Gundam 00 – Episode 09 (Boy, am I late to this party…)
11 December 2007
I just realized this is my first actual post completely dedicated to G00. Somehow I skipped episode seven, but it doesn’t look like I missed anything of grave importance so I hopped on over to episodes eight and nine. After the first few episodes, I wrote G00 off as another shiny, flashy piece of mecha porn. Granted, there are a few goods things about watching Exia take down mobile suits like rag dolls, random stuff blowing up here and there, a couple of hot guys running around in the name of justice and what not.
Echoing the current political situation worldwide, Gundam 00 waves the same anti-war banner countless series before it have carried. It’s remarkably similar to Gundam Wing, in terms of plot and characters. Through the course of the show, you can literally match up characters from the respective shows. Let’s see, Setsuna is the new Heero, just as quiet, just as weird, just as single minded and just as bad with girls. Therefore, Marina fills the role of Relena Peacecraft, the girl’s got some big shows to fill if she wants to live up to her predecessor. Lockon is without a doubt Duo, except I think he’s Irish. Tieria is half Trowa, half Wufei. He’s as mild as Trowa is, sometimes, and pretty much just as ruthless as Wufei all the time. And, last but not least, Allelujah. He’s got his role down pretty well as the new Quatre. He’s almost, if not more so, disturbed than Quarte. In fact, he looses his marbles a lot earlier judging from the episode 9 preview. Of course, the AEU November 11 reincarnation, Graham Acre, is Milliardo Peacecraft. For some reason, Soma reminds me of Dorothy, minus the weird eyebrows.
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by the first half a dozen episodes of G00. The plot was an absolute mess filled with incoherent political power play made worse by speed of light subtitles, and in the case of Nyoro, subtitles that didn’t even make sense. With all the explosions, I honestly just wanted them to cut the crap and give me the goddamn action. I’m willing to mark episode nine as a turning point of sorts. I might just be stupid, but for the past couple of episodes, I forwarded through all the talking bits and watched the explosions and fights. In the closing moments of the episode, as the Ptolemy falls headfirst into Sergei’s trap, it occurred to me, that, woah, this was getting pretty good. It’s making an attempt, with Setsuna’s confrontation with Marina and Lockon’s little moment with Felt, to have character development! It’s making an effort to actually explain what the bloody hell is going on! Rejoice, friends! Gundam 00 might start making sense!
G00 has potential to be a pretty decent show, simulating Wing might actually serve to it’s advantage. It’s not even a quarter of the way through the series and my opinions are definitely subject to change. So at this point, it’s too early to call it either a hit or a flop. I’m not sure why the sky suddenly caved in because G00 didn’t live up to people’s expectations. From a purely technical point of view, it’s a perfect show. Big names, good voice actors, HD animation, a nice soundtrack, but it’s missing the attraction, it’s missing the kick that Wing had to it. Looking at it now, it’s walking closer to the right path than it did three or four episodes ago. In any case, I have to see episode 10, see how they’ll resolve this mess the Celestial Being have gotten themselves into and just exactly how many marbles Allelujah manages to loose. I can’t say I’m sick with apprehension, for me, I’ve had enough mecha this year, Gurren Lagann pretty much killed any possible competition and even if I didn’t enjoy Code Geass as much as I thought I would, Lancelot was a kickass Knightmare frame. It’s like when people saying that Darker Than Black was Cowboy Bebop’s successor, G00 better live up to being Wing’s successor.
Ah, setup, what a dirty word.
Episode 10 upped the corn factor quite some, and while I’m not writing it off or anything, it was rather corny, and cheesy, like some fattening snack. Needs more action and less idiosyncrasies, more character interaction and less emo crying.
I think you’re dead on with the ‘technical point of view’ thing. It’s shiny on the outside but it lacks a certain something which makes a good show tick. A little like its characters.
But I’m giving it time, because I’m a mecha porn addict.