So, I just finished rewatching S1 of 00 today. In a lot of ways I think it’s the kind of series that works noticeably better in marathon format (particularly because of the slow pace of the first half and the battles split over a couple episodes). I still don’t get the Saji and Louise hate, I mean sure they take away from the fightan robots a bit every episode or so, but I thought their reactions seemed fairly realistic under the circumstances and it gave a nice counterpoint to the action. 

I’ve still got a few gripes, mostly relating to the way the end was handled. It so desperately could have used just one more episode to make it feel more complete and not so rushed. The GN Flag/Exia battle is still amazing after a few months, but it still seems far too quick and tacked on for my taste. And then of course my other whine is that we didn’t get to see enough of Nadaleeh in action. I’m still kind of neutral on the whole Alejandro plot ‘twist.’ I’m not about to praise it as one of the most clever and well written items in anime history, but it doesn’t really bother me (maybe I’m just numb to stupid plot twists from Geass). 

I was really hesitant about getting excited about S2 after seeing the first promotional material for it. For the record I still don’t like the new Gundams very much. 00 is fine, and Areios is pretty spiffy, Cheredum is just kind of a slightly uglier Dynames variant (I understand trying to drop the linecount to make animation smoother but why couldn’t they leave in some of the curves and interesting angles? Everything became so boxy ;_;). The only one I still really hate so far is Seravee. They totally screwed up the balance and proportion of the suit, it’s really bottom-heavy now and just stands out horribly from the group when you see them lined up together. I know I should reserve judgement until I see them in action, but those are my impressions presently. Also, I’m seriously going to cry if the Flags are gone for good. Tieriens and Enacts have shown up in promo material for S2 already but no Flags. ;_;

Other points:
The Masked Man- It just has to be Graham, right? I dunno, I haven’t watched a lot of Gundam aside from 00 yet, but just given the fact that they’re keeping up the “lol, dunno who that could be” rouse fairly adamantly makes me think that maybe it’s not him (well, that and Mizushima’s “Lockon is dead. Graham too.” comment). Anyhow, my running theory is that he’s got some cybernetic implants or something/looks hideous now. In the character art of him that’s been making the rounds in the magazines his eyes look funky, oh hell I don’t really know what I’m getting at here.

The Innovators- Goddamn those new outfits are hideous. I liked the ones from the S1 epilogue, and Ribbons’ S1 outfit too. Really, it’s the sleeves, if it weren’t for the ruffles on the cuffs and if they weren’t so poofy it wouldn’t be half as bad. Also, why haven’t we seen any of the others aside from Ribbons and Regene in the magazine art? Eh… they’re probably just trying to surprise us or something, I guess.

Lyle/Lockon 2- Mm, I’m liking the evil twin theory more now than I have previously. Maybe it’s just because I got to thinking it’d make for an awesome scene if Lyle’s being a douchebag and Tieria bitches him out for sullying original Lockon’s image or something like that. I dunno, lately anything 00 related is sounding good if you add in Tieria getting pissed and going off on someone. I really don’t like the idea of Tieria going all dere-dere for new Lockon just because he looks like old Lockon.  

Ribbons/etc- I’m still watiting for my Tieria-Ribbons showdown this season. (A lot of people are saying Setsuna’s gonna get the Ribbons showdown because of the O Gundam thing, but Ali’s still around so…) Though a Tieria-Regene beatdown is sounding increasingly awesome.

 

Anyhow, despite my attempts to keep my hopes in the gutter for S2 after the shit Sunrise pulled with Geass R2 (yeah, I know none of the same people are working on 00, but again Geass suffered most heavily from executive meddling and the Sunrise execs are the same regardless, so that’s got me worried), I’m really excited. I’ll probably start drawfagging a countdown either later today or tomorrow.