Ranked #120

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season

Gundam 00 season 1 was for me an instant classic. It combined a great story with excellent action scenes. Also all the characters were realistic. They had a past, motives, weaknesses etc. Needless to say I was looking forward to the second season. After watching 23 episodes I decided to write this review, because I think season 2 is a letdown.

The re-introduction of the 4 meisters is wonderfully done. After that the story just won’t startup. Half of the season is dedicated to explain in depth why some characters are fighting. Because of this, the main story progresses really slow. The action scenes are not as good as the previous season. In season 1 it was 50% teamwork and 50% strategic planning. I was always wondering if the mission would be a success. Now it’s 70% gundam 00 and 30% rest. So when 00 arrives you know they’ll win. They have put too much emphasis on gundam. The other gundams and characters don’t get the time to fully expand them self.

The story itself takes a new path. The new theme is “innovation”. I think it’s a bit confusing, because it is combined in the plan of Aolia. At this moment I am still not sure what the plan of Aolia is, or if it is still his plan. Also the reason why they are fighting in this season is different. I feel that they are not fighting for world peace through armed intervention anymore. Let that be a reason why I liked the show. They were willing to sacrifices themselves for a better world. Now it feels that they are fighting the new main antagonist and not for a better world.

This season focuses more on Setsuna and gundam 00 than any of the other characters. Too bad that he is boring. The only thing on his mind is gundam. In one episode he says: “Ore wa gundam”. That sums up Setsuna a soulless machine. I think he is the wrong character to put so much emphasis on. It wouldn’t hurt to give Setsuna some romance, to give him some emotions. Tieria is one of the characters that remains interesting. The new lockon feels like a cheap replacement, because he walks, talks and acts the same as the original lockon. If they had the balls for it they would have introduced a new meister. The good thing about the new lockon is that he feels different than the old one. Allelujah was one of my favorite characters of the first season. It was refreshing to see a mentally ill main character. In the first season he was a psycho unpredictable crazy fighter, now he is a boring you-wont-even-miss-him whiner. Without the aggressive hallelujah he is boring and I have lost all interest in this character.

With the introduction of a new antagonist he also brings with him around 8-10 high level enemy opponents. With “high level” I mean that they have a better gundam and don’t die within 1 blast/fight. All these opponents are arrogant, dull and boring. Not once did they reach the level of season 1 opponents, for example Graham Acker, Ali El-Saachez, Andrei Smirnov. These characters were interesting and they all had their own reason to fight. The new opponents are boring and uninteresting.

Some important characters from the first show return, but I think they should’ve stayed dead. They play some role (most an annoying part) in the first half of the show, only to disappear for 8 episodes. And then reappear again at the end. During their disappearance you have not missed them once. These roles could have easily been filled by the new enemies of this season. I am wondering why they even made these characters return.

Conclusion
I liked the first show because of the realism. The gundams were not that overpowered, the action scenes were exciting, the story was an original and interesting set of protagonist and antagonists. In general, every episode made you want more. After a couple of episode my excitement about season 2 was over, it no longer made me want more after every episode. Mostly because the characters are not interesting anymore. The new enemies are boring. The story progresses slow and I still have no idea where the show is heading. I am not saying this is a bad show, just that it is not a worthy successor of gundam 00 season 1.

I give it a 75 out of 100.

read more

Now, I thoroughly enjoyed Gundam 00 Season 1. Great characters, great action, and best of all, a wonderful complex plot. Throw in a good dosage of how it relates the present day world and great voice acting, and you’ve got a recipe for one of the most popular series now.

Now, Season 2 started out with a lot of potential. The main characters were reintroduced very well, preserving the characteristics they were known for and refining them, along with offering a slightly different side of their personality. Some characters did change for the worse, but this is necessary to create the strife needed for the story to build. And it did build. A new faction came into play here, and some of the old characters on the antagonistic side in Season 1 are not happy with the new world order. New characters are introduced very well and immediately create a third side to the previous two-sided strife in Season 1. There are many characters that are struggling to find themselves in the new world order, so the series has a bit of a depressive feeling to it. Not even Lockon’s lighthearted comments helped much here.

However, as well as the introductions to the new characters were, the development of many of these characters had something to be desired. It falls into the same trap that swallowed Code Geass R2, which is to let new characters languish in development. However, while R2 introduces too many characters and has to shift back and forth awkwardly between the factions, Gundam 00 introduces fewer new characters and makes the shifts amongst them much more fluidly, going for "Let’s integrate all the factions into the episode" rather than Geass R2’s "focus here for one episode, focus there for another." 00 also focuses on the protagonists much better. The antagonists (that fat blonde guy), along with Bushido, along with the Innovators, could have used more development, but at least I got a better idea of their true personalities better than the Knights from Geass R2. If there was one glaring complaint about 00 S2’s characterization, it would come in the form of antagonistic development in the form of the true mastermind, Ribbons Almark. An antagonist is supposed to create a feeling of hatred in your heart, or you fall for the antagonist’s plot and cheer on the protagonists’ failure. But the main feeling I get from Ribbons is ambivalence. "Your comrade just got killed." *no emotion* "You just got betrayed." *no emotion* "Your test subject just wrecked your newest Mobile Suit." *no emotion* "Your plan to take over the world has caught a HUGE snare." *Whatever* All he does is sit on a MAGENTA couch and twiddle on his thumbs, no matter if his plans succeed or fail. For someone who’s the mastermind, he doesn’t like to get involved much, like he’s a puppetmaster with really long strings on his puppets. Problem is, he feels disconnected from the plot and action, and well, let’s just say that 00 S2’s biggest fault after this is plot management.

Now, the first… 2/3 of the series was developed very well. We get to see the main characters discover a different side to themselves and we are able to supplement the change with what we know about the characters in season 1. But after that, the series starts to stumble. The audience is waiting for a return of aspects that distinguished the characters from season 1. In creating a different dimension for the characters, they gave up the platform built up for the characters in season 1. Like Hallelujah, whose reintroduction was too sudden. Welcome, but not well done. Thus, after about the 2/3 mark, the series starts to wander and lose its footing. The focus is on little plot elements that need time to develop, but the producers only had so many episodes of plot to work with. Thus, the big plot elements were placed on the back burner and left to overcook. The series has to rush to resolve these big issues, but didn’t get to do so until the last 3 episodes or so, so it was a miracle that episodes 23 and 24 didn’t feel too rushed. What would have been nice is if they started focusing on these big plot elements around… episode 20 or so? But it’s no big surprise that episode 25 felt like you were landing an airplane but hadn’t slowed down enough. You do stop, but all your passengers are thrown 2 rows forward in your attempt. The series was haphazardly wrapped up as a result.

But don’t get me wrong: Gundam 00 S2 is still worth your time to watch if you enjoyed S1. There’s still a lot to like, such as the more complex story, matured characters, and many characters just finding their true selves during their personal struggles. I’m not sure if I just expected too much, though. It’s still a likable series, but it just tossed away its potential for becoming a masterpiece about 2/3 of the way in. read more