Category: Mecha

Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, I joined the military because I love women!

Leave a comment

Super Dimensional Fortress Macross is a series that changed the world of anime. There is a whole generation of anime fans in America that trace the beginning of their love of anime back to Robotech and then Macross. The Japanese fans clamored to Macross: Do you Remember Love? in theaters. Pop songs save the Earth and bridge two species. In many ways this is the legacy of the original series whether you like it or not.

Ultimately the premise seems silly, and at times it is, but somehow it speaks volumes and was able to create a generation of fans that revere it. Macross has gotten pushed to the back of the line as newer and newer shows come out. Yes that is the natural flow of things but nothing about the original show has changed, it hasn’t gotten worse over time. There will never come a time when it isn’t worth sitting down and experiencing Macross.

After the events of Macross Zero humanity has finally united under the authority of the UN and reconstructed the Macross battleship to the best of their abilities. Before the inaugural flight of the Macross a small alien fleet searching for the Macross parks itself in Earth’s orbit. All of a sudden the Macross comes to life and fires on the alien fleet of its own accord starting an intergalactic war. After a fierce battle between the alien forces and Earth’s new transforming jets, Valkyries, the Macross attempts to hypersapce fold to a more favorable battleground and accidentally teleports the ship along with the local island and its inhabitants to just outside the orbit of Pluto. So begins the Macross and its civilian passengers’ desperate fight for survival against a far superior alien fleet. While all this is going on we are also amidst a love triangle between a young pilot, a dedicated military woman, and an aspiring pop idol.

As we start to learn more about the alien race, it becomes this battle of cultures. The Zentradi are essentially a people who fight til they die and there is nothing else to life. When they encounter everything in human culture, from men and women living on the same ships, to kissing and love, and of course music which starts to move them.

Being devoid of any culture besides military culture any Zentradi that get exposed to human culture go into a state of shock. When the Zentradi realize that they miss the broader more rounded lives they once had they being to want to defend the Earth even if it means going against their fellow Zentradi. Earth’s culture becomes its greatest weapon and its greatest defense. This makes Minmay the one who creates culture and Misa and Hikaru the ones who defend culture.

I almost spit out my drink when someone called Minmay “shrewd” if the first or second episode. Hum, think they meant shrew? Minmay never seems more deep than a kiddie pool. As you might have guessed I fall in with the huge Minmay hate following in the U.S. But she is just about the most important character in this story. It is not like she invented being a pop idol but she was the icon for the ship and therefore leads them with her songs. Ah, if only she was that inspirational when she wasn’t singing. She is both pretty and dumb, a classic combination. Everything is about Minmay, atleast according to her.

They try to show her tender and generous side but it is usually eclipsed by her being a selfish brat on all other occasions. I don’t care for Minmay but I also don’t hate her. I think most people hate her so much because they really like Misa and therefore it intensifies their dislike of Minmay’s flaws. As the other characters fade into the tapestry of history all the subsequent Macross series have mentioned the legend of Lynn Minmay. She becomes an iconic hero whose songs become legends. In Macross 7, she inspires Basara and the concept of song energy. In Macross II they use the Minmay attack against the enemy. In Macross Plus, Kate Masseau sings a Minmay song at karaoke. In Macross Frontier, Ranka sings the legendary My Boyfriend is a Pilot. She is not only the most important character in her own series, she becomes the most important character in the Macross universe.

Hikaru is not the best pilot out there but he doesn’t let that stop him from being stubborn and hot-headed. He is the main character but the fate of the Macross never actually rests in his hands, it is as if he is just the person we happen to be following this war through. He grows as a pilot, loses friends, makes connections, and is generally a different person than he was when we started out. I rather liked him even though he does sometimes make me want to throw something at the TV.

Hikaru sure gets shot down a lot for being one of the main characters. In any other series Hikaru would be a genius pilot like Max but he is a good enough pilot to stay alive. He is lucky to be friends with the right people and be in the right place at the right time. I find it amusing that they also make him so opinionated but he usually changes position the minute anyone gives him a moderately well laid out counter argument. At one point Hikaru is given the deciding vote on whether the Macross should accept Zentradi defectors. He is 100% against it. Then Misa and Max talk to for two minutes and he is 100% for accepting them. I guess this explains why the love triangle goes on as long as it does.

Misa is a bit older and more hardened than Hikaru and so they often butt heads. And she finishes off this triangle. Misa is a strong, independent woman but she can also be cold. Her past is well established as she comes from a long, long line of military personnel. She was born and bred to be in the military. As can be imagined, she has a strong sense of duty but over time you realize she isn’t a mindless officer of the military merely taking orders. She also has a tragic past with a boyfriend that solidifies her reluctance to involve herself in a relationship. Her and Minmay couldn’t be more different.

Misa is a not a pilot but she is a soldier and one of the most competent characters in Macross. For a bridge crew member she is a brassy lady and often goes out on dangerous missions or gets herself involved is some tense situations. She has a stony professional demeanor that hides a more vulnerable caring side of her. Misa’s inability to easily express her feeling is a huge factor in the love triangle. Since Hikaru is so obsessed with Minmay he tends to be oblivious to Misa’s growing feelings for him.

I always felt that Hikaru’s love for Minmay was misguided, even to the point of me not believing that he is ever actually in love with her. Minmay’s flip-flop about him gets old fast and if I were Hikaru I would have be royally mad. But he seems blinded by her.

I have to agree with you. I think that Hikaru is always in love with the idea of Minmay more than he is ever in love with Minmay herself. The fact that Minmay is attractive is mostly just icing on the cake. And if Hikaru’s love for Minmay is slightly misplaced it can’t compare to Misa’s bizarre and inexplicable infatuation with Lynn Kaifun. It mostly seemed shoehorned in to extend the love triangle between Hiraru, Misa, and Minmay. It comes out of nowhere and seems to fade away as quickly and mysteriously when they finally drop it. Plus the fact that she almost never interacts with Kaifun and Kaifun mostly comes off like a self righteous jerk 90% of the time.

I swear I thought the animation staff was messing with us. Misa is constantly waxing on about how Kaifun looks EXACTLY like her old boyfriend. I believe that boyfriend was white with medium length brow hair, not Chinese with long black hair. Just saying. And it is even funnier when they actually show the boyfriend at times to somehow prove they look alike. Hilarious! I could have accepted Misa being “in love” with Kaifun for his devotion to pacifism but not because he looks like the other guy.

Roy Focker…what is that saying? Oh yes, FTW! Everyone loves him, no woman can resist him. You never get enough of Roy Focker in the series, it is nice to get a bit of a backstory for him in the later episodes too. Heck, the title for this article is from his lips! I think we need a Roy Focker OVA.

The famous pilot of Skull squadron. Roy acts as an older brother figure to Hikaru. When Hikaru joins the military it is Roy that shows him the ropes and keeps him alive. When Hikaru is chasing Minmay it is Roy who supports him and his relationship. Roy also happens to be the sex machine that all the women love and all the men want to be. He lives life to the fullest by indulging in wine, women, and song with great gusto. Roy is the manly hero that won a place in many a Macross fan’s heart.

Our villains aren’t overdeveloped that is for sure. But truly there isn’t that much that can be said since having personality is almost non-existent. However, we do have characters that have their minds awakened by the human culture like Milia, the beautiful Zentradi female ace pilot. Her rivarly with Max was always exciting to watch even if it is flubbed a bit in the end.

One Zentradi deserves special note and that is Kamjin. He is constantly pushing for the Zentradi to wipe out the Macross instead of trying to capture it. He is also the main villain in the second arc of the series. He mostly interested me because he looks like Garma Zabi. In fact, I would theorize that Kamjin is an homage or at least partially inspired by Garma Zabi. The fact that they die in a rather similar fashion only reinforces my theory.

The animation in Macross is rather bipolar. Sometimes it is brilliantly animated and looks like some of the best of early 1980 animation. Other times it has some horrible animation. The ratio of good animation to bad animation varies from episode. I know Narutaki is always freaked out when they draw characters with no pupils like they are infected with the black oil from the X-Files. Also Roy Fokker’s skin tones changes from scene to scene almost randomly at times.

Music, the most important part of the series. It is is so funny to think it was a gimmick to sell singles, but it ended up being done so well that you didn’t care. The only time I love Minmay is when she is up there singing on my screen. I also love the mixing of her songs with battle scenes, it makes them both more exciting and somehow heartwrenching.

If music saves humanity than the songs better well be memorable. They start with a strong foot froward with My Boyfriend is a Pilot. It is pretty catchy and they play it all the time but it is light and fun so I never minded how much they play it. I also tend to remember Shao Pai Lon because it has a memorable bridge as well. Minmay has a good amount of more somber ballads but they don’t stick out in my head as much. They also have enough a balance songs that you never get sick of any of Minmay’s songs.

Macross is so memorable, how unfortunate about the double ending because episode 27 was truly grand. The couple of episode before that were rushed, like the whole relationship between Max and Millia, but it ended just right. It was tragic and magnificent! Then came the second wave, it almost destroys all the goodness built up in those first 27. Like I want to see the same love triangle that you just resolved?

Episode 27 wraps up the main story; they pulled out all the stops. The grand Minmay attack, the end of the love triangle, the end of the war, devastation on all sides, heroism, tragedy, despair, and hope. But the show was popular enough that they got an extension of the number of episodes they could make. This leads to an after war story that most people see as weaker than the original. I saw a good deal of potential in the story of how the Zentradi and humans have to try to rebuild and coexist after so much bloodshed and destruction. It was a solid premise. There is nothing inherently bad about the extra episodes. The last arc is just never that epic and seems to desperately want you to keep guessing who Hikaru will choose even though it was already resolved.

Macross Flash Back 2012 is a collection of music videos that are supposed to be Minmay’s farewell performance before leaving on the SDF-2 Megaroad-01 to explore the galaxy for suitable planets to inhabit. What this turns out to be is the world’s worst collection of professionally made AMVs. The effects they throw in the videos are horrible and the scenes they place to the music to are questionable at best in many places. Seeing Misa in a captain’s uniform and seeing Hikaru in a fancy new Valkyrie was cool but nowhere near the price of admission.

If I was a Macross fan in the day and purchased this, I would have stormed the gates and demanded my money back. There is quite literally three minutes of new footage at the end of this 30 minute collection of terribly edited music videos. And not that I was really upset, but they didn’t play My Boyfriend is a Pilot. If this is supposed to be Minmay’s farewell performance, you would think it would be included.

Top 5 Favorite Macross Songs
5. Seventh Moon (Macross 7)
4. Voices (Macross Plus)
3. Diamond Crevasse (Macross Frontier)
2. My Boyfriend is a Pilot (Macross)
1. Try Again (Macross 7)

//

Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, We mustn’t runaway!

2 Comments

Narutaki and I spent a good deal of time wondering if we should even attempt this article. Neon Genesis Evangelion is such a loaded beast that writing anything directly related to it is a dangerous subject. You can talk about any of the alternate universe or spin off materials like Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days or Girlfriend of Steel with little fear because they are so removed from the original work that they are safe. The problem is this remake movie is just as touchy a subject as the original series. Any praise, scorn, criticism, or analysis is just as loaded as it would have been for the original.

Evangelion is a show that will never go away, never be forgotten. I can still remember my dad bring home a couple of VHS tapes of it for me, so many years ago, and immediately popping them in. I didn’t know what that series was going to be with just those first four episodes but I knew that I wanted to find out. Anything as big as Eva is going to cause endless discussion. Sometimes you don’t even want to touch it with a thirty-nine and a half-foot pole but the new movies seemed like a nice place to dive into the danger zone.

I saw the first four episodes of Evangelion thanks to the always amazing King of Players Benjamin McGraw. I remember thinking it was interesting but I did not finish the series until years later. It’s odd. I never have had the usual two reactions to Evangelion. I did not embrace it like chocolate covered love nor rejected it like poison coated manure. While I have always thought Evangelion was interesting I was never fanatical about it to any extreme.

We here at Reverse Thieves show no fear because fear is the mind killer. We watched a whole episode of Clannad and I think we both came out of that as stronger people. Okay, Narutaki might cry himself to sleep at night but he is a stronger man who cries himself to sleep at night. Plus I cried myself to sleep even before I watched Clannad. We shall surely only win at life more than usual because of this this article.

We are going to attempt (ATTEMPT) to talk about this movie as if we haven’t seen the original work it is based on. This is somewhat easier for me as far as plot goes since I tend to forget just about every thing anyway. But what I don’t forget is how a series makes me feel, what characters I connected with, and how I desperately waited to see what would happen next. To me these are the harder things to disconnect from.

In the world of Evangelion, giant mysterious creatures named Angels have been attacking the earth after a gigantic environmental disaster and the called the Second Impact killed much of the world’s population. Shinji Ikari has suddenly been called my his estranged father to Tokyo-3. Instead of a reunion he gets a mission: to pilot a giant robot to fight the Angels. Not surprisingly he is reluctant to do so. After being strong armed into piloting the robot Shinji eventually settles into his role with the assistance of his fellow pilot Rei Ayanami and his guardian and superior Misato Katsuragi.

Both the Angels and Evangelions (the giant robots) have mysterious natures. We also have no real knowledge why these attacks are going on or why they need Shinji of all people. NERV, the organization behind creating the Evas, is shadow and does not seem very upfront about their motives. I certainly don’t think of them as the good guys right off the bat, but that is a huge part of the series…the gray factor and the unknown.

I think the mysteries and the pacing of their reveals has always been one of the major selling points of the series. They throw you into the middle of everything and no one seems to be in any big rush to tell him any more than the bare minimum. At the end of the movie we has a conclusion but no real answers. Most of this has to do with the fact that the first movie is the opening act. It is supposed to lure you in with mysteries, tell a complete story arc that draws you in, make you care about the characters involved, and then leave you wanting more. I think it succeeds in this respect.

Shinji Ikari comes off a very mild and shy. At 14 he is thrust into the responsibility of protecting a city full of innocent people. His father uses him quite openly and the first time he gets into a robot it is out of guilt for another injured pilot. However, as the movie goes on we see him time and time again step-up to the plate. While understandably reluctant, once he feels the direness of the situation he puts up quite a fight. In fact, the last battle in the movie was so totally awesome and suspenseful that when it was all over I almost wanted to cheer. Shinji’s life outside of NERV is filled with the uncertainty of youth combined with burden of his responsibilities to the people around him. Shinji tends to internalize his pain. His relationship with Misato, a woman who sort of takes him in, is one of the most interesting as they are both discovering what the word family means.

I think that we would be remiss is forgetting to mention that Shinji does spend a good deal of the movie trying to run away from his responsibilities no matter how understandable running away might be. He has to be guilt tripped into piloting the Eva each time. He also runs away from NERV for several days until they recapture him when they need him again. Shinji is clearly not the hotblooded robot pilot that loves piloting his mecha nor is he the icy cold ace pilot who always does what needs to be done without a second thought. He is clearly an awkward and scared boy who has been thrust into an overwhelming and dangerous position with no training or preparation. He eventually does what is need to be done every time but he never seem comfortable or willing to pilot the Eva until the end of the movie. Even then he only seems to have a beginning of acceptance of his role as Eva pilot.

The entire cast is sort of an enigma that we only get glimpses of their true motives. Anyone except Shinji, since he is the main character we spend a lot of time with him, feels like there is so much going on below the surface. Who they are can change from one situation to the next. This really brings the most ominous feel to the movie, it is done subtlety however. You feel it as a viewer, nothing is as it seems and who are all of these people caught up in it? Once again, since this is the first film in a series, it brings a lot of flavor and suspense for the coming movies.

I think you’re forgetting one of the more iconic characters in anime history. The Rei. She mainly acts as a stark contrast to Shinji’s attitude while also occasionally being his motivation. Rei seems to be unthinkingly loyal and dedicated to being a Eva pilot. No matter how injured she is, no matter what the danger is in, she is ready to pilot her Eva. It mostly seems that she does it because of a machine like personality but we get hints that is due to a loyalty and even love for Gendo. Shinji surely would have never piloted the Eva the first time if it where not for a half dead Rei and she is instrumental to getting him to fight against the third angel.

I didn’t forget, I just avoided. Rei is this paradox of helplessness and killer instinct. She is very husk like to me; as though there is something ticking in there, but we rarely see it. In fact, we see it when she is blindly defending Gendo of all people. But I like that, the relationships of everyone are complex and we as the audience just get the beginnings of them.

Gendo. We don’t really get much insight into him but they are fairly good at presenting him as a cold and even vile person without making him a snarling villain. He is obviously a man with a grand plan and will sacrifice anything and any one to get to that goal. We mostly see an emotionally detached manipulator who moves all the characters including his own son like chess pieces. Gendo’s famous pose with his hands clasped together under his nose will forever be the mark of the manipulator.

Misato acts as both a sexy older sister and a hard commanding officer to Shinji. In many was she is the gentle and warm parental figure in his life while also being the harsh tough loving figure as well.

The battles are well-paced with intense action and plenty of suspense. All of the battles’ big factor is the will he won’t he with Shinji. You really don’t know what he is going to do, but when he does it something surprising usually happens. I can see this getting annoying but at this point it wasn’t. This animation quality is really working itself in these scenes, of which there are many. If you are anything like me, I have to go back to the original to really see the difference in animation; except for the final battle. Wow, what a difference!

I think the battles are very well done and now take advantage of the clearly larger budget and more modern animation techniques of the time. The fight are usually pretty dramatic and tense. I think the fact that you don’t know what Shinji is going to do keeps the fights interesting because you know he can’t just whip out his equivalent of Form Blazing Sword and win. Half the battle is Shinji verse himself and half the battle is Shinji trying to figure out how to fight the angel. Anyone not impressed by the updated battle against Ramiel is just one jaded human being.

The use of music to bring tone to the movie is very well done. It has a modern classical feel. The original TV series had great music and it is nice to see that tradition continued into the movies. Also is has a killer ending song Beautiful World by Utada Hikaru which is more in the realm of things I know about. It actually creates great juxtaposition between the things happening in the movie and what the song is saying. Sort of like the contradiction of NERV’s slogan, “God is in his heaven, all is right with the world.”

I felt like the ending song was almost a love song to Shinji but maybe that is just me. Maybe it is nothing more than a random song thrown in on the end because people like Utada Hikaru and she has undoubtedly drawn a little more attention to the project by doing the end theme but I want to think that it is more than that. I feel the lines about “What a beautiful boy. Yet, you are unable to see your own beauty.” just strike me as being about Shinji. I might just be reading into things that are not there but I would like to think that I might have something here. Who knows? Maybe Utada Hikaru is a huge Shinji fan girl reading all the Shinji X Kaworu doujinshi she can get her hands on.

Not surprisingly since this is a series of movies, we are left with more questions than answers. In fact a lot of questions! Especially since a lot of things that aren’t introduced until much later in the original are mentioned or shown in this first quarter.

I’m am curious to show this movie to anyone who did not see the original TV series. I followed along with the plot quite easily but I already saw the original. However, the first six episodes of the TV series are simpler than the later episodes. They don’t really have much of the trippy and hard to follow storyline that the last quarter of the series contains. Despite this I wonder if the movie is just well written or was I filling in any holes with my knowledge of the TV series and assorted surrounding works. Do you gentle readers know of any Eva virgins that have only watched the first movie? What did they think of it?

I doubt if anyone outside of Sony, Warner Brothers, or another major movie studio can afford to license this considering the current state of the anime industry. The End of Evangelion movies are famous for being insanely expensive. I remember hearing that someone at ADV said the could licensed 10 TV series for the asking price of End of Evangelion. I can’t see this movie being any less expensive. So unless one of the major U.S. studio decides to fork over the cash for Evangelion, I assume the only way we would get this movie is if Gainax decides to release it themselves. Maybe that is what Gainax is going to be sending people to fanime to announce.

I have no doubt that everyone in the anime industry would sell pieces of their body for this license but it wouldn’t make a difference. Because no one is going to get their hands on it. They just can’t afford it. I mean ADV is totally out. They couldn’t even afford to hang on to the license for Gurren Lagaan (another Gainax title). And unless the people at AnimEigo feel like it, which I don’t think they do, no one else has enough capital to fund such an endeavor. Eva made record sales in the the theaters and also with its recent DVD release. I want it, but I have my doubts.

It does not matter if you love it, hate it, or are quite indifferent. You cannot deny that its impact on the whole of anime is significant. Well, you can ignore Evangelion but it is sort of foolish. It would be like deliberately ignoring the works of Osamu Tezuka or Hayao Miyazaki. Any legitimate anime scholar must watch it at least once to understand it’s impact on the industry. It basically created a whole new genre of mecha anime. It is also the target of countless parody and homage. There is still as much Evangelion merchandise being sold for a 25 year old show as there would be of an anime that is currently playing on TV.

UPDATE: Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone is now licensed by Funimation!

Gundam 00 Season 01, Don’t judge a series by its bishie character designs.

1 Comment

In the future, the world has depleted almost all available fossil fuel reserves and the resulting energy crisis has led to the creation of gigantic solar collectors. These devices are set around the earth with three orbital elevators in place to service them. The countries of the world have divided themselves into three major factions each of which controls one of the orbital elevators. These world powers are now locked in a seemingly endless series of conflicts over control of these orbital elevators and the solar power that comes down from them.

Thanks to these new forms of energy, the Middle East has basically been rendered powerless creating a hot bed of turmoil. Also, the factions of countries controlling things aren’t very surprising. It is essentially the Americans and Japanese (the Union), the Russians and Chinese (the HRL), and the Europeans (AEU). It is a sad commentary to think 300 years in the future people are basically still fighting about the same things.

In response, a mysterious group know as Celestial Being has sprung up and is seemingly declaring war on war itself. With Mobile Suit technology far beyond that of any world power they intervene, they destroy anyone who would engage in armed conflict. They descend into the middle of any conflict and devastate both sides until they must stop fighting. Everyone wants the power of Celestial Being but no one seems to be able to muster the strength needed to stop or capture them. If anyone seems to be a threat to Celestial Being it is Celestial Being itself.

Everyone has some type of talented mobile suit pilot who might actually be formidable if they had the right equipment. Of course at the beginning Celestial Being has the element of shock, where no one has any idea what is going. But as the series progress the Gundam meisters get into some pretty close scrapes with their opponents. It really seems like only a matter of time before they can’t just slip by.

Gundam 00 is set in the Anno Domini era as opposed to the Universal Century like the original Gundam series, the Cosmic Era is Gundam Seed, or any of the other various time lines of other series. Since Anno Domini is the present I think this is meant to be the closest Gundam to real speculative future. Gundam 00 definitely deals with many more real life issues in a very clear manner than other Gundam series. I feel that other Gundam series deal with the horrors and sadness of war but they tend to do it on a very detached level. While not utterly gritty and down and dirty, it is the closest a Gundam series has ever gotten.

The thing about this series is it hits really close to home. Because of the issues it deals with and they way it is dealt with, it doesn’t seem like 300 years in the future, is seems just around the corner. Complete with never-ending conflicts over energy sources. It actually scares me, never have I watched a show like this and really felt like this is the world today. Bus bombings, attacks on civilians, war spilling over onto the innocent, and war-mongering are just a few of the real-life issues that come up. There is a lot of who is a terrorist, is Celestial Being one? What do you have to sacrifice for the greater good? Is there a good guy in this conflict? As the audience, it is interesting to be considering these things while watching a show.

This seems like an excellent show to write a scholarly paper on. I know there is some Gundam otaku working on one as we speak. Some clever history or sociology student can get a thesis out of Gundam 00.

I think we all have to admit that when the first trailer of this series came out everyone had a reaction to the character designs. These guys are far beyond the pretty of Gundam W, these are designs by a BL artist. It is so funny how things like this can color your reaction to a series. The girls in the series are gorgeous too, and each side has its bit of fan-service. I don’t think it is any less honest because of it. In fact, I find this series to be one of the most realistic and dark Gundam incantations.

All I remember were GUYS going crazy about how mad they were about all the girl in the series being fairly busty. Who knew that U.S. Gundam otaku were such prudes? Maybe they don’t want to admit they are secretly huge Loveless fans complete with cat ears. There were a few scenes of slight fan service and one or two “interesting” camera angels during the show but nothing gratuitous. I distinctly remember a scene in which the camera was clearly always centered on Sumeragi’s shapely bottom. But we got a decent amount of fan-service of the male Gundam meisters as well so everyone should be happy.

Our pilots (and other members) have all come to Celestial Being for various reason that we learn about as the series goes on. But you basically start to see the pattern of violence in their pasts thanks to war, corruption, and conflict and they want to stop that cycle. I’ll point out that the youngest is Setsuna at 16 but the rest are a little older, Allelujah at 19, and Lockon at 24. Tieria we don’t know about it although he definitely comes off as older. These varying ages seem to give some depth to their own inner turmoil and wisdom of the world.

To me Tieria does not come off as older as much as more of a jerk than anyone else. Something makes me want to punch Tieria Erde. As stated in our I Hate You Misa Misa article I don’t tend to develop strong diastase for characters but for some reason Tieria gets on my nerves. Something about his nasty attitude and “oh so mysterious” past really grinds my gears. Die Tieria! Die you nasty little male Rei!

Well, it is nice to not be the only one hating on characters! Although, in this series I don’t really have a undying desire to strangle anyone. But Tieria is not my favorite by a long shot, mostly because he is rather under developed and robotic. I took an immediate liking to Lockon and Allelujah. It was nice learning about all the other pilots and watching them move further away from the mold you think they are when the series begins. I was most happy about Setsuna because for the first ten episodes or so all I saw was Hiro Yui staring out at me. I think these comparisons are only natural because of the legacy of Gundam.

I think everyone took a liking to Lockon. He seems without a doubt the most human and easy going of the Gundam meisters. Alleujah gets a lot of development in the beginning and then sort of sticks the the background towards the middle. He gets some character development rather rapidly near the end as well. Setsuna starts off an a Hiro Yui clone but slowly starts to show that he has a soul and the ability to have emotions even if they are somewhat muted. His love story seems somewhat forced or at least a little bit rushed. I guess when you have a cast this big and so many major plot lines you sometimes have to cut corners.

One of the things I really loved about Gundam SEED was its strong female characters. And while I think they continue to create women like this in Gundam 00, I feel a lot of them get pushed the wayside instead of being fully realized yet. Sumeragi, who is the most developed female, is one of my favorite characters. She is a little older and has made a career as a tactical forecaster. She is also the in combat leader of our meisters. We know something serious happened in her past, my guess is some sort of miscalculation that cost a lot of innocent people their lives, and we know she is still punishing herself for it. Her strength and independence are only enhanced by her moments of vulnerability, like when she cries or when she needs a drink.

Sumeragi is undoubtedly one of the most developed characters who is not a Gundam meister. I’m sure that what ever that incident was in her past it will tie in with the main plot line eventually. I like Feldt but I feel they developed her just enough that you wanted to know more about her but not enough that you got a good feel of who she was. I assume we will be getting more of Wang Liu-Mei’s story and character in the next season. I think that the writers want you to be interested in Marina Ismail but I find her quite bland. Princess Princess just seems so generic and slightly moe. Maybe will we see her become more dynamic next season but right now she just comes off as a flat character. I am still waiting for a competent female pilot that is equal to the main male characters in piloting ability (that is not a horrible psycho bitch). Come on Feldt. Be the woman I know you can be! Be the pink haired Allenby Beardsley.

This series plot is really complex with a lot of players on the board. For a while it was hard to keep straight who was who and who they worked for and what they wanted. And the show is constantly giving you ten different peoples’ view of the situation. I really like this because it bring that “the whole world is involved with this” feel to it but it also makes it confusing at times. It is starting to solidify in my mind now but of course now there are traitors and the switching of side seems on the brink of happening.

There are distinctly characters who have very fluid allegiances and tend to back an idea more than any particular organization. Several characters switch sides, like in any Gundam series, but it seems more characters have secret agendas than normal. Even Celestial Being seems to have several layers and factions within it. From the beginning, they make it clear that the only person Ali Al-Saachez works for is Ali Al-Saachez. Of the three major powers I feel, I have the least idea of what the Advanced European Union is all about. They seem to have the fewest named characters and Patrick Colasour is practically a joke character. I did not have a hard time keeping up with who was who but I wish we had seen more of what defines each of the three major powers in the world.

Saji and Louisse are pretty far removed from the actually day to day battles (I doubt it will stay that way). But this adds a layer to the series that isn’t always done. They are just two kids going to school and dating but war destroys them anyway. Their story is really heart wrenching. I think all Gundam series what to show the terrible consequences of war but this small piece of this show does it quite poignantly.

Saji and Louisse are definitely not the same people they were at the beginning of the series that they are at the end. Both of them lose quite a bit during the first season and I don’t see their lives getting any better anytime soon. I also have a feeling that Saji and his sister being orphans is no simple coincidence. I think Saji’s parents death will eventually tie into the history of Celestial Being.

Clearly, we have rivals to our meisters (as the pilots are called) popping up giving us some great battles and interesting dialogue. We are graced with the charming Graham, captain of the flag pilots of the Union; and the very villainous Ali, a mercenary and self-proclaimed lover of war. Both of these guys add some much needed competition for our meisters.

Well there was one secret villain who I think we both thought was slightly over the top with his freaking golden gun and golden Gundam. Dorothy Catalonia and her freaky eyebrows would be proud. (BTW that is not a good thing.) In fact, I would go as far as to say it is if Dorothy Catalonia and Light Yagami had a child he would be equally megalomaniacal. I also got the feeling that Narutaki wanted to punch a certain female pilot squarely in the face until she stopped being a horrible character. But I think she was written to be such an easily hated character. Since not all the villains from the first season are coming back in the next season, I wonder how iconic the next batch of villains will be. Will we get the second coming of Char? Is it blasphemy to even suggest such a thing?

As per usual, no recent Gundam series would be completely without stellar opening and ending songs. I kind of come to expect this and I always look forward to who is going to do them. I can’t decide which opening I liked better. I love the L’arc-en-Ciel song more. But the actual opening for the Brilliant Green’s song is better, since the first opening looks like it is the Setsuna show and there are some other robot pilots hiding in the back room. I hope T.M.Revolution will do an opening for the next season!

All I want is more Feldt in the openings. Because in Season 2 she will be 18 so you don’t have to feel extremely dirty being attracted to her. I liked the first opening better overall but they were both very good. And you know in you heart you want Gackt to do the next opening. Dressed as Allelujah. In your bedroom.

Gundam 00 is the first Gundam series that is being split into two seasons. So for now we got 25 episodes and in the fall we will get the rest. Personally, I would like all of my Gundam in a row with small breaks here and there. However, I was pleased with the ending point of the first season. It was not a cliff-hanger and it was not in the middle of the action. The team of people making this really thought about how to make this season have closure but also leave you without all the answers. While speculation will certainly fly about what we see in the last few minutes of episode 25, we really have gotten the ending of part 1.

I know we have already started to throw around theories on the forums of how season 2 will start. The little epilogue shows enough of the surviving characters to really get us interested in what is going to happen in but not enough to be in any way conclusive. The ending is definitely decisive in terms of the overall main story arc but they leave enough things open to make a season 2. Certain characters fates are also ambiguous enough that I’m sure fans of them will be on the edge of their seats until next season.

Gundam 00 certainly doesn’t pull any punches, which is a bit refreshing. No one is safe from attack, death, or downfall. As the series goes it it pulls further and further away from the typical and kept me guessing about what was going to happen next. It certainly didn’t turn out predictable by any standards. It is really one of the best Gundam incantations in years.

It’s very true. About half way through the series they start killing off major characters left and right. You distinctly get the feeling that no one is safe and they don’t cheap out on it. So far when characters die they die no matter who they are. We have not had that many off screen “soap opera” deaths. I think this Gundam is one of the biggest departures from Gundam formula we have seen since they made G-Gundam but I think this departure really works. I wonder if this Gundam will revolutionize the mecha genre as much as the original Gundam did.

P.S. I think that Black Haro is the evil mastermind behind everything.

UPDATE: Gundam 00 is now licensed by Bandai!

//