gundam 00 4
Categories: anime, episodic review, gundam
Tagged: gundam 00
20 Comments »
“Enhanced” human soldiers? “Custom” generic mobile suits? “Right” or wrong sides in a struggle? What’s that in the air that I smell? Ahhh… the smell of zero-carbon-emissions Gundam.
This post was almost derailed by three things. The first was that I was so peeved at Umisho‘s ending that I punched my wall and broke my typing hands. Just kidding, but I did punch the wall. The second was that a 5.6 earthquake hit San Jose. The third is that I’ve been marathoning a 2007 anime series that I have never previously written about or thin sliced on this blog, and I needed to tear myself away from it to watch Gundam 00 (if only for Ms. Wang’s outfit-of-the-week). Can you guess what series I’m referring to? Hint: it finished airing in October.
In Gundam 00 news, man! We’re not even a month into the new season, and we’re already in the doldrums. This episode didn’t give us any mecha fanservice, Ms. Wang fanservice, or emo Gundam meisters. What was Sunrise thinking? We’d be entertained by a trivial military action? Plus, Graham’s fight with Setsuna was weak sauce… if it’s making me ache for Athrun vs. Shinn. *shudders* Well, looking deeper and past the lack of Ms. Wang, the episode establishes Celestial Being as an organization that sticks to its convictions. It, and the Gundam Meisters, do not waver when it is dispensing their brand of justice and righteousness. It also gives us a tingle of hope of something deeper, though I wouldn’t exactly count on it. Gundam‘s chance to evolve into political intrigue is only probably greater than my chance to stumble across a nekomimi meido during a 5.6 earthquake.
Points of Interest
One thing that is really, really unsettling about Gundam 00 is how the various characters finish each other thoughts and lines, but it only seems like it’s that way because of how the cuts are done. It’s an useful style once-in-a-while to set how the mood might be similar in multiple places at once, but they’re doing it every episode. It’s a typical Sunrise “Hey, we’ve got a decent idea– let’s beat it to the ground!” hubris, much like the “deaths” in Mai Otome.
(Who the fuck is this person, and why is he taking away precious Ms. Wang screen time?)
I’m usually a fan of the hotshot pilots who don’t have the uber mobile suit. Graham Acre, ridiculous name aside, is growing on me. All he needs now is to toss out a “I’ll make the impossible possible!” while fondling Sumeragi, and he’ll have me at hello.
One bright spot this episode was that we finally get some Marina screen time; in two outfits to boot! I think when I see Marina as the leader of a Middle Eastern country that has run out of oil, that’s like the biggest stretch of imagination for the whole series. Space elevators by 2300? Very plausible. Mobile suits by 2300? Very plausible. 17 (?) year old striking Chinese girl leading paramilitary revolution in 2300? Stretching it, but still plausible. A young woman leading a Middle Eastern country that has run out of oil in 2300? Pure sci-fi. I think there’s a better chance a goddess will pop out of my mirror, a succubus will air drop from a helicopter, a mage from Mid-Childa will teleport in, and a crazy girl on a vespa will crash through my wall while a 5.6 earthquake is occurring than a woman will be installed as a power base in a fundamentalist Middle Eastern country.
(And if her country is collapsing around her, what is she doing lounging around, watching TV, and commenting on Celestial Being? Doesn’t she have meetings or e-mail to take care of?)
Second least plausible thing is that the Gundams (at least the containers stashed on the island) are exposed to aerial photography. I’m shocked that they don’t appear on Google Earth.
Second bright spot would be Christina… I think the Ptolemaios crew and Celestial Being can rival Ninomiya’s harem.
Anemone, did you dye your hair?
The White House hasn’t changed much on the outside in the past two hundred years. So Sunrise is planning a radical Extreme Makeover White House Edition? Ugh.
(So far the only countries named are the US, China, and Brazil. I wish I knew what to do with this information. There’s also a lot of made up countries too.)
20 Responses to “gundam 00 4”
Leave a Reply
Ireland and Sri Lanka aren’t exactly made up…are they?
Anyways Gundam is probably one of the rare few anime franchises that actually attempts at poitical intrigue, so even if it feels slapped on with a gigantic POLITICS banner, at least we’ll know its still gundam.
On seperate matters, what do you think of the entire Nyoro~n fansub dorama? Or has it been mentioned already and I wasn’t aware…
“Second least plausible thing is that the Gundams (at least the containers stashed on the island) are exposed to aerial photography. I’m shocked that they don’t appear on Google Earth.”
I guess they got the Cheney deal.
From the look of things the earthquake was minor good to see folks in San Jose are okay. As much as I like our Union soldiers I hope that the black paint scheme is not going to turn Acre into the black knight who routinely gets his arms cut off.
I second the motion to get rid of that old alcoholic who steals screen time from Ms. Wang. I hope sunrise cuts him and uses the money to fund more Ms, Wang time with more outfits.
As enhanced soldiers go I wonder why Sunrise did not enhance Lt. Soma in other areas.
Talibia, mentioned in this episode, is Venezuela with a disguised name. We know that for sure, because someone in Sunrise screwed up and forgot to change one scene…
http://img139.imageshack.us/my.....17bln8.jpg
Wow, good eyes. :)
Hey, I felt the earthquake as well. You’d be surprised how many nekomimi meido were on the streets. As for the anime you’re marathoning, I’ll guess Dennou Coil. I’m surprised it wasn’t thin sliced, as it was one of the better offerings of 2007.
I was drooling over Felt Grace until I found out she was 14…
Dennou Coil hasn’t finished airing yet – still got at least another four episodes to go. Although it is indeed thoroughly awesome and requires more love in general.
As to what the mysterious series could be though… I don’t know. I’m drawing a blank. I’ll leave it to better minds than mine. :)
Umishio ended too early ;_;
Maybe he’s watching Manabi Stright! I don’t believe it’s been in sliced thinly.
Who got all the benefits can someone explain? The only one I see is Mexico since the border is gone.
Thought the same when they showed the target map in the Ptolemaios. And the guy though not looking like Hugo Chávez, certainly behaves with all the anti-American sentiment as him. He is a Sunrise Hugo with mullet. Now if gundam can solve the current debacle with him in such a swift way would be great. The whole angle of secession and then crawling back to the US was beyond pathetic.
Ms. Wang needs more involvement and screen time not just as the bimbo with dress d’jour.
I am sure the Sunrise political machine got mixed up in the character development. Marina should have gone to the oval office and the guy gone to the middle-east nation. More in touch with current events. Could have named her Marina Clinton or Marina Obama. Gundam needs to stick to emo, yaoi undertones, and good fights. Sunrise’s understanding of politics is more ignorant than actual politicians.
If Honi-Honi is powering the gundams, then why not have some more of them. Just put them under the rain and in couple days they’ll have gundam producing flowers over their heads. Would Exia be as moe as Guchuko’s kid?
potential second season of Umisho squeezed into 2 minutes of credits make Homer something something…
someone needs to hurry up and get on a roll scanslating the rest of the manga. at this point, having volumes 1-2 and most of 3 is not enough.
I want to see miss Wang in a earthquake jsut to see how well she Shakes :D
As for the mysterious Series, it is Nanoha StrikerS.
I don’t think Jason is watching StrikerS, because it finished on September 30th (even in Japan timeline). I was looking in my series log for Spring but couldn’t find it; surely I didn’t watch the show.
I knew it was Venezuela (but didn’t see that picture). In episode two my bet was with Bolivia (Talivia), but I was wrong. yeah. Ireland and Sirk Lanka were mentioned too.
Well, my best guess goes with these two:
1) Seto no hanayome.
2) Heroic Age
3) Nanoha StrikerS (I’ll count it to be safe)
Did I hit the spot?
Well, this certainly was an interesting episode. Seems Sunrise is not too shy to touch real-world issues in this series. Taribia, btw, seems to be Guyana in addition to Venezuela. The other two countries in Veda’s prediction seemed to be Egypt and Sweden… Ignoring the unlikely alliances – I can’t see “Taribia” being in any sort of alliance with the US – there was some interesting political manevering in here. A test of Celestial Being’s modus operandi, and in some other show they would have attacked both sides or the Union fleet. Here however it was realized that should they support Taribian bid for independence they would both fuel the flames of independence movements across the globe, which would go directly against their bid to unify the planet.
I don’t really understand the last question as everyone gained from the dispute politically; Union avoided collapse, US saved face, Taribian head honcho has the unquestioned backing of a political powerplayer nation (he had planned for both eventualities, and his televised speech, in my opinion, was more like a direct challenge to CB rather than the Union), and Celestial Being was able to show how serious they are about stamping down conflict.
This means Marina now knows she can’t flex military muscle to solve her nation’s problems. Most likely, she’ll openly declare her support for CB and welcomes them within her borders. On the other hand, I don’t see how she’d expect this to solve the domestic terrorism. Suicide bombers generally expect to die.
Well, what can I say? I told you so?
As I said in my response to your thin-slicing post ( http://derailedbydarry.com/arc.....ent-154013 ): this show is mediocre. Too much talk and too much political posturing; not enough mecha smackdown and not enough riveting personal drama.
I do agree that the one of the better characters has been Graham Acre. Will he be the next Char-clone?
Was it oh edo rocket?
Yeah, it’s gotta be oh edo rocket.
Sunrise isn’t the only studio guilty of taking a gimmick and beating into the ground this season. I think they’re 3/4 for the cutaway sentence finishes while Kyoani is 4/4 for that kick counter thing in Clannad. Possibly 5/5 as I haven’t seen episode 5 yet, nor do I plan too.
Also, whoopsy on the Venezuela picture Valient posted. Though there wasn’t much doubt as firstly the whole scenario reminded me both of Hugo Chavez and the game Front Mission 4 in which Venezuela tries to withdraw from a supernation that is composed of the same member states as the Union. I’m talking about the USN of course.
For some reason im reminded of Tau mobile suits from WH40k when i see 4th screencap :D