| Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season of Sunrise and Bandai Entertainment It's better than the previous season! What an awesome Gundam series since Gundam Wing's reign!  Rating: B+ WOW! I am VERY impressed! Favoritism: 8.5 hearts out of 10 |  |
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The Gundam series is a phenomenon ever since Gundam Wing had become intensely popular back in 1995. I have not seen much of the Gundam series that followed Gundam Wing, but this new Gundam series had certainly been almost as glorious as the legendary Gundam series. And another thing's that's good about is that even though it had some similarities with Gundam Wing, it's still different. In other words, it's no copycat.
I love the way Sunrise animates shows with mecha, so it's not a surprise that I liked how the animation was done in this series. Music's good too, but I think the insert songs and background music sounded better than the actual opening and ending themes. The staff, actors or those behind the scenes, did a good job in this series. I believe there's sufficient production budget on this anyway, so it has to.
As for the characters and the story, they're both the biggest flaws and the greatest strong points in the seriest at the same time.
Some characters lack development, while the others got too much of it. Some characters had even acted too out of character all of a sudden in later episodes. Some of them even do things that simply don't make any sense. In these ways they have become pathetic, but in some way they had still entertained and delighted fans. What I really like about the characters, in general, is that there are no annoying stereotypes. They aren't one-dimensional, and they aren't perfect either. Obvious character relationships are presented as obvious straight to your face. There's no more messing with the fan's mind whether they're canon or not. Romantic relationships here hadn't been that mushy either. Romance isn't really the focus of the series anyway, so it's good that they didn't focus too much on that but they've managed to show it efficiently.
The story, however, is a big mess. Story development was done in such a rush that you'd still be confused even if you actually understand what's going on. Some events happen for the sake of fanservice or for convenience of the later events or they just want to make some lame plot twist to drive fans crazy. Many things that happened are just too sudden or don't make any sense. Not to mention those sudden miracles to keep the characters safe and alive. But though the storytelling had so many flaws, the overall story is actually good. It did a different approach on how to eradicate wars. It presented themes as well, which mostly dealt with humanism. I always admire shows that emphasize how wrong fanaticism can be, and this series had showed that clearly. Nothing good can be brought out from it. Ever.
By the way, Gundam 00 isn't exactly over yet. There's a movie coming out next year. It's most likely a sequel. The ending seemed to have already concluded a lot of things but I guess there's more into the story than we have expected. I honestly am looking forward to it very much :-)
Sunrise shows never cease to amaze me that no matter how much of a trainwreck their shows become, they're still very entertaining and addicting. I don't actually hope it'd continue that way, but it would be nice if they maintain the good stuff.
