Gundam 00 — Episode 25
This is the last episode of the first season, something which I did not realize until halfway through the episode. The ending is rushed as expected and I think that it’s worse than Sunrise’s usual standard. Still, maybe season two will be better? At the very least it will have some funkier spacesuit designs.
Summary
Everyone dies, or at least appears to die.
Gone in 60 seconds
“Pikapi…”
He sees dead people
Alejandro is betrayed by Libonze, the real super villain. Graham and Setsuna fight to the “death”. A destroyed Exia floats in space with Earth as its backdrop while Marina cries over a letter Setsuna sent her before he sortied.
Gay harem
Three years later, the United Nations is officially renamed the Earth Federation (I kid you not). And one year after that, the Earth Federation Peacekeeping Force is formed and the various national armed forces are slowly dismantled and integrated into a joint command. Their mobile suits look suspiciously like Knightmare Frames…
Uh… All hail Britannia?
Saji is now working in space and a few other familiar characters make short appearances in the last few scenes of the episode.
The namesake of the entire series, 00 Gundam, makes a short five-second cameo right at the very end.
Critique
There are a lot of things wrong with how the ending played out, but I shall just focus on the most jarring bit: Graham.
Immediately after Setsuna defeats Alejandro’s bling machine with Exia, Graham comes flying in with his GN Flag looking for a fight. After some clichéd and completely nonsensical smack talking, the fight ends in a draw as both Exia and the Flag are destroyed.
“I am Sunrise’s bitch.”
I don’t personally like Graham much, but this rushed battle really cheapens his entire existence. Having waited for so many episodes and bore the pain of losing two of his close friends, all Graham gets is a short quickie which the scriptwriters forcefully squeezed into the last episode.
We all know that the plot calls for Exia to be destroyed so that Setsuna can embark on a journey of recovery and eventually obtain a much cooler Gundam. But it doesn’t have to be Graham. Setsuna could’ve drawn with Alejandro instead.
And what exactly is the point of getting Graham to make a short appearance in the last episode just to “die” in a spectacular explosion of GN particles?
Darth Veda
Sunrise needed a masked man. Oh for the love of…
Screencaps
Ha/Allelujah’s secret overpower move: using both eyes simultaneously
Mecha guro
“I don’t know what I should do in such situations…”
“Why don’t you try smiling?”
Plamo coming soon
Plamo coming soon
Oh Marina, you silly paedophile
Tieria MkII?
The first Gundam
This was a triumph / I’m making a note here…
I’m guessing the Earth Federation will be opposed by a group of smaller nations who do not wish to give up their sovereignty? They can even call themselves Zeon if they want…
On another note, I am so tempted to upgrade to the newly-released Wordpress 2.5, but I fear for the many plugins that my template relies on…
April 8th, 2008 at 10:19 am
So, Setsunas really dead? He’s the main character hes not supposed to die. If there is a season two, whos going to fight if most of the main characters are dead? Would somebody please explain to me why Gundam unit 00 looks just like RX-78-2 from mobile suit gundam?! Wow how original Sunrise, how original. I have to admit I watched the last episode on youtube and it’d be great if it had subtitles so that I new what exactly was going on. I’m still wondering tho, is there going to be a season two? If there is I’d love to see any new Gundams that are introduced. I’m wondering who will sing the opening and if it will be any good like the last two.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
If you’ve seen the episode, at the end you’ll get to see a brief glimpse of 00 Gundam. I think it looks A LOT like GAT X-105 Strike Gundam. For one, it’s got those vertical spikes on top of the Gundam’s Tiara thing. On it’s nose area, it also has those arrows going upwards. These features are not present in the first season of Gundam 00 Gundams….
April 9th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Are we seeing the Amuro-Char form rivalries all coming back in the 2nd season? For some reasons, Setsuna-Graham’s rivalry is obvious another Amuro-Char stints where the antigonist is always masked. Sheessh, when is Gundam going to put out that ‘masked guy’ crap permanently?
April 11th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
you know what i think with all the deaths? hah.
they’re probably just flushing out the unpopular character because they probably got a lot of complaints already.. this series isn’t nearly as popular as the seed series. they do have a history of changing their characters.. or at least the focus of their characters.. like in the middle of a series after all. only this time they did it at the end of season one.. a kill button for all the unpopular characters!
April 11th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Luminance, fortunate that you catch the cameo scene. I only managed to catch it on Youtube. But it looks a lot like Exia, doesn’t it?
But I feel the last battle is a bit too abrupt and rushed. Why let the camera roll while Exia got K.O. in his second consecutive fight? And come to think about the green-red explosion at the end of the fight, didn’t that mean that the GN Drive of Exia is the one that explode? I’m getting a bit of confused there…
April 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Hey guys, it’s been a while.
“Earth federation versus Innovator. that’s how i see it hahaha..”
Yes and no. Those two will square off for sure. But I don’t exactly see CB teaming up with Innovator. And we all know how much the Earth hates CB. So imho it’s going to be another multi-sided conflict. I agree completely that this season ending was rushed. I wonder how its gonna play out in season two, beyond the obvious factions warring with each other. Also, and i know its premature to ask this, but any news on when season 2 is going to come out?
Lastly DM I ready your episode 24 blog, those cracks about Alejandro’s suit made me laugh.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Season 2 will air in October.
Setsuna’s not dead, dude. He just passed out….
Here’s my take:
-Either Ian or Wang gets the O Gundam.
-Nena gets the 00 Gundam.
-Nena gets pwned by Graham(or Ali).
-Setsuna goes bonkers and pilots the 00 Gundam.
-Setsuna fights Graham, Alle comes to the rescue.(Provided that Kyrios got an overhaul)
-Alle pwns Graham, Halle-style, Graham escapes.
-Setsuna fights Ali, then Tieria comes to the rescue.
-Tieria goes for the final blow, only to have his kill stolen by an unknown mobile suit.
-Setsuna and Tieria watches over the horizon, and saw a familiar green Gundam shilloutte(spelling?) holding the GN Sniper Rifle—Cliffhangar (End of the 3/4 of the series)
Cool Huh…? God knows what will happen to the O Gundam… Perhaps it’ll fight Ribbons’s Flying Head Of Doom and lose both it’s head and it’s left arm. Then in a desperate move, the O Gundam pulls a Final Shot and kills Ribbons. Only this time, the Flying Head of Doom won’t have the chance to fire back.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Thankyou for telling me when its going to air. Also we know that Setsuna is alive (duh), but I doubt Graham is. First off it looks like Exia’s sword went through the cockpit, but even if it didn’t if you watch the episode again you’ll notice that after Graham says his last words you actually see the explosion in his cockpit. Even if he had survived the explosion his space suit would have been torn to shreds, no one could have survived that. As for Nena getting 00 I don’t know about that, but we’ll see. In all honesty I think Setsuna is still Exia’s pilot, unless he quit CB. The reason behind this is simple, CB recovered Exia, so they recovered him too. And he won’t go to another gundam, he’s way to attached to Exia for that.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
erm… isnt graham the dude wif the mask? DM has a picture above captioned “Darth Veda”… i think thats graham…
April 15th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Good point. Now that I look closer the hairstyle does look similar. It might be him, it might not. I’m not sure now, especially with Sunrise. Of course they would find an excuse to let someone who should have died live. So now that you point that out there is a good possibility that it is him. But what is with the mask?
April 16th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I think the “author” of this site needs to actually learn how to review something. All I see here is a homophobic moron who likes to state his opinion as facts.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Oh and before I leave… I think I smell a lot of UC fanbois..
April 19th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Well, 99/100 of this review was entirely a critique of the episode and not an actual review, jackass. If you had stated your stand on his reviews after reading ALL of his past and current reviews, then I forgive you. However, the way you are implying it is that you are judging him based on this one half-assed review (no offense DM).
April 21st, 2008 at 6:54 am
They should have saved the Graham x Setsuna fight for the bloody ext season. urgh! It would have been such an awesome chivalrous romance…
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
I like Gundams.
I like boobs (see my name for more info)
We need to see more of boobs, especially Sumeragi san’s boobs. And Nena needs a low cut high boobage outfit - murderous lolita pilot!?!??! :O