Review of Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Gundam 00 was the first Gundam series I've actually finished, and I actually found it very entertaining. Hearing about the failure of its predecessor, Gundam Seed Destiny, I initially approached this series with some apprehension, but that was all forgotten at the first episode. Story: The plot of the story is...unusual. Basically, 299 years from now, there is a private military group main objective is for the eradication of armed conflict through their Gundams. Basically, to destroy war, they will fight it (Quite ironic) The story of Gundam 00 is filled with politics, and on average, an episode will consist of more than half the episodecontaining political matters. Despite it sounding tedious, the political significance in Gundam 00 is what makes it stand out, and it shows us the World of Gundam 00 through a different perspective. Another thing unusual about Gundam 00 is that there is no clear "good" or "bad" side. The show is viewed through 3, main different perspectives; The civilian's, the main factions, and Celestial Beings, and whilst Celestial Being's goal sounds like a good idea, the views from another perspective show it differently, such as their interference with global conflict caused terrorist groups to attack innocent civilians. This element alone makes Gundam 00 very interesting to watch, and it doesn't follow the cliche that the main characters are the "good" guys, and their goal is marred by the "bad guys", but rather, it shows the good and bad of all perspectives.
Art: I will say, the art in Gundam 00 is very good, and it is particularly outstanding when showing mobile suits. This is nothing like Gundam Seed/Destiny, absolutely no stock footage reused. The battle animations are all of extreme high quality, and they are amazing to watch. Unfortunately, battle sequences tend to be quite short, tending to last less than 3 minutes. The mech designs also look very well designed, whether they be the Gundams, the Overflags, the GN-Xs, etc... The people themselves also look very nice, and the females of their series look particularly beautiful with their "00" figures (Great breasts).
Sound: The sound quality is on the same level of Gundam Seed/Destiny, but it sounds completely different. Whilst GS/D have excellent pop music accompanying the series, the music in Gundam 00 shines particularly during battle sequences. The battle music is plentiful, and there is a lot of variety to match the many moods of the fights throughtout the series. The OP and EDs are, surprising, all great tracks, particularly the two OPs. The VAs also did very well, although it was a bit odd seeing Rie Kugimiya voice Nena Trinity (Who had a very well developed figure, in contrast to the loli figured characters Rie Kugimiya is famous for voicing).
Character: This is where Gundam 00 falls a little short. The main characters did not really recieve any character development until halfway through the series, and were generally quite bland. Tieria in particular was quite an unappealing character, because he felt the current Gundam Meisters were not fit for their roles, until later on, when he started to warm up and the Meisters truly worked as a team. Saji and Louise are shown frequently in Gundam 00, and were quite annoying until the death of Louise's family caused by Celestial Being near the middle of the anime. There is a lot of character history as well, and it is often shown how it has affected them and why certain characters act in a certain way. Overall, character development really accelerated for the main cast shortly after the Trinities appeared.
Enjoyment: Gundam 00 was a very enjoyable show to watch every week, because the show content was interesting, the fights were beautiful, the political dialogue was intriguing, and because it was different from all the other shows. I definitely like how the battles were evenly matched when the Gundams were outnumbered, when their opposition as superior stratagetic thinking, and when the factions obtained same-level mobile suits, to show us the flaws of Celestial Being and the fact that they are not all powerful.
Overall: I consider this a very realistic (Compared to all the animes out there) anime, and it's quite pleasing to see that they managed to merge real-life issues (Post 9/11 mood) and present this show in a "grey" view, as opposed to the usual black and white. I recommend this show for anyone who truly appreciates quality over quantity (battles), an interesting story and mechs. This is only the first half, and the highly anticipated second half airs this fall.