Anime Review: Gundam 00 from Sunrise

[juushika]

Gundam 00
Sunrise, Seiji Mizushima, Yosuke Kuroda, 2007-2009
50 episodes
In 2307 A.D., mankind has harnessed solar energy via orbiting solar power collectors and has coalesced into three governing superpowers, but continues to wage zero-sum wars for power and energy. Celestial Being is an private military organization dedicated to ending war by using Gundams to attack aggressors. Gundam 00 is almost exactly what you'd expect it to be, and as such it's quite satisfying. A group of unique young men with a variety of angsty backgrounds (and altogether wonderful character design) gather, using giant mecha (of interesting, but hardly iconic, design) to fight a rebel war for peace. Political machinations, battles, and upgrades abound, balanced by intelligent character development and interactions. A spiritual successor to Gundam Wing, even taking on the same underlying question—is it possible to win peace through war?—Gundam 00 sometimes feels redundant, but for the most part it's a successful, if familiar, iteration of the Gundam series: philosophical, political, character-driven, with mech battles aplenty.

Gundam 00's first season is awash with intriguing gray morality, and the plot (especially in the second half of the season) is smart and unrelenting. The second season has a rocky start and never quite reaches the standard set by the first—in part because increasingly blatant black and white morality strips away much of the intriguing ambiguity, in part because it falls victim to a number of clichés like excessive powerups (where every thing is better than the previous thing, just because they say so) and death fakeouts (where core characters seem to die, but return again to resume the same cycle of battles) which deaden the show's believability and impact. Still, the second season is rich with wonderful character growth and has substantial emotional and psychological impact despite its faults, and the series as a whole comes to a satisfying conclusion. That's what this anime is: it's not quite remarkable, but it throughly meets expectations and it's constantly engaging and enjoyable—which is to say, it is satisfying. Fans of Gundam, in particular Gundam Wing, would do well to give it a try.

Beware spoilers in the comments!