Series: Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Season 2 - Volume 1
Release date: 29th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 220 mins
Director: Seiji Mizushima
Starring: Setsuna Efu Seiei, Rokkuon Sutoratosu, Areruya Haputizumu, Tieria Āde
Genre: Anime
Studio: Beez
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is the latest incarnation of Sunrise Studios popular mecha (giant robot) series and is directed by Seiji Mizushima, director of the original Full Metal Alchemist series. Sunrise Studios are the animation studio responsible for Code Geass, which is included on many all time top ten anime lists. The Gundam franchise has seen continued success ever since the original Mobile Suit Gundam aired in Japan in 1979. This is the first Gundam series to be set in our own universe, and is centred around Earth in the 24th century. The series tackles the issue of conflict; from personal disputes to global warfare, and focuses on what would be required to end such negative interactions and unify the world under a banner of peace. Ultimately, it asks if sacrifice is necessary and even warranted in order to achieve this.
This first of three volumes of the second series takes place four years after the end of the previous series. The world has come together, somewhat, as a result of Celestial Being’s actions, but things aren’t as peaceful as Aolia Schenburg’s plans implied. The three power blocs; The Union, AEU and HRL have indeed unified under a shared banner, but the rest of the world living outside of this vast super power are still denied access to the solar energy – necessary since the oil fields have run dry – that the member nations enjoy.
The creation of the A-LAWS, a vast forty million strong autonomous peace keeping force, with their heavy handed approach and distinct lack of morals has proven to be an even greater threat to the true unification that Celestial Being was created for. So members of Celestial Being emerge from hiding, and proceed to reassemble their ranks and restore their crew to its former glory with the intention of taking up their armed interventions once more.
The nine episodes follow the members of Celestial Being as they struggle to reinstate themselves as a force to be reckoned with. Aolia Scheburg’s plan is revealed to be more complex than first anticipated, and a new organisation who seem to be pulling the strings emerges...
This series, much like the first, wastes no time in getting into the action, perhaps even too quickly, as we are dropped straight into a conflict with very little information as to what is going on. There aren’t too many new characters, but the fast pacing and similarity of character models can make it hard to follow and distinguish who is who. The characters identities can be picked up once they have been on screen a few times, however, and the story then falls into place retrospectively. The distinct lack of introduction of new characters as well as the sudden transitions into completely different situations actually serves to paint the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 universe as a living breathing world where we are just seeing the key snapshots of what is a vast story involving the entire planet.
With minimal new characters, there is plenty of scope for building upon the back-story of those already in place, and this is done satisfyingly enough. The inter relations between characters, not only the heroes, is focused upon a lot more than in the first series, and a real sense of where they are all coming from starts to emerge. Where the first series focused more on the individual pilots and their interactions with their respective colonel, this series builds on the colonels’ relationships with each other, and introduces their own superiors, bringing with it a whole host of further morality and duty issues that have more impact on the surrounding world than the pilots did before. Unlikely alliances are formed, old characters re-emerge under new guises, and a lot of the loose ends from the first series are not only tied up but strung out further in ways that are far from obvious.
This series is a lot more violent than the first one. Previously the battles were depicted in a disconnected way - the giant enemy fighting suits would be shot down or buildings would explode, but until now, there wasn’t a sense of the scale of life that would be lost in such a conflict. Here the view is much grimmer, and is often pictured from ground level, following the people who are caught up in the battles running for their lives as opposed to solely from the pilots point of view in the air.
There is plenty of in air combat, though, and new Gundam’s are introduced, as well as more advanced enemy suits and ships that put them on a much more equal footing with the Celestial Being Gundam pilots. In fact, what makes this series standout is the blurred interpretation of good and evil. On the whole, the intent of some of the organisations can be seen as wrong, but many of the characters involved in their plans are good natured and are just trying to do what they see as right. It is an interesting social commentary on war in general when the big picture can be seen alongside the frontline clashes.
In terms of technology; new weapons and fighting techniques are introduced, which increases the scope for destruction on both sides. Interestingly, as well, the meaning of the 00 in the title finally comes to light. The battles themselves, however, are somewhat disjointed. They are animated in a comic book panel style, with almost static frames containing minimal movement or simple camera zooms and pans. This, along with the fast pacing means that the brief flashes of action, drawn mostly at mid to close up, is hard to follow. It is often not until a subject’s weapon blast hits its target that it becomes clear which target they were actually shooting at. When the characters are piloting their machines, they look very similar to one another, which makes the narrative even more difficult to follow. In particular, Tierie always removes his glasses when piloting his Gundam, so when wearing a helmet and only being able to see the interior of the cockpit it is often hard to recognise it’s him.
The artwork is perfectly acceptable; the intricate details on the machines are interesting and, at times, give an impression that these giant robot suits are real weapons of war and not just science fiction. The scale of the machines is often lost, though, and despite the wide shots of a pilot entering their thirty foot machine before a mission, when in flight, it can seem they are a lot smaller in size. These faults are easily ignored, however, as the outcomes of the battles are far from obvious. With the heroes having lost fights and allies in the past, each new engagement is fresh and exciting, with clear victories, losses and frustrating stalemates being standard fair for Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Because of this, it is very exciting when the Gundam’s launch, and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be just another battle that the good guys are bound to eventually win.
The story itself is very intriguing and watchable, deep relationships are formed and found along with the characters themselves receiving closure over certain issues in their own past. Moral dilemmas abound that feel closer to home than one would expect from this medium, not simply disconnected politics or science fiction, but real issues that affect us in the world today.
The basis laid down in the first series is expanded upon with more intrigue and double crossing, again a bit further up the food chain, where Celstial Being’s previous intent was quite cut and dry this time it throws up a lot of questions. The potential resolution of the story feels a lot more chaotic and uncertain with even greater and more devious plots being hatched and implemented. The plan that was being followed in the first series no longer seems that it might be the ideal the heroes thought it would be.
It’s disappointing that the real world politics used as plot devices in the first series, like mentioning the real IRA and including the United Nations, wasn’t continued in this one. There remains plenty of storyline around Azadistan (the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 version of Turkey) but only as a part of their wider universe - the specific clashes with the Kurdish – who are incidentally still called the Kurdish in this story – which brought a real sense of involvement are not mentioned. It seems it may have been used more for shock value than as a genuine part of the storyline, as this one dissolves into a more typical science fiction futuristic setting.
There is also little in the way of comic relief in this series, the tone is very serious throughout. Even the previously hilarious Patrick Corlosour, who does make an appearance, is not involved in any humorous antics. The other comedy pair, Louise and Saji, are now involved in serious matters of their own. This was a little disappointing as the jokes in series one were funny, if brief, and so these episodes do feel a little stiff.
The soundtrack is good and captures the mood perfectly, if perhaps a little repetitive, and the voice acting is of a high calibre, featuring many anime voice stars in the line up.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is an interesting and extremely enjoyable take on war, struggle, camaraderie and ultimately humanity. It is not perfect but features fast paced and genuinely tense battles that are just the right length; a plethora of character development; and a enough intrigue to keep it interesting whilst not being over complicated. With a genuinely likable cast of characters who have plenty of faults of their own, this should appeal to fans outside of the mecha genre as well. JR
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