Every middle-age man’s dream
Before I go into my usual hate-filled blasphemous rant, I have an announcement to make. Due to real-life circumstances unrelated to World of Warcraft, this will be my last G00 post. On a related note, I will be flying off to Japan tomorrow for about a month, so look forward to more Japan-related posts and of course some Comiket 75 coverage at the end of the month.
Now on to the hate.
Summary
She’s a jailbait
My characterization of the relationship between Billy, Sumeragi and Kati as a love triangle turned out to be wrong. It is more of a lesbian love-hate rivalry between Sumeragi and Kati, with Billy being the spectator.
His country is about to be destroyed and he is bored
The Federation is planning to make an example of the Kingdom of Suiru (Saudi Arabia?) in its bid to dominate the Middle East. Kataron offers to help but is probably useless.
Ali looks out of place in Ribbons’ bishounen zone
Ribbons must be well-read in history because he has very cunningly avoided falling into the age-old trap that has doomed so many ambitious conquerors in the past. As the famous saying goes, “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.”
Who didn’t see this coming?
Instead of launching a ground invasion, he has constructed a gigantic orbital particle cannon thing called the “Memento Mori”, which is latin for “remember that you are mortal”, an ironic bit of self advice perhaps.
It’s okay. GLA can rebuild through their tunnels
Unfortunately, his mastery of history appears to be confined to the classical to modern eras and he failed to account for the fact that every single super space cannon in Gundam history has resulted in the eventual downfall of its user after the first shot. Since the cannon is probably only good for one shot, he should have saved it for Celestial Being instead of wasting it on a generic Middle Eastern kingdom. Mere mortal indeed.
Does Hiroyuki Yoshino get paid twice?
And Hallelujah is back! Oh shazbot.
Thoughts
As much as I believe that nostalgia often distorts the true quality of past works and places them on unrealistically tall pedestals that future works can’t ever live up to, I have to say that I do miss one thing about Gundams in general: the human touch.
No, I’m not talking about the Gundam X ED theme by the late Warren Wiebe, although that was a nice song. I’m talking about the human condition, the morality of war, the heartfelt emotions injected by the writers and the general human-oriented nature of the original Gundam.
Who is that person and why do we care?
Although I thought Gundam 0079 was overrated and poorly put together, it did possess the human touch. One of the things that differentiated Gundam from the rest is its willingness to cast both sides of a conflict as complex individuals driven by very human goals. That is ultimately what separates Gundam from Dekarangers and made it great. War is never a battle between good and evil, it is the cumulation of our collective misunderstandings, greed, pride, fear and tragedies, an Gundam — born out of post-war Japan — understood this.
The same cannot be said about Gundam 00. The villains are overwhelmingly one-dimensional and the protagonists have tacked-on back stories that feel like one huge afterthought. Early attempts made to incorporate current affairs into the story so as to create authenticity and maturity were quickly abandoned in favour of a more simplistic geopolitical paradigm in the second season. The new sentai-style uniforms don’t help either.
Just misunderstood?
The bottom line of modern Gundam is not storytelling but rather model-selling. New mobile suits are introduced often for no particular reason. That by itself might not have been such a terrible thing, if not for the fact that the plot is routinely desecrated and defecated upon in an attempt to provide justification for more shingata.
The original Federation and Zeon had their share of heroes and villains. ZAFT and Earth Alliance both used weapons of mass destruction and eventually suffered the consequences. Celestial Being and Ribbons… Hmmm… I guess there is a remote possibility that Sumeragi is actually a scheming evil mastermind and Ribbons is just trying to save the world from global warming.
Just think about it.
Screencaps
Before she took up drinking
Emergency board meeting to discuss the economy meltdown
Amazing character detail for a guy we won’t ever see again
Most useless heroine of all time?
HG model kit out soon
So how old is the mother when she gave birth?
She’s a girl, right? I feel funny inside…
The goggles. They do nothing
All she does is cry and babysit
Awesome
“NO”
;_;
>:)
Redhead fight
How can he pilot the thing with that blinding light?
Well I guess that’s the end of my reign of terror. But before I sign off, here’s a parting gift for you to chew on. Flame away.
Includes only series I’ve watched
P.S. Vanessa Hudgens is cute.
DM’s sense of humour this time around = nonexistent..
Hmm I do believe I’ll be utilizing that chart for future Gundam series viewings.
Damn right 08th MS Team was the best Gundam series out of everything else.
And I agree, way too many mobile suits being introduced in G00. Most are ugly, too, imo.
HOW DARE YOU RANK A MASTERPIECE LIKE GUNDAM SEED DESTINY BELOW TRASH LIKE 08TH MS TEAM AND WAR IN THE POCKET
WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE THE AMOUNT OF PURE FANBOY RAGE THAT BOILS WITHIN ME OH GOD
ALSO ALI’S PENIS WAS BURNT OFF SO HE TAKES IT FROM RIBBONS AND HIS ENTIRE HAREM EVERY NIGHT
Really? the last G00 post here????
Wanna look forward to more G00 bashing next time..
NOOO!!!…plz be joking
u at least have to finish the series =.=
Lol, the blue-coloured hair girl somewhat looks like Grace Feldt. That is my first impression of her.
I think it comes down to the fact that the main audience now a days doesn’t have the patience for a sophisticated and planned out story, hence the sense of humanity about the characters and the staff’s original intentions are lost. With the solution to this being fancy graphics, fanservice, and quickly resolved arcs that make no sense as a whole.
In short the story is lost once the fans become too much of an influence.
i say destiny should get negative 10 and G would seem better if you had more patience.
“War is never a battle between good and evil, it is the cumulation of our collective misunderstandings…..”
not saying japan people is bad now.. but judging from what they have done to other asian countries in ww2, they seem pretty evil to me.
i kinda feel like they are using gundam as a cover up for their war crimes. its trying to tell people how there is no evil in war and stuff…so that nobody blames them for what they have done in the past
What? No Char’s Counterattack on your chart? I am guessing you must be a Gundam fan for about 15 years or less.
And how the HELL is Destiny better than 00?
God, Destiny has more flashbacks episodes than all the series you have seen…
They have those wannabe Zakus and Goufs that dies in like 3 seconds.
Oh, and they treat Kira Yamato like God also. You know, the enemy MS just stands there and let him slices it.
I agree with Zerox, DM. How the hell IS Destiny better than 00? :/ Seeing your chart made me a bit depressed.
Destiny should be -900 on the list because it faithfully fufills every sin of current gundam series-all the gundams and mobile suits look the same!
My idea is that he got promoted to the chief editor of Uncyklopedia or something along those lines. I mean, now that he’s shown the whole world his rather peculiar art of 360-degree bitching, noone’s ever going to expect (and approve of) any other form of contribution to the overall society welfare from him, no matter how desperately he may want to make himself useful by some other, more serious, means in the future. So why waste time on some blog that serves no other purpose than to induce random fits of nostalgia that distorts true quality of …
That or maybe he just got plain bored …
@Zerox:
Personally, I love the sequel concept where the new main character has a grudge and ends up going up against the previous hero, often due to misunderstanding. That’s why I was willing to watch GSD religiously and overlook everything else, be it the poor plot device, nested flashbacks, or those awkwardly forced retcons of Muu and Rey. The same would go for Tales of Symphonia 2 and the Emil/Lloyd interactions, even though the plot was, in fact, a far cry from the original piece.
the only thing that surprised me (not funny though) is how he managed to jam in HSM in there…
oh well, might as well take a break for a week or 2…
…who’s doing TL then?
Hahaha…DM’s just being a trendwhore at this point and as I suspected can’t handle half of the criticism he dishes out and has decided to call it quits. Some observations:
08th is the consistently trumpeted sentimental favourite Gundam series of every blogger who wants to appear smart to their readers (because it’s oh so realistic compared to the others and all that jazz……not exactly), but unfortunately while it’s one of the better OVA’s the series also has many issues with it’s characterization starting around the last quarter. Examples include aspects such as Shiro’s sudden change of heart as a soldier, the cobbled together love story between him and Aina, and the infamous 13th episode that people are unwilling to recognize. Not to mention that Ginneas is as generic a villain as they come. So there’s part 1 of the trendwhore aspect, the part where he fails to present an argument and just goes along with the popular opinion at the moment.
Now, likewise he is still incapable of recognizing that Gundam 00’s supposed hero characters have had their bouts with darker tendencies(Lockon the first considering killing Setsuna in cold blooded revenge for the death of his family, Allelujah’s “mercy killing” of several thousand SS candidates, Tieria having no issues with judging his own teammates, Setsuna’s impulsiveness jeopardizing many live etc.) and is seemingly more concerned that it is the newest series and therefore can’t possibly have anything about it that could ever be considered superior or equal to those that came before it. Yes THAT is why he is claiming it’s weaker then Gundam Seed Destiny and it would be foolish to read anymore into it. That’s part 2 of the trendwhore aspect, following the assumption that newer entries in a franchise are always worse then those that come before them, claiming so, but failing to support it. Laziness.
Not to mention having to resort to pointing out trite matters in order to find fault with the show. Hooray, here we go again with the model selling argument garbage that’s been beaten to death forever. You know as if selling models for popular mobile suits to consumers willing to buy them is somehow a bad thing. No no no, it’s okay if you sell all the crummy merchandise and figma in the world, but once you start selling Gunpla, only then are you the devil.
Not a valid criticism I’m afraid and in the end, through all of his ramblings Darkmirage has really proved very little. That is part 3 of the trendwhore aspect (not to mention being a hypocrite as well), going along with the unsupportable notion that because the series has model kits based off of a certain aspect of it’s artistry that it somehow cheapens the viewing experience…..without attempting to explain why http://2pwn.tk/websites/www.darkmirage.com/category/figures/ these are perfectly okay.
And what’s with the backtracking? This is the guy that has been claiming since well before the halfway point of season one that the geopolitical aspects were unacceptable by his standards and now suddenly he is claiming that everything was A okay until the second season as far as story, character and maturity goes? This is the first I’ve heard of this sudden admiration for the first season on DM’s part and I’m left to wonder where this came from. Actually I bet I know where and I’m half tempted to call out a part 4 on being a trendwhore for renegging on his earlier claims about the series just so he can reinstitute them as apparently fresh (instead of being worn as any observant reader can see) for the purposes of pulling the whole “the second season ruined the first” (TM) nonesense that always gets pulled nowdays. And still no examples, just empty words.
Shallow as always for one who protests to be so above the curve, and talk about keeping up appearances right to the bitter end. Sheesh…..it’s been a slice there DM.
Seed was terrible.
That’s sad…now I need Random Curiosity…
ZZZ.
I need my Ramblings!
GUNDAM
There might have been evil people. Evil deeds were indeed committed. But to say that Japan as a whole was unambiguously evil during WWII is quite an overreaction.
Zerox
Destiny and G00 are about the same to me. I guess it depends on which part I selectively remember. It’s just flame-baiting.
As for Char’s Counterattack. The reason why I haven’t watched it is because I didn’t really enjoy Zeta.
Billybobbaxter
There is some truth in your first paragraph in the sense that people like you make me sick, i.e. you hate my blog and yet keep coming back for more, which is the very thing you accuse me of doing with G00. Since I actually enjoy watching G00, I can only conclude that you secretly love reading my blog(?)
That said, in reply to your accusation, the fact that I will be in Japan for the next month might have clued you in somewhat, or so I had hoped in vain. :(
The rest of your essay has nothing to do with me or what I said/did and it is up to you to find your own answers.
Just one example for your benefit: if you had taken a short break from your knee-jerking and thought through the matter in a calm and composed manner for just a bit, you could’ve answered your own question about figurines. The reason why they are more “acceptable” is because only the crappiest moe anime titles are founded on a premise of introducing as many characters as possible so as to sell figurines. The rest of the titles have plots that are not influenced by figurine marketing. If you feel okay with G00 being placed on the same level as these otaku baits, then I guess your comparison is valid. I don’t mind either way.
That is not so say there aren’t other market forces and fan pandering at work in anime of other genres, but the comparison of the role of gunpla in Gundam vs figurines in everything else is quite a stretch. Now you can go think through the rest of your essay.
All in all, I’ve been blogging the exact same things for Code Geass and G00, and I can conclusively say that Gundam fans take things more seriously and are more easily offended. For no good reason even, since the show isn’t that great.
YES! Another person who thinks 0080 was awesome.
Crud, I meant 8th MS team. that was the bomb.
too bad he ends up sort of crippled in the end… however if he didn’t it wouldn’t have been as touching ;_;
stop complaining fuckers, you guys should make your own chart. gawd he’s just making a review.
One thing’s for sure, they’re really rushing lots of new suits for this season.
And they sure make innovators & a-lols like the pure bad guys.
unless the innovators were doing a ZERO of code geass.
As Zerox pointed out earlier, it is rather strange that Gundam SEED Destiny is ranked higher than Gundam 00. Then again I also think it’s strange that Gundam SEED is ranked so high – I personally felt that once the “Three Ships Alliance” was formed, it degraded into “the good guys with overpowered Gundams” vs “the bad guys that want to blow up each other.”
My personal favorite of the Gundam series is 0080. I feel that particular series delivered the message of “war is truly evil no matter what” theme the best out of all the series, and it really showed that there was nothing beautiful and spectacular about fighting.
Also I’ve never seen Turn A before but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I guess the unorthodox (in my opinion) art style and the rather peculiar mecha styles are kind of a turn off for me, but I might check it out since everyone seems to be so positive about it.
I cannot take that list seriously. Wing was a terrible anime
I don’t particularly agree with all the ratings but seeing that someone else liked Turn A gundam is good enough to satisfy me.
Deathpink: Well we agree then. I am using Gamespot’s ranking methodology. 6 is terrible.
enjoy your trip.
i do something of a gundam 00 “review” myself in case anyone here is having withdrawal symptoms from DM’s reviews.
No more G00 reviews? Makes me sad, though I hope you enjoy your trip to Japan.
Ms. new girl who’s brilliant, smart, pretty and a talented pilot+cook I mean..come on, how is Tieria’s brain not screaming Innovator at him? The first half of the episode has him guessing that everything’s Ribbons’ fault then he meets a new super-human and he’s just “Oh, kay.” Not that I don’t enjoy the new eyecandy (I do), it’s just a bit bloody tedious that they switch character awareness from 10 to 1 in the space of ten minutes.
Ah, and what do you play on WoW DM?
I’m having withdrawals already!
I didn’t! I thought this is going to be different. (sigh…)
I have to agree with you on this. The first season was a political satire.
So DM, is this a confirmed spaceshipwreck?
Does anyone agree? This was quoted from a blog about Gundam 00 at http://derailedbydarry.com/
I have only seen Wing, X, G, Seed and Gundam 00. I rank Seed as the top of them, X as the bottom. X has great mecha but the story and characters are just not interesting for me. Wing was the one that introduced me to Gundam. I haven’t watched any of the UC Gundam shows except short clips of them. I learned Turn A has good background story. I will watch the other Gundam shows someday.
So you liked Seed more than Destiny? How does that work out??
And you liked Seed more than Wing? Again, how does that work out??
And no more G00 reviews?? NOOOOOO!! I loved the reviews, why must this happen!!!!!?????
Seed was definitely better than Destiny. Destiny was a trainwreck that no one should suffer through.
But.. 3.4 for Gundam 00? Aren’t you being a bit too harsh? It’s definitely not the worst Gundam series ever…
00 worse than Destiny? NO WAI!!!!!!*ahem* yea no way =D
DM,you’re leaving..soon?How sad.Probably gonna miss you… :(
SHAVE BALD. GLHF.
Nice reference to Rainier Wolfcastle from The Simpsons.
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@Darkmirage: …………..Okay, well I was hoping for a more definitive reply to all of my observations, but if you want to go on believing that the sole purpose of Gundam’s existence is to sell model kits and that most media aren’t driven by some degree (even your beloved Haruhi) towards allowing for a profitable merchandising line on the side then so be it. However, to assume that merchandising is the sole driving force behind a story and to pick and choose (based on what looks like nothing more than the common trends of the day) when this becomes the case for each individual series, then I think that’s a baseless “criticism” and not to mention highly amusing since I’m left to think that that’s it. That’s the sole reason you’ve come up with as to why Gundam 00 isn’t worth your time, as I understand is your alleged reason for quitting. An aspect of the show that is barely tangible within it’s confines until the day Setsuna starts looking at the camera and saying “Buy the 00 Gundam model kit”.
Nonetheless, assumptions such as the ones you’ve made about the purpose of the show (apparently there can be only one in your eyes) are in keeping with your usual style of thinking and observation from what I’ve seen of the persona you present (as opposed to the one we don’t see that indeed probably does enjoy the show and yet can’t or rather won’t convey it in his blog posts for what again can only be the purpose of keeping up appearances) so I can’t really fault you for it. We go by what we think we know about something after all.
By the way, not always agreeing with everything a host blogger says with sycophantic comments shouldn’t be a sign that someone hates the blog, or the host, or whatever and given how long you’ve been blogging I would think you’d understand that. There’s more to it then that and in the long run the criticism you are getting now from more than just me could be of some help to you. Well then, enjoy getting price gouged at Comiket.
I see DM’s point about model kit sales. Season 1 of 00 had a large number of models but they seemed practical. That is some were necessary to fight on par with the Gundams (e.g. the OverFlag and GN-X). But the number of new units truly is getting ridiculous. Not as ridiculous as Destiny but still ridiculous.
The GN-X from season one should have been kept and only have the Ahead. There’s no way in hell a military would develop a new model every four years. Military mobile weapons are not as simple as cars.
I must disagree about the “heroes and villains” aspect of 00. There aren’t any heroes and villains, rather we get ANTI-heroes and ANTI-villains. And even then the anti-villains turn into anti-heroes, which makes things very one-dimensional.
All in all I agree with most of what DM is saying even though I still like the show. I find one-dimensional villains to be a refreshing change from making diverse villains all the time. It cuts down on the backstory and crap that makes us sympathize with them.
@Sourooster: The new MS are not the feddies, they belong to the Innovators. The EF still only has the Ahead and custom variations as it’s high end mobile suit and the GN X-III as their mainstay mobile suit. Each Innovator has their own customized Gadessa, and Ali has the Arche which is literally just the Throne Zwei rebuilt and tuned up. Not exactly what I’d call a deluge of new mobile suits.
So…. are you looking forward to THE ARMY?
You missed Full Metal Panic.
Gundam 00 is a ripoff of it.
It is not hard to see Souske, Kunz, Mithrill, Leonard, gauron, etc,…
@ Billybobbaxter:
The Arche Gundam I can understand but GN-X III? What happened to II? The thing that made me like the suits in SEED the most was the fact that they didn’t have very many models. You had the GINN and a mess of equipment for that suit and then the CGUE, which was only produced in limited numbers because it wasn’t a significant upgrade to the GINN. The GuAIZ, however, was and was therefore mass produced.
If the ESF was basing mobile suit development off of fighter jets in real life then I could understand. For example, the F-15 was built as a heavyweight, air superiority fighter while the F-16 was designed as a lightweight, multirole fighter. But I don’t see much difference in equipment and technology in the ESF’s mobile suits. They all have a beam rifle and a melee weapon of some kind. Granted, the Ahead may have larger engines but why not simply add those to the GN-X?
@Billybobbaxter
Well I don’t agree with DM’s tastes…on quite a few levels, though i still enjoy the blogs XD. But you cannot say that Sunrise is making this show for our entertainment only. They are likely making it as entertaining as possible so that there will be higher ratings, yes, but they are most certainly not doing it for our sake. Higher rating = higher popularity = more money from show/modelkits/other franchise goods. All we do is pay them money ^_^ and enjoy it. Not that i’m saying that’s bad, since it’s how the world turns.
It is indeed a sad occasion for me that you won’t be writing anymore 00 commentaries. My brother and I always waited for your commentaries after every 00 episode because although we are fans of Gundam 00, we enjoy your parodies as much as we enjoy the show.
And I must agree with you that I’m starting to compare S2 to S1 for some reason. Something in the back of my head is telling me that perhaps something’s gone wrong. It is true that perhaps in the course of trying to pursue Aeolia Schoenberg’s plans subterfuge has to be used to propel the story to two seasons, and I’m hoping Sunrise won’t make it a little drab while they’re doing so. I supposed the focus is actually on who’s toying with who and who’s following the right plan for now since it’s clearly implied that the script writers want to toggle with the viewer’s minds a little bit, just to make time for them to be surprised by the final episodes to come. What I’m praying for now is for Neil Dylandy to not pull a Jesus on us because Hal coming back was something I had expected. Saji has also proven to be the most pathetic character in history; he is even pathetic than Maria Ismail and Shinji Ikari combined. I never hated both. I mean, Relena was a better example.
I never liked SEED and Destiny; it was like Macross all over again. Macross has a good subplot but is always destroyed by the signing-dancing pop idols. I veer away from the Macross element.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy your trip to Japan. I’ve read some of the comments and I’m not surprised why you are miffed. I would be too. That’s taking everything beyond constructive criticism. Whatever happened to the saying, “If you got nothing good to say, don’t say it.”? But then again, ‘good’ is also relative.
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Marina isn’t useless! She’s there to fulfill the important role all female characters in the shonen have: to prove that the main character is straight.
p.s Is it just a coincidence that your top 3 happen all happen to be under 13 episodes long?
It’s too bad you’re dropping the series as I enjoyed reading your episode reviews. However I would agree that Gundam 00 is the worst Gundam series so far even though I don’t agree with the ratings you gave to older series in your chart.
@Sourrooster: The GN-XII shows up in the Gundam 00F sidestory and was used briefly during the four year time period between the series before being phased out. There’s a line art of it somewhere and it looks pretty much exactly like the GN-X. And Seed had way more overall MS and useless support vehicles then Gundam 00 has had so I’m not sure what you are trying to claim here. Just do a quick comparison on MAHQ to see the number of entries for each series. Gundam 00 currently has less overall mobile weapons then the original MS.
@Mira: Yeah pretty much actually.
Anyway, we always go through this whole “Oh it’s just the worst thing ever” with each successive new Gundam series so I’m not surprised that we get to go through it again before this one ends. The only time it was ever really true though was with Gundam Seed Destiny. To imagine that a franchise can have ups and downs instead of a steady trend of down or uphill is pretty outside the box thinking though, especially for people who probably aren’t even really paying attention to anything anyway.
In what is probably also in vain I suppose I would encourage people to actually pay attention to how Saji has been coming along as a character from a whiner to actually doing something and to realize that the Saji they are all calling the worst character ever is the one from 6 episodes ago. Then again linear time doesn’t seem to count for much anymore as far as commenting on anime goes unless it’s absolutely immediate.
If you ask me Saji’s come along much quicker than Marina who is still sitting around the Kataron base expectly everything to magically right itself instead of taking some action. When push came to shove Saji got in that chair and took control of the ships guns and he also helped Ian out in engineering, which is more to his calling. He’s paying his debt to CB for saving his life, but I ask, what has Marina done to pay back Setsuna for saving her all those times? Nothing. Yet he’s still the one getting dumped on for how he used to act because that’s the set trend. Same situation as the whole Suzaku hate by the way. Oh viewers viewers viewers, you’ve got to learn to account for change in character instead of waiting around for some blogger to tell you what to think about the show your watching. The story of the pied piper has never been as relevant as it is right now.
[idiotTroll]
NO YOU CANT STOP BLOGGING G00 COS YOU OWE TO THE FANS. YOU MUST BLOG ABOUT IT ALL TEH END OR I WILL HATE YOU AND CALL ALL THE TROLLERS FROM UNDER THE BRIDGE TO HATE YOU TOO AND I WILL SPAWN ALL SORTS OF DORAMA AND SEND AN ARMY OVER TO SINGAPORE TO FORCE YOU DOWN ON YOU KEYBORDZ!
[/idiotTroll]
Have a safe flight and hope you survive the angry swarming otaku mobs over at Comiket. \o/