Gundam 00 episode 2 is awesome!
As expected, the series is very heavily influenced than contemporary military and political events. (Although it’s kind of doubtful that the political situation will remain so consistent for the next three hundred years when you consider how much has changed in the last three hundred.)
It’s like when you watch Lucky Star and go “ZOMG COOL” when the characters make a reference to some obscure game, except that Gundam 00 (G00) does it with CNN headlines. It’s like a crash course on modern politics, and it’s quite timely too considering the whole Iraq debate that’s been making its rounds in Japan’s Diet.
First of all, we now know the nations that comprise the three power blocs in the story.
Although it’s not clear in the picture, Japan is definitely part of the Union. Surprisingly, the United Kingdom is not, but I guess it makes sense. Although it would make sense too for Japan to be part of the Jinkakuren, but I guess the producers didn’t want to piss off the nationalist right. By the way, the black dots represent the locations of the three space elevators. They are all on the equator. Union’s elevator is located somewhere around modern day Columbia and northern Brazil.
Besides China, India and Russia, the whole of South East Asia is under the Human Reform League (Jinkakuren). This is probably because the League wants to secure its energy pipeline laid on the seabed starting from its space elevator located to the east of New Guinea to somewhere in India. Well maybe not just India, but the episode confirmed that there is a pipeline off the eastern coast of what is currently Sri Lanka.
AEU is pretty much just EU. Africa and the Middle East are left unclaimed by the three great powers, just as I discussed in my previous comments. Since AEU’s space elevator is located somewhere around modern day Congo and Tanzania, I think it’s safe to say that the African continent is more or less a dependency of the AEU.
Interestingly, one of the councillors of AEU looks just like Germany’s first female chancellor, Angela Merkel. It made me go LOL.
And the Union’s president makes some very interesting remarks.
We intervene in other nations’ conflicts for our own people’s safety and for national interest.
We are not running a charity.
I’m sure [Celestial Being] will reveal their true intentions soon.
When the time comes, it will be our destiny to deliver judgement upon them.
That just sounds like we are going to witness a 24th century Iraq War soon. I love this show!
This episode is about the Celestial Being launching an “armed intervention” against the 300-year-old civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority of Sri Lanka. Except that in the show, Sri Lanka has fallen into anarchy and the island is now referred to either as the Former Sri Lanka, or Ceylon Island. Interestingly, Ceylon Island is the historical name of Sri Lanka and even now is used in certain situations, such as Celyon tea.
Jinkakuren mobile suits piloted by Tamil rebels
Sinhalese soldiers
The Tamil minority are backed by the Human Reform League. This is because the Tamils control the eastern parts of Ceylon Island and there’s a League solar energy pipeline running on the seabed off the coast there. Because of the League’s interventions that destroyed the balance of power, Tamils gained overpowering advantage and the ruling Sinhalese majority government collapsed as the country fell into anarchy.
What’s I really really love about G00 is that the producers obviously did their research. They didn’t just take some random political trivial and stuck it into the story, they actually understand the intricacies of what they are doing. This can really help to educate the otaku population on current world events when they do wiki-research on the real-life parallels found in the story.
For example, one little detail they paid attention to is the way that the different blocs referred to Ceylon. The President of the Union referred to it as “Former Sri Lanka”, while AEU’s and League’s personnels referred to it as “Ceylon Island”, thus reflecting a difference in opinion regarding the political situation there. Just like how we use “Myanmar” in South East Asia but the western countries prefer its colonial name “Burma”.
If this keeps up, G00 may just become my favourite Gundam series ever. :P
P.S. I translated episode two for Conclave-Mendoi. ^_^
October 14th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
ohh i need to watch this. That’s cool that you translated the second episode!
October 14th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Well-read.
October 14th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I thought ep 2 was most coolsome too,
October 14th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Ehh, energy crisis… Where are the Nuclear? 300 years down the road and it’s gone?
Are the lights or phroton particles emitted from those Gundams created by Nuclear? If it is so, the Gundams will be their targets and the world will be unified (for the time being). Where are the NUKES???
October 14th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
The lights are created by the decay of photons caused by a newly-discovered particle called GN Particle. Celestial Being are the only ones who know of its existence and can make use of it.
I presume that nuclear power is not sufficient to satisfy the energy requirement of the entire world, considering how fossil fuels have run out completely.
Nukes are probably outlawed by international treaty, especially considering the fragile structures of the space elevators which are the lifeline of the entire planet.
October 14th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
have the xdcc list for mendoi’s channel??
October 14th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
LOL, you just did for Gundam 00 for I did for Moyashimon. But yeah goo is great, the fight scenes are pure carnage. Like an UT free for all.
October 14th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
“We intervene in other nations’ conflicts for our own people’s safety and for national interest.”
Yeah, pretty much the same thing those fucking USians are saying now. Fuckers…
October 14th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
I thought it was neat, too. One thing I did notice is a *large* part of western Russia is part of the AEU, although it isn’t labeled as such.
October 14th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
angela merkel.. oh boy you made me lol so hard there!
Am I the only one who thinks that the old mechas the two fractions are using are actually better looking than those gundams?
October 14th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
I think you mean Tanzania not Tazmania. Sorry, I know this is nitpicking ^_^;
I agree though, Gundam 00 could do a lot of good education!