Gundam 00

Oops, I was wrong to say "Gundam Zero Zero" all these while. The correct one is actually "Gundam Double O". Yup, it is not even a "zero" but an "o". The characters do not appeal to me and hence it took me many years after its release before I decided to download and watch. It also did not appeal to me the fact that the series consists of 2 seasons of 25 episodes each. I always wonder why not make it 50 episodes since previous Gundam series are typically 50 episode-long.

This time, the setting is 23xx AD. AD stands for anno domini and it is the year nomenclature that we are using currently. It is not fictional timeline like the previous series. Since it is 2012 now, the story is about 300 years in the future. Lol.. It is quite interesting in the beginning as we can relate some of the happening with today's world. In the story, Earth has mostly depleted of fossil fuels and rely on solar power for energy. Just like today's world, there is always conflict when it comes to energy source. The world is divided to 3 blocs: the AEU (which is Europe), the Union (which is the USA), and the Human Resource League (Japan, China, Russia, India, and surrounding areas). Despite treaties to minimise armaments to ensure peace, each blocs maintain their military with the reason of protecting the orbital elevators (a taaaall tower which goes to the space and serves as both Earth-space transportation mode and solar energy generator).

Celestial Being is a para-military organisation which aims to create peace by eliminating wars using Gundams. In the first few episodes, Celestial Being intervened to end the conflict in Sri Lanka and the show of might triggered ceasefire in Northern Ireland. Wew.. Secondary school's Social Studies revisited. After that, the focus shifts to Middle East (yep, it is still a problematic region) but with fictional countries. And with that, my interest died down as the story spiralled into huge mess.

The first mess is regarding the characters. There are too many characters being introduced. Most do not play significant role in the story and then die somewhere in the middle. And sometimes the death is for the sake of killing the characters so that they can introduce new characters. Lockon was killed in action at the end of the first season and in the second season, he reappeared when Setsuna approached Lockon's brother to be a new Gundam Meister. And the brother looks exactly like the dead brother. And best is, he chose the same code name: Lockon Stratos. So why the hell they kill Lockon in the first place if they like him so much -__- Grrah... 

Despite the 4 year gap between the 2 seasons, there is a lack of character maturation. With regards to their age, I thought people should be much more mature when they grow up from 16 to 20 years old. Among all characters, I think only Saji Crossroad and Feldt actually grow in maturity (and surprise: they are like the supporting characters). The main characters are still uninspiring as previously.

While it is common plot in Gundam series that the antagonists are actually masterminded by some shady organisations which would eventually become the big bad boss, it has never gotten as messy as Gundam 00. I can't keep track who is siding with who and everyone ends up betraying one another. I am lost and confused in this huge mess. And the peak of these mess is that in the end, Tieria becomes a "consciousness" which leaves with a computer system. Although he is shot dead, he is still alive in the computer. Does not make sense to me and as I hate stories which involve immortality and time manipulation. Haha..

The story development and conflict resolution are also a big mess. There is not enough story to explain why people suddenly side with one another or fighting against one another. I am quite surprised that this time, the theme is not about bringing peace through pacifism, but to war. That is something new for Gundam but it turns out rather horrible. I don't see how the wars depicted in the story actually bring in peace if compared to lets say the terror of nuclear weapon use in war (Gundam SEED) or dropping spaceship to the earth (Gundam Wing). The ending for the first season leaves me "What the fuck?" and the ending of the second season makes me wonder why I wasted my time watching this junk. There is actually a 4 year gap between both seasons although it is never revealed what actually happened in this gap period.

While on the topic of pacifism, Marina Ismail plays the role of pacifist for these series. But unlike the main female characters previously, Marina is utterly useless. She does absolutely nothing impactful in the whole series. Amazing o_0

And what is Gundam without the robots? In this series, the robots take up really little portion and are disappointing. Usually Gundam robots have their own "identity" be it in the capabilities or the design. It does not happen here. The Gundams look very similar and the no specialisation in terms of power. Okay so Setsuna is the melee fighter, Tieria is the bazooka shooter, Lockon is the sniper, and Allelujah is the missile shooter. To me, bazooka, sniper, and missile are all shooters -__- And eventually everyone can fight both melee and shooting.. Grrah.. And what's up with Tieria trying to keep his Nadleeh and Seraphim "secret" while these 2 are hardly used and eventually revealed not to have abilities worth keeping as a secret anyways.

I can also feel the lack of originality. At the beginning, the idea of uniting the whole world by making them hating the Celestial Being sounds the same like Code Geass in which Lelouch is committing atrocities so that the world unites to hate him and when he is dead, the world would be one. A lot of things are inspired from Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny. The battleships and female commanders are definitely based on Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny (in which these 2 are far more superior in terms of battle strategies and weaponries). The useless Marina composes a song for peace and this seems to be a Lacus copycat to me. Haro are also firstly introduced in SEED. The design of Gundam 00 when combined with O-raiser also greatly resembles Wing Gundam Zero. And when it is emiting GN particles, it looks like Wing Gundam Zero Custom's angel wings.

To be fair, Gundam 00 is not entirely shit. There are few battles which are actually very exciting like the Memento Mori, the crumbling of Africa Tower, and the first few episodes of the second season. These are actually better than the final battle. The background of the Meisters are also interesting, particularly the dual personality of Allelujah Haptism. I don't think there are any protagonists who actually enjoy killing people in the other Gundam series. Lol.

So I guess Gundam SEED is still the best so far. But I admit that it is surprising that 00 turns out to be crappier than Wing. Hmm perhaps I am biased because I am a Wing huge fan? Haha..