Gundam 00 — Episode 12
This episode is pretty awesome because it does not have 10 minutes of contrived Allelujah emo, and it has some politics and background information about the world of Gundam 00! I love those.
And of course, like all the other good episodes, Ms. Wang changes into a new dress. How deep does the rabbit hole go? Or in this case, her wardrobe…
Last week’s episode was a boring snore fest and I said as much in my post. Some of you were not too happy about it because you are homo-erotically attracted to Allelujah or whatever. I was actually considering writing a satirical entry this week to talk about how awesome this episode is, even though it’s probably turning out to be a piece of feline defecation.
But that plan went right out of the window, possibly killing someone on its way down since I live pretty high up, because this episode turned out to be genuinely interesting, so hurray! What a pleasant surprise that I can finally write about non-filler episode content instead of trying to pad my post with semi-unfunny image captions.
Actually, I’m still going to do that.
Background
Some important background information is revealed in the course of this episode.
The Solar Conflict (太陽光紛争) began in the Middle East. With the completion of the solar energy system, the UN adopted a resolution to restrict the export of oil from the Middle East. This resulted in a group of Middle Eastern nations taking up arms and going to war. The resulting conflict lasted for 20 years and pretty much screwed up the region for good this time.
Numerous Middle Eastern nations were broken up and numerous new ones were formed from their remnants. Apparently this happened a lot of times. The Kingdom of Azadistan was newly (re)formed after it annexed the Kurdish Republic, which was experiencing internal strife.
Caspian Sea to the north; Persian Gulf to the south
It is revealed by the narrator (Amuro Ray!) that the Kingdom lies between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, making it 100% confirmed that Azadistan is modern day Iran. (And a portion of Iraq too since the Kurdish Republic is probably modern day Kurdistan.)
Oh god, I can’t wait till Sunrise starts a political commentary about Iranian nuclear ambitions. XD
The Kingdom of Azadistan suffers from political instability because there are two opposing sects with differing interpretations of the “state religion”. Sunrise never actually mentions the religion by name, but it’s definitely Islam. The two sects form the conservatives (”infidels, get out of our holy land!”) and the reformists (”please come and make us rich Americans!”) respectively. The parliament is largely controlled by reformists although there are conservatives too. Marina is a reformist.
Summary
I am a religious leader
A religious leader among the conservatives, Masd Rafmadi (not official romanization; probably wrong), is kidnapped by an unknown armed group. (Ali Al-Serges is involved.) The conservatives of course suspect the reformists. Azadistan is thrown into a perilous state as civil war looms and the two sides throw accusations at each other.
I am a symbolic leader
The conservative members of the parliament choose to boycott the sessions. Taking advantage of their absence, the reformists strike a deal with the Union to seek Union’s military protection in a potential civil war. The Union is happy to help because it sees this as a perfect opportunity to lure the Gundams out.
You can’t really see them, but imagine Flag Custom and Dynames fighting
Ultraconservative elements in the Azadistan Army launches a coup d’état and executes a first strike on the newly-constructed solar energy receiver antennas that were built with UN technical assistance. The antennas are completely destroyed. Dynames intervenes and meets Graham’s Flag Custom. Some fighting and melodramatics ensue.
Setsuna doing his thing
Additional mobile suits controlled by conservatives head towards the capital in an attempt to seize the royal palace. This is thwarted by Setsuna and reinforcements from the Union Armed Forces. Setsuna has a severe case of déjà vu in the process as he recalls his being saved by an angelic Gundam. He also realizes that he has not yet become the Gundam of his dreams and does a little orz.
Doctorate holders
In the meantime, Kinue investigates on all the PhD holders who disappeared over the past 200 years in an attempt to trace Aoelia’s plans and Saji gets a little MILF action.
Comments
I love this episode because this is what G00 should be about. We do have some of the “character development” that people obsess over, but it’s done without wasting an entire episode on teenage angst and bad story flow. I just hope the next episode doesn’t degenerate into an homo-erotic encounter between Setsuna and Ali.
This episode also has a ton of Persian/Arabic proper nouns and, since I don’t speak any language from that region, I guessed my way through when I was translating it. I am absolutely convinced that Sunrise just makes shit up in katakana without caring if it actually works.
The Holy Gundam
The next episode is titled “Return of the Jedi Saint”. This refers to Setsuna gaining back his groove and kicking ass while looking angelic to the ignorant masses beneath. Don’t be fooled people, it’s just lens flare!
Yay for long and straight
Also, there will be no Gundam next Saturday due to New Year programming. Episode 13 will air on the 5th of January. This is great because I will be in Japan for Comiket on the 29th and I don’t want to be translating any damn Gundam there.
Screencaps
Sunrise cunning avoided using the word “mosque” by removing 回教 from 回教寺院
Apparently Middle East speaks English in the future
He’s holding pizza, but surprisingly there isn’t a Pizza Hut product placement
Bad fashion sense starts from young
“I am Kurdish in case you forgot”
Poseur
I can’t stand this guy’s nonsensical lines
He drooled onto his helmet visor
OMG! Who messed up the white balance?… And clone-stamped away the mountains?
“Please don’t rape me!” T_T
He sure likes to throw his equipment around
And that’s all folks!
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:38 am
> A religious leader among the conservatives, Masd Rafmadi (not official romanization; probably wrong)
Its probably “Massoud Rakhmadi”. Both are Persian names.
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:59 am
Oh my god, I do see drool in that shot of Graham! XDDDDDDD
December 23rd, 2007 at 9:16 am
Do Kurds wear turbans? And you don’t wear a turban with the hair sticking out…
December 23rd, 2007 at 9:38 am
He probably spit too much when shouting away.
December 23rd, 2007 at 9:44 am
He probably ain’t good in wearing turbans.
December 23rd, 2007 at 10:09 am
Setsuna is the worst one amongst the gundam meister….
the second one is Halleluja…
December 23rd, 2007 at 4:32 pm
LOLed @ the MILF action… Don’t know why but I feel that the little blond bitch is gonna get killed and her boyfriend is going to become a Gundam Meister just to revenge her death…
December 23rd, 2007 at 4:37 pm
“Please don’t rape me!” T_T
He sure likes to throw his equipment around
Wow, where in hell did that come from?
I didn’t see that one coming from ya, Dark!
Those two lines after each otehr don’t make a good scene fro underaged viewers.
Nice, work, just keep it up!
December 23rd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I can’t wait to watch episode 13 after looking at the previews and also want to listen to the new upcoming theme songs in that episode. I hope the ending theme is better than the current “Wana”.
December 23rd, 2007 at 7:55 pm
> He drooled onto his helmet visor
I thought he had incontinence due to the G created by his evasive maneuver :-)
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I agree with the caption for Setsuna. He does throw everything around from beam sabers, GN blades, to his shield.
Use the friggin’ rifle attached to your right arm, Setsuna! Oh wait, you suck with rifles. Nevermind. O_o;
December 24th, 2007 at 1:45 am
I see… so you started calling her Ms. Wang too…