gundam 00 20
Categories: anime, episodic review, gundam
Tagged: gundam 00
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“I fight to compensate for my personal insecurities.”
The three Earthly factions have all received their GN drives, and I was a bit surprised that they got full mobile suits to go along with them. The good thing is that we don’t have to wait another few episodes before new mobile suits show up, but the bad thing is that the new suits are fugly. Ewww. Flags are just so much aesthetically pleasing. And once Graham shunned the new suits to remain a Flag Fighter, I wanted to enlist in Union too. Now that’s a pilot.
The introduction of more GN drive equipped mobile suits adds two new dimensions to the series. The first is that the battles hopefully won’t be as one-sided as they have been. I’m not sure if the series was intended to unfold this way, but definitely the writers saw a need for balance. The problem is that it is a pretty heavy-handed tweak, and now the scales might have tipped a bit too much the other way. It’s beginning to remind me of the ping-pong battles in Gundam Seed Destiny where one side kept trumping the other in hugely lopsided battles. The second change is that the sides are finally revealed. There seems to be the “puppet” factions of HRL, AEU, and Union, and they are, unquestionably, the puppets of Corner. Corner himself leads another faction, one that basically makes him an insane puppetmaster. The third faction are the Meisters and Sumeragi’s staff. They’re aware enough that they’re not puppets like the three Earthly factions, but they can’t seem to do anything but act like puppets.
(The three factions and Trinity are definitely Corner’s puppets. The red beam must have a nasty side effect, as evidenced by Louise’s hand.)
Well, six episodes left this season, and I hope the ending isn’t a rushed mess like Seed and Destiny (I mean, the Lacus and Cagali go shopping episode the very end… I still can’t get over it… “Hey, we have this huge intergalactic war that’s to be decided soon… so let’s go shopping and drag our completely domesticated boyfriends along!”)
Points of Interest
Well, a few running subplots get blown to hell this episode. The first are the Rukia All-Stars. Technically, finding the Trinity’s base as well as possibly backstabbing Sumeragi’s clan is doing something remotely useful (even if it’s not useful to Sumeragi), so I’ll let Ms. Wang off of the list. However, Marina is still on the list. I’m trying to figure out under what scenario would make Marina most useful, and I keep coming back to, “Hey, maybe if Setsuna gets laid, he might be make better decisions when piloting Exia.”
(I did love the part when Nena’s haro started calling Ms. Wang a “bijin.” That was great.)
The second is how are they going to upgrade the Gundams? This is probably the first series since X that there wasn’t a planned switching of mobile suits. I don’t know what these GN Arms are, but I hope they’re not as lame as the METEOR system in Seed. The funniest possible “GN Arm” is that it’s really Potemayo! I’d love to see Sumeragi hand Lockon a Potemayo as an upgrade over his Haro.
The third is that Patrick did something smart! Nothing like scoring with the boss lady to advance one’s military career. I’d love to see him be the first GN-X mobile suit to be shot down.
But, luckily, new running subplots appear! Tieria is a man of mystery, and when I write “man of mystery,” I mean:
A. He could be an integrated data entity much like Yuki Nagato
B. He could star in his own Tieria-tan specials
C. He’d be the most attractive haremette on H2O
Remember how Yoko was the black widow or doombitch? Well, Saji is the Gundam 00 equivalent. Would he be a “doomdude”? When I saw her get in the car with Gauron, I almost yelped, “Oh no!” There’s only two possible endings to that scene. Either she gets stabbed, or she gets raped and stabbed. Knowing that Gauron gets off on killing, I’d go with just stabbed.
(But, yeah, all the cards are in line for Saji to have an epic gar moment. If he doesn’t, well, he’s the new Shinji Ikari Doomdude.)
Vedaaaaaaa!
Many questions:
1. Why does a supercomputer residing on a moon care about war and peace on earth?
2. How the heck did a supercomputer get lavishly built on the moon, and no one’s the wiser?
3. Why isn’t this supercomputer just a head in a cylindrical container, much like Futurama or Lord Genome?
I must have heard “nandatto!” like six things this episode. I felt like I was watching Yakitate Gundam. See, a real pilot like Graham would never say that.
So let me get this straight… Sumeragi’s team has basically been taking orders from a computer? That just seems off to me. How did they get recruited? Like did she stumble across an USB drive with Veda’s teachings on it and though, “Hey, this is less crazy than Scientology! Sign me up!”
And from last time…
Unscrupulous Sousuke: i guess i’m the only one who kept thinking during the Exia-Zwei fight, “goddammit, stop slapping your swords together and actually TRY to give us a decent fight!†i guess i’ve been pampered by the slick CQB sequences thus far, especially Graham Acre.
The Sergei/Johan collision this episode was just as bad. But, yes, Graham Acre is the only real pilot who does anything beyond random collisions in the air. Sergei’s not bad either, but he’s not the same daredevil that Graham is.
(If Graham were the male lead of Kimikiss, he’d definitely score all the girls. That’s how much of an upgrade he would be.)
Tetsuei: Now if you could only insert that “Jim Rome crumples the paper emails†sound with every single time that pops up…
That’s one of my favorite Jim Rome bits. He’s great at the “I’ll going to look down on your morally about this, but I’m still laughing my ass off during the commercial breaks over it.” I still remember his show when he talked about caskets available with MLB team logos, and he kept saying, “Hey, don’t send me e-mails about morbid MLB caskets,” and he pretty much read nothing but them for three hours.
Liquifier: I’m sure Louise can still do the job with only one hand. Not like she HAS to have two…
Terrified to ask: what job?
Amuro1X: Also, I’m surprised you didn’t mention (or post a pic of) the extended Sumeragi ass shot. Best part of the episode imo.
I apologize. Between Kyou’s thighs, Haruka’s flotation devices, and Kiri’s hikkikomori-ness, Sumeragi’s ass has been sitting on the back burner.
Bada-bing! *rim shot*
PS: And there’s no way Yoko’s his lovechild either, I thought you mentioned it yourself that Haro is the one doing the sniping while Lockon sits there looking pretty?
Other way around. Haro pilots the Gundam while Lockon pulls the trigger. Unless I find a more compelling couple, Yoko is Neil Belldandy’s and Sumeragi’s love child.
OpMegs: Did anyone else look at Nadleeh’s TRIAL System and suddenly hear someone saying “THE POWER OF BISHOUNEN SPARKLES COMPELS YOU!�
….just me, then?
Yep… these are my readers.
27 Responses to “gundam 00 20”
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Actually, the GN-Arms ARE a mobile weapon attachment, much like the Orchis Dendrobium from Stardust Memory and the MeTEORS from SEED, just smaller and less impressive. Sorry Jason.
Graham is definitely the better man by not taking any charity from a Celestial Being traitor. He may also be the smarter man too. If I were Corner, I’d have some device that brainwashes the pilots in those GN-X’s which robs the world of 30 of their best pilots in case anything happens. At that point Graham comes and saves the world in his Flag.
But I think that Corner is getting played as well by his boy-toy. Corner kept calling him his angel 3-4 times in one scene. The man is not thinking straight at this point.
And in ep 46 of Destiny, wasn’t it Lacus and Meyrin who went shopping?
>> And in ep 46 of Destiny, wasn’t it Lacus and Meyrin who went shopping?
Yes. My team of offshored fact-checkers are not working hard enough. :(
Haha Graham is going to wait until his Flying V formation has softened up one of the weaker Gundam units (probably Nena) and then swoop in for the killsteal (triple deek)!
I already can see the next horrific Saji moment in my mind. He’s going to get some AWESOME news tip while he is wandering around and he will be trying to call his sister to tell her the news. Then as he rounds the corner, he’s going to find her body in that alley, and proceed to wail NOOOOOOOO as sad music plays and Louise looks sadly out the window. When your family is named after a Britney Spears movie, this is the sort of thing that happens to you.
I’m surprised that there is a red carpet in Veda. Don’t they worry about static electricity?
Personally I think Graham is being an ass about keeping his Flag, I hope he at least opts to use some GN-X technology to pimp out his arsenal, but we shall see. Graham may be showing off his Flag pride, but I give more credit to Squadron leaders and Pilots who appreciate how much of technological edge makes a difference. Heck as good as the Red Baron and Werner Voss were, even they appreciated the pure win and awesome of being able to slip turn with the Fokker Triplane.
Kinda sad to see that Patrick is the only one trying to get laid…but at least the guy has some brain cells and decent standards (unlike the bi-loli-shouta-con Lockon). Shit if the world was going to end and you were probably on the writer’s hit list trying to get laid seems pretty damn logical for a peon, better than shopping at least.
I guess I am in the minority that thinks Kinue got what she deserved, bloody no good fifth columnist.
Also I don’t see Graham tapping any thing but a Gundam if dropped into the KimiKiss Universe he’d probably have a Hosaka Fantasy about Gundam instead of chasing women. Heck even if the policy is don’t ask don’t tell, I don’t ask, but I can tell. In the time honored tradition of calling into question the predisposition of Halsschmerzen, in Aker we have never ever seen him even look at a woman, just Billy and Gundam. That is of course wnless we declare Nadleeh a girl.
Graham promised Howard that he would get laid in a Flag.
Oh thank goodness I thought he said “with” a Flag…
What is it with Sunrise and animating mobile suits kicking each other? I mean it’s great for conveying the message they intended; in this case the GN-X units being on par with the Gundam Thrones, but it was like the most ineffectual attack Sergei could have performed as we’ve seen the gundams take rather high caliber rounds and shrug them off. This doesn’t annoy as much as it did in Seed though when watching Freedom kick suits equipped with phase shift armor rendering them immune to
physical attacks.
On another note, it’s rare to see a commander value the “cheers of cannonfodder” more than pressing the advantage and possibly eliminating a huge threat to national security or in the case of the Thrones, global security. Least he could have done is find out where the Thrones were based seeing how they should be able to keep with their new suits.
As far as Saji being a “doomdude” I think we’d have to wait till killed off Louise. Losing a hand doesn’t quite measure up to going out with a ton of gar either. On that note, I’ve been wondering why Louise didn’t just wear the rings on her right hand. It’s not like Saji proposed to her or anything.
Albeit admirable, Graham’s adamant refusal to use nothing other than a Flag is akin to someone choosing a Winchester repeating rifle over a SOPMOD M4 in a shootout. In Graham’s case, he just happens to be very adept with the antiquated stuff.
Lots of development this time. The unification of the 3 “Powers” should come as no surprise, it was the logical conclusion of the overall Plot from the very beginning.
Also CB being controlled by a computer is not surprising since the founder should be dead for about 200 Years-it would be really lame if Schenberg actually would show up in person.
I don´t know why but Patrick is surprisingly sypmphatic…
(unlike the bi-loli-shouta-con Lockon)
what’s with all the hate for Lockon? There’s nothing wrong with hitting on bridge bunnies aren’t there? Plus, Felt sports pretty decent floatation devices, so in a sense, Lockon isn’t being exactly a lolicon. If I were stranded on Potemayo, I’ll definitely take Felt over saggy boobs Sumeragi and high maintenance Christine, so no, definitely nothing wrong with Lockon’s taste.
“So let me get this straight… Sumeragi’s team has basically been taking orders from a computer? That just seems off to me. How did they get recruited?”
Seeing as how the organization has been around for about two centuries, I’d think they’d have a few people working behind the scenes maintaining the organization alive. We don’t see them, but hey, we didn’t know about the Observers until 16, and we know CB has agents ala China-tan and her cronies running around. Perhaps they moonlight as recruiters.
Anyway, I thought it was pretty obvious that Veda was a computer from the beginning. Some people thought that it was on the Ptolemy, but that was only a terminal. I’m willing to bet that Veda is 00’s version of DOME from X, but instead of the first newtype, Vowels senior somehow encoded himself into it.
And I like the GN-X. It’s face may be funky, but the things body is sleek, and I love those clawed hands. It’s one mean looking grunt.
Later on, Graham will get his hands on an Over-POWERED-Flags dedicated for himself.. lol
>> the bad thing is that the new suits are fugly. Ewww
Its better than those tissue boxes HRL has been using….. and hey… NO MORE PINK MOBILE SUIT =D
(..continued) which will be used to activate flags for all girls on the series. Nadleeh’s Trial System would be toy compared to it. Why bother only control Veda-connected-Gundams when you can control all the girls.. XD
I agree that there may be something sneaked onto the GN-X units (notice the large armor flares on the torso and legs forming an ‘X’?), perhaps a remote-control or a self-destruct. Seeing them against Trinity proves that those three have very little skill compared to the three powers or the celestial being quartet…how long will they survive?
And Nena’s ‘urusai’ this episode, I’m sure many fans were waiting for that.
“A. He could be an integrated data entity much like Yuki Nagato”
Humanoid interface.
And that makes Veda the Integrated Data Entity.
Have you forgotten this much, Derailed one?
Man I think at this point, we need to add Gundam X to the list of similarities, which now includes Gundam Wing and Full Metal Panic. The Veda supercomputer reminds me of the supercomputer in Gundam X, which also so happens to be on the moon, Lets face it, Veda is the new D.O.M.E. now. The only difference is that D.O.M.E. actually did something useful (allowing the X/XX gundams to use their WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!!!!!1111) while Veda recruits emo kids as gundam meisters and can’t even protect itself from being hacked. That and you beat me to the punch with set plan of gundam upgrade idea too. (But gotta admit Double X was freakin sweet)
Man, what I wouldn’t give to see Nena’s gundam hold a piece of melonpan, and flail around like crazy, while hearing from the intercom “Urusai Urusai Urusai!!!” after hearing the retreat order. Rie Kugimiya must have really restrained herself that time.
“Hey, maybe if Setsuna gets laid, he might be make better decisions when piloting Exia.â€
How in the world could going through a straight shota h-scene enable him to make better decisions?
“How in the world could going through a straight shota h-scene enable him to make better decisions?”
Everybody thinks better after a straight shota h-scene, or at least so I thought.
@Cokematic
I dunno, with the exception of the pink thing, the Teirens’ design are very manly. Big, powerful, tuff, and a little slow. it kinda resembles me…..
Setsuna getting laid, by whom? Marina has a 7-year age difference over him, Sumeragi has like 10. On second thought, this is Derailed by Darry and I can only imagine the post Jason puts up if either of the two events happen. Sure, Soma, Ms. Wang, Felt, and Louise are of a closer age, but that isn’t interesting at all.
>>Terrified to ask: what job?
I guess EVERYONE on this blog knows the answer for that question Jason, so bear with us, your readers…
And Saiji, poor man, lost her girlfriend, lost her sister…. our next Shinn Asuka? Thankfully without a Siscon.
I’m more interested to see what will bring in that encounter between Marina and Setsuna on episode 21. by the way, just 5 episodes left. This season ends at 25, just like Code Geass.
anakin and amidala had like ten years? between them and they produced 2 kids though anakin kinda killed younglings at the end …
Like Amuro1X, I rather like the GN-X. Looks deliciously lethal, and great when flying in formation.
Graham’s smart. First, he promised Howard Mason. Second, I would not want to be in a GN-X when the trial system activates and they ALL fall out of the sky. Except Graham in his bitchin Flag.
I still think that the original celestial being has an advantage over everybody else. I remember the GN drive of the Trinity’s has a “false” solar furnace…so in otherwords, GN Tau drives suck compared to the green ones.
Yet again Graham Acre is the only smart person in the entire show. Not only does he actually steal a beam sabre, he actually KEPT it, and then ASKED them to analyze it! *Swoon*
Sumeragi’s ass has been sitting on the back burner.
Bada-bing! *rim shot*
Bada-bing! *rim shot*
Bada-bing! *rim shot*
Bada-bing! *rim shot*
Bada-bing! *rim shot*
Bada-bing! *rim shot*
…
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