blog好き

Nov 27 2007

Categories: anime, episodic review, gundam
Tagged: gundam 00

17 Comments »

Well put out to sea
And well perfect our chemistry
By and by well defy a little bit of gravity

I’m trying to decide what was a worse decision: Miya-Miya leaving 99 messages on poor Hirono’s answering machine, Graham Acre trying to take on Tomoyo, Setsuna revealing his identity to Marina, or the four Gundam Meisters on a luxury yacht with the three hawt bridge bunnies and not turning it into the Gundam 00 version of Minnesota Vikings sex cruise. I think I’m leaning towards “D.” They had a perfect chance to dispel any and all remaining Gundam Wing Heero x Duo baggage, and they just didn’t do it. They didn’t even hit on the bunnies! Lockon even had a great conversation piece with his Haro.

What’s a good decision? I gotta say Sumeragi’s decision to play on the beach while the rest of Celestial Being is battling the terrorists. Now that’s a commander with her underlings (and her viewers) interests close to heart. Another good one is that Saji’s sister, I think, hit the purpose of Celestial Being on the nail. They’re real motivation isn’t to eradicate war. They could be trying to show the world how horrible war really is, but that’s been done in WWI… and it didn’t turn out so well. Or it could be to further the military-industrial complexes of the three factions, which is working. Or it could be to get the world to hate them such that they don’t hate each other. Or it could be a commentary on America’s unilateral international actions during the W presidency.

Points of Interest

Slow camera pan up 4tw!

Delicious thigh meat… uh… Felt reminds me more and more of Yuki Nagato. She’s just so expressionless, and she’s the team hacker, right? I can’t wait for when Christine makes her turn around and say, “I love you.”

God’s in his heaven and Ms. Wang is in a new outfit — all’s right with the world.

I’ll be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed that Ms. Wang didn’t join the bridge bunnies. I think Sumeragi has surpassed Ms. Wang in my rankings.

“Now with only 20% less meido than a typical Derailed by Darry fantasy!”

Christine is losing out to Setsuna in the current poll. This development is almost as shocking as Gundam Wing winning the “Best. Gundam. Ever.” poll. In the history of Derailed polls where there’s a male character tossed in with the female choices, the male character almost always beats out at least one female member, which proves either that Derailed actually gets female visitors or non-traditional male visitors. Previous female characters bested by their male counterparts include Satoko (to Satoshi-kun) and Urutorii (to Oboro and Benawi), and Makoto (to Itsuki).

(Seriously, you’re ranking this behind Setsuna?)

Another bad decision? Why do the terrorists concentrate in three bases? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to hide underground like, oh, modern day 21st century terrorists? We saw this same thing in Code Geass where the terrorists not only had bases but entrenched fortifications. I somehow doubt that the terrorists would concentrate in three bases, and, even if they did, they could be smashed by smashing the bases. This does lead me to depressing revelation that my President has the same thought process as a Sunrise writer.

Setsuna’s taxi thingie was pretty cool, it’s like a hipper version of the Smart Car. When Setsuna basically flew out of his taxi and into Exia, how did he rent the car originally, and how’s he going to return it now? Secondly, is he in such a rush that he doesn’t have time to change out of his outfit and into his jumpsuit? He fights the terrorists in his plain clothes, but, later, when he hot dogs for Marina, he’s in his jumpsuit. Sorry! I don’t have time to change for combat, but I’m definitely changing to pick up hawt chix0rs. (I’d believe that excuse if and only if he hit on a bridge bunny earlier.)

Marina goes strapless… I think with Islamic law, this outfit comes with 500 lashes and 10 years in jail. I am impressed that Gundam 00 not only breaks physical laws, but religious ones as well. Kudos.

(Her assistant looks more and more like Tieria to me. Maybe Tieria is actually pulling a Mizuho here…)

I just liked this screen shot.

There’s a few things that I enjoyed with Setsuna’s and Marina’s meeting. The first is how they met. It felt like Marina was picking up a hooker or something. She was the perfect Richard Gere to Setsuna’s Julia Roberts the way she swung her luxury car around to offer him a ride. Then when she was begging him to stay and talk with her… well… I was expecting her to say, “I’ll give you 500 euros!” Maybe this is why he’s beating Christine in the poll. Mmm. I may have to create a “Best Theoretical Male Prostitute of 2007” award just for Setsuna.

Second, it’s how perfectly misaligned they are. Setsuna is pro-war. Marina is pro-peace. Marina’s country pwned Setsuna’s country. Oil and water. Just like Heero and Relena or Sagara and Chidori. It’s a classic harem pairing in the making, but I have doubts about both of their… preferences.

Third, Marina is definitely turning into a Relena-class wet blanket. I might even toss “not killing Marina during episode 8” into the bin of Setsuna’s poor choices. Though as large as his bin is, it’s still nowhere as large as Shinn Asuka’s.

Lastly, Setsuna violated the golden rule of the Meisters in that he revealed himself to Marina. What does he gain by telling her that he’s a Meister? Is he trying to impress her? I don’t think Gundam 00 is train wreck; I do think the decisions made by the Gundam Meisters are train wreck. It’s like the Apprentice. The show is great and enjoyable, but every once in a while, there’s an apprentice who is just so bad and makes so many bad decisions, you can’t help but watch them because they are that bad. That’s kinda Gundam 00 in a nutshell: the series itself, save for a few nitpicky points, is solid, but four characters just seem to have less logic in making decisions than the rest of the cast.

(I might toss Ms. Wang in there as well for not showing up in a swimsuit, but, for the most part, Graham Acre, Sumeragi, Gauron, Louise and Saji and his sister, et al have all made much better decisions than the Meisters.)

And, finally, from last time…

PS: Lol, to think that I’ll come into this blog reading discussions on intertextuality.

I prefer “metaphorical allusion,” but that’s just me. My heart’s more of a poet than an animated media reviewer.

While watching this episode, I finally realized why there are so many women and gay men in the ranks of the Celestial Being. How the hell could a heterosexual man concentrate on the battle if his captain was waving her half-exposed breasts in front of him!

“Lieutenant! Evasive manoeuvres!”
“Boobs…”
*kaboom*

I chuckled at this comment. It’s a sad but funny truth.

Laizane: well, if u can dodge a wrench then u can dodge a ball…^^

Giggled at this one. Hitting people in the crotch with heavy objects is always a crowd pleaser.

Crusader: Veda = Skynet, I just know it, its solution to end all wars is to kill all humans. Sad thing is that Veda is right…

Isn’t this the Anti-spiral philosophy? Look where it got them.

(Same dumb logic is found in Will Smith’s I Robot. Speaking of good literature turned into crappy movies, I watched Beowulf, and now I want a refund. I read the original poem back in high school literature, and, well, I had to re-read it after watching the movie to get that horrible taste out of my mouth. I would rather watch more Zero no Tsukaima season two than Beowulf.)

Dorian Cornelius Jasper: Well. At least the First And Eldest Gundam didn’t ignore this tidbit of science-sense. Char Aznable once explained that you don’t actually dodge *lasers,* you predict where your opponent is going to aim and you get out of the way before he even pulls the trigger.

This is actually a plausible explanation for Jedi as well, except for fighting against droids. The problem is Gauron, Graham Acre, Sergei, and the Meisters aren’t Newtypes or Jedi. Though I have to believe that military weapon systems 400 years from now will be advanced enough to track a moving object. Artillery now can aim compensating for wind and gravity and other factors… none of which will matter for lasers.

Epi: The only people I actually like in this show are the hapless Saji and Louise, and MAYBE Graham Acre just cause he’s such a character.

Graham Acre is awesome. He’s the closest thing to Mwu La Fraga that we have.