gundam 00 25

Mission incomplete.

(Trust me. You didn’t need to tell us that. We have eyes and ears. We knew.)

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After six months, Gundam 00 draws to a close. Temporarily. (I don’t get this six month wait. Gundam 00 should have been just one continuous train wreck instead of a train wreck with a Code Geass intermission.) I guess like after watching any other recent Sunrise series, I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, a promising series was quickly derailed and train wrecked. On the other hand, I like train wrecks, especially the Sunrise variety. One of the readers pointed out that Sunrise has just been horrible with endings recently (like in the past five years) and really haven’t submitted one that would be above average. I agree. It’s been a while since I’ve been satisfied with an ending… maybe Mai Hime was the last one, only because it kept the Natsuki x Shizuru dream alive.

Syaoran Li: With all this talk, I don’t remember a SUNRISE series in the last few years (IdolMaster, Code Geass, ZegaPain, Mai Otome, Gundam Seed destiny, Mai Hime) with a satisfactory ending…. maybe Geass… neh… even that one.

I always wondered whatever happened to the old Sunrise, the one that made poignant and developed endings. For example, the end of Cowboy Bebop was a bloodbath, but it was a bloodbath built-up and cashed in almost perfectly. Yes, the ending precluded more stories, but it did bring Spike’s story to a close in a logical fashion. (Hint: he dies.) For Escaflowne… wow… it would be ten years later before the Van / Hitomi break-up would be topped. For Outlaw Star, you just felt happy for Melfina at the end. What happened?! When did the sensical endings start becoming nonsensical?

The Gundam franchise was never one for great endings. I knew this going in, and I still bit the bait. They all felt rushed, like they had to wrap the plot up (Destiny is probably the worst offender, with Gundam X in second.) and didn’t know how. Though how should a Gundam series end? Mmm… Kyoto Animation ended their mecha beat down series with a fanservice OVA. I think that works pretty damn well!

Ugh. Gundam 00 25. Enjoy.

Points of Interest

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I have tons to go through this episode… don’t know where to start… oh wait, I do! Tieria’s “Wait for me… I’ll be where you are… Lockon.” has to be the most uncomfortable yaoi moment of this series. But one thing this episode reaffirms is that Setsuna and only Setsuna is the star. Everyone else is just a (homo) side character.

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The last 2 minutes of the series was probably the most interesting, just because Sunrise dropped massive hints for 26-50 (though no bunny suit Felt). One thing hasn’t changed… Marina’s still useless! She’s watched more TV than anyone else in the Gundam 00 universe, and while all the nations are uniting, she’s still watching TV. Welcome to the Rukia All-Stars, here’s your official invite. Congratulations!

(And did Shirin ditch her? By the looks of Marina, yes. I guess Shirin finally got tired of all the lesbian sex… either that or she’s Tieria’s long lost twin.)

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And we have a new faction! Innovators… blah… not only do they all look light in the loafers with those outfits, they’re twins… ? I don’t believe that Sunrise is capable of scripting out Gundam 00 to bridge two quickly disseminating distinct series. How do we go from a quasi real world conflict involving energy usage to Federation vs. Innovators vs. Celestial Being? I’m just waiting for Ribbon’s faction to have a name that starts with an “Z”.

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We have our answer for “Who is the masked dude in Gundam 00“! I’ll come back to Graham later, but… Worst. Mask. Ever. It looks like Hakuoro’s mask collided with a ketchup bottle and was used at a demonic Hinamizawa festival.

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Gauron’s alive! He really should be Setsuna’s final boss… not Graham. Worse case for 00 is that Gauron becomes Marina’s Andrew Waltfeld.

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Tieria with Louise?! OMFG. Didn’t see this one coming. When I first saw this scene, I thought she was Mako-cakes. (Queue Haess’ comment.) Upon my second viewing, I thought she was legal and bleached Felt. It wasn’t until my third time through that I realized, “Holy shit, it’s Louise!” The short hair threw me off, but it does kinda answer the, “Wait, why are Louise and Saji in this anime in the first place?” I then quickly placed Louise at the top of the death list for Gundam 00 26-50.

(Should really run a death pool for the next season… Louise? Saji? Ribbons? Setsuna? Ms. Wang? The field?)

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If you told me six months ago that at the end of Gundam 00, the only two intact Gundam pilots would be Setsuna and a randomly introduced pilot voiced by the wrathful loli, I probably would have believed you. It’s Sunrise! They switched Luna and Meyrin at a whim! Ms. Wang disappointed me by not showing off some time slip fashion. I’m also disappointed that the three characters I wanted to see in time slip mode didn’t make an appearance: Sumeragi (obviously to see if her melonpan has started sagging yet), Felt (18, legal, and in her prime… this has to be more epic than Nia’s transformation), and Setsuna (How far has he gotten with Marina? Farther or less far than Nagisa and Tomoya? Maybe a kiss pool to see which of these two couples will get on first base first. Though I’d still put money down on Tieria and Lockon’s urn).

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Finally revealed why this series is named “Gundam 00“. Um… great job naming a series after something that wouldn’t be relevant until six months after the last episode has aired.

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And now back to Graham Acre… certainly after a climatic fight against Corner, you’d think that would be the end of the fighting no? How about a random appearance by Graham? Certainly, this didn’t feel like a “Oh wait, we forgot about Graham. Shit, we still need to put him in!” moment. Definitely was unnecessary… especially if the audience needs to be reminded of any connection between Graham and Setsuna and why any fight between them would be relevant. Gauron should have been the end boss for Setsuna, with Tieria or Lockon up against Corner. Sunrise screwed up. Graham should not have been the last fight. Soma and Allelujah was the only proper final fight pairing.

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The battle between GN-Flag and Exia was also bad… it was just a two minute long shouting match with kicking. It did feel like the final Anti-spiral vs. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fight, only sped up by a 10x factor and minus any subtleties and choreography. This GN-Flag and Exia fracas also reminded me of…

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Mai Otome!

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Or maybe I’m just thinking that way because of all the emo facial distortions. My gosh, it was a buffet.

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I like this pose. Someone asked a few episodes before if we can finally get a normal heterosexual relationship in this anime. We finally found a couple! Sergei and Soma. If I thought hard enough, I would have came to this eventual conclusion as well. Though, I still would have put my money of Louise and Saji six months ago… damn Nena!

(And, yes, Allelujah will intervene Sergei and Soma. He’ll be the Noe to Sergei’s Hiromi, especially if Allelujah becomes the 00 equivalent of the druggies.)

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Speaking of Allelujah, maybe Pirate Lockon was so popular, Sunrise needed another eyepatch wearer in the series. I’m just waiting for Allelujah to return with a heart-shaped eyepatch with the matching one for Hallelujah. That would be fitting.

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SEED mode! If Allelujah performs so much better with his hair parted back, why don’t the other Meisters cut his hair? Wouldn’t Lockon have gone, “After I’m done with Setsuna, I can give you a quick trim.” Or does that make too much sense.

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Corner’s mobile suit… looks horrible. It looks like some 1970 mecha crossed with a Warcraft III dreadlord with some Akatsuki. And wasn’t Tieria’s TRIAL system the ace in case they have to fight other Gundams?

My favorite part of its battle with Exia has to be Setsuna screaming, “Ore wa GUNDAM!!!” If Shinji is an one and Simon is a ten, I think Setsuna would be around a six-point-five. No, really. Not only did he actually fight with some passion (unlike Heero Yui or Kira Yamato), he…

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… sent his shigofumi to Marina and not Lockon. Setsuna and Maria are officially the Tomoyo and Nagisa of Gundam 00. Of course, Sumeragi would be Tomoyo with 18 year old (I think I’m looking forward to Gundam 00 26-50 more and more) Felt as Kyou.

(Still upset over Christina… but after the time slip, she would have been more like a Christmas Cake Yomako-sensei… which is still very, very tasty. Is this like the first Gundam series where most of the bridge crew dies? Only 3 of the 7 Potemayo crew members survived. And, yes, I’m going to miss calling the “Ptolemaios” the “Potemayo.” I hope the new ship will sound like “Guchuko.”)

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I finally made it through blogging a Gundam series. I definitely feel like the Golden State Warriors in that I tend to blog to the level of the show I’m writing about. If Sunrise FrankenFran’ed Gundam 00 by cobbling parts of their other series together and repeats many themes I’ve seen already, it’s hard to have an original opinion. “Hey, Setsuna and Graham just collided giant, oversized novelty swords! What ya think?” Uh, mmm okay. But I apologize if I go over the same themes in my post, as there’s just not enough happening and not enough happening that I haven’t seen already in a previous Gundam escapade. I really hoped that 00 would have been different, and when it took the slightly realistic route, I was very intrigued. But, as I should have known better… the wheels… they come off!

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And, finally, from last time

teabeans: Cyborgs that spit red blood but bleed purple everywhere else? Selective dramatic scene conducive beam that slags an entire cockpit but leaves a fleshy person behind? No gruesome death by decompression? Usually I’d get an “aha, spotted a logical inconsistency” boost to my ego for stuff like this, but Sunrise has made it so blatant I feel more stupid for continuing to watch.

teabeans, you hit it right on the spot. There’s just no logical way to analyze Gundam 00. There’s only three routes I think you can take. The first is just to say it sucks. The second is to view it with the train wreck / unintentional comedy filter (my choice). The third is ignore the plot, focus on the mobile suits, and build tons and tons of Gunpla. I call the third one the “Keron Choice.”

huh?: i love how CB personell refer to each other by their first and last name.

Not as epic as the official spelling for Setsuna as “刹那 F. セイエイ.” Gotta love the blend of kanji, English, and katakana.

Epi: I’m hoping for a timeslip 10 years in the future with a fully grown Felt.

Four is the perfect number. Only Bunny Girl Kallen can distract me from Legal Felt. Andohbytheway, didn’t everyone like die at the end of Code Geass? Is like Code Geass S2 the prototype for Gundam 00 26-50? Is like the Knights of the Roundtable the precursor to the Innovators? OH GEASS NO!

Jounin: A 18/20-year-old Felt would be more than enough. At 14, she already matches up well with Christine (Sumeragi’s melonpan, however, are just insane). What Felt needs to do now is take Chris’ last words to heart and dress better (maybe even use some of Chris’ old clothes?).

Read my mind. Desperately need Mako-cakes, Haruhi, or Ms. Wang to show Felt how to dress properly. Here, have some Genshiken as a reward:

(Kinda sad that the most intriguing part of the second season might actually be Felt with Louise in second.)

Seeker4life: It was sad that Christina was killed. She actually one of my favorite characters in the series after I seen her in a swimsuit. What was really sad was the fact of much value of her status went up just because she look good in a tank top with a thong.

*Nodding*

meadbert: Everyone doesn’t care or hates all the current pilots. Blowing them up means new cast and rampant speculation that the antagonist side pilots (I.e. the ones everyone loves) may become Meisters in S2.

The reason people don’t care about the current pilots is that Sunrise did a horrible job in developing them. They got into this mess with subpar writing, and the only way to really get out of it is to clean house. Unfortunately, that itself is problematic. It’s like the Timberwolves trading Garnett for draft picks and cap space. The person who mismanaged their draft picks and cap space so badly that Garnett left is the only who is rebuilding with the newly acquired draft picks and cap space. Does this make you feel good if you’re one of the six remaining Timberwolves fans? The bigger problem with cleaning house? See below for my predicted post-time slip Gundam Meister line-up.

pakxenon: And that gold thing has FABULOUS written all over it. The Akatsuki was just too shiny-ugly, and now they bring in this thing that houses SEVEN GN-drives. At least the resulting explosion must SURELY kill him off.

Even the mobile suits can be considered homo side characters? At least the suits from Gundam Wing didn’t look as if Itsuki did the mechanical design.

Thapsus: Graham’s disappearance isn’t unusual either- Char did the same thing in MSG

You just compared Graham to Char. Isn’t this like comparing Jason Maxiell to Charles Barkley?

emotoaster: Jason I know killing off melonpan is wrong, but hopefully Tieria gets really fucked up and go in for a “chassis upgrade”…

Based on that last scene with Louise, I have no clue if Tieria is a guy or a girl anymore. Even if my radar wasn’t damaged by Haess, Mako-cakes, and Mizuho-neesama, I still can’t tell. Between how he cried for Lockon and how he sneared at Louise’s melonpan this episode, all bets are off.

Crusader: Yes it was the best presidency ever, for you. The average tax payer never got to enjoy it and Vice President Tomoyo beat up Congress and the Supreme Court so there would be no opposition. For all your social liberalism it was most unkind of you to refuse to share…

That’s Vice President and Mistress Tomoyo to you.

AndreiBurnside: And they killed the wrong trinities. Kill NENA, please for the LOVE OF GOD. Johan wore shorts and Michael was entertaining. I actually liked them, probably because they were more interesting than most of the main characters. They killed the wrong CB pilots too. I don’t how they’re going to salvage it. Maybe this bloodbath was part of the plan. I sure hope so.

With all the characters dead, missing, or batshit insane, the probable starting line up for Celestial Being next season is… Setsuna, Tieria, Nena, and Louise. Ladies and gentlemen, your probable post-time slip Gundam Meisters! I can only imagine people going, “OH GEASS NO! Stab me. Stab me now!”

(Wait, you liked Johan because he wore shorts. I don’t even have a comment for that one… but it doesn’t get the big prize since…)

OpMegs: Somewhere, someone watched this episode and the first thought that came to mind when Christina died was “well, at least she got penetrated by something.”

Yep… these are my readers.

49 Responses to “gundam 00 25”

  1. “At least she got penetrated by something” – that has to be one of the best comments ever. Wonderful :D

    Anyhow, Gundam 00 sucks, congratulations everyone who could sit through this pile of garbage. The only two Anime I have seen that were even worse are Melody Of Oblivion and Cat Soup. And Cat Soup is REALLY bad.

    PS: Maybe I should watch the first few episodes of the second season, too, just that I can bash the “This series rocks” dreams of all stupid Gundam fanboys.

  2. Although its no original Sunrise writing (and therefore does not really count) Kekkaishi had a nice, well wrapped up ending and even the anime adaption changes were well done.

  3. Was I the only one that just shaked his head and sighed when they showed the new GN-Xs holding lances of all things? Yes, we know, Code Geass is coming next, but it just looks absolutely ridiculous.

  4. “Shaked”? Let’s just pretend I typed that grammatical monstrosity while sleep walking, shall we?

  5. Nevermind, I happen to always say “teached”…

    And yeah, those lances are kind of weird. But maybe the Earth Union turns into Britannia later on? Who knows…

  6. I hope Tiera come back as a girl because my little friend…. :P is telling me its doesn’t matter anymore. It will be better if he got breast implants that are the size’s of Sumeragi. That I can only hope for. Also if Felt does a Darry’s transformation and we all know how hawt was she was after the timeskip

  7. I’m surprised that Jason didn’t mention than PATRICK, of all people, was still around, and was actually behind Katie during that group salute of the new Federation soldiers.

  8. Barely awake. Cue the Haess Broken Comment/Predictions:

    – Tieria is the new Nagato/Rei, right down to being able to get resurrected in body yet having a different mind. [Broken] I hope that this one’s really a girl and not a trap, though [/Broken]

    – Louise’s bustline seems to have grown… which means she’s keeping up with Felt, who has probably got Sumeragi beat by now, especially with the latter’s drinking habits and their detrimental effects on the body.

    – The screaming match combined with the slamming of mecha-on-mecha weapons reminds me more of SEED, only due to the scale of the opponents and the lack of glowing shields meeting in between them. Needed more emo and more maneuvering; I’m hard-pressed to believe that this is the same company that did Keroro 102 and its Dancing Natsumi Air Battle.

    – They need to fire their current mecha designers and get all new ones. Seriously – LANCES on Gundams makes about as much sense as those oversized swords in Mai Otome… except the latter were effective weapons, whereas these ones look more like they’re present to look pretty and provide convenient shrapnel to decorate battlefields with.

  9. To the defense of Gundam endings, Turn A was pretty good, and the build-up to it didn’t feel forced and silly, though people easily dismiss it due to its ‘Happily Ever After’ theme (but then this is post-depression Tomino we’re talking about here, so no kill-em-all ending this time). Jasons misgiving about Gundam-X aside, it also brought proper closure to the series, though I really wished that they didn’t wait until the very last episode to resolve the Frost Brothers issue.

    For non-series endings, the finale of the Zeta movies was far, FAR better than its original series ending, and not many mind about the fact that it officially killed off the Double Zeta timeline.

  10. “randomly introduced pilot voiced by the wrathful loli”

    Seiyu armor, I think that I called that up …

  11. Hmm. I’m not sure what to say about this ending…Clearly Sunrise must have planned this from the start if they spent all that time around Saji and Louise just to set them up as the new meisters for next season. (Anyone else looking forward to the lesbian sexual tension bitter hatred between Neena and Louise?)

    As for the Tieria gender debate, I’ve decided to place my bets on “flat chested woman”–Her scoff at the end of the episode sounded too feminine.

    But this leads to the question–If Tieria’s female… Louise and Neena are also gundam meisters…. Then does this mean they’ll leave Setsuna as dead in order to have an all female Gundam crew for the first time in Sunrise history? I think I could totally forgive this season’s train wreck if it results in an all female Gundam crew. Hell, even if they keep Setsuna alive, then doesn’t 26-50 Just become the tale of Setsuna and his haremettes? If so then which Haremette will end up in the Nayuki All-stars?

  12. Kouryuu: Actually, people have been debating if that’s actually Tiera, since the credits list a different name (who is also voiced by a different VA, in this case, Romi Paku).

  13. Myssa, well even if it’s a clone or whatever, my above statements regarding possible lesbian awesome Gundam pilots and haremettes still stand.

  14. Hmmm…. I forgot how many episodes of Gundam SEED it took to finally realize why it was called SEED. Was it also nearly half the series?

    So, I’m starting to feel that Sunrise’s writers work backwards when they write a script. Instead of some logical progression of story, they kind of come up with like milestone goals as to where they want the story to be then try to fill in the gap to get there at all costs. So, chances are the yalready have an ending in mind and just sat there and asked each other, “so how do we get there?”

    On a side note, unlike some that seem to have overflowing hatred for the series and complain about it being a great train wreck, then turn around and say, “maybe I’ll watch some of the next season (even though I hate it so much).” I rather enjoyed the series on its pure entertainent value. I kind of liken it to day time soap, which is a guilty pleasure for alot of people. I don’t care if characters die and come back to life, suffer from amnesia, or suddenly find a long lost gender changing twin (I think that’s been done before in anime). As long as it stays entertaining, I’ll keep watching.

  15. guesswhat

    PIRATE LOCKON IS BARTHOLOMEI FATIMA IN DISGUISE!!!!!1

  16. I do not watch it Weirdofu, Gundam SEED was the first and last Gundam series I tried to watch … what I have a issue with is how they seen unable to break away from the “Gundam theme” when they are doing a Mech series.

    That is Sunrise main problem, there are so many times one can copy/paste the same plot before people get tired of it.

  17. Well, finally after one day I’m calm and ready to do a final judgment over this final episode.

    Setsuna: He fought for himself and no one else; sure, he was part of Celestial Being at that time but his own beliefs were at stake in both battles, against Alejandro and Graham. Finally, he sent a letter (a shigofumi) to Marina Ismail. Don’t ask me how the hell he managed to send that; maybe he’s certain that the upcoming battle could be his last and so he prepared that message to be delivered to her at certain time. Anyway, he finally found something to fight for and believe in. I hope SUNRISE has plans for this couple in the future; 28 and 20 are now both legal ages.

    Allelujah: His alter ego is dead now (or so it seems); he discovered that Soma was someone he knew (a sister maybe) and finally loss an eye (Hallelujah) in the cockpit explosion. Damn it, he’s better to be alive.

    Tieria: We all know he wasn’t human; so my bet here is that Tieria is dead and that person we saw with Louise at the end of this episode is another entity-type-like-human Tieria was. Hopefully, he’ll like girls (look towards Louise).

    Anyway, I’ll miss this show until October.

  18. “…we can finally get a normal heterosexual relationship in this anime… Sergei and Soma.”

    Proof positive that the ideal (re: normal) woman has to be manufactured from a test tube… and brainwashed. Speaking of, IS Soma legal now, or is that question rendered entirely moot in space? Uchuu banzai!

    “Setsuna and Maria are officially the Tomoyo and Nagisa of Gundam 00.”

    Does this mean we’ll get Lockon’s long-lost sister to drop by with a “dozo, Haro-fish”?

    Also, you didn’t mention (or perhaps intentionally avoided) the return of Patrick Colasour, Team Rocket Honorary Member! He was standing in the lineup of the “peacekeeping force” personnel, behind his ah… Mannequin *cough*.

  19. The nonsense started when I read that Gundam 00 was going to mirror present day tensions, but that the heroes were going to be the terrorists. Now it looks like we’re at Earth Federation and heroes still terrorists from space. If CB or Innovator turns out to have Newtype/Coordinator hax, would Gundam 00 be a prequel series for all other Gundam timelines?

  20. I liked the comment on the Gundam 00 ep 25 release on Tokyo Toshokan: “…What the hell just happened?”

  21. Allelujah with an eyepatch… he’s getting scarily familiar to agito/akito from Air Gear… Man, I need to watch this episode badly.

  22. Graham…

    I actually would have preferred if he done nothing at all. You’d think that with one of the fastest mobile suits, he wouldn’t have arrived so late and been so meaningless.

  23. Louise and Neena Come on theirs gotta be a cat fight between them
    1. Neena killed Louise whole family and took her hand 2. Now Louise is stuck in a elevator with a homo/sexchanged Tieria who has a hardon for dead Pirate Lockon.
    Well those aren’t alot of reasons.But I’ll get stright to what I really want and I want two girls to go at it and my hope is maybe just maybe they some how get grown-up Felt and Sumeragi having a Mudwrestling fight scene in the 2nd season. I maybe only dreaming cause it’ll never fit in. But This Dream Will Never Die.
    P.S Didn’t Lockon have a brother

  24. Tieria is probably dead – replaced by his sister. Now why in Space she is with Louise is a good question – probably because she gets help from Celestial Being to regrow her missing hand?
    I can’t see Nena turning back from the dark side anytime soon, so I think Sunrise would need to work hard on that… oh, did I just say Sunrise? Nevermind.

  25. that’s Tieria’s daughter from his relationship with Lockon.

    Tieria isn’t human so he could get an adult daughter in only 4 yrs. haha

  26. While I agree Graham’s fight was pointless, and the series had way to many plot holes, I still enjoyed.

    That being said I never want to see that Teria x Teria pic evar again!

  27. who is also voiced by a different VA, in this case, Romi Paku

    Doesn’t being a Gundam pilot voiced by Romi Paku *increase* the odds that Tieria 2.0 is a trap, though? <_<

    The standard Gundam ending seems to be to wrap up the climatic final battle but not really touch on any remaining plot threads not immediately related to said fight – Turn A is the major exception to this, as you mentioned. The endings of, say, the original Mobile Suit Gundam Char’s Counterattack worked fine enough for my tastes, though that aren’t objectively great.

    Gundam F91 had the worst ending in the whole series, personally – they didn’t even resolve the whole Crossbone Vanguard rebellion at all, they just cut the movie off after killing Iron Mask. At least Gundam 00 has the excuse that we all knew coming in there’d be a second half.

    As for Graham, I can’t believe Sunrise is actually pandering to the fanboys who insist on a masked character (or five) in every single Gundam series. It was kinda cute when Zechs had a carbon copy of Char’s backstory back in 1995, but SEED/SEED Destiny has completely beaten that cliche into the ground.

  28. So I’m surprised no one’s said this yet, but then again, I probably shouldn’t be surprised by that, given the readership.

    I’d play Felt’s ‘music’ anytime.

  29. Bah, Alleluajah better dies now that Hallelujah is dead. Hallelujah is like the only badass gundam meister while Allelujah gets migraine like Jason Kidd whenever he wants out of a fight.

  30. well, i migth be wrong but, judging for the small portion of the image of Tieria at the end, isn’t that the uniform of the new federation? he’ll stay with CB in the second season?

  31. I’m trying to figure out the whole Tieria x 2 + incest + huge melonpan picture.

    Again the question on if Tieria is a reverse trap goes unanswered.

    Did someone say Sunrise? Because I swear I heard someone say Sunrise.

  32. please tell me i’m not the only one who saw Corner’s crappy suit and chuckled while saying, “Hey, it’s a GM!”

  33. Jason, you already know what happened to Sunrise. All their best people left to start up BONES and Manglobe, and they were bought out by their main sponsor.

  34. motherf**k, they just ruined the best character in the show. poor graham.
    well the epilogue was semi-interesting.

    nena looks like a f**king pothead.

  35. That’s Vice President and Mistress Tomoyo to you.

    My apologies please do not condemn me to re-education through over 9000 kicks…

    Well I am pleased to see that Ali and Patrick were still alive. You can never kill Patrick, never, the luck of the Irish does flow strong in this one. Though they really must set the record straight not more pseudo-daddy-con please. Just no. Still Sergei is gonna be 47 some and Soma is going to be 22, the Wild Bear is a lucky man.

    Corner’s winged GM looked less than impressive, and I still can’t figure out how Corner even leaned to pilot. My first reaction was oh gawd he’s using a GM to cosplay Wing Zero with two beam rifles that don’t even combine. Well Ribbons is the villain now and he can build up Luna Zeon, while Ms. Wang renames an asteroid Axis and starts her own Neo-Zeon movement. She then kidnaps Aeolia’s child descendant and takes on the role of regent. Choubu is then renamed as the Titans…oh yessss…..

    As masks go Graham’s new face looks fearsome and kinda stupid at the same time. As nice as the fight was I agree that was tacked on and rushed, and he seems to have cone off the edge. I thought that Tieria died and the new one is supposed to be a female clone. Also Nena looks rather “high.” I loved the look on Saji’s “Oh gawd they’re back to break my life again” face.

    Now that Shirin is gone its only a matter of time before Prince Ali takes Mariana as his waifu to become Sultan of Azadistan. I have to say that I am looking forward to more even if this “end” was poor due to Graham showing last minute from no where to spew off a few lines about how much he loves Gundam. I really wanted Al to die since Hal was the only one who kept things fun. Still at the conclusion of part I Ali is still top dog on my leaderboard.

    Oh and Obama VIII is now ruler of the Earth Sphere? Yes we can.

  36. I’m trying to figure out the whole Tieria x 2 + incest + huge melonpan picture.

    My eyes. The goggles do nothing etc.

    As for Graham’s performance all I can say is: Weaksauce. Honestly, Hallelujah would be better off as the crazy masked dude. Why would the writers make him take off his helmet anyway? To show off his pretty hair? Oh, right, it’s Sunrise.

  37. on a completely unrelated note, jason, your favorite episode of haruhi has been pissed on by its dub. god knows and lost my music in english = very bad times.

  38. The one thing I really hated about this episode was how Graham was treated in the end. They turned him from arrogant hypercompetitive ace pilot who was actually pretty likable into a crazy warmonger: ali al-sarches light.

    Even worse, they made Graham’s debut in the world of GN drives as a guy who manages to only TIE Setsuna after Exia is crippled because Trans-Am just used up his particles. It’s sad to see that the same Graham who could put up a decent fight in a normal flag could only tie Setsuna in this situation.

    I guess timeslip was inevitable after all, and as much as we all complain about Gundam I have to admit that I can’t wait until the next season. No one does mecha space battle as nice as Gundam, although I’m hoping that Macross Frontier won’t disappoint.

  39. Aw snap. Here I was hoping that “00” might actually be a pictograph of Sumeragi’s melonpan. Here’s to the hope that when they open the door to that hangar that it’s a giant Sumeragi mech. The spiritual successor of Keroro’s Hinata Aki.

  40. Well… I’ll be honest and say I think this episode was pretty shitty. Graham’s image was killed off pretty well along with his face. I guess he admits he’s gay for Gundams or something and randomly pops out of no-where screaming like an idiot (OOC but hey it’s sunrise). Then they introduce a holy shit-load of new stuff cramming as much new info as they could to try and set up the next series, like finally telling us about Gundam 00 and introducing a new faction wtf.

  41. I actually thought the cliffhanger ending was pretty good. Everyone we cared for survived, and there were plenty of hooks to set up the second season.

    The Graham secret EX-boss fight was totally tacked on, though. What should have happen is Graham arriving earlier during the battle with Alvatorre (Alejandro’s Bling Zam), and him and Setsuna call a truce as they team up to take down the Gold GM. With Alejandro blowing everything up within range, there’s pretty good reasons for Graham to fight with the Gundam. Then, once Alejandro goes down, they can have their final duel ala Scryed. Cheezy, but a lot better than than what we got.

    But hey, I’m not writing for Sunrise.

  42. The only two Anime I have seen that were even worse are Melody Of Oblivion and Cat Soup.

    Ah… Melody of Oblivion was awesome. Until it pulled a Xenogears disk 2 with that outer space arc.

  43. Here’s what I don’t get:

    We first started with 3 major power blocks who were playing a zero-sum game with each other and using solar energy as a leverage on the rest of the world. After not being able to capture a Gundam on their own, they cooperate on that “joint exercise” only to “incur the wrath” of the Gundam Thrones and have their military bases destroyed one-by-one. At their wits end, they are about to bow down when Corner gives them a gift in the 30 GN-Xs. After participating in another joint venture where they lose virtually all of the GN-Xs and no Gundam carcus to show for it, the Earth Federation is created.

    I don’t think the Earth Federation was created because Union, AEU, and HRL saw the power in cooperation and wanted the rest of the world to experience it, but they were able to mass-produce the GN-Xs and the rest of the world knew it had to submit. That still doesn’t explain how the three got together in the first place, though.

    Finally, when Graham proclaimed his love, it was great how Setsuna was shocked and disgusted. I guess everyone else is a homo side character.

  44. Is anyone else pissed that alli al whatever did not die? I mean come on at least give Lockon’s death a little validation he was the only meister that did not suck ass and on a related note did they just forget lockon had a twin?

  45. Soma and Sergei. The Ayanami Rei and Ikari Gendou of GUNDAM 00.

    Isn’t that just FOCKING wonderful!!

  46. Maybe I’m missing something, but the whole “your solid blade is our trump card against GN fields” flashback made no damned sense. Am I just misremembering tons of scenes showing GN fields stopping missiles, bullets, and artillery shells?

    Unless he’s really gone into deep witness protection, I’m thinking Setsuna is d.e.a.d.. That leaves Sumeragi-tachi in possession of Nadleeh, Dynames, and maybe Kyrios drives. Exia’s drive is in Ms. Wang’s hands along with the drive from the prototype Gundam, and it remains to be seen if she’s in either Sumerari or Ribbon’s corner.

    Ms. Wang’s spacesuit was incredibly weird.

    Billy’s still floating around out there in the background as well.

  47. I’m glad Patrick lives on so he can fail some more. The best thing about this Gundam anime is the very minimal reuse of animation. I don’t recall any rehashing of any of the fighting frames and even the normally overused launching sequences were sparse or sped through. i did enjoy the widescreen HD quality though (I guess the main improvement over past gundams).

  48. The TRIAL system only works against suits linked to Veda, and there was only one suit equipped with it. I guess CB wanted their bases covered twice.

  49. Your so right, that its scary. I think they should stop the yaoi thing, its not good for kids growing up to be that close to there friends and saying stuff like that.

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