VivisQueen

More often than not, a series begins really well only to come to a spluttering, dry-coughing halt so revolting that you wish you had never witnessed its demise. Every once in a while, however, there comes an anime which has the opposite effect; it starts off with all the energy of a stillborn only to come to life just when you least expect it. Gundam 00 is one such example. At first it looks like it won't have a patch on Gundam Seed; but not only does Gundam 00 end up being bigger and better than Seed, it also comes with a far more accomplished story.

My initial impression of Gundam 00 was that it was heading straight towards an Oscar nomination for ‘most pompous piece of crap ever'. The series wants to be a powerful, twisting tale about ending war forever; but even if you manage to set aside your cynicism and convince yourself that this goal is possible, the fact remains that Gundam 00 begins as a jumble of plot ideas strung together with no apparent direction in mind. This mishmash includes split personalities; genetically modified humans; some weakly developed politics; and, the worst element of all, an organisation trying to end war by attacking absolutely everyone.

However, after an age of seemingly random plotlines and a rather messy strategy to eliminate war, Gundam 00 pulls itself together and delivers a knockout ending the likes of which makes Seed look like a wannabe. The real turning point arrives when the governments decide to take action against Celestial Being; of course, the characters loyally keep up their mantras about eliminating war, but the plot gets on with the real job of cramming in as many epic battles and tense confrontations as possible.

The downside is that the developments come to depend on several shounen clichés, including typically evil antagonists and inexplicable mecha power ups. Luckily, this is precisely what Gundam 00 does best: while the airy fairy ‘let's fight war' approach of the first half was tediously unconvincing, the second half of unambiguous human conflicts kept me glued to the screen.

While Gundam 00 doesn't stand out stylistically, it cannot be faulted for its technical quality; the colour tones, shading and level of detail are designed to give the environments a more convincing twenty-first century flavour - an attribute which several of its predecessors lacked. Moreover, motion is well-animated and the action sequences are simply thrilling to watch.

Easily the best aspect of the animation has to be the concept for the Gundams; the mecha are designed to be as bulky as possible and have bits jutting from every corner of their alloyed being. In addition, just when you think mecha can't get any beefier or more accessorised, Gundam 00 gives us machines with sparkles coming off their backs! My guess is the more numerous the appendages the stronger and faster they will be in battle! Joking aside, they may be silly on one level, but they do look incredibly cool in action; the fact that they inflict unprecedented collateral damage with the subtlety and finesse of a bludgeon is half the fun.

Gundam 00 gets full points for the Japanese voice acting and a stunning second set of themes (‘Ash Like Snow' by The Brilliant Green is now one of my top favourite OPs); kudos also for the handful of fun metal instrumentals, which give the action sequences that extra sense of energy. Where it falls short is with an average first opening theme and a score that generally repeats one tune way too often.

Generally speaking, Gundam 00's characters are decent but hardly complex. For every character I empathise with, there are at least ten I couldn't give a toss about; Peries the super soldier, Wang Liu Mei, and virtually all of the antagonists fall into this category. I will make one concession, however: although the vast majority are nothing more than average, a handful of the central characters show great potential for depth in the final few episodes. Since Gundam 00 is one of at least two seasons, the hesitant score of 6.5 assumes there's much more character development to come.

Setsuna F. Seiei, the central protagonist, is a prime example of a character that improves over time. He initially stalks through his scenes with a flat voice and equally flat expression, generally doing his best to be robotic. Later on, although his personality never quite picks up, his purpose becomes much clearer; this revelation makes it easier to care about him in the long run, and I now look forward to more from him.

As for the other Gundam pilots, they will be remembered more for their quirks than their complexity. Lockon Stratos is not bad as far as normal, upbeat individuals are concerned, and Tieria Erde's feminine looks are at least more unique than his aloof attitude; still, I wouldn't go as far as to call either of them deep. The least believable pilot has to be Allelujah Haptism; as well as having the stupidest name ever, he suffers from a particularly cheesy case of multiple personality disorder.

Ironically, the characters with the most dramatic journey are a couple who remain superfluous to ninety percent of the plot: Saji and Louise. They spend most of their time having petty lovers' tiffs and shopping, which gets somewhat distracting when you're trying to watch Gundams blow shit up. Like Setsuna, however, their role seems to promise a lot more development in the future.

Gundam 00 starts off rather directionless, but it eventually pulls itself together and becomes the sleek, gut-level adventure it always wanted to be. Frankly, the best thing about Gundam 00 is that there's more to come; if this season's ending is anything to go by, it has the potential to be one of the best Gundam series yet and I await the next instalment with bated breath.