rating: /10

I've already talked at length about the generation defining Gundam series of each era. The period between Heisei and Reiwa in the late 00s to 2019 is akin to the divide between Zillenials and "proper" Zoomers. I think Gundam 00 prefectly encapsulates this period of time. But not in a particularly good way. 00 is shaped by the conservative politics of the time, the shifting animation industry, and the otaku desires. And it still comes out like a vase that never made it into the kiln.

Story:/10

00 does have a bit of a different setting compared to all other Gundam series. Instead of being set in a sort of alternate universe of ours, 00 is set directly in the future of our universe. No fancy timeline abbreviation for this one. It starts in 2307, so exactly 300 after it's original air date. Clever. Earth is divided into major "Superpower Blocs": The Union (the Americas [North, some Central, and barely South], Australia + Japan. I'll talk about that.), AEU (European Union), and the Human Reform League (Asia). Notably, no African countries are included in these blocs, nor are any Middle Eastern countries. Our main characters are part of Celestial Being, an indpendent group with the goal of eliminating war through "armed interventions". All members of CB have hidden identities, and are scouted by the supercomputer "Veda" to become members. I don't particularly care for this concept.

Gundam 00's politics are hugely evident and a product of the administration in power at the time. The prime minsiter in office at the time of production and initial airing was none other than Shinzo Abe. Yes, the one that god murked by the doohickey. If you are unaware of Abe's politics, they were right-wing, conservative, and nationalist. The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is quite a misleading name, because it is none of those things. The current PM of Japan is a member of the LDP, more specifically a member of the now dissolved "Abe Faction". If you're at all familiar with the LDP, it's because of her and her nationalist policies. Back to 00, the blazing gun of it's politics are the fact that Japan is not allied with the HRL, despite being the closest neighbor, but instead with the Union (for all intents and purposes, it's basically the USA). Why would they do this, you ask? Well, basically Japan hates its neighbors. Japan especially hates China and hates Russia slightly less. See all the Japanese war crimes, territorial disputes, cultural disputes, etc. with China and mostly just territorial disputes with Russia, but also war crimes during the Soviet Era of Russia and the Cold War. Incredibly ironically, the HRL operates a human experimentation lab. Sound familiar?

The other notable element of 00's politics is it's portrayal of African and Middle Eastern countries. Shinzo Abe famously supported U.S. intervention in Iraq. Coincidentally, even 300 years in the future, the Middle East is still defined as being war-torn and destitute with a reliance on fossil fuels, abandoned by the world government. Now, that last point might evoke symptathy, right? Well, it would, if the blame was not almost solely being placed on the 20-something princess of the fictional Azadistan (situated in real world Iran). I'll talk more about her in the characters section, but she is shown as the ruler of Azadistan that is in a state of civil war that she can't seem to get under control. The citizens of Krugis (Setsuna's home country, basically Kurdistan) and Azadistan are largely portrayed as .Similarly in Africa, none of the countries have a stable government and private military groups run the show there. In fact, Ali al-Saachez, a self-described warmonger from the Middle East, is why Setsuna became a child soldier in the war in his home country, and then Ali caused disruption is South Africa with his militia, and then does it again on a global scale. They put every Islamic Extremist leader into a blender to get him. Even the Union is portrayed as the least abrasive of the Superpower Blocs, probably because Japan is included in it. The A.E.U funds the private militias that Ali al-Saachez is part of, therefore funding instability in those regions, and the HRL has the aforementioned human experimentation facility. Even when Taribia (what is 00's Venezuela) is trying to secede from the Union, and the Union is sending forces in to "quell" the coup, CB decides that the Taribian forces are actually the problem. Japan has no military forces (even though one of Abe's main goals during his first term was to rewrite Article 9 of the Constitution to basically allow a consistent Japanese military force, I still believe that Japanese politicians and citizens greatly cherish their "no meddling" stance, again despite all their previous meddling and horrific crimes), and the setting acts as an almost expositionary force via the JNN and occasionally displaying it's citizens as victims of terrorism, because you don't feel anything for the victims in other countries because we portray them as having brought it upon themselves, so we have to use our innocent citizens as fodder to really drive home the conflict. Basically, what I'm getting at with all of this is Japan is portrayed as a do-no-wrong entity and all it's citizens are the real victims. Abe's negationism of the Nanjing Massacre, denial of Unit 731, revokation of the apology for the sexual abuse on Korean women, among many, many other statements of Japanese nationalism and revisionism, are all clearly felt while watching 00.

Characters: /10

This is where most of my gripes with 00 lay. Every character has less depth than a stream. Even when your characters are shrouded in mystique, you're still supposed to give the audience clues about them, exhibit quirks in their personality, and generally make the audience feel somthing towards them. 00 does not do that. Setsuna is a deadpan, man of few words with the personality of cardboard. I made a joke early on that Sunrise couldn't afford the Mamoru Miyano paycheck, but I lowkey think that was true. The only memorable moment of Setsuna's where he spoke more than like 6 words was when he snuck into Marina Ismail's room as an ungodly hour of the night, asked why bad things happen, and then leaves before she can even answer fully. What did he mean by this? In terms of the never smiling, exposed to extreme trauma child soldier archetype, Mikazuki in IBO was leagues more compelling. Because even though he showed next to no emotion outside of battle, you knew he was batshit crazy. Setsuna is not batshit crazy, at the very minimum, and doesn't even approach the Heero Yuy archetype of stoicism, where even Heero left me staring at the screen in awe of how unhinged he was. If Kira Yamato didn't exist, Setsuna would be the worst Gundam protag.

The other "Gundam Meisters" are nothing to get excited over either. Tieria is a highly unlikeable comrade for much of the story, though we do get to see a more sensitive and self-depricating side of him as the show goes on. That still doesn't make him engaging. Allelujah, our Cyber Newtype character, does have DID, so that was at least interesting, but beyond that, he is completely incapable of doing anything without Hallelujah, his co-host. DID stands for Damsel In Distress here. Lockon is... a character, I guess. I never felt anything towards him, even in his death, which was basically development fodder for Tieria. His Haro was more entertaining than he was. Sumeragi should be a likeable character, but what is the point of having an incredibly smart woman leading the operation when said operation is already pre-determined by a supercomputer? Even in the moments where they had to rely on her intelligence, it barely makes any impact or makes me impressed at her abilities. Marina Ismail is essentially 00's Relena Peacecraft, but like... if Relena did absolutely fuck all and also had no personality. She's tasked with leading Azadistan, but due to the writer's clear inability to portray the Middle East as anything but a region rife with conflict, even 300 years in the future where we've apparantly gotten Australia and the U.S. to partner up, we can't solve Our other Cyber Newtype, Soma, is a bad Rei clone, the AEU is irrelevant, Graham and his team are also boring, and there's also a B plot with two college students and his older newscaster sister, but it literally doesn't fucking matter at all and I swear was just there to pad out the episode runtime. Did I mention how bad of a job they do to make me feel absolutely anything for anyone?

Pacing: 5/10

It's fine. You can't have a bad story and bad pacing, so it's just fine. Perfectly acceptable. This is another show that gives you zero semblance of how much time passes except in the offhanded, "it's been x amount of time since Celestial Being did this" news clips.

Visuals: /10

I don't care for 00's visuals. It's in that period where digital animation looks good enough and traditional animation is now reserved for more serious and not time-crunched projects. It's also just fine, but there's nothing special about it. That's not to say it's not without it's issues. The way Sumeragi's hair is shaded is... odd to say the least. Generally every other character looks like they belong, except for her. In terms of Gundam designs... meh? I don't particularly care for how human-like the machines move in 00. I feel like there was minimal mechanical design and it overfavored just the visual design. Which I also don't particularly care for. Exia is kind of busted. I liked Virtue Gundam the most. And then they have an alternate form for it without the armour and also hair..? What are they doing to our beautiful fat Gundams.

Final Thoughts

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 does not receive the vorepride stamp of approval.