Gundam 00 - RePost

Gundam 00 starts us in the beginning of the Gundam story, before the world was destroyed by competing army's of Gundam's. The world is split up between 3 major super powers, the Human Reform League, the World Economic Union and the Advanced European Union. Each conglomerate power block controls one of the space elevators that link the surface to the orbital solar collection ring that provides the majority of the world with power. The superpowers are continuously fighting each other for control of the elevators, sometimes fighting outright and other times utilizing unaffiliated nations to fight for them. Almost simultaneously, around the world, mysterious mechs show themselves to each of the superpowers to demonstrate their advanced technology only to disappear again. Shortly after these events take place a video is broadcast world wide of a man explaining that these mysterious, unaffiliated mechs are part of an organization called Celestial Beings whose sole goal is for an end to conflicts world wide. Using their mechs, the Gundam, they will carry out armed interventions wherever there is a conflict as a way of stopping war…fighting war with war. Soon, though, the powers that be, begin using the interventions for their own gains by staging conflicts in area of interest. The Gundam Meisters must continue with their ways while trying to not fall into the plans of the terrestrial powers. At the same time different Gundam, of unknown origins, show up with a separate agenda. Soon the peace the Celestial Beings strive for will be on the brink as man's greed and hunger for power turns the machines of hope against them.

    OK, so this is how the Gundam was introduced to the world, as a grandiose way of trying to force world peace. While fighting war with war has never worked, the Celestial Beings maintain the upper hand for a while until internal interests divert and someone begins to sell out the Gundam secrets. Now the Gundam Meisters have to rely on their own abilities to try and carry out their mission as opposed to having overwhelming superiority.

    This is a Gundam story, true and through. It is nice to see this world at the point the technology was unleashed but there is also much room for an even earlier series explaining how the Celestial Beings were formed and how the Gundam was designed. The story is filled with a bounty of current events, most notably dealing with Middle Eastern religious conflicts and terrorism. One of the Meisters, Setsuna F. Seiei, is an ex-child solider from one such holy war. The other 3 Meisters come from other troubled backgrounds as well. Such as Alleluia, who was a super solider experiment that suffers from split personality disorder.

    The character designs are pretty standard in today's TV anime, the mecha being the main focus. I have never liked the design and color schemes of the original mecha and seeing as this is based in the beginning they had to stick with the traditional designs. I got over my distaste early in the series and counted my blessings that there were at least more stylized than the original Gundam's were in the 70's. A large portion of time the main characters are moody and angst filled, not as much as some series that have come out recently but enough to make me wonder if Japanese teen culture was going to try and bring about a 2nd coming of grunge. In the end though, we find that pretty boys do cry and I tried to cringe through it all. With hints to what the 2nd season will bring my excitement was rekindled. While the end of the 1st season was good it was also clichéd and a bit over the top. This series did however not sag too much in the middle like so many other anime have done; it just started to sag near then end which ended up making finishing the series feel more like a chore. The second season looks more promising and quite a bit bleaker. Then again, if you know the Gundam story you already know what's around the corner, it's just fun watching it actually unfold…it's only time to see how far it will go.

    On a side note the same voice actor that did the Japanese Light Yagami from Death Note does Setsuna, the English voice actor who did Light is also doing the English Setsuna...cute, real cute.