Forum - View topicMobile Suit Gundam 00 (TV) (all seasons + movie) - Japanese broadcast (w/ index).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11297 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (TV) + (TV2) Mobile Suit Gundam: A Wakening of the Trailblazer (movie) Season 1: (starts on this post) Season 2: (starts on this post) Alrighty, folks. The first episode is out, so we might as well start keeping track, discussing possible plot points, artwork, music, seiyuu, and the whole shebang. To start off, I viewed the first episode from the group "Anonymous," in particular, the .mp4/h264 version, and I have to say it was an excellent looking encode. ---------------- Episode 1 Art: I was very impressed with the artwork straight off the bat. It didn't feel anything at all like a Sunrise-produced Gundam series. The character designs in particular were just sooo refreshing to the repetitive faces with different hair and eye colors of SEED. Granted, the Meisters may seem a bit too bishie (for some), but I don't mind it at all. Anything would be better than Hirai Hisashi's stuff. Chiba Michinori is the Character Designer for this one, who did a really good job in Basilisk, and it looks like his style is carrying over pretty well, thus far. The Art Director is the background artist for Jin-Roh and the Fullmetal Alchemist movie, so that's pretty re-assuring as well. Mech Designers include two new impressive additions in Ebikawa Kanetake(Full Metal Panic!) and Teraoka Kenji (Gits: SAC). Man, so many notable names with so many notable titles under their belts. Animation: Very fluid with Nakatani Seiichi, who worked on Code Geass and Gun X Sword (neither of which I've seen aside from a few clips, but they have pretty good animation). And with this being the next generation Gundam, they hopefully won't rely too much on stock footage like past 50-episode TV series. I particularly liked their CG and 3D animations (like the particle propulsion of the Exia, or whatever that flight method is called). Feels almost like a Bones title, at times. Music: I like the opening (always been a fan of L'arc), so it's nice to hear them again. Didn't care much for the ending's vocals, though I liked the instrumentals. Kawai Kenji's score is also very consistent. For as long as he's been around, I've never made the effort of really paying attention to his work (I'm usually too caught up in the stories, like in Higurashi or Fate/stay night), but I tried my best in attempting to listen to the score here while also understanding the story and viewing the artwork (phew). He uses a lot of strings, drum rolls, and bells, and I thought I even heard traces of Celtic woodwinds in a few parts. He's also using quite a bit of chorus in the background, which I really liked in the F/s n score, as I feel it adds a certain feel of "epic-ness" to a series. I think the score is going to be great if he continues at this pace. The show seems fairly serious after just one episode, and a lot of his stuff is usually better suited for that kind of material anyway, so here's looking forward. Voice Acting: Great cast for the Meisters. Miyana Mamoru's most recent performance as Light will do well in capturing both male and female fans. I can't say I've heard him do any "deadpan," soldier-type roles (though he did play Kiba in Wolf's Rain, but he didn't really strike me as a soldier), but it'll be interesting to hear what he can do with a character that doesn't seem as "fun" or charismatically attracting as Tamaki or Light. I can't say much else about the other Meisters since they haven't had a lot of screen time yet, but I'm hoping for some well-spoken roles, as a lot of them have a decent amount of experience in dialogue-driven series: Kamiya Hiroshi(Honey & Clover's Yuuta), Yoshino Hiroyuki (Blood+'s Kai), and Miki Shinichiro (who needs know introduction if you keep up with the seiyuu world  ).
Plot/Characters: I saved this for last because I'm sure we'll all have a field day asking, discussing, or theorizing stuff about the plot and characters. And please remember to use spoiler tags where necessary. One thing that caught my interest was: spoiler[ Celestial Being. After hearing their declaration of "stopping all wars," I immediately got that SEED familiarity of how Kira and company got all self-righteous and wanted to put an end to everything. But the big difference here is that, in SEED, most of the series to establish that kind of group, whereas 00 is making such a statement from the very beginning. I'm curious to see/hear more about their ideologies and hope it's just not a bunch of hot air.] Next, looking at the Encyclopedia's plot summary and material from this first episode, it seems we're going to have a lot of different factions within the series. spoiler[ AEU (Advanced European Union) looks to be the first one we're getting a glance at. I can't tell what their exact role on Earth is, but maybe this division of groups is signifying some kind of symbolism of capitalism, and Celestial Being is the "force" (heh, that feels so ironic to say that) to either break things out of order or put them back in line (depending on your outlook of social systems and whatnot).] The Meisters themselves spoiler[ seem pretty well-trained. Aside from Tieria blowing up that one mobile suit, I noticed how disciplined the rest of them were in trying to not kill a single pilot. That bit kind of annoyed me about Kira & company's methodology in SEED/Destiny, but like I said, this is just the first episode, and I'm sure many more things will develop in the future.] Very Good for a first episode, but maybe I'm just another Gundam fanboy in the midst of many within anime fandom  .
Last edited by Tony K. on Fri Oct 30, 2020 4:14 am; edited 11 times in total |
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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Uh, this is my very first Gundam series, so maybe I'm missing something, but...
I thought it was amazingly lame. spoiler[Everything from the evil pretend-to-be-innocent girl in that spaceship thingy, the generic guys in front of the computers right before something attacks, the cocky bastard, and the keep-to-himself angsty protagonist, his tough-acting friends, the "holy crap what do we do WHO ARE THEY", and all the ambiguous references, it all felt dry and kind of kiddy. Not to mention the dialogue made me want to smash my head on the table. Character designs seem a little more realistic than what I've seen of screencaps from SEED and Destiny though, and animation is halfway decent.] (Not very impressed, no plans to continue watching the show) |
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Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
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He's been on a role lately with Fate Stay and Seirei no Moribito being some of his best work in a long time.
They're doing a Code Geass with 00 so this is going to be season 1 which is only 25 episodes in length. If they can keep the stock footage use down to Code Geass levels (which was very minimal) I'll be very happy. The just finished Sunrise series XENOGLOSSIA is suppose to be very impressive animation wise, a lot of animation fans on suki where saying it was vastly superior to Code Geass. (which suffured from a lot of panning.. not that I noticed...). So after those two recent efforts it would be pretty disappointing if Gundam 00 had substandard animation. |
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GunslingerV
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Well, overall, it seems promising, but there's definitely a gender-recognition problem. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the chick with the purple hair and glasses and heard [him] talk.
And what's with GN-04? |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Gundam 00 has potential.
I enjoyed the opening scene before the credits, it had some of the grit and horror of more realistic war programs and movies, but with mobile suits. The OP was decent, but as usual, L'Arc sounds like it's bored of the song it's singing. Gundam calls for a high-energy OP, not something this subdued. The character designs are overly feminine, but at least I can discern one character from the next, unlike in the CE era shows. The same goes with the mecha designs, having very unique appearances. I'm quite fond of all of them, and can't wait to see what they're capable of. Even some of the grunt suits are pretty impressive. Art and animation is also pretty good, save for in a few scenes where the animation seems to only be happening in the foreground. Background score is good, too - Kenji Kawai does good work. Voice acting seems all right. I'm a big fan of space elevators, and these towers remind me greatly of the "skyhook" from Bubblegum Crisis 2040. I guess rather than having space colonies, there will be these instead. Fine with me, it's good for a change of pace. I also look forward to the interaction between the different factions. Celestial Being, for all the good it claims to be, seems to me a bit sinister, judging by the guy delivering that speech, but I like the concept. Oh, and a useful Haro that isn't as annoying as Lacus's hordes! Good. So far, it's pretty decent. I hope it really takes off within the first few episodes. |
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kizzmequik_74
 Posts: 302 Location: QC, Philippines |
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I didn't love it, but it was all right. As a Gundam fanboy, though, I am obliged to watch and finish this series.
spoiler[The first episode does seem to channel a lot of Wing in terms of set-up, since the pilots (who are also bishounen) start the series nicely-trained, as opposed to the traditional 'slice-of-life, then bad things happen in my home colony, then I find a Gundam, then we cut to the ED theme' (short version: accidental civilian pilot or gundamjack) that was seen in the UC TV series or in SEED.] A bit refreshing, and that means that the pace of the first episode is quite a bit quicker than some earlier series. I'm guessing that this probably means that spoiler[we're in for a lot of flashback episodes in the future.] Wonderful. I'm with all of you who complain about the spoiler['not killing pilots' thing. From what I see, if Setsuna just took out Patrick, he won't have to worry about having a rival who'll just make life miserable for him on the battlefield. Don't these main characters ever think about making their lives just A BIT more convenient?] Overly-bishounen and horribly confusing character designs aside, the visuals look good. I'm liking the mecha designs that I saw, too: the Gundams seem 'unique', though they still channel some older designs to some extent. The grunt mecha seem interesting, too, with the Enacts channeling Super Robot Wars armored modules, and the Tieren channeling some Front Mission. It's also nice to see monoeyes again. The design of the Ptolemaios (Celestial Being flagship) is a strange mix of logical and impractical to me. I like the seemingly well-protected bridge/CIC. I don't like the single-catapult design with revolving hangar bays for the individual Gundams. It just seems so impractical to me, plus it looks like a chicken drumstick. Meh~. Really, I feel as if this series requires a four-episode test before being written off. Ah, well, I'm still gonna watch it, that's for sure. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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I gotta say, it was kind of weak.
I love the highly unique Gundam designs. They're very cool and striking but without pushing it too far. The animation of the fights looked great, infact so did the animation overall. However I didn't care for many of the character designs much. Theres a couple that are okay, but most of the guys look way too feminine, you can barely distinguish them as being guys. The girls tend to look overly simple and lacking detail. Too childish and cartoony. My paranoid side senses the work of the moe trend here. I'm a little nervous about the parrallels I see to Wing here too. We all remember how that turned out right? A bunch of super powerful teens piloting some new mysterious weapons called Gundams? The plot (thus far) was pretty poor. I hate this kind of opening episode. You're continuously bombarded with new character after new character. I counted and there were 18 potentially significant characters introduced. (and I didn't count the 4 other people on the ships bridge.) Why do we need to see a shot of every single person that will appear? How about a little pacing. Introduce us to a character when they actually have some role in the plot. Overall this just felt likw a couple nice action sequences amongst a boring "meet the cast/mecha". I still am hopeful though. Now that theyve finished with this, maybe we'll actually see some explanation of who the heck these people are and what they're doing. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11297 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Concerning the amount of characters in this first episode, let's not forget this is being directed and storyboarded by Seiji Mizushima of Fullmetal Alchemist, another series with quite the amount of characters. I feel he handled FA very well and managed to induce a fairly fun pace by about episode 9 or 10 (the end of the Elric Brothers' flashback). Maybe some of these excess characters will get killed before we know it, while others are just one-shot deals.
It's only one episode, after all. And aside from the Meisters, it's anyone's guess as to who might serve an important role a dozen episodes later. We'll more than likely get something to really jump start the overall plot within the next few episodes, then probably revert to a few flashbacks to cover the pasts of the Meisters, if Mizushima decides to take the FA route, anyway. |
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HitokiriShadow
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I thought it was tad confusing, particularly those two guys in the spectator stands, and the total lack of set up for the world didn't help, but overall it was a good first episode.
I love the character designs. The guys are good and the girls look great.  I don't think the sexes are confusing, except for Tiere. He's the only one that's particularly androgynous and really feminine.
Yeah, my initial reaction back when the premise was announced was "Wow, what a lousy setup, look at how that turned out in Wing and Destiny." But then I thought basically what you did. If its their right from the beginning, there are going to be complications and it probably won't be the "good guy" in the end. And one of the characters pointed out the hypocrisy of the whole thing in this episode. So I don't think this is going to be a repeat of Wing/SEED.
I like the idea of numerous factions and not having one unified "Earth" against a unified "Space". That alone would be a huge difference from basically all prior Gundams.
I don't think that will be an issue. Think about what their goal was. They were simply giving a warning. They had no problem offing the terrorists and I think they will shoot to kill in the future now that they've made their warning. So, favorite Gundams so far, anyone? I'm rather fond of the Dynames, the long range/sniper Gundam. |
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hack_benjamin22
Posts: 136 |
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I'm not sure if I like it or not, but I'll definitely give it a chance. (It's gundam of course I'll watch it.)
I found the animation to be well done, thought a bit different than usual. Sunrise seems to going for a faster paced show with the MTV style camera work, but it definitely made me feel like I was a little more there. Character designs, however, while different and new suffer greatly from a gender recognition problem. I'm as much a fan of bishounen as anyone, but I honestly couldn't tell that the guy with the violet hair was actually a guy until he started speaking. It's a little off putting. I'm afraid if there are problem like this now that it might continue into future episodes. (But in the end that a minor complaint.) |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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I thought that the mecha designs were pretty interesting, but that the story seemed a little off, and the pilots were WAY too bishie (it'd be easier to take if they looked younger, and therefore more "cute" than "women in drag"). Nothing really hooked me though, there's some potential there, and I'll give it a couple more episodes, but so far it seems kind of dull (and the Chevalier from Blood+ in the jeep was right, the Celestial Beings' plan IS ridiculous, short sighted, and hypocritical, and destined for failure).
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penguintruth
Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Yeah, that's why I'm not worried. The cast of characters in Fullmetal Alchemist was quite large, and utilized very well.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought "Is that Solomon from Blood+?" when I saw that guy. |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7338 Location: Maine |
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I really enjoyed it despite being in a bad mindset caused by a really poor fansub that refused to keep AV sync. From the get go I liked the "there's no god here" mentality, though I was a bit disappointed that it didn't stay a war story and quickly slipped into being another superhero Gundam series (I really want a new 08th Team style Gundam story). Not like I was expecting any differently, just hoped I'd be surprised. One of my favorite parts in that scene was when the kid was running towards the camera while the camera is keeping pace directly in front of him, and he starts making turns and the camera turns and the background pans along, just a great clip on a technical level.
I am so happy to see fresh mecha designs. I was seriously bored by Seed's designs. Sure, it was kinda cool at first to see new take on classic gundam designs, but after so many years of similar stories and character designs it was hard to feel anything fresh from that series. This time around I don't feel like I'm being overloaded with nostalgia. I like seeing something other than giant awkward thrusters being used for propulsion. I like seeing the heavy gunner(s) do something different with their firing mechanisms. I like seeing the heavy armor Gundam look like it's more than just a Gundam in extra armor. But what I liked most was seeing what looked like real world application mecha, those giant, gommie walking tanks from the beginning of the episode that didn't look like human automatons or mobile armor, but rather something that would be more at home in Mechwarrior or Battletech. Nice use of contrast in this series, but I hope that we aren't dealing with a series that will be mostly one sided and require large armies to challenge single Gundam. Character designs didn't really bother me, but hopefully we wont have to wait too long to see some of the pilots outside of their uniforms to get a better idea of their design qualities. There are a lot of characters, but it's too early to cry slow development on them. Voice acting hasn't been bad, but right away it seems like characters are either angsty bishounen, playful women, or consummate professionals, not a whole lot of variance in the voices. This will all likely change as the characters are developed as well. So far I like it, I see some potential in this series that I felt was lacking in Seed. I hope I'm not disappointed, it's been a long time since I've really enjoyed a Gundam series. Emerje |
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Westlo
Posts: 1684 |
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To expand on this point the series composition is by Yousuke Kuroda who also did Infinite Ryvuis which handled it's massive cast just fine. person#515 He's done a lot of crap but also a lot of good stuff as well, and I doubt any writer could've saved some of the crap series he had to do. |
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Full_Metal1923
 Posts: 312 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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I'm really looking forward to Gundam 00. As Tony K. mentioned, there are many people behind this one that have proven themselves in many other anime. I'm hoping that the story will be like Fullmetal Alchemist in the snse... Awesome!
 The mech designs are nice and everythign seems to be well otherwise. I'm just really glad that we're finally out of that SEED era of the Gundam series.
I'd just like to mention that I am currently in love with "Daybreak's Bell", the opening theme by L'Arc~en~Ciel for Gundam 00. It's amazing that they can still have such great music out after so long but I'm not complaining, I love L'Arc. |
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