Gundam 00 – "Rebirth begins through destruction"
24 August 2007
So, unable to finish writing my Planetes ramblings, I googled Gundam 00. Watched a bunch of trailers and teasers on YouTube and it’s looking pretty good. Interesting to note that it’s the only series, so far, in the AD timeline, following the Gregorian calender instead of being labeled After Colony or Universal Century. Three hundred something years in the future feels like a long enough time. The world is in perpetual war over energy resources. The big three: The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (basically the United States, free nation, heh), The Human Reform League (China, India and Russia, I laughed at this one, the Human Reform League?) and the Advanced EU (well, it’s the EU, advanced, think of the leap from a GameBoy Color to a GBA) control the three solar energy system. The Celestial Beings, a private military organization, are out to bring an end to warfare, armed with, what else, four gundams.
Shiny, shiny, shiny gundams
Feels like Gundam Wing minus one, which may or may not be a good thing. There’s five guys in Wing, there’s four in Double 0, and they’re all, according to Wiki, extremely quiet. I sure hope they’re not missing a comic relief character. The colonist sent out the gundams to bring peace, the Celestial Beings sent out the gundams to bring peace. And, it’s always about peace, it’s always about a bunch of guys teaming up together with their modified gundams, crushing some government, fighting some war. It’s always about peace! Peace, peace, and some more peace! Relena Peacecraft? Gundam Wing was a massive anti-war statement, if anything. Guess that’s what’s so great about gundam, watching giant mecha battle it out in the name of peace and freedom and all that nice noise.
Shinchiro Miki, my favorite seiyuu for God knows what reason, is voicing Lockon Stratos. Mamuro Miyano is voicing Setsuna F. Seiei, the main character, a quite, Kurdish boy. Hiroyuki Yoshino, Baccano!’s Firo, is voicing Allelujah Baptism. And Hiroshi Kamiya, who I haven’t seen, heard rather, in anything, is voicing Tieria Erde, who looks remarkably like a girl. Yun Kouga, from Loveless, did the character designs, which might explain why they all look so darn cute. Seiji Mizushima is on board as well. LArc-en-Ciel, a band I’m not too crazy about, is doing the theme. There’s a lot of people working on this and the more I write about it, the more excited I get.
All that aside, why did they name a guy Allelujah Baptism? His name was probably the reason I wrote this, just the shock of reading his name, Allelujah Baptism! Honestly, Allelujah Baptism? Come to think of it, all of their names are weird. Lockon Stratos? Is it just a translation thing, or is his name purposely meant to sound like ‘lock on’? Setsuna F. Seiei isn’t a particularly shocking name save for the curious middle initial. Tieria Erde, I can’t find anything wrong with Tieria Erde, it’s generically weird. Characters in gundam series have pretty weird names, I have to admit, but Allelujah Baptism?! I still can’t get over that name, that’s such a strange name. Allelujah Baptism, how the heck did they come up with that overly religious name…
Well, looking at it now, Gundam 00 might be the only thing I’m looking forward to in the fall season. Haruhi is coming with a second season, I believe it’s confirmed, as well as Code Geass. I’m going to put off watching Code Geass, just because it doesn’t feel like my cup of tea. I like the CLAMP character designs but the story wasn’t too appealing. Not to mention I’m going to have to plow my way through the entire first season. In any case, I might be totally wrong about Code Geass, I’ll find out in due time.
Eh, you might want to fix your images. I’m a proud Gundam virgin, although I hope to change that with Gundam 00. Started watching anime when the closest Gundam there was was Seed, and I had no motivation whatsoever to pick that up due to length.
You’re probably quite wrong about Code Geass — it is quite something to behold. Ignore all the hype and watch it for what it is to get the most out of it. I’ve noticed that the more popular something is the more people go out of their way to avoid it for whatever reason, and CG shouldn’t be one of those, IMO.
Also, Xerox, I send you something at your AOL e-mail but I don’t know if you’ve seen it. Do you have a Gmail address? Do get back to me at your convenience with my enclosed e-mail. Thanks.
@Owen S – Images, that’s what I get for being lazy. Too lazy, still, to fix them. I’ve watched quite a few gundam series, and save for Seed and Seed Destiny, I’ve liked all of them. Be glad you didn’t watch Seed, be glad.
As for Geass, I do have a strange tendency to avoid popular things. Not too sure why, but I do. Since it’s coming from, I’m gonna go torrent Geass right now.
Thanks for reminding me, I’m usually careful with my mail, not sure how that one slipped by me. O_o, sorry for taking twelve days to respond. Hehe…^^;
o c’mon, seed was great. but i avoided destiny like a plague. seed was the first gundam i ever saw and trust me owen it was the best. look at animenfo and anidb. seed is by far rated the highest. just dont watch destiny.
@kauldron26 – No real harm in watching it, I just despise Seed. >.<
The only Gundam that I thought was REALLY good was “0083: Stardust Memories.” Of course, I haven’t seen them all, there are just too many. As for “SEED” I started it twice and dropped it twice. One of these days I’m determined to get through it.