It’s thanks to the Zeta Gundam movies and the desire to watch ZZ Gundam (P.S.: Reviews for Love is the Pulse of the Stars and Double Zeta is in the works), I feel like watching the other Gundam series again. But before (if I ever) I do that, I took this opportunity to watch Gundam 00 for the first time in many months since I last talked about it.

Impressions

In traditional Gundam fashion, the series begins with an explanation of the colonies, why they were built, and the political parties who are at war with one another—except most of the action takes place on Earth, and though the colonies are inhabited, many of them are still in development. They are to be built immediately due to the severe energy shortage back on Earth. To speed up the colony construction and migrating, Orbital Elevators were built for easy access between the Earth and Space. When it comes to energy crisis, there will be a war…

The colliding factions in Gundam 00 represent each group of nations that exist today. They are Union (North and South America), HRL (Human Reform League; Europe), and AEU (Anti-Earth Union; Asia). There are a few fictional nations as well, such as Azadistan—where the main character, Setsuna F. Seiei was “raised”. Along with Setsuna, there are 3 other pilots who have agendas of their own; Tieria Erde, Allelujah Haptism, and Lockon Stratos. The pilots are nicknamed “Gundam Meisters”. Though they have their own problems, all four pilots are members of the anti-war group, Celestial Being. The group focuses on eradicating war and preventing possible terrorist plots from outside sources.

The initial episodes are slow at first as the antagonists are introduced, such as Union’s Graham Acre, and HRL’s Sergei Smirnov. Other characters seen up to this point wouldn’t be seen again until later in the story. The story gets confusing at the start which makes it look impossible to get through the story. The political aspect of Gundam 00 is not the same as in Wing or 0079, but focusing on the Gundam Meisters takes care of the time lost in all the Union/HRL/AEU drama.

The story really kicks off around Episode 8, where Gundam Meister, Allelujah Haptism, suffers from split personalities. Unlike Newtype pilots from the Universal Century series, Allelujah’s problems are a bit different; the problem is Hallelujah, who’s behavior is similar to Hollow Ichigo in Bleach. Hallelujah can gain control of Allelujah’s mind and make him do terrible things that he would never do himself. The next Gundam Meister is Tieria. He (yeah, he does look like a she) is partly responsible for Celestial Being and stopping the war efforts between nations. But whether he is in charge or not… all I can say is that he’s a complete jerk. And finally there’s Lockon, who is an excellent sniper and is the pilot of his Gundam, Dynames. He’s a 21st century version of Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing–sans the happiness.

Unlike Gundam Wing, where the main characters are seen in just about every episode from beginning to end, except in the recap episodes, we see less of the Gundam Meisters and more non-pilot characters to balance out the scenario, such as Saji Crossroads, and his girlfriend, Louise Haley. Again, it doesn’t move away from the main story, but it shows how colony inhabitants cope in times of global (and space) terrorism.

Thoughts

I find the time to watch Gundam 00 in daily, 1-hour marathon doses, along with Bleach and ZZ Gundam. After viewing 20 Episodes of the original Japanese dub (and writing this just in time for the Season Finale on the SciFi Channel tonight), I am not one bit disappointed. (And the second ending theme, “FRIENDS” adds extra comfort being a Wing fan).

This makes up for the suffering of watching Gundam SEED (I tried to refrain from mentioning SEED again, but I hope this will be the last). I hope to catch up to the second season within a couple of weeks before it ends and write an in-depth review on both series (but after another hands-on impression of Season 2).

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