gundam 00 13
Categories: anime, episodic review, gundam
Tagged: gundam 00
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There’s questions that I just learned not to ask. Why is Tsukasa so moe? Why is Mako-cakes so broken? Why is Marina so useless?
The whole point of having a character in any story is to bring some to that story. Characters can bring moe, story, amazingness, fight scenes, comedy, twincest, and a plethora of other possibilities. I’m trying to think of what Marina brings to Gundam 00. She’s definitely a wet blanket, but wet blankets don’t bring stuff to the table, instead they take stuff off of the table (as a wet blanket, they are, by definition, people who remove fun from the situation). She’s not a fanservice machine like a typical Celestial Being bridge bunny. She’s not a source of strength for her people. She’s not logical and methodical like Graham Acre. She just sits there with a constant “woe is me” look on her face.
Marina also seems to me like a failed attempt (pending, of course, but I don’t think this will change too much) at an evolutionary damsel in distress. Instead of being held captive by a dragon or whatnot, she’s held captive by a political situation she just does not comprehend and cannot easily solve (much like W). She’s also not pro-actively trying to do anything, instead letting others solve her problems for her. She doesn’t seem to do much beyond mope around a couch, relying on the UN or the AEU or Celestial Being for help. No one even seems to follow her orders, not that she gives them out regularly. Marina just doesn’t exude any modern form of leadership and just seems to be waiting for her knight in shining armor. Unfortunately, her “knight” is Setsuna, and he’s got problems of his own.
(If leadership is judged on a quarterbacking scale, Marina would be in the David Carr group. Simon, of coruse, would be in the Tom Brady tier. Sumeragi would probably be in the Tony Romo class, and we can ponder about the Jessica Simpson equivalent in that situation.)
Points of Interest
Obligatory Sumeragi cleavage to start things off. Is it just me, or does every shot of the Ptolemaios lead to some bickering involving Tieria acting like he has a stick up his ass with Sumeragi looking like she’s inspecting a pr0n set?
This episode is the second one where Setsuna mysterious enters Exia wearing civvies and then is seen moments later wearing his plug suit. Does he change while piloting Exia? Is he in such a rush that he doesn’t have time to change clothes? Or is it a special GN particle ability? Also, it’s “boarding mode.” I love Engrish.
I thought Exia was a lot stronger than any other mobile suit, and its blades could cut through other blades. Why the hell are we getting yet another typical Gundam moment? Prolonged sword clashes were always the Gundam way to draw out fights that they didn’t want to animate… this happens waaaay too much in Seed and Destiny.
(And Setsuna continues to get a dunce hat for even trying to talk with Gauron. Maybe he has a weird derivative of the Stockholm Syndrome or something.)
One thing Setsuna does do right is that he gets Lockon’s help to rescue the hostage, and that was really his goal. My gosh, Setsuna does the right thing… what will we see next? Allelujah popping Zoloft? Lockon hitting on girls of legal age? Tieria not acting like an asshole?
Hong Long does remind me a bit of Kato from The Green Hornet. Right down to the kung-fu… and… sadly… the dodging of machine gun bullets. Kenshin couldn’t he dodge a gatling gun without significant help! This is almost as bad as thousand ton mechas dodging lasers. Though I think my new nickname for Hong Long will be Kato… and maybe The China Hornet for Ms. Wang. Maybe not.
Obligatory Ms. Wang costume change. There was a scene where Lockon looked like he was gonig to place his arm around Ms. Wang while the two were sharing a couch, and he pulls back. It’s almost as if, even with the quasi-space-age school girl outfit, she’s too old for him.
“Don’t believe in me who believes in you; believe in you who believes in yourself!”
(If only Setsuna said that to Marina.)
Scientific American has a great solar energy article in its latest issue about a proposal to switch most of the electrical generation in America to solar power by 2050. There’s a lot of upcoming solar power innovations covered, and there’s a lot of optimism (i.e. switching from AC to DC backbone), but it highlights yet another realism flaw with Gundam 00 (beyond the machine gun and laser dodging): why the hell does Azadistan need solar energy from space? Azadistan is in a great location to receive solar energy by just putting solar panels on rooftops. With advances by 2300, I’m sure most energy needs could be met with just terrestrial solar power.
(I mentioned this point before, but Israel is already going the solar, and I don’t see why Azadistan can’t do the same thing… it’s not like 2007 Israel is more advanced than 2307 Azadistan.)
(I’m also shaking my head that by 2300, they haven’t figured out any way to find car bombs. You’d think some defense contractor hasn’t been working on this problem for the past 300 years.)
(Yes, I know pointing out realism flaws in a show featuring the bridge bunnies and Gundam Meisters is a losing proposition, but, as I have pointed out many times, I can believe in the premise of a show, as long as it doesn’t break it’s own rules. Gundam 00 states a world powered by solar energy, and I cannot see how a sun-soaked nation like Azadistan cannot get enough.)
I’m also kinda amazed that a crazy woman with a gun can waltz into her office. You can’t get within 50 meters of the White House before getting taken down by federal agents. Not that I tried or anything.
21 Responses to “gundam 00 13”
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We should just call Hong Long “Mask the Money”… oh wait…
I second that designation…
While we’re at it, might as well have him pose and say, “In the name of more Ms. Wang fanservice, I shall punish you!”
You know Eisenhower said that, “leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” Yet all we ever see are her portraits gracing a million of propaganda posters, nary one of Shirin…
I hope that when this series goes off a cliff that Setsuna and Marina are brother and sister. That Galurung…err Gauron struck Marina with amnesia so she forgot about dear old brother. Marina then runs about in tattered clothing to the grave of Setsuna’s beloved Exia where Setsuna falls in love, marries Marina, and later consummates his union. When Gauron returns the spell is broken and Marina remembers everything then jumps into the Tigris or Euphrates (her pick). Setsuna kills himself shortly after for is he not also a stabber in the dark, treacherous to his foes, faithless to his friends, and a curse upon his kin?
I also wonder why Azadistan just doesn’t use their oil reserves for their own power plants, after all they didn’t embargo themselves did they? Speaking of Israel I wonder why Sunrise has not mentioned the holy land directly? If in 300 years some idiot like me is still standing out there at a check point with a mirror and a flash light for car bomb detection I would know who and what to blame…bloody no good lowest bidder policy.
All I can say about the lone gun woman is thank goodness she lacked the sense to strap a bomb to herself because that would have been real hard compared to a gun…
Crusader, I’m not sure whether to hate you or applaud you for that parody.
About Marina: Get over it.
We have had (secondary) male leads as “woe as me” characters for OVER. A. GOOD. DECADE. And then you whine when a “woe as me” character switches genitals?
Get over it.
Get over it.
Ain’t there some h-anime from Himajin / Anik you should be handling yourself to instead of the 11:00pm – to – 1:00am anime?
Eich To Owe will bomb like Japan during WWII if the show reverts to plotless bandwagon-moe. That blind guy Takumi had owned more blind than most male leads who can see.
You live in North Cal, right? Just like me. I’m hoping that you’re alright. That storm had smacked up this area pretty hard, huh? You take good care of yourself and have a safe new year, eh? Get over it.
Whoa there, Tyrenol. How ’bout you tell us how you really feel?
I think the weird thing about Marina is not that she is not supposed to necessarily be a “woe is me” character. I mean, yeah, sure, there are tons of anime where the main male character is a good for nothing, “woe is me”, my name is Ninomiya Shungo and people like making my life miserable. But usually the series does something with that, lik, you know, it’s an evolutionary process or they become less “woe is me” or they’re actually bumbling idiot savants who make girls feel like they belong even if they accidentally cop a feel. Marina is a princess of a country that is at the crossroads, and in part Gundam 00 is about her– or at least Azadistan’s– politically maneuvering, and so far it just feels like she can’t maneuver herself out of a paper bag without Shirin’s help.
Okay; I’ll tell you how I really feel: Mitsuo Fukuda had introduced the Gundam SEED series and told us (via Shinn Asuka) that you’ll suck if you dare to tick off the anime fanbase by “having a goal and going forward.” Ever since being burnt by Fukuda, his wife, and the company that gave them the green light to create that crap; I made my disgust known to Bandai and $unrise.
As with Marina; I think she’s an otherwise awesome character despite the situation that’s been handed to her. Her and Shirin. The days would be 1000 x sad if Marina dies off like Bhutto… That could’ve been an avoidable death: Death by sunroof?!
So yeah. As a blunt and damaging anime critic; I’m keeping a very sharp eye on this $unrise-made show. And it’s gonna take more than an otherwise good director to get me to think otherwise of them collectively.
Have anyone heard? “Code Geass will get a 5:00pm spot.” The pro-moe anime fanbase are already up in arms. :P
Marina is a figurehead, basically. She is a realistic character, and I although I see why someone gets annoyed with a “woe as me” character, I see the definite need for her. Its like young simon, without kamina he was last. Marina just has to find her spiral energy (her confidence).
I like to think of Hong Long as Tuxedo Mask. Just cause.
Not sure which subs you’re using, but as for the Conclave Mendoi subs go, DarkMirage (the translator) said in his blog that the official captions said ‘broading mode’. He thinks it may refer to a ‘broadcasting mode’ for the GN particles.
Personally I’m waiting for Marina to realize that to be a successful queen all she needs to do is to start singing some pop idol songs. So after crying and crying, one episode she will start singing some song, and then we realize… SHE IS VEDA.
Why would the moe fanbase care about Code GEASS getting a 5PM slot? At least for me, the show’s moe appeal was subpar, like pretty much everything else in the show.
Oh wait, I keep forgetting that a lot of people like the show for some strange reason. If I were to cry about Random C’s Best of Anime 2007 awards, the tears would not have been manly.
I suppose less fanservice isn’t exactly going to help the show.
As for Gundam 00, I have to say that the dodging machine gun bullets bit was my least favourite part of the episode. A lot of the fights in this anime have been extremely lame. Seriously, the good guys in this show are so overpowered that the fights seem completely pointless. And then there’s all the plot holes mentioned, like the solar panels thing. I don’t understand the hate for Marina, though, I agree that she’s supposed to be one of the more realistic characters in the show.
LOL, omg, how can anyone believe Bhutto was killed by her sunroof? A second before the bomb was detonated, a man fired 4 shots at her head. I counted them, There is video evidence of this, even though major news outlets don’t show it -_-. At least one of the bullets hit her in the head.
ANd on topic, Yeah, Marina is suppose to be a weak charecter. If she was a gung-ho get things done leader, there would be no crisis, no reason for a intervention, and thus no plot. Oh wait, there probably never was a plot..OH SHI-
Not to start a new argument, I’m mainly sickened with the fact that Bhutto died trying to fix the problems in a country. So yeah.
I wonder if there are solar-powered nukes in their era…^^
I gave up a long time ago on a “realistic” Gundam series. If they can’t get their metallurgical science right then there is no hope that they will get their own physics right. Such a shame cause they are japanese (Sunrise) that is suppose to be technologically adept.
By the way, the gun must be made in high-grade plastics that’s why they haven’t detected it. Or security they have doesn’t pay as much even 300 years later…^^
Is there such a thing as a evolutionary damsel in distress? That can potentially break space and time like a drill-that-pierces-the-heaven kind of thing.
Marina is not even on par on the leadership skills of Suzumiya Haruhi…^^
ciao…^^
Marina’s rickety backbone probably comes from a severe Vitamin D deficiency, from the SPF 200 sunblock she must be taking baths in to keep her skin such a tan-free shade in the Arabian sun.
Count me with you. It’s not like the show is Dune or something like that, Paul Atreides is a way more credible resistance leader figure than Lelouch can ever hope to be.
Bhutto know that coming back was a big risk of getting killed but she took the chance and paid her life. She knows the risk but she still took it. Technically, she died as a martyr but she didn’t die as a hero. And she hasn’t “tried” to fix any of her country’s problems yet because she just started campaigning.
Hmm…the usual suspects could be:
a. Her own faction – either someone within wants her out or someone set her up to pin the blame on the current government.
b. State-sanctioned – the government wants her to be silent forever or to swim with the fishes knowing that her death will lead to other unfortunate consequences (for whom will remains to be seen)
c. Al Qaeda – self explanatory.
d. Rebel Groups/Other factions – besides Al Qaeda that doesn’t like the existing status quo.
e. Just for fun – if a student on columbian high(?) in the US can shoot and kill students just for personal reasons then it can happen to others.
Now I need to finish up my project for international relations aka diplomacy..yuck..hahhahha…^^
ciao
Laizane/Tyrenol 2008!!
A vote for us is a vote for the freaking future. (Or atleast a vote to end that annoying Writers’ Strike so we can have the live-action Transformers sequal.)
Alice how in the world is Marina anything close to a “realistic character”. A 17 year old some how gets elected queen of a Islamic country. I can believe that in three hundred years the world will be solar powered, I can believe that a covert miltary group will let psycotic young, manic depressive, pedophilic young men polit the worlds most advance weapons, I can even believe that Sumeragi breast are real. But I will never believe that any counrty out of the blue would elect a depressed teenager as monarch of there country.
Ooh whats your basis for Paul Atreides being a better resistance lead then Lelouch the Douch. His magic powers were even more god like the Lulu.
Even without his prescience hax, Paul was trained in the Weirding Way, Bene Gesserit arts and as Mentat. As such, his education taught him things of the politics and war tactics. What do have Lulu? Don’t tell me he learnt war from chess, uhu?
You have to group Mentat training and at least some of the Bene Gesserit arts in with prescience because they are only possible with the aid of the spice(and wolf).
Anyways do you know what they are learning Lulu’s school? Taken in by a rich noble family. Goes to school with a bunch of noble’s childern who must have aspirations of becoming powerful as well. What else could they possible be teaching except intrige, how to sneak up to people in the shower and how to grow your brests two sizes.
The point that I was trying to make (very poorly) is that neither of these two characters trained or went to school to be resistance leaders they went to school, in one case to lead his fiefdom ( I guess tecticly it a dukedom) politicaly economicly and all. In the other case it was to have a love triangle between his sister and childhood friend. I can only assume on that last one.
Anyway your right about Paul being a resistance leader but when you can call upon the memories and experience of every ancestor you ever had since the beginning of time game over man.
This is Derailed by Darry right should we be talking about melopan and arguing about Sunrise.
> We should just call Hong Long “Mask the Moneyâ€
Except that the real Masked the Money could just pay the ransom instead of dodging machine gun fire. Speaking of which, what is Hong Long’s role exactly? Is he like a super combat butler for Wang Liu Mei?