Gundam 00 — Episode 24
As you can imagine from this picture, episode 24 is pretty emo. If you haven’t watched it yet, maybe you want to do that first before reading my usual cynical tearing down of what many people may find the most touching episode in the series. On the bright side, we are almost done! (Until season 2 at least.)
If I had to use an analogy to describe this episode, which I don’t but I shall anyway, then I would say that it’s like the fireworks during New Year celebrations. They are pretty nice and colourful but they last only a short while, burning themselves up in the process. Also, the whole fireworks get old after a while when you see them every year.
This is a very shitty analogy, so we shall stop here and move on.
Summary
Ptolemaios and the UN forces regroup their troops after the furious fighting in the previous episode. With just 11 Jinxes left, the UN receives a mysterious reinforcement in the form of a gigantic gold space pimpmobile. The two sides then clash in a final battle for survival, though it seems clear that Setsuna and gang stand no chance against the flying bling fortress.
“That’s no moon…”
Episode 24 is what Sunrise has been saving up for all this while, baby! And by saving up, I refer to the human cast of the series. Just like soylent green, the secret of Sunrise’s patented storyline formula lies in the death of human beings, and, continuing from episode 23’s light appetizer, we are slowly moving into the main course of total annihilation.
Patrick, a long lost member of Team Rocket, finally bites the dust in this episode, courtesy of Tieria Erde. While logically speaking it’s a miracle that he even managed to make it this far, from the perspective of story-telling it makes little sense to have him die at this point of the story, especially considering he just barely escaped death in episode 23.
Dr. Moreno, the doctor who wears a pair of dark sunglasses while he treats potentially-fatal wounds, dies an attack that takes out the entire starboard side of Ptolemaios. Since he had a total of about five seconds worth of appearance in the entire series, I wonder if his meaningless existence was the remnant of an aborted subplot, or if Sunrise really, really wanted to have someone who wears sunglasses in the show?
So he does have eyes…
Halfway through the episode, Christina and Lichty start to share their life stories. This is where you start to sympathize with them before they die later on in the episode. Yes, they die. To her credit, Chris saves Feldt’s life with a white lie, thus preserving the sanity of thousands of fanboys. The world owes you one, Chris. From a storyline viewpoint, this probably paves the way for Feldt to mature into a hardened Gundam Meister with a sexy body.
A cyborg’s got to do what a cyborg’s got to do
On the bright side, Sunrise can now lower the budget and lay off a few seiyuu.
That said, I am not heartless. Though the whole thing was a blatant attempt to create an emotional moment after so many episodes of weak character development, I did fall for it (a little). Christina and that guy, may you rest in peace and not be resurrected as brainwashed cyborg killing machines by the villain in season 2.
By the way, if you are wondering about Lichty’s cyborg body, his parents were orbital elevator technicians and he lost them, along with half his body, as a child during the Solar Conflict .
Screencaps
Is she going to do something or what?
Setsuna is mentally preparing himself for the ensuing rape
Question to Europeans: What’s with the funky colours?
“What’s that weird thing you’re using?” “A pencil.”
First the gold pistol, now this. Definitely compensating for something
Pikachu suit
They need to nerf this in the next patch
“Fire ze missiles!” “But I’m le tired.”
So, has anyone figured out why space smoke is pink in Gundam?
“HULK SMASH!”
It’s amazing how the rest of the room is completely blown apart
This is like Survivors in space
:(
:O
T_T
As a bonus for finishing this review, I present to you a short story.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
The pink smoke is due to the GN particles. I’m noticing a slight trend in this. More screen time == death. All Graham and the others need to do to live is hide from the camera…
March 24th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Without having the wait for the subbed version, i felt disappointed! I think this was the episode for me which defined the whole thing… kill all humans! It seems they are hell bent on killing off as many of the main cast or as much of the story as possible before leaving things on the cliffhanger for the next series. Perhaps they are not too sure if the show will get a second series so they are pulling out all the stops at the end of this one!
I have to say i started watching this show and thought it was going to be very good, okay so the story progression was a little slow but i figured there would be 50 episodes like Gundam Wing with which to build on, though it now appears plots and story arch have been put to the wall in favour of the Gundam Seed formula of ‘if its impossible, it’ll make a cool graphic!’
Dear god i’m starting to take apart a show i should be watching for fun and break it down into chunks to see why i feel cheated!! To top it all they are going to make you wait until October before concluding the story… should they still have one!!
Someone save me!
On a side note, by the time Grahams Flag is fitted out with a GN Drive all the GN-X’s will be dust and we will be lucky if there is a Gundam left standing!!
Though i have to admit the screen rendering and the drawing does look rather nice.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Then is the UN just gonna leave CB alone. Unless Setsuna manage to defeat them in the next ep and they go into hiding.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Listen to uncle TJ Han and go to law school. I’m sure you’ll win all cases.
And stop making us laugh at such an emotional episode…
“HULK SMASH!! :( :O T_T”
March 25th, 2008 at 12:00 am
rebuilding the gundams is probably whats gonna happen, so long as the GN drives (and the one container left) remain in one piece they can be rebuilt, though getting out alive will be a hassle
March 25th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Short story…so funny….so true.
What will you be blogging once 00 is done?
March 25th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I love how Setsuna looks so confident in being able to eliminate the big golden pimpmobile. Seriously, I wonder why they didn’t choose to retreat or even try to run away. That golden ship dosen’t look fast enough to keep up.
After the Ptolemaios lost two pods and half the ship and an engine… wouldn’t be logical to abandon ship knowing that another big beam can arrive at any second? I really believe Sumeragi let them die by leaving them alone in a broken ship… Feldt was an “unexpected” survivor. :3
Apart from that, Its kind of obvious that the golden ship was really added late in the story structure. No one has ever seen or heard about it untill oops, its a reinforcement unit?
Who would have guessed that Sunrise could just pop out some horrendous plot device to undermine the gundam’s Trans-Am? (Anyone who watched code geass knows that Sunrise is very good at throwing everything in in one shot… Like the Orange guy in his weird mind-controlled sphere and the Sakuradite filled robot and all the useless added antagonists all jumping in at the same time.)
I knew that the Trans-AM would be a short lived false hope. And then again, nothing is surprising anymore. Death and destruction, bigger and badder weapons… Yipee! Next up Nuclear weapons! (oops… taboo…)
I don’t hate Gundam 00 I just think it could have been much better, the ideas behind it are good but the execution is very poor. I just hope it gets better in season 2… with all the stuff happening it really looks like theyre adapting the end of season 1 to fit nicely with a (hopefully) thoroughly planned season 2.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:23 am
oh make more parodies…loving those lines instead of sunrise
March 25th, 2008 at 12:47 am
I have not even seen the subbed 20-22 yet, i just dont care anymore.
Anyhow, fun review this time. More interesting and entertaining than the show.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:12 am
just ignore those comments…this is almost a free country where you can express anything you want regardless wat people might say.Hey, its ur blog anyway, rite?
ur a little 30+/- hour late to post ep 24 review….i was waiting for sumthing to come up and had a check on ur site every 2-3 hour.the exam might have stunt up ur brain a bit
alas they got rid of that joker character Patrick coleslaw(or sumthing..)he manage to survive half the story only to tell the universe how idiot he is and then meet the maker in a not so bad white,shining,bright,confusing death…
…and there are so many char being remove from this episode…STOP DYING U IDIOTS!
hehe…
March 25th, 2008 at 1:27 am
only gripe i have with the show is that the only cool looking MS (the union flag and to a lesser extent the enact mass production type) has had bugger all screen time (one pissing contest with exia, two CAPs (combat air patrols) and watching exia offload the preist guy in episode 13) i wanna see more of the standard flag in action
March 25th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Nena has to play a big part or else the Gundam got divided for no reason and that means Lockon died for no reason
March 25th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Tomino “kill-them-all” is back…just kidding. LOL.
And I LOVE IT!! See that scene when the GN-X blows the bridge apart?
That is a slap in the face for Gundam Seed and its Freedom Gundam appearance scene.
Good job for the director!
“Hey, there is NO Freedom Gundam to save your @$$ this time! So deal with it, Seed Fans!!”
March 25th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Lockon died because he was stupid. Trans-am + run up behind or next to the guy + headshot.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:03 am
To Guner: That’s because that was this annoying black guy (not to be racist here) who drives the GN-X that crashes into Lockon…
March 25th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Heh, bullshit. The gundams survived 15 hours of constant barrage in the past, and one little bump somehow messes things up now?
March 25th, 2008 at 2:36 am
@Guner: One little bump eh? I’d like to see you say that when you get into a car wreck caused by a suicidal driver barreling down on you.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Quite intresting how they make the Gundam Meisters start of as invincible and then in the last few eps they start killing people of like crazy…
And then we still have a second season? Oh my god! Survirors with masks probability 100% or what?
Oh well. Nice post DM :)
March 25th, 2008 at 2:40 am
@ Seraphim
Code Geass 2, what else? Too bad I will be in NS and can’t watch it every week like G00 or Hayate No Gotoku.
It is a pity Christina died though. I like her character.
Well wildarmsheero is partially right about you not appreciating G00 enough, but how much appreciation one wants to give is up to the person. We are not cyborgs being controlled by some CABAL entity.
I bet the last person is Danny Choo. And yeah go study for your As already. Don’t waste time on anime xD.
P.S I thought those people who knew what Soylent Green is already died out in this world.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:42 am
damn, few years later Marina is gonna be like 30 year-old obasan…also i think it’s Sergei who blew up the bridge of Ptolemaios and got himself killed…just maybe…