Kidou Senshi Gundam Double O (2008) - Anime - AniDB (2024)

Gundam 00 is a "re-telling" of Gundam Wing to a more "modern" audience (If you don't believe me, just look at the spoilers at the bottom of this review. That should be all the proof you need). With souped-up graphics, a great soundtrack, the director of Full Metal Alchemist (2005), and of course the legend of the Gundam Franchise, nothing could go wrong, right?

This review reviews (wow that grammar sucks lol) both seasons of Gundam 00. Too much typing can hurt you, and I don't want arthritis!

*DISCLAIMER* I do not consider myself to be an otaku, and I consider anime to be a hobby in my life. Thus, this review and others I write in the future are intended to help "regular people" in their search for something good to watch.

PLEASE LEAVE HELPFUL COMMENTS (to not just me, either)! CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM/ADVICE IS AWESOME!

Gundam 00 is the first and only Gundam series to take place in OUR time line, not an alternate reality as with every other Gundam series. That means that events in the series actually have a little bit of relevance to today's society, and this works quite well in the first season of the series, adding very real political intrigue that someone who keeps up with events in the world (such as myself) can relate to. However, this strength of the series takes a back seat to the action in the second season of the series, and while the action of the second season is quite good at times, the lack of a believable "world" really hurts the overall story and characters of 00 in the end.

ANIMATION: 8
I really enjoyed the animation of the mechs, characters, and outfits. All of these are very noticeable and bright through the entire series. However, this animation does not work when the series should be taking a very dark turn.

In terms of backgrounds, they were often quite bland, but they did their job well enough. Lastly, the animation used for the action sequences were usually very good (sword slashes and beam weaponry looked absolutely excellent in 00), but explosions could've looked better a couple times, and less computer graphics would've been cool (I'm prejudiced against computer graphics in anime... Which is why I'm such a huge fan of Ghibli stuff).

Character designs were pretty cool, with every character, including secondary characters, having their own unique look, even though they all followed some sort of Japanese pretty fashion model of some sort (except for fat Blondie of season two... lol).

SOUND: 10
I was VERY impressed with Gundam 00's soundtrack, from the OP/EDs to in-episode music to the background music... All of it.

To start, the OPs really fit the series quite well, from the slightly somber "Daybreak's Bell", to the poppy-action filled "Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi (Fleeting and Everlasting Sorrow)" and my personal favorite, the freakin' awesome bad-ass "Ash Like Snow". The last OP, "Namida no Mukou (Across from the Tears)" isn't as memorable as the other OPs, but does its job despite being at the end of the series (where 00 gets messy).

The EDs of 00 are easily the best collection of EDs I've heard from an anime, starting with the poppy "Wana", going to the somber "Friends", and the powerful and epic "Prototype". For most every other anime I watch, I’m one to skip the ED and go straight to the next episode preview. But with 00, it’s actually worth listening to and waiting.
Lastly, the in-show music is also very, very well done. With a soundtrack by Kenji Kawai (he did the soundtrack for the Ghost in the Shell Movies) that really adds to the show, sometimes moreso than the characters can (especially in the second season). In addition to the BG music, there's great in-show songs such as “Unlimited Sky” and "love today", which help when they decide to do montages. In conclusion, 00’s music makes me want to listen to it even when I’m not watching 00, which is a hard and awesome feat for any television show to accomplish. Ten.
(I know ya’ll are used to the Seiyuu being in the Sound Section, but it really belongs in the “Character” section (they are voice ACTORS, after all), thinking about it. Look there if you want to read about them)

STORY: 6
I almost feel as if I'm being too generous with a 6, because the second season's story sucked butt. However, I AM reviewing both seasons after all.

The first season of 00 takes place on OUR Earth, 400 (?) years in the future. Looking at the future of Earth, it actually makes a good deal of sense, unlike many other shows that put shows in the future/alternate realities *Cough*GEASS*Cough*. Instead of countries, there are 3 power blocks, The Union (dominated by the US), The A.E.U. (basically the European Union), and The human Reform League (China, Russia, and India... though we don't see much of the Indians). From a historical perspective (I wouldn't say I'm a buff, but I tend know a bit more than your average joe), I can certainly see the world turning out like this in 400 years, except for the HRL, because the Russians and Chinese are too paranoid and India is democratic for the most part, not communist (though there is at least one communist province), and Russia isn't communist either (though it could be again, who knows?) Anyyyways, everyone's hunky dory stockpiling their weapons stocks (which are now mechs), when Celestial Being shows up with the Gundams, with the goal of "ending war", fully knowing they're a bunch of hypocrites. Throughout season one, the political intrigue between the 3 power blocks, the gundams, and other countries/regions being manipulated by both really add a great deal to the story. There's a mission in a screwed up Sri Lanka (2 Tamil Tiger Planes had a Kamikase attack about a month ago), The IRL and regular government are still fighting (A renegade IRL group killed 2(?) british soldiers in Northern Ireland a couple weeks ago), there's still a bunch of drugs in Central/South America (The current death toll of the drug wars going on in Mexico is over 7,000), The middle east is still a hotbed of tribal warfare (It's been like that for a VERY long time), all these very real problems of war today (and in the past) in the future, which I found absolutely fascinating in the world of 00, not often done in other shows.

This, of course, is the good part of the story, which occurs through most of season 1 until the beginning of Season 2, when we forget all the cool politics and replace them with just the bad-ass mechs. Now, mechs are very good for animation, but for story, it's a bad thing every time. And so, 00 has to deal with the oft-cheesyness of the character's stories, which would work if they acted realistic, instead of ohhhh do this ohhhh do that as is the norm of many bad TV shows and anime. Introduction of useless and forgettable secondary characters (who the hell was running A-laws/Arrows again?), doing stuff without much reason (see Lockon have ANGST! OMG!), and an over-emphasis on action (no matter HOW cool it is, not a good thing unless your show isn’t supposed to be serious) does a major disgrace to what was really a good story in the first season.

And now, a memo to Sunrise:

You’ve now made the same mistake in an anime TWO SHOWS IN A ROW (00 and Geass), with both having pretty good first seasons and really screwing up in the second season. Please, PLEASE stop doing this. I respect my mechs and Gundams too much to see this happen again : /.

CHARACTER: 5
Oh Gundam, why must you repeat your mistakes? Wing’s characters were very flat, WHY USE THEM OVER AGAIN!? (see spoilers at bottom of review to compare if you really need to). I found most of the cast of 00 to be fairly cool in the first season, making decisions that made sense to their characters rather than just doing things for the sake of the plot, which did some things that I found to be really, really good and interesting for the overall story (I cite episode 23 of the first season for this, that was a really good episode and fine piece of writing for that time, even though it didn’t turn out well in the end.) Again though, as with the story, the characters lost their focus and ideas for the most part come season 2, falling into long patterns of uselessness and confusion. Characters like Feldt and Marina who were slightly interesting the first season turn absolutely useless (let’s sing songs for world peace and get shot at!), characters with cool backstories/connections forgot about them because they’ve got bad-ass mechs now (Lockon, Setsuna), and the two characters I really didn’t like from first season get most of the screentime in the second(I don’t care about you Louise and Saji, your use in the first season was to provide an “ordinary person’s point of view”, and now that you both aren’t, I really don’t care about you AT ALL). Lastly, the two characters I found to be really interesting in the first season, Ali Al-Saachez and Allelujah/Hallelujah got the SHAFT in the second season. Ali got the equivilant of a cameo in the second season, while Allelujah had but one thing in his mind, “Marie”. Being a psycho killer like Hallelujah is soooo much more interesting, and yet the series forgot almost entirely about him.

To comment on the voice acting of 00, I found it to be very average for the most part, the only voice acting that stood out being that of Ali Al-Saachez by Keiji Fujiwara, who really did a good job making Ali into a psychotic awesome person (no wonder he got to be the dub for the joker in The Dark Knight!). But then again, Keiji Fujiwara stands out in EVERY anime he’s in, and he’s been in like over half of the ones I’ve seen (crazy bastard). Other than Mr. Fujiwara, most of the other voice acting was average to poor. I thought that Noboru Sōgetsu’s voice acting of Ribbons was quite poor, making him sound like an annoying smartass rather than diabolical manipulator, and certainly on the fault of the casting director for choosing fanservice (Noboru Sōgetsu is otherwise known as Tohru Furuya, voice actor for Amuro Ray, the main character in the original Gundam series) over quality.

VALUE: 8
While the problems of the second season are certainly large and common problems, the good writing and plot of the first season is certainly worth a good deal of value in terms of the overall anime/TV industry, and can and should be applied to other anime/TV series. I cared and respected the characters and plot in the first season, and would certainly love to see another TV show/anime recreate that in scripts in the future. Plus all this, it’s very much like a classic Gundam series (it IS a remake of Wing, the most classic other than the original), which is an automatic HUGE boost in value overall regardless.

ENJOYMENT: 7
I enjoyed 00 a lot, because even with its shortcomings in the second season, the action was still really freakin’ cool, and I’m all for that. I subtract 2 points for the faults of the second season, and another 1 point for having a sloppy conclusion leading up to a conclusive movie next year (I’m against conclusive movies for TV and anime… just finish it during the season.)

FINAL VERDICT: Definitely worth watching if you’re a mech/action fan like I am, but if you despise the action genre, you might want to skip it.

Recommendations for shows like Gundam 00-
Gundam Wing- Gundam 00 IS a “re-telling” of this, you might as well see the original too if you haven’t already.
Gundam the 08th MS team – If you really enjoyed the Saji and Louise storyline, you would probably really like 08th MS team. Still my favorite gundam show ever, now that 00 screwed up its second season…

Battlestar Galactica – Now that it’s ended and permanently holds the spot of “best TV show ever (including anime)” in my book, I kinda have to recommend it to everyone and anyone.

Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann – If you still haven’t seen this fantastic series, go see it now. Go, GO! Why are you still reading? Ohhhh you want an explanation. It’s the bad-ass action of Gundam with no limits on seriousness… or anything for that matter.

Star wars (a new hope) – This is here only because episode 14 of season two is basically an homage to this movie. (Memento Mori = The Death Star)

LIST OF WHY GUNDAM 00 IS A “RE-TELLING” OF WING (While these comparisons may not be EXACT, they’re certainly VERY CLOSE)