Yes, yes, I know, Anime is shit, gay yaoi weaboo japanophile blah blah blah.
And if we were talking about the last Gundam show, Gundam SEED, I'd agree with you.
But Gundam 00 is different. Well, atleast I think it is.
Basically, it's politics. In the future, the nations of earth have turned to Solar Energy. to do this, they built three space elevators, one in Africa, one in the Americas, and one in Asia. The nations basically align themselves. Japan and America and co become the Union, Russia, China, and so forth become the Human Reform League, and Europe claims the one in Africa and become the AEU. Everybody who isn't a part of this, I.E. the Middle Eastern states, get shafted. Even now, the world still has an arms race, with Mobile Suits being the weapon of choice.
However, a bloke named Aeolia Schenburg figured this would happen a few hundred years ago, so he organized a paramilitary organization based around a new technology he concieved, called the GN Drive, or Solar Furnace. It's exact properties are unknown, only that it's incredibly hard to make, and produces mysterious particles that fuck with physics and so forth. The organization, Celestial Being, creates a set of Mobile Weapons, the Gundams. These machines are basically the equivalent of F-22 Raptors in WW2.
Anyway, on the eve of the AEU's demonstration of their latest Mobile Suit, the Gundams make their appearance. Piloted by a bunch of young prodigies, who despite their prettyboy appearance are actually really creepy, flawed, nutty, battle-scarred, and messed up in different ways, Celestial Being announces its' policy of Armed Interventions. Basically, they crash any sort of military party and trash everything until the troops give up and call it quits. Yes, fight to end all fighting.
But here's the interesting thing that grabbed me. It becomes apparent that the original plan was never going to work. Celestial Being's real strategy is simply to unite the world... against them. I love watching this show because of all the interesting ways it pans out. Like the main character, Setsuna, which is a codename. He's actually a Kurd, and in that timeline, his country was destroyed by a large neighbouring kingdom. And now, with the Solar Energy, that kingdom too is being destroyed by UN screw-over-age. So how does he take it? Another example is how the military desperately copes against CB's superior technology, the Union tuning the hell out of their Mobile Suits to compete with the Gundams, the Human Reform League sacrificing their own troops to capture one with superior numbers, and the AEU just turning to mercenaries instead. And as the show reaches halfway, things start going really wrong and it all goes to hell.
I know this was pointless. But still.
This link has all the first season eps if you're interested. the Second season only just started, but the first one is pretty much complete. It's slow-starting, but Gundam 00 is actually a really complex, interesting, cool show, looking past the bright pink mecha that shows up in the first few eps, and the prettyboy pilots.
But I don't think you care.
Here's a doomed thread... Anybody watch Gundam 00?
