gundam 00 12
Categories: anime, episodic review, gundam
Tagged: gundam 00
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Celestial Being intervenes Best of 2007!
Woohoo! We’re finally in the thick of things in Gundam 00, and we’re finally starting with Setsuna dealing with his past. Part of me doesn’t want to believe it, but if Veda and Sunrise picked Setsuna as a Gundam Meister because he has a role to play besides being emo pilot fodder, it’s going to make a coherent storyline. The thing that bothers me (besides the Gauron/Kashim thing) is that we may not get to see a lot of the past of the other Celestial Being members. Lockon is still pretty much a blank slate, save for him hitting on Felt, and all we know about Tieria is that he has a beam saber stuck up his ass.
The other Celestial Being members– Christina, Ms. Wang, etc– well, we’re not going to get much of a backstory for either. The biggest fish of interest (not counting melonpan) is Veda. The Gundam Meisters, Sumeragi, and Ms. Wang all get orders from him, but what exactly is Veda if he was alive 200 years ago? Is he a supercomputer? Is he a floating head a la Futurama or Lord Genome? Is he alive and kicking at 250 years old because he followed Mao Tse-tung’s doctrine of having sex with virgins to extend one’s life? The only clue we have is that he communicates through e-mail, and he’s starting to remind me of Charlie in Charlie’s Angels… with the bridge bunnies as the angels and the Gundam Meisters as Bosley.
Points of Interest
Marina seems pretty useless as a leader… Shirin seems to be doing all the work. I think this episode, with Marina’s “woe is me” look and her refusal to look at the bad points, she sure resembles a cross between Relena and George W. That’s a brand new tier of wet blankets.
Oh man, with Ms. Wang’s pink aircraft… and the mood between her, Setsuna, and Lockon, let’s just say that there’s hardly a moment in Gundam 00 that can’t be construed as a possible doujinshi setting.
Always a good episode if Graham Acre is involved. Hey, it’s not just Setsuna getting owned… if the Gundam Meisters are just depending on the brute force advantage of their Gundams rather than actually being skilled pilots, then what if Celestial Being actually recruited– gasp– real, mentally-stable pilots? If Celestial Being had the Sergei, Graham, and Gauron equivalent pilots, would it make Gundam 00 too boring? The only flaws of the Gundams are the pilots, and it’s painfully clear watching Setsuna and Exia that he’s not in the same class as the real aces.
The Flag is a pretty aesthetically-pleasing mobile suit. It’s definitely one of the better-looking fodder suits, and it’s a sharp contrast to the more Full Metal Panic-like suits used by the HRL.
I’m still not sure what is the point of having Saji and Louise in this series besides trying out some standard j-drama comedy elements with her mom. But I was absolutely riveted when I saw the pizza… looking for Cheese-kun and Pizza Hut! I was disappointed… if Gundam 00 were to become a train wreck, having Saji give Louise’s mom a Cheese-kun would have been a great start. Symmetrically, I think when C.C. got the Cheese-kun was when Code Geass really started falling apart.
Poor Setsuna being a racial outcast in the Middle East… he does know that he stands out a bit much, no? He’s like walking around in his designer turban while squalor surrounds him. See, this is what happens to countries that don’t participate in the One Laptop Per Child program.
(One thing Gundam 00 does get right is that pretty much every single country in the Middle East is propped up with oil money. If the oil no longer flowed, the whole area would be in chaos, and, honestly, without oil, the world wouldn’t care, much like the plight in Africa.)
14 Responses to “gundam 00 12”
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Pizza Hut supports the Celestial Being! …not, unfortunately.
Veda’s an interesting bit of mystery there. I’m getting a feeling that with the non-appearances and silent communications they’re trying to hint that Veda is an AI. Which may actually be a red herring, and Veda’s really human, maybe an offshoot of those human enhancement programs – which might not sit well with Allelujah. Time will tell.
It has been made clear by now that the Meisters are not ace pilots, which really gets the question…. why? Why didn’t CB pick up better candidates? Why these four? Is it all part of Veda’s plans and predictions, too? Perhaps Veda’s real identity is… Hari Seldon (dun dun dun)!
On Veda, why do I get the feeling that the Tieria with the glowing eyes in the beginning of ep1 is Veda? That would put Tieria as some sort of bioroid, which explains, to an extent, his beam saber in his ass.
Hey Jason, what are your thoughts on Macross Frontier?
I watched it, and I’ve got to say, for one episode, it’s been a hell of a lot more exciting/entertaining than the 12 episodes Double-O have been. And again, this is my main gripe with Gundam 00, it’s just not that entertaining.
I mean, I didn’t give a shit that Code Geass had a completely ridiculous, convoluted, and unbelievable plot. Why? Because it was fun to watch. Gundam 00 has been really bland so far. Every episode there’s a little mini-intervention or mini-fight then in the end we get the status quo. And then there’s all this political nonsense (like one-half of the latest episode devoted to Relena 2 and how bad of a leader she is).
It’d be epic if it turn out that Veda is a loli-looking girl *giggles*
I guess it was kind of obvious with the Kurdish mention on the series, but finally we know where the heck is Azadistan; is IRAN. Like they said, since the world has unlimited Solar Energy, the Oil were limited almost to the extinction, and then the Middle East was forgotten. No surprise a lot of countries split and unified countless times, and finally one of them, Azadistan, was born.
I have my suspicious with Veda too. Who the heck is this guy anyway; aside from having a lot of money, resources and influences around the World, this project has 200 years old. Something fishy is going on there.
I don’t know, about Macross Frontier, I’ll wait a little longer.
The Flag is a pretty aesthetically-pleasing mobile suit. It’s definitely one of the better-looking fodder suits, and it’s a sharp contrast to the more Full Metal Panic-like suits used by the HRL.
I actually like the chunkier suits used by the HRL. But then, I’ve always favoured mechwarrior over mecha. One thing I’ve never liked about Gundam, and pretty much most mecha at that, is that the grunts are simply there to be killed wholesale by the big boys. Personally, if I were assigned to hunt down Celestial Being, I’d lure the Gundams to some remote spot and then nuke the entire site from orbit. Dodge that you emo bitches!
Remember, it is Macross. Lots of varible fighters kicking butt and j-pop idols singing to save the local human population. Aslo if I remember correctly a lot of losses for the final victory, however fleeting it is. I hope one day that Japan will make a Macross series that begs to be turned into another Robotech series…just because the split fandom needs to be reunited. And it would be funny from the point of view of someone watching from the outside.
I can imagine that Lockon is a great sniper, Allelujah’s modifications helps him overcome high G-forces, and who knows about Tiera, but Setsuna doesn’t seem very skilled. One thing they each have in common is a past they can’t go back to. If Veda orders a suicide mission, I can see the Meisters following it. Sane people like Graham Acre aren’t prone to such things.
I agree that the Flag is aesthetically-pleasing and I can’t wait until they come out with Graham’s custom as a toy or model. The transformation feels tacked-on, however. I can only imagine the kind of punishment Graham is putting his organs through if he’s barely able to hold on in his cockpit and drooling on visor while making those hard turns. And his spinning defense rod is pretty good to be predicting where those point-blank shots were going to hit. Now if a computer could do that, why can’t it hit a moving Gundam?
Everything was good in the first ep of Macross until the dude’s toy jet pack magically transformed into a joy stick control for what’s probably a military top secret fighter jet. WTF?
>> “control for what’s probably a military top secret fighter jet. WTF?”
Their excuse was mentioned around the first ten minute mark: “same standard as the one military uses.” When the valkyrie pilot ejects, his seat/whatever turns into similar exoskeletal suit. So, they are compatible at least on technical level. One would however assume that the valkyries would use different protocols than commercial units and would have a string of safety checks so not just anyone would waltz in and steal a veritech unit wearing a civilian Ex-Gear. Plot-wise, they needed some way to get Alto into the valkyrie cockpit, as well as give him some type of aviation background (so he’d at least be aware of basics of valkyrie flight). The suit is their plot device towards that end.
The suit felt tacked on and I did wonder about the whole thing up until the last minute, then I went “so that’s why they did it this way!”
The guy who gets squished like a bug by a giant bug comments how Michael and the others are working at the concert as a part-time job so I assume that Alto has some relation to S.M.S and his Ex-Gear may be very close the military version. At least the Ex-Gears are a novel way of ejecting from one’s plane.
About the VF-25, it feels like a step backward. Macross Frontier happens 19 years after Macross Plus and while the VF-17s seem to have 360-degree displays (borrowed from the YF-19) so they can see what’s below their feet, the VF-25 doesn’t even have that. It’s like how the Flags have panoramic displays but the Gundams have just 4 monitors and huge pillars between them too. If I were Graham, I’d stay far enough away to hide behind one of those pillars and shoot at the Gundam’s blind spot (if he knew what the cockpit looked like).
Final thing about Macross Frontier, why are the giant bugs armed with machine guns, missiles, EMP, and cool-looking chaff? I hope they explain that. Aliens are not cool if they don’t have cool weapons.
Maybe finding the Macross 2 after all these years? Or giant aliens using scaled up mechs like the tiny humans in the varible jet mechs (unlike the older giants in battle suits that aren’t much bigger that the giants).
As for Gundam…I just can’t follow it as easily (too many series…I just barely understand Marcoss or the Transformers because I got there near the start).
I think you got your analogy wrong. If Veda is Charlie, then Sumeragi is Bosley and the angels are the Meisters. But I guess that would be too easy :p
>>If Veda is Charlie, then Sumeragi is Bosley and the angels are the Meisters
I gotta agree with this, because Bosley was a bumbling idiot just like Sumeragi. However, the angels were fun to watch and got the job done. The meisters on the other hand do a half-baked job and are painful to watch.
On the point of Gundams being piloted by Graham, Sergei, and Gauron I don’t think it would be boring. Graham could pilot Exia or Kyrios and make the killings of cannon-fodder poetry in motion. Sergei would definitely be Dynames, the cool and level-headed guy who strictly adheres to the “one shot one kill” motto. Gauron would go with Virtue. He would be like a marine chief instructor. He taunts and flaunts his prowess in your face and you want to beat the crap out of him, but just when you got him he gets his trap-on and reveals that there is a woman inside every man and kicks you in the nuts. It would be anything BUT boring, it just wouldn’t be Gundam 00 that’s all.