gundam 00 8

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

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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.

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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

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Slow camera pan up 4tw!

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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.”

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

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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.

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

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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?)

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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.

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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.)

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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…)

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I just liked this screen shot.

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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.)

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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.

17 Responses to “gundam 00 8”

  1. Does Felt have something for Haro? Maybe the little robot has a vibration function…

    And where’s our masked guy?

  2. Stupid fish. D=

  3. Regarding the adaption of ‘the Beowulf poem’ (it’s titleless, if you’re hardcore-you-know-the-score), it’s interesting that the film had to be worried. We can’t slay monsters in an uncomplicated, unselfconscious way anymore.

    Setsuna is plainly the best fanservice machine in 00. He provides most of the mecha fanservice.

  4. As for why Setsuna is beating Christine, this might have something to do with it.
    http://img117.imageshack.us/my.....910hs7.jpg
    (Though personally, I hope not)

  5. Was it me or was ep 8 all over the place? I feel like Sunrise had trouble linking the scenes cohesively in this ep. It seem like they were jumping from scene to scene like a rabbit on e. It was really grating on my nerves especially along with the angsty emo’y trying-to-be-dramatic monologues. Like what was noted earlier, where did Setsuna get his lightcycle? How on earth do you change out of a jumpsuit, order a lightcycle, get to it and then ride it all the way to town and then just intercept a bunch of terrorist who are dumb enough to just start escaping the scene (much much) later with screeching tires et all? (prob those dumb enough to concentrate their forces in 3 main base camps).
    Or are they overcompensating for lack of plot…

    Or i’m just grumpy at 4am…

  6. In the moble tradition of 4chan memes, “In before terrororists do not work that way!”

    This episodes depiction of a “terrorist organization” (and to be fair, earlier handling of similar references such as IRA) was terribly naive. Not only was the bombing terribly planned – or timed detonators are a lost art – but the organization makes itself a prime target for a decapitation strike by concentrating into three clearly defined bases of operation. And since they were so easily discovered, one has to wonder why they hadn’t been eliminated earlier by the nations as a credible threat. Seeing their level of battle-preparedness with mobile suits and guarded fortifications, they hardly sprung up overnight as opposition to CB.

    In other news, Setsuna is AGAIN the sole gundam meister that gets attacked during an operation. This time sinking (pardon the pun) as low as some nameless grunt causing him trouble.

    He also made a major gaffe revealing his identity to Marina. It goes against CB’s own rules yes, but I’m baffled what even his personal motivation for that might’ve been. It seemed to serve utterly no purpose except in meta-plot fashion – as a fan service (for a lack of better term) to the audience. No doubt this’ll become a plot point later. And what exactly marina dreads in an intervention? Wouldn’t she be happy to see a squad of super-robots destroying the terrorists in her country in same clinical fashion as they did with the whatever-organization in this episode?

    Though redundant, I’ll join the chorus on the mental stability of the meisters. Surely they could have found more professional pilots in the vein of Sagara rather than the current, emotionally unstable foursome. Especially Kash- Setsuna, who blurts out a secret of the highest order on the drop of a hat. Yes, I remember we discussed logic and applying it to Gundam, before.

    Moving into more exciting content of this episode, woo-hoo! Beach Bridge Bunnies! But damn what a wasted opportunity on the boat. Three gals and four guys and no-one as much as thinks of hitting or doing a discreet pass. Not even, you know, checking what kind of meat is for sale today. This reeeeeally makes one wonder about the meisters’ heterosexuality. But not the bunnies. Oh no, they’re mai waifus so they don’t swing that way.

    Since it seems I mostly criticize this show – because nuking instead of praising is much more fun – I’ll reaffirm that I still enjoy the show, though more on some lower-brain level rather than as intellectual attraction.

  7. “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.””

    Ever since Eva (and probably before that) you can’t have a good anime without a decent ‘robot’ girl. In Gundam 00 there are two robot girls, Felt and that blue hair girl who drives the pink gundam. As long as a twirling Felt doesn’t fall off a cliff only to be saved by one of the Meisters, I’ll be okay.

  8. Jason, you wondered in your ep 6 Gundam 00 post if Felt was the DFC of the series. From ep 8, she’s not looking so DFC to me. Maybe compared to the rest of the cast she may be last (I’m thinking tied w/ Marina), but that’s like calling a 3/4 cup full nothing at all.

    On another note, something like Setsuna’s car exists:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carver_(automobile)

  9. Sorry, the link copied incorrectly. You may want to paste the entire link into the address bar.

  10. This is it. I’m finally creating a “gundam” folder and the subfolder “00” and going to lurk on /m/, /e/, and /u/ hoping for double-o threads. I can’t wait to… watch Sumeragi and Ms. Wang and co doing ANYTHING in all future episodes.

  11. When seeing Setsuna’s ride, the first thing I thought of – because I had read the article very recently – was this:

    http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadget.....0-1,00.htm

  12. @Turambar
    So is a trap.. damn it, I knew it. Damn you SUNRISE.

  13. Awww, no “Yup these are my readers” quote? Im starting to wondering if this is really ‘Derailed by Darry’ anymore, lol j/k

  14. 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.

    Who ever said nothing happened? Just because we didn’t see anything on-screen doesn’t mean there weren’t any docking going on behind the cameras. The next episode seems to imply certain pairings between two of the Meisters and the teen bridge bunnies.

    I also am a little more forgiving of Setsuna for his colossal snafu. After all, he’s still a damaged teen, and Marina just happens to be a convenient target to lash out on. Besides, who would believe the poor pauper princess?

  15. Shoot, forgot to add: Tieria will still shoot Setsuna full of holes once he finds out about this gross indiscretion.

  16. O dam Sumeragi look hot in every ep.
    Sumeragi look dam hot in that pic.

  17. 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*

    thats true

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