Gundam 00--Holy crap!

Okay.  As a general rule, I don't worry too much about spoilers.  So I don't go out of my way to avoid reviews and synopsis that give away a lot.  I don't care if I know what happens.  It's the execution that interests me.  In grad school, my thesis concerned the development of legends in related but different societies--like the differences and similarities in Arthurian legend in Welsh, English, and French medieval sources.  So, after reading a hundred different versions of the same story, I don't worry too much when I know broad plot details.

So I can't say I avoided reading too much about Gundam 00.  I know the basic outline.  Fuel crisis.  Celestial Being.  "It's a GUNDAM!!!!"-y goodness.

I was saying just a couple of days ago that I may have looked at Gundam Wing a little differently had I initially seen in Post 9/11.

None of my pre-watching dabbling had prepared me for the pre-credit opening of the first episode.  "THIS IS A HOLY WAR."

Wow.

Gundam Wing's potential commentary on the nature of "freedom fighter" vs. "terrorist" was subtle, and drew from and alluded to many, many different real world examples.  Gundam 00?  It seems pretty obviously allegorical--oil crisis, war on terror.  That caught me by surprise--not the subject matter, but the unabashed overtness of it.  HERE.  IS.  OUR.  MAIN.  IDEA. 

This being anime in general, and Gundam in particular, I'll be surprised if things remain this clear-cut.  Wheels within wheels.

I've only watched the first episode, so I'll be sure to continue commenting.

I will say, though, modern allegory aside, they've got the "bad-ass Gundam intro" down solid.  It's interesting that the original mobile suit gundam was "Real Robot" rather than "Super Robot," and many of the sequel/spin-off/meta-series combine the two genres.

Turning Back to the After Century Calendar

Before I watch Gundam Unicorn or Gundam 00 (in its entirety), I've decided to revisit some old friends and watch Gundam Wing.  This is actually the first time I've returned to it since its run in 2000 on the Cartoon Network.  Fortunately, my fond memories of the series were not just nostalgia.  All the memorable characters are just as memorable.  I did forget all of the "wheels-within-wheels" plotting and counterplotting and just how fractured the different characters' allegiances were. 

Now, for a quick aside that will explain the thinking of the rest of this post.  I usually grit my teeth and squirm when something is described as "re-imagined for the post September 11th world," like the remake of V and the proposed remake of "Red Dawn."  It sounds too much like fear-monger-led-profiteering.

Now, back to Gundam.  I don't want to belabor the point or overthink anything.  BUT.  I saw this in 2000.  I had no reason to think much about the fact that our protagonists (the five Gundam pilots) for the most part teenage fanatics, recruited out of mostly tragic lives to pilot secret weapons into the heart of a superpower and, in the first several episodes, BLOW THE SHIT OUT OF THINGS.

Am I alluding to the 9/11 bombers?  Sort of.  After the first few episodes, certain things were emphasized about the five pilots: their youth, their absolute dedication to the mission (mostly exhibited by Heero Yuy, but Duo, Trowa, and Wu Fei just have fewer opportunities to threaten people, y'know, like Relena).  And nothing demonstrates fanaticism like that scene where Heero BREAKS AND RESETS HIS OWN MOTHERFUCKING FEMUR!  That makes even Duo wince.

However, the story is complex enough and the characters developed enough that, even had I seen Gundam Wing AFTER 9/11, I'd probably enjoy it just as much.  And who knows?  I might just be projecting things no one else sees.

I think my main point is not that this is a show glorifying terrorism.  It's not.  It's that it is even more nuanced than I remember it being.  I think the fact that the story can call to mind both the 9/11 highjackers and simultaneously the desperate heroism freedom fighters throughout history and fiction is a sign that its images are powerful and infinitely applicable.

And, some fanboy trivia before I get too somber and serious.  Duo was voiced by the actor who also performed Fred in Outlaw Star.  And Zechs Marquise shares a voice actor with Gamlin from Macross 7 (and about a million other characters, being voiced by Takehito Koyasu, the most prolific japanese voice actor according to the anime news network.

It's a Gundam!

I've long since resigned myself to the fact that, with all of the Gundam series out there, I'm going to love some of the (the original Mobile Suit Gundam, the 08th MS Team, War in the Pocket, Turn A Gundam, Gundam Wing), be bored by some (Gundam Seed), find some endlessly amusing (Mobile Fighter G Gundam, G-Saviour), and feel oddly betrayed by some (Gundam 00).

00 was weird for me.  The pre-release advertisements had me interested, then I watched it, and . . .  I really wanted to like it, but there was no hook.  Nothing grabbed me.  It was like Gundam Wing without whatever it is I liked about Gundam Wing.  I stopped following it.  Then I read some synopses of later episodes, felt intrigued all over again, and watched later in the series.

Nope.  Whoever wrote those synopses clearly picked up on something that either I missed, or it missed me. 

Gundam Wing I liked--my first experience with Gundam had been the English dubs of the three movie versions of the original series.  And then nothing for a very long time, until I starting watching Wing on Toonami.  Mostly it was the characters--they build up Heero and Trowa as these almost-supernaturally skilled pilots, and then, when faced with two mobile dolls programmed with all of their piloting skills, Duo dispatches them with two slices of his beam scythe and turns away with the line "You're just dolls to me."

One of my friends refused to watch Wing.  Mainly because he couldn't take a series seriously when it called something a "doll."  He also couldn't get into Gasaraki because one group of mecha were called "fakes."  In reality, I think, mecha anime just didn't appeal to him--he was really into stuff like Slayers and Excel Saga--both of which I've enjoyed, but I've never started a series because I thought "Oh, it looks like Slayers."  I have started a series because, "Oh, it looks like Gundam.  Or Macross.  Or both!  Maguncrossdam!!!"

Looking back at the collected series of Gundams, I think it's interesting that one of the series that started the "real robot genre," as opposed to the "super robot genre," has, from series to series and over time, drifted pretty seriously into the super robot realm.

Turn A Gundam's title suit and its counterpart, the turn X, would probably give the Ideon a run for its ridiculously super-powered mecha money.  And the Ideon could slice planets in half with its sword!  But then, that may have been a narrative conceit to convey the idea that the lost technology represented by the Turn-A and Turn-X was way beyond the series' present.

Anyway.  I always find the infighting among Gundam fans amusing.  You have guys my age or slightly older who are "UC or nuthin!"  Then you have the ones who were kids when Gundam Wing and its big-eyed boy-band starring cast came out.  And then the Seedlings and now the 00-or-nuthin' fans.  I have a certain fondness for the UC-timeline series, but I'll typically give anything they've slapped the name Gundam on a chance.  Sometimes it's hit or miss.

I haven't seen any of Gundam Unicorn, or whatever they're calling it these days.  I'll get around to it.  Eventually.