Gundam 00 Season 1 – Mecha Action For Political Junkies

In recent years I’ve almost completely given up on the Mobile Suit Gundam series. I don’t dislike mecha series but I also don’t consider myself a big fan of them. However, I try to keep an open mind given that I’ve found gems like Escaflowne, Rahxephon, Full  Metal Panic! and Code Geass over the years. Still, I find the Gundam series was more often than a miss than a hit with me. Out all of the series I watched on U.S. TV (in some cases heavily edited), I enjoyed The 08th MS Team the most followed by Gundam Wing. In the case of Gundam SEED, I couldn’t even finish it. When I decided to watch Gundam 00 (pronounced “Double O”) my expectations were quite low.

Within a few episodes all of my doubts about the newest Gundam series were completely crushed. Gundam 00 is quickly replacing The 08th MS Team as being my favorite in the series. It may even overtake both seasons of Code Geass as one of the most intellectually compelling mecha anime series I’ve seen in recent years. Much of 00’s appeal comes from its take on a futuristic, but plausible reality in a post 9/11 political world. The series is cleverly set roughly 300 years in the future (2307AD) and manages to mirror the political landscape of today. In short, this is a series for intellectual and political junkies as well as Gundam fans.

The 24th century is still as tumultuous as it was in the 21st century. Wars in the Middle East, South Asia and Europe have been ongoing for centuries. Meanwhile the superpowers of the world have grouped themselves together by region into three major power blocs. The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations or the Union, led by the United States and consisting of the Americas and Japan, the Advanced European Union or AEU consisting of Europe, and the Human Reform League made up of China, India and Russia are all vying for power even as they play a zero sum game with their military might. Each of these power blocs controls an orbital elevator which supplies solar energy in the place of depleted fossil fuels. Weaker countries ally themselves with the stronger nations for energy and military protection, while countries outside of the power blocs unfairly find themselves struggling to survive, locked in constant war.

Most of the core group of Celestial Being, including all of the Gundam Meisters. And no, Tieria Erde isn’t a woman, stop asking already.

It is in this setting that Celestial Being, a privately owned military group challenges the current world order. After out performing current mobile suit technology on Earth owned by the World’s militaries and terrorist groups alike with Gundam mobile suits, the group makes itself known. Celestial Being’s goal is the total eradication of war through forceful armed interventions. The group will uphold the ideals a peaceful and united humanity advocated by the scientist Aeolia Schenberg over two hundred years ago- through violent means. Savor that obvious contradiction. Shortly after the declaration is made the four Gundam Meisters (i.e. pilots), Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tieria Erde, with their mobile suits Exia, Dynames, Kyrios and Virtue, set out on a series of armed interventions that result in an uneasy reduction of worldwide conflict.

The three major superpowers ultimately join together in a bid to capture the Gundams in a strategy that pits the superior mobile suits against thousands of inferior ones. The plan almost works until Celestial Being seemingly uses their final ace. Three new Gundams with even more destructive powers than the original four are deployed. The new Meisters, a trio of siblings calling themselves Team Trinity take over the intervention missions with ruthless, sadistic force as even civilians and innocent bystanders are slaughtered. Their actions ultimately turn public opinion against Celestial Being and strengthen the resolve of the superpowers to stop the Gundams. Suddenly, the tide of battle turns when a mysterious man business man named Lagna Harvey (working for a more powerful organization) offers the three power blocs 30 GN drives. The drives are the secret power source behind the superior Gundam mobile suits.

The GN-X models are as powerful as Gundams and the pilots are out for revenge. Now that is a real Military-industrial complex.

The new machines, called GN-X’s (pronounced “jinxes”), are easily able to fight on par with the Gundams and the superpowers set out to destroy Celestial Being. The group is further crippled by traitors within their organization who spring traps with the arrival of Team Trinity. As the world ultimately does change (for the worst), the four Gundam Meisters and the core Celestial Being members find themselves on the losing end of a malevolent plan. The plan was set into motion not long after Aeolia Schenberg advocated his original ideals two centuries ago.

Early character development in season one is curtailed in favor of plot and story elements. In fact, much of the first few episodes are spent getting us acquainted with the political landscape of the series. Season one mainly serves as a starting point to better set up characters for season two. The characters that were partially fleshed out and managed to survive will most likely be further developed in the second season.

To hell with team spirit and harmony, at times Setsuna and Tieria (totally not a woman) would rather settle their differences with bullets.

The four Gundam Meisters all hail from various parts of the world and are products of the various wars. Setsuna is the child solider from the Kurdis Republic, a Middle Eastern nation that was annexed in past war. As a child solider who was brainwashed into committing horrible crimes he personally knows how war is nothing short of Hell on Earth. Lockon is from Ireland and lost most of his family due to the Energy Wars. Where Setsuna seeks to become the embodiment of a Gundam, Lockon is motivated by revenge.  In comparison Allelujah and Tieria are enigmas. Allelujah is from the Human Reform League’s space colony and has a sadistic split personality. Tieria is a seemingly heartless man who would think nothing of shooting a fellow Meister down for the sake of keeping the secrets of the Gundams. Yet he is emotionally unstable at his worst and has a hard time seeing himself as human. All of the Meisters grow as characters, but I suspect they’ll grow quite a bit more in season two.

“I want it now!” Bec
ause Louise is that kind of girlfriend. Poor Saji… At times their placement in the series seems odd, but it makes sense later.

On the civilian side Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy are ordinary college students in Japan who always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even as they get out of life threatening situations mostly through luck, their lives are tragically changed through acts of violence. In the end, their purpose in season one is to give a face to the everyday lives that war can destroy.

Most of the military fighters are portrayed in such a sympathetic light that it is occasionally easier to cheer them on instead of the sometimes terroristic Gundam Meisters. The real villains of the story at first seem to be Ali Al Saachez and Team Trinity. Ali Al Saachez is a Middle Eastern warmonger who immensely enjoys war and harbors a hatred of Celestial Being for obvious reasons. Team Trinity ascribes to Celestial Being’s ideals but feels extreme violence is the only way to achieve anything, regardless of public outcry. Unknown to them they are simply disposable pawns in a more sinister scheme. In reality one man is pulling the strings behind the scenes in order to manipulate Aeolia Schenberg’s dream of a united humanity into something fitting his own image. He wishes to change the world too and uses the momentum of Celestial Being (derailing the group in the process), Team Trinity and Ali Al to bring the world to a turning a point- the creation of the Earth Sphere Federation.

“Team Trinity here. We’re such sadists that we take pleasure in killing civilians along with soldiers. And our sister, Nena maybe the cruelest of all.”

Gundam 00’s animation remains superb throughout the series, as expected from Sunrise. Viewers who are fortunate enough to own HDTVs will notice that the show is broadcasted in high-definition and widescreen. I have no issues with the character design or the detailed mecha designs. The music always fits the mood, but outside of the openings and endings none of it is memorable. On a side note, like Adult Swim the Sci Fi Channel has a nasty habit of butchering ending sequences, ruining the overall experience. Still, “Daybreak’s Bell” and “Ash Like Snow” were pretty good as far as opening songs go.

If Ali Al Saachez’s apperance suggests anything other than villian you may need your eyes checked. At the very least he can claim the series’ “badass” title.

I haven’t watched any of Gundam 00 subtitled, but Ocean Studios did a decent job with the dub. I would have preferred that Bandai went with Animaze, but Ocean Studios always seems to work on the Mobile Suit Gundam dubs. As I said it is a decent dub, not a great one. Brad Swaile in his role as Setsuna felt subdued, but he eventually becomes more talkative. Richard Ian Cox as Allelujah is a bit hard to bear at times. Not because Cox is a terrible actor but years of hearing him as Inuyasha leaves a less than stellar impression on his other roles. Still, he captures Allelujah’s split personality nicely, even if I think “Tetsusaiga!” every time he utters an excited word. Another prominent voice from Inuyasha is Paul Dobson (previously Naraku), who plays Graham Aker. Paul Dobson is one of my favorite voice actors but his performance as Aker wasn’t one of his best. One actor’s performance was head and shoulders above the rest. Scott McNeil as Ali Al Saachez had the best performance. His deep, suave and surly voice captured the evil essence of Ali Al quite well. With that said, if you’re not a fan of dubs Gundam 00 certainly won’t change your mind.

Setsuna’s Exia versus Team Trinity’s Gundam Thrones. Surely even the main character can overcome a three-against-one fight?

Season one of Gundam 00 begins slow on action, light on character development and heavy on politics. But ultimately the series takes a grand scale approach by setting itself up to run over two distinct seasons instead of a continuous 50 episodes. In many ways Gundam 00 breaks from previous Gundam series while still managing to pay homage to its predecessors. At the same time Gundam 00 isn’t that radically different from previous series by ultimately forming the Earth (Sphere) Federation and an opposing group. It manages to keep the Gundam tradition alive whilst giving the series a realistic, present day spin. Either way, if you’ve written off the Gundam series for whatever reason, 00 is still worth any sci-fi addict’s time. With an explosive first season and an upcoming second season (Stateside) that promises to be even better, this series is off to a great start.

Related posts:

BLEACH the Movie: Memories of Nobody – Easily Forgettable Batman: Gotham Knight Geek Babble: The Sci Fi Channel Has Rescued Me From the Adult Swim Slump An Endless Ocean of Stars and Filler