Gundam 00 — Episode 16
The cardinal laws of Gundam story-telling: When things go wrong, it just means that it’s time to throw new Gundams at them, and when animators fall behind schedule, it’s time to do a recap episode and disguise it as real content.
Summary
Three new Gundams save the day.
Gundam Throne Eins piloted by Johann Trinity has some kind of long range cannon thing. It is also very black, like a bottomless abyss sucking away the hopes and aspirations of humankind.
Gundam Throne Zwei piloted by Michal Trinity launches little flying thingies that look and move just like funnels except that they don’t shoot lasers but rather ram the targets. EDIT: Eh. I guess they do shoot lasers after all. That’s what I get for watching the episode at midnight and writing the review 15 hours later…
Gundam Throne Drei piloted by Neina Trinity can expand its GN particle field to a really large area in an intentional wing-like spread that looks almost biblical. She calls it the “stealth field” because it disrupts enemy sensors over a large area, but I find it a little ironic to call such a firework display stealthy.
Together, the three of Gundam Thrones rescue Setsuna and friends and wrap things up before the commercial break. The battle itself is somewhat anticlimactic. There’s pretty much no fighting at all; it’s basically a bunch of mobile suits getting blown up by the Thrones. Just when the Gundams finally seemed to be evenly matched, the balance of power suddenly reverts back to the unilateral pwnage that we’ve been seeing since episode 1.
And the rest of the episode is spent on ten minutes of old recap clips with new voice-overs by Alejandro and his Guardian buddies. That’s not too say that it’s totally useless because we get to learn more about the organization behind Celestial Being, but it just feels kind of lazy of Sunrise to have a clip show at this point of the story.
This scene, where Alejandro and the other Guardians are discussing about the new Gundam Thrones, is reminiscent of Evangelion’s SEELE, with each Guardian being represented by a piece of artwork instead of a black numbered monolith. (Speaking of that, Throne Drei’s red “wings” look like the Evangelion ones too!)
“I paid a trillion dollars for this painting to drill a hole through it.”
“I like to pretend that I am invisible.”
“This statue emphasises my superior intellect.”
“I have no idea what this is supposed to be, and I am too rich to care.”
Celestial Being and the Guardians are two separate organizations that are part of a larger system that we still don’t know much about. It is also not explained as to whether Aeolia Schenberg founded Celestial Being as a member of this greater power or as the founder of the overall parent organization, but I think it’s probably the former.
The role of Celestial Being is to conduct armed interventions and force change upon the world, while the role of the Guardians is to watch over Celestial Being so as to keep it in check. The Guardians are mostly powerless to act except in the case where there is a unanimous consensus among all the Guardians, in which case they are as a whole empowered to veto any decisions made by Celestial Being.
As far as the Guardians know, there should only be five functional solar furnaces in existence. Therefore, the appearance of three new Gundams is a surprise to them. Sumeragi and the rest are equally clueless, so we can conclude that Celestial Being, or at least the branch of Celestial Being that we currently know, has nothing to do with the Thrones, the implication being that this mysterious supernational organization has other operating divisions beyond the Guardians and Celestial Being.
And well, we finally have a female Gundam pilot, Neina Trinity. She’s okay I guess, but her brothers give off villain vibes at over nine thousand times the background radiation level.
The Trinity
“I’m pretending to be Buddhist.”
…They are totally not siblings.
Also, Neina has a purple (evil) Haro.
Apparently the next episode will be action-packed, or so the episode preview says. But I don’t trust G00’s episode previews any more.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:28 am
[Patrick didnt “survive” the first fight, he was “allowed to live”.]
What does “survive” mean to you then?
[Not being blown to bits is not some sort of mark of skill.]
What could he have done then?
[Especially against an exhausted foe, also he did nothing in this last battle.]
Once again, what’s there to be done?
February 1st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Possibly true. However I still think it’s funny how he always gets shot down.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Episode 11 Review - Comment 23.
Don’t say I didn’t notice the similarities to Evangelion before ^^
Now we have
Guardians -> SEELE
Celestial Being -> NERV
Throne Gundams -> S2 Engines
~Dazzer
February 1st, 2008 at 5:11 pm
That’s where the similarities end though. The fact is that Evengelion was just better. It has a near perfect balance of what everyone loves in an anime. Mindless violence, character deelepment, and the whoel politiacal/ tactical thing. Thats beside the point though. Gundam is what it is no point in drawing comparisons.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:49 pm
In real life he’s an ace with bad luck, that’s all. At least enough luck so far to survive.
In the anime itself he’s just a sidekick for comical relief.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Do you guys notice the significance of the colour of the dispersing particles between the Gundam Meisters’ and Gundam Throne’s mobile suits? Not only in the superiority in power and abilities, but also the difference in goals.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 am
@Guner: Next time I hear a story about somebody surviving a brush with death I’ll remember to think about how they were “allowed to live” rather than being lucky.
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Yes and no. Yes to power an abilities, at least s far. But no to the goals as we don’t know the Throne’s goals yet, and for that matter CB’s true objectives
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:13 am
@Guner and Kaioshin: You are noth right In the story he was just luck, Tieria would not have spared is life. However in terms of plotline he was “allowed” to survive.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Ok, first sorry for the triple post. Second: I just remembered someone had complained about the size of one of the Throne’s swords. I need to say its actually not that bad. Remember Exia’s swords are smaller but it dual wields them. The sword on that throne is two-handed. so its actually not that big when you consider it.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:28 am
We need more planned, balanced action & more political matters like those happening in this real world.
And of course we need Haro VS Haro battles.
I wouldn’t be surprise if there’s another very shiny mobile suit that appears later on, and the 4 CB suits get some more upgrade with god-like powers & energy.
And i think Saji & Louise wun become MS pilots but maybe engineers or crew onboard Ploty.
February 8th, 2008 at 1:57 am
I like how the throne gundams look more like Zeon mobile suits. (not)
I wish hajime katoki still designed for the episodes.