As the Assault Container begins to crumble, Lasse ejects in the GN Arms, followed by Setsuna in the Gundam Exia. Setsuna rushes in to attack the Alvatore and comes under fire from several beam cannons. Lasse tells Setsuna that if they hit the assault container they might do some damage, so they both open fire on it. The assault container is hit and explodes, but it causes no damage to the Alvatore. In the other assault container, Feldt gives Sumeragi a status report: no contact from Tieria, and the Gundam Kyrios is heavily damaged and engaging two GN-Xs. Hallelujah hides behind an asteroid, and Sergei tells Soma that he couldn’t have gotten far in the condition that his suit is in. Allelujah tries to speak, but Hallelujah tells him to shut up if he can’t do anything on the verge of life and death. He says he’s going to live no matter what, and Allelujah says the same. Allelujah says he can’t die until he hears the world’s answer and the reason for fighting. Hallelujah then takes off his helmet, combs back his hair and says they’ll show Soma what a real super soldier is like. Working together, the two personalities rush in to attack Soma and Sergei. Hallelujah dodges their shots and uses his shield pincer to rip off Sergei’s left arms. Soma fires at Hallelujah, but he dodges her attack easily and continues his assault. Setsuna continues to fire at the Alvatore and losses his shield. Alejandro responds by deploying GN fangs, and Lasse tells Setsuna to dock with him. Setsuna docks with Lasse and Alejandro attacks again with the fangs. Lasse deploys a GN field while Setsuna shoots down the fangs. They fire again at the Alvatore and dodge an attack from its large beam cannon. Alejandro unleashes a barrage of fire, and the GN Arms Type-E rushes in. Setsuna cuts off one of the Alvatore’s arms, while Lasse fires the GN Arms’ cannons. The GN Arms is damaged, but Lasse rushes in for another attack. He begins to tells Setsuna something about existence, but he’s interrupted by an explosion in the cockpit. Setsuna charges forward and uses one of the GN Arms’ blades to piece the Alvatore’s GN field and damage the main body. After disconnecting from the GN Arms, Setsuna attacks again and cuts into the Alvatore’s main body, slicing it nearly in half and causing an explosion. Hallelujah attacks Sergei again and cuts off his other arm. He then attacks Soma with a beam saber, and she asks him how this is happening if she’s a perfect super soldier. Hallelujah tells she’s no perfect soldier because she can’t react fast enough through quantum brainwaves, so she merely reacts on instinct like an animal. Hallelujah says he can read her actions because the mark of a true super soldier is the combination of reaction and thought. He then activates the Trans Am system and easily dodges Soma’s attacks. He cuts off one of her legs and attempts the killing blow, but Sergei intervenes and is injured. Soma then fires off several shots on the Gundam Kyrios, causing an explosion in the cockpit that injures Hallelujah’s eye. As the Gundam Kyrios drifts away, Soma pries open the cockpit hatch of Sergei’s GN-X. He tells her to forget about him and keep fighting, but she says if he were gone, she’d be alone. Allelujah zooms in on an image of Soma and realizes that she’s Marie. Setsuna tries to call Lasse and comes under attack again. The mobile suit Alvaaron emerges from the Alvatore, and Alejandro attacks Setsuna with a beam saber. Setsuna accuses him of perverting the plan, and Alejandro says the plain is the same, except that he’s the main actor now. Alejandro then swings the Alvaaron’s wings up and fires a beam cannon blast at Setsuna.
Alejandro suddenly comes under attack from the Gundam Exia, which is in Trans-Am mode. Setsuna fires off several shots, but Alejandro blocks them with a GN field. Setsuna recalls Lockon telling him that the Gundam Exia was equipped with a solid sword as a countermeasure to GN fields, because their plan even factored in battles between Gundams. Setsuna rushes in and uses his GN sword to pierce the Alvatore’s GN field and dissipate it. Setsuna says that Celestial Being will eradicate war by force, and he stabs the Alvaaron with all of his GN blades, beam sabers and beam daggers. Ribbons calls Alejandro and tells him that he played a good clown. He states that it is no longer Aeolia’s plan anymore, but his own, so he’ll take care of the united world. Alejandro curses him and says that’s the Corner family’s desire, but Ribbons answers that such an obsession makes him a small man. Alejandro damns Ribbons again, and the Alvaaron explodes. Just as Setsuna begins to catch his breath, another enemy approaches: Graham’s GN Flag. Attacking with a beam saber, Graham tells Setsuna that he’ll get revenge for Howard and Daryl with the GN Flag. Setsuna is shocked to see that Graham is the pilot he met in Azadistan, and Graham is similarly surprised about Setsuna. Graham declares that they’re connected by the red thread of destiny to fight each other. He attacks again and cuts off the Gundam Exia’s left arm. He says that his heart was stolen by the Gundam’s abilities and is definitely a feeling of love, but when one goes beyond love, it becomes hatred. Setsuna cuts off the GN Flag’s right leg and asks Graham why he fights, but Graham answers that it’s nonsense to ask a soldier the meaning of war. Graham cuts off the Gundam Exia’s head, and Setsuna cuts off the GN Flag’s head. Setsuna tells Graham he’s twisted, and Graham answers that he became twisted by the existence of the Gundams. Graham declares that he doesn’t care about the world and will take Setsuna down by his own will, and Setsuna tells him he’s just acting on ego. The two then charge forward and stab each other’s torsos, setting off explosions of red and green GN particles. As the ruined Gundam Nadleeh drifts through space, Tieria says that things aren’t over yet. The assault container approaches him, and he ejects the Gundam Nadleeh’s GN Drive so that it can be safely recovered. With that done, Tieria says he’ll soon go to the place where Lockon is. Allelujah can’t believe that Soma was Marie and asks Hallelujah if he knew. Hallelujah tells Allelujah that if he did know, he wouldn’t have been able to fight and would die. He then says it’s all the same in the end anyway, and that he’ll be going first. Marina reads a letter from Setsuna, which states that if she’s reading it, he’s dead. He states that when he only knew how to fight, Celestial Being gave him a reason to fight. He wanted to know why the world was distorted and why people are unconsciously evil; why there are the dominators and the dominators; why people try to live on in spite of that. He thought that meeting her would provide an answer, because they were seeking the same thing on different paths. Setsuna wanted to find the path to understanding, along with the Gundam.
In 2312, Saji writes to Louise for the first time in two years. He tells her that he’s working in space and has made part of his dream come true, but he’s still waiting for her. He spots a trail of green GN particles and knows that it isn’t from the Federation, so it must be a Gundam. At a ceremony, the Earth Sphere Federation’s president marks the one year anniversary of the organization, which is an alliance of 328 countries. As part of that alliance, all nations will disband their militaries so that one unified peacekeeping military can be created under the Federation. Kati, Sergei and Patrick become members of the new Federation military, as does a masked Graham. Ali has a drink, and Shirin says goodbye to Marina before leaving. Nena asks Wang if she likes the current world, and Wang says she has expectations that the world will change. Ribbons declares that humanity’s future is beginning with the Innovators. Louise meets with a person named Regene Regetta, who looks nearly identical to Tieria. At a secret asteroid base, Wang and Hong Long visit Ian. Wang asks for a status report, and Ian tells her that the first unit has been rolled out and is being tested for battle, while the other units will roll out as scheduled. Wang asks if she can see the 0 Gundam, which was the first mobile suit to use a solar reactor. Ian says that they removed its solar reactor and installed it on the 00 Gundam, but it didn’t match. Ian isn’t even sure if the Gundam Exia’s solar reactor will work, and Wang declares that the 00 Gundam is the mobile suit that will change the world.
The first half of the series comes to a (literally) explosive end. With almost everyone damaged or out of commission, it comes down to a duel with Alejandro’s Alvatore, which has just about every weapon one could imagine, including the mobile suit Alvaaron. There’s an explosion in the GN Arms’ cockpit, so it’s not clear if Lasse was killed or not. Setsuna certainly goes all out to cut Alejandro down, so it’s surprising he can keep up with Graham’s sudden and forceful attacks. We haven’t seen Graham for a while, and it looks like he’s become totally obsessed with the Gundams, as evidenced by his slightly crazy behavior. Their battle ends with mutual stabbing and an explosion. We see Graham wearing a mask four years later, which I assume is from battle injuries. Allelujah and Hallelujah work together to fight Soma and Sergei, and from the looks of it, the Hallelujah personality is dead. Setsuna’s letter to Marina gives some insight to his motivations, but I’m sure that’s not the end of it. Rather than ending on a cliffhanger, the show performs a first for Gundam with a four year time skip. I guess time skips are popular in mecha shows these days, having been also employed in Gurren-Lagann and Code Geass. In those four years, the Earth Sphere Federation has been created, and all the world’s armies are being unified as one. One might then wonder what the purpose is of Celestial Being still existing, but Ribbons is out there running around with his army of pretty boys. The epilogue of this episode goes out of its way to not show any of the Meisters, but it also throws in a surprise with the appearance of Regene. Although we haven’t seen Setsuna in the time skip, I’m sure he’ll show up to claim his mid-series upgrade, the 00 Gundam.
Gundam 00 Info
Director:
Seiji Mizushima
Writer:
Yousuke Kuroda
Mechanical Designer(s):
Kanetake Ebikawa
Takayuki Yanase
Hitoshi Fukuchi
Kenji Teraoka
Naohiro Washio
Kunio Okawara
Seiichi Nakatani
Character Designer(s):
Yun Kouga
Michinori Chiba
Musical Composer:
Kenji Kawai
Format:
50 episodes; 3 compilation movies
Airdates:
Japan 10.06.2007 – 03.29.2008 (S1);
10.05.2008 – 03.29.2009 (S2)
U.S. 11.24.2008 – 02.09.2009 (S1);
06.29.2009 – 09.21.2009 (S2)
Video Release (SE):
Japan 10.27.2009 – 02.23.2010
U.S. 09.04.2018
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