Monday, July 20, 2015

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 S2 Part 7 Episodes 20-22


The capture of an Innovator and the reveal of a traitor in their midst sets the stage for Celestial Being’s final battle.  Ribbons is set to make his final move against the Gundams and is even getting his own house in order by ensuring all old rivalries are settled amongst his troops.  Will Louise find peace in settling the score with the woman who killed her parents?  And when faced with a kill he cannot carry out, will Lock On be able to forgive Setsuna for saving his life?  Love, loss and vengeance collide as the final chapter begins.

I wonder if on some sort of subconscious level, this show has listened to my many complaints.  As much as I do love Gundam 00, many of the characters seem shoed in, pointless and just there to give a Gundam series it’s usual large sized cast.  I say this because in this set, a bit of house cleaning was seen.  Sure it wasn’t a Yoshiyuki “Kill em All” Tomino sized clean up, but still some characters I have not been able to stand throughout this series either got killed or put in their place big time.

As much as I never really cared for Anew Returner, I have to admit, her death was handled pretty well.  I say this more for the fact that most of her romance with Lock On was seen more or less off screen, only popping up in tiny bits until we saw some big developments last time.  I never really saw her importance beyond being the inevitable traitor for the Innovators.  But Lyle losing her was something felt deep.  His wailing and beating up Setsuna for being the one to kill her while the others stood by at a loss for words was probably one of the best scenes this show has done yet.  We all knew, even Lock On and Setsuna sort of agreed on how this tragedy would end…but that still didn’t mean there wouldn’t be cries of sorrow at the end.

Next we saw the deaths of Wang Liu Mei and Nena Trinity…in the same episode.  Oh man, I know we are usually supposed to feel something for the deaths of characters, like I said about Anew above.  But Wang Liu Mei and Nena’s ends had been a long time coming.  Neither had done much this season, hell Nena did practically nothing except pop up and growl for a second from time to time.  We did get a little more about Liu Mei’s motivations for being so despicable in her actions this season but it’s too little too late to care.  As for Nena, how fitting is it that is wasn’t Sachez that killed her, but Louise?  It was good to see Nena get what was coming to her for all her attitude and bloodshed…even if it meant making Louise worse for it.  Boy does Saji have his work cut out for him if he runs into her again.

Last we got to Mr. Busido BS himself, Graham Acker.  Even after Setsuna pulled him into that weird “all thoughts are one” realm, Graham still wants the victory he’s been denied against the Gundams since this series began.  Thankfully, Setsuna is looking at bigger pictures and tuned out Graham’s crap, kicked his ass and then left him there to ponder how he should fight for his own future instead of just looking for an excuse to die.  So does this mean Graham is finally done on this series?  Considering Celestial Being has one final battle with the Innovators and A-Laws to get to, less distraction and annoyance is a must and Graham Acker has been both of those this season.  So yeah, hopefully he just floats there in space for a bit. 

Speaking of “all thoughts are one” how cool and yet so creepy was it to see the Innovator eye glow in Setsuna’s eyes when the power went out?

I’ve gotta say, I haven’t really been paying attention to the character of Regene Regetta.  His plan to overthrow Ribbions and take over the plan to control the future of humanity has kind of been an after thought to me.  Is he a good guy, a bad guy, someone who just wants to screw around for his own amusement?  Ok so that last bit may not be a good definition of his character.  But his motivations for screwing with Ribbions included revealing himself to Tierria way back and giving the location of VEDA to Celestial Being.  I guess at the end of the day he’s just fed up with Ribbons’ elitist crap…cause he finally put a bullet in the creeps skull.  I’d say im curious how this will change things going into the Series Finale…but we saw Ribbons in a preview for the next episode so yeah.

And you read that right.  Next time, the Series Finale of Gundam 00, the long journey is almost over.

Side Note: I’m pretty proud of myself for keeping up with reviews this consistently for this long series.  And right now, im on track to deliver the final part of Gundam 00 on Wednesday, the day before I head to Otakon.  I may do some side features on that in the next couple of days.  But I will reveal that I’ll be taking a week off from the Anime Corner due to Otakon taking up most of my time.  I may continue with Classic Reviews starting next Tuesday but I’ll hold off on a brand new review until Monday after next, just need a little bit of a break.  Thanks for the understanding and for enjoying the Gundam 00 reviews so far.  Let’s see if I can finish them strong.

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