Synopsis

Member Review

Ah, Gundam 00. Like most modern Gundams, this one has worked up quite a lot of fervered fans. Is there zealot-like devotion to the series warranted?

***THIS REVIEW WILL HAVE SPOILERS***

First, I'll start by saying that this is aesthetically the BEST Gundam yet. The mechs themselves have great designs, the fight scenes are fluid, and beautifully animated. The effect of the Solar Furnaces add some nice sparkle and flash no matter what the Gundams are doing. Bottom line, this show is beautiful, and shows incredibly amounts of polish.

Musically, it scores highly as well. Every opening, in my opinion, is catchy and enjoyable, and perhaps more importantly, every opening and ending captures the atmosphere of the show well. The score during episodes is also strong, with the same suspenseful and uplifting classical themes that we've grown to love in Gundam.

Unfortunately, this is where my positives end. Gundam 00 falls short of it's incredible aesthetics when it comes to story and characters.

The story isn't BAD, per say. There's a lot of talk of politics, and different nations, but in reality there are only two sides throughout the entire series. Celestial Being, and EVERYONE ELSE, who happens to be either completely evil, or misguided and headstrong. Later the Innovators AKA "the big bad" show up, they're powerful and manipulative, and pretty much cement the ENTIRE WORLD'S MILITARY (bar one rebel army) as enemies of Celestial Being. Fortunately, the roughly mediocre story is ignorable, since you watch Gundam for the mech fights, right? RIGHT? In my opinion, the story could have been really interesting had we learned more about Aeolia, but the series isn't over, so maybe I'm in for a surprise.

The CHARACTERS, however, are where this series falls down completely, in my opinion. The lead character Setsuna is, throughout the entire first season, COMPLETELY unlikeable. He's moody, antisocial, and possibly in love with his Gundam. He mellows out in the second season, and becomes the "voice of reason". I guess you could say he goes the Kira Yamato route in the second season. He loses the whining and annoying qualities, becomes uber powerful and correct ALL the time, but still just isn't very interesting.

Next is Tieria Erde. He's pretty much your average stone wall for the first season. Obsessed with Celestial Being's Veda, he could care less about anything other than getting the mission done. He's cold and condescending to his fellow pilots, and pretty much meant to be the guy you love to hate. By the second season, recent events have lightened him up, and he becomes friendlier, though still as efficient at finishing his missions. He's still kind of dull though. He DOES dress as a woman at one point, so he does end up pretty cool.

Third, we have Allelujah. He's your resident schizophrenic/dissociative identity disorder guy. While this sounds interesting, he's basically constantly switching between HUGE WUSS, and PSYCHOPATHIC MANIAC. You generally like the latter better. By the second season HUGE WUSS has taken over completely, which is fine, because Allelujah's role is diminished to being the worst Gundam Pilot ever, and following around his love interest on the battlefield. Seriously, his most repeated line is "Marie!", and he's been hit by grunt units more times than I can remember.

Finally we have Lockon Stratos. Ahh, possibly the ONLY redeeming protagonist in the first season. While every other Gundam pilot falls into an archetype, this guy slyly seems to fall somewhere unique. That might just be because every other protagonist is so tedious, but whatever, it still makes Lockon the runaway favorite. In the second season, he's replaced by his brother, but his brother is given next to NO character development. I think the fans are supposed to assume that he is exactly the same as the original Lockon, but honestly, the overall effect has made me feel like they killed off Lockon because he's the only death that would really resonate, and brought him back with this completely identical brother excuse so people might still like a protagonist. The overall effect just makes you kind of dislike Lockon in the second season. He doesn't really DO anything notable.

The other protagonist characters are nothing special.
Most of the villains aren't either. Graham goes through the zaniest character development ever between the first two seasons, turning from an up and coming military man who becomes obsessed with Setsuna, to a samurai obsessed with Setsuna. The first season has a very boring final villain, and at the end it's realized that the guy with green hair and mysterious powers was actually the real villain. It was the opposite of shocking. Aforementioned guy, Ribbons, isn't particularly interesting. He's just your typical villain, who is manipulative, always a step ahead of the heroes, and feels that he is "helping the world", via misguided ideals.
The only truly impressive villain is, in fact, Ali Al-Sarchez. While we're meant to hate him because he kills more notable characters than anyone in the series, and does some "ZOMGevil" things, the fact is that most of the characters he wrongs are completely unremarkable, so it never has that effect! The fact that Ali is so ruthless, powerful, selfish, shows he's technically a better fighter (both in and out of Gundam) than anyone in the series, and still comes on screen with a smile, and genuinely just enjoying the fight might make him the best character in the show. Scenes with him are pretty enjoyable.

Additionally, some characters are introduced and killed off rather quickly, *coughanewcough*, and the lack of development just diminishes the effect of scenes that are meant to be emotional.

I guess my last remark about the characters is that it feels like by this point (episode 20) in Season 2, it's becoming the Gundam 00 show. Now I know the show is called Gundam 00, but it's begun underutilizing it's supporting cast, including their gundams. Most fights have devolved into "hold off the enemy until Gundam 00 can be ready to fight". I suppose it's technically realistic, since it's a more powerful mech, but it doesn't make for very interesting watching.


BOTTOM LINE: Gundam 00 is aesthetically beautiful, but an underdeveloped story and just plain boring lead characters and villains turn it into nothing more than eye candy. So if you're in the mood for some awesome looking mecha fights, Gundam 00 might be for you. Unfortunately if you're looking for some emotion for those fights, or even a hero to love, you're better off looking elsewhere.

Characters