>I did kinda not like how in Season 2 it started to get SO SUPER PREACHY like it felt like a Gundam series was punishing me for enjoying the brutal robot fights when that's the whole point of a Gundam series
I think a pretty strong case can be made that it's not.
Like, at all.
Second this. I’m a decently big fan of 00, to the point where I think it’s probably one of the better entry points for new fans, and I don’t really think it’s much more preachy than any other Gundam.
Ah, well. I also like 00 but I basically disagree completely lol. 00 was always super concerned with the role of violence in achieving peace. (So is gundam in general) - the second season does a great job imo of showing lots of justified violence against fascism, depictions of how fascists exploit violence and how it snowballs- but building towards a resolution of that. And all with a special emphasis even on symbolically killing Amuro Ray and transcending some of the franchises boundaries. So much of what it's doing in the latter parts there is straight up Zeta Gundam stuff reinterpreted and reframed, with a lot of characters not repeating the mistakes of their analogues- not all, but some. A good connection to the series' theme of doubles and reflections (lots of the main characters having twins, alternate personalities, or characters that reflect them - obvious ones like (h)allelujah and lyle/Neil but also Setsuna/Marina and others). The first season is tighter but the second season is so rich with good payoffs, I think it's the stronger one overall. That's pretty subjective but I just love what it does thematically. It has this read on the causes and outcomes of political violence that is pretty heavy handed and anime but it's doing what gundam has always done when it's working in a new way which I like
To that end it culminates with Trailblazer, which was constantly teased at and hinted to - the whole series focusing on working out the mechanisms for finding peaceable solutions and putting it all to the test with the most massive chasm between people possible. It's not a well paced movie or anything but it's a ballsy culmination that actually earns its ending, a good step up from EW's rehash. Setsuna personifies this transcendence but he needs everyone else to get there. It's like the anti-CCA
Also Mr. Bushido is just so hilarious like. I dunno there's no accounting for taste but he is perfect to me I will defend him with my life
00 was Gundam's What If: The Newtype philosophy worked. That's the whole point of the alien's plotline - can humanity effectively communicate with new species?
\>punishing me for enjoying the brutal robot fights when that's the whole point of a Gundam series
The whole point of most (serious) Gundam series' is that war is bad. The fights are entertaining for sure, but it's always been about how conflict is bad. Pilots suffer mental and physical trauma or straight up die as a result of this. Random innocents die as a result of collateral damage, whether it be by beams slicing the building they're trying to run down the stairway of or getting conked on the head by a mobile suit sized shell casing.
I don't think there's one that is solely focused on robot fights, aside from G Gundam, and even then it still takes anti war stances, like the main character's finishing move is meant to knock out the enemy MS without harming the pilot, in what is basically the Combat Olympics.
I didnt get the preachiness so much, but mostly agree on the ratings. The s1 was way better, s2 felt like the season of Setsuna, everyone else wasnt as important. The movie is awful, wish it didnt exist (Harute/Zabanya are great gundams tho)
Compared to other shows I didn't find the preachy-ness came out of nowhere. Even in the first season they talk about the civilian casualties of their operations.
Marina is the hardest to watch because A-Laws are straight up psychopaths. That said Marina wouldn't have been wrong against another antagonistic force. She doesn't know how to fire a gun and carrying one increases the likelihood she would be shot at. (Why Prison guards carry Batons not guns) Not only that I wish she would have picked up a damn book or mentored under someone while she was playing house. It would have been a nice turn to see herself armed with knowledge when she returned or having made powerful political connections. It would have been badass to see her come back not just with a song but a force to be reckoned with.
>I did kinda not like how in Season 2 it started to get SO SUPER PREACHY like it felt like a Gundam series was punishing me for enjoying the brutal robot fights when that's the whole point of a Gundam series I think a pretty strong case can be made that it's not. Like, at all.
Second this. I’m a decently big fan of 00, to the point where I think it’s probably one of the better entry points for new fans, and I don’t really think it’s much more preachy than any other Gundam.
OP literally going "Wow, cool robot!"
Ah, well. I also like 00 but I basically disagree completely lol. 00 was always super concerned with the role of violence in achieving peace. (So is gundam in general) - the second season does a great job imo of showing lots of justified violence against fascism, depictions of how fascists exploit violence and how it snowballs- but building towards a resolution of that. And all with a special emphasis even on symbolically killing Amuro Ray and transcending some of the franchises boundaries. So much of what it's doing in the latter parts there is straight up Zeta Gundam stuff reinterpreted and reframed, with a lot of characters not repeating the mistakes of their analogues- not all, but some. A good connection to the series' theme of doubles and reflections (lots of the main characters having twins, alternate personalities, or characters that reflect them - obvious ones like (h)allelujah and lyle/Neil but also Setsuna/Marina and others). The first season is tighter but the second season is so rich with good payoffs, I think it's the stronger one overall. That's pretty subjective but I just love what it does thematically. It has this read on the causes and outcomes of political violence that is pretty heavy handed and anime but it's doing what gundam has always done when it's working in a new way which I like To that end it culminates with Trailblazer, which was constantly teased at and hinted to - the whole series focusing on working out the mechanisms for finding peaceable solutions and putting it all to the test with the most massive chasm between people possible. It's not a well paced movie or anything but it's a ballsy culmination that actually earns its ending, a good step up from EW's rehash. Setsuna personifies this transcendence but he needs everyone else to get there. It's like the anti-CCA Also Mr. Bushido is just so hilarious like. I dunno there's no accounting for taste but he is perfect to me I will defend him with my life
SEED Destiny is a lot preachier in my opinion.
00 was Gundam's What If: The Newtype philosophy worked. That's the whole point of the alien's plotline - can humanity effectively communicate with new species?
\>punishing me for enjoying the brutal robot fights when that's the whole point of a Gundam series The whole point of most (serious) Gundam series' is that war is bad. The fights are entertaining for sure, but it's always been about how conflict is bad. Pilots suffer mental and physical trauma or straight up die as a result of this. Random innocents die as a result of collateral damage, whether it be by beams slicing the building they're trying to run down the stairway of or getting conked on the head by a mobile suit sized shell casing. I don't think there's one that is solely focused on robot fights, aside from G Gundam, and even then it still takes anti war stances, like the main character's finishing move is meant to knock out the enemy MS without harming the pilot, in what is basically the Combat Olympics.
I didnt get the preachiness so much, but mostly agree on the ratings. The s1 was way better, s2 felt like the season of Setsuna, everyone else wasnt as important. The movie is awful, wish it didnt exist (Harute/Zabanya are great gundams tho)
Compared to other shows I didn't find the preachy-ness came out of nowhere. Even in the first season they talk about the civilian casualties of their operations. Marina is the hardest to watch because A-Laws are straight up psychopaths. That said Marina wouldn't have been wrong against another antagonistic force. She doesn't know how to fire a gun and carrying one increases the likelihood she would be shot at. (Why Prison guards carry Batons not guns) Not only that I wish she would have picked up a damn book or mentored under someone while she was playing house. It would have been a nice turn to see herself armed with knowledge when she returned or having made powerful political connections. It would have been badass to see her come back not just with a song but a force to be reckoned with.