Hogan Reviews

For a look at the first half of Season 1 (including a lore breakdown!) click HERE.

Gundam 00’s first season comes to a close with another great set of episodes, full of action and drama on and off the battlefield, just how we like it. Even the very Seed-like sudden introduction of three new Gundams is handled better, although by the end of the season I’m not convinced they still weren’t inserted purely for more sweet Gunpla money, but hey-ho. It also has a hell of an emotional plot twist that sadly retrospectively loses some of its lustre, but not as much as I thought it would this time round. So let’s look at the end of what was technically the first ever Gundam season, since all the other series just ran straight through…

Thankfully this time I don’t need to write nearly two paragraphs of world building and we can get straight to it! All three major powers in the world come together for a “joint exercise” near a deadly uranium deposit, knowing full well Celestial Being and their Gundam Meisters will do an “armed intervention” to stop them, and even though they know it’s a trap Setsuna, Lockon, Allelujah and Tieria are sent in anyway, assuming their better tech will give them the edge over their enemies’ numbers. This proves not to be the case though as they’re all pinned down under constant fire for 15 hours, and only then after exhaustion sets in were the ace pilots sent in to go one-on-one with them. This results in capture for all but Setsuna, who is about to be killed instead by his old nemesis Ali Al-Saachez, that is until an unknown Gundam appears emitting red particles instead of the usual green. It chases Ali off and at the same time the other Meisters are saved by two other red-particle Gundams who soon introduce themselves as Johann, Michael and Nena Trinity, piloting the “Gundam Thrones”. This new revelation sadly leads to a mostly-recap episode where Alejandro Corner, the shadowy politician, talks to a bunch of anonymous shadowy politicians about what’s happened and what they should do.

Well designed Gundams all over the shop!

After a tense in-person meeting Celestial Being takes a back seat as the Trinitys go on their own much more violent “armed interventions”, leaving death and destruction in their wake. One such incident happens when Nena Trinity gets jealous at seeing a fancy wedding and literally opens fire on a bunch of civilians, leaving just one survivor: Louise, the fun and happy girlfriend of our favourite sappy teenage couple with Saji Crossroad. Later Saji visits her at the hospital and she’s had to have one of her hands amputated and asks Saji to leave her and be happy without her. It’s actually quite heartbreaking, even worse when Saji’s older sister / only living relative Kinue is killed by Ali Al-Sachez when she finds out too much information as a reporter, making Saji despair at life in general and hate Celestial Being as they’re connected in both instances (though responsible for neither!). It does all lead somewhere in Season 2, I remember that much, but it’s a pretty bitter end-of-season for the fun loving couple. Anyway, Setsuna has enough of the Trinitys’ actions as he sees them as more terrorist than creating peace like Gundam Meisters should be and attacks them head-on, though nothing really comes of it beyond Tieria and Lockon joining him, showing despite their cooler-headed nature they too dislike their methods.

But wait, why is Lockon pointing a gun at Setsuna?! You’ll have to read literally the next sentence to find out!

As a final parting gift one of the Trinitys reveals Setsuna as a former child soldier of the KPSA, the same group that was responsible for killing Lockon’s family a few years ago. Lockon confronts Setsuna and even points a gun at the former Soran Ibrahim but Setsuna manages to convince him that he is a changed person and a force for good. He also explains who Ali Al-Saachez is and how he led the KPSA, which gives Lockon a new target to focus his revenge on. Behind the scenes though things take a massive turn for the worst as 30 GN Drives are dispersed across all three major powers, who then decide to form a single army under the control of the UN specifically to take out Celestial Being and the Gundams. As the Trinitys are forced to retreat in the face of the new “GN-X” machines Alejandro Corner and his assistant Ribbons head to the supercomputer core where Veda, the advanced AI that Celestial Being use to help with their “tactical forecasting”, is held and Ribbons begins to hack it…

Once again the animation is top notch and the voice work is good as well, whichever language you go for, so combined with the great character and mecha designs it’s still hitting a very high mark. The finale is a proper season finale as well, with some big reveals and some teases for Season 2. It’s odd after all these Gundam series that didn’t feature cliffhangers and time skips (well, time skips between named series, sure, but they never left any cliffhangers…) but there you go. Saves me an “Overall Review” anyway!

Overall Thoughts:

Mr. Corner and Ribbons… is just a weird way to start a sentence.

Gundam 00’s first season comes to a really satisfying conclusion as the sides get evened up and Celestial Being gets backed more and more into a corner (no pun intended). The final three episodes offer up some proper emotion drama along with a great final space battle, it was a reminder of how great this season was and I’m so happy that this time I don’t have to wait a year for the next season!

Due to Ribbons’ hacking all the Gundams lose their connection to Veda and shutdown in the middle of battle, but thanks to Celestial Being’s top tactical forecaster Sumeragi they soon get switched over to a backup, apart from Tieria, who refuses to disconnect from Veda even at the risk of his life, leading to Lockon getting injured protecting him from an on-coming attack. As everyone recovers Ali Al-Saachez tracks down the Trinitys and kills Michael and Johann, stealing the former’s “Throne Zwei” in the process and then is immediately met in battle by Setsuna, though the Gundam Meister starts to lose. At the same time Ribbons finishes hacking Veda and unveils Aeolia Schenberg, the creator of the Gundams and Celestial Being many years ago is in a cryo-stasis pod, leading to Alejandro shooting the capsule in triumph, declaring his family had finally overcome Schenberg’s shadow only for a message to play from the man himself claiming that trying to stop him then-and-there proves his first plan for peace hasn’t worked so he’ll have to try something different.

“TRANS-AM!” … Get ready to hear that a lot in the next season.

This unlocks a brand new ability in all the Gundams called “Trans-Am”, which Setsuna soon activates in order to overpower Al-Saachez. Basically it makes the Gundam glow and move at a crazy-fast pace with beefier attacks but it only lasts a few minutes, after which the Gundams are defenceless. The Gundam Meisters don’t have long to talk about it though as they’re soon swarmed by GN-Xs and the Throne Zwei, and although they manage to deal with it well enough thanks to all of them using the Trans-Am Lockon focuses on Ali for the sake of revenge and thanks to his prior injuries loses his Gundam Dynames. He ejects and then uses a canon to destroy the Zwei but is shot out into space due to the explosion, having a look at the Earth and contemplating how much he hates the state of the planet before dying in the nearby explosion. Everyone finds out about Lockon’s death via his Haro unit repeatedly saying his name over the radio in a real heart-wrenching scene. As I mentioned his death is somewhat undercut by later revelations but it was still a really well written and acted scene. Great stuff.

It may have literally come out of nowhere but Alejandro’s gold mobile suit does look cool as hell!

We then reach the final battle as Alejandro Corner suddenly appears on the battlefield in a large golden Mobile Armour and leads the remaining forces into battle, a battle that sees Tieria get taken out (but not killed!) and Allelujah is similarly damaged but manages to disable legendary soldier Sergei and his daughter-like super soldier Soma Piers’ suits and in process he finds out that Soma is actually someone he knew back when he was a child experiment. The Ptolemaios itself is also destroyed, with just Sumeragi and two other staff surviving the explosion, so things are looking grim for Celestial Being. Of course Setsuna manages to take out the Mobile Armour and then defeat Corner himself after he emerges in a gold mobile suit (with Ribbons appearing before Alejandro via a video screen and saying he was never his attendant and that Alejandro was just a pawn in his game instead), but straight afterwards Graham Aker finally reappears on the battlefield in a Union Flag but one equipped with a GN Drive, allowing him to keep up with Setsuna’s Gundam Exia. The two talk over the radio about why they fight before destroying each other’s suits in a final duel.

It’s here we get a bunch of short scenes setting up Season 2, which takes place 4 years later, including teases of Setsuna’s new Gundam 00, the fact that all three major powers have agreed to a permanent deal of working together, and Saji Crossroad working in space, seeing the distinct green GN particle light of a Celestial Being Gundam in the distance…