Gundam 00 has been one of the most ambitious series of the past Autumn-season. It basically tried to show us a view on the world politics 400 years from now, combined with Gundam’s trademark mecha-action. Usually, this comes along with a great risk of screwing up and delving into an emo-fest, though fortunately the director of Ooedo Rocket and Full Metal Alchemist managed to avoid this pitfall, and delivered quite an interesting series. It may be rather rough around the edges, but there’s a lot to like about this series.

A group of four guys with ultra powerful mecha who use them to solve all armed conflicts in the world. This obviously sounds like an incredibly gullible idea to achieve world peace, but the thing is that the characters are well aware that the thing they’re doing is naive. This series never claims one side to be morally right or wrong. It just presents us several different views on the world.

The strength of this series is that it knows how to carefully build up. It’s got a huge plot and a huge setting that it needs to work with, and even though there are a few errors here and there, you can see that the creators have tried to explain as much as possible. The thing is also that the cast starts out as incredibly unlikable, and yet every single character develops, and at the end of the series has turned into something better and enjoyable. With a cast so large and diverse, you’re bound to have a few favourites.

The part in which Gundam 00 screws up the most is the dialogue, though. You can see that it’s one of the few parts that didn’t receive careful attention, and it just serves to develop the characters and the plot, though it does feel rather forced at times.

Gundam 00 is a series that continuously develops both its plot and characters, and things do come together in the end quite good. I won’t to spoil anything, but let me just say that the second season will be completely different from the first. It’s not the best series, but it turned out better than expected.

What the? Did these people hear my prayers or what?? Major spoilers coming up in the next paragraph, and I really mean MAJOR spoilers. This is really an episode where Gundam has really set itself apart from the major other Mecha-epics. This line is here to prevent spoilers to appear on the blog-aggregators like animeblogger antenna.

Great god! I remember making a number of predictions about how this episode would turn out, and none of them came true. Has there really been another series that had the guts to kill off its main cast halfway through? I don’t remember any. And that’s the great thing about this episode, because there were a lot of great characters who remained alive. The technician and Sumeragi are fine and will play a major role in the second season as well, Soma Pieres and Papa Bear also have survived against all odds. Allelujah may be dead, but Hallelujah still shows signs of surviving.

One big surprise was also Graham Acre dying and then getting revived again four years later, bearing the mask that seems to be some kind of trademark for Gundam-series, and the annoying Alehandro Corner kicked the bucket as well. While there was a lack of politics, this remains without a doubt my favourite episode of this series, simply because it shattered so many stereotypes I had about this series. And not to mention, the fights were actually really well done. In the end, it indeed turns out that Livonze will be the major bad guy for the second season.

And then there was the aftermath, and the introduction to the second season. At the moment, I really have no idea what direction it’ll go. The earth is united, there’s no need left for the Gundams, and yet new models have been constructed, along with the help of Nena, the only surviving throne. I remember that the professor once noted that the unison of the world wasn’t Aeolia Schenberg’s original goal, so what would it have been? It looks like Nena will play a whole different role in the second season than I could have imagined.

Saji has also started working on the solar generator, though thankfully four years have passed now, so he isn’t an angsty teenager anymore. Thank god for that. I also loved how Setsuna sent his final messages not to his comrades, but to Marina Ismael. The impact she had on him turned out to be much larger than I expected. I do wonder whether she managed to solve all the problems in her home-country, though.

Some small things: I was surprised to see that Patrick’s still alive. We only see a glimpse of him, but it really looked like Tieria killed him back then. Also note how we never get to see Ali al Sarshes’ eyes. Did something happen to them? And who was this Tieria-lookalike near Louise, and what was Louise doing with him in the first place? The second season will probably shed light into who Nena, Tieria and Livonze are. Livonze also turned out to have some clones with him, so why wouldn’t this be the case for Tieria as well? Although I’d shiver at the thought of an army of Nena’s.

To finish this entry, I just can’t resist another Code Geass reference. It’s just such a good series to show how things should not be done. And the thing I’m talking about here is the cliff-hanger of the first season. I mean, it’s just too predictable: you just know that both Lelouch and Suzaku will both magically survive, and it’s not a god thing to have to wait nine months to confirm that this indeed is the case. Thankfully, in the meantime Dragonaut has showed up and brought us an even cheesier rivalry between childhood friends, and it looks like even Code Geass will be better than that one. I think that the thing that Code Geass needs to do for its second season is to stop putting so much attention to Lelouch, and instead focus more on the side-characters.

I’m not sure whether I should be happy or not to have been spoiled about the contents of this episode. In any case, I was right, and this episode basically built up for the major turning-point for this series that’ll happen in episode 25, but I never thought that it’d do this in such an extreme way.

There were several things wrong with this episode, though. And I’m not referring to the bloodbath. If the circumstances are right, then why not kill off a bunch of characters? It’s a great contrast with series that are just too afraid to kill off their characters because it’ll upset the fans or something. Just to give a small list of who died in this episode (obvious SPOILER warning)

- Tieria Erde
- Patrick Colasour
- Christina Sierra
- Lichtendahl Tsery

Which, if I’m not mistaken, brings the total body-count to ten important characters dead, eleven if Ali al Sarshes kicked the bucket as well.

In any case, my problem isn’t with these deaths. It’s with the sudden uber-technologies that suddenly got introduced out of nowhere. Okay, I can understand why Aeolia Scheinberg never put the Trans-am in his plans. It makes sense that he and his scientists discovered this technology at one point, but decided not to implement it due to the potential dangers of its limited usage. I can live with that.

But where did he pull such a huge space-ship from, and why the heck didn’t he use it?! With such a big cannon, it would have been perfect as an added safety-measure. Really, if the creators wanted, they could have used much better reasons to kill off the members of the cast. The enemies are really no idiots, and I could imagine a few sneaky battle-tactics that would have destroyed the Ptolemy anyway.

And this is just a minor detail, but Lichtendahl was badly developed. I only now realize this once he’s dead, but we should have gotten an introduction that androids or cyborg actually exist. The lieutenant… I still have no idea whether she was a cyborg as well, or just genetically modified. Before this episode, we hardly saw anything about him, which makes his death lack the impact it could have had.

But on the positive side: there was no Saji!

It really seems that Marina Ismael and Saji were meant to be characters for the second season. The next episode will probably kill off much more people, making the Celestial Beings disband without a doubt, and the survivors will probably be the main characters for the second season. Setsuna is the only one where I can say with certainty that he’ll live, as Allelujah also looked pretty bad in this episode.

This is just a guess, but it seems quite likely that the main characters for the second season will be Nena, Setsuna, Marina and Saji, with the major villains being Alehandro and Ali. Of course, there’ll probably be much more characters introduced, but I’m worried: these four are the most immature members of the entire cast. My biggest worry right now is that every sensible member of the cast will get killed off in the next episode. Please make at least one of Sumeragi, Feldt, Lasse or that mechanic-guy survive!

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…