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.

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.

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.

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*

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.

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.

The story was very good, giving us elements that all make sense through the watching. I still don't know how I feel about it, because the relevance for the 00 series is huge and basically it brings it to a closing, still, I felt certain things went too slow and certain things went too quickly. I wanted more character interaction and development and maybe a little less war in space. Of course Gundam is about giant robots and all that shooting, however, I felt they lost too much screen time giving us tech details (ship doors opening and closing, arriving, leaving...) and the final fight ... got a bit tiring in my perception, I would rather have more character interaction and a bit less shooting, but still I'm really happy about the movie. The story gives us since the beginning this message it's going to be deep and that it will have a major impact in the series, not being just another filler like movie but a very decisive one. The art was amazing from beginning to end, the animation is very well done, the frames and the CGI is very well inserted into the conventional animation, something that sounds really hard to do considering other animes that couldn't use CGI so well. The light, the movement, the angles, the colors, everything seems to be in place, I loved it, a work of art.
The sound is beautiful during all the movie, the songs, the effects, however, I found some sound effects a bit annoying and tiring, I know the intention was to show the emergence of the enemy's attack, but because the fighting scenes were quite long, they got me a bit tired, still, the voice acting is excellent and the songs during the movie (specially during the final act) brought me so many emotions, it was beautiful.
The characters, I felt like they were enough, however, I missed more character development. Gundam 00 is an anime that succeeded at working many primary, secondary and tertiary characters at the same time thought the episodes, so it's normal fans get really interested in their particular stories, some personal questions remain, like "how did Alleluja met Celestial Being? How did he live until then?", "How was the Lockon brothers' life since their childhood? What did they work with? What did they study?", "How did Tieria came to be? What memories does he have?", as a fan I would have loved if a movie or OVA worked those characters a bit more, maybe something more slice of life.
I had a very good time watching this movie, I wasn't bored for a second.
In general, the movie is really good, it's among my favorite movies of all time for sure. The message we see at the ending is so beautiful, all the art and the music make the experience so deep and emotional. The way the final act closed is a mix of so many emotions, the solution for the final arc got me teary because of how genuine it was, of how simple the world can be, of how still there's hope for people to see through fear and bad emotions to find peace and understanding. I liked how all the moments were linked to the episodes and to what the anime promises us since the start, for sure it was a big surprise for who decided to watch Gundam 00 thinking it would be only about giant robots fighting, because it's definitely about soooo much more. I think it's a movie that can inspire people to be better.