crooks.mack - 2015-08-25 14:06:33

While some people were still recovering from the endings of two of the most popular shows of the early 2000s, Madhouse’s Death Note and Sunrise’s Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, they may have missed another entry into Sunrise’s impressive catalog, Mobile Suit Gundam 00. It’s interesting that Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Gundam 00), which is a part of a series that has been airing since the late 1970s, isn’t more popular than it is. While I’ve known about the Gundam series for several years, I had never even heard of this particular entry until recently. Is there a good reason why this series has been overlooked by so many, or is it a hidden gem that many people haven’t yet had the pleasure of discovering.

Story:

In the year 2307, the people of Earth have exhausted its most precious resource, oil. In order to combat their reliance on fossil fuels, several countries have banded together to form three super powers: The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (Often shorted to “The Union”)—the Americas, Australasia, and Japan, The A.E.U. (Advanced European Union), Europe, and the Human Reform League—Russia, China, India, as well as parts of Southeast Asia and the Middle East. These three powers were formed with one major purpose in mind, to harness the power of the sun. They all are in control of one Orbital Elevator, an extremely tall structure extending from the Earth’s surface all the way into space. These orbital elevators are used to harness solar power and transport it to countries that are a part of each of the super powers—thereby excluding those who refused to join—as well as serve as a transport into space, military base, and a colony of sorts. But, unfortunately, each one of the superpowers still only looks out for their own individual interests. The result of these nationalistic tendencies is a world of perpetual war. But, during the unveiling of a new A.E.U. Mobile Suit, a large robot controlled by humans usually for military purposes, a brand new entity joined the fray, an entity known only as Celestial Being. Their purpose, to eliminate war by forcibly stopping any armed conflict and eliminating those who proposed a threat to world peace. In order to accomplish this goal, they will use the most advanced mobile suits that the world has ever seen, Gundams.

Gundam 00’s story gets off to a pretty clunky start. The first episode throws you right into the action, which would have been perfectly fine if that’s all there was to this series. But, as you’ve probably gathered from the plot synopsis, there’s a lot going on. The story is stretched across the globe and features several main and supporting characters, different factions, and a totally different world than the one we currently live in. The scale of the story is fairly massive, and you’re hit with all of these characters, factions, and new world landscape right at the beginning with little explanation. Thankfully, all of these issues are resolved later on in the series, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be “hung out to dry” for the first couple of episodes.

Gundam 00 does recover from its shaky start, and starts to fill you in on what exactly is going on in this world you’re observing. But, there are still plenty of surprises to come. There are several mysteries in Gundam 00’s story that will slowly be unveiled as the series progresses, and I think that they’re all executed well and help to make the story more dynamic.

The main theme of Gundam 00’s story is war, and how exactly is the best way to go about ending it. How to obtain world peace has been something that has been discussed for many years, and most people have probably already dismissed the notion as an impossibility. But what if there was an organization that, essentially, declared war on war. Even if they were to bring about peace, would that peace be real peace? Would that peace, which was created by violence, even last? These are some of the questions that were proposed during course of the story, and, honestly, it made me think. While watching this series I actually questioned some of my own personal beliefs about war and violence. Watching dozens of characters on different sides of battle, all having different ideologies reasons for doing things was really interesting to watch. Seeing several people who have the same goals, but disagree about the means of attaining them, or vise-versa, provides you with an opportunity to see multiple perspectives on the same issue and I really enjoyed that about the story.

Gundam 00’s story was interesting, thought provoking, and well thought out, but it does have issues other than it’s clunky start. One of those issues is a lack of a proper explanation of certain topics. For the most part, Gundam 00 did a really good job of explaining everything that was going on, and the reasoning behind it, but other times the series’ explanations for how and why things happened the way they did weren’t exactly the greatest. Another problem I had was the series very open ended ending which didn’t really wrap anything up, and I’m talking about the ending to the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 not the series concluding movie Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie -A Wakening of the Trailblazer which is…a review for another day. I was also mildly annoyed when things would just pop up out of no where using the excuse that it was all apart of Aeolia Schenberg’s, the founder of Celestial Being, plan, but that just piggybacks onto my earlier complaint about some of the series’ lackluster explanations.

Characters:

When it comes to characters, Gundam 00 is a prime example of too much of a good thing. I can’t think of one character in the entire series that I really disliked. I was really interested in getting to know the characters as the series progressed, but there was one big problem. There are just way too many of them. Gundam 00’s story just covers too much ground. When you are showing several characters from each of major factions in the series, there is no way that you’ll have enough time give us all of their background stories, and properly develop each and every one of them.

There are 37 supporting characters just in the first season. And it’s not like they’re just throw away characters either, each one of them does play some role in the progression of the story or in the development of the main characters, and most of them are given a fairly good amount screen time. As stated earlier, with so many characters there’s no way you can go into great detail on all of them, but, thankfully, all of the main characters are taken care of. Each one of the Gundam Meisters (German for master): Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratus, Tieria Erde, and Allelujah Haptism, all are given a good amount of development, and background information. Of course, some are given more than others, but all of the main characters were solid in terms of background information and development. It’s just a shame that there wasn’t enough time to properly develop all of the interesting side characters.

Another problem with having so many characters is that it’s harder properly develop the relationships between them. I think that it was handled really well for the most part, the only real issue that comes to mind is when two particular characters meet, have one conversation—which was very short and didn’t really show any signs of being romantic—and the next time we see them together they’re a couple. While it was fairly obvious that that was the direction that their relationship was going to go in, it would’ve been nice to actually see that relationship progress. But, other than that, Gundam 00 did a great job of developing the relationships that involved main and main-supporting characters. Of course some of the less important supporting character’s relationships weren’t given nearly as much development, but overall it they were handled well.

Animation:

I found Gundam 00’s animation to be a bit of a mixed bag. That’s not to say that the animation isn’t generally really good, because it is. It’s just that there are some interesting things to note about it. Without a doubt, the best part of the animation is the fights between mobile suits. The action scenes are really engaging, and genuinely exciting to watch. I was really impressed by how all of the mobile suits looked, everything looked really detailed and it really helped to elevate the series’ fight scenes. But where the mobile suits, and I do mean all of the mobile suits and not just the Gundams, all looked really distinct and detailed the character models were lacking a little. It not so much that they weren’t distinct, that was actually just more praise for the mobile suit models, but they just seem to lack detail. Especially when the camera would zoom out and show a particular character’s full character model. The series’ background scenery was also good, but certainly nothing spectacular. But, with all of that said, the animation in Gundam 00 is still really good.

Sound:

Gundam 00 has a massive, and varied soundtrack (OST), with an abundance of songs that can fit the tone and setting of each scene that they are used in. As I mentioned earlier, Gundam 00 has some really cool fight scenes, and the music that the series uses only makes the scenes that much more fun to watch. It uses grand, orchestral songs to bring a little more intensity into the already engaging fight scenes. While the OST does have a lot of songs that make you feel like you’re about to jump out of your seat, it does know how, and when, to slow things down. The OST also has plenty of slower songs to fit all of the more somber scenes as well. Gundam 00’s OST really nails the overall feeling of the songs that they are using in each scene. Each song that was used feels like it was made specifically for that scene, and in some, cases they probably were.

Complimenting its massive OST, Gundam 00 also features a pretty large number of good openings and endings. Between its two seasons, Gundam 00 has four openings and five endings. They are all really well done, but the first and last openings, and the first, third, and last endings are the ones that really stood out to me.

Enjoyment:

I had a really good time watching Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Like a said earlier in the review, it was able to make me think about some issues that I might not have thought about otherwise. Add that to the great action sequences, intriguing story, and interesting characters, and you’ve got one really entertaining series. There wasn’t a dull moment in any one of Gundam 00’s fifty episodes, and, while I wouldn’t say that it has a really high re-watch value, it’s definitely something I could see myself watching again at some point down the road.

Verdict & Breakdown:

Story: 4.3/5
Characters: 4.2/5
Animation: 3.9/5
Sound: 4.4/5
Enjoyment: 4.3/5
Final Verdict: 4.2/5

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is a great series that you should definitely check out, whether you’re a huge Gundam fan or are just hearing about the franchise for the very first time.

hyatt.alfonzo - 2014-05-07 15:07:13

Quick Note: This review will occasionally mention references to other entries in the Gundam franchise for comparison's sake as well as quality of execution compared to other entries, while also making this review as friendly as possible to people who have no experience with the franchise. Please note that this review ONLY includes the first season.

I am also more than willing to answer any questions if any part of this review is not instantly understood by the readers. Anyway, onto the review.

The Gundam meta-series is a colossal franchise in Japan, not unlike the Star Wars or Star Trek franchises in the West. The franchise spawns anime series, OVAs, movies, novels, manga adaptations and had received previously unrivaled popularity in Japan thanks to its compelling story-lines, simplistic but well-thought out dialogue, like-able and most importantly well-developed characters. The franchise hasn't, unfortunately, been as successful with the Western audience and thrown aside due to unpopular stereotypes people who dislike certain entries in the franchise keep ranting about, ranging from how the characters never die apparently, to how the mechs have plot armor when the pilots are inside them, to how naive and idealistic the main characters are to how forced the element of understanding is. While these stereotypes do apply to certain entries, they do not apply to all of them and are overly exaggerated by the inexperienced viewers of the franchise.

How well does the first season of Gundam 00 do then? Is it a return to the glory days of the Universal Century timeline (for those who don't know, the first Gundam timeline) or is it yet another pointless cash grab after the atrocity that was SEED Destiny and just another stain in the franchise's name?

Story

To begin with, Gundam 00 has a very unique and interesting, if a bit idealistic at first, premise. An organization led by a man who died over 200 years ago has come with four overpowered machines to bring peace to the world and fight, as the series puts it, a "war to end all wars" and obliterate conflict.

Aside from the obvious reference to World War I, the first season is extremely morally gray and it becomes clear quickly that there are good people fighting on almost all sides. The show is obviously centered around the four Gundam pilots, but it is a genuinely pleasant surprise to see that the series focuses on letting us know how people from around the world feel about this conflict. All sorts of opinions about how people perceive the coming of the Gundam pilots and the advantages and disadvantages that such an organization brings with it helps make the viewer feel that they are part of the world these characters are living in. The other parties involved in this conflict and the soldiers who fight for them against the threat that was Celestial Being are also ambiguous, which helps us understand and sympathize with these characters rather than merely see them as one note villains (if they are villains at all in the eyes of the viewer).

Another aspect that is extremely well-done in 00 aside from how well the setting and viewpoints are fleshed out are the extreme resemblance certain events in the show have with actual political events (9/11 in particular, not unlike Gundam SEED), and this is made especially obvious with the Middle Eastern crisis where the power blocs in the show decide to toy around with that region of the world, to the point where the region is so divided that the power blocs continue exploiting it through both direct and indirect means. The aspect that deserves special praise is how it portrays religious extremism in an effective manner without making all people who believe in religion retards, but instead showing that there are good people (I'm emphasizing this a lot, I know) on every side fighting for what they believe in.

The plot is not perfect however, and Celestial Being have too much plot armor at the most convenient moments. The battles are still intense for most of the show and they are paced well enough within the main story without detracting from the value of the battles or the plot, but the flaw still stands and the season goes on for too long without answering important plot related questions where I felt it could have answered everything and ended here. Nevertheless, the show still gets a high score because at the end of the day, a flawed plot with well-explored themes sounds much better than a plot with no loopholes but hardly any substance or value.

9/10

Art/Animation

Studio Sunrise have thankfully improved greatly in this aspect from their dismal performance in Gundam SEED Destiny. The animation is amazingly fluid with very few repeated frames during the battles and series in general, and special mention goes to the opening scene for looking absolutely gorgeous. The coloring fits the mood of the show while at the same time looking colorful and vibrant rather than dull and lifeless, which is an enhanced advantage that carries over from Gundam SEED (which, with all its flaws was still a very colorful show). The same cannot be said for the artwork, which while well above-average feels out of place for a show like this. Every girl has massive breasts (because lord forbid that women don't have giant breasts) and every man in the show looks... well, questionable? Tieria gets special mention here, considering I haven't seen a single person who I've introduced this show to mention him as a guy. As well as having purple hair. But anyway, the artwork is a far cry from bad, and the characters have very distinct facial expressions and features, which is better than them having the same face with different eye colors and hair colors like most anime series, so this show still looks great despite the fact that I personally feel that a more seinen like art-style would work better with it.

9/10

Sound

The soundtrack isn't particularly memorable (save for perhaps the battle music) though it does fit the mood of the show and I do not think that I can remember any moments where the sound effects felt wrongly placed or the wrong piece of music played at the wrong time.

The voice acting was well-done and all the voices fit the characters (special mention here goes to Setsuna's Mamoru Miyano and Smirnov's Unsho Ishizuka). The opening and ending songs are AMAZING, special mention goes to the second opening, Ash Like Snow and second ending, Friends. The English voice acting is decent and lacks the questionable Engrish of the sub, but I found the subbed version easier to emotionally invest in. The dub is still passable if you only watch dubs, but I personally recommend the subs more. The dub deserves a special mention for the AMAZING performance of Setsuna's Brad Swaile, who perfectly captures Setsuna's cold, distant yet tragic character.

8/10

Characters

Gundam 00 has a variety of interesting characters, which are all interesting in their own right.The Gundam pilots are the stars of this show and their interactions with each other and other characters as well as their backgrounds are the most interesting part of the show. There's the soldiers fighting on the other sides as well, most notable of which are Graham Aker who is Setsuna's main rival as well as Smirnov and Marie, who provide a more mature perspective to the show. The other characters are unfortunately not as interesting and tend to be used as plot points to drive the themes of the show forward, which while leads to some interesting character development for some of them (Saji and Louise deserve mention here) still feels forced and not as compelling as it should have.

The best character of this show is undeniably Setsuna, who a lot of people would consider a mash up of Sousuke from Full Metal Panic and Heero from Gundam Wing. I consider these comparisons superficial at best, since Setsuna feels more compelling due to his past and beliefs than either of them (though Sousuke is funnier and Heero has nostalgia behind him). Speaking about any character in this show would contain spoilers, unfortunately, so I'll merely state that all four Gundam pilots are compelling characters which stand on their own from their respective archetypes despite having unnerving similarities to the characters from Wing (Setsuna being similar to Heero, Lockon to Duo, Allelujah to Trowa and Tieria to Wufei).

8/10

Enjoyment

As a Middle Eastern, this show was a breath of fresh air in the sea of a lot of shows that attempt to be morally gray about religious conflicts but failed. The series is extremely entertaining and offers something for the viewer that wants something intelligent as well. There are flaws, but they are not enough for me to say that they stood in the way of me enjoying this show; I highly recommend this show and wholeheartedly recommend the franchise as a whole, as there is very little to regret and a lot to love.

Thank you very much for reading this review!

bridgette42 - 2013-08-16 09:19:41

Title: Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Genres: Action, Drama, Mecha, Sci-Fi, Military

Episodes: 25

Summary:

It is the year A.D. 2307. Fossil fuels on Earth have been depleted entirely, with mankind turning to the next available power source: solar energy. During this time, 3 orbital elevators with solar power generation systems are built, each under control by the Union (formerly United States of America), the Human Reformist Alliance (Russia, China and India) and the AEU (Europe). However, not all countries are able to enjoy the benefits of this system, leading to widespread resentment and war. Arising out of the conflict, a mysterious non-profit military organization known as Celestial Being appears, dedicated to end all warfare using Mobile Suits called Gundam. This begins the stories of Gundam Meisters (pilots) Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tieria Erde as they are thrown into conflict between the 3 superpowers and the other various factions.

Story: 10/10
I can't remember what first made me decide to watch this anime, but I was a pretty big Gundam SEED fan and was hungry for more and I heard that this was the next best thing, maybe even better. Boy - did I hear correctly! One of the things I love most about Gundam is that it isn't set in an alternate universe or anything, it's always set in an imagined future. The thing about Gundam 00 is that it's imagined future was really thought out well and it's like an actual possible future for our current world! At first, as always, the story is very political and you get introduced to all the factions and organizations and their goals, etc. It really reminded me of Code;Geass/Death Note, what with Celestial Being playing the "peace-keeping/justice" role for Earth. Every single episode was very interesting and manages to progress through the story one way or another. One of the main points is the mystery Celestial Being in every episode. It just leaves you more curious at the end of each ep to want to continue on to the next one. I don't know how to explain much more without spoiling, but.. The story was amazing.
There was nothing to complain about with the ending and it did a marvelous job of leading into Season 2.

Characters: 10/10
Each and every one of the Gundam meisters had amazing backstories that created their individuality/current personas and yes, you actually find out each of their pasts. I can't really say what they are without spoiling though >.< One of the unique things about this anime is that there really isn't simply 1 main character. All the meisters are as equally important as the other! The relationships between them and their backgrounds are but simply one of the many reasons why this anime was so good. All of the Gundam meisters are soo cool too! XD (As well as their Gundam's of course~)
Heck, I'd confidently say that every single character in this anime was perfectly created. I was even fans of the Antagonists, one of which is voiced by my fave: Kugimiya Rie!!

Music: 10/10
One of the things Gundam is best known for are their amazing soundtracks which most of you probably know I never stop raving about XD The openings and endings as well as the OST for this anime were GOD-LIKE.
For example, these are some of the greatest anime openings ever created IMO:

Download OST Here!

Art: 10/10
The thing that drew me to this anime the most was the HD art! Don't believe me? Just look at those OP's above!
Those stunning visuals are B-E-A-UTIFUL. The art is so.. so... sleek. All of the characters have defining features and the Gundams are all amazing *.* So much detail!! I can't even imagine how much work they put into this anime. Both the males and females were very pleasing to watch. I heard that almost the entire staff of Sunrise was used in this anime's development. And the end result is just amazing. This is exactly what happens when a bunch of talented people team up to create a masterpiece.

Overall Enjoyment: 10/10

Every single episode was so addicting and left a great impression on me, all the way up to the end. Just to let you guys know, I started this anime and then watched non-stop until the end of Season 2. That's how addicting.
(Season 2, HUGE plot twists >.<) Every single damn thing in this anime was amazing. There's literally nothing one could complain about. Every person I know who's seen this has loved it as much as I do. It's always a great experience to witness a true anime masterpiece.

FINAL RATE: 50/50 (10/10 on MAL)Yes, a perfect score. As you might know already (or perhaps not) all I only rate an anime 10/10 on MAL if I consider it a must-see, or if it blew my mid the whole way through. If you can sit through some politics, enjoy having your morals questioned and are willing to keep an open mind, it's a fantastic series and I recommend it. If the amazing artwork doesn't draw you in, the story and characters will. Even if you want to pay no heed to the story, the stunning visuals during battles are worth watching on their own. Very rarely is there a wasted moment in the show, spare one recap episode told from a different character's perspective. I can't possibly recommend this series more highly.

Reccomendations:

- Gundam 00 S2 -

Obviously watch the sequal after S1!! It's a rare occurence when the second season is just as good, if not better, than the first! O.O

- Code;Geass -

The way Celestial Being acted as peacekeepers and believing in absolute justice and the way they excecuted thier missions really reminded me of Code;Geass, also the heirachy of power.... is a thing to watch for ;D

- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED -

The anime which led me to this one. It's a very hard decision for me to choose which Gundam series I enjoyed more so... why not both? I reccomend Gundam SEED if you liked 00, because they're quite similar in the fact that the art, characters, music, and story were both on the "god-like" level. Ingenious.... masterpiece... Finding words to praise both these anime is really quite difficult XD

ekrajcik - 2013-08-04 20:42:13

Let me start like this
story: it's year 2307 AD human build space station witch create a unlimited resource of energy
and we have 3 big country's witch are making monopoly over small country's in middle east
The big 3 are

HRL(human reform league ) AKA Communist made up from russia,china ,and other ex soviet country's plus korea and japan

Union (AMERICA) i don't mean Usa i mean whole america norther and southern continent

AEU (Advanced European Union) Todays EU they are less advanced(oh the irony) because they are still building space elevators.
And now we have small arabic country's witch got big economic crisis because they can't export black gold , i mean oil so they started civil war because part of them are hot headed religious man (they look like muslim but they say god so who knows ) and they dont want solar power , because its not god will bla bla
And we have Celestial being
quote // "I would like to address this statement to every single human being born and raised on Earth. We call ourselves simply Celestial Being. We are a private armed organization in possession of the mobile weapon 'Gundam'. The main objective of Celestial Being's activities is to completely eliminate acts of war and conflict from this world. We do not act for our own benefit or for personal gain. We have chosen to intervene for the greatest goal of all: To rid ourselves of the scourge of war. As of this moment, I make this declaration to all humanity: Territory, religion, energy; no matter what the reason or excuse, if there is an evident act of war being carried out, we will commence intervention with armed force. Any country, organization or corporation that promotes war will also be a legitimate target for our intervention. We simply call ourselves Celestial Being. We are an armed organization that was established to eliminate all acts of war from this world." //

they declare war to eradicate war by brute force

so we have 4 main characters

setsuna f. seiei (Soran Ebrahim ) a young muslim (god beliver ) who killed his parents lost his friends and started to question meaning of god and joined to celestial being , and constantly telling he want to become gundam
his gundam is GN-001 Gundam Exia

Tieria Erde (no second name) is some kind of improved human being (wont spoil too much )

girly looking guy who hates every one
his gundam is GN-005 Gundam Virtue

Lockon stratos (Neil Dylandy) Sniper in team, Voice of moral in team
his gundam is GN-002 Gundam Dynames

Allelujah Haptism(no second ) brain F*$%^# HRL test subject and he is super soldier

his gundam is GN-003 Gundam Kyrios

wont spoil too much ,