Gundam 00 — Episode 5
I don’t really like episode 5. It has zero politics and way too much Louise. Oh my god, what an annoying girl.
“I have no fashion sense.”
The episode does reveal a few things which I will talk about… But mostly it’s predictable fluff. And the next episode looks like Exia-pwnage galore… Sigh, where’s my politics? :(
America’s President visits Taribia and shakes hands with the Prime Minister. Taribia is promised material aid and an increased portion of the solar energy. See, Taribia would’ve benefited either way.
“You jump, I jump.”
Saji and Louise visits the Low Orbital Station Shinchuu (真柱) for a study trip. The name 真柱 can refer to the central pillar of a pagoda, but in this case it probably does not because that meaning has a different reading. It may mean “Pillar of Truth” in this case, or maybe not.
By the way, it seems that Saji’s sister, Kinue, does not approve of Louise. Kinue, you have my fullest support!… Wait actually I hate your brother’s face too. Never mind.
Interesting fact: The company which operates the elevator’s transport system is called “International Space Railway Transportation Public Corporation” or I.S.R.T. for short.
Also, the power generated by the solar panels is transmitted to the elevator via microwave. Why? I guess they were too lazy to lay copper wires.
Soma’s custom mobile suit, MSJ-06II-SP Tieren Tao2, makes its appearance. Why the hell is it pink? I don’t know. But since pink is closer to red than black, it should move faster than Graham’s Flag Custom.
And don’t quote me on the “Tao2″ part. The katakana says タオツー and I seriously have no idea what else it might mean.
EDIT: Apparently it might be “taozi” (written as 桃子 in Chinese), which means “peach”. I guess that makes a lot more sense than my random guess.
Allelujah gets headshot by a railgun!
Allelujah and Soma both have the Newtype flash. Oh great. I guess they will end up mating and giving birth to super Newtype Coordinator Enchanced Soldier babies or something. And Allelujah also suffers from schizophrenia, apparently…
That’s not supposed to happen…
The episode is basically about HRL’s crappy construction that can’t even take a few hits from a regular mobile suit rifle. A sector of the Pillar of Heaven’s low orbital station comes loose and starts to drift towards Earth, gradually descending to its doom! We can be sure that heads will roll in their engineering department after this.
As all physics students should know, the gravitational field strength at a certain point in space is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between that point and the centre of mass of a nearby planet. In order to stay in stable orbit, a satellite’s tangential velocity has to compensate for the centripetal force (i.e. the gravity) which it experiences.
Because the drifting block is getting closer to earth, strength of Earth’s gravity acting on it increases and it needs to accelerate to stay in orbit. Which it can’t. Oh noz! It’s hopeless! If only we were in a Japanese anime series where there is at least one dues ex machina every episode! Oh wait a minute…
Kyrios is doing push-ups
We are! Oh, how convenient.
What a big…gun
Do not try this at home
It seems that Dynames can hit things that are in orbit from the ground. That’s goddamn insane because the power of laser beams dissipates over distance due to the air and dust particles in the atmosphere.
According to the instructor assigned to Saji and Louise, the so-called “low orbital” station is actually more like medium orbital. It is 10,000km above ground, way higher than any modern day definition of “low orbit”.
So anyway, even if GN particles can somehow not decrease in intensity over huuuuge distances, it’s hard to imagine how the hell can someone aim at a target area that is a few metres wide from literally ten thousand kilometres away on the ground. Especially since you can’t adjust the trajectory after firing, unlike guided missiles and maybe even bullets.
The episode ends in tragedy as Louise, along with Saji, fails to die in a fiery unshielded atmospheric re-entry. Oh, cruel fate! T_T
The next episode is “Seven Swords” and it is about Exia showing off its…ummm…seven swords that it has hidden all over its body.
P.S. This episode has not enough of Liuming’s wardrobe changes.
Liuming’s costume of the episode
P.P.S. This episode took a lot longer to translate than I had expected, no thanks to this name list.
Half of the names there are Russian and I could barely make out the katakana… -_- The stupid thing is that the rest of the windows are in English.
November 6th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Just so you know, it’s not like G00 invented this. The Orbital Elevator idea has been around for a while.
November 6th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
I think the pink/red MS is a throwback to First Gundam, where Char`s MS was red[but it tends more towards pink].
Backing this up is the designation of the unit, MSJ-06II -SP Tieren Tau-II, which bears striking similarity to the Zaku II`s designation[MS-06 Zaku II].
Char`s was designated MS-06S Zaku II Commander, which was THREE TIMES as fast as the standard Zaku II. Both are red/pink and also share a the mono eye camera design.
I wouldn`t be surprised if we see Goufs[heat rod!] or Doms[hovering MS that wears skirts!] in later episodes ;o
November 6th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
BTW I just want to point out that although Mendoi-Conclave eventually decided on translating it as Tau-II, there is no official confirmation as to whether it should be Tau-II, Tao-II or Taozi.
Personally I thought “Taozi” (桃子) is the most probable choice, especially since “Tieren” (铁人) itself is a Mandarin word.
November 6th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
In Menclave’s subs they say that some sort of magnetic fluid that circulates around the station helps keep it in orbit…
And Marina’s suit isn’t that bad at all, on the contrary I like it! Its just that her non-smiling [as of now anyway] demeanor doesn’t fit it.
And I pose a question that’s ripe for speculation: Why keep Ms. Sumeragi around when they have Veda?
November 7th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Scientifically, Lockon could not have aimed it accurately by purely visual means. Air humidity (clouds) and turbulence (especially by Setsuna’s unscientific cloud-slicing trick) mean that there would have been too much light refraction to get an accurate aim at a target over 10000 km away (probably much further away than that, since Dynames was not shooting straight up but at an angle) by just looking at it. He had to have different means of tracking the target, and so cloud should not have been a factor.
Of course, this is Gundam world we’re talking about, where mobile suits, against scientific common sense, are not only possible but the most effective weapons around. As long as it looks cool, it’s all good, and I’m all for it! :D
November 7th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
If you look at it closely, the Gun lockon uses in this episode was alot bigger than the one he used previously. Just as well, the scope looks like a giant Microscope. And anyone should have noticed the giant engine attached to the back of….whatever that gundam name is, which is probaly the thing which is giving it to power to launch beams with enough power to blast apart compartment joints even after being disipated through the atmostphere, and it seems closer to a conpressed energy weapon than a beam weapon, judging from the compression bit while charging.
And for the record, the orbital elevator idea isn’t that far fetched. Over the course of history, humanity have constantly constructed taller and taller buildings (Eifel tower, Taipei 101, etc, etc.). It’s pretty logical to assume that 300 years later, we’ll eventually construct buildings that reach outer space. Similar to the Dyson sphere theory.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:37 am
Where do u guys watch it? cuz i cant find it anywhere! i cant find ep 5
November 8th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
http://www.mymenclave.com/
Best subbers ;)
November 11th, 2007 at 4:07 am
No offense but…
why are you watching it if you’re complaining so much? and dude, it’s science fiction. Don’t question why lasers can shoot that far or how they transfer their energy. Mechas don’t even exist yet and those are the crux of the entire gundam enterprise.
go watch reality tv if you want something real.
November 14th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
I have to admit, this series have a bit of science fiction in it, having the particles, enhanced humans etc. But it’s more about war and politics.
I don’t see anything wrong about Dynames ability to shoot from very, very, very far away. He’s using his visual abilities to fire that huge gun. I don’t think there IS any deflection of image from ground to space.
I don’t think Louise will die that soon though. She and Saji are just plain careless and stupid, which almost led to their frying death to Earth. But they are OK characters.
I have the feeling that Allelujah Haptism is similarly modified like Soma Peiris in the past. There’s no other reason why they could feel each other’s presence and go crazy at the very same moment. (I do not take it that I’m the first and only one to figure that out though)
Anyway, thanks to yesterday’s internet DC, I got the chance to watch episodes 5 & 6. But that almost fried my marks for not doing my homework, which requires me to go online.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:35 am
lmao The episode ends in tragedy as Louise, along with Saji, fails to die in a fiery unshielded atmospheric re-entry. Oh, cruel fate! T_T