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Episode 1 - Celestial Being
So here we are the premiere of Gundam 00 a series that looks to have the collective weight of the Gundam fan base on its shoulders. Will it live up to the hopes and prayers of the fans or will it flop as bad as Seed Destiny did in the end?
We start off in the year 2301 in some placed (looks more like a city than just an entire country) called “Crujis Republic” where we see children taking part in some sort of war. All the while there’s a message being played via the radios telling them to fight on and how they will never lose because they are fighting for god. Sadly, it seems these people are outgunned by the superior mechs. The top portion of these machines looks an awful lot like a Cylon Raider from Battlestar Galactica – right now to the scanning red eye. We then close in on a young kid, who appears to be a young Setsuna F. Seiei, is trying to fight off the giant machines. He comes to the conclusion that there is no god in the world because of what he has seen.
He begins to run to find cover and just as it looks like he’s done in a beam shots the mech aiming at him. We then see that all the “enemy” mechs are being taking out by way been to be someone shooting a beam gun at them. The boy looks up to see a strange light in the sky that seems to be coming from a Mobile suit. The suit turns and it’s a Gundam, a very mkII Gundam looking Gundam if you ask me. The scene ends with a pull out and it looks like Gundam is producing the “Wing of Light”. Man, that’s cool. I hope someone cooks up a wall paper of that.
We hit the opening credits. Nothing really special about them as we get the usual look at all the Gundam, characters ET all. I’m not too crazy about the opening song (Daybreak’s bell by L'arc en Ciel) but it’s nothing offensive and at least it’s not more TMR.
We’re now taken to the year 2307 (6 years later for those trying to keep count) and we see one of the AEU orbital elevators as we’re taken to one of the AEU’s practice ranges. It seems today a new mobile suit is being shown off (what appears to be the Enact) by dodging fire while hitting targets. Seems this unit uses solar power which is what surprises the crowd but one person (looks to be Graham Acre) seems to see it as more of a way for the AEU to cover their being behind on the orbital elevator. Things seem normal until we see something falling form the sky and we close in to see it being the Gundam Exia. Uh-oh, that’s not good for them. It seems that the Mobile suit being shown off is the target of said Gundam according to the pilot. It should also be noted that he refers to it as “Phase 1”, maybe phase 3 is PROFIT!
Just as it’s spotted all form of communication are jammed and disrupted. The Enact looks to be ready to fight the Gundam now that it’s landed and we also learn that it’s “Ace Pilot” Patrick Corlasawar piloting said Enact. You know, Ace pilots in the first episode don’t tend to last long as “ace pilots’ when they’re up against the main Gundam. Of course, the Exia easily disarms the Enact and then proceeds to cut off its arms and head. Ouch. Those few left in the stands come to the conclusion they have no idea who developed or use this “Gundam”. The Gundam then leaves to take on “phase 2” and we see that the cone thing on its back is its flight engine, which looks pretty cool. The AEU scrambles other units to chase the Exia as Graham concludes that this attack was a warning.
We’re now taken to the command ship of the Celestial Being as they update that all is going according to plan. Now the ship launches the Kyrios into action, which looks a lot like the Zeta’s Waverider in its flight mode.
Now we’re off to the orbital elevator “Tenchu” where we’re celebrating its 10th anniversary. There we get our first look at Wang Li Mi and her bodyguard Hong Rong.
Back to the Exia, it seems to have run into a bit of trouble as the AEU fighters have caught up to it with more on the way. We then see an Orange Haro who alerts Locton Stratos in the Gundam Dynames of Exia’s situation. We then go back to the sky and just as the Exia looks to be surrounded the enemy ships are being taken out by the sniper beam of the Gundam Dynames. Ok, that scope they have on the Dynames looks awesome.
Back in space it seem the orbital station and elevator is under attack by “terrorist forces” that one of the officers call “hellion”. While the military leaders flee Wand Li seem fairly calm. Doesn’t look good for the station as the terrorist forces get through and launch a missile attack at it. The Kyrios then makes its entrance and fires a beam to take out the missiles and then follows up by taking out two of the three terrorist mobile suits. Just as it looks like the third will complete its mission, the Gundam Virtue shows up and destroys the suit with its mega beam cannon. And with that it appears that phase three is complete, sadly without any profit.
The episode ends with a news report of what happened in space followed by Celestial Being announcing to the world that the Gundam are theirs and they intend to use them to eradicate all war on Earth with the reactions of various people and characters to this announcement. Of course, they give the line of the episode to Haro in the form of “Can’t be stopped” and we hit the end credits.
Nimrod’s thoughts – It’s only the first episode however, it’s a decent start for the series. It hasn’t given everything away yet, which is good, but I think things may get a tad confusing with the large cast of characters the series has. That said, it's still worth checking out as the idea of super powered Gundams seems to actually make sense here.
