Gundam 00 — Episode 8
I’ve been busy with various things since Saturday morning and only just managed to watch episode 8. Off topic, but everyone should watch Freedom. Jiyuu wo tsukame!
Fanservice dissemination at maximum output
I like this episode. It keeps everything I hate to a minimum. Namely: Saji’s ignorance and Setsuna’s angst.
Summary
A certain terrorist organization does not like Celestial Being’s unilateral actions and decides to bomb innocent civilians as a threat, which is totally ironic.
Celestial Being’s intelligence network desperately tries to locate the terrorists responsible for the bombings, but it’s too late as the terrorists have already cleared out their hideouts. The various national intelligence agencies (NRO, BND, DGSE) lend Celestial Being a hand by “accidentally” leaking the biometric data of the terrorists involved.
The responsible party turns out to be an European terror network called “La Edenra” (transliteration may be incorrect), a radical environmental preservation group. (This is totally wtf since Celestial Being isn’t exactly destroying the environment.) The AEU is making use of Celestial Being to remove a long-time threat to its own security.
“Anything you say, my mistress.”
Thanks to the leaked intelligence, the Gundams successfully wipe out the major operating bases of the organization. Surprisingly, La Edenra has bases all over the world, including Marshall Islands and South America, even though it is supposedly an European group. Liu Mei-sama suspects that the organization has financial backings from certain nations and instructs her sex slave Hong Long to investigate.
Paedo alert!
And on the sidelines, Setsuna meets with Marina in Scotland and they have hawt passionate discussions over their differing views of war and peace. Also, we learn that Azadistan was the country that fought a war with Kurdistan six years ago. And that Marina is a very lonely woman desperate for human interaction and probably a closet paedophile to boot.
Thoughts
Beach! Fanservice! Scotland! Ijou desu!
Screencaps
Setsuna bought a wig!
“This ship is in such a sad state without the girls around.”
“Not true. I’m actually gay.”
Dear Sunrise: Please make Liu Mei-sama the main character
She looks troubled. As usual.
Australia — kangaroo stalking
HRL territory — Gobi desert or Beijing in 300 years?
Union territory — generic rainforest
Scotland — generic mountains
“Hey kid, I’ll give you a candy if you follow me into my car…”
“Sorry lady. My mother told me not to take candies from strangers.”
“Right before I shot her in the head.”
OMG! Exia is being eaten up by a virus in the Matrix!
“Touch my breast.”
Mmmm…
Damn fishes.
Meanwhile, in another ocean.
Are the holes cost-saving measures…?
Heh. I wonder if they will ever come to Singapore? I want to see mechanical Merlions that shoot missiles.
November 25th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Mechanical merlions? that fires missles?
Whatever it is you’re smoking, i want some too!
November 25th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Oh you mean you felt nothing about Setsuna revealing his secret identity to a new-found friend? I thought that was ludicrous.
“My name is Cryal or whatever they told me to call myself in front of strangers.”
“Ok Cryal-san…”
“Fuck you, I’m not Cryal! I am Setsuna F Seiei the GUNDAM MEISTER!!”
This is actually a funny parody of the long-running Gintama joke where Katsura always says “Zura ja nai! Katsura da!” even in disguise.
November 25th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Well there’s really not much to talk about. I guess he wants to impress the chick.
November 25th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Just to post my opinion on this episode of Gundam 00. It appears (as obvious) that someone is literally manipulating the Celestial Being, as what you said, DarkMirage. “Leaking” information about the terrorists are certainly not what a country or organization would do to the Celestial Being.
And just to mention in the first Exia picture: it has the same mirage ability as Blitz from Gundam SEED?
I don’t quite understand this episode until I see it myself (looking forward to it this week).
November 26th, 2007 at 12:06 am
The Merlion got cut into half by terrorist mechas in Super Robot Wars Original Generation OVA:
http://textfiend.net/zerohero/?p=260
November 26th, 2007 at 1:44 am
lol candies
November 26th, 2007 at 2:26 am
I think that one picture where you say “Setsuna with a wig on” is actually a young Lockon.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:42 am
lol Setsuna tried to impress Marina with Exia in the end “Hey look at me, I have a gundam~~”
November 26th, 2007 at 2:43 am
lol the holes on tht plane… makes no sense…
well neither does giant humanoid combat battle robots. so whatever.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:22 am
I hate how they made Marina 24, & Setsuna 16. It seems from the OP that they will have some sort of intimate relationship, not saying lovers for sure, but the age gap is just too big.
I’ve seen animes that fuck up relationships with a one year difference, mainly all school based romance animes.
November 26th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Sofar I haven´t watched anything that is even close to Shinn in emo from Setsuna…
Saiji, bound for some yaoi love… which after first interception he regrets so much he must go and cry to Louise who just slaps him in the face and leaves him.
Thank God they´ve kept his screentime to a minimum.
And with that, hard to watch the raw with lots of technichal terms?
November 26th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Just finished watching a subbed version. WOW. Setsuna is official a moron.
Last episode he GOT OUT OF THE COCKPIT
This time he reveals his true identity…..Setsuna is no secret agent.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
A decent episode, untill “FCK U I’M A GUNDAM MEISTER!!!!!” wow real WTF moment for me. I totaly didn’t see the point in doing that.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I thought Setsuna should be the one giving his candy to Marina.
I think since Singapore is part of the HRL, there is nothing much to really talk about. I doubt if the makers even know that Singapore exist (just like some people who thought that Singapore is part of China.)
Btw I thought it should be Liu Mei being Hong Long’s sex slave instead of the other way round?
November 26th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Hey DM, can you tell us what do you think about Shinsen-Subs translation accuracy with their gundam 00 subs? It seems mendoi is becoming slow again so I was wondering if I can watch their subs without worrying about getting weird BS like the nyoron subs…
November 26th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I haven’t watched Shinsen yet. Maybe I’ll take a look at it later.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
lol, it’s hard to imagine that you’re singing praises of gundam00 like 6 episodes ago.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I think the name La Edenra is French, or maybe the name of the group could be something close to “The Eden Garden”, since “La” means “The” in French, and “Edenra” is close to the word “Eden”. What an apt name for a radical enviromental preservation group. You should know what the Garden of Eden is.
I am getting the Shinsen Subs now. The group doesn’t seem to have much word mashing as Nyoron, IMO.
This seems to be a slow month for anime fansubbing. I am still waiting for Eclipse to release Hayate No Gotoku Ep 34.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Hold on, people complaining about slow release on Thanksgiving weekend? Honestly…
Also, TLer of Hayate/Shana II in Eclipse got married, hence delay in subs.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Woops, meant TSer, but point still stands.
And to add comment to this doublepost, my god, Felt is way too developed to be a 14 year old. Good thing Sumeragi’s breasts have acclimatized to Earth’s gravity and aren’t personal flotation devices anymore.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
@Ryuko_Hikaru
The katakana is ラ・イデンラ. I don’t think it’s French, maybe Italian or Spanish. Even if it is any one of the three languages, the Romanization would be La Idenra or La Idenla (“Edenra” is English-influenced). And I don’t believe it can be French because “en” in French is not pronounced IPA /εn/.
Of course, given how they Iaponicized ”Virtue”, it could entirely be French.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
[sigh] I wish Tomino would take over because right now this show really sucks. Every battle thus far has been a walk in the park for Celestial Being despite the fact that one of their Gundam Meisters has DID. Why can’t they have Hallelujah take over and become a thorn in CB’s side?
November 26th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
If Tomino takes over…we shall see mass deaths :S
November 27th, 2007 at 1:24 am
Thanks quen, I didn’t notice that.
I don’t think Tomino would have alot of death issues if he takes over. Zeta Gundam was probably his only killer work since he is having depression back then (and probably the BEST Gundam work in the series EVER).
The only thing is that the show is moving a little too slowly. Perhaps Nabeshin takes over? xD
I just watched Shinsen this afternoon. Not really that bad, but Veda = Vader? So you mean we are getting a Death Star at the end of this anime?
November 27th, 2007 at 2:30 am
So, the Celestial Beings are instruments preserving the status quo of the trilateral balance of power. So whose interests does the CB really serve, in preserving this existing world order?
November 27th, 2007 at 10:53 am
lol… kangaroo stalking……
November 27th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Im thinking CB are trying to get the entire world to unite against them, in effect ending wars between the nations. Seems to be what it will take to have a chance of bringing them down too.
Also im beginning to agree with Pinko, Setsuna needs to be shot in the back.
November 27th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Oh, and as to the holes in the plane.
300 years and they dont come up with new, much more aerodynamic and lightweight designs? Really?
If anything im annoyed at how similar everything is to today.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Right. So the only visible development in flight dynamics for the next 300 years is two huge holes in the wings.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Don’t know about the holes, but I imagine that the wings would be able to change their shape in response to atmospheric conditions. And if it were sufficiently advanced there is no reason why it would need to be visually noticeable at all times. And I would assume that most of the time only very small variations would be necessary.
November 27th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
You have two possibilities…
Either atmospheric flight has already been perfected to a point where nothing much is going to change to the basic design of aircrafts for the next 300 years. (I find that unlikely.)
Or the change is as radical as biplanes to modern jets. Possibly flying wings.
Cutting two jarring holes in what is otherwise a generic jet design is just being lazy.
November 27th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Talking about the case of a 1-week delay of SnSS (Shakugan no Shana Second), I feel they are having certain problems, either with the subbing or the RAW version. Otherwise they could be too busy.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Setsuna seems to have some sort of crush on Marina. Remember when kids would teasing their crushes just to get their attention, Setsuna’s equivalent of teasing here is scaring her almost shitless and showing off his Gundam to her.
An observation I made seems to indicate that Azadistan is probably the only Middle Eastern country left, I got this from Marina when she generalized that all people with similar features as her are from Azadistan. The other would be the former Kurdistan.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:55 am
This episode had some interesting elements to it, why in hell would Setsuna tell that witch he as a Gundam Meister this makes no sense at all. Any one get the feeling Queen Marina is similar to Relena from Gundam Wing?
By the way Setsuna doesn’t need a wig, That was probably Lockon Stratos in his younger days.
This episode didn’t add too much to the suspense!
November 28th, 2007 at 6:05 am
The Vedas are the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Given the series appropriation of religious terminology (and the deus ex machina way that Celestial Being operates – hence the unbalanced fights) and the role of the Vedas as ‘revealed’ texts, I would imagine it’s Veda not Vader (the word ‘veda’, not as a proper noun but as a standard Sasnskrit word, means ‘knowledge’ or ‘wisdom’ – so sayeth Wikipedia).
Yes, Setsuna could have at least used spoiler tags for Marina’s benefit. Not very gentlemanly.
16-year-olds are legal in the UK. Presuming that that remains unchanged for 300 years into the future (!), Marina isn’t (legally speaking, at least) a closet paedophile. In fact, in the UK you can legally have sex two years before you can legally consume pornography.
Didn’t Tomino direct Space Runaway Ideon? That has lots of death.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Something else i have noticed. It always seems to be Setsuna who gets in over his head. Shot into the ocean without destroying the offending attacker, losing the first half of the fight with Serges, gasping in shock over being shot at by the guy he was attacking in this episode (after being dragged away by complete surprise)… the others just kind of blow their enemies away without giving them a chance.
I wonder why they didnt just make a second Virtue with its seemingly complete invulnerability and ridiculous firepower.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
I might drop this show. Damn it, I was enjoying it a lot too.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Why on earth did Sestuna tell the girl who he really was? I totally missed that…
November 28th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Just commenting, Marina is more of a political person (the Queen, duh). Regarding Setsuna’s telling her of himself, he seems to think she can keep his secret. But then again his going over his head. He’s been doing things wrong isn’t he? But hope he don’t get shot by his comrade (it almost occurred in Episode 7).
November 29th, 2007 at 8:18 am
I have a simple answer for telling that he is a Gundam Meister. Setsuna was pissed at her and wants revenge. Thats it. They are of two different religions and backgrounds and he suffered a lot at her people’s hands. He simply warned her that she is next. Thats all there is to it.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Yeah, he did get pissed off by the Queen of his enemy state. I was surprised when he spilt the milk at the last moment before he left. But was the name he said a while ago his real name?
Looks like things are getting bad for episode 9 this Saturday japan time.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Why did Marina think Setsuna a compatriot?
Was it because of his attire?
November 30th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Well in the flashback it showed his name as Soran.
December 1st, 2007 at 6:44 am
where do you get these gundam 00 episodes
December 1st, 2007 at 11:08 am
Hey boys nothing wrong with a big age gap trust me ;) They’re so much more mature (unlike that annoying Louise) and more experienced.
And even if Setsuna is too young… well, give it a few more years XD
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:29 am
On the most basic pyschological levels, a young person (Setsuna’s age counts) who knows something that makes him better than the person he dislikes would be very tempted to rub that fact in that person’s face.
It’s similar to kids always saying “I’m better than YOU because of *blah*”. Maybe he just couldn’t resist. I think it’s a realistic, albeit impulsive and unwise reaction, given the situation. :P
December 10th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Boobs? :)
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
That kurdish guy will end up with peacekeeper because the writers are twisted.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
LOL!