Month: April 2008

New York Comic Con 2008

2 Comments

I know this will be hard to believe but my geekdom spreads further than anime and manga. In fact, I was a comic book reader from about fourth grade. I also read fantasy literature. So Comic Con was all sorts of my hobbies mashed up together and actually I spent most of my time there on things outside of anime.

As far as I can tell for Kohaku and Narutaki this was a TM Revolution concert with a comic convention thrown in at no additional cost. The comic convention was fun for both of them but I have a feeling they would have paid the same price just to see TMR and been just as happy. I myself had fun at the convention but I don’t think I had anywhere the near orgasmic time that they had with the convention.

Okay, that too! But hey I still would have gone to comic-con regardless of TMR. It just so happens that he was there and I was super excited about it. But since you brought him up I will say that the concert was a lot of fun and a good length, 90 minutes. It also, surprisingly, started on time. There were a couple of girls from Japan in front of us and they knew all the dances. Me and Kohaku tried to follow along but I think we just ended up looking silly. Not to mention I have about -5% rhythm. He played all of his songs from various anime (since most of the audience probably knew him from those more than anything else). He didn’t however play my favorite song. We also went to his panel which was basically useless and annoying. He had his own interpreter and the guy never really said anything or asked any good questions. It mostly consisted of him saying, You guys love TMR, right? insert audience cheering. Same went for his event at Kinokuniya which was on Sunday. The did play the b-side from his upcoming single release which was exciting! Also me and Kohaku were a mere three feet from him and he waved! We rule.

Although I did not attend the Bandai panel they did announce some very interesting things. The first was they had the license to Gundam 00 and Gurren Lagann. I don’t think anyone was really surprised that Bandai is releasing Gundam 00. I think it has the potential to be the next Gundam Wing here in the states. It’s certainly not guaranteed but it is possible. Gurren Lagann on the other hand was out of left field. Nobody knew what has going to happen to Gurren Lagann after the whole ADV/Sojitz deal fell apart. I know there are a lot of people predicting even more doom and gloom for ADV now knowing that Bandai has stepped in and snatched away ADV’s guaranteed hit of the year. I’m not sure this is any more or less of a sign that ADV is on it’s way out but it is something worth watching.

Well, you know they had Gundam Seed on TV and no one cared. So I dunno. But I only care about getting my lovely Gundam 00 DVDs so I am a happy camper. I wonder if they will start coming out before the second half is done. I would really like them right now. RIGHT NOW. The whole Gurren Lagann fiasco kind of makes me chuckle. But really I would hate to see the death of another anime company in the near future. There have been few announcements and that just does not bode well. The bubble is bursting and quite frankly I’m not surprised.

Their second announcement is that Bandai hinted/practically said outright that is there is little to no chance of Gundam X and Turn A Gundam being licensed in the U.S. in the foreseeable future. It clearly shows that Bandai is being more conservative about its already somewhat cautious outlook towards Gundam in the states. I’m pretty sure that Bandai’s mishandling of certain Gundam series in the past has a lot to do with this. I’m looking right at the original Gundam and Zeta Gundam. I think it also shows even beyond Gundam that if you are an older series your chance are slim to none of getting licensed. More and more companies are realizing that the current market schemes are not working enough as it is. Old shows will not work at all with the current methods used in the U.S. The problem is this: they are basically giving up on older titles rather than trying to find better way to sell them.

That is not really an announcement, it’s more like a confession.

Viz announced that they will be releasing Vagabond in 3 volume omnibuses and that they will be releasing One Pound Gospel to usher in the first time release of the final fourth volume of the series. I’m sure that Narutaki is thrilled that he can finally start collecting Vagabond in a slightly cheaper format. I’m probably going to be a sucker and re-buy One Pound Gospel even though I have already bought the original three manga. Because if I don’t Rumiko Takahashi will surely starve to death, penniless, in the gutter.

It seems like every time I decide today is the day I will buy Vagabond the place I go will not have the first book. So as long as they can keep this in stock for more than ten minutes hopefully I can get myself a copy. I wonder how fans of Inu-Yasha like this series in comparisons, haha. I really like One Pound Gospel in fact, it was my first encounter with Rumiko’s work. I am down the middle about her series though.

Del Ray Manga said a lot but there were only two announcements that mattered to me. The first was the fact that Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei was licensed and the second was more details on Del Ray attempt at making a manga version of the X-Men. I mean I can’t not buy, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, the manga representation of my life if I were a Japanese school teacher. Despair. Despair. Despair. I am in Despair because it so accurately captures my essence.The manga versions of the X-Men just looked so silly that I’m curious how they turn out. I mean they had a version of Beast that looked very much like a certain Studio Ghibli character that rides a cat bus. Plus Kitty Pride is the main character. That makes me happy. Oh and they are going to have a separate Wolverine comic. Gosh I wonder why? Wolverine is such a minor and unpopular character. It would be like giving M.O.D.O.K. his own comic and we all know that would never happen.

Yen Press had two of the most shocking announcements of the convention. The first was Yen Press has the license for the Haruhi manga and light novel series. People have been asking for the light novels since the first episode of Haruhi popped up on fan-sub so theoretically this will make a lot of people very happy. The only thing that might make people a little wary is that Yen Press had to bring in the big guns and get Little Brown and Company to license it with them. While that means they will have a much better chance of a better translation, it could also mean that they will insist on making the story as Americanized as possible. Now I don’t think they change Haruhi and Kyon from Japan to Holly and Kyle from California but they might try and reduce the number of Japanese references as much as possible. I’m sure we can all image how the internet is going to light up if they change a reference to Ayumi Hamasaki to Britney Spears.

Yen Press fills me with love. They are nice to talk to and they happen to be picking up some really great work. I will take this moment to say I love Spiral! Two thumbs up. I am definitely curious to see how the Japanese-isms for go over in the Haruhi books. Although with the covers they have, people are going to be mistaking it for manga at first glance. I doubt it will end up anywhere else in the bookstore. Also Ayu is 1000% more talented that Britney Spears. So there. Yes Press also brought Judith Park, a manhwa creator, to the convention. They gave away the first book in her series they are releasing and you could jump right in line to get it signed. Which we did. It took a while a we read a bit of the manga before we got up to her. She was drawing pictures for everyone! What a treat! And on the last day of the con, as an added bonus, all the books at their book were just 5 bucks! Score.

The second shocking announcement was that Yen Press is starting their own manga anthology line much like Shonen Jump USA. I think it is definitely something to watch. It looks like it has enough going for it that it might succeed but enough against it that it could crash and burn with force of a thousand suns. The anthology will be called Yen Plus and it will contain a mixture of manga, manhwa, and American comics. All the manga in the magazine will come from Square Enix for the first two years. So it will be running Soul Eater and Nabari No Ou. Narutaki and I are both assuming that those titles maybe the two shows that get the most chatter on the fun-sub circuit this season. Also Higurashi, Bamboo Blade, and Sumomomo will be seen. I like Higurashi, heck I made it my anime of the month, but I’m not sure how much fandom it has outside of a cult following. From what I know of Bamboo Blade it seems generally cute but I can’t see it as being a huge seller. Sumomomo Momomo looks very silly but other than the general story and that it has an anime I don’t know much about it. As I mentioned in our first article Svetlana Chmakova is the only OEL artist I like so I guess she is the best pick for the OEL section. I had never heard of Maximum Ride before the Comic Con but it seems wildly popular. I know next to nothing about manhwa so I don’t know how good or popular Pig Bride or Jack Frost are.

While I like the ideas of anthology series, I don’t buy the ones that are out now and this one seems an even less likely buy for me personally. But it is a nice way of sampling a whole lot of things at once. There are so many other resources for helping me with my choices. Beside that, the manga has either already finished or is far ahead in Japan which seems to take away some of the point of the monthly anthology. And while I do steal Shonen Jump USA from Hisui’s brother to read Bleach I find it more of an annoyance than anything else. I would rather my manga be coming out faster.

I remember Dallas Middaugh mentioning that the only way he felt that a new manga anthology could succeed in the U.S. was for it to have a popular title on Television and I have to agree with him. I feel in order for this magazine to succeed they need to get either Soul Eater and/or Nabari No Ou on Cartoon Network. The Maximum Ride manga will help the magazine greatly but I think it needs both of these factors to be financially viable.

Yes, James Patterson is insanely popular. Personally, I can’t understand why. And although I have never Maximum Ride, I’ve actually talked to quite a few people that thought it was quite terrible along with its sequel. But he does sell well, though I don’t know if that is just adults buying is younger literature. I suspect a good portion are.

I’m not sure if I’m the only person who did not know about this but it seems that Dark Horse has picked up the rights to CLAMP’s Clover and is releasing all four books in one 20 dollar collection. I wonder if this means that Dark Horse is going to pick up all of the old CLAMP series that TokyoPop’s licenses have run out on. I also wonder if this means that Dark horse is interested in building more than just a seinen line or if they just realize that CLAMP is money in the bank. It might also just be part of the deal for that new manga CLAMP is writing for Dark Horse starting in 2009.

As far as the dealers room went there wasn’t a whole lot of anime and manga related stuff to speak of. TokyoPop had a great big set-up but the price of manga was the same. There were quite a few industry booths displaying figures but most of it was not for sale. However Square Enix had some very nice pieces for sale but the most enticing stuff was the preview for the coming year of their figures. Like the amazingly beautiful Leneth from Valkyrie Profile at a whooping 420 dollars!

Comic Con is one of those professionally run conventions where it would be more surprising if it did not run smoothly. It had a wide vareity of comics, anime, and video game related subjects. A nerd paradise. If nothing else I really enjoyed the Venture Brothers panel. The Venture Brothers panel is always livey and fun. The fact that I got to see a preview of season 3 was just icing on the cake. All in all I think we both had a great time.

Everything went fine for me. Though I did see the IGN theater was running behind thanks to those pesky technical difficulties. But really the whole experience was wonderful! I definitely think it fills me up with geek culture, rather than just anime. I saw Stan Lee. STAN LEE. So if you have hobbies outside of anime in the nerd realm it is a perfect catch all.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Kaiba
Reading Dragon Eye
Listening to Chihiro Onitsuka

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Macross Frontier
Reading With the Light
Listening to DANZEN! Futari wa Precure by Mayumi Gojo

Top 5 things I did at Comic Con
5. Getting exclusive Marvel Civil War Minimates
4. Going to the Cup o Joe Panel
3. Getting my book signed by Shannon Hale
2. Going to the Stan Lee Panel
1. Seeing the T.M.R. concert

Hataraki Man, Three times the speed of a normal worker!

Leave a comment

I had been interested in this series for a while. It probably started when I learned a little about it after seeing some of the artwork displayed at Kinokuniya.

Hiroko Matsukata is an editor at the entertainment magazine Weekly JIDAI. She is a workaholic that tends to even unnerve the other workaholics at her office. When she is facing a near impossible deadline she has been know to go into Hataraki (Working Man) mode and is able to do three times the work by blocking out everything else out and just working. Her love life seems to be on life support as she has a boyfriend, but they hardly ever seem to connect anymore due to their jobs. Hiroko is of course surrounded by a very colorful but extremely realistic cast of characters. This is the story of a hard working ambitious woman and the trials and tribulation of her career.

And while the show is about her, some of the episodes focus on one character that is surrounding her. So you get a lot of insight into the many people she encounters on a daily basis.

The Hataraki Man manga ran in the working man friendly seinen magazine Morning but most people categorize the manga and the anime as being josei. I have to say that it clearly has an appeal to both genders. I feel it leans towards josei if only for its strong, well written, female lead. Hataraki Man still retains a strong seinen feeling because although the story never ignores Hiroko’s romantic life it also never focuses on it more than any other part of her life as well.

My first question when I found out it ran in seinen magazine was, “Did a man write this?” Hiro is so well written, that I was going to have to pay major praise to the guy. She comes off as determined and competent without becoming a major bitch. However, that is not the case. A woman does write it and she is great at capturing the underlying emotions of a career oriented woman.

I feel this balance is what is what made this series so popular among women. A female lead who competes and succeeds in a male dominated workplace. As we mentioned in the post on shojo manga, much of shojo focuses primarily on the romance aspect and most josei is no different. But in focusing on Hiroko’s career we get a different type of manga that really fills a void. A salary-man manga for women who need a hero and role-model in a workplace that is not accustom to women taking positions of authority or power. There was even an article in the UK paper The Times about the manga’s effect on the Japanese work force.

Well, what I think is drawing is although we see Hiroko mostly through her pursuit of stories, you never feel that is the plot of what is going on. We learn about who Hiro is through her trials and tribulations at work but the series is in no way about the work, it is about the woman. I also like that she is not vilified for making her job the most important thing to her. Often times we see a story about a working woman but how her life is unfufilled in some way. Hataraki Man is telling a simple story about a woman who loves having a career and how that fills up her life.

Hiroko Matsukata is an excellent and well realized character but her coworkers are just as interesting and play off of Hiroko well. The chief editor of weekly JIDAI mostly acts as a comic relief character but has serious moments. Kimio Narita takes on several roles: friend, mentor, and a hard ass boss as his job and his personality require him to be. Fumiya Sugawara is the gruff paparazzi who often clashes with Hiroko. Her fellow female editors Maiko Kaji and Yumi Nogawa are both interesting looks into how you can be a successful woman in the industry while following alternative paths and philosophies to the one Hiroko Matsukata has taken. Her friend and coworker, Mayu Nagisa, represents a more stereotypical look at a female worker in an office environment. The newest editor Kunio Tanaka acts as a her greatest irritant by being Hiroko’s complete opposite in working philosophy. We also get to know several other people who work at the magazine and others outside of work. Each character gives us some insight into who Hiroko is while often having complete stories in their own right.

I have to say Tanaka represents the opposite of the Japanese work ethic and it is pure comedy gold seeing Hiro freaking out about it. Of course he is mostly oblivious. The stirking contrast gives good depth to them. In fact, all the characters in the office are distinctly different in the way they look, act, and view the world. I found myself intensely interested in a number of them and wished there was a little more time to get to know them.

I also feel the story telling is very organic. Stories started in one episode don’t necessarily have to be 100% concluded in the episode they start in. In the first episode for example, Hiroko writes a story uncovering a corrupt politician. The episode ends with a strong a definite conclusion but that does not mean that that story is never spoken of again. We later see other peoples’ reaction to the article, articles in other magazines about the politician, and follow subsequent articles being written about the politician throughout the series. This gives Hataraki Man a rich mature flavor that sets it apart and makes Hiroko’s life seem more realistic. Too often such a series would lend itself to each episode being very standalone and only certain key plot points every being ever carried over. Hataraki Man rises above that and gives you something to sink your teeth into.

This series is quite short (only 11 episodes) which, in my opinion, is a shame. It is the type of show that could go on and on with the way the stories are told. You tune in weekly for a little bit of Hataraki Man. You really only get a small piece of the pie. This could be attributed to the manga series being on hold, however since I haven’t read it I couldn’t really say. But Hiroko is the type of character you want to watch succeed and grow and change without having a real expectations of where she is going to end up.

I do find the place where the series ends very unusually. It ends on a very monuments event but not the type of event that a series of its type would normally. A manga would end on a big promotion, the completion of a monumental article, the conclusion of a major showdown, or the start of a new relationship. Instead the series ends on a personal tragedy and only begins to show how Hiroko beings to recover from it. Part of me wonders how much of the end is intentional and how much of the end is due to the fact that the author has placed the series on hold. Either way it gives the series a sense that no matter what happens Hiroko’s life and career go on. It shows us no matter what life throws at Hiroko she is always the Hataraki Man.

Gundam 00 Season 01, Don’t judge a series by its bishie character designs.

1 Comment

In the future, the world has depleted almost all available fossil fuel reserves and the resulting energy crisis has led to the creation of gigantic solar collectors. These devices are set around the earth with three orbital elevators in place to service them. The countries of the world have divided themselves into three major factions each of which controls one of the orbital elevators. These world powers are now locked in a seemingly endless series of conflicts over control of these orbital elevators and the solar power that comes down from them.

Thanks to these new forms of energy, the Middle East has basically been rendered powerless creating a hot bed of turmoil. Also, the factions of countries controlling things aren’t very surprising. It is essentially the Americans and Japanese (the Union), the Russians and Chinese (the HRL), and the Europeans (AEU). It is a sad commentary to think 300 years in the future people are basically still fighting about the same things.

In response, a mysterious group know as Celestial Being has sprung up and is seemingly declaring war on war itself. With Mobile Suit technology far beyond that of any world power they intervene, they destroy anyone who would engage in armed conflict. They descend into the middle of any conflict and devastate both sides until they must stop fighting. Everyone wants the power of Celestial Being but no one seems to be able to muster the strength needed to stop or capture them. If anyone seems to be a threat to Celestial Being it is Celestial Being itself.

Everyone has some type of talented mobile suit pilot who might actually be formidable if they had the right equipment. Of course at the beginning Celestial Being has the element of shock, where no one has any idea what is going. But as the series progress the Gundam meisters get into some pretty close scrapes with their opponents. It really seems like only a matter of time before they can’t just slip by.

Gundam 00 is set in the Anno Domini era as opposed to the Universal Century like the original Gundam series, the Cosmic Era is Gundam Seed, or any of the other various time lines of other series. Since Anno Domini is the present I think this is meant to be the closest Gundam to real speculative future. Gundam 00 definitely deals with many more real life issues in a very clear manner than other Gundam series. I feel that other Gundam series deal with the horrors and sadness of war but they tend to do it on a very detached level. While not utterly gritty and down and dirty, it is the closest a Gundam series has ever gotten.

The thing about this series is it hits really close to home. Because of the issues it deals with and they way it is dealt with, it doesn’t seem like 300 years in the future, is seems just around the corner. Complete with never-ending conflicts over energy sources. It actually scares me, never have I watched a show like this and really felt like this is the world today. Bus bombings, attacks on civilians, war spilling over onto the innocent, and war-mongering are just a few of the real-life issues that come up. There is a lot of who is a terrorist, is Celestial Being one? What do you have to sacrifice for the greater good? Is there a good guy in this conflict? As the audience, it is interesting to be considering these things while watching a show.

This seems like an excellent show to write a scholarly paper on. I know there is some Gundam otaku working on one as we speak. Some clever history or sociology student can get a thesis out of Gundam 00.

I think we all have to admit that when the first trailer of this series came out everyone had a reaction to the character designs. These guys are far beyond the pretty of Gundam W, these are designs by a BL artist. It is so funny how things like this can color your reaction to a series. The girls in the series are gorgeous too, and each side has its bit of fan-service. I don’t think it is any less honest because of it. In fact, I find this series to be one of the most realistic and dark Gundam incantations.

All I remember were GUYS going crazy about how mad they were about all the girl in the series being fairly busty. Who knew that U.S. Gundam otaku were such prudes? Maybe they don’t want to admit they are secretly huge Loveless fans complete with cat ears. There were a few scenes of slight fan service and one or two “interesting” camera angels during the show but nothing gratuitous. I distinctly remember a scene in which the camera was clearly always centered on Sumeragi’s shapely bottom. But we got a decent amount of fan-service of the male Gundam meisters as well so everyone should be happy.

Our pilots (and other members) have all come to Celestial Being for various reason that we learn about as the series goes on. But you basically start to see the pattern of violence in their pasts thanks to war, corruption, and conflict and they want to stop that cycle. I’ll point out that the youngest is Setsuna at 16 but the rest are a little older, Allelujah at 19, and Lockon at 24. Tieria we don’t know about it although he definitely comes off as older. These varying ages seem to give some depth to their own inner turmoil and wisdom of the world.

To me Tieria does not come off as older as much as more of a jerk than anyone else. Something makes me want to punch Tieria Erde. As stated in our I Hate You Misa Misa article I don’t tend to develop strong diastase for characters but for some reason Tieria gets on my nerves. Something about his nasty attitude and “oh so mysterious” past really grinds my gears. Die Tieria! Die you nasty little male Rei!

Well, it is nice to not be the only one hating on characters! Although, in this series I don’t really have a undying desire to strangle anyone. But Tieria is not my favorite by a long shot, mostly because he is rather under developed and robotic. I took an immediate liking to Lockon and Allelujah. It was nice learning about all the other pilots and watching them move further away from the mold you think they are when the series begins. I was most happy about Setsuna because for the first ten episodes or so all I saw was Hiro Yui staring out at me. I think these comparisons are only natural because of the legacy of Gundam.

I think everyone took a liking to Lockon. He seems without a doubt the most human and easy going of the Gundam meisters. Alleujah gets a lot of development in the beginning and then sort of sticks the the background towards the middle. He gets some character development rather rapidly near the end as well. Setsuna starts off an a Hiro Yui clone but slowly starts to show that he has a soul and the ability to have emotions even if they are somewhat muted. His love story seems somewhat forced or at least a little bit rushed. I guess when you have a cast this big and so many major plot lines you sometimes have to cut corners.

One of the things I really loved about Gundam SEED was its strong female characters. And while I think they continue to create women like this in Gundam 00, I feel a lot of them get pushed the wayside instead of being fully realized yet. Sumeragi, who is the most developed female, is one of my favorite characters. She is a little older and has made a career as a tactical forecaster. She is also the in combat leader of our meisters. We know something serious happened in her past, my guess is some sort of miscalculation that cost a lot of innocent people their lives, and we know she is still punishing herself for it. Her strength and independence are only enhanced by her moments of vulnerability, like when she cries or when she needs a drink.

Sumeragi is undoubtedly one of the most developed characters who is not a Gundam meister. I’m sure that what ever that incident was in her past it will tie in with the main plot line eventually. I like Feldt but I feel they developed her just enough that you wanted to know more about her but not enough that you got a good feel of who she was. I assume we will be getting more of Wang Liu-Mei’s story and character in the next season. I think that the writers want you to be interested in Marina Ismail but I find her quite bland. Princess Princess just seems so generic and slightly moe. Maybe will we see her become more dynamic next season but right now she just comes off as a flat character. I am still waiting for a competent female pilot that is equal to the main male characters in piloting ability (that is not a horrible psycho bitch). Come on Feldt. Be the woman I know you can be! Be the pink haired Allenby Beardsley.

This series plot is really complex with a lot of players on the board. For a while it was hard to keep straight who was who and who they worked for and what they wanted. And the show is constantly giving you ten different peoples’ view of the situation. I really like this because it bring that “the whole world is involved with this” feel to it but it also makes it confusing at times. It is starting to solidify in my mind now but of course now there are traitors and the switching of side seems on the brink of happening.

There are distinctly characters who have very fluid allegiances and tend to back an idea more than any particular organization. Several characters switch sides, like in any Gundam series, but it seems more characters have secret agendas than normal. Even Celestial Being seems to have several layers and factions within it. From the beginning, they make it clear that the only person Ali Al-Saachez works for is Ali Al-Saachez. Of the three major powers I feel, I have the least idea of what the Advanced European Union is all about. They seem to have the fewest named characters and Patrick Colasour is practically a joke character. I did not have a hard time keeping up with who was who but I wish we had seen more of what defines each of the three major powers in the world.

Saji and Louisse are pretty far removed from the actually day to day battles (I doubt it will stay that way). But this adds a layer to the series that isn’t always done. They are just two kids going to school and dating but war destroys them anyway. Their story is really heart wrenching. I think all Gundam series what to show the terrible consequences of war but this small piece of this show does it quite poignantly.

Saji and Louisse are definitely not the same people they were at the beginning of the series that they are at the end. Both of them lose quite a bit during the first season and I don’t see their lives getting any better anytime soon. I also have a feeling that Saji and his sister being orphans is no simple coincidence. I think Saji’s parents death will eventually tie into the history of Celestial Being.

Clearly, we have rivals to our meisters (as the pilots are called) popping up giving us some great battles and interesting dialogue. We are graced with the charming Graham, captain of the flag pilots of the Union; and the very villainous Ali, a mercenary and self-proclaimed lover of war. Both of these guys add some much needed competition for our meisters.

Well there was one secret villain who I think we both thought was slightly over the top with his freaking golden gun and golden Gundam. Dorothy Catalonia and her freaky eyebrows would be proud. (BTW that is not a good thing.) In fact, I would go as far as to say it is if Dorothy Catalonia and Light Yagami had a child he would be equally megalomaniacal. I also got the feeling that Narutaki wanted to punch a certain female pilot squarely in the face until she stopped being a horrible character. But I think she was written to be such an easily hated character. Since not all the villains from the first season are coming back in the next season, I wonder how iconic the next batch of villains will be. Will we get the second coming of Char? Is it blasphemy to even suggest such a thing?

As per usual, no recent Gundam series would be completely without stellar opening and ending songs. I kind of come to expect this and I always look forward to who is going to do them. I can’t decide which opening I liked better. I love the L’arc-en-Ciel song more. But the actual opening for the Brilliant Green’s song is better, since the first opening looks like it is the Setsuna show and there are some other robot pilots hiding in the back room. I hope T.M.Revolution will do an opening for the next season!

All I want is more Feldt in the openings. Because in Season 2 she will be 18 so you don’t have to feel extremely dirty being attracted to her. I liked the first opening better overall but they were both very good. And you know in you heart you want Gackt to do the next opening. Dressed as Allelujah. In your bedroom.

Gundam 00 is the first Gundam series that is being split into two seasons. So for now we got 25 episodes and in the fall we will get the rest. Personally, I would like all of my Gundam in a row with small breaks here and there. However, I was pleased with the ending point of the first season. It was not a cliff-hanger and it was not in the middle of the action. The team of people making this really thought about how to make this season have closure but also leave you without all the answers. While speculation will certainly fly about what we see in the last few minutes of episode 25, we really have gotten the ending of part 1.

I know we have already started to throw around theories on the forums of how season 2 will start. The little epilogue shows enough of the surviving characters to really get us interested in what is going to happen in but not enough to be in any way conclusive. The ending is definitely decisive in terms of the overall main story arc but they leave enough things open to make a season 2. Certain characters fates are also ambiguous enough that I’m sure fans of them will be on the edge of their seats until next season.

Gundam 00 certainly doesn’t pull any punches, which is a bit refreshing. No one is safe from attack, death, or downfall. As the series goes it it pulls further and further away from the typical and kept me guessing about what was going to happen next. It certainly didn’t turn out predictable by any standards. It is really one of the best Gundam incantations in years.

It’s very true. About half way through the series they start killing off major characters left and right. You distinctly get the feeling that no one is safe and they don’t cheap out on it. So far when characters die they die no matter who they are. We have not had that many off screen “soap opera” deaths. I think this Gundam is one of the biggest departures from Gundam formula we have seen since they made G-Gundam but I think this departure really works. I wonder if this Gundam will revolutionize the mecha genre as much as the original Gundam did.

P.S. I think that Black Haro is the evil mastermind behind everything.

UPDATE: Gundam 00 is now licensed by Bandai!

//