gundam 00 6
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Tagged: gundam 00
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Not even a massive global conflict can stop the Ms. Wang and Captain Sumeragi fashion extravaganza. Just the way we want it!
There’s a lot of stuff to cover, so I’ll cut the intro short: Gundam Meisters and bridge bunnies return to earth to stop a manufactured conflict by the AEU to lure out Celestial Being. Celestial Being takes the bait… and Setsuna falls for a trap. For an episode that prominently features France, it’s not half bad.
Points of Interest
Bonzai! Two separate outfits this episode for Ms. Wang and three new for Sumeragi. I’m rediscovering my love for Sunrise. The only notable female character left without a costume change is, I think, Louise. I’m also thinking, “Man, why did it take this long to get Gundam into HD?!?” The animation quality so far in Gundam 00 is just blowing Seed out of the water. We haven’t gotten a repeat battle sequence nor a repeat Ms. Wang outfit. It’s like I hardly know you anymore, Sunrise.
And Sumeragi’s are like… scary. It’s just one of those things you can’t predict. A month ago, I was laughing about how Gundam 00 would turn into the new Gundam Wing. Now we’re soaked with copious amounts of Ms. Wang and Sumeragi goodness. (Marina x her aide has also gotten a lot of yuri fan works associated with them.) I hope all this non-yaoi goodwill isn’t lulling me into a false sense of security for when the Setsuna x Lockon hardcore hits.
Very scary. Scariest breasts since Britney. Nonetheless, with Sumeragi visiting Ms. Wang, it does put things into perspective. Oh well, with them together, Ms. Wang and the rest of the bridge bunnies feel like an actual team, even if I’m not sure of Ms. Wang’s role other than “distract us with pretty outfits.” I also noticed that all of the support people are female while all of the Gundam Meisters are male. Extrapolating this message, is this Sunrise telling us what gender roles are? Because millions of kids will be watching this and thinking that women should stay home and hack into military networks while the men should settle their differences with beam sabers.
I’m enjoying Christina’s appearances as well. Gotta love how Celestial Being is about to engage in a major military action, and all the support team can think of is shopping. Oh wait, didn’t this already happen in Gundam Seed Destiny to my derision when Lacus took everyone out shopping before the final battle? The difference: This is episode 6, not 47 and didn’t involve a spinning Meer.
(The bridge bunnies staying in that hotel remind me more of a bachelorette party than a paramilitary organization bent on revolutionizing the world. “Hey, let’s stop war… but first let’s hit that sale at Macy’s and get drunk at a bar!”)
Brings back memories of Rahxephon… anyway, the relationship chart for Gundam 00 is getting real complicated, though not at the Keroro Gunso level yet.
(Though we do find out that Sumeragi’s a tactical genius. I’d pay to see Sumeragi, Lulu, and Tessa square off in a free-for-all game of Civilizations IV.)
I wonder if Kuroda sometimes just lapses into Honey and Clover or Onegai Teacher mode when he’s writing for Gundam 00, and everyone else is too scared to question him. “Mmm… why are the girls shopping and playing dress up before a major battle?”
(Is Felt the token DFC? It’s like there’s no DFC in the future of Anno Domini. It’s like Sakura Kusakabe‘s worst nightmare. Felt also feels like… pun not intended… the Darry of Gundam 00. Maybe it’s the hair color.)
Whoa! There’s mobile suits and war in this episode as well? I like the Gundam upgrades, just because they can sell more toys and make the Gundams even more ridiculously overpowered. I’m not sure how these new swords are upgrades over the beam sabers that Exia already has, but, whatever. I am giddy though about how Setsuna has nothing in his life except for Exia… it wasn’t Setsuna x Lockon that I should have been worried about, it’s Setsuna x Exia. I’m also giddy for “eCarbon.” Hopefully this leads to a cool white, touchscreen operated “iGundam” that requires a data plan with The New AT&T.
(What are the odds that Setsuna was getting off when he saw the new blades for Exia? I’d say three-to-one.)
Seeing Dynames in its new armor reminded me of a typical cloak that Sagara would wear. Gotta love Lockon’s “Hey! I don’t need to aim! It shoots itself!” I felt like I was watching an infomercial at 2 in the morning. If you act now, you’ll get a free bottle of the original Orange Clean!
Every entity so far has an ace. Union has Graham Acre (when he’s not moonlighting on Clannad), HRL has Anemone and Sergei, and I cannot accept Patrick as AEU’s ace. Ali Al Sarshes? Now there’s a real ace for AEU. He’s the Gauron to Setsuna’s Sagara, and, we were wrong. All wrong. Gundam 00 is not a remake of Wing. It’s a remake of Full Metal Panic. When Ali popped up and Setsuna started breaking down, I was expecting a “Kashim! How ya doing, MY HONEY!”
Heck, Full Metal Panic and Gundam 00 have even more similarities than just Setsuna/Sagara and Ali/Gauron. Lockon/Weber? Tiere/Clouseau? Christine/Kyoko? Felt/Ren? Sumeragi/Tessa? Ms. Wang/Mao? Marina/Chidori? GN Drive/Lambda Driver? Exia/Bonta-kun?!? I’m digging it. Especially if Marina whips out a huge ass paper fan.
Clouseau has that sensitive side (Tessa OVA), and Tiere… god damn pink sweater. Seriously, is he auditioning for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?
(Another bad prediction: Setsuna being the first Meister to go emo and jeopardize a mission. I would not have guessed Allelujah. If you had him in your anime blogger “first emo Meister” poll, more power to ya.)
Proper usage of pink. Proper.
They always seem to pick on Exia. Graham did. Sergei did. Ali did. Is it because Exia is the weakest link? Or is it Sunrise writing at its finest? Okay, I shouldn’t complain after they gave us so much bridge bunny goodness this episode.
And, finally, from last episode…
Vallen Chaos Valiant:
1. They haven’t mastered fusion
2. Fission was probably all used up when they needed a stop-gap boost of power source while they built the Space-elevator over the decades.
3. After it is set up, solar power is still not free, but is never the less far cheaper.
4. They needed orbital stations because this isn’t JUST about replacing power plants, but also replacing fossil fuel all together via hydrogen generation. You might be able to run your house with solar panels, but you can’t fly fighter aircraft with them. You are replacing oil, coal, and likely natural-gas, this means a LOT of hydrogen.
There’s a lot of assumptions with the premise behind Gundam 00, but my philosophy is that I can buy that premise as long as whatever falls out from that premise stays true to the premise. For example, I can believe that the Cylons ravaged the colonies and that the remaining humans are struggling to survive. I refuse to believe that there were could be a controversy about abortion when there’s only 40,000 humans alive total. I have a secondary philosophy is that basic physical laws can’t be broken. For example, Cylons are supposedly indistinguishable from normal humans, but they have the ability to transfer their “being” into another body if the original stops functioning. Well, if they have the ability to send shitloads of information across vast reaches of space, they would have to have a distinguishing feature: an antenna and transmitter! Surely the humans of Galactica can figure that out, if they’re not still bitching about abortion.
Oh wait, Gundam 00… ah yes… the problem with the solar panel in space solution in Gundam 00 is that it does eschew fission, which is a major source of power for nations around the world, notably France. Most nuclear fuel used today is not recycled, and with newer plants, they could and extend the amount of usable uranium in the world tremendously. Also, two more infant alternative energy sources, fuel cells and biofuels are neglected. Most of Brazil’s energy comes from biofuels.
The funny thing about Gundam 00‘s solar panels is, of course, that the power necessary to send the panels into space is so tremendous, those panels will probably never generate enough energy to replace the power it took to enter earth orbit. One feasible way is to use a space elevator, but that’s what the solar panels are part of and how the panels transmit energy back down to the earth, and in Gundam 00, the panels seem to be in space prior to the space elevator.
Kendra Kirai : First of all, why only solar? What’s wrong with fusion power? It’s not like there’s a shortage of *water*.
Canada has one of the world’s greatest supplies of fresh water. Unfortunately, water will probably be a bigger issue than oil fifty years from now. Most places do not have access to clean water. Unlike oil, there’s no alternatives for water when it comes to healthy bodies. The big problem with fusion, of course, is that it’s still unproven. It’s a tier lower than solar, wind, geothermal, wave, biofuel, biomass, and fuel cell technologies.
(My favorite misunderstanding of energy has to be The Matrix. It takes more energy to keep a human alive than a human could generate. It would be more energy efficient if they just used humans for biomass than as a battery. Or just use the energy used to keep the human alive. Then again, I’m picking on a Keenu Reeves movie… that’s like picking on a Sunrise anime.)
kt: I doubt the roof solar cell could cover more than 10-15% of the future household need.
Actually, solar cells on a roof can easily cover most of a household’s needs. You do not need to use photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into energy. The best example is that sunlight can heat up a hot water heater (and properly insulated, it can keep its heat all night, even in Maine). This is inherently much, much, much more efficient than converting solar power into electricity, storing the electricity, and then turning the electricity into heat. For appliances that do require lots of electricity that needs to be stored, I’m sure capacitors will replace batteries someday… maybe soon. But you don’t really need to replace all the power, because you will have access to other forms of energy, like fission and wind and hydroelectric. Solar does have one benefit that during times of peak power usage, that’s when you get peak solar production.
I live in the SF Bay Area, and people here are adopting this hip “green” philosophy, but we still lag behind one of the world’s greenest nations: Israel. Because they do not have easy, cheap access to natural gas, coal, or oil, they were forced into alternative forms of energy, and they even think they can be rid of non-renewable energy in 30 years. It’s fascinating what people do when they really go up against the wall. Since gas in America has been so cheap for the past 20 years, there really hasn’t been any motivation to develop other forms of energy. With gas quickly approaching $5 a gallon, yeah, there’s a lot of interest in other forms of energy. I somehow get the feeling that Azadistan would be more like Dubai in which it knows its oil is running out, so it’s trying to create an economy in other ways.
Tidal: c’mon guys, its freakin gundam. the point is to make the tech seem sensible, not believable.
It’s anime. Therefore we can’t criticize it’s realisticness. I don’t buy that argument because good writing overcomes these boundaries. For example, would you ever believe that a Chinese girl, a Jewish white guy, a black guy, and a Japanese salaryman would ever, ever team up to run a smuggling business in the South China Sea? Of course not. But the writing was crisp enough and fun enough that we didn’t care. It was made to be believable to the point that I can’t picture Rock without Revy or Benny or Dutch. Gundam 00 just kinda tosses out “world is out of fossil fuels, and if you don’t have access to a space elevator, you are screwed.” It needs to back it up. At least Black Lagoon tried to come up with an excuse that brought everyone together.
Tally Solleni: The “pink mobile suit†bit brought to mind the trailer for Gyakuten Saiban: Yomigaeru Gyakuten, where everyone makes fun of Mitsurugi for having a hot-pink GBA SP…good times.
I award you +5 fanboy points for that one. Anything that relates pink Gundam to Phoenix Wright is fantastic.
Epi: In rod we trust.
Genius. Was the rod made of eCarbon?
Tim: I like my giant death-machines to be powered by happy rays of sunshine. Do not destroy my dreams.
Yep… these are my readers.
40 Responses to “gundam 00 6”
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Sumeragi-neesan is amazing… wait, I think I saw this pattern somewhere else…
Ali Al Sarshes copies Kashim’s DNA right down to the unshaven chin.
Makes you wonder if we get another season of lucky star, we get Gundam 00 yaoi doujin of…on second thought i’d think i’ll get back to my happy-sunshine powered “It’s not believeable, but it looks so good i don’t really care” death machines.
My comment about water was actually directly linked to the fusion comment. Water is made up of two extremely common, and very fusionable molecules; Hydrogen and oxygen. The result of hydrogen fusion is Helium. The result of oxygen fusion is…oddly enough…oxygen. (Well, Ozone). Even if you just used the hydrogen, you could easily cycle the oxygen into a life support system.
Yeah, fusion is unproven *now*…we can’t yet create a fusion reaction that will give more energy than we put in…but fusion is fairly easy to do. There are people building fusion reactors in their basements. I don’t think it’s a major leap to believe that in four hundred years we’d have some sort of fusion power system. Maybe not small enough for a Mobile Suit or something, but certainly suitable for powering a city. I find it interesting that although there’s an effectively limitless supply of energy from the solar stations in orbit…power would still appear to be relatively expensive. Strange, that.
You mean Gauron’s DNA. Kashim is Sagara who is paralled to Setsuna.
I’m praying for just straight relationships on this series, well, shoujo ai is fine, but fuck it if SUNRISE pulls some shounen ai.
BTW, all this Full Metal Panic similitues, I think the mobile suits for the AEU looks more like Arm Slaves. And good for Monaco (Moreria, a good Google Earth reseach and Wiki), in 300 houndred years from now they will be a small Disneyland for mercenaries.
Boobs! Butts! Glamour! Fashion! Oh, and some prettyboys piloting mecha, but that’s just a diversion. Seriously speaking, plot-wise Gundam is following a logical progression; as CB has already locked horns with the two other superpowers so far, AEU is the next opponent. But come on… “Moralia”? The country names just keep getting worse. I suppose it is their fictional counterpart for Monaco. I’m also happy to know I’m not the only one who got sudden FMP vibes when the Setsuna – Ali flashback jumped up. Most likely, it portents that he is the next Meister to jeopardize a mission (dukes it out with Ali instead of sticking to mission objectives).As for ms. Wang’s role, I assume she’s one of CB’s main funders, as she doesn’t seem to be short of money. Given her frequent appearances, she may have deeper relations to the organization as well. And how did they get that Gundam equipment to the island? Boat? Airplane? Someone’s bound to locate them with Google Maps…
Northernshadows, please do not try to apply logic to Sunrise plots … it does not work and it will only leave you with a headache.
Ahem unless Sumeragi is giving specific orders in response to the flow of battle she is not a tactician. Strategist perhaps, but she is most definitely not a tactician she’s not even on the front line…Also as “epic” as her outfit was I can’t shake the feeling that her jubilees were sagging.
Also how is Civ IV supposed to be a test of tactical mettle? Strategic mettle perhaps. Its turn based and boils down to math to determine winners. Besides if any of the participants were any good the game will not progress to the modern age as Tessa would have crushed them long before then. Company of Heroes would be a better test to see who is the superior tactician in the anime sense.
As to Exia’s disproportionate screen time I suspect that Sunrise over invested in Exia toys. We all know emo”don’t touch me” altar boy sucks and Dynames is the superior machine with a superior pilot.
On my lunch break at home, so I’ll make this short. Sumeragi’s four different outfits in a single episode is freaking amazing. I don’t think this has ever been done before, so that in itself is groundbreaking. I will say that the melonpan seems to change sizes between outfits shows a striking similarity to… I’m gonna say it… Lindsay Lohan.
Now what else was I going to say? All this mention of melonpan seems to have derailed…. OH GOT IT. Yeah, I’m not sold on the Felt =? Darry comparison until I see a fanpic of her feeling up Sumeragi. The great deity of the Church that Melonpan Built wills it.
ah, great post – you’re on your game today jason
at least someone in the bay is stepping up… why are the warriors 0-5 T_T
on a slightly related note, i’ve noticed that your best work comes from identifying train wreck moments in anime that try to parade themselves off as legit.. ala john stewart and the soon-to-be-broke writers of the daily show. well, i guess the simmons analogy is good too.
crusader: thats an incredible comment. it’s like… the best and worst sides of taking jason’s words literally, all wrapped up into one.
Also as “epic†as her outfit was I can’t shake the feeling that her jubilees were sagging.
That just means she has genuine originals and nothing enhanced. ;)
But originality is overvalued in this era! Medieval and Classical thinkers borrowed shamelessly from each other.
Anyhow, I rather liked the ridiculousness of shopping before battle. This time with a financial-savvy reason (‘commodity prices rise every time we make an intervention’).
I do agree that solar energy will be a part of the solution, though personally I think our biggest savior will still be good old unclear fission. There are new breeder reactor and fuel processing technologies [right now] that can pretty much solve the triple problems of unclear power.fuel, waste, and weaponry.
With breeder reactor you can covert the useless U238 into sexy U235 at a rate GREATER than the reactor itself consumes the fuel. In another word, using this type of reactor you can create more fuel (U235) than you consumes. The only catch is that you will need U238, but then we literally got trillion upon trillion tones of it locked in both the crust and the sea.
Btw, fusion of Oxygen-Oxygen does not give you more Oxygen, it gives you Silicon, Sulfur and other elements in that atomic weight range (and sometimes some lighter by-products such as helium).
@Crusader
That is what she is doing. You don’t think they’re monitoring the battle in real time while maintaining contact with the pilots without reason, do you? And a note, tacticians don’t need to be on the front lines if a reliable source of real time over view of the battlefield can be maintained. (For example, the deployment of AWACs by both the Airforce and the Navy.
“Tim: I like my giant death-machines to be powered by happy rays of sunshine. Do not destroy my dreams.
Yep… these are my readers.”
Sounds like a big orbital magnifying glass would be much simpler. Probably not as secure, but “secure” in the Gundam-verse means next to nothing anyway…
zt: “Btw, fusion of Oxygen-Oxygen does not give you more Oxygen, it gives you Silicon, Sulfur and other elements in that atomic weight range (and sometimes some lighter by-products such as helium).”
Oh, thank God. Here I was worried that education in the Great White North had dropped below our own notoriously low levels. There’s hope for North America yet.
For those who don’t follow:
H + H (usually Deuterium) –> He = Nuclear Fusion
O + O –> S = Nuclear Fusion
3O2 (Oxygen) –> 2O3 (Ozone) = Chemical Reaction
Well now, I stand corrected on the oxygen fusion thing. Still, you hardly need clean, fresh water if all you’re doing is extracting hydrogen from it for fusion material. You can extract hydrogen from water with little more than a battery and a bit of wire.
@Turambar
From what I could see a radar screen is hardly the same as being on the front. AWACs is just that gathering information so an officer can use it. Real time is great but what’s the point if there is an abundance of information at any given time? The best she can do from the info center is tell her pilots what’s coming and what to kill and what needs to be seized, in essence strategy. She does not dictate how her pilots will kill x number of bad guys to how to crush that base, hence tactics are left to the pilots themselves. In the case of the Gundams just point and click. Tactics requires a more intimate knowledge of terrain, a map may indicate a body of water but one cannot ascertain the depth, speed, or width of that body as neither is constant over time.
Not even the renowned General Omar Bradley could command his army by telephone (hard lines) and even today you still need a commanding officer at the front to formulate tactics. A guy on the front will have a better idea of the terrain, and command and control than some one in a command center. Unless they have discovered something better than secure radio waves and satellite comms (the latter is unlikely if they want to be discreet) interference will hamper any advantage of real time, since it is more important for a unit to know rather than a big wig in a bunker. Since Ali was able to slip past the real time net over reliance on any given system breeds complacency.
Never mind how Christina was able to hack a system used by a sophisticated PMC, why aren’t the professionals trying to jam their signals or even using radio intercepts? Given how incompetent and impotent the opposition is tactics are not required only targeting strategy, hence Sumeragi is playing strategist and not tactician. Also troops normally don’t like getting shot at and will withdraw if they feel it is in their best interest to do so. Unless the Commander can crack skulls over radio being in the rear with the gear does not mean the poor grunts getting shot at can’t muck up what ever grand plan Col. Pogue put in place.
AWACs is just a component in the information warfare chain, the 2LT is the one who is going to do the interpreting to take hill 192. That officer is going to have a better idea of whether or not the troops can push and how far. Soldiers are variable they do not march set distances at a constant rate and not all trucks are going to run through a muddy road that the same speed. No matter how technology advances you will always need a tactician on the front. If you constantly tell troops where to move and give contradictory orders as the tide of battle flows they will eventually ignore the radio. Just because you have the technology does not mean that it will not break down, you still need redundancy in your command structure.
@ XiaNaphryz
Natural? Perhaps, then again they don’t look nearly as big and slightly droopy in any other outfit. Better outfits in the future are needed, no more desperate barfly tops please. :)
@jaalin
Precisely what was so incredible? That I think Sumeragi’s twins are showing signs of drooping or the discounting of Civ IV? Seriously I am asking. I haven’t read enough of Jason’s works to fully grasp everything he is trying to say.
@Jason
By the way how come Christina gets off for not costume raping Felt? She had the outfits, Felt was not resisting. I think that this was a lost opportunity. I don’t think that we should let off easy just for going shopping prior to orchestrating the death of thousands of mercs.
>> RE: Fusion
“Cold fusion” and “garage fusion” are just urban myths. I think there’s a better chance Hana Ichigo will become Alice than fusion happening. The big problem is that, on earth, it takes more energy to continue the fusion reaction than it produces. On the sun, where there’s no containment issues, it’s not a problem. On earth, it’s a big problem.
>> on a slightly related note, i’ve noticed that your best work comes from identifying train wreck moments in anime that try to parade themselves off as legit.
I doubt it. I think I can write about bad anime and make it seem more interesting than most people, but I think my best writing has been for Haruhi Suzumiya, Muteki Kanban Musume, and Gurren Lagann. I’ve always maintained that my best comes when I’m inspired, either by the anime or by the readers. Or when I’m licking toxic toads. On that note, ef ~a tale of memories~ 6 coming right up.
To the boob sagging question:
That is why they went shopping so they can buy the new eCarbon push up wonderbra at the Victoria’s Secret. Sports model will include extra armor. Pregnant version comes with unique GN-drive and photovoltaic receptor to keep boobs warm during winter. Anti-perv model features twin Guchuko deathray spitting thingies – beam sabers optional. Order now.
Indeed Sumeragi is no tactician. There are things you can only see when you are at the battlefield. Great generals like “Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel went personally to the frontline at night to inspect terrain and gather battlefield information . No great general has won a battle by sitting on his office thousands of miles away looking at the computer screen.
Dynames might be the better machine but the pilot is definitely an idiot. His role is that of a marksman or sniper. Just cuz you got Dix-Neuf style cloak shield doesn’t mean you should go close combat and dual wield your rifle and handgun. If you use a sniper rifle you stay concealed and pick off from long range just like Webber. Why is it that Fat-Gundam just shoots big beams and gets treated like the energizer battery. I haven’t seen it do anything else. Doesn’t even move during battles.
If Sunrise wants to diversify and sell more Gundam stuff they could put a fashion show and catalog for Ms. Wang and Sumeragi outfits. You wife/girlfriend/female friends would definitely appreciate them and you can satiate you lust for cosplay. But just don’t do male fashion. Pink cardigan and yellow shirt with khaki slacks? PL…EEAASE
Now that you all mentioned it, Gundam00 really does have a lot of similarities to TSR, in fact, i can’t wait for Sunrise to debut a pair of twincest sisters and a squirrel pRon maniac.
Taco Bell ftw!
Actually, ‘garage fusion’ is real. I even said that it takes a lot more power to continue the reaction in such cases. FUSION is relatively easy. USABLE fusion is still unknown. But Gundam 00 is set more than three hundred years from now. Surely by THEN we’ll have figured it out.
In fact, we’d probably be well on our way *now*, if it weren’t for the dirty hippies equating everything with the word ‘nuclear’ in it to mean ‘Radioactive waste’ or ‘Chernobyl’.
‘Oh my God, Nuclear Fusion! It’ll explode and we’ll all turn into mutant beasts and die of cancer!’ …yeah, except fusion, utilizing low atomic weight molecules, such as hydrogen (Which is the most common element in the UNIVERSE) results in very little in the way of what could be called traditional ‘radiation’. These people also probably think that all radiation is deadly and cancer-causing. Alpha radiation is all but completely harmless, not even capable of penetrating a thick sheet of paper. They use it in smoke detectors. A Fusion reactor may explode, but it wouldn’t release harmful radiation…besides the superheated explosion itself.
For that matter, fission reactors don’t ‘explode’ either. They melt down. They get so hot they literally *melt*. The Chernobyl reactor is still melting through the earth’s crust. Most of the waste from fission reactors is heavy water…water that has absorbed so much of the radiation, it has itself become radioactive.
All a fission reactor is is a gigantic steam engine that uses naturally ‘hot’ elements instead of burning coal or something. There are even VASTLY safer fission reactor designs, that are having a hell of a time seeing the light of day because of the anti-nuclear hippies. (Look up ‘Pebble Bed Reactor’).
If we could only build neutron collectors, or direct heat converters, we wouldn’t have to use the steam turbines from fission…but who wants to bet that research into *that* is being hindered by the anti-nuclear energy folks?
I’m so bitter.
Oh, and about Sumeragi’s boobs? She seems to spend a lot of her time in zero-G. Her boobs aren’t used to the pull of gravity, so they aren’t as perky. Just like any muscle, if you don’t use it, it’ll get flabby and sag…and the pectoral muscles on the chest are no different. I highly doubt she flexes them to keep them in shape while she’s on the ship.
That’s my theory at least.
> Oh, and about Sumeragi’s boobs? She seems to spend a lot of her time
> in zero-G. Her boobs aren’t used to the pull of gravity, so they aren’t as
> perky. Just like any muscle, if you don’t use it, it’ll get flabby and sag…and
> the pectoral muscles on the chest are no different. I highly doubt she
> flexes them to keep them in shape while she’s on the ship.
Breasts aren’t muscle – they’re lumps of fat with some extra parts on them (milk glands, ducts, nipple, collagen, and some ligaments for shape and and support), supported by the pectoralis major. If they sag, it’s because the collagen and ligaments are losing their structural strength and let the breast’s shape pull downwards with gravity, not the pecs. I’ll be honest and will say I’m unsure of how ligaments do in microgravity with no resistance, but from what I recall it’s the muscles and bones that weaken without regular exertion, but ligaments stay the same.
The problem HERE is that she’s facing gravity, and biological tissue has its limits. Unless you’ve Marrue’s got body with its inorganic components (there is no other way to explain how she could bounce independently, in several axis of movement, simultaneously), you’ll see some sag without some other support which Sumeragi was (obviously) not wearing.
Yes, Jason, these are your readers.
(Edit: Could you delete the previous post? Typo there: forgot the close tag)
Yes, breasts aren’t muscle..but what holds them to the torso *is*. That’s what I was getting at. But I’ll concede to your point. :) Personally, my tastes run more towards the DFC end of the spectrum than the D-FCup end. (See what I did there? I am so wittee.)
No, the LIGAMENTS are what hold them up to the torso and keep them perky. Those ligaments tie to the clavicle and the pectoralis major, but the pecs aren’t what give them their shape or ‘lift’.
Whatever. :P Long story short, ‘Sumeragi got big droopyboobs’. The End. :)
As far as the solar energy stuff goes, it’s not that far fetched. There was a recent NASA report about the possibility of doing exactly what they are doing in this anime. Namely have geosyncronous solar collectors beam down energy via microwaves. As well there are NASA projects which aim to create space elevators (in fact there are yearly contests between universities in North America held by NASA for developing this technology).
The basis of Gundam is colony and multi-faction war. So to incorporate a real reason for the colonies instead of simply ‘well we think it’s cool, I mean it makes huge economic sense to build huge space colonies with lakes and huge airspaces inside them’ is not too shabby.
As far as a rod, maybe for $72 million it will really be eCarbon.
@Crusader
You’re distinguishing strategy and tactics incorrectly. Strategy is overall “path” that a war will take. Anything smaller than that is considered tactics. (A personal gripe I have has always been that real-time strategy games are actually real time tactics.) Strategy in the 00 universe would be the methods used to achieve the overall goal of ending war. Tactics would be the methods used to achieve victory in specific cases of armed intervention.
To take a more contemporary example, the idea of using an Island Hopping campaign in WWII would be a strategy. The methods used in attacking the specific islands is tactics. The same can be said for the strategic bombing campaign over Germany compared to the targeting of specific cities and industrial centers.
In the case of Sumeragi, she fills the roles of both strategist and tactician. She is a strategist in that part of her responsibilities seems to be to gauge CB’s movements to responses from Union, AEU, and HRL. However, in the case of Moralia, it is the role of a tactician to make contingency plans or to designate specific targets to friendly forces, not a strategist, something that we do see her do.
Once again, one does not have to be on the front lines to be considered a strategist. If one has sufficient information regarding battlefield conditions in real time, it is doable from a distant post. Yes, having redundancies in the command chain is always useful in case of technological failings. However, that does not disclude someone giving orders from a far away chair. By your definition, Tessa wasn’t playing strategist in FMP:2nd Raid because she was on the bridge of a sub instead of in an M-9 in the combat zone.
@Haesslich
I see your point, guess Sumeragi just needs to stay in space or adapt to gravity. Suffice to say she isn’t aging well, dating billy must have taken a few years out of her…
@Trumbar
I adhere to the traditional view that it is not scale that really separates strategy from tactics, but rather that strategy involves plans and measures devised before a battle and tactics involves methods of executing the aforementioned plans during a battle. Hence when two players duke it out in a game of say starcraft one Zerg and one Protoss the Zerg player may formulate a strategy of say rushing. When the Zerg player launches his strike and how many form the first wave involves a tactical decision that has to take into account how much time has passed and whether or not he knows the disposition of the enemy prior to engaging.
To take your Island hopping example Island hopping is the operational strategy or grand strategy to be executed, plans for taking Tarawa fall under strategy (where the beach head will be, how long the bombardment is going to last, etc.), how a squad responds to a pill box after H-Hour falls under tactics.
I say Sumeragi fulfills the role of strategist, she devised plans on what to destroy, who was going to destroy the targets, and what the time table was before the first shot was fired. After H-hour she did not tell Dynames to jump right in and dual wield, that was a tactic Lockon devised. She did not tell Haptism when to fire and how much to fire, thus Haptism’s wasting of missiles was a tactic he devised. Sumeragi did not tell Setsuna to jump right in and start throwing knives, that was a tactic Setsuna used to kill peons. So I still insist that Sumeragi did not fulfill a tactical role.
I agree that a strategist need not be at the front at all, but miles away. However a tactician cannot command miles from the front and be victorious. A bad tactician can command miles away from the front or by telephone, but a good tactician would be on the front cracking skulls as needed. Tessa was a strategist commanding from her bridge, she was not a tactician on her bridge. Yes you can dictate orders where ever you please, but if you want to avoid a disaster a commander would do well to shorten his lines of communications. Strategy is for the maps, tactics are for the field.
Crusader: It’s more that her body’s at least a TAD more realistic than Marrue “my chest is made of rubber” Ramius; in other words, after you hit a certain size, gravity overcomes the ability of a natural body to cope, and so it ends up ‘drooping’ without support. Which, the above pictures make rather clear, she is not wearing.
If computer games are involved, then Yuki must be as well.
Totally called the FMP comparison while everyone was making Wing jokes. :)
Anyway, I’m still holding on to the belief that something REALLY BAD happened centuries before Gundam 00’s current setting. Maybe there was a global-spanning war that set all development back, that the world was only beginning to recover by the 24th century. Perhaps the lack of nuclear tech was because after the war it became a “forbidden” technology?
A war could also explain why there’s a lack of a single UN-type organization, plus why their fashions still looks like today rather than something futuristic. Personally, I expected a much more advanced Earth civilization by 2407, heck even the Macross setting looked more advanced than Gundam 00.
On that note, did you see the new Macross trailer? Sweet, sweet Itano Circus.
@Crusader
In that case, it would seem we simply share irreconcilable definitions of what tactics and strategy is, as well as how they are carried out. By definition, the decision to rush would still be a tactic, much like the Chinese use of the Human Wave Tactic is a, tactic.
As for your citing of Tarawa as an example, all I can say is the US Naval School disagrees with your definition. I’ll find the specific citation if I’m willing to get off my lazy bum.
And once again, I have to argue that tacticians can command far from the front and be victorious. Once again, traditionally, what you lack by not being on the field is a real time grasp of the situation. If you can have that despite being a fair distance away, you can give out tactical orders.
Tactics is not limited to the effective use of combat techniques. It is not only “How to take out a machine gun nest”, or “how to take advantage of the terrain in a firefight”. There are unit tactics on a small scale, there there are battlefield tactics, which happen on a larger scale involving the reactionary movement of troops in real time, towards an enemy in a battle zone. The need for low ranking officers is to make sure that the former is carried out. However, a 2nd Lt on the ground does not see the entire battlefield. He only sees his immediate area. Orders regarding battlefield tactics needs to, I would almost go as far as to say can only be, given by someone with a grand view of the battle zone.
@Turambar
Okay according to US Army Field Manual (FM3-0), which in my opinion is a better starting point given the preponderance of land based warfare, there are three tiers Strategic, Operational, and Tactical. Not that I have anything against squids of course. To sum it up we are both right and wrong in certain areas. I’ll spare us both the language which you can find here
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/.....h2.htm#2-4)
In Short:
Strategy is the art and science of developing and employing armed forces and other instruments of national power in a synchronized fashion to secure national or multinational objectives.
A major operation is a series of tactical actions (battles, engagements, strikes) conducted by various combat forces of a single or several services, coordinated in time and place, to accomplish operational, and sometimes strategic objectives in an operational area.
An engagement is a small tactical conflict between opposing maneuver forces, usually conducted at brigade level and below.
That being said we agree that Sumeragi is a Strategist. However whether she is is a tactician or not depends on how you then define the Gundams. Since they don’t fight a close knit unit they are not a squad, platoon, company, or brigade in my opinion. Each Gundam has the power equivalent of a brigade/division (ie Exia is a brigade onto itself, rather than all the Gundams are a single brigade) and each Gundam fulfills largely a niche function. Dynames until recently was exclusively artillery and fire support. Kyrios satisfied the role of an air force, achieving air superiority and interdiction. Fatty Virtue ranged infantry. Exia close combat infantry/berserker/destroyer of all peons. While they can all fly Virtue, Dynames, and Exia all fight mostly as land units, with any flight capabilities merely used mostly for mobility like jump jet infantry if you will (Exia withstanding because as the blue, red, and yellow one he can do everything whenever Sunrise deems it). They are all accorded different objectives hence they are independent units that in this battle did not offer mutual support to each other. Thus I submit to you that Sumeragi is not a tactician for this battle but the strategist and operational planner in accordance to Western Military doctrine.
The 2LT only needs to see what is in front of him because he is the one who is going to call in artillery or air support in most NATO forces to support his objective. The Brigadier is not going to dictate which companies get the artillery support, the 2LT asks and the Fire Direction Center delivers. The 2LT does not need to concern himself with the disposition of 361st Tank Brigade on the other side of a city. A 2LT or NCO is not going to wait ten minutes to get a response from a Brigadier if he can pull his men back or withdraw when facing a tank platoon. In western military doctrine it is the lower ranking officers and NCOs that make tactical decisions to ensure flexibility in a battlefield. Operational matters are left to the higher ups. Of course in accordance with Soviet Military doctrine the 2LT is not going to be able to call in artillery whenever her pleases nor can he retreat as he sees fit. He has a specific function and if he is late and the artillery barrage went ahead without him that’s just tough, that 2LT is going to have to proceed without it because that barrage just ate up the lion’s share of the divisional artillery ammo. Also since command and control is paramount the 2LT only needs a receiver and not a two way radio, after all what does he know? He’s just a 2LT. Besides if that 2LT can’t do it then the commissar can and will do it.
So if Sumeragi does have absolute command and control then yes she is a Soviet tactician. I think you lean more towards Soviet Doctrine if I say so myself as you hold command and control over units to be of greater importance than flexibility to reduce friction and the fog of war. The way I see it real time has not yet come yet nor in the Gundam 00 universe. So yes we are both right and wrong it depends on what military doctrine you follow, what a Gundam roughly correlates to, and whether or not we can agree that the FM3-0 is the basis for this discussion. Again you are correct Sumeragi is a tactician in the Soviet sense. ;)
All hail Sumeragi, the second best thing to come out of Soviet Russia after Tetris! =P
No, no, no you forgot Balalaika. She’s the second greatest thing to come out of the Soviet Union. =P
I’d still put Sumeragi behind Soviet politcal jokes…
I have no idea who Balalaika is, but yeah, Soviet political jokes does give Sumeragi a run for her money…..
In Soviet Russia, breasts grow women!
In Soviet Russia, tactics plan you!
As far as the U.N. is concerned, I suspect it fell apart in the Gundam universe for the same reason it seems to be doing so in our ‘real’ timeline – it’s becoming increasingly irrelevant, as major governments ignore it for the most part, much less minor ones, because it wields no real power of its own.