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I go through obsessions pretty fast.
Those who have watched this LJ for long enough would know: I breeze through fads like Imelda Marcos through pairs of shoes. Anime obsessions, in particular, tend to be short-lived, as each show has a limited run, and is usually over by the time I get around to picking it up (I lag on these things). I took me less than a year to get through three big anime obsessions: Trinity Blood, Death Note, Kyou Kara Maou!-- the last one in particular lasting only a month or so. In comparison, it took me about four years to get through the three big obessions before that: LOST, O-Zone, Supernatural.
However, my brain has snagged onto something which is planned to last, fifty episodes, until the spring of 2009. It's an amazing show, popular, with an active fandom and a storyline which tickles a lot of my personal kinks. In other words, it has completely eaten my fanbrain and taken over my fannish life. (A quick check of the amount of merchandize already in my room will confirm this.) It was something which had me instantly hooked by episode one, and it's something which I expect not to let me go until the final episode airs in the oh-so-not-quite-distant-future.
In other words, hello, this is the thing I'm going be to talking about non-stop for the next two years.
Bearing that in mind, I thought I'd best give you guys a primer on my newest and dearest obsession. Not that I expect people to follow me into the abyss--I know anime is not everyone's cup of tea, and it certainly wasn't mine for a large part of my fannish life--but it's good to have an inkling as to what I'm on about, and if you're so inclined to jump on the bandwagon: why not?
At the very least, just have a look, you have no idea how bloody long it took me to screencap/upload/type out everything (let's just say: weeks).
Without further ado! [drumroll]
A PRIMER TO MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM 00
Otherwise known as the latest show to have eaten June's brains
I like to describe Gundam 00 as "Babylon 5 with Transformers in, updated for the post-9/11 world". For me, this show has been reviving my inner scifi fandork, which has been in dormancy since the B5 thing subsided about five years ago. I love the show's balance between high-octane gunfights, weaselly politicians doing weaselly politics, and the massively fucked-up main characters' personal issues. What sold me to the show? The visuals, mostly, since I had no inkling of what it was about when I started watching it (save for a general impression of "giant robots beating the shit out of each other"). What kept me watching the show? Just about everything else.
I've never touched any other Gundam series, so I have no clue what standards and traditions the franchise has, but that has not stopped me from enjoying this one. In fact, probably one of the best things about this show is that it's set in a separate universe of its own, so prior knowledge of any of the other 678 Gundam series is not neccessary.
The show takes an ensemble approach with a wide cast of members that include the 4 main protagonists, support crews, politicians, princesses, military men and what-the-hell-are-they-doing-there? civilians. No black-and-white hero/villian dynamics here: everybody has flaws, everybody is culpable. At the start, the various political factions and goals can seem a little confusing, but you get used to it. The intricacy of the politics, in particular, has gotten to me, especially with how delightfully un-PC it is. Terrorism and Muslim fundamentalism get quite a bit of the airtime, but without the fervent WAR ON TERROR!!OMG!!! vibes that 24 often gets plagued with.
The series has already been preplanned: 50 episodes over the course of 2 years, giving Gundam 00 a somewhat serialized story (like most anime). Some of the episodes have struck me as a little one-shot-ish, though, but nothing as extreme as, say, Star Trek. Or Supernatural. There is continuity, more or less, from episode to episode, and events from past episodes don't just fade away as if they never happened.
The tone of the show is mostly serious-- it is a serious premise, after all--but there are comic moments here and there, a lot of which consist of characters picking on Lockon (the poor man). There is drama, there is psychological mindfuckery, and there is angst, but thankfully not overly done (except maybe for that one dubious episode in which everybody was bursting into tears). It's space opera. There's got to be some sort of drama in it.
I could go on and on about this show if I allowed myself to, but my head is hurting and I want to put this up ASAP, so, I summarize and end off quick. What I like about the show, in sum:
So. Action, character, politics, which I guess comes under plot. If you enjoy space operas, you should try this.
Characters:
Setsuna F. Seiei (16): Anti-social Kurdish ex-child soldier. (刹那 is not his real name. Shocking!) Also the main-ish protagonist of the show. The first time we see him he's 10 and shooting shit up with an AK-47. Yep, so the main character of the show is a Middle Eastern, war-loving ex-religious fundie. You'd see that on an American show around the same time Hell freezes over. Setsuna hates company, hardly says anything, frowns all the time, and is generally an antisocial loner. When he talks he's most probably saying things like "I am Gundam!" or "Don't touch me!", or you know, blowing his supposedly-secret identity off to complete strangers. He's not too bright, no. Setsuna 's in Celestial Being not because he believes in world peace, but because he loves piloting his Gundam too damn much. Tieria hates his guts, and the feeling is mutual. Setsuna pilots the Gundam Exia, which is blue, and fights with swords, being a close-range combat unit. Setsuna's favorite drink is milk.
This is the sluttiest screencap of Setsuna ever made.
Lockon Stratos (24): Irish paedophile. Lockon is the oldest Meister and people-person of the group. He is open, friendly, easygoing and laughs a lot. He gets along with all the other Meisters better than they get along with each other. His personality makes him a natural choice to lead the team of Meisters, but all the other Meisters bully him when they get the chance to. Lockon was orphaned in an IRA bombing as a child, and that has left him despising terrorists of all kinds. He's probably the only of the 4 Meisters who's in Celestial Being because he truly believes in the whole "eradicating war for the good of mankind" thing. His real name is Neil Dylandy (sp, subbers?) and he apparently has a twin brother. Lockon pilots the Gundam Dynames, which is a sniper unit, and he can shoot your ass down from space if he wants to. He also has an orange Haro unit, who helps him pilot the Dynames when he's too busy sniping, and insults him at other times. Even so, Lockon is waaaaay too fond of his little orange ball. He also periodically hits on 14-year old Felt, which means his codename should have been "Lolicon Stratos", really.
Allelujah Haptism (19): Yes, really, that's what they call him on the show. Allelujah is a soft-spoken, gentle soul who dislikes killing and violence. But he has a second personality named Hallelujah inside him who is sadistic, psychotic, and enjoys murdering people. Allelujah is usually the personality in charge, but every now and then Hallelujah emerges and messes people's shit up, which causes Allelujah a lot of angst. Allelujah is actually an genetically-enhanced escapee from the Human Reform League's Super Soldier program, and his alternate personality is a result of them messing around with his brain when he was a kid. Allelujah pilots the Gundam Kyrios, which is a high-speed unit that has a plane and robot form, and usually carries out blitzkrieg attacks on targets. His main personality cares deeply about people, and gets along rather well with Lockon.
Tieria Erde (??): The mysterious one of the Meisters. Tieria is Celestial being's Head Bitch, who divides his time between insulting the other Meisters, threatening to shoot them, and then stalking them to eavesdrop on their conversations. His favorite thing to say is "I don't know why he's a Gundam Meister", accompanied by the requisite bitchface. Overly obssessed with sticking to Celestial Being's mission plans, Tieria is cold, unapproachable and all-around anal-retentive. He does have a softer, human side, but he's not shown it to any of the other Meisters thus far. Tieria also has the worst fashion sense, ever. He dresses like a 60-year-old spinster.
At this point I must say that Tieria is my favorite amongst the Meisters, because he fascinates me. A lot of fanspec revolves around Tieria being a robot or a cyborg of some sort, which I'm tempted to agree with. We've seen the childhood backgrounds of the other three Meisters, but not Tieria's. I tend to think that Tieria is a genetically engineered human with cybernetic bits in. We're also given to believe that Tieria's supposedly, apparently, a guy. Who wears pink cardigans, has delicate hands and feminine features. I'm not convinced; neither is a large part of fandom. Especially since Tieria's huge chunky manly Gundam, Virtue, has the ability to turn into a girl Gundam with long pink hair. Named Nadleeh, which is the Navajo name for a transgendered (or rather, "third-gendered") person. I couldn't make this shit up if I wanted to. WHAT! For simplicity's sake, I'll refer to Tieria as a 'him', since he identifies himself as male on the show and also has a male seiyuu. But let it be known that I think "him" is a misnomer. I think he's neither a he nor a she. Seriously, would adore Tieria even more if he canonically turned out to be a transgendered individual. I would make him my poster boygirl for gender confusion.
Other cast members:
Celestial Being
Sumeragi Lee Noriega (26): The strategist of Celestial Being is also in charge of its transport ship, the Ptolemaios. She spends her time either conferring with Veda, Celestial Being's supercomputer, or downing alcohol. She seems to take a maternal interest in Allelujah.
Christina Sierra (19): One of the Ptolemaios' navigators. Christina is cheerful and outgoing, but panics easily. She's cute. She also seems to have a thing for Allelujah. (Everybody hits on Allelujah, he's just to busy fending off the advances of his inner psychopath to notice.)
Feldt Grace (14): Jailbait. I cannot believe a girl her age has boobs like that. Another one of the Ptolemaios' crew. She's quiet and withdrawn. An orphan whose parents were both earlier-generation Meisters killed on duty. Lockon hits on her, but I think she's more interested in Haro. (Srsly.)
Wang Liumei: A beautiful Chinese celebrity who is of some rank in Celestial Being. She usually turns up to give the Meisters orders, or observe their mission going-ons. Exotic, enigmatic and apparently... a minor? Well, she's cute enough, I'll give her that. Cute and a little creepy, actually, since she comes off as rather scheming and cold-blooded to me. She is waited on by a guy named Hong Long, who tags with her everywhere.
Haro: An orange AI who resembles a basketball with a perpetual smiling face. Haro is R2D2 to Lockon's Luke Skywalker. He flaps his ears when he speaks and repeats everything twice, e.g. Lockon suteki! Lockon suteki! HARO IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER ON THE SHOW. FOR SERIOUS.
Non Celestial Being:
Graham Acre & Billy Katagiri: The ace pilot of the Union, and his engineer/friend/gay lover (?). Graham fell deeply in love with the Gundam Exia the first time he saw it, and has spent most of the series so far stalking it. I like them, because they seem to be Good People, and everytime Graham gets into a fight with the Gundams I'm a little torn as to who to root for.
Sergei Smirnoff: A grizzled old general with the Human Reform League, he is put in charge of the HRL's Anti-Gundam unit. He is smart, a good soldier and a devastating tactician, almost managing to kick Celestial Being's ass with wits alone. He is also given care of Super Soldier #1, whom he displays almost fatherly affection for. (I sneakily want him to be Allelujah's birth father, because the resulting angst would be glorious, but that's just the fannit in me talking.)
Soma Perez: Super Solder #1. A designer baby with artificial enhancements, Soma is the first successful product of the program which Allelujah escaped from. She's kind of like River Tam, except with a better grip on the batshit insane. She also causes Hallelujah to emerge everytime she gets in Allelujah's vicinity--some technobabble about quantum brain waves interfering with each other.
Patrick Coralsawar: An arrogant, bimbotic airhead who happens to be the AEU's ace pilot. Every time he has appeared he has gotten his ass kicked in the direction of Epic Fail. I suspect the creators put him in the series just for the lulz. Poor Patrick.
Marina Ismail: The crown princess of Azadistan (MADE UP MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRY O YEY), who I still maintains bears more than a passing resemblance to Ambassador Delenn. Except that she's way more of a pacifist and really needs to grow a bit of a spine if she wants to kick ass as much as Delenn did. She's new to politics and scours the world trying to seek aid for her impoverished country before it descends into civil war. Has a cool advisor called Shirin, who kicks a lot more ass than her (so far). I suspect they're setting her up to be a love interest for Setsuna.
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of the recurring characters on the show; these are the ones I just think are noteworthy so far. For more information, Wikipedia is your best friend.
Pilot Episode
So, instead of summarizing the whole episode, I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking. And then give a link to the episode itself because DUDES. This thing has to be seen IN MOTION.
In the beginning, Setsuna was just another adorable 'lil ten year old armed with an AK-47 fighting a brutal Middle Eastern war. Then he gets rescued by a pretty sparkly Gundam.
6 years later, war is beginning. Graham Acre sees the love of his life for the first time. (He has good taste. Exia has sexy legs, I like)
Gundam Exia beats the crap out of the AEU's newest model of mobile suit. Piloted by none other than Patrick, who has a collegiate degree in Epic Fail.
At this point I feel obliged to point out that screencaps? Don't do any justice to the action scenes. You really have to see them in motion to get an idea of how cool the fighting is. (And it is! *scifi fandork*) But the individual screencaps make me go AHGHAFKGHFGAHK look at the detail on them mobile suits GAFHAFKJAHD. Every. Single. Frame. It's amazing. I really, really admire Sunrise's production values. I really, really do. (Which also explains why I have no qualms splashing out on Gunpla and assorted merchandize-- if it keeps Bandai happy and widens the production budget, I'm all for it. Pretty show is pretty.)
On the mothership, the team strategist, Sumeragi-san, gives orders to the Gundams. While swigging alcohol. Woman is cool.
So far, she really reminds me of Susan Ivanova. I hope she turns out to be Russianand gets together with Marina.
The AEU, meanwhile, are pissed and send their troops after Exia.
IT'S LOCKON STRATOS TO THE RESCUE!
And he seems to be totally enjoying it. (Srsly, he's all "WOOOHOOOO FIRST BATTLE YAAAAAAY". Oh Lockon, you dorkus. Never change.)
In completely unrelated news, terrorists are attacking a space elevator belonging to the HRL during their 10th anniversary celebrations. The HRL gets its ass kicked.
DUN DUN DUN DUN! It's the other 2 Gundams to the rescue!
From L to R: "It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's Gundam Kyrios!"; Virtue is fabulous and sparkly; Virtue has the biggest damn gun on this side of the galaxy (OVERCOMPENSATION MUCH, TIERIA?)
This is the coolest. sequence. in the entire episode. I swear.
In short: Kyrios and Virtue kick terrorist ass and send them packing to meet their Makers, all without breaking a sweat. Or messing up their fabulous hairstyles.
Everyone else: "...."
The next day, a creepy two-hundred-year-dead old dude named Aeolia Schenberg shows up on video a la Osama to announce the existence of Celestial Being, and their goal to eradicate acts of war. By collectively kicking the asses of everybody who tries anything.
And reactionary shots from (L to R): The Americas (Union), Asia (the HRL), and Europe (the AEU). Wait, WTF, the 24th century European parliament only has TEN seats!? Okay, whatever. I suppose I shouldn't be quibbling at that, given that Celestial Being intends to turn the tides of war, which have been ongoing for as long as human history has been recorded... with a grand total of FOUR GUNDAMS. I know B5 had that whole thing about a small group of dedicated people being all it takes to change the course of history, but... FOUR GUNDAMS. FOUR. Technologically advanced or not, I can count them on the fingers of one hand. If one of the Gundam Meisters goes bonkers and kills somebody else on the team, that's half of them already gone. Especially since we're only a quarter way through the series and we've already had Tieria threatening to shoot two of the other Meisters ded. Recipe for disaster, much?
Graham's the only guy who has the right response to the whole shindig.
EPISODE ARCHIVE!!!
Alright, now here is the REALLY GOOD SHIT. Here are Conclave-Mendoi's subs made for Sony PSP, which they are .mp4 files with AAC audio that play perfectly on VLC Media Player and Quicktime, even better than .mkv files. I've mirrored them on my Mediafire account, which makes it easier for it to manage the files. HAVE AT THEM.
| Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14 | Episode 15 | Episode 16 | Episode 17 | Episode 18 | Episode 19 | Episode 20 | Episode 21 | Episode 22 | Episode 23
Conclave-Mendoi put out pretty good subs, and they come in a variety of formats, which you can track on their site, or on mininova. I suggest following them, because they do put out very high-def versions of the episodes which are totally worth the download and the archive.
If torrents are not your thing, friend![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
gundam00. They usually have links to Megauploaded episodes.
If you've liked what you've seen but none of the above options appeal to you, talk to me. I am more than willing to work out a mailing arrangement, even if it's weeks-delayed. I WANT TO SHARE THE GUNDAM B00BIES LOVE.
There. I'm done. Please, if you want to spread this around, point friends in this direction in order to get them hooked-- by all means, pimp this out. At the very least, I will know that the effort I put in finishing this up while sick won't go to waste [insert piteous hacking cough for maximum effect].
Those who have watched this LJ for long enough would know: I breeze through fads like Imelda Marcos through pairs of shoes. Anime obsessions, in particular, tend to be short-lived, as each show has a limited run, and is usually over by the time I get around to picking it up (I lag on these things). I took me less than a year to get through three big anime obsessions: Trinity Blood, Death Note, Kyou Kara Maou!-- the last one in particular lasting only a month or so. In comparison, it took me about four years to get through the three big obessions before that: LOST, O-Zone, Supernatural.
However, my brain has snagged onto something which is planned to last, fifty episodes, until the spring of 2009. It's an amazing show, popular, with an active fandom and a storyline which tickles a lot of my personal kinks. In other words, it has completely eaten my fanbrain and taken over my fannish life. (A quick check of the amount of merchandize already in my room will confirm this.) It was something which had me instantly hooked by episode one, and it's something which I expect not to let me go until the final episode airs in the oh-so-not-quite-distant-future.
In other words, hello, this is the thing I'm going be to talking about non-stop for the next two years.
Bearing that in mind, I thought I'd best give you guys a primer on my newest and dearest obsession. Not that I expect people to follow me into the abyss--I know anime is not everyone's cup of tea, and it certainly wasn't mine for a large part of my fannish life--but it's good to have an inkling as to what I'm on about, and if you're so inclined to jump on the bandwagon: why not?
At the very least, just have a look, you have no idea how bloody long it took me to screencap/upload/type out everything (let's just say: weeks).
Without further ado! [drumroll]
A PRIMER TO MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM 00
Otherwise known as the latest show to have eaten June's brains
ONE LINE SUMMARY!: Gundam 00 is a series about 4 dysfunctional young Gundam pilots who wage wars in order to stop them.
STORY
It’s the turn of the 24th Century. Earth is consumed by war, as it has been for the past 400 years. The reason? The same things as always. Religion, territorial disputes, energy… in particular energy, as humanity has finally drained the planet dry of fossil fuels. Energy now comes from solar collectors in space, and energy distribution is controlled by the three superpowers each running a space elevator to the collectors: the Union (of the Americas), the Advanced European Union, and the Human Reform League (consisting loosely of China, India, Russia—Asia, mostly). Terrorists abound in Northern Ireland, the Middle East is a soup of conflict, India and Pakistan are at each other’s throats… it all sounds hauntingly familiar.
From the skies a new power appears. 4 Gundam units, armed with unheard-of technology and near invincible, begin to intervene in military conflicts. They destroy bases. They obliterate both sides in ongoing battles. They take unilateral action against 'war-inciting nations'. They call themselves Celestial Being. Their goal: to end war on Earth. By taking part in it.
Sounds like a perfect plan (speaking from a Bushian point of view). But even perfect plans have flaws. Will Celestial Being succeed in its noble, albeit Machiavellian goal? Only time will tell.
Time, and a lot of giant robots beating the shit out of each other.
We begin the armed intervention to all warfare with Gundam. (THEIR ENGRISH, NOT MINE)
I like to describe Gundam 00 as "Babylon 5 with Transformers in, updated for the post-9/11 world". For me, this show has been reviving my inner scifi fandork, which has been in dormancy since the B5 thing subsided about five years ago. I love the show's balance between high-octane gunfights, weaselly politicians doing weaselly politics, and the massively fucked-up main characters' personal issues. What sold me to the show? The visuals, mostly, since I had no inkling of what it was about when I started watching it (save for a general impression of "giant robots beating the shit out of each other"). What kept me watching the show? Just about everything else.
I've never touched any other Gundam series, so I have no clue what standards and traditions the franchise has, but that has not stopped me from enjoying this one. In fact, probably one of the best things about this show is that it's set in a separate universe of its own, so prior knowledge of any of the other 678 Gundam series is not neccessary.
The show takes an ensemble approach with a wide cast of members that include the 4 main protagonists, support crews, politicians, princesses, military men and what-the-hell-are-they-doing-there? civilians. No black-and-white hero/villian dynamics here: everybody has flaws, everybody is culpable. At the start, the various political factions and goals can seem a little confusing, but you get used to it. The intricacy of the politics, in particular, has gotten to me, especially with how delightfully un-PC it is. Terrorism and Muslim fundamentalism get quite a bit of the airtime, but without the fervent WAR ON TERROR!!OMG!!! vibes that 24 often gets plagued with.
The series has already been preplanned: 50 episodes over the course of 2 years, giving Gundam 00 a somewhat serialized story (like most anime). Some of the episodes have struck me as a little one-shot-ish, though, but nothing as extreme as, say, Star Trek. Or Supernatural. There is continuity, more or less, from episode to episode, and events from past episodes don't just fade away as if they never happened.
The tone of the show is mostly serious-- it is a serious premise, after all--but there are comic moments here and there, a lot of which consist of characters picking on Lockon (the poor man). There is drama, there is psychological mindfuckery, and there is angst, but thankfully not overly done (except maybe for that one dubious episode in which everybody was bursting into tears). It's space opera. There's got to be some sort of drama in it.
I could go on and on about this show if I allowed myself to, but my head is hurting and I want to put this up ASAP, so, I summarize and end off quick. What I like about the show, in sum:
- Beautifully executed visuals.
- YAY EXPLOSIONS
- 4 main characters are wonderfully loopy, some more so than others.
- Believable politics addressing issues that are relevant to today's climate (the main character? Is a Kurdish ex-fundie child soldier who killed his parents in order to prove his loyalty to God. Sunrise? Has got some balls.)
- GIANT ROBOTS BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF EACH OTHER.
So. Action, character, politics, which I guess comes under plot. If you enjoy space operas, you should try this.
Characters:
Setsuna F. Seiei (16): Anti-social Kurdish ex-child soldier. (刹那 is not his real name. Shocking!) Also the main-ish protagonist of the show. The first time we see him he's 10 and shooting shit up with an AK-47. Yep, so the main character of the show is a Middle Eastern, war-loving ex-religious fundie. You'd see that on an American show around the same time Hell freezes over. Setsuna hates company, hardly says anything, frowns all the time, and is generally an antisocial loner. When he talks he's most probably saying things like "I am Gundam!" or "Don't touch me!", or you know, blowing his supposedly-secret identity off to complete strangers. He's not too bright, no. Setsuna 's in Celestial Being not because he believes in world peace, but because he loves piloting his Gundam too damn much. Tieria hates his guts, and the feeling is mutual. Setsuna pilots the Gundam Exia, which is blue, and fights with swords, being a close-range combat unit. Setsuna's favorite drink is milk.
This is the sluttiest screencap of Setsuna ever made.
Lockon Stratos (24): Irish paedophile. Lockon is the oldest Meister and people-person of the group. He is open, friendly, easygoing and laughs a lot. He gets along with all the other Meisters better than they get along with each other. His personality makes him a natural choice to lead the team of Meisters, but all the other Meisters bully him when they get the chance to. Lockon was orphaned in an IRA bombing as a child, and that has left him despising terrorists of all kinds. He's probably the only of the 4 Meisters who's in Celestial Being because he truly believes in the whole "eradicating war for the good of mankind" thing. His real name is Neil Dylandy (sp, subbers?) and he apparently has a twin brother. Lockon pilots the Gundam Dynames, which is a sniper unit, and he can shoot your ass down from space if he wants to. He also has an orange Haro unit, who helps him pilot the Dynames when he's too busy sniping, and insults him at other times. Even so, Lockon is waaaaay too fond of his little orange ball. He also periodically hits on 14-year old Felt, which means his codename should have been "Lolicon Stratos", really.
Allelujah Haptism (19): Yes, really, that's what they call him on the show. Allelujah is a soft-spoken, gentle soul who dislikes killing and violence. But he has a second personality named Hallelujah inside him who is sadistic, psychotic, and enjoys murdering people. Allelujah is usually the personality in charge, but every now and then Hallelujah emerges and messes people's shit up, which causes Allelujah a lot of angst. Allelujah is actually an genetically-enhanced escapee from the Human Reform League's Super Soldier program, and his alternate personality is a result of them messing around with his brain when he was a kid. Allelujah pilots the Gundam Kyrios, which is a high-speed unit that has a plane and robot form, and usually carries out blitzkrieg attacks on targets. His main personality cares deeply about people, and gets along rather well with Lockon.
Tieria Erde (??): The mysterious one of the Meisters. Tieria is Celestial being's Head Bitch, who divides his time between insulting the other Meisters, threatening to shoot them, and then stalking them to eavesdrop on their conversations. His favorite thing to say is "I don't know why he's a Gundam Meister", accompanied by the requisite bitchface. Overly obssessed with sticking to Celestial Being's mission plans, Tieria is cold, unapproachable and all-around anal-retentive. He does have a softer, human side, but he's not shown it to any of the other Meisters thus far. Tieria also has the worst fashion sense, ever. He dresses like a 60-year-old spinster.
At this point I must say that Tieria is my favorite amongst the Meisters, because he fascinates me. A lot of fanspec revolves around Tieria being a robot or a cyborg of some sort, which I'm tempted to agree with. We've seen the childhood backgrounds of the other three Meisters, but not Tieria's. I tend to think that Tieria is a genetically engineered human with cybernetic bits in. We're also given to believe that Tieria's supposedly, apparently, a guy. Who wears pink cardigans, has delicate hands and feminine features. I'm not convinced; neither is a large part of fandom. Especially since Tieria's huge chunky manly Gundam, Virtue, has the ability to turn into a girl Gundam with long pink hair. Named Nadleeh, which is the Navajo name for a transgendered (or rather, "third-gendered") person. I couldn't make this shit up if I wanted to. WHAT! For simplicity's sake, I'll refer to Tieria as a 'him', since he identifies himself as male on the show and also has a male seiyuu. But let it be known that I think "him" is a misnomer. I think he's neither a he nor a she. Seriously, would adore Tieria even more if he canonically turned out to be a transgendered individual. I would make him my poster boygirl for gender confusion.
Other cast members:
Celestial Being
Sumeragi Lee Noriega (26): The strategist of Celestial Being is also in charge of its transport ship, the Ptolemaios. She spends her time either conferring with Veda, Celestial Being's supercomputer, or downing alcohol. She seems to take a maternal interest in Allelujah.
Christina Sierra (19): One of the Ptolemaios' navigators. Christina is cheerful and outgoing, but panics easily. She's cute. She also seems to have a thing for Allelujah. (Everybody hits on Allelujah, he's just to busy fending off the advances of his inner psychopath to notice.)
Feldt Grace (14): Jailbait. I cannot believe a girl her age has boobs like that. Another one of the Ptolemaios' crew. She's quiet and withdrawn. An orphan whose parents were both earlier-generation Meisters killed on duty. Lockon hits on her, but I think she's more interested in Haro. (Srsly.)
Wang Liumei: A beautiful Chinese celebrity who is of some rank in Celestial Being. She usually turns up to give the Meisters orders, or observe their mission going-ons. Exotic, enigmatic and apparently... a minor? Well, she's cute enough, I'll give her that. Cute and a little creepy, actually, since she comes off as rather scheming and cold-blooded to me. She is waited on by a guy named Hong Long, who tags with her everywhere.
Haro: An orange AI who resembles a basketball with a perpetual smiling face. Haro is R2D2 to Lockon's Luke Skywalker. He flaps his ears when he speaks and repeats everything twice, e.g. Lockon suteki! Lockon suteki! HARO IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER ON THE SHOW. FOR SERIOUS.
Non Celestial Being:
Graham Acre & Billy Katagiri: The ace pilot of the Union, and his engineer/friend/gay lover (?). Graham fell deeply in love with the Gundam Exia the first time he saw it, and has spent most of the series so far stalking it. I like them, because they seem to be Good People, and everytime Graham gets into a fight with the Gundams I'm a little torn as to who to root for.
Sergei Smirnoff: A grizzled old general with the Human Reform League, he is put in charge of the HRL's Anti-Gundam unit. He is smart, a good soldier and a devastating tactician, almost managing to kick Celestial Being's ass with wits alone. He is also given care of Super Soldier #1, whom he displays almost fatherly affection for. (I sneakily want him to be Allelujah's birth father, because the resulting angst would be glorious, but that's just the fannit in me talking.)
Soma Perez: Super Solder #1. A designer baby with artificial enhancements, Soma is the first successful product of the program which Allelujah escaped from. She's kind of like River Tam, except with a better grip on the batshit insane. She also causes Hallelujah to emerge everytime she gets in Allelujah's vicinity--some technobabble about quantum brain waves interfering with each other.
Patrick Coralsawar: An arrogant, bimbotic airhead who happens to be the AEU's ace pilot. Every time he has appeared he has gotten his ass kicked in the direction of Epic Fail. I suspect the creators put him in the series just for the lulz. Poor Patrick.
Marina Ismail: The crown princess of Azadistan (MADE UP MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRY O YEY), who I still maintains bears more than a passing resemblance to Ambassador Delenn. Except that she's way more of a pacifist and really needs to grow a bit of a spine if she wants to kick ass as much as Delenn did. She's new to politics and scours the world trying to seek aid for her impoverished country before it descends into civil war. Has a cool advisor called Shirin, who kicks a lot more ass than her (so far). I suspect they're setting her up to be a love interest for Setsuna.
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of the recurring characters on the show; these are the ones I just think are noteworthy so far. For more information, Wikipedia is your best friend.
Pilot Episode
So, instead of summarizing the whole episode, I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking. And then give a link to the episode itself because DUDES. This thing has to be seen IN MOTION.
In the beginning, Setsuna was just another adorable 'lil ten year old armed with an AK-47 fighting a brutal Middle Eastern war. Then he gets rescued by a pretty sparkly Gundam.
6 years later, war is beginning. Graham Acre sees the love of his life for the first time. (He has good taste. Exia has sexy legs, I like)
Gundam Exia beats the crap out of the AEU's newest model of mobile suit. Piloted by none other than Patrick, who has a collegiate degree in Epic Fail.
At this point I feel obliged to point out that screencaps? Don't do any justice to the action scenes. You really have to see them in motion to get an idea of how cool the fighting is. (And it is! *scifi fandork*) But the individual screencaps make me go AHGHAFKGHFGAHK look at the detail on them mobile suits GAFHAFKJAHD. Every. Single. Frame. It's amazing. I really, really admire Sunrise's production values. I really, really do. (Which also explains why I have no qualms splashing out on Gunpla and assorted merchandize-- if it keeps Bandai happy and widens the production budget, I'm all for it. Pretty show is pretty.)
On the mothership, the team strategist, Sumeragi-san, gives orders to the Gundams. While swigging alcohol. Woman is cool.
So far, she really reminds me of Susan Ivanova. I hope she turns out to be Russian
The AEU, meanwhile, are pissed and send their troops after Exia.
IT'S LOCKON STRATOS TO THE RESCUE!
And he seems to be totally enjoying it. (Srsly, he's all "WOOOHOOOO FIRST BATTLE YAAAAAAY". Oh Lockon, you dorkus. Never change.)
In completely unrelated news, terrorists are attacking a space elevator belonging to the HRL during their 10th anniversary celebrations. The HRL gets its ass kicked.
DUN DUN DUN DUN! It's the other 2 Gundams to the rescue!
From L to R: "It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's Gundam Kyrios!"; Virtue is fabulous and sparkly; Virtue has the biggest damn gun on this side of the galaxy (OVERCOMPENSATION MUCH, TIERIA?)
This is the coolest. sequence. in the entire episode. I swear.
In short: Kyrios and Virtue kick terrorist ass and send them packing to meet their Makers, all without breaking a sweat. Or messing up their fabulous hairstyles.
Everyone else: "...."
The next day, a creepy two-hundred-year-dead old dude named Aeolia Schenberg shows up on video a la Osama to announce the existence of Celestial Being, and their goal to eradicate acts of war. By collectively kicking the asses of everybody who tries anything.
And reactionary shots from (L to R): The Americas (Union), Asia (the HRL), and Europe (the AEU). Wait, WTF, the 24th century European parliament only has TEN seats!? Okay, whatever. I suppose I shouldn't be quibbling at that, given that Celestial Being intends to turn the tides of war, which have been ongoing for as long as human history has been recorded... with a grand total of FOUR GUNDAMS. I know B5 had that whole thing about a small group of dedicated people being all it takes to change the course of history, but... FOUR GUNDAMS. FOUR. Technologically advanced or not, I can count them on the fingers of one hand. If one of the Gundam Meisters goes bonkers and kills somebody else on the team, that's half of them already gone. Especially since we're only a quarter way through the series and we've already had Tieria threatening to shoot two of the other Meisters ded. Recipe for disaster, much?
Graham's the only guy who has the right response to the whole shindig.
EPISODE ARCHIVE!!!
Alright, now here is the REALLY GOOD SHIT. Here are Conclave-Mendoi's subs made for Sony PSP, which they are .mp4 files with AAC audio that play perfectly on VLC Media Player and Quicktime, even better than .mkv files. I've mirrored them on my Mediafire account, which makes it easier for it to manage the files. HAVE AT THEM.
| Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14 | Episode 15 | Episode 16 | Episode 17 | Episode 18 | Episode 19 | Episode 20 | Episode 21 | Episode 22 | Episode 23
Conclave-Mendoi put out pretty good subs, and they come in a variety of formats, which you can track on their site, or on mininova. I suggest following them, because they do put out very high-def versions of the episodes which are totally worth the download and the archive.
If torrents are not your thing, friend
gundam00. They usually have links to Megauploaded episodes.If you've liked what you've seen but none of the above options appeal to you, talk to me. I am more than willing to work out a mailing arrangement, even if it's weeks-delayed. I WANT TO SHARE THE GUNDAM B00BIES LOVE.
There. I'm done. Please, if you want to spread this around, point friends in this direction in order to get them hooked-- by all means, pimp this out. At the very least, I will know that the effort I put in finishing this up while sick won't go to waste [insert piteous hacking cough for maximum effect].
and i am in: the house
i am currently: 
*falls over and dies*
*falls over and dies*59 allelujahs | praise the lord?