The story of the series can be summarized in the synopsis above, so I'll just dive right into it. The world of 00 is quite well developed, with technological advances in this series seeming to be actually possible in our own world. The world is powered basically by three solar elevators and the Gundams are also powered by solar reactors. Not a bad concept and very environmentally friendly. Meanwhile, the nations of the world have joined into three distinct blocs, creating a Cold War-esque feeling of tension. In a nutshell, the setting is a great. However, when the organization of the Gundams, Celestial Being, enters the scene, things start to get really interesting...at least at first. The organization was created to stop conflict through fighting (sound familiar?) and is, of course, universally hated by the very people they are trying to protect. As cliche as the premise is, some twists in the story keep it interesting. However, as it goes on, it feels as though Celestial Being's purpose becomes lost in the fray of gunfire and the sounds of 'I am GUNDAM' coming from the protagonist's mouth. The series seems to overstay its welcome a bit, but thankfully the ending is probably one of the most powerful I've ever seen in an anime. ' (7)
The art is done by the same guys who have done Gundam in the past, so expect great mech design. The character's designs match their personalities but quite a few characters are bland, so their designs reflect that. (8)
00 has great openings and endings. So much so that it's worth downloading for later enjoyment (the band's name is L'Arc Ciel, I think). The voice acting (I watched the dub) was solid, with the exception of Setsuna, the protagonist. His voice acting isn't bad per se, but since all he seems to say is 'Gundam this' and 'Exia that' and 'Celestial being to you!', he just sounds redundant. The other tracks of the series don't do anything special either. (8)
The main cast takes a queue from MSG Wing, making the Gundam pilots handsome(?) young men who at first just seem like eye candy. However, the viewers quickly discover that it is actually true for most of the cast. I couldn't really feel for anyone of the CB team and if it weren't for the final episodes, I wouldn't remember any of their names. The villians of the series are much more memorable, with Ali-al-Sachez (a Gauron copy) taking first prize for being an absolute monster. However, I digress. Back to the rest of the faulty characters. People like Saji Crossroad and his sister seemed to be shoe-horned into the series to almost give it a Slice of Life feel. I see they were trying to show the impact of CB on everyday life, but Saji was not a good choice since he never makes any of his scenes enjoyable to watch. As for that one princess from some middle eastern country, she seems like a love interest for Setsuna in the opening, but in reality, she's used simply as a CB poster girl. Its quite sad really and because of that, I don't even remember her name.
Now, as much as I dislike the plainness of most of the characters, there is one man that actually made sense. One man who actually had a great backstory and turned into being one of the most bad@ssed characters in the entire Gundam universe: Lockon Stratos. Unlike his other companions, Lockon has a great origin story, clear and well developed motivations and an a charismatic personality. It's litter wonder Yuri manga are made of him. He basically carried this series on its back for me, as I was commonly thinking 'How's Lockon going to deal with this conflict' or 'why is Lockon doing this'? While he is commonly overshadowed by his other companions, Lockon gets a beautiful, yet sad conclusion at the end of the anime, cementing a permanent place in my heart (no homo). (7)
Since I watched it on Youtube with dubs, I could watch it anywhere. However, since the show seemed to drag, I would watch bursts of episodes then wait for a few weeks, then watch some more. It hits the basics...kinda...It wasn't a waste of time, but a good beginning and great end can't carry a series this long. (6)
Overall, it has a great world but cliche premise echoing past G-series, especially MSG Wing, its art is solid, its sound is both great yet a tad redundant, the main cast with the exception of Lockon as well as the rest of CB are one-trick ponies and it drags but has nice accessibility. I don't regret watching this series, but its a bit overrated. If they had better characters, I would forgive many of its other faults, but since only a few stand out, I give this series a 6/10.
