Kidou Senshi Gundam 00 Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer

First original Gundam theatrical feature in almost two decades. The directorial talent behind Fullmetal Alchemist. The musical scoring of Kenji Kawai. The inclusion of aliens for the first time in the franchise's thirty year history. The namesake of a cultural phenomenon. To the cynical mind, Awakening of the Trailblazer could have almost instantly been dismissed as a failure due to the surrounding hype, the general attitude of indifference many fans have adopted thanks to Sunrise's shaky track record, and just the general air of disapproval by the die-hard Universal Century fans arguing that Gundam has just 'lost' its way.

Which actually brings up an interesting quirk ... about Gundam 00. For a series that has drawn a huge number of parallels to Gundam Wing, and even Zeta Gundam thanks to the introduction of A-Laws (a la the Titans) in the second season, it's fascinating to see the movie component of the series turn out so fresh, and so originally its own piece of work; it's especially puzzling considering this movie almost has a doomsday quality to it, and where the focus and foundation of the series seems to borrow more from the likes of Evangelion than any Gundam show, it's almost as if Mizushima grew tired of Gundam and just decided to make a science-fiction flick however he wanted it to be.

Story:

The real interesting bit about the story is that it completely disregards any Gundam conventions, especially the almost collective defining theme for the franchise: human vs human conflict, and its effects on both soldiers and civilians. Instead you have, for the first time ever, a human vs alien conflict; granted the aliens are conceptual, and nothing really humanoid, which is a wise choice considering a franchise so deeply rooted in traditions would have felt cheated if the aliens were anything like those found in Macross. Likewise, this movie has no masked villain, and maybe the biggest slap to the face, is the ending, which averts the big showdown between protagonist vs villain found in almost every main Gundam series and seems to be more rooted among the lines of something you would find in Evangelion, though certainly more optimistic. The whole story gets very psychological and metaphysical towards the end

Concepts aside, the story itself is a bit inconsistent. The story can be easily separated into two parts: the calm and happenings before the storm, and the storm. Though as a whole, the story is wobbly because it feels like two different people directed different parts of the story. The first half of the story is character centric and surprisingly dark, in that it almost possesses an apocalyptic air to it all, and the general sense of confusion, and fear is especially well portrayed in the events, ultimately creating an atmosphere of chaos while under the supervision of a useless government that has become radically pacifist. This half of the story is really uncharacteristically edgy and dark, and it's interesting because Gundam shows aren't like this at all, it is radical, and it is refreshing from the staple Gundam formula.

The second half is where this movie treads back into standard Gundam territory, there is a huge fight that literally lasts for at least 1/3 of the movie and towards the end of it all, things get Evangelion-esque psychological (a la metaphysical visions and pseudo-philosophical babbling), and the prominent (admittedly cheeky) theme that peace can only be achieved when all living things can understand each other, rears its head to solve the problem and by the end, things get a bit ... flowery (literally). It is ideological, but at the core of this radical movie, it is still a Gundam.

The problem with the story is that it is a bit of a roller coaster ride in keeping a consistent atmosphere, it's all over the place in keeping the same tone. Likewise, Mizushima tries too hard to provide us differing 'perspectives' on this story with the segments including Marina, Saji, and Billy essentially doing ... nothing. Though I think that's something that should be blamed on the Anno Domini series in general and not exclusively criticism just for this movie. This story sometimes has a hard time of knowing where it's going, and the convoluted writing seems like it's almost teasing fans.

Also, this story happens to have the most unnecessarily misleading subplot ever.

Art and Animation:

Production values are, as expected from a Gundam feature film, pretty high. The animation quality during the battle scenes are incredibly fluid, though inconsistent animation is prevalent in non-fight scenes, and the mixture of CGI and 2D animation is awkward at best.

The character design is pretty consistent, some characters have had redesigns to show growth, though not too apparent. The innovator/clones concept may be looked by some as storytelling, but by others as taking a shortcut in character design (e.g. Mina and Nena similarities). Likewise, mobile suit designs are mainly rehashed or just colored with a different color palette, and the new Gundams look the same with the exception of Tieria's Raphael Gundam.

The aliens (the ELS), are a mixed bag in terms of design, they're just parasitic fragments of metal, which doesn't make for the most visually appealing villain of the series. But it works because, Gundam as a series, has always had a very visual enemy to fight against (e.g. enemy mobile suits, mobile armor etc.), and having something as abstract as the ELS to fight against is both refreshing and innovative for a franchise so stubbornly rooted in its old ways.

Sound:

The score for this film is a bit of a disappointment, it uses the same tracks as the ones found in the first season. Though there is an Evangelion-like ominous chant track found towards the end that accommodates the scene effectively, that one effective track is boggled down by a horrible song (courtesy of UVERworld), and some very generic J-pop played during one of the battles in a misguided attempt at creating a "valiant moment", or something among those lines. It should be noted that this film actually doesn't have much background music throughout the majority of its course.

Character:

In many ways, Setsuna's condition is very similar to how Cloud Strife was in Advent Children. Both are lost, contemplative, and trapped in their own psych, but where Cloud fought and inexplicably, and suddenly, found a purpose. Setsuna slowly comes to the realization of his purpose, and why he is what he is. The social disconnection and isolation brought on by becoming an Innovator is a theme portrayed in Setsuna, as a character, much more effectively than the likes of Amuro Ray ever was.

The emergence of Feldt as the traditional main pilot love interest is the standard Gundam trope, though Feldt is slightly more interesting because of her progression as a character throughout the series. The rest of the cast is pretty monotonous, relying on their character progression from the past seasons to establish their character, they aren't progressed mentally in the movie in any way. The lack of explanation for the emergence of Hallelujah, and the complete irrelevance of Descartes Shaman as a character makes the quality of the writing quite questionable.

The main issue with characters for this movie is the size of the Gundam 00 cast, and Mizushima's inexplicable need to reintroduce every one of them (if not in a sloppily rushed way). Further adding to the problem is that these characters were never relevant, nor were they developed in any way, even in the series; so why Mizushima feels the need to include them in the movie is beyond me. Does anyone remember Klaus and Andrei? Me neither.

Enjoyment:

Awakening of the Trailblazer is quite a strange piece of work. On one hand, it's the most refreshing, and exciting Gundam installment in well over a decade, on the other hand, it is sloppy, it is convoluted, and it is embarrassingly idealistic. One moment it's a doomsday thriller, the next moment it's a hallucinogenic acid trip. It is real robot, it is super robot, it is psychological, it is science-fiction. Awakening of the Trailblazer is purely interesting, it's not a spectacular film, but it is very interesting, so for that factor alone, it is worth watching as a film that runs more on ideas than execution.

Overall:

It's important to point out that this movie is not the second coming of Char's Counterattack, nor does it traditionally define Gundam, in fact, it's not even an example of a good film. Rather, this movie is something conceptual, it has the right ideas, and the concepts are fascinating, but the convoluted writing and the inherent flaws of the series prevent this film from reaching its full potential. This movie is a raw engine running on ideas alone, with sometimes directionless execution. Though maybe one day, in retrospect, this will be a Gundam looked back on as a transitional piece into something even better. For a franchise so locked in traditions, Awakening of the Trailblazer is a flawed step into the right direction.

When Gundam 00 finished its broadcast, I was quite excited to hear that there was going to be a film sequel to resolve the last part of Aeolia's plan mentioned in the TV series and that it would be the first Gundam iteration in the 30 years of its existence that would actually have aliens included in the story.

A Wakening of the Trailblazer takes place 2 years after the end of season 2 where peace is slowly starting to come true with the A-Laws disbanded, but with the arrival of a bizarre alien life form called the ELS from a space ship sent to Jupiter ... over a hundred years ago, all hell breaks loose and Celestial Being must step in again to save humanity.

Even with this basic plot, I was very excited to actually be able to see this film because I am a rather big fan of Gundam, but upon viewing it, I was both satisfied and disappointed at the same time.

First the good.

The animation looks very similar to the TV series(which isn't a bad thing) but it is of significantly higher quality and shows it off especially during the action sequences. Speaking of action, the movie is full of it. Almost the entire film consists of insane, fast paced mecha battles that made us watch 00 in the first place, you won't be disappointed. The opening scene of the film is hilarious and parodies the series along with making a tribute to the ever popular Gurren Lagann and somewhat referencing the battle of A Baoa Qu from the original Gundam. Also the mecha designs are still as unique as ever, I couldn't tell you how many times I geeked out whenever they started to show off the new Flag mobile suits(ie Braves).

Now for the bad(and sadly there is a lot of it)

The story is VERY generic and any actual plot movement is nonexistent. The only thing that really moves the film's plot is the arrival of the ELS and the constant jibber jabber that minor characters make about stopping them before they reach Earth. If there wasn't any of the fast paced fight scenes, I highly doubt anyone would have wanted to watch this film, there is no point to the story really.

The ELS are fairly underwhelming as alien antagonists. Other mecha series such as Macross were able to successfully utilize aliens into the story by making them unique and interesting with a good backstory. Come on, how are 40 ft aliens who are afraid of affection and culture not interesting? Liquid metal aliens that are fleeing from their destroyed home planet simply doesn't cut it and their assimilation into vehicles on Earth are not frightening nor interesting, they're actually quite hilarious.

The next major problem with the film was its handling of its characters. Several new characters are introduced to the film( ie Descartes Shaman and Meena Carmine) but add nothing to the story, it wouldn't make a difference if they didn't even appear at all. Shaman's character managed to disappoint me the most, as previews made him out to be a major character, instead he gets very little screen time and is there only to be cannonfodder. The returning characters also get very little screen time and most of their appearances are rather pointless, rendering them very one dimensional personalities. Saji and Louise were used in the TV series to show how ordinary people could get involved in conflicts that they don't think would affect them, but they don't serve any purpose in the film they're just there, much like Marina whose appearance seems even more pointless. I don't even know what their purpose was in being shown, despite the fact that they were there. These characters don't even progress any further in film or are the given any sort of epilogue at the end like in season 2, with the exception of a few characters in the last bonus scene.


Besides all of my ramblings about how flawed Trailblazer is, the film is still very entertaining to watch because of its fast paced action sequences and high quality animation. You won't get much depth out of its non existent story and one dimensional characters, but if you want to watch giant robots blow the crap out of each other in fast paced battles, look no further. However, if you are somewhat of a perfectionist and wants to get the ultimate satisfaction out of watching the 00 series, ignore the film completely and just pretend the whole series concludes with season 2.

Like alot of other people who saw and enjoyed the TV Series, I was hyped up for this film. Although I did keep a few lingering doubts in my mind to make sure that the hype didn't ruin the film for me. Obviously being a movie, certain elements have to be condensed in order to function, so the question is: does Awakening of the Trailblazer serve as a fitting conclusion to Gundam 00? Well...Yes and no. Let's go over the main aspects of the story. This is the first entry in the franchise to introduce aliens, which is of course one of the film's biggest ... selling points. The ELS do make for interesting obstacles, as merely touching them can mean a slow painful death. Combined with the fact that they're literally everywhere on the battlefield adds a feeling of horror and suspense that (let's be honest here) is rarely seen in Gundam. For the most part the film does a good job at building up the ELS as a legit threat. However Gundam's strong point has always been about the characters being more interesting than the mechs they pilot, so sadly we don't get any bouts between main characters since all of humanity has banded together to go up against this alien menace. Not to mention, if you never saw the TV Series, then the presence of aliens in a Gundam-related work can be very jarring, since it's only hinted at in Season 2. However my biggest gripe overall is the way the film handles it's characters. There's virtually little character development. Again, watching the TV Series is essential since it's there that all the characters reach the peak of their development. Feldt is the only one who gets any sort of relevant change and she's not even a main character. Because there's little development, I couldn't help but question the presence of two of the new characters: Mena who looks and sounds like Nena Trinity (something which is never explained) mostly serves as Billy's new love interest and does provide us some info on the ELS, but not much else. And then there's Descartes Shaman. The trailers seemed to hype him up as the potential new rival to Celestial Being, and honestly he was the character I was most looking forward to since I always felt that 00's villains were lacking compared to antagonists of the past. Sadly Descartes is merely a throwaway character. Although I will give props to the film for redeeming Graham Aker. Thank God he dropped that whole Mr. Bushido nonsense. However for a sequel to be good it needs to properly re-establish the returning cast (assuming they do return), and the story needs to stand out without needing to rely on past sources. Don't believe me? Watch Terminator 2. In the end much of my enjoyment for the film's characters and story was mainly due to the fact that I liked the TV series and I wanted to see how it all ended. But if you never saw the series, you won't understand why there are aliens, and you won't understand the relationships of the characters or their motivations.

From a visual standpoint, Trailblazer looks pretty good, but when you go back and watch the TV Series, it doesn't seem like that much of an improvement. Don't get me wrong, the animation is smoother and the art is fairly detailed, but it's not like in Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa where the already good visuals that the TV series boasted where upped two times over. Still the visuals don't disappoint, though I am still annoyed by the male characters looking effeminate. The mech designs is one area that will be hit or miss with some people. I do find the designs of the new Gundams fairly unique. They take some of the elements from their Season 1 predecessors (such as the vent-less mouths) while still retaining the bulkier look of their Season 2 predecessors. Though I do admit that the Zabanya (Lockon's new Gundam) does look goofy with those picket fences hanging on it's hips. The ELS on the other hand remind of the T-1000 from Terminator 2. Hm. No wonder they're intimidating. However as far as battles go, they're fast paced, explosive, and damn entertaining, but I was disappointed by the lack of screen time that two of the main Gundam's have in the film (not gonna say which ones. If you saw the movie, you know which ones I'm talking about). The 00 Raiser does appear again although I was disappointed by the way it's final moments were depicted.

Much like the series, the music is pleasing to the ears. The opening song "Closed World" by the Back Horn does have some of that heavy dark mood that L'arc En Ciel's "Daybreak's Bell" opening had, but without any of the hopefulness, and comes off as more impending. The ending theme "Qualia" is performed by Uverworld, who sang Season 2's first opening song. Personally I wish they got L'arc back for the movie, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. Much of the background music is from the TV series, which is okay by me since they suit the scenes just right, and fit in with the tone of the film.

In the end Gundam 00 Awakening of the Trailblazer does succeed in being an entertaining action film but it stumbles in doing so. From a thematic standpoint I was able to understand what Director Mizushima was trying to get across with the show's themes about ending war and understanding one another. These are themes that date back to the original Gundam series, and for the most part it deals with it in it's own way, but it didn't work for me until I sat down and thought about it. Because of that, I feel that the movie does get better with time, but then again that could just be me thinking too much about it. I liked the movie. It was fun, it was entertaining, but there were things about it that disappointed me. I'd say the film is on par with Gundam F91, but not as good as Char's Counterattack. Still if you liked the series, I say watch the film and decide for yourself.

To be very serious in reviewing this movie, I would say this is not at all a gundam series and that falls into several big problems that this series has.

Art; 8 points
Firstly, the art it is self is great, it is what you would be expecting out of a movie at this time from the Gundam anime industry. It represent a lot about how much the art has developed through time in the Gundam history. However, it is not the best art and graphic you can find from Gundam. Unicorn on the other hand is an OVA series yet, its attention to small details ... and effects are amazing and flawless. Therefore, in compare to an OVA airs about the same time that has better qualtiy overall, a movie has this level of art cannot receive its full marks.

Sound: 8 points
The sound effect is solid. It fits the movie really well.

Characters: 5 points
Even more new characters are being introduced and follow second season's fashion, they are underdeveloped. Some very great characters are presented heroicly but was given less attention; while other, included even some core characters, are being overexagereated in a very unrealistic way and could not resolves much about them granted extensive time spent on these characters overall.

Story: 3 points
The worst aspect of this movie is the story. There is no clash between ideals, the story is very cartoonish and lacks the freshness value that a movie should have had. the untolerable point of this movie is that it has more elements of a super robot movie than a Gundam. Many striking similarities to Fafner can be recognized. The movie has a increasing amount of meta-science elements that leads its collapse at the end due to its conflict with the logical based concept that has always been the core behind any great Gundam series.

Enjoyment: 7 points
The battles are great as akways but that all it has...again, there are 'supermans flying around destroying everything' to a point, it becomes very typical. Anyone that dislike beam spamming should be dissappointed watching this movie since this has 10 times more beam spamming than Seed or Destiny ever had and for 90% of the time the Gundams would flying around spaming fangs, bits and beams...again.

The story is the crucial part to a Gundam movie or to any anime series overall since the art quality has been steadily improving in recent time while the level of depth to a story has been long given far less attention than it should really have. In addition, 'Awakening of the Trailblazer's failure to distinct itself as a Gundam series from the super robot series is perhaps its greatest weakness.

Thus, overall, even the beautifully done animtion cannot covers for its easily recognizable weaknesses, so the overall score I can give ti tis 5, average.

To sum up, the series has done very well in the first season but starts to decrease in quality over time while could not able to meet expectations from experienced old Gundam fans. If you are a new comer to Gundam and you prefer action rather story then 00 may not be a bad place to start with; however, it should be note that even if you watch 00, you can't obtain a throughout understanding of what a Gundam series should be as well as the greatness in the stories of many great old Gundam series. I would highly reccomend any UC series over 00

The fact that the score for this is 7.48 is incredibly misleading and I cannot fathom how it has a score that high. This movie is a 4 at best, its bad. How is it bad? Well... if you liked Gundam 00, imagine stripping it of all character development, all creativity, all plot, all suspense... and all sense, only to leave you with one of the dumbest premises/villains ever.

Gray intergalactic blobs are attacking!! and the Gundam team needs to teach them the meaning of love and peace. No really... thats it. That is the entire plot of the movie. No, seriously... that really is it! ... It has nothing else building on the Gundam 00 series, just... intergalactic gray space blobs that can mimic and absorb matter and we need to not fight them and instead teach them love and peace.

The animation was nothing to write home about for being a movie. I had seen about the same from the show. It was nice, clean, fluid and seizure inducing... just the way I like it.

Music was just rehashed from the show, again, nothing to write home about.

The voice acting was good. Voices stayed roughly the same from the show.

In the original show, almost everything was cleaned up nicely. It left room for continuation but in a very narrow window. This movie should have gone back to Gundam basics. It is 4 years after the events of the show, the colonies that were in the series have come together to develop a government of the United Colonies. Unbeknownst to anyone, remnants of the A-Laws have infiltrated the colonies government's positions of power and have begun building mobile suits in secret. After 4 years and after amassing an army, they attack the Earth and destroy several cities and do some serious damage The gundam pilots, all having gone their separate ways after their time of peace must now be brought back together to fight this last battle for good. In the end you can have Setsune and the princess come together and he finds peace as the world finds peace.

See? How hard was that? It may not be perfect but it is damn sure better than this!
The ending I wont spoil, but really it too doesn't make any sense. It seems tacked on and weird. There were also a lot of scenes and character interactions that seemed important but were forgotten about and went nowhere. I miss the days of Gundam Wing, my friends. I really do...


In conclusion, enjoy the series if you can... but skip this movie. Its not worth your time. You would have better luck watching something else. Virtus Signum gives this a 3/10.

Not gonna lie, I expected worse.

*Spoilers for Gundam 00 Awakening of the Trailblazer*

So, let me get this out of the way. A lot of people seem to believe that this is the only bad installment in the Anno Domini timeline of Gundam, as well as the worst by that virtue. I disagree wholeheartedly. Yes, this film is insanely dumb, with asspull after asspull, and it is preachy as hell, but the second season had a lot of these same problems, and actually, as controversial as this may sound, that installment's even worse. At least this film doesn't ruin any characters, given that it redeems some ... of them instead. It's no preachier or more contradictory than the second season either. It's still a bad anime, just not as bad as its predecessor. So, what made this film resonate so poorly with the Anno Domini fans? Well, let’s find out, shall we?

Let me get the only two positives out of the way: I like that they brought back the ability for machines to turn invisible from season 1 since it was only shown once in season 1 and never again. Narratively, that is the only positive I can give it other than maybe continuing its theme, though I'll touch on why I can't give it that one in a minute. The other positive is that I like that there is this cheesy action movie retelling of the events of the end of season 1 with a filler ending that didn't actually happen in real life, sorta like with a lot of movies based on true stories, and how Saju commented on it. That was a nice touch.

The concept of random metallic aliens (ELS) appearing is, to put it lightly, absurd. There was no foreshadowing to it from the main series and if anything, it's just a cheap ploy to reinforce the main theme of the Anno Domini era, that understanding is key to humanity. That has always been a theme of Gundam to some extent, but especially in this timeline. The problem is, like in Second Season, it becomes incessantly preachy with that message; it genuinely can't go 10 minutes without spouting that message, and it is genuinely annoying. That is why I can't compliment bringing back that theme like I ordinarily would. Also, I never attacked this ideology back in my Second Season review over a year ago, but here it goes. This claims that understanding is the key to the end of conflict. The problem is, even with understanding, people aren't always willing to agree, and not everyone is willing to listen, let alone understand. It's human nature, and this entire timeline, including this film, is naïve for thinking otherwise.

Another reason it doesn't make sense is that this era also tries to keep in some interesting bits of realism rarely seen, notably involving G-force (which comes in for half of the Gundam timelines)!during that one time in season 1 when Graham having trouble with his Flag because of that, making it jarring when you see everyone perfectly fine with insanely fast mobile suits far outspeeding anything from the previous seasons. Coming this with pretty much sentient yet not sentient metal alien parasite things coming to this world for understanding via absorbing everything (notice that insane contradiction), and you have absolute absurdity where it has no place.

There are a ton of asspulls aside from that one. First off, only Tieria can come back as some kind of AI thing that can use another host body of himself because he’s one of many Innovades. How come no one else can? Also, Innovades are apparently clones that are meant for information, hence why Ribbons Almark and Nena Trinity are clones of people that appear in the movie. They're the only only ones we see with clones though, and Tieria seems to just clone himself like Ribbons did back in season 1. Apparently there are a ton of people, including random citizens, that have amazing quantum brain wave potential. They never really explained that well in the series but you mean to tell me that people with no combat experience or lab experiments or whatever can do this? I get it, Universal Century did the same thing with Newtypes, except they explained things, that this was a space-induced evolution. Here, nothing.

Apparently Louise and some other random girl, both of whom do nothing in this movie, are Innovators like Setsuna and the new character, Descartes Shaman (who is just here for some reason and we don't know where or how he was discovered to it an Innovator) since only Innovators can feel this strange and painful sensation from the ELS, and other people with Quantum Brain Waves can't, for some reason. 00 Q-T’s Quantum mode is just slapped in there during the final 10 minute mark with no explanation or buildup beyond “this Gundam that Setsuna pilots is the key to understanding”, and other Gundams can do ridiculously crazy things now. Lockon has two Haro units for some reason when he only had one in the series, and they don't explain where or how he got the blue one. I can go on, like about the inconsistency of how TRANS-AM works, but now I’ll just talk about the ending.

They literally end en medias res. No joke. All that talk about understanding, all that conflict, just to end on Setsuna moving to God knows where in order to talk with the enemy aliens (we don't see him engage in dialogue with them, we just see him go somewhere) and a giant space flower blooms where the ELS Sphere was. I genuinely laughed my ass off at this. I get that this is a connection to Setsuna’s flower from the second season, but this is just cheesy. Still, nothing here is resolved. It's like an even worse version of how Char’s Counterattack ended, except the new characters here aren't as bad as the ones there.

Speaking of characters, for all intents and purposes, the main cast is the exact same as before, except Lyle "Lockon Stratos", who for some reason is now much more jovial and laid back. Most of the other old cast are just as bleh as before with three exceptions I'll talk about in a minute. Let’s talk about the two new characters: Mina and Descartes. Mina is literally a more annoying Nena Trinity with no emotional baggage, who is suddenly introduced as Billy’s lover for some reason. All she provides is awful comedy and some necessary exposition. Descartes is just some random asshole with hardly explored personal lab baggage and that’s about it, especially since he dies halfway into the movie, not even being there to help in the final act.

The 3 main exceptions I wanted to talk about are Billy, Graham, and Andrei. Billy isn't a pathetic and inconsistent cunt this time around. Instead, he’s just a dork with exposition. Still a bad character though is what I'm getting at. Andrei is just there for some sacrifice in the final act and while I don't think this truly redeems his character, it's nice to know that they tried and that even this guy can do a good thing. Now Graham, he is what he should've been in season 2 and not some dead-set weeaboo. Here, he’s still relaxed but cool and powerful, be his sacrifice at the end actually means something to the characters. He gets a salute from me for that and for being the only good character in this film.

This film has a lot of bombastic, flashy action with many sparkly and multi-colored particles, and the animation is up to snuff for a film. At a glance, this film looks gorgeous, as you'd expect from a big mecha action film. The problem is the insane amount of awful CGI hallways and battleships there are, as well as the ELS in most of the second half of the movie. It becomes rather hard to look at sometimes despite the mostly good and flashy animation and action. Again, the film overall looks good, but the increased and equally bad CGI from the previous installments that wasn't very frequent back then, bogged things down.

Conversely, I found the overall OST by Kenji Kawai here to be better in the original series, with a few new and interesting tracks. That said, it's still not that great. The only track I really remember is Last Mission, which was a perfect score to accompany the visually chaotic and overall climatic spectacle of the final battle. The OP, "Tozasareta Sekai" by THE BACK HORN, is a pretty good OP, especially the full version, though some of the other OPs from previous installments, mainly the first season, are better, which proves that if nothing else, this timeline has great OPs overall. The ED, "Qualia" by Uverworld, is a pretty meh Uverworld theme and one of the absolute weakest I've heard from them, which is disappointing.

The dub for the first two seasons was overall sort of decent, despite a few weak performances and equipment issues. Here, no dice. The dub kinda suck here, with Brad Swaile’s repressed role of Setsuna being the only saving grace. Is it just me or did a lot of characters get a casting change, each of which being for the worse since many of these voices don't have good delivery or even feel right with these characters? The worst offenders of this are Tieria and Saji it seems. Regardless, this was a pretty weak dub, especially for the time where dubs were actually at their peak.

Not gonna lie, I wasn't very entertained by this film. The action didn't sit right with me, the characters were still pretty bad, the weird comedy from Mina was insufferable and cringe-worthy to me, and the plot was a preachy, messy disaster. I was almost bored. There were some really stupid moments, particularly the ending, that made me laugh my ass off, but overall, I didn't have that good a time with this film, and when an action film, even a flashy one, isn't engaging, that's a problem.

This movie was the final nail in the coffin for the Anno Domini timeline and embodies pretty much everything wrong with it. The asspulls and inconsistencies, the awful characters, the insane preachiness, everything. I’m not gonna go out of my way to call this the worst Gundam timeline, nor am I going to call this the worst installment of said timeline, but both are pretty bad overall. Even the decent music and flashy visuals can't save it. With all that said, I bid you adieu.

I would say out of all the up coming sequels Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer was on the top 5 of my list. After much anticipation, I would have to say it was a bit of a disappointment.

Story: 7
I would say the biggest problem I had with this movie is its storyline. It was pretty generic as far as mecha anime story lines go. I was expecting something new. It flows somewhat well and keeps you into it throughout. It also builds wonderfully to a climactic ending battle seen, the only problem is that it just ends. It seemed ... as if they couldnt figure a spectacular way to end the story so they thought up something stupid. My initial reaction was,"That's it?" Also make sure you keep watching after the credits because the story tries to redeem itself with something extra but just adds more questions. The bottom line is the story was descent at best. Not enough drama in the story at all. The best part of the story were the Gundams and the battle scenes. But they save the best Gundam for only the last 10 minutes of the movie. I wanted to see much more of that.

Art: 10

The art was great, quite flawless. The battle scenes were crafted perfectly so that you could see what was happening. The Gundam's were very cool. Like I said earlier the best of the Gundams doesnt make an appearance until the last 10 min or so. But besides the fact the Gundams were cool and the characters were drawn very well.

Sound: 8
The Voice acting was great but a little difficult to get into at first. I watched the first and second season in English so it took a few minutes to get used to the new voices.

Characters: 7
All the old characters were in it as well, especially my favorite Patrick Coulisour "Ace pilot of the AEU" haha. It just felt a little too congested. So many characters for a two hour movie was too much. The new characters didnt really even have much to do with the story line so they probably could have been left out. Some characters who had major parts in the first two seasons were left with two or three cameo scenes.

Overall: 8
Overall this is still a really good movie. Definitely worth seeing. Animation is great and it had a high quality cast of voice actors. I just wish the movie had a better storyline. It needed way more drama to keep me on the edge of my seat. They also did a poor job with character relationships. They seem to build throughout the movie and evolve into nothing. For most people im sure the fighting will be enough because the battle scenes are fantastic. A solid 8, I just hope that the Gundam Seed movie will come out soon and hopefully they get it prefect.

Sequel to 2nd season of Gundam 00
Anno Domini Timeline
1st Franchise with "Aliens"
Spoiler (Might also spoil your enjoyment of whatever enjoyment you can get outta this)

You know that mock film that's shown in the 1st 5 min of the movie? I would rather watch that. This doesnt deserve my Pro/Con format cause I couldn't find anything "Pro" about it. Let me just list down SOME of the bad

- WTH happened to these characters? They're all over the place. (Why is Ribbons here?)
- Faceless antagonist (just a bunch of funnels really)
- Pacing is wack (I kinda wanted at least a montage of preparation against the funnels but ... *insert Spongebob Time Card*)
- Action is pointless (fighting funnels?)
- Felt is hurting herself by liking a guy who thinks he's a Gundam.
- DAT ENDING!! WTF?!

In the end, I could give 2 S***s about this film.

I had high expectations when I first heard of a gundam movie (although I shouldn't have with the crappy ending of 00) and I was thoroughly disappointed. The artwork and sound were fantastic as you would expect from an anime movie made in 2010 but it couldnt make up for all of its flaws.

Firstly, the story just didnt make any sense and it just seemed like it was trying to push some kind of peace message. The fighting was not very good and somewhat sparse throughout the movie. Honestly, this disappointed me the most as I was looking forward to some badass fighting.

The ... movie also introduced a lot of characters out of the blue and many for no reason. Also it was odd that everyone from 00 somehow became friends (and lovers...) quite quickly. I found it very weird when random characters were so unexpectedly in love with other ones.

Overall, its an interesting watch but dont go in with your hopes up. Then again I guess we should be used to sunrise by now...

Don't you just love when you think things go ok and then they just sink down so low?........Don't answer that.

Story: I would have given it a 6 but meh I went with 7 cause of the other 2 seasons.Firstly,Sunrise...do NOT make a movie if you want to, in the end,skip a timeline of 50 years or so.....The biggest problem in this was the after-credits timeline skip which I believe we all could have done well without.It's practically saying to all of us '' Oh well yah...and now every1 is actually dead or damn old almost ready to die and Setsuna and Tieria are only ones ... not affected'' add to that a shiny Setsuna and a blind-old-Marina.......and you can practically see the ''GLOOM'' words written on our faces,especially after we saw the before-credits ending and we all went ''Oh!Hope!...Setsuna leaves but he will come back and...maybe..continue smth..''. i also see alot of people RAGING over the Feldt-Setsuna relationship and I must say my friends.....I feel like shooting Sunrise !^^The girl shows concern,the girl shows love...she freakin cries...the boy...well the boy decides to leave for half a decay and yah..come back when all are dead...................................................''GLOOM'' Thank you again! ^^ Besides that,although the story with the aliens was pretty generic,it had a good introduction and all......until the end when the generic crushed us.But then again,I don't mind a cliche if it's done well so basically the 2 big problems of the storyline are the first 2.If this truly was inspired by some classic sci-fi novels [ some1 on episode discussion mentioned that] then all the more the story ain't that bad.

Art: Well yes...something good.Art didn't change much from the anime and yet you can see the very good quality...I really enjoyed the art.Giving a 10 on this one.

Sound: Soundtrack was pretty dynamic ,especially the battle sequences and tensions,but the OP and END songs....I expected something a little better from the Back Horn and UVERworld which made very good songs in the animes.What didn't disappoint me at all was the song i already had for 1 month or more,which is the IN of Chiaki Ishikawa-Mou Nanimo Kowakunai ,Kowaku wa Nai, very beautiful song and i was curious in what moment they will fit it in.9 for sound.

Character: Ouchies...another reason why Sunrise shouldn't make MOVIE of Gundam 00 with so many characters. On the character part it felt like Sunrise put them all in a blending machine,threw a few more new characters and shake shake shake them until they got a sucky character shake..........And again....and the end of second season and now too...WHY the hell are you tormenting poor Feldt? First Lockon [ original]...now Setsuna.............O_o Sunrise are you sadistic or smth?? What I loved was,as always,Patrick *laughs hard* I just LOVE that guy *thinks of putting him to favorites*Also,I think a Big talk was about that Shaman guy or w/e....I was like..''oh there he goes..what just happened?'' So again...BAD IDEA to make a movie with so many characters, or maybe Sunrise thought they already introduced them enough in the 2 series or so and decied to skip that....hmm....Also it felt like some sacrifices *ahum*Graham*ahum* were.....ridiculous and made without any feel to it.........."GLOOM''.....7 for characters..; ; [ because I still remember the animes]

Enjoyment: i would have given it a 9 if it ENDED BEFORE credits,as movies sometimes do,but for that ending,and for tormenting Feldt .....and for the shiny Setsuna [ any1 noticed the weird Twilight reference *brrr* SHiny edward ...glowing eyes...homege! save me! ] ..so..7!!!

Overall:..7..."GLOOM" ..............I hate you Sunrise *goes into a corner and sulks*

Easily the worst in Gundam franchise

Gundam was a show that while heavily defined by action sequences, but also displayed various aspects of human emotions.

How scary war is, about how enemy might be an enemy but they can't be considered evil, clash of values between characters, etc. Gundam series portrayed those clearly, so Gundam was always a great show that both risen your adrenaline by awesome actions while at the same time moved your heart.

This latest movie of 00 have no such things...

First, they fight freaking aliens, which was a taboo for Gundam series. The reason is clear, fighting a mindless being like robot or monster ... was always less heart moving than fighting a sentient being and especially of the same race like humans. You can massacre millions of robots and monsters and you won't feel a thing. Maybe for other show is okay, but not Gundam, because it wants to tell you that every fight has a meaning. While watching they fire their beams, rounds, and missiles everywhere and aliens exploding here and there, what I thought was.... this is as fun as me spraying my room with insecticides to kill mosquitoes... which is not fun at all and more like a chore.

Emotionally driven combat is long gone in this one. Simply said, this is so not Gundam.

I still hate the characters from the series as well, especially "discount Hiro Yui" ups I mean Setsuna The Gundam Lover, Insignificant princess, etc. But I still like the series though, but not this movie, this movie is a stain to the franchise.

This is one of those 10s where I just said "You know what, I liked it. Its not perfect, but its not worth thinking hard about what I didn't like."

I didnt like the ending. I didnt like the enemy all that much. The foreshadowing combined with the whole motif made the end a bit obvious with a little thinking of why the aliens behaved like they did. Feldt kind of ghosted at the end despite the effort they put into her being the best girl. There really was a lot of things I didn't care for or find amusing.

But I just could not help but ... still be captivated by the movie. It did give me an end to the series that was satisfying enough (not sure how the alleged third season will play out) and the action and animation was top dollar. Honestly the little kid in me grinned every time I would see the absolute visual mess of hundreds of explosions on screen every time. The meme that is the invincible man who survives every damn explosion, Lock-on deploying those shield bits and Allelujah going berserk. It really is a little kids movie and I freaking loved it.

Two hours. Two hours gone that I will never again get back. Two hours in which I could have done much better things with my life. Who knows, I could've created the next Flappy Bird clone in that two hours but no, I spent it watching this. So instead, I pass the torch onto you. Recreate Flappy Bird. Don't watch this.

Conceptually, this movie could have been something great. The basic premise, though simple, could have easily been expanded into a whole 'bother season. For the first time in some 30 odd years, the Gundams aren't fighting other humans. They are fighting an alien race. You ... would think that the creators would have went all out on this idea and made it at least on the same level as the series it's based upon but, alas, failure and disappointment are all that we get.

***Be forewarned, there are some spoilers ahead.***

To start with, let's get the "plot" of the movie out of the way. Four years have passed since the end of season 2 and things are going well for Earth. Peace has pretty much been found and the Gundams, though still around, aren't really needed much anymore. That is, until "they" appear. Who are "they", you may ask? Yeah, I don't know either. Gray space blobs from Jupiter is what it seems like. Though we will just call them ELS as the movie does for simplicity. Anyway, the ELS appear on a derelict probe that was sent to Jupiter some 100 odd years ago and are headed for Earth. Quantum brainwaves are there goal and where can they find those? In humans, of course! Yada, yada, time goes on and we humans are about to be annihilated. So we fight back. Kinda. Really, it's all about love and understanding our enemy. Seriously, that's about it. Through his mass amounts of love and understanding, Setsuna saves the day and the ELS create a giant flower in space. WTF?

What about the character development, you may be asking? Well, look elsewhere because none will be found here! The only real development is that Feldt suddenly has a burning love for Setsuna. I don't know about you guys but I didn't see that one coming. But then she decides that Setsuna's love is simply too great for any one person. He's just too hot to handle. Other than that, Setsuna goes all flower power on us and turns into some shiny white-haired guy/thing. I hope that's not their idea of what the Innovators should look like. Other than that, everyone else just stays the same. I thought they had some potential with Descartes but nope, they kill him off in the most anti-climactic way. And what's with Meena? Who the heck is she and why is Billy with her? Oh, it's because she has a nice rack and legs, as evidenced by the fan-servicey scenes involving her.

The animation was good though so it's got that goin' for it, which is nice.

Really, I look at this movie in the same way I'm looking at Vladimir Putin of Russia right now. He spent all this money and all this time on the 2014 Sochi Olympics so that the rest of the world would look at Russia in a new light and then he goes and "invades" Ukraine. In one single move, he ruined everything he was working towards. And that's what this movie does to the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 series. It takes everything that I found masterful about the original series and smashes it all to bits.

So again, I say to you, save yourself. Save yourself two hours of your life. Flappy Bird must live on and you can save it. Don't make the same mistake I did. Let season 2 be the end of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 for you and pretend this movie doesn't exist. You'll thank me later.

Over and out.

A quick preface to say that if you haven't read my review for the Gundam 00 series then I recommend that you do because this is going to be written relative to what I said there. And one of the things I said was “I'm finally done with Gundam 00.”, but oh ho ho this is the Gundam series that just will not quit. With this two hour movie Gundam 00 is just barely the longest Gundam series ever made... for better and worse as it continues the downward trend that happened through most of season 2. But season 2 still generally held on to ... the series's good qualities and didn't succumb to its missteps. Can the movie accomplish the same? Let's take a look. Also, expect spoilers or skip to the final paragraph if you want the recommendation.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer [sic] is a title that's two integers and one random semi-colon away from being the name of a Kingdom Hearts racing game. It also stars something new for the Gundam franchise: aliens! All is well in the Earth sphere now that everyone has abandoned their differing interests and have gained an inexplicable peace without war that satisfies everyone, but soon humanity faces a new common enemy as a race of aliens dubbed the ELS threaten to drive humanity to extinction. Instead of the usual thing with the aliens being a race almost exactly like humans except with a tail or a weird symbol on their forehead, they're actually metallic-like shape-shifters that can't verbally communicate and bond with things to assimilate (i.e. kill) them.

The addition of aliens to Gundam has met with a lot of controversy, but I can't understand why anyone would care. Gundam 00 is an alternate universe series, and that's the whole reason they exist: to experiment with the standard Gundam formula that's been kept mostly consistent in the Universal Century timeline. It doesn't taint any franchise ideology. The existence of aliens in Gundam 00 doesn't imply the existence of them in other series. Secondly, communicating with other intelligent life was hinted at in the actual series which in fiction is practically enough to confirm they exist in that universe so it's not out of nowhere. Lastly, the use of a non-verbal lifeform that's threatening to humanity's existence is a great medium to use for displaying the series's general themes of understanding to prevent conflict, and ties it to the series's unique technology that's a necessity to communicate such as telepathic quantum brain waves and Innovators. The aliens were the most clever thing the movie managed to come up with, and their first doomsday attack on Earth was cool to watch and had one of the four cool things Allelujuah did in the entirety of Gundam 00.

Getting back to the ongoing story, it's been two years since the end of season 2. Which isn't that much time, but apparently it was enough time to make a big budget movie about Celestial Being that we see a bit of at the start of our movie. Although it's not enough time to expect anyone to noticeably physically age, the creators still want to show time has passed so everyone with short hair has now grown it out considerably while everyone who had long hair has had it cut. It's not a big deal, but it's pretty funny how it's seriously almost a 1:1 ratio. However silly this was, it was all worth it because Felt with short hair is adorable. Short haired Felt is 90% of the reason to watch this movie. She also now has a sudden romance with Setsuna that feels completely undeserved (like anyone's interest in such a dull guy), but it's probably because the creators realized she got the short end of the stick out of all the main characters. Too bad Setsuna doesn't care as usual.

The rest of Celestial Being also gathers together again, each with a newly designed Gundam that looks far better and more elaborate than the season 2 redesigns. While on this subject of art design, the animation is as good as ever which is actually kind of lame. Since the series looked almost as good to begin with, the jump in quality you'd expect from a movie almost isn't there. The frame rate is better, but that's the only change that really stands out. Despite the action being as intense and flashy as ever, it's far harder to get into because of the nature of the enemy. There are no interesting one-on-one rivalries because our new opponents are completely mute and without identity, and so for all of your action scenes you have a bunch of mechs flying around avoiding the metallic spears trying to latch onto them while shooting wildly. No beam saber clashes, no clever maneuvers and people shouting "what!?", just going fast and blasting away for several minutes in wide-open space. With the action scenes and exciting scenarios being the greatest strength of Gundam 00 and what season 2 had to fall back on being nearly gone, A Wakening of the Trailblazer has to rely on its story and characters.

Several characters return but none develop because their character arcs were already finished. New sub characters are introduced only to end up dying and/or doing nothing because the story is still too focused on Setsuna like season 2 was. One new character is named Meena, who looks exactly like Nena would after this time skip. But lo and behold, this confusing thing is never addressed in the movie and only in a niche manga where it's revealed one of Meena's ancestors contributed DNA to the clones that became the Trinitys. In that case Meena's family must have been incredibly lucky with inbreeding considering they look exactly the same generations later. Graham returns and is the only one who has their personality elaborated on in ways the series didn't do as we're actually shown the change in him after his final fight with Setsuna. Susano-o, however, does not come back even though it wasn't fully destroyed and then Graham just ends up being tossed away again for characters less cool than he is.

Nearly all of this movie falls apart under scrutiny and you'll wonder where the time went after numerous unnecessary scenes of the government talking about how they need to evacuate citizens and their attacks on the ELS that continuously do nothing. This all climaxes in Setsuna using his new Gundam's improved powers to telepathically communicate with the ELS to understand what they want.

We learn that the ELS's home planet was under danger so they're migrating. Okay, that makes sense. And that they're bonding to and killing humans in order to understand them. ...What? With the ELS's ability to learn about things they touch, you'd think they'd realize that it's impossible to read the conscious of someone who is dead and give up. But more importantly, why does this have anything to do with their survival? They aren't even after Earth's environment since they just pack up and leave after like nothing happened. If they just want to bond with humans, then why did they begin with taking over vehicles and running them over? That doesn't help anyone. Why are they after people with quantum brain waves? Why do they want to merge with people without them as well then? How does Setsuna's communication with them do anything to fix the problem of their migration? Why do they form a big flower at the end? Is this their new planet or something? If they can do that anywhere in space, why was their extinction even a possibility? Why why why? Nothing is resolved and all we learn is that the problem made no sense to begin with because the ELS apparently didn't have one. For a story about understanding, I didn't understand diddly squat. The ELS just killed a ton of people for no reason. I just watched a two hour movie just to be told at the end it was all for nothing and there's no concrete thematic lesson. Get out of here.

Well, I said all about what I've wanted to say already. For two hours you'd expect I'd have more to talk about, but so little of significance actually happens and the plot is thin despite being stretched so far out. The good qualities of the series such as the action are diminished while the worst parts like plot depth and character drama are exacerbated. It's an unnecessary conclusion and doesn't really shed light on anything from the series. I'd say skip it unless you still loved season 2 despite its faults. If its faults are enough to make you hesitant about the movie's continued decline of quality, then steer away. You aren't missing anything important. What a lame end to something that started off so promising.

This film is infamous for its full fledged alien (fossilised space whales appear in SEED) in the Gundam franchise, and I agree this I a bad thing, Gundam introduced human antagonists in order to make them more relatable and the conflicts ambiguous. This is an alien invasion story, while the ELS were oblivious to their attacks at first, this is the problem you cannot sympathize with the ELS properly as they have a different concept of morality, you can sympathize with the oppressed spacenoids that made up Zeon, the abandoned humans that became the Vagan, and ZAFT being victims of racism.
Secondly, Feldt declares her love ... for Setsuna out of the blue, although I like the pairing it just wasn't introduced right, it makes sense that they have been comrades for a long time but there wasn't any build up to it, she just confesses randomly and worst of all, their relationship is left unresolved.

The pros of this movie:
1) Not one but TWOOOO Haros. Let's just say that I only finished this movie for Haro.
2) You get to see more of the characters from the show 00.
3) Good animation and sound.

Cons:
1) The story is not traditional Gundam. It is a continuation of the weird supernatural stuff from the end of 00. So some might like this aspect but I personally did not.


That's pretty much it. If you're bored and need something to watch I would recommend this movie but if there are other anime series that you are contemplating watching I would recommend those.

This film gives 00 a great definitive ending, but it's execution is a little disappointing. It's still definitely worth a watch for people who watched the show, even if it's a little disappointing.

Watching this right after watching the 00 show, it's obvious that the show wasn't written with the intention of making this movie. The show was extremely tightly written with no loose ends, so this movie has to awkwardly contrive a plot just to exist. The comparison is pretty jarring and makes the film seem like more of an afterthought.

The music and visuals are to the same standard as the show, but with a ... little bit of additional quality thanks to it being a film. The music is now done by a real orchestra instead of the show's midi orchestra, but it still feels consistent with the music in the show and the change feels pretty subtle. The animation looks about the same with mildly higher animation quality and detail, I really like how the film is consistent with the show in these aspects.

The story actually has some really interesting aspects to it, I like the idea of what it goes for and some of its execution is fantastic, but it's marred by poor pacing. The film has a pretty dull start, they try to capture the mystery of the alien species, but the way they set it up is really goofy and uninteresting. The mystery of it all improves when you know more and can see how fundamentally different the aliens are, funny how knowing more about them made them more mysterious. They spend too much time at the start of the film confusing the viewer instead of pushing the plot forwards. They introduce a new character who does nothing and then leaves the film halfway through, which was a waste of my time and the film staff's time for seemingly no reason at all. They show a bit of the world after the events of the show and how it changed, which was nice and they didn't dedicate too much time into showing this aspect off, it actually felt natural. The plot is also very predictable, I figured out the conclusion way earlier on than I feel I should've, this made me feel a lot less interested in the film overall. I will say though, that the way the show referred to the upcoming communications with aliens was much more interesting than the way this film portrays it, making this film feel like it didn't need to be made in the first place and there's definitely an argument out there that this film makes 00's story worse overall.

There isn't too much new in terms of characters, Setsuna and Feldt are the only characters with new developments here. I really like the way those two aforementioned characters are developed here is really well done, they gave them a new character arc that's short and sweet. The other characters are mostly the same as they were previously, which leaves more time for the rest of the film to move forward, but this time isn't used very well and the film feels slow and bloated. I do lie the character of the aliens, the mysterious aspect of them makes them more interesting.

Overall, the film has a lot of bloat, but it also has a lot of really interesting aspects to it. I can only recommend this film to people who've seen the show already because its a sequel, and it having the definitive ending for 00 that makes it worth a watch. I will say that I found this film quite disappointing compared to the show though.

As a continuation that wraps up the original TV show, it feels kind of... out of place. After seeing such a realistic setting with pretty much serious tone, then we get, eh, aliens? Yeah, I know that it was already been teased in the original series, but it still feels weird for me.

Anyway, this movie wraps up Aeolia Schenberg's whole plan from the TV series; aliens came for invasion to Earth. I address it that way because that's the way it is; the main conflict is already resolved in the original 00 series (albeit it might still leave some questions behind), so this one is ... just an addition to it. Characters also feel more flat compared to their TV series' counterpart, even the newly introduced characters barely played anything significant here.

I'm not really fond on how they conclude the overarching theme of 00 here. It feels so cheesy lol. It might be the result on delivering it in a way too idealistic. It's kind of disappointing since 00's theme is probably one of few things that I like in the series.

Despite that, I still found myself enjoying the movie, mainly for the great visual. It's also great to see old characters made their return.

Pros:
-Great visual
-Good character designs return
-Likable characters make comeback
-Good epilogue

Cons:
-Bland plot
-Flat characters (both the returning and new ones)
-The overarching theme is delivered in a way too idealistic and cheesy; it makes a supposedly great message can't be taken seriously

[Edit] I liked Gundam 00. It is one of my favorites. The show had some problems, but I was OK, because, overall, it was a great show, with amazing mechas and a decent story (excluding the conclusion of Season 2). Then, they released this OVA. Let me explain, it is not bad, but it is not good either. I`ll leave my opinions so you decide for yourself.

Story: It starts pretty well, and you have high hopes. The end of Gundam 00 leaves some questions behind how the OVA is going to proceed, right? I mean, you are reading a review for the OVA, I assume ... you`ve watched the show. Well, so, it actually starts well, and they give you a reason for some events that happened in the main series.
Then... I don`t know, it becomes a mess. It goes from a 10 to a 0 so fast that you will get lost, thinking "what am I missing? " Some events are tackled in a hushed way, they will provide weird explanations, weird motives, and weird decisions for crucial events that will confuse you even further. As always, it gives you that mystery, making you wonder "Holy s***! I bet it will be an epic explanation because this is awesome!". Hahahaha. No. Don`t expect a good conclusion. JUST DON`T! It makes me sad because Gundam 00 is a good series. And... they decide to close the story with this. The conclusion is so bad that I can give you an analogy using LoTR for you to understand. Imagine that instead of explaining that the One Ring had less influence on the hobbits because they have a pure heart, the One Ring had less influence because the hobbits are ALIENS.
By seeing Awakening of the Trailblazers you are putting at risk the whole sentiment you have for the story of Gundam 00.

Art and Sounds: Amazing, as the series. Saw the series? Same thing.

Characters: Nothing changes. I had high hopes, thinking, well, maybe Awakening of the Trailblazers (ATB) will follow Gundam Wing Endless Waltz's example and develop/fix the characters. One of my major complaints about the main series is the lack of character development - thus, I thought they would give more character development in the OVA. But no, they stay the same. There are some highlights, one I can`t say, the other is some things about Setsuna. But, that's it, nothing more. Their development is in complete stasis. Once again I wonder why the writers chose to forget about character development for this series - it's absent.

Mechas: The mechas design is solid. Raphael Gundam is an enhanced Nadhalee (thumbs up), 00 Quan is there, looking badass, Harute is not much different than Arios, and the Cherudim upgrade is the best of them all. Not much to say, except that I loved the mecha designs.

Overall: ATB is not a good conclusion to the show. In fact, the Gundam 00 Universe would be better without it. Maybe you can enjoy the action and the mechas, but that's it. The rest, just don`t hold up and the conclusion is terrible.

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 & 2 of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Awakening of the TrailBlazer.

Have you ever watched Gundam 00?

Have you ever watched Transformers 1 directed by Michael Bay or Independence Day?

You have essentially watched this film then, however despite that, I really think there is quite a bit of merit to this film if you seperate it in your own mind from the 00 canon (the Anno Domini timeline).

The animation in this movie is some of the best honestly, the action sequences are greatly animated despite some weird choreography and the fact that the aliens that are fought in this movie have no ... real defining features. All of the upgraded suits get their chances to flex their new weaponry and maneuverability. Getting to see the powerscaling that happened between Season 2 and the time this movie takes place is also something, considering everyone has access to Trans Am now. The usage of CG for the aliens is actually rather natural. I still stand by the fact that this is one of the most beautiful anime movies I've watched.

Sound is really nothing that stands out, I loved the OST in the 00 series and also all the intro/ending songs from them, but nothing here really blows my mind. The voice actors in both the dub and sub do a solid performance especially the VA's for Setsuna and Graham as they take a lot of the spotlight in this film.

There are a lot of interesting setpieces in this movie that are action movie cliches, examples including Allelujah and Marie being chased by aliens and doing acrobatics for example as well as the entire final act. But the plot itself is all over the place. These aliens are invading Earth, but there is absolutely no reason why. Not only that but the entire theme was to understand what the aliens themselves are thinking, but that is not given to the viewer in any sort of direct way in TrailBlazer. In fact the philosophy of this film is really lacking when compared to the brilliance of 00 season 1 and some of the slightly less brilliant but still thought provoking questions in 00 season 2.

Character arcs are all over the place, Setsuna is the only one who's evolving in a way that makes sense following the series. Allelujah, Marie and Lyle all stay relatively the same, but at least Graham dropped the entire Mr. Bushido nonsense which is honestly one of the dumbest fuckest things ever which would have made this movie even worse. Tieria is absolutely useless here which is unfortunate because before Setsuna became OP as fuck, Tieria was easily the best Celestial Being meister and he had my favorite Mobile Suit. Now Tieria is like Navi from the legend of Zelda in which he just sits on Setsuna's shoulder spouting exposition (I know his physical body was destroyed in season 2 and he's been integrated into Veda, that's no excuse for him not to have bodies he can upload his being into). Louis and Saji are in this movie and don't really do much at all, considering the Qan-[T] no longer really needs the 00 Raiser, Saji is truly useless again and Louis' arc has been over despite the fact that it could have been expanded more since she's an innovator.

Oh yeah, there are some minor shipping things like Nena Trinity and Billy Katagiri, this makes no sense, but after Sumeragi bitchslapped Katagiri despite him letting her live in his house for 2 years. What even happened during that relationship? Of course Patrick and Kati are a thing, that was inevitable. But a lot of the Hetero couples they seem to be pushing just because they're hetero. Tieria x the curly haired Celestial Being associate despite the fact they have no chemistry really. Both Setsuna x Feldt and Setsuna x Marina have no soul to them, because I just can't see Setsuna as a romantic or compassionate person despite all the changes he's gone through. All of the old ships that have sailed are still great, Allelujah x Soma, Louis x Saji despite having no point in this movie. But enough about shipping, the plot overall is just not that great, aliens are there, why? Fuck you T-1000 that's why.


Overall while I did have immense amounts of fun watching all the explosions in this movie, some of the most fun in my life, there are many aspects of this film that are terribly written and ruin the 00 franchise as a whole, opening up a can of worms that can't really be sealed again.

For those reasons, Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer gets a 6/10 from me.