Quick & Dirty
Language: Japanese
Initial Interest: High
Favorite Character: Acher & Katagiri, Lockon
Opinion: It might be good
Likely to Finish: Eventually
Synopsis
It is the year A.D. 2307. Fossil fuels on Earth have been depleted entirely, with mankind turning to the next available power source: solar energy. During this time, 3 orbital elevators with solar power generation systems are built, each under control by the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (formerly United States of America), the Human Reform League (Russia, China and India) and the Advanced European Union. However, not all countries are able to enjoy the benefits of this system, leading to widespread resentment and war. Arising out of the conflict, a mysterious military organization known as Celestial Being appears, dedicated to end all warfare using Mobile Suits called Gundam. This begins the stories of Gundam Meisters (pilots) Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tiera Erde as they are thrown into conflict between the 3 superpowers and the various other factions. (Source: Anime News Network)
Pre-Viewing Thoughts
I may have mentioned that I've seen several Gundam Series and I liked most of them. This leads me hold a certain amount of interest in Gundam 00. I've also heard good things about 00. Much more than that I can't say. Except that a lot of the names in that description sound really stupid.
Favorite Character
I said Acher and Katagiri. I like them as a pair. Something about the way they interact with each other amuses me. I'm hoping they don't turn out to be the series villians, as one has yet to be clearly established.
I also liked Lockon. He was kind of fun and it amused me infinitely that for once a guy had Haro.
That being said, in five episodes nobody really got that much screentime. If I hadn't been specifically trying to figure out the names I wouldn't have known them. So it's hard to say which characters I'll like if I continue.
Overall Opinion
This is another series that I don't know how I feel about. It's somewhat interesting and they did some things that I'd really like to see more of, but there were also some things that made me not want to watch it.
What they did well: There are 4 gundams in this and they actually have some solid variation. Setsuna's is the traditional main all-rounder but you also get a sniper and a heavy gunner...I'm not sure what the specialty of the fourth unit is. The mobile suits look pretty well varied and not much like the units in previous gundams. The cast is widely varied. We have a team from the Union, a team from the HRL (I think), the gundam meisters, two random civilians, and Marina. We're going to get this series from all angles and that's pretty interesting.
What they didn't do so well: I loved Gundam Seed but I was looking forward to watching a Gundam where everyone was a normal human with normal human abilities and limitations...and then they introduced...uh...the white haired "super-human" girl and then she and Allelujah got into a mind battle...thing. So rather than getting the normal human cast we are getting some sci-fi weird. The first few episodes are supposed to introduce us to the different factions and the gundam meisters but in my opinon they did a poor job. Again, I didn't get a good feel for the names of the characters, half the time I didn't know what nation we were dealing with...it's kind of a mess. Also it kind of annoys me that somehow this group that no one has heard of before managed to produce 4 mobile suits that were "decades more advanced" than anyone else.
The pace of the show feels slow to me which seems limiting in a gundam series. And about the time Celestial Being were attacking the defecting nation my brain told me that there's something extremely demented about their mission statement.
I'm not sure how much I'll like this so I will neither recommend it nor advise against it. I'll probably finis it eventually...but not soon. I've still got 60ish episodes to go on D. Gray-Man and when that's done I'd rather watch more Heat Guy J.
Next Official Review: Heroic Age
Language: Japanese
Initial Interest: High
Favorite Character: Acher & Katagiri, Lockon
Opinion: It might be good
Likely to Finish: Eventually
Synopsis
It is the year A.D. 2307. Fossil fuels on Earth have been depleted entirely, with mankind turning to the next available power source: solar energy. During this time, 3 orbital elevators with solar power generation systems are built, each under control by the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (formerly United States of America), the Human Reform League (Russia, China and India) and the Advanced European Union. However, not all countries are able to enjoy the benefits of this system, leading to widespread resentment and war. Arising out of the conflict, a mysterious military organization known as Celestial Being appears, dedicated to end all warfare using Mobile Suits called Gundam. This begins the stories of Gundam Meisters (pilots) Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tiera Erde as they are thrown into conflict between the 3 superpowers and the various other factions. (Source: Anime News Network)
Pre-Viewing Thoughts
I may have mentioned that I've seen several Gundam Series and I liked most of them. This leads me hold a certain amount of interest in Gundam 00. I've also heard good things about 00. Much more than that I can't say. Except that a lot of the names in that description sound really stupid.
Favorite Character
I said Acher and Katagiri. I like them as a pair. Something about the way they interact with each other amuses me. I'm hoping they don't turn out to be the series villians, as one has yet to be clearly established.
I also liked Lockon. He was kind of fun and it amused me infinitely that for once a guy had Haro.
That being said, in five episodes nobody really got that much screentime. If I hadn't been specifically trying to figure out the names I wouldn't have known them. So it's hard to say which characters I'll like if I continue.
Overall Opinion
This is another series that I don't know how I feel about. It's somewhat interesting and they did some things that I'd really like to see more of, but there were also some things that made me not want to watch it.
What they did well: There are 4 gundams in this and they actually have some solid variation. Setsuna's is the traditional main all-rounder but you also get a sniper and a heavy gunner...I'm not sure what the specialty of the fourth unit is. The mobile suits look pretty well varied and not much like the units in previous gundams. The cast is widely varied. We have a team from the Union, a team from the HRL (I think), the gundam meisters, two random civilians, and Marina. We're going to get this series from all angles and that's pretty interesting.
What they didn't do so well: I loved Gundam Seed but I was looking forward to watching a Gundam where everyone was a normal human with normal human abilities and limitations...and then they introduced...uh...the white haired "super-human" girl and then she and Allelujah got into a mind battle...thing. So rather than getting the normal human cast we are getting some sci-fi weird. The first few episodes are supposed to introduce us to the different factions and the gundam meisters but in my opinon they did a poor job. Again, I didn't get a good feel for the names of the characters, half the time I didn't know what nation we were dealing with...it's kind of a mess. Also it kind of annoys me that somehow this group that no one has heard of before managed to produce 4 mobile suits that were "decades more advanced" than anyone else.
The pace of the show feels slow to me which seems limiting in a gundam series. And about the time Celestial Being were attacking the defecting nation my brain told me that there's something extremely demented about their mission statement.
I'm not sure how much I'll like this so I will neither recommend it nor advise against it. I'll probably finis it eventually...but not soon. I've still got 60ish episodes to go on D. Gray-Man and when that's done I'd rather watch more Heat Guy J.
Next Official Review: Heroic Age
I was never really a big fan of the Gundam Series except for 08th M.S. (For anyone who doesn't know, it stands for 8th Mobile Suit/Squadron. I've heard both used in the series.) I liked that one because unlike the traditional Gundam series, it was a moblie suit team with advanced but fairly similar technology. It's not a super unit that can destroy everything in a blink of an eye. It was also about normal people fighting in a war. No super natural or anything. Now, everything takes the saying, he who has the bigger stick wins, to new levels. I hear that it does in the same aspect follow that so I wasn't that curious however I did want to see how the characters played out though. I wasn't a big fan of Gundam Seed for the mechs and the war outcome, the thing that had Seed going, to me, was the characters. You really could get a feel of them and when one died, all you could say was, "Damn, that's jacked up." (Sorry, I kept it PG.) But most people didn't like it because of the characters. "They were just kids." is the biggest complaint I get. Ask yourself this, if you're perfect, how can you get better? There would be no character development.
ReplyDeleteOh, by the way, when you get time, you should do Trigun. I've only read some of the manga and never seen it before.
ReplyDelete