundams may be fancy, but I can’t imagine how they’ve ever used them in a serious fight. Also, why was Sumeragi so worried during the battle? I mean, didn’t she know that the Throne Gundams would appear? Or could this be something that still needs to be revealed?

Well, Deus ex Machina aside, I really liked this episode. Of course, the worst thing that the creators can now do is carry this Deus ex Machina even further by making all of the Gundams escape without a scratch. That would really ruin everything this episode built up for. But for now, I’m content with Setsuna being the only one who escaped the fruitless battle of this episode.

I’m surprised that Veda didn’t do anything to stop them, though. He too must have seen that a battle of 4 versus 1000 was fruitless to begin with, and his whole plans seem ruined now, with three of the four Gundams being captured. I’m worried about that big black Gundam, though. I have the feeling that it will either make, or break this series.

One thing that I really liked about this episode was how long the fight took. Not in terms of airtime, but the actual duration of the battle (over fifteen hours). All that time, the pilots were waiting for the inevitable, or a chance to escape. The other Celestial Beings meanwhile had now way to communicate with the Gundams due to their particles, so they had no idea what was going on, for fifteen whole hours.

Thankfully, the new OP and ED are much better now. They’re still a bit standard, but the first OP and ED just didn’t fit this series, not to mention that the ED finally has some quality animation that this series has been surprisingly lacking, considering the timeslot it’s on and all. I’m glad enough that they fit the epic feeling of this series. I still remember how the first ED gave me a headache when I watched it for the first time.

In any case, this episode is an intermezzo, introducing the next and biggest challenge for the Gundams yet, when they basically have to take on all kinds of elite-pilots from both the AEU and the Union, teamed up together. We also get a bit more information about how humans are able to live in outer-space for so long: by use of nano-machines. I must praise this series for this, because I think that it’s the first anime that I’ve seen that considers the strains on the human body if it lives in outer-space for too long. I now also know why we sometimes see the crew back on earth: to remain mentally healthy (hah!).

And Setsuna yet again surprises us with his sense of duty when he yet again goes off on his own. This time, he goes to visit Marina Ismael (whose guards are surprisingly lazy) while she’s sleeping for no particular reason. Still, I finally see where the creators are going with him. I think that it’s safe to say that he’s the youngest member of the Celestial Beings, and I don’t think that when he became a Gundam Meister, he was so young that his sense of duty wasn’t really that of an adult, and I also doubt that he had any choice in that matter. Someone like Lockon just had one horrible experience in his past, but Setsuna never got the chance to grow up normally.

In any case, because of this he’s the most sceptic Celestial Being about the mission. Something tells me that all he cares about is Exia, not the ultimate mission of the Celestial Beings. This episode mentioned it as well: he’s beginning to see himself as some kind of God, instead of a killing-machine. Because of that, he’s starting to wonder why people fight in this world. And something tells me that Saji and Louise (whose mother finally left in this episode) will play a key-part in this.

Sure, the characters are definitely not the most likable out there, and I don’t deny that some of them are pretty stupid, but their development has been going into a very interesting direction.