Gundam 00 — Episode 23
My exams are next week, so I don’t have time to say too much. Not that I have much to say anyway since episode 23 consists of twenty minutes of pretty explosions and ambiguous character deaths.
Pseudo Summary
Remember in the previous entry where I joked that Exia moves three times as fast with TRANS-AM because it turns red? Well, it turns out that it DOES move three times as fast. TRANS-AM boosts performance by releasing all GN particles stored on the Gundam at once, faster than the solar furnace can replenish them. Once TRANS-AM runs out of juice, the Gundam becomes underpowered until its GN drive can restore the particle count to normal level.
And GN-X has officially been downgraded to the cannon fodder units. They drop like flies in this episode.
Patrick’s cool streak is put to an end when he gets owned by a piece of flying space rock and spins off into the distance Team Rocket style. A few characters may or may not have died in this episode, but if they really do die, you can be sure that they will be resurrected in season two.
Also, lasers! Explosions! Green missile trails! Big guns! Non-stop action! And that’s about all I have to say about this episode.
Screencaps
Just so you know he’s dead
“I AM GUNDAM!”
Virginia class moving practice targets
“I will protect Lockon! *wub*”
Obsolete technology
Why does AEU let him keep the Gundam?
He received too much airtime for his own good
This formation is also called the cam whore formation
The director found a new plaything
Three times as fast!
The Gundam is sort of just standing there
It all returns to nothing / It just keeps tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down
This sequence seriously reminded me of Evangelion
She has nothing on Lafiel
“RAAAAWR!”
We can rebuild him. We have the technology
Déjà vu happens when they sudo gedit /usr/conf/matrix
Apparently that oversize futuristic Wiimote is detachable
Basically it’s a hollow tube with a piece of cellophane paper taped over the front lens
Right: a live alien speciment
Tieria mourns the loss of his seme
Geometric isomerism is a form of stereoisomerism caused by the restriction of rotation about a double bond or a cyclo-compound and the presence of different functional groups bonded to each of the two carbon atoms involved. I hate chemistry.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Is it just me who found Haro extremely annoying near the ending when he kept on saying Lockon’s name?
Then again, I finally understand why people made Haro into an alarm clock in real life.
:x~
March 17th, 2008 at 10:04 am
@Chronolapse:
Ya I totally agree about the fangs thing man. Even without having to retreat or going back to their base or anything, they seemed to replenish right in front of our eyes when it’s destroyed too. I forgot which episode, but when Michael is using fangs against Setsuna (if i remembered correctly, might’ve been fighting others), all 6-8 fangs are clearly destroyed… and then after that, the spot where fangs flys out just suddenly has more fangs flying out again, again, again, and again. That f***ing bothers me also! They should just stop that already, or do the fangs really produce themselves biologically from the gundam. Just wanna block the holes where fang shoots out and let it deflect it back into the body and blow up the entire gundam.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:24 am
RmX: From the outset I was only interested in the political aspect of G00, which since half a series ago has totally evaporated. I find it silly to blog a scene-by-scene replay of an episode everyone is going to watch anyway.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:56 am
@Dragoon “Not to mention the closing part of the preview which showed a Dynames type Gundam firing at a GN-X…. so i’m confused.” If you look closer its most likely that Nadleeh is firing Dynames’ rifle. You can clearly see Nad’s “hair” lol. That and you see an enraged Tieria charging in the direction of the GN-Xs like 2 seconds later.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:17 am
yeah oo-great DarkMirage,i concure.the reason i watch gundam series is because of the clashes of political idealogy, which,at the end resulted is the display of military prowessness(apart of its an anime and not too complex to be elaborate).but since that element isnt showing up much lately, why not discussing whats everyone is watching…heck, no harm there.
i wonder how the destroyed GN arm syncronize with lockon weapon’s recticle.does it tilt or wave left and right?if not how could it shoot fast moving target like the throne?its like shooting 120mm smoothbore cannon but without a turret to steer around…hehe…plus where does the power comes from? auxiliary batt?shoot me..
March 17th, 2008 at 11:17 am
@DarkMirage: If it’s such a chore to do entries on something that fails to maintain your interest, why blog about it at all?
And if there is still a valid reason to continue these blog entries, then why not give us something more along the lines of an insightful commentary instead of resorting to these joke entries that probably only took five minutes to write?
If your real life activities don’t allow for weekly entries with meaningful content, then just don’t bother with it.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
LOL @ unknown’s comments…..”strike-freedom invincible custom” lol
March 17th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Predicted series end: Alejandro dies, and aside from that, hundreds of cliffhangers! It wouldn’t make much sense to have a completely different second season with no relation to the first, so they’ll probably have cliffhangers in a lot of places and then go a few years in the future perhaps?
March 17th, 2008 at 11:59 am
The ‘cheese’ factor of the Trans-Am system wasn’t so bad as I first throught it was. Indeed it makes them faster and more powerful, but it’s not a switch they can just turn on indefinitely.
I found out after watching that the Trans-Am system works only for a ridiculously short amount of time (seed break probably lasted tons longer). It was enough for Virtue to get out one huge blast (just one D:), Kyrios managed to shoot down a few units, heck Exia just used it to move faster and it ran out before he got to fight anything.
I think that even if it’s an advantage to CB it wasn’t as imbalancing as I first thought when it was shown in the previous episode. Also after it wears off the Gundam’s operational levels supposedly drop drastically for some time.
But yeah, lots of ‘deaths’ and cracked helmets, but no corpses so let’s see who really bit the dust and who didn’t in the upcoming episodes.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
DarkMirage, I could care less if you’re summaries are short (wrt exam crunch time, college sucks like that), but keep up the screen caps and funny excerpts; they get me through the work day (sad, I know).
March 17th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
@RmX,
Here’s the deal. It’s DM’s blog, he can do whatever the hell he wants here.
If it bothers you so much, don’t read.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I like your web, keeps me entertained.
March 17th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
@Ascaloth: I agree completely that it’s all his decision in the end. I’m just making my comments is all.
By the way, post on the genderbending topic more! We need one such as yourself working on this madness!
March 17th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Yeah….University is balls as I found out 4 years and 1 degree later. I just took my degree and ran away as fast as I could. Reading text is interesting, but not when you are forced to cram 300+ pages in a couple of days around exam time….per course. Anyway I knew your focus had been elsewhere for a while now. Mine is too come to think of it, which is why I’m like 5-6 days after the fact with each episode. Any plans to continue through to the next season though?
@RmX: I’ve got the large summaries/thoughts covered so don’t worry about it.
@ryvrdrgn14: I think people are too eager to call each new ability the CB Gundam’s display overpowered without considering the drawbacks. It probably comes from having watched too much Seed, where each new Gundam was like an epoch leap by U.C Standards. Pretty much every “upgrade” has had a drawback so far. Nadleeh loses most of it’s armor for enhanced speed and access to the Trial System, Allelujah trades for the more effective Hallelujah at the cost of discretion, Lockons large sniper rifle made him immobile, GN Arms is just a bigger gun, and now Trans-Am is like a Mist Quickening where you trade all your available energy for the chance to do some serious damage.
March 17th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
@Kaioshin-dono: I’m not worried about you. I’m worried about here.
But I guess people are telling me I shouldn’t be interested in the blog’s contents at all, so I’ll just call it quits.
And that’s an interesting FFXII analogy. Wouldn’t have thought of that one.
March 17th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Dark MIrage ROCKS! ur funny comments on screen shots will keep me laughing for years to come!
March 17th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
RmX: I do it because I think G00 deserves to be made fun of for pandering to yaoi fangirls and because (most) people enjoy reading these entries without taking them too seriously. I mean, if you think that G00, as it stands now 20 episodes later, still deserves serious episodic analysis, I’m sure you can get it elsewhere.
Anyway, I don’t see why I have to have a valid reason to blog, and in any case I would hardly call anime episode analysis a “valid reason”.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
lols…tt part of chem is not tt bad wat…lol… quite slack…XD
March 17th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
@Firzen_net: ……Uh you know that tons of people do screenshot lampooning right?
@DM: Well most people don’t take my readings to seriously either, I’m just into giving a full analysis unless the episode of something is really brutally awful (it’s happened all of twice) in which case I cut it short and head to the thoughts. That hasn’t happened once with 00 though. The thing is we all poke fun at Tieria and his girlish looks, but we also measure the good parts of the series and in the end they far outweigh the aesthetic design of the characters being bishouneny. I myself make fun of the series all the time (Taking Gundam too seriously cannot work as a viewing method), but I make sure to get across that I am indeed enjoying it when I am.
Anyway like RmX it was a fun ride, but if that’s how you will continue with your blogging then I’m calling it quits too. It’s always fun commenting on blogs, but not when there’s less and less each week to comment about because the style has switched to making fun of the series rather then analysis. You stick to that and I’ll handle the episode analysis, which for me is a valid reason to blog. I mean we all have different reasons as you said (Sometimes you do music, sometimes I do as well, sometimes you do figurines, sometimes I do Trading Cards etc), none is right or wrong since such a thing doesn’t exist in this equation.
Anyway, good luck with your studies and as a bit of advice, it’s probably a good idea to finish the season and then take your leave of the series. Gundam as a franchise has predominantly been a character drama and politics only come up when they are relevant to the plot so this was never really what you were looking for if that’s your game (which it is for me too). For politics I would recommend something more like Legend of The Galactic Heroes.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Yes, I don’t take your blog entries seriously, I just read it coz it really makes me laugh. I’m a Gundam 00 fan and though your “reviews” are bashing the show, I know it’s just for humor’s sake.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
About the political issues tackled in Gundam 00, I was hoping that a “People Power” revolution in Southeast Asia will be featured in the show. Somewhat a farfetched hope.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Meh, I was talking to my friend on msn about ep23. Joking around with him, by saying something like “Lockon will return with a mask!” “Dynames has super-secret-integrated-METEOR when he activates its Trans-Arm” but that fellow was overly serious and responded strongly to my comments… “NO! Lockon cant return! ..blah blah blah… I’m stating the facts!” Well obviously he’s way into the anime and is doing some seriously analysis shit. Oh I’m sure mobile suits are real, letting kids pilot a possibly muti-million equipment is what every nation will do oh yes so true.
Aside from those, gundam00 to me is more like using the “future” to explain, if not criticise present day happenings. Another thing which makes 00 special is that unlike more other series, there will always be generic grunt-units around (zakus, goufs I dont know) while 00 uses tierens and sorts(please shoot me if the next season has GN-drive Zakus). I like what DM’s doing, cause its humorous, light-hearted and provides a side-track from the relatively heavy storyline. Yes I know my life is sad but people who try to explain animes with logic just creep me out. Big time.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:55 am
wow… darkmirage… lo orang indo…?? wah hebat banget,,,!!
March 18th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
lol…no local language here…i cant understand wat ure saying,udah udah…
March 18th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I wonder why, lockon didnt use his Trans am…
His clone brother may come back with a mask though LOL.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Dark Mirage,
You really hate this series so much do you?
Thanks for the trouble for getting the screen-caps anyway!
March 18th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Great episode. But they better not bring back Lockon like the Fukuda and Morosawa did with Mu La Flaga in Destiny. The question is who will pilot the Dyanmes now? Lasse perhaps?
March 18th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
i love these blogs!
March 19th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I enjoy reading this stuff every week, I especially get a kick out of the captions. Anyways one thing that bothered me (besides stuff that everyone else has already mentioned) is that 300 years into the future, people are still wearing suits and ties. Something I’ve also noticed is that Aeolia looks A LOT like Lenin. He even gets his own icebox to boot, and like ol’ comrade is a revolutionary.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Actually I find your entries quite true to an extent. It is pretty much written in the same way a stand-up comedian lampooning on Bushisms.
And yeah, blogging is a waste of time for A level students!
March 19th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
at least we found out his (lockons) brothers name, i think…..
i don’t think zwei and by proxy ali was killed because, zwei didn’t go off like a little firework spreading GN particles all over the place, like eins did when it went boom (come to think of it, neither do the GN-X suits, which is odd cos in theory they should due to their drives being blown up in the process)
the question is, will lockons apparent death cause the CB team to eventually fall apart or will the opposite happen?
March 19th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I think since the particle beam hit the lower torso, Ali should have just lost his legs. Maybe we will see him flying a Zeong-like MS in the second season, or become anti-CB leader on a wheelchair.
Just a question, is his brother’s name Lyle/Ryle or Kyle?
March 19th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
I believe that Ali really died with that shot. They just made the canon hit the lower part of Zwei just so it can fire back at Lockon right before it exploded. And possibly, the reason why they did that is maybe not to create an ambiguous death but to create a maybe-awesome draw scene between Lockon and Ali. The Zwie could have never fired back if they made the canon directly hit it, right???
March 20th, 2008 at 10:20 am
according to the sub it’s lyle
March 20th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Oddly, the thing that struck me the most here was the fact that Lockon left his cockpit to go into space WITH A CRACKED VISOR. You seriously have to be really stupid to do that.
Oh yea, and Lockon’s death (the only worthwhile character in the series, damn you Sunrise!) is entirely Setsuna’s fault. Because he let Ali go. And I hope he realizes that fact and then kills himself.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
^ Maybe Exia’s particle drop after the fight with Ali and unable to pursue him? As stated, after using TRANS-AM, the GN particles drop faster then the GN Drive can replenish.
I don’t Ali will be dead after that shot, and what happen to that nigger from Union??
March 21st, 2008 at 8:50 am
bleh…so many comments…read a few…same idea…either agrees w/ the comedian or tries to make him look shallow, or just talking about their own stuff….aren’t i the same though
too lazy to predict and analyze, i will put all the fate into the writer’s hand…it is in his hand anywyz….whatever happen happens…who cares if Lockon’s dead or not…in the end the series will end and after i m pretti sure that after 5 years, all of us is goin to forget about it anywyz..until another Gundam comes out and every starts comparing it to the previous series….
but i do take this series serious enough to at least post a comment to defend it …..i really think its quite a good series, and i thought this episode was good, shrugs, at least this series kills off people w/ no mercy…= = ..kind of ..although i m pretti sure they wont kill setsunna no matter wat…(or maybe they do ..then that would be real emo)…..i like the characters, and actually i dun feel how the character are drawn so badly….i really don’t care…..and yah i like the old man who really makes himself look like god …lol …i like how he sort of outsmarts that “weird random guy” with his green hair boy that jsut randomely pops out and say they want to take over the world…muahahahhaha.
bleh…its good, dun screw it up in the 2nd season….
March 21st, 2008 at 8:52 am
lol wats with people trying to figure out if Ali died or not…who carez….we will see when the episodes come out..i dun even get how people can get so much from a 2 second scene of beams hitting the Throne..
faint`
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
that was awesome. reading your blog really lifted a few heartaches after watching the episode. though i do believe that ali died after getting the shot. i repeated the sequence over and over and saw it blow up. like gundam wing style, his gun’s fire was cut-off shortly after the bottowm started exploding, then after the cut-off, the rest explodes.
March 23rd, 2008 at 2:45 am
I can’t believe they killed HALF the crew in Ep 24!!
Season 2 must be all new cast. (GN-Arms driver WILL DIE.)
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Kenapa kamu lama banget ngeluarin review episode 24-nya?
March 24th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I couldnt believe that they actually let lockon die but the right after that they let half of the ptolemaeus crew die this series is some heavy stuff im really looking forward to the second season now
March 24th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
well they did have a meaningful talk about their pasts before the fighting started
(phil ken sebben: HA HA!!foreshadowing)
gundam cast rule #37: under no circumstances should you reveal large portions of your backstory all at once, it’ll only ensure a firey demise
and the dr guy fulfilled the role of sacrifical ensign redshirt quite nicely
in short all the gundam standard foreshadowing was there
March 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I’m back again. This episodes got dam alot of fighting, but there are many things that dont seem right…
1) Did Exia Pang Sei Nena?
2) If I’m not wrong Dynames needed a few months to be repaired?
3) How did e UN get spare parts for Zwei? And if limbs were cut off how do they replace them?
4) The GN container looked like it was cruising when it was obvious the ship was goin to get owned by e GN-X
5) In e last episode Virtue’s GN field got crapped up by TWO shots. Now it can withstand the GN-X continuos fire. Maybe they changed the particle density?
6) After Zwei’s attack Virtue’s GN field got penetrated, and the damages were gone at the next scene?
7) How the hell did Lockon break out of e room?
8) Why didnt Hallelujah block out the quantam brainwaves
9) Virtue’s beam was dam inba, and it was like say 7-8 times larger than him? If u notice the TRANS-AM display he used 60% +-. He destroyed 1 GN-X (the retard guy from AEU not counted). And he’s gun wont over-heat?
10) The GN arms is a rip-off from e METEOR system.
11) The G’s in the gundam wont kill them? I presume the normal ones would be from 9-10. 3 times as fast = ?
12) How long does it take to charge TRANS-AM? Cause Setsuna was using it like say 12 hrs after the fight?
13) Lockon din use his TRANS-AM >>> I’m sure u noticed tt.
14) Was Lockon’s helmet CRACKED when he went into space?
15) I wonder how long he took to conect e cables to his funny thingy
16) Take note that Zwei was blasted, and after a lag time it shot DIRECTLY into the middle of the GN arms.
17) The sniper thingy was DIRECTLY on the GN arms… I tot it was supposed to float or sumthing?
18) I presume from the preview that Nadleeh can use TRANS-AM
This is bout it. The storyline is great, but they should make it more realistic. I mean this is wat separates it from SEED and DESTINY. Where Zaku’s can fly anywhere and gundams are not so ownage.
I dont know whether michael gundam was called Zwei but…
I wondered wat would happen if a person kept on crying and he din take off his helmet?
Ready 4 ep 25
March 29th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Lockon died for a good reason and with a good scene (i like that scene when he tried to hold the earth… T-T). No need to resurrect him.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:14 am
damn. “team rocket style”. that phrase really knocked me out.
and it was SO true in the episode XD
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December 4th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
^^hahaha!