[Powerman293]

Gundam 00 Wrap up

Let me say this to start, I still love Gundam 00, its my favorite Gundam and probably my favorite anime (although I haven’t watched a lot of anime mind you). This rewatch reminded me of why I love television and Gundam so much. Season 1 has its moments for me, and it is quite good,but season 2 is my jam. I am so on board with kicking the A-laws’ asses. Plus, I like the character focus in season 2 a lot more.

But, rewatching 00 made me notice a lot more of the flaws. There’s a handful of Deus Ex Machinas (particularly with Tiera’s machines), plot holes (Why did no one at Celestial Being mention Ribbons Almark worked for them), unexplained events (was there a split between Celestial being and the Innovades? And were the Trinities Innovades or Alejandro was doing his own innovator scheme with Nena?) to pointless subplots (Louise becoming an Innovator) and annoying shitty characters (Any Innovade that wasn’t Tieria, Ribbons or Anew ). There’s also the fact that Smearnoff and Sumeragi have the exact same backstory. And Saji really doesn’t do much. And Graham Aker was useless. And they give Sestuna too many rivals. I can totally understand people who don’t love the series as much as I do, however, what this show does right propels it much further up then the negatives bring them down.

All of the Gundam Meisters feel distinct and have interesting personalities. Sure, Setsuna is stone cold and emotionless at times, but he does take concern with other people quite often. Lyle/Neil is the lighthearted dude who tries to bring people close to him to understand them. Alleujah is quite a loner but opens up to be passionate and caring. Tieria is the one I’m really proud of. From being essentially a living computer only meant to follow the plan to being someone fighting for what he knows is right.

The Gundam designs are beautiful. They are unique and the angled panels make them look beautiful. Even the season 1 designs, which I don’t care as much for, are beautiful designed, colorful and filled with rich technological detail. I really can’t compare the action to either Seed/Destiny or Age, the ones before and after, because I haven’t seen them. The action is beautiful. With a mix of beams and physical swords, and the Exia’s dancing style of combat are really good mix and look beautiful in HD. Trans-am is beautiful, it is an awesome visual effect and is totally badass. Granted, the uniqueness of it wears off once everybody goes trans am by the end of season 2.

The story was really great too. It wasn't about space colonies but rather getting there. Its interesting to see a Gundam series that’s trying to unite people through the actions they do in battle rather then just completely eliminating one army entirely. I think I would consider this a spiritual prequel to some of the other Gundam Universes. there's more overall story in season 1 but its more episodic. Whereas season 2 has a much more overarching plot that's a lot simpler.

The sci fi aspects for me were all over the place. On the one hand I like the GN particles, even if they are just minovsky particles, because they at least take the time to explain them in the show. The Gn particles also worked like energy, where you could manipulate it in tons of different ways. And I like how the blocs and the Federation don’t use nuclear power due to having the elevators and unlimited solar energy, which is safer to use. But on the other hand, I question the likelihood of subatomic particles evolving a human, pokemon style.

I can’t give a score on the show since its kinda hard to put a number on it, but I really, really, really love this show.