WTT: Cba mood mkii (purp), dark water, RKM, drolo stammen v4, SUN BROS, zoia, cooper gen loss v2, 74 mxr script phase 100, champion leccy swan, daisy seed, slo reverb, pll floop, Mtx8 pin matrix mixer, Uni-verb
Soma cosmos (not mine) - posted for a buddy
vintage 60s paiste 602 20” ride,
2016 limited edition American telecaster with solid rosewood neck, smoothest neck I’ve ever played!
WTTF: Looking for LOSSY, stretch weaver,cxm,hapax,oxi one, monome grid-arc. Dba rooms, ciat lonbarde, op-1, op-z, Morningstar midi, Klein bottle. Ribbons, count to five. M8 tracker, pladask, midfi, 1010 blue box, mpc live2 (gray) chompi
Also looking for TEMPERA!!! Will pay 💰
ONLY LOOKING TO TRADE FOR WHAT IS ON THE LIST AT THIS TIME.
Willing to sell for cash

41F nonsmoker, medical cannabis user (no flame)
I have had chronic pain for years that's only been resolved briefly by a month of steroids, or a month on meloxicam with PT.
I've dealt with TMJ dysfunction after an auto accident age 20, which also broke my femur and it has a rod and nails to this day. By 25 it was no longer mouth guards and muscle relaxers, and I was getting injections in the base of my skull, along my neck, and in my upper back out towards my shoulders. I was told it was saline, and the records are lost. I considered this a drawback of my prior occupation in a call center.
Age 35 my nails were drying out, splitting vertically, and my eyes were beginning to stay irritable. I topped out at 214 pounds and I'm 62 inches tall. I had been taking Saphris and Welbutrin for five years and aside from being sore and exhausted all the time, my lower neck had been consistently tight and burning enough for me to look into CBD. I also switched to Fetzima from Welbutrin, and the muscle cramps were comical.
In 2018 I decided to stop Saphris and use this body. My left hip was always restricted after the auto accident. I didn't understand why and no one suggested additional tests or MRI, or more aggressive PT.
2019 was a big year for me when I took a job on retail, after I hadn't worked for a few years. I had headaches all the time from my eyes and the light, which hadn't been a thing. I had more than 1 migraine per quarter, which was my baseline.
Under the stress of the pandemic I pushed myself. I got my symmetry, ROM, flexibility, balance, and strength back. It was rad, until it wasn't.
I was sweating out my headbands up to twice per shift, drinking 6 bottles of water every day at work. My face was always red. Cold tolerance lowered. My lower back felt awful. I went to see the orthopedic for guidance on do more, do less, do different? 2020 fall I have mild OA of SI joints. 15mg meloxicam and 1 month PT had not only made my back feel really good, but everything else as well that's been sore and irritable for years. We agreed to move to rheumatology.
2021 april: Hypermobility and anti-SSB. My ANA is not clinically positive and has a specked pattern. Long term tolerance to meloxicam is untenable. 18 months on hydroxychloriquine no conclusive relief.
I have had a colonoscopy and endoscopy but I'm not clear on 2020 or 21. Constipation, painful and nauseating, passing a concerning amount of mucus, revealed a 10mm single polyp that was benign. No signs of crohns and otherwise unremarkable aside from "senna abuse" and I quit that stuff the next year. The endoscopy was unremarkable, although I had already known that without prilosec for an unknown period of time that either I will be vomiting or at the very least need to vomit to relieve that episode. Baking soda water worked in my 20s and stopped working by my 30s.
2023 I had been through requested reduced hours, reduced duties, and no social life because once I got home and stopped moving it's like a timer that I had 40 minutes before I could barely move. Days off seemed to be more about recovery than catching up. I would find myself unable to stay awake in the middle of the day and the naps are always 4 ½ hours. I called out for those flares but they just kept happening. I felt like I was on fire every time my temp lowered to 97°. To be fair to my coworkers and myself, I quit that job. I tried to work regular hours at a different place that didn't have a 40 lb all day requirement, and within 3 weeks I was done. I couldn't think. I couldn't drive because of my head being so fuzzy. I didn't have access to water all shift and maybe it had something to do with it, but I quit.
The next month I started doing Rick Simpson Oil. It felt like I cleared the junk out of my head finally from all my medications. Now I've been thinking more, taking notes, and seeing how deep this goes. I've lowered so much of my stress with therapy and become more creative, and while all that has helped I am still sick.
December 23 my LDL was 195 and I was put on 10 mg rosuvastatin. I will say I know what happened there. I doubled down on foods I knew I could eat once I confirmed adult onset allergies. Sunflower seeds and undercooked/uncooked eggs are a no go. I also have an allergy to chlorhexadine.
I have tender points in so many places like near the elbows, shoulders, around my head, my neck is awful. My legs have them around the knees, thighs, hips, top and sides of my butt, face in front of the ears.
This year I screwed up my left shoulder with a labral tear. Physical therapy was fixing it, until it wasn't. Everything seemed well with strength and motion but then intense pain down my arm that was hurting my elbow as well. Mri showed biceps tendonotis, and I got a cortisone shot. Life was good. My neck felt better and the two recurrent knots in my left shoulder blade were much looser. Back to physical therapy, and after 1 week it's going to hell again. I have other tendons down that arm feeling like bruises from a car wreck but they are no larger than a thumbprint and no one can see them.
I've left my legs alone before they are too tender. I tried the theragun on them tonight and remembered why I don't. I asked who the pain specialists were in the practice, and now I'm here.
Current medications Lamictal, effexor, adderall D3 5000ui, chelated potassium, garden of life probiotics for colon health and their raw one women vitamin Zyrtec, prilosec twice daily (laryngeal reflux) 10 mg Crestor. As needed 350 mg soma, tessalon 100mg, cannabis Flonase, Astepro (laryngeal reflux) to keep my voice Restasis hurts my eyes for the entire day, not just application, and was discontinued after 5 weeks. My glands aren't dead and we're going to treat them manually at the next visit.
Continued concerns are my toes. I get chilblains in the winter while constantly wearing bombas slippers. The outer edge of my toes next to the pinky randomly numb out and are very uncomfortable. My big toe goes numb halfway down the nail bed randomly. Days where I cannot control my body temperature, I stay under the covers shivering until I pass out as soon as I'm warm... Then it's usually the 4 ½ hour snooze. My limbs are always affected. I have had a shawl in bed the last few years for the on then off with the cold shoulders.
I get zaps through my knuckles when trying to massage my arms with glides. I use Epiderm for a barrier on my face. It's been known to feel on fire and get a rash from my own sweat or tears. I will have some small degree of rash or tiny pinpoint hives here and there throughout the day on my hands unless I diligently moisturize. My cuticles recede the same without care. Wounds heal more slowly because everything seems to itch and I accidentally forget about them and catch them in a scratch. Coconut oil to the groin or the itching starts. Coconut oil in my ear canals as well.
Exclusionary Cardiovascular okay. Treadmill stress good. Echo good. Ekg good. Cholesterol within normal levels. 25 pound weight loss in 4 months and complete cbc okay from march '24.
If I'm missing anything pertinent lmk. 175 pounds. No oral contraceptive. Regular mentrual cycle. Bursitis 2x left hip. I started screaming after I woke up to either bursitis or tendonitis at the right hip last week, and the follow up from the mri last week will be Wednesday. Xray unremarkable.
Cervical unremarkable, slight bulge and osteophites. Thorasic unremarkable slight curvature and osteophites. Lumbar as presented earlier in post. All have recommended MRI/specialist.
This issue doesn't track for celebrex or tramadol, but the screaming incidents response to tramadol.

Tldr : very length post, a bit of an essay but also mostly my thoughts about the new season, or more so it’s adaptation of the arc : from the very probable difficulties the studio faced (notably the animation, but not only), the difficulty adapting the material, which if more than great for the manga, was sadly not enough to be an entire season and how it could have been solved by notably fleshing out some things, notably the interesting conflict that could have been created between Ciel and his need to pretend and play a life he could have had but never got, one of a normal boy to infiltrate the school and fulfil his duty, with an essay on Ciel’s character. Also, important note… I know I’m not saying necessarily only nice things about this season but… this story, it’s characters, themes are very, very dear to my heart, and I need to let out all of my thoughts a bit :))
I have the feeling that this season of Black butler could have been so much better. Maybe it’s the fact that I read the manga fest that makes me much more critical than I usually am -I usually always watch the anime first and then read the manga-, but.. I don’t know, this season feels off. And I’m not saying this against the anime studio by the way, I actually have the feeling this was already from starters going to be hard.
Weston College’s arc, if it’s fluid in the manga because the medium allows it, isn’t.. enough to sustain a 12 episodes season. At first I thought it was just me, I thought ‘oh, maybe it’s cause I read the manga first that it feels like less things are happening’ but the time length of the episode, around 20 minutes (instead of the usual 25), 20 minutes which includes a 1 minute recap which is just not necessary each time (and where I re-checked too, others seasons did not having that episode recap each time so it’s not black butler’s tradition neither) doesn’t really lie. Maybe it’s just me too, but the scene feels much more dragged out than in the manga : a fun running gag in the manga will last 5 minutes in the anime. And finally, and it’s the moment where I’m aware it must have been really hard for the studio : Who is this season for ? Or more so, obviously, the manga readers but also, I feel like they went in asking themselves if the older viewers -who only watched the anime when it first came out-, were gonna be there again. Making this season was a ´risk’ in that way, and if I think they gambled a bit on Black butler’s high popularity, I feel like Cloverwork didn’t want to put too much money into it neither, explaining the well, very very still animation, and also the way they try to animate as little as possibly (random focus on background still objects etc.), and where once you notice it… it’s pretty much everywhere.
In the end, it’s kinda the ‘adaptation’ question that always comes back in general but : what more can they bring that the original material didn’t already have ?
I’ve wondered a bit about why they chose to go with a much more shoujo artstyle than the previous seasons (albeit I know it wasn’t the same studios, but basically, why didn’t they follow in the same continuation than previously). Maybe it’s just me, but for me -and I feel like also others-, Weston’s arc strengths always lied a bit in its ambiance : Old, British board school, a mystery to solve here. I don’t think that the shoujo style really allows this ambiance to live, on the contrary. I actually feel like an artstyle with a much darker palette would have worked better, more foggy and mysterious like.
And sure, the tone of this arc is considerably lighter than the Campagnia arc or the Emerald Witch arc, but… I feel like they can’t actually really make the anime entirely on this more funnier aspect of the arc : the animation budget and the need to drag out to make the episode an acceptance lengths makes most of the jokes that were funny in the manga falls flat in my opinion.
That’s the moment where, not gonna lie, it’s about being a bit about what I would have wanted this adaptation to be a bit. I really wish they would have delved into the dark academia ambiance more, but also, I feel like one of the ways the Studio could have solved one of the difficulties encountered was by delving deeper into what was already there, adding more to it. If they needed to make this season because there are clues about the reveal in the later manga (I’m assuming people who are reading this knows but just in case I won’t spoil ; it’s a ‘if you know you know), they also should have adding more things to it.
I’ve always thought, that Black Butler was, at its core, about trauma. And if I plan on making a whole very very lengthy essay on this at some point, I feel like Weston’s arc would have been the perfect moment to explore Ciel’s character. Am I the only one who finds it interesting, the way that, if he is at its core a traumatised child who had to become an adult much sooner, because of this mission he’s forced to not only being surroundered, but also to play into a character who isn’t but could have been, a normal boy who could have had an actual childhood ? And if Ciel isn’t the one to exactly pity himself, I feel like there’s a part of him longing for that : See the special Halloween chapter, Ciel, seeing a few children happy, trying to grasp towards them with his hand before giving up. That longing is there… and this arc would have been such a perfect way to explore this. It also could have fleshed out the intrigue of this arc : Infiltrating himself among the boys, having a taste of that childhood but obviously because it’s Ciel, refusing it -which also, would have planted the seeds of Ciel’s arc in the emerald arc, and that paradox between the role of an adult he took upon himself, but also that underneath there’s still a part of him who’s a scared little child, albeit a scared little child that he tried to reduce to silence because that’s what Ciel does, he looks for control, isolate his thoughts and affects he deems weak. But here, in this arc, he is forced to delve much more into this, to play and pretend to be that ‘somewhat weak and kind and very normal boy’. If we got to see a little bit of this in his interactions with McMillan and Soma a bit, since this arc is at its core an investigation where Ciel has to infiltrate himself as a student to gather intells in a board school where being seen well is what would allow him to fulfil his duty as the queen’s watchdog could have been great. In general, the anime could have added something to the manga by delving much more on this part and Ciel and his interactions with other student.
We have not reached that point yet, but I wonder if it could have also added something to the dynamic between Ciel and Sebastian in this arc. If they are -mostly- separated or much more than in the others seasons, I wonder if Sebastian, watching from a watchful eye Ciel pretending to be this innocent boy could also have made him more on guard. Also had this idea that they could have made a few shots (Kinda similar to the promised neverland, which, welp same studio) showing Ciel being observed : is this Sebastian watching him ? (Tying in into the manga and how … was observing him all along). This would also have added to the ‘mysterious’ (albeit it’s not the wrong I’m looking for exactly but close enough) ambiance that the Weston arc does have.
I don’t think, that the manga needed to have all of that, the manga in itself was great already. But the thing is that the material of this arc, if necessary to adapt, simply isn’t enough to be 12 episodes long, and if the anime, -since the animation budget seemed to be pretty low for this season- couldn’t add to the manga by simply bringing it to life, it needs to flesh out what’s already there. And… Weston’s arc had plenty things to flesh out. The very dark academia ambiance of this arc that is why from my understanding so many of us loved, the dynamics between the student which could have brought an aspect of Ciel we hadn’t delve deeper too much yet, or not as much that this arc would have allowed it : what could have been but wasn’t, with the longing that Ciel has, longing that he restricts. It could have been the perfect bridge between Book of Circus, Book of Murder and Book of Atlantic, and the following Emerald Witch’s arc that is very very dear to a lot of us. It really could have been perfect..

Chapter 1 with Book Blurb Previous Chapter Next Chapter (coming soon)
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She couldn’t move any further than the mountain’s edge or the door to the temple’s caves. When the sun began to set, Janelsa stopped pacing and sat on a stone behind which she hid the night before. The barrier surrounding the temple slowly appeared as the sun fell closer to the eastern mountains. Despite being on the mortal plane, her spirit eyes could see the fluctuating, writhing mass of honeyed smoke that surrounded the temple. Janelsa flicked a pebble from the rock and watched it arc gracefully through the air without stuttering. The evening’s gentle, hot, but not sweltering dry season wind rattled the last flecks of dust from her gray hair. Every few minutes or so she would tilt her head up. Eventually, she undid her bun for the first time in years. She only needed to shake her head two times to let her hair flow behind her. It wasn’t as striking as when it was black, but she knew it would have gone gray at some point. Janelsa ran her hand through it and the knots came undone instantly.
“You got your father’s hair, Janurana.” Janelsa picked at her cuticles.
She got up and paced again. But unlike after she recovered from Brachen’s escape, and went back and forth between the caves where Janurana had fled and back south, her mind was completely empty. Muli was unable to reach her then as thoughts flung back and forth like the most brutal and unwinnable clash of armies. Neither making a good enough point to override the other. Janelsa chuckled at how indecisive she had become from the words of just one smarmy man and an old guru. Even now that she had calmed down, she couldn’t bring herself to think logically. Her head was blank, refusing to work like it was demanding sleep.
She ran her hand down her now fully repaired chest. Even her clothes had reformed. That was something she never understood. Flesh regrew even when you weren’t a spirit. Then again, she never understood why she was a spirit. Northerners she met claimed people became spirits through great deeds or by just wanting to stay among the living, for good or ill. That made sense to her, but then again, she had known many warriors who fought valiantly or heads of houses who cursed her to their dying days. They hadn’t become spirits, so she wondered why was she. Janelsa was fully visible as well and nothing on the mortal plane shuttered to keep up with her actions. Janurana had come into the borderlands a few times, where the border between the spirit plane was much less ossified. Still, she had never gotten the hang of slipping between the planes.
With practice, Janelsa knew she could. The plateau had bowed to her, and nothing could be harder than that.
“Except thinking,” she said aloud, sucking her teeth.
Still, her mind said nothing, so she forced the issue with a bull’s strength. She curled her brow, focusing.
“Janurana needs to die.” She looked back to the rubble. “But… Urgh… Come on. Think.”
“Perhaps your mind needs a rest,” Muli sighed behind her.
“I’ll rest when I’m dead… When she’s dead.”
“Mm-hmm. Janelsa, why do you think I attacked your army at random times?”
She didn’t answer, instead just looking away.
“Because it kept your warriors on edge. They didn’t have a moment to rest, it made them weak and slow. You haven’t stopped focusing and thinking in… How long?”
“Two hundred, ninety-seven years, and four months,” she rattled off and scowled at having forgotten the exact days.
“Exactly. I don’t understand how you haven’t—” Muli stopped himself from saying ‘gone crazy’. “You’ve always been able to focus, especially when the focus made you angry. But now, for the first time in almost three, hundred, years you can take a break.”
Janelsa shot up, throwing a finger in his face. “How can I—”
“Because you realize that right now, killing our little kumari won’t mean anything and there are larger enemies to fight. For the first time in that long you have new information. Your mind has revolted and demanded time to process and change tactics.” Muli leaned in, almost putting his nose on her fingertip.
Janelsa recoiled, then scoffed. “Killing one girl should be easy enough.” She sighed. “A quick objective to not leave an enemy garrison behind your lines.”
“Janelsa, Janurana won’t attack you. You don’t have to try and attack Hegwous directly again. Now, rather than take revenge on them through Janurana, our little kumari, you can kill them yourself, the monsters who did this to you, to her, to me.”
It was too much again and Janelsa felt her mind shut down. Instead, she strolled casually down the built in stone stairs. There were never any like these in her own garden or up to her house.
“Should have made these instead of letting them use that stupid beaten down path.” She scoffed. The stone’s rough tactile comfort calmed her just as the pillows inside did. A bird fluttered by, not skipping at all and Janelsa watched in all its simple, brown beauty. Coming to the edge of the mountain, she enjoyed the reddish expanse of her plateau beyond the borderlands; its flat, occasionally rolling hill, the gaps of canyons, the rises and mesas, the splotches of green with the pocket forests. Every inch of it was hers. Even the sloping borderlands, more green than the plateau in the wet season, paid their ‘don’t invade me’ tax to house Malihabar. But her plateau had a charm she would never forget. It wasn’t that it was hers, more that something which seemed so barren at first glance could hold so much. So many towns and cities, creatures and monsters, people with their own stories and lives scratched out of the dust. Powerful rulers, meek vassals, tales of courage and cowardice all in something so often featureless. Pocket forests somehow seemed to contain as much wonder as the infinitely thicker jungle behind her. Examining the expanse that was once hers, she sighed, being once again at the top of the world, over everything, looking down with each spot, each city, town, each house and person bowing to her and this spot.
“I, can, do it.” Chahua asserted, bracing himself against his walking stick, wheezing.
Janelsa leapt back, but much shorter than she expected. The small burst of energy bounced off her weary mind like an arrow off bronze. She couldn’t even summon the wherewithal to move back or hide, or leave the home of these monks, the one she had attacked. Instead, she just watched them ascend.
“You said that this morning,” Diktala groaned.
“Just let us carry you,” Jura said, coming up behind Chahua to scoop him up.
“No!” He wiggled rather than shove Jura away. “Almost… Still… Sun…” The Light was doing nothing for him.
“At least stop and breathe.” Neesha folded her hands. “Come on, do a mantra with me.”
“I can—”
“You’re gonna pass out again!” Jura scooped him up, making Chahua yelp.
“We’re very proud of you for trying but we’d all like to just get home and—” Neesha and the whole group stopped, rounding the top, seeing Janelsa standing nonplussed directly in their path.
She and the four of them locked eyes. Janelsa’s tattered muga and trailing hair sailed with the wind slowly picking up. She stood alone, her blue and grays making her isolation all the more piercing among the greens of the plants and reddish brown of the rocks. The setting sun glinted off her eyes, but in them, the group couldn’t find a hint of anger or harmful intentions. Neesha and Jura both stole a quick glance to Chahua and Diktala, both northern, to see if this obvious spirit was something they had seen before. But both of them were silent and still.
Chahua’s breath remembered it was wheezing before and broke the silence. “Sh-She’s…”
“Observant,” Janelsa said, she turned to let them pass.
But just as she did, Neesha fired off a pillar of light from her shaking fingers, so Janelsa inadvertently dodged. It still stung, however.
Janelsa didn’t move, and the group noticed.
For half a moment, Janelsa considered how her mind would be made up if she simply let the monks and their magic kill her now. But death didn’t stop her before. She just nodded to their temple instead.
The ascetics didn’t move, except to take some kind of battle stance. Even Chahua did, who slid from Jura’s arms.
“Your form is awful. You wouldn’t last a day under my command.” Janelsa shook her head.
Every monk’s feet shook along with their fingers, each trying to copy the stance Guru Brachen took when sending off spirits before. However, none of them had actually seen Janelsa during the attack, having run away right when Brachen’s barrier fell.
“You are the one who…” Jura began.
“You wouldn’t last half a day under my command.” Janelsa rolled her eyes.
Diktala looked to Chahua, who was focusing his breathing, then to Neesha, who gave a rapid shrug.
“Great spirit.” The young northern man said in northern without dropping his hands. “For what reason do you come here? Er, What reason are you here, stay here? Why are you still here? Great spirit.”
Janelsa didn’t understand a word of it. She had learned some northern in her time but those memories had faded to dust. But rather than berate them further for thinking she knew the language, Janelsa cocked her brow. His due reverence was refreshing.
“Again, please. In southern,” she said.
Diktala blinked in surprise, half expecting an attack. “Um, yes, great spirit.”
Janelsa crossed her arms after he repeated himself. “Been trying to figure that out, boy.”
“Do you want anything to do with us?” Diktala followed up.
She thought about this for a moment. “I suppose not.”
“You’re not gonna kill us?” Jura asked.
“What did I just say?”
“Then why, by the Light, did you attack us??” He exploded, “The door! The whole temple, Guru Brachen’s child!”
“As I told your guru, they were in the way.” She rolled her head along with her eyes as if Brachen would surely have told them about the conversation he had with her.
“Could you, perhaps, move on, great spirit?” Neesha asked, turning slightly to let Janelsa pass.
The display almost amused Janelsa, but her mind asked ‘and go where’, sending her into the same answer lacking spiral as before. Her feet wanted to move, sending her against her daughter as always. Still, they refused to budge and she blurted out, “I don’t know where to go.”
Her sheepish tone smacked into the group, knocking each of them out of their haphazard battle stances. Each exchanged a confused look of dismay like deer being asked by a tiger if it could share in some of the grass.
“Anywhere!” Jura shouted. “Get out of here!”
He raised his hands and launched a beam of Light. Janelsa leapt into a patch of flowers, barely dodging. The attack passed close and singed her cheek which she angrily rubbed as the pedals fluttered around her.
“You disgusting brat!” she screamed.
The ascetics cowered or turned to run, but before the spirit could take revenge, Neesha leapt forward and threw out her arms between them all. Her face was frozen. She stared at nothing as if she were already a corpse, and Janelsa cocked her head again while pausing mid charge.
After patting her head to make sure it was still attached to her body, Neesha quickly turned to their attacker and bowed ninety degrees.
“It seems as if you require help,” she said. “We help all the Light—”
“Oh, shut up!” Jura hauled himself from the dirt since his legs had collapsed. “Are you serious??” He went to blast Janelsa again.
Diktala grabbed his arm. “Guru Brachen and his warrior daughter couldn’t stop her. It would be best not to fight.”
“What?? Four of us, two of them!” Jura held up his fingers.
“One of me, and plenty of chances already to attack as you bicker.” Janelsa checked her nails. “Fine, girl. You want to help, fetch me a nail cleaner or something. Not a stick. I’m no animal.”
Jura’s mouth hung open as Diktala and Neesha bowed dutifully and ran off into the temple, stepping over the broken statue that had crushed Dhanur. When Chahua coughed and clutched his chest, Jura stepped back between him and Janelsa with a furrowed frown.
Janelsa blinked slowly and pursed her lips. Without looking behind her, she held out her hand into which Neesha put Guru Brachen’s personal nail pick. “Thank you, girl.”
“It is Neesha.”
“Your name does no—” Janelsa paused right before cleaning. She turned and bowed one degree. “Neesha, a sweet name.”
“The guru’s own!?” Jura knelt, taking Chahua’s arm over his shoulder.
“Must you continue? Ugh. Fine, boy. Go into your temple. I will not follow. I have had many an opportunity to kill you this day, and I had more to kill your guru when he was weakened and you left him.”
“He told us to leave!”
“I’m sure that thought will help you sleep tonight. Now I suggest you fulfill the teachings of your order and help all those the Light touches,” she waved her hand in front of her face to cast a shadow over it. “Or take your shot.”
Janelsa turned her back to him with a calming breath.
Chahua was able to stand on his own as he had gotten control of his breathing but Jura still held him.
“She could have blocked the path up,” Diktala said, shrugging. “Or waited inside to surprise us.”
Jura sputtered nonsense and Chahua coughed. “Fine!” he yelled and hustled the still recovering ascetic inside, past Janelsa. He wanted to look into her eyes, to let her know he would be watching everything she did, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so.
Janelsa wouldn’t have seen as her eyes were closed, happy with either outcome he chose. She opened one as Jura ushered Chahua to his bed and went to get the hot ointment that always helped when rubbed on his chest.
“Now that the dissenter is quieted, shall we?” Janelsa flicked her hair back and started cleaning her nails. “Suppose I can get right to the point.”
“Your name would be helpful, great spirit.” Diktala bowed with hands at his side. “You may sit if you like… Do you want to come inside instead?”
“Great spirit?” Neesha leaned in.
Janelsa hadn’t finished her one blink. “Your guru didn’t mention the talk we had? Him and I?”
“No, great spirit. He did not.” Diktala curled his lips.
“I am sure it is only because he was in such a hurry! Much was happening after he rejoined us. Perhaps you would like something to eat? Or drink? Much is different for spirits on our plane, yes?” Neesha looked for Diktala to respond.
“Oh! Of course, great spirit. Neesha is right. I will go and fetch something now!” He nodded, running off.
Neesha reached out after him, not wanting to be left alone, then curled her arm back with an awkward smile. “I’m sure you will enjoy these bits of hospitality. You are a spirit of the south, yes?”
“I had some with your guru.” Janelsa slowly lowered her head. “Only a drink.”
“Oh, um, then I am sure you will like more? No food then?”
“I don’t care!” Jura yelled, unimpressed as Diktala relayed the information about Brachen’s chat with their attacker. “Is that for her??” He pointed to Diktala’s bowl of dried northern fruit with ointment covered hands.
“Guru Brachen would have fed her!” Diktala yelled back, running backwards through the door and spinning on his heel when Jura broke eye contact.
“There you are, great spirit!” Neesha proudly presented her fellow ascetic’s offerings.
She made no attempt to apologize for such a commoner’s fare. Neither did Diktala who first greeted her with such honored reverence.
“He really didn’t talk about me?” Janelsa asked.
“No. Only that you would probably want to chase your daughter.” Neesha wrung her hands. “I’m sorry.”
Janelsa stared at the dried fruit, and a single tear moisturized one.
Diktala snatched them back, half expecting an attack, and both the monks looked to the tear, then each other. Diktala shrugged, having never heard of a spirit crying. As another drop hit the path, Neesha stepped forward.
“Please, what is your name?” She put a hand on Janelsa’s shoulder.
Janelsa did not recoil, she did not collapse, she did not scream. Instead, she shook her head. Brachen didn’t know her name, his disciples didn’t know her name. In the time Janurana spent here, she had never even mentioned the family’s name, the last remnant that needed purged from her legacy. Janelsa simply clenched her eyes to let out three more tears that quickly faded away on the path. “Janelsa. That is my name.”
“Janelsa. A strong name,” Neesha said, putting both hands on both shoulders, then stepping back as Diktala offered her the fruit again.
“Indeed. A beautiful name,” he said.
With a forced smile, Janelsa bowed to both of them, taking the bowl. The first bite may as well have been fresh. In all two hundred and ninety-seven years, Janelsa hadn’t even tried to eat. Sometimes before her death she lamented the time she had to spend eating, sleeping, grooming, and all the trappings of life. How much more she could have gotten done without them made her head swirl. But now, a dried date made her legs almost give out under her. Even though it was preserved and wrinkled, it felt new. The pit crunched between her jagged teeth.
The ascetics almost died of fright when she stopped chewing. Her eyes were wide, but as she realized what happened, Janelsa started to chuckle. That too surprised her, the forgotten sound of her own laughter, but she continued. “Right! They have pits!” She spit it out and showed it to both the stupefied people before her. “Remember??”
“Yes, of course,” Neesha said awkwardly.
“As meat does bones,” Diktala added.
“Oh, ugh! I hate that! Do you hate that? So much peeling and getting your hands dirty. It was always so divine to have the cooks remove the bones before presenting it to me.” She scooped a handful of dates and fed them to herself like a servant would.
“I have found it can get irritating but we can always wipe our hands clean, yes?” Neesha said.
“I suppose so,” Janelsa lamented.
“There is always something we can do, Great Spirit Janelsa.” Diktala nodded along.
Janelsa shook her head, not dismissively, but just to coincide with her sigh. Once again, she looked out over what had been her domain and what had changed. New stone walls far in the distance, marking the towns and cities that had been erected in her absence, the scorched landscape recovering where under her rule it had provided countless treasures, roads she could somewhat remember snaking through forests and hills, it all mocked her at its impermanence. “And what if you don’t see what you can do?”
“I would suggest a light,” Diktala said.
“Funny.” Janelsa meant it. “And what if that light hurts you? What if it only illuminated one’s failures? How helpless we are? What if that darkness hid how everything we have done was pointless?” She kicked a pebble clear off the mountain to its new, unmarked home somewhere in the borderland’s dirt.
“Blocking it out won’t help.” Neesha watched it soar away.
“And why not? It makes questions like these far less frequent. Easier to focus on a fire in the dark without your own torch stealing your attention.”
“Then won’t you trip?”
“That is true.” Diktala seized on that. “It will be much harder to see a pebble or stone in the way, Great Spirit Janelsa.”
“Just Janelsa is fine.” Even before she was a spirit her night vision was as good as any other warriors, but she had clonked her shins on plenty of things when wandering her home at night. “Perhaps I’d rather trip once than stumble the whole way.”
“That doesn’t sound very brave,” Neesha dared to say. She flustered as Janelsa raised one brow, looking over her shoulder. “I, ah, just mean that, well, because you are so brave. Clearly! Yes?”
Diktala parroted “Yes” a few times but contributed nothing.
“Ah, because you—”
Janelsa turned cocking her brow more. “Your Guru has not yet taught you his way with words, I see.” She rubbed her hands where the fragments of the cup he gave her had dug into her flesh.
“It is that you came to our home, our Light sends back spirits, many of them tried and uh—” Neesha cleared her throat to start again. “You were very brave to attack us on your own.”
“Huh.” Janelsa drummed her fingers, then started cleaning them again.
“You are quite smart too.” Diktala stepped forward, offering more food, but Janelsa waved him away. Still, the compliment made her look less annoyed. “You said you saw ways to attack us. You are smart and brave, thus you would want the Light to show you all so you can deal with it all properly.”
“Don’t presume to know me, boy.” She shot him a soft glare, for he wasn’t wrong.
“What is it you saw in the Light that was too much? What was it that you think was pointless?” Neesha asked.
“That those that killed me are still alive and that no one even thinks to talk of me anymore. No one recalls my successes, my name. Even your Guru doesn’t seem to care that we spoke. In another life you would have fallen to your knees in supplications at the mention of me. And now…”
“Jura falls over when you move.” Diktala handed her a starfruit, this one fresh.
Janelsa chuckled again, but it faded. “I chased… my daughter. I’m certain you saw, she’s a fool when it comes to hiding things.” She rolled the fruit between her fingers, feeling it squish. “She’s become a monster, the last fragment of my house. But now, no one even remembers the whole of its existence, and the last fragment is just another stone on the path. Every waking moment for so long…” She wanted to crush the fruit. Yet, her hands just didn’t have the strength. “Every moment wanting her dead, erased, and now… What was the point? Your Guru was right. My accomplishments don’t matter anymore. So what am I supposed to do?” she asked the two young ascetics who were barely as old as Janurana looked.
“Make new accomplishments?” Diktala suggested.
“You have weathered many a monsoon, it seems.” Neesha pointed to Janelsa’s tattered clothes.
“Why thank you for that.”
“No no, Janelsa, I meant that you, of all people, must deserve the Light after it. Um,” Neesha took a moment to think, recalling some advice Brachen had told her about the cave. “Yes. When we struggle through the dark, it is easier every time as we now know where each hole in the path is. As long as we are alive, we can walk it again and again.” She cleared her throat and turned to Diktala. “Are spirits…”
“You can still make new choices,” he jumped in. “And if you do follow the same path, you can make sure you don’t make the same mistake again. You said you chased your daughter, but now you see that is a mistake. It seems like you have made your decision.”
Janelsa rubbed her head. Before she had tried to kill Brachen for insinuating that she shouldn’t kill Janurana and her life was pointless but here a pair of children were telling her the same. She closed her eyes.
“Yes, mother?” Janurana called.
Janelsa snapped up from her desk. The horned helmet of her conquests rattled and her reed wedge fell from her forehead, having been pressed in as she passed out. The drapery of her chambers fluttered with the beaming plateau sun, mimicking the spider’s web she left alone on her balcony that so dutifully kept her room fly free. Her daughter was straight backed, clutching a parasol much too big for her, as dutiful as the spider waiting in her immaculate sari, even with how small she was. But to Janelsa she was always a giant. No child ever looked so huge as your own. And hers twice as thick because of her wild hair. It still had her comb stuck in it where she gave up brushing today.
“What have I told you?” Janelsa pointed with her reed at the comb.
Janurana groaned, rolling her head as Janelsa did to accentuate her eye roll. She stopped half way as her mother raised an eyebrow. “That I must finish what I start.”
“Always. When we are finished here, I want you to comb that tangled mes- The tangles from your hair. Understood, Shzahd?”
“Yes, mother.” Janurana bowed and almost left.
“I called you in here to ask for your help.”
Janurana looked back and forth, then giggled. “Me?”
“Yes, you. If you are to rule when I am gone, it is imperative that—”
“What does imperative mean?”
“What do you say when interrupting me?”
“Excuse me, mother?” Janurana hid her confusion at why her mother could interrupt whoever she wanted.
“Yes, Shzahd?”
“What does imperative mean?”
“It means something is very, very important. So it is imperative that you learn what I do and what is on all those tablets I have you dry.”
“I can’t read yet.”
“You will soon. Now let me finish.”
“Oh. Sorry, mother.”
“I need you to help me with some decisions. Come.” She turned on her chair, beckoning her daughter up. With some help, the heir to house Malihabar ascended the work throne, settling in on her mother’s lap. The weight of her daughter sent a wave of contentment through Janelsa and she wrapped an arm around Janurana. “Look here.” She pointed out the exact words. “This tablet is from house Deuhera, their governor Doivi is mad.”
“Lots of people are mad.”
“They can be. We’re trying to make sure the ones that are mad can’t hurt us. She doesn’t like that I said some of her warriors and builders had to come work for me.”
“Why?”
“Because I need them to help secure the house here. Abbaji is worried I might have to go fight again, not just little fights with northerners.”
“Will Doivi have to fight too?”
“Yes, but I think she might want to fight me.”
“But you always win!” Janurana was mortified.
“I know.” She pushed Muli’s repetitive voice deep down into the recesses of her mind. “So, by taking some of her people, she’ll be less likely to wanna fight me and will need me to help her if the people who I fight try to fight her.”
“That seems smart.”
“The other is from Commander Malindani. Do you remember him?”
“Yes, he’s one of your warriors.” Janurana nodded.
“One of my best. He commands them along with me. He thinks it’s not a good idea to keep Doivi’s warriors and builders here. If she does want to fight me, they’ll know how I made the city stronger since they helped make the walls and such. Or they may leave flaws. Worse, he thinks the warriors might try to sneak in to stab me and him, maybe you.” She squeezed Janurana’s sari.
Her daughter noticed and squeezed her parasol.
Janelsa looked away, she had never told Janurana how close she had come to not waking up during the assassination attempt. It still haunted her just how lucky it was the idiot had said anything before he stabbed her.
As far as Janurana knew when she ran into Janelsa’s chambers at the commotion, a man was dead and that man wanted to kill her mother.
The times Janelsa woke with memories of that night she didn’t remember the assassin’s words or feel his life leaving him, but instead the inconsolable screams of her heir bursting past the guards and around the body. Janurana’s worry was all the answer she needed.
“You’re right. A spear I can see is far less deadly than one behind me. Thank you, Shzahd. Now go. Finish with your hair.” She put her daughter down and gave her a kiss on the forehead, waited a moment, then hugged her around the massive poof of hair that happened to contain her head.
“I love you, mother.” Janurana refused to let go. “Please, send them away.”
Janelsa did that night, foiling the plans of one assassin who took his chances and rushed her as she personally ordered them home.
“Janelsa?” Neesha called.
Janelsa lifted her head. She pawed at her forehead to dislodge her reed stylus again, but only dropped the nail pick.
“I suppose you children are right.” She scoffed and took a bite of starfruit. It was fresh, garnishing the bowl they had brought her. Just as the soma filled her with energy, the crisp pop of the fruit reawakened tastebuds that were practically atrophied. It at least answered one question she never got around to asking a northerner, that being if spirits actually ate anything.
“I am sorry our paths have made us enemies before. Perhaps we may leave here on better terms?” Neesha said and bowed, followed by Diktala, but both stood up when Janelsa said nothing.
She was busy staring out over the borderlands and taking in every scent the wind brought her way, then noticed Muli standing behind them. His smirk was always obvious behind his glorious beard. But now, he simply smiled and it was near imperceptible. More than he had in the past three hundred years, he stared into her eyes. It made Janelsa crack a smile back. The muscles in her face ached from the single effort, and the father of her heir bowed so deeply that he disappeared behind the young ascetics.
“Light Lost, stupid—” Jura tripped over Janurana’s ax. He was tossing the broken stones and bits of statue from Janelsa’s attack out towards the door and hadn’t noticed it buried under the rubble.
“Jura!” Neesha turned, about to run, but bowed again. “Excuse me, Janelsa.”
Janelsa waved her off even though Neesha didn’t wait to be given leave, which made the conqueror of the south cock her brow. Regardless, she took another bite of her fruit and chuckled as she spit out a seed. “What hospitality. Can’t even pit your dates or seed your fruit?”
“Apologies, Great Spirit. Please, forgive our mistake there.” Diktala put his hands to his side and bowed.
“Suppose I can for now.” Janelsa looked past him at Jura and Neesha, who was scolding her larger comrade for scuffing the floor with the stones he tossed, then settled her eyes on Janurana’s ax.
“Uhm, Janelsa? Great spirit? Is something wrong?” Diktala jogged after her as she pushed right past him.
“It’s just rock! Who cares??” Jura launched a stone right into the ground. It broke and a piece plinked Neesha in her arm.
“Ow! Calm yourself!” She pushed him.
He reciprocated. “The spirit who broke our walls gets fruit but I get a push?!” He was bowled right out of the way as Janelsa stormed between the arguing couple.
Jura stumbled back and tripped over a statue arm, then took aim.
“Wait! Don’t!” Neesha leapt forward and grabbed his arm, struggling to hold him down until Diktala joined. Even still, he wrested the pair off him. But rather than face some rampaging spirit, he only watched as Janelsa went to one knee in front of her double-headed ax.
For a moment, Janelsa hesitated picking it up, and looked it over instead. She ran her gaze over the polished, yet now dented and repaired head. The sharpening scrapes were deliberate, practiced, and a bit sloppy, as if done by skilled hands that weren’t used to this weapon. The leather was oiled, but could use another dose. The wood even had proper treatment. She grazed her finger tips over the shaft, then along the bronze. One side of the ax heads was brighter than the other, indicating it was probably a replacement. Still leaving it on the ground, she rolled it over to inspect the other side. There were two long scratches down the center that couldn’t have been sanded away being so deep. She picked at them, finding flecks of resin that had filled it at some point but was never replaced once it fell out.
In a flash Janelsa snatched it up and leapt to her feet. She spun it to and fro, mock slashing, hacking through invisible shields, cracking the nonexistent spears that jabbed at her from all sides. She brought it to her side and slid it onto a belt holder that wasn’t there either. Before it could clatter to the ground, she fumbled it back into her hands.
“Feels… Right,” Janelsa whispered to herself.
She narrowed her eyes and peeled away at the leather ties on the grip. Her longer, sharper nails made it both easier and more difficult. She could slice through them, but she tried to pick them open naturally. When the first two tries didn’t work, she huffed and just cut one to roll the grip down to the second tie. A few more scratches were exposed and Janelsa ran her finger over them. One was clearly a blocked puncturing strike, almost like a fang. It lined up with a hole in the grip. The other two were much more weathered, covered in other scuffs and discoloration. Any semblance of what originally made them was long gone.
“Right where…” Janelsa blinked.
She spun around, eyes narrowed and mumbling to herself, and looked past the four young ascetics crowded together. They were eyeing her intently, half holding Jura, half waiting for Janelsa to make a move.
“Excuse me, children,” she said and briskly marched through them.
Janelsa slipped the ax into her muga’s sash which assuaged enough of the monks’ fears for them to step aside. The wind was still blowing as she exited the temple and stormed up to the edge of the cliff. Again, she surveyed the borderlands, following each canyon she saw, marking each ruined town or bridge. She scanned south to the plateau and focused as best she could on the specks in the distance. A few scorched or ruined southern towns were just as obscure as the patches of pocket forest. But she focused on the Capital. Janelsa had heard that gwomoni eyes were much stronger once, and she snarled at her daughter being able to see her coming like a hawk spying their prey. But the capital’s mudbrick walls and white-walled Keep gleamed in the distance enough that anyone could spot it if they squinted. The hill on which the keep sat was almost completely obscured by the city’s defenses, and Janelsa tried to look beyond both rings to see only the hill and Keep.
She pointed with her ax, not even noticing that she pulled it out, and ran a line from the capital, to her spot.
“No… Did she…” Janelsa turned and blinked at the jungle wall behind the mountain. “No. Did she just make a circle home?”

Gundam 00 is one of the best AU Gundam series of all time. Ask any who've watched it and 9x out of 10 they say they've loved it. However, there's one tiny issue with this series. It's that the movie exists. I felt like someone at Bandai went like “Hey, you know that Gundam series that everyone loves with a perfect & satisfying ending? Let's fuck it up, so we can earn more money”. And ya, I know that quick tease on Jupiter towards the end of Season 2 was hinting at the movie. Hell, good ol’ Aeolia’s plan was to prepare humanity to encounter extraterrestrials. It still doesn't make the movie any better. When it comes to movies that follows up a series, there's quite a few I like; Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale, Love, Chuunibiyo, & Other Delusions: Take on Me, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, and so on. Unfortunately the Gundam 00 movie is not one of those movies. Poorly paced plot with 4 plots stuffed into one, characters that get no developed whatsoever, world building that adds plot holes to the story, & an ending that's absolute nonsense, this movie isn't really good. Now let's see why.

• Plot:
  • 2 years after the events of Season 2, the world is finally at peace. However, a group of Extraterrestrial Living-Metal Shapeshifters (ELS for short) threatens the Earth, Celestial Being must once again change the world. Along the way, they get help from past enemies turned Allies. That was just the quick synopsis, & already it sounds wrong. Here, the story doesn't feel like a story that would naturally follow up S2. It gets worse is that the story feels multiple plot points are shoved in together. The start of the movie has Celestial Being saving Marina Ismail & Shirin Bakhtiar again (standard stuff, I accept this). But then aliens show up & secretly assimilate with Innovators. Next we have aliens absorbing mobile suits & ships alike. And then the final battle happens & there's a flower in the end. So we went from your standard Gundam MO, to a Sci Fi horror movie, and then a dynasty warriors style battle where everything is solved with a fucking flower. Ya, good luck figuring out how all that fits together.
  • What's worse is the pacing, the movie takes place within a span of 3 months, yet it felt more like 3 days or weeks at most. I get it, it's a movie, it needs to condense these events within a 2hr runtime. But with multiple plot points, you gotta ditch some of them to keep the story going at a steady pace. This anime just has too much going on & doesn't have a plot that feels true to the franchise, how easily were you shown up by Ordinal Scale of all things (a quote I’ll be saying until the end of the review).
• Characters:
  • 00 Had a well established roaster of characters with personalities & arcs with satisfying ends. And then this movie shits on that & makes the majority of the characters do nothing for 2 hrs straight. Any of the good character writing of the original series is thrown into the trash in favor of mindless video game action.
  • But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start with CB as we usually do:
    • Setsuna F. Seiei is a far cry from the character arc he was given in the 2nd season. With his newly found coordinator powers that used to defeat Ribbons turns into a handicap when he's facing off against the ELS. Outside of the beginning & the end of the movie, he does NOTHING but get headaches & getting his machine assimilated.
    • The rest of the Meisters were fine I guess, but they basically have nothing to do in the movie. Lockon Stratos basically doesn't do much outside of saving Marina & Shirin from the a shuttle raided by terrorists & also saving Hallelujah & Marie from Transformer in an lazy attempt at fan service.
    • Speaking of which, Allelujah Haptism, along with Marie Parfacy, also has nothing to do. The last time we saw them, they were looking for a new beginning & following a trail to do so. And then in this movie, they got lost and somehow stumbled upon this facility where the aliens were located. They also become a liability because they have quantum brain waves too. I can at least say these 2 are cute together & I do like how when they're in battle they switched to their more aggressive personalities (Hallelujah & Soma), which is a good detail.
    • And then there's Tierra Erde, and….oh boy, do they do this boy dirty. Luckily his return isn't a “somehow palpatine returns” scenario, as it was explained in the 2nd season that Innovades don't technically die & can get new bodies at will (now that I think about it, could've Aeolia done that or the tech didn't exist before his death). However, he only shows up for a couple minutes to save Setsuna 2x & then blows himself up. Like…that quickly? Now that's depressing. Especially with the growth he went through in both seasons. But that's fine, he gets turned into Setsuna's Google Maps, sure why not.
    • And it doesn't get better, as the rest of the crew also don't get much to do. Lasse just doesn't contribute much outside of steering the ship. Milena is still a sweet little tart, so I won't touch her. However I found her confession to Tierra really cute & funny, with Ian & Linda's reactions being hilarious. Feldt also doesn't really have much to do, & has this crush on Setsuna. While rushed, it was established in S2 with her giving Setsuna a flower. And honestly, I think she's a better fit for him since they both work together & care for the crew a lot more. I honestly buy this over his relationship with Marina.
    • However, Sumeragi also doesn't have much to do either. Outside giving Feldt a heart to heart, she doesn't really have a moment to really coordinate with the Gundam Meisters.
  • So Celestial Being don't have much in terms of personality & motivations compared to S1 or S2. And I haven't gotten to the other characters yet. One positive note is Katy remains as competent as the original series as she does strategize with the Federation with the upcoming invasion. Plus her & Patrick's relationship will always be cute (anything with Patrick is instantly better). But I can't say much beyond that. She doesn't interact with Sumeragi until the very end, which is a shame cause I wanted to see them interact more after the events of Season 2.
  • Billy is alright, but I also can't comment too much on this. He just provides exposition on the ELS, gets a horny lab partner, and that's it. He also only talked to Graham once in the movie. Speaking of whom, Graham is also here & completely ditches his weeb persona and doesn't do much outside of saving Celestial Being & getting himself killed helping Setsuna. That last part doesn't really feel earned as it was rushed & doesn't even interact with Setsuna because he's in a fucking coma. I think if he & Setsuna talked face to face at least once, the sacrifice would've felt more genuine.
  • There's also Andrei & Kim…..there’s not a whole lot I can say about them. For anyone who hated Mr. Patricide for offing Sergei, he has been terminated by the interseller T-1000s. As for Kim, he’s just there to remind us that Sergei existed. Also, isn't it weird that he didn’t bring up the fact that he basically sent him to a trap just to get a rank promotion? There’s a reason why I didn’t bring him up in the S2 review. He also has a mustache now.
  • Saiji & Louise are somehow more useless than Season 1. Saiji only really serves as the concerned figure who worries about her hospital-ridden wife. Speaking of whom, she has no part in the story and only serves as a damsel in distress. Going back to Saiji, he kinda acts like an asshole towards Setsuna who saved his and his girlfriend’s ass. Like Jesus boy, he saved you multiple times & all he gets is “what the hell is going on”. Like come on, where’s that “thank you” you gave Setsuna in Season 2.
  • And finally we have the Azadastan group for our returning characters. If you thought Marina was useless in Season 2, it’s especially through her. After getting saved from Celestial Being AGAIN in space while inspecting her colony, she just goes home. She does provide shelter for her people in her palace, so I’ll give her that. At this point, I can’t say too much about Shirin, so I won’t even bother. Especially Klaus, there’s a piece of dialogue where he told Shirin on the phone when they were prepping for the invasion that he will “Carry a Gun again”, and I honestly thought he might be involved in the fight. But no, we don’t see the man until the end where he shows up on a TV screen as an old man.
  • So the old characters didn’t impress me, and we’re not done yet with the characters. There’s also 2 new characters in the anime. Descartes Shaman, an innovator from Celestial Being (the ship, not the crew) that has a pretty egotistical personality along with being arrogant. He gets killed by metallic slime (in a brutally entertaining way too). Next we got the hornest scientist ever put in a Gundam series, Mina Carmine. While she doesn’t hide how much she wants her kuchi to be stuffed by Billy, she at least shows a level of competence and is pretty smart. And I’ll be honest, her sexual tendencies were honestly the most entertaining part of the movie. It’s even funnier imagining her as Neina back from the dead looking for another man to be thirsty for (especially since her VA, Nicole Bouma, voices her too).
  • Overall, the characters are kinda a disappointment. The old characters feel like massive down grades of themselves with some of their character arcs from the previous season being thrown out of the window to forward the plot, and the new characters only serving as exposition dumpers or bodies to add to the antagonist's kill count to make them more threatening. Nearly all of these characters are shells of themselves & have no purpose in the plot, how easily were you shown up by Ordinal Scale of all things.
• World Building:
  • It’s been 2 years since S2, so you would expect some changes. Unfortunately, not too much has changed. But before we get to silver plated elephant in the room, let's talk about the normal stuff 1st. For starters, The Earth Sphere Federation isn't being runned by sociopaths with god complexes anymore, it’s a peaceful government with ex-Katheron people being a part of it & even some Innovaders. So unlike every other federal faction set on earth in the franchise, these guys got their shit together and worked to protect Earth, which is a nice change of pace.
  • I found it funny that they made a movie about Celestial Being, cementing their reputation as heroes in the eyes of the public. Wait, now that I think about it, Hollywood in Gundam Universe would milk the shit out of the wars that happen in-universe, as much as Bandai would milk the mobile suits with their model kits (Both Bloody Valentine Wars from SEED, the Eve Wars from Wing, the Gundam fighting tournament from Mobile Fighter, hell the One Year War from the original series would be milked to death like the many OVAs we've gotten). I would imagine the amount of box office revenue these “war” movies would make.
  • While we're still on the topic of war, let's bring up the fact that the military now basically controls Celestial Being (the ship, not the crew). While I won't deny that it does serve an important role in the final battle, it's kinda weird they would control arguably the most OP battleship in the series. Like, it has a few chambers to mass produce Innovades, areas to produce mobile suits & ships, cloaking tech, and multiple laser cannons (including the Memento Mori). With this kind of power, we're lucky it's not used in the wrong hands (then again, Veda can probably shut it down if necessary).
  • While we’re still on the subject of Celestial bodies, let's see how CB is doing. Outside of like 2 new unnamed members, not much has changed. They're still up to their usual anti-war shenanigans with one of them involving saving Marina AGAIN. So there's not a whole lot to comment until we reach the mobile suit section.
  • Now let's get to the chrome plated thorn on the side of the movie, the ELS. The Extraterrestrial Living-metal Shapeshifters are Gundam’s 2nd attempt at aliens, and like the 1st one with that useless ass space whale from SEED, it fails miserably. There's 2 aspects that the ELS fails at that would've made them interesting:
    • Aliens= when it comes to extraterrestrials in media they all come in different shapes and sizes. Maybe they're just like humans but in a different color (not remotely what I meant), maybe they have horns on their heads, multiple limbs, maybe they're furries, maybe they're made out of slime, WHATEVER. But one thing remains a constant, THEY HAVE A PERSONALITY & A REASON WHY THEY'RE INVADING EARTH. We don't know why the ELS are going after the Innovators until the end where Setsuna & Tierra go on a trip in the mothership (seriously, what were the animators smoking when they were making that sequence). Even after everything when they just stop fusing with everyone & everything on sight, we don't care as we never know them on a personal level. They're just there, so we can't get invested in their defeat or feel for their cause. And that's not even mentioning the bad designs they came up with for the ELS. They look like something I'll find in my mom's jewelry box. How am I supposed to take these guys seriously if they’re morphing into flying chandeliers?
    • This leads to their next missed opportunity, shapeshifting= Shapechangers in media are used in a variety of ways that makes them an interesting threat; Secret Invasion (EMH not the MCU), The Thing, Terminator 2, X-Men, Transformers, etc. With beings that can take the form of anyone or anything, it keeps us on our toes and has us biting out nails on who’s real and who’s not. They did that for like 5 minutes and instantly shifted to gundams & mobile suits fighting shiny blob monsters for the rest of the damn movie. It starts off a body snatcher movie with ELS fusing with potential Innovators by disguising themselves as vehicles and even humans. Not gonna lie, it was an interesting scene and added a level of mystique to the invasion, making us wonder if there are aliens unknowingly among us. One problem, It doesn’t fit a Gundam plot and doesn’t even last long. It gets worse when they just turn into the Federation’s mobile suits & spaceships to fight them. Like, these guys went from secretly infiltrating earth to being generic enemy units.
  • My point is that the ELS are really forgettable villains that fail to leave an impact as villains. And I’m not saying that the concept of aliens couldn’t work, far from it (it worked really well in Re:Rise). What I’m saying is that if you don’t make them interesting or compelling in the series, then they won’t stand out in the show (take a look at Build Fighters).
  • So overall, the world building started off ok in the beginning, but then went downhill the moment the ELS 1st appeared. I don't add anything interesting to Anno Domini, we’re just retold things we knew from the original series, & the ELS are really forgettable factions. Whatever it adds, it doesn’t complement the world at all (how easily you were beaten out by Ordinal Scale of all things).
• Mobile Suits:
  • The best thing I can say is the designs aren’t half bad. They're well equipped for battle & provide some decent action. I'll criticize the fights being made to ward off our boredom, but the action still slaps. Starting with the CB suits, we got some over the top but decent designs.
    • With Setsuna's Gundam, we got the poster boy himself, the 00 Qan [T]. In Spite of being my least favorite suit in the lineage, I can't deny that this design slaps. Keeping with the close combat aesthetic of the originals, it has a GN Sword V (that can turn into a gun), a GN shield with a beam gun, and a load of GN Sword Bits. The latter of which has a multitude of uses: it can slice enemies from afar, create a shield, make a portal, and combine with the GN Sword V to make a giant sword or a giant gun. This machine is the most OP Gundam of ALL TIME, so why isn't it my favorite? Simple, it's too OP. This thing has the power to slice a ship the size of the moon in half, it can shred suits in seconds effortlessly without moving an inch, and it can teleport. It gets wackier when it fuses with the ELS & basically becomes god-like. While we never see it in the anime, if you've seen clips from the SD games, it can morph its sword into a gun, grow tentacles, turn said tentacles into swords, and summon a metric shit ton of swords. Like….what. Look, I'm not complaining just because of the OP power scaling, because 00 can be over the top at times. But it's at least within reason. In season 2 and even season 1 for that matter, Setsuna does the over the top stuff. But those were important moments for his character. Him being the 1st to use Trans-Am, him starting up the 00 with, reconnecting Saiji & Louise with quantum brain waves, saving Lyle while allowing him to say his final goodbyes to Anew, and him connecting with the other meisters to keep fighting. They were insane moments that would fry a real robot fan’s brain, but it made sense on a thematic level. Something I can't say the same about the 00 Qan[T] or anything about this movie.
    • Next we got Lockon’s machine, the Zabanya. Remember when both Dynames & Cherudim were expertly crafted to be sniping units to provide long range support? Well this machine said fuck it & went full heavyarms in it's loadout. It has a lot of missiles, pistols, and both rifle & shield bits. I don't really like that its shield bits have to combine to block incoming attacks. The moment he says “Firing without Targeting”, a part of my soul left my body. This is no longer the amazing sniping machine that we all love with its accurate pression & clever tactics, this is a glorified beam & missile spamming machine. I didn't even bring up the fact that it didn't even have any beam sabers or any form of offensive weapons. Like, what did they do to you man.
    • We also got the birth child of both Arios & Archer, the Harute. Honestly, out of all of the CB machines in this movie, this one's my favorite. It's a good design that's evocative of the lineage of Allelujah’s Gundams. It has 2x GN Sword Rifles that can act as rifles, swords, & scissors (noice). It also got a pair of back cannons, a missile container, & some GN Scissor Bits. And like the suits that came before it, it can transform into a sexy fighter jet. Yanase knows his transforming Gundam designs, and this is no exception. I also do like the fact that it's a 2 seater, cementing Allelujah & Marie’s relationship. It also has a berserker system called the Marute mode, that's neat, I like it.
    • Finally there's the Gundam piloted by someone who’s cool but rude, the Rapheal Gundam. In a lineage thick & curvy Gundams with the Virtue & Seravee, you would think that it would follow that tradition too, right? All of the thickness is relegated to his back and it just looks like the Nadeelah with a big ass backpack. My disappointment is immeasurable. It doesn’t even have the cool weapons of the original, all it has is a regular ass GN Rifle and a pair of GN Bazookas in the back. The only cool part is that the backpack can act as claws, separate itself to act as bits, and can transform into the Seravee Gundam. To add insult to injury, the damn thing only shows up once and blows itself up in the second battle.
    • Now let's talk about 2 returning suits, the Dynames Repair & the 00 Raiser (GN Condenser Type). Dynames Repair only shows up for one scene to save Allelujah and Marie from the gooey chrome ETs, while providing fans with some fanservice. 00 Raiser (GN Condenser Type) on the other hand insults me the most for how it does a disservice to one of my all time favorite Gundam designs. The 00 doesn’t do a damn thing throughout the whole movie and then gets tentacle raped by the bad guys. I know that since it doesn’t have the original drives, it can’t do too much. But I expected it to do SOMETHING. I went in depth on why I love the 00 Raiser, why it’s Kanetake’s design at its peak. So seeing my all time favorite Gundam getting sidelined like this was a massive slap in the face for me. I
  • think the worst thing about these designs is that they weren’t coordinated in the slightest. There’s no sense of planning, no moment of Sumeragi’s clever tactics, or any moments of the Gundams doing combo moves together.
  • And there’s the mobile suits, and I can’t comment on them too much. The Union Flag Celestial Being type was pretty cool though with its GN sword II and smoke bomb, among other things. I also do like that Setsuna is using something outside of a Gundam to prove how good of a pilot he is. I love moments like this where Gundam Pilots use regular mobile suits, showing them how skilled they are.
  • With that being said there’s not many suits I can really talk about from the Federation’s side. The GN-XIV looks way better than the original GN-X machines, but outside of the V-fin, it's just another GN-X machine. Same thing for the Gaga Cannon, since its OG suicide machine with cannons on its back. The Gadelaza on the other hand is actually a pretty cool design. The mobile armor has a big ass cannon, 4x Beam guns/Sabers on its sub arms, and a metric shit ton of missiles & fangs. The thing may have been piloted by a prick, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy that scene. The only other suits worth talking about are the Brave Standard Test Type & Commander Test type. Both of which have the same weapons: 2x machine guns, a grenade, 2x GN machine guns, 2x GN beam sabers, 2x GN Cannons, 4x GN missiles, and a GN Beam Rifle. The only difference between the 2 is that the Standard type is greenish blue and piloted by random characters we barely know, while the Commander type is blue and is piloted by Graham Aker (right out of his weeb phase).
  • Outside of those 3 mobile suits & mobile armor, everything else is just a space version of a MS from the previous seasons. Here's a list in case anyone's interested:
    • Hellion Orbit Package
    • Enact Orbit Package
    • Xiaoshou
    • Tieren Space type
    • Flag Orbit Package Colony Guard Type
    • Over Flag Astro Package
    • Flag Orbit Package
    • & Realdo Orbit Package
    • I'll throw in the Realdo Hover tank too for safe measure.
  • Check the wiki if you're curious about their loadout. I’m also not gonna cover the ELS’s GN-XIV, cause they're just the regular ass GN-XS but with purple GNParticles. T
  • he only thing left to talk about is the fight scenes. Visually speaking, I thought the fights weren't half bad. They really used the movie’s budget and made the fights more fluid. However, spectacle is one thing, but substance is another. These fights may look good, but there's barely any weight to them. There's no prior drama with the enemy, any personal motive to fight, none of that. It's just to kill the aliens because “they're not like you & me. We must sound the drums of WAAAARRRR” (sorry I kinda lost it back there). All these fights feel like a distraction for how boring & convoluted the plot is, how easily you were beat out by Ordinal Scale of all things. It gets worse with the CGI of the ELS. 00 actually has pretty great CGI believe or not, since it has pretty good shading and is well animated. I don't know why, but in this movie it just looks worse. The animation is a little off, but it's mainly because it's overused.
  • Overall, in spite of good action & some decent designs, I can't really call it remarkable. It all feels pointless if action just happens with no drama or suspense in the fight. The magic of well designed machines, tactically planned fights, and emotionally charged drama is now gone.
• Verdict:
  • Before I end things off, I'll give you my 2 cents on the ending, it fucking sucks. Once Setsuna & Tierra smoke weed and see those weird ass images in the ELS’s mother ship, they go to their homeworld and bring a big ass flower. That's enough to stop the ELS from absorbing everything. That's it, THAT'S HOW THE FUCKING MOVIE ENDS? Not only the ending feels out of nowhere, be feels unearned. The only positive thing to come out of this ending is the epilogue. We see Aeolia Schenberg at a younger age talking about how he hates how selfish people are in the world with his buddy and it's honestly a well written scene with great voice acting. Then we cut to a spaceship with a group of people getting ready to explore the next frontier. And then it ends with Setsuna visiting an old Marina. If the movie didn't exist & the epilogue (modified of course) was in S2, it would've been a perfect way to end the series. But we just don't live in that world, don't we.
  • After rewatching this movie for the review, I've rewatched Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale as a palate cleanser. And judging by the amount of time I've mentioned said film in the review, I can confidently say that this is exactly what I expect from a movie following up a show; the story is new while fitting it with the themes of the show, the characters have new roles & arcs, the new characters contribute something to the story, the world building adds something new that adds insight to what came before it, the fights are motivated through drama, and the ending leaves a positive impact on the series. Awakening of the Trailblazer does none of that as the story has plots that don't feel like a Gundam story, the returning characters aren't given anything to do outside of killing metallic slime monsters, the new characters contribute next to nothing to the plot, adds something that felt out of left field, the fights have no weight to them & are there to ward away our boredom, and the ending makes no sense. Even with the context of me being an SAO fan, as a Gundam fan I'll say this, if the Sword Art Online movie is a better job than the Gundam movie, you're doing something very, VERY WRONG.
  • So ya, this movie is as bad as I remembered it. Does it ruin both seasons of Gundam 00? Surprisingly no, not in the slightest. I'll always rewatch both seasons annually and it'll still remain my favorite anime of all time. I'll just treat the movie like how Pacific Rim fans treat uprising, or how Shrek fans treat Shrek the Third. However, there's one thing that I can't deny. This movie was the beginning of an era I would like to call, “The Dark Age of Mecha”.

Gundam 00 is one of the best AU Gundam series of all time. Ask any who've watched it and 9x out of 10 they say they've loved it. However, there's one tiny issue with this series. It's that the movie exists. I felt like someone at Bandai went like “Hey, you know that Gundam series that everyone loves with a perfect & satisfying ending? Let's fuck it up, so we can earn more money”. And ya, I know that quick tease on Jupiter towards the end of Season 2 was hinting at the movie. Hell, good ol’ Aeolia’s plan was to prepare humanity to encounter extraterrestrials. It still doesn't make the movie any better. When it comes to movies that follows up a series, there's quite a few I like; Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale, Love, Chuunibiyo, & Other Delusions: Take on Me, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, and so on. Unfortunately the Gundam 00 movie is not one of those movies. Poorly paced plot with 4 plots stuffed into one, characters that get no developed whatsoever, world building that adds plot holes to the story, & an ending that's absolute nonsense, this movie isn't really good. Now let's see why.

• Plot:
  • 2 years after the events of Season 2, the world is finally at peace. However, a group of Extraterrestrial Living-Metal Shapeshifters (ELS for short) threatens the Earth, Celestial Being must once again change the world. Along the way, they get help from past enemies turned Allies. That was just the quick synopsis, & already it sounds wrong. Here, the story doesn't feel like a story that would naturally follow up S2. It gets worse is that the story feels multiple plot points are shoved in together. The start of the movie has Celestial Being saving Marina Ismail & Shirin Bakhtiar again (standard stuff, I accept this). But then aliens show up & secretly assimilate with Innovators. Next we have aliens absorbing mobile suits & ships alike. And then the final battle happens & there's a flower in the end. So we went from your standard Gundam MO, to a Sci Fi horror movie, and then a dynasty warriors style battle where everything is solved with a fucking flower. Ya, good luck figuring out how all that fits together.
  • What's worse is the pacing, the movie takes place within a span of 3 months, yet it felt more like 3 days or weeks at most. I get it, it's a movie, it needs to condense these events within a 2hr runtime. But with multiple plot points, you gotta ditch some of them to keep the story going at a steady pace. This anime just has too much going on & doesn't have a plot that feels true to the franchise, how easily were you shown up by Ordinal Scale of all things (a quote I’ll be saying until the end of the review).
• Characters:
  • 00 Had a well established roaster of characters with personalities & arcs with satisfying ends. And then this movie shits on that & makes the majority of the characters do nothing for 2 hrs straight. Any of the good character writing of the original series is thrown into the trash in favor of mindless video game action.
  • But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start with CB as we usually do:
    • Setsuna F. Seiei is a far cry from the character arc he was given in the 2nd season. With his newly found coordinator powers that used to defeat Ribbons turns into a handicap when he's facing off against the ELS. Outside of the beginning & the end of the movie, he does NOTHING but get headaches & getting his machine assimilated.
    • The rest of the Meisters were fine I guess, but they basically have nothing to do in the movie. Lockon Stratos basically doesn't do much outside of saving Marina & Shirin from the a shuttle raided by terrorists & also saving Hallelujah & Marie from Transformer in an lazy attempt at fan service.
    • Speaking of which, Allelujah Haptism, along with Marie Parfacy, also has nothing to do. The last time we saw them, they were looking for a new beginning & following a trail to do so. And then in this movie, they got lost and somehow stumbled upon this facility where the aliens were located. They also become a liability because they have quantum brain waves too. I can at least say these 2 are cute together & I do like how when they're in battle they switched to their more aggressive personalities (Hallelujah & Soma), which is a good detail.
    • And then there's Tierra Erde, and….oh boy, do they do this boy dirty. Luckily his return isn't a “somehow palpatine returns” scenario, as it was explained in the 2nd season that Innovades don't technically die & can get new bodies at will (now that I think about it, could've Aeolia done that or the tech didn't exist before his death). However, he only shows up for a couple minutes to save Setsuna 2x & then blows himself up. Like…that quickly? Now that's depressing. Especially with the growth he went through in both seasons. But that's fine, he gets turned into Setsuna's Google Maps, sure why not.
    • And it doesn't get better, as the rest of the crew also don't get much to do. Lasse just doesn't contribute much outside of steering the ship. Milena is still a sweet little tart, so I won't touch her. However I found her confession to Tierra really cute & funny, with Ian & Linda's reactions being hilarious. Feldt also doesn't really have much to do, & has this crush on Setsuna. While rushed, it was established in S2 with her giving Setsuna a flower. And honestly, I think she's a better fit for him since they both work together & care for the crew a lot more. I honestly buy this over his relationship with Marina.
    • However, Sumeragi also doesn't have much to do either. Outside giving Feldt a heart to heart, she doesn't really have a moment to really coordinate with the Gundam Meisters.
  • So Celestial Being don't have much in terms of personality & motivations compared to S1 or S2. And I haven't gotten to the other characters yet. One positive note is Katy remains as competent as the original series as she does strategize with the Federation with the upcoming invasion. Plus her & Patrick's relationship will always be cute (anything with Patrick is instantly better). But I can't say much beyond that. She doesn't interact with Sumeragi until the very end, which is a shame cause I wanted to see them interact more after the events of Season 2.
  • Billy is alright, but I also can't comment too much on this. He just provides exposition on the ELS, gets a horny lab partner, and that's it. He also only talked to Graham once in the movie. Speaking of whom, Graham is also here & completely ditches his weeb persona and doesn't do much outside of saving Celestial Being & getting himself killed helping Setsuna. That last part doesn't really feel earned as it was rushed & doesn't even interact with Setsuna because he's in a fucking coma. I think if he & Setsuna talked face to face at least once, the sacrifice would've felt more genuine.
  • There's also Andrei & Kim…..there’s not a whole lot I can say about them. For anyone who hated Mr. Patricide for offing Sergei, he has been terminated by the interseller T-1000s. As for Kim, he’s just there to remind us that Sergei existed. Also, isn't it weird that he didn’t bring up the fact that he basically sent him to a trap just to get a rank promotion? There’s a reason why I didn’t bring him up in the S2 review. He also has a mustache now.
  • Saiji & Louise are somehow more useless than Season 1. Saiji only really serves as the concerned figure who worries about her hospital-ridden wife. Speaking of whom, she has no part in the story and only serves as a damsel in distress. Going back to Saiji, he kinda acts like an asshole towards Setsuna who saved his and his girlfriend’s ass. Like Jesus boy, he saved you multiple times & all he gets is “what the hell is going on”. Like come on, where’s that “thank you” you gave Setsuna in Season 2.
  • And finally we have the Azadastan group for our returning characters. If you thought Marina was useless in Season 2, it’s especially through her. After getting saved from Celestial Being AGAIN in space while inspecting her colony, she just goes home. She does provide shelter for her people in her palace, so I’ll give her that. At this point, I can’t say too much about Shirin, so I won’t even bother. Especially Klaus, there’s a piece of dialogue where he told Shirin on the phone when they were prepping for the invasion that he will “Carry a Gun again”, and I honestly thought he might be involved in the fight. But no, we don’t see the man until the end where he shows up on a TV screen as an old man.
  • So the old characters didn’t impress me, and we’re not done yet with the characters. There’s also 2 new characters in the anime. Descartes Shaman, an innovator from Celestial Being (the ship, not the crew) that has a pretty egotistical personality along with being arrogant. He gets killed by metallic slime (in a brutally entertaining way too). Next we got the hornest scientist ever put in a Gundam series, Mina Carmine. While she doesn’t hide how much she wants her kuchi to be stuffed by Billy, she at least shows a level of competence and is pretty smart. And I’ll be honest, her sexual tendencies were honestly the most entertaining part of the movie. It’s even funnier imagining her as Neina back from the dead looking for another man to be thirsty for (especially since her VA, Nicole Bouma, voices her too).
  • Overall, the characters are kinda a disappointment. The old characters feel like massive down grades of themselves with some of their character arcs from the previous season being thrown out of the window to forward the plot, and the new characters only serving as exposition dumpers or bodies to add to the antagonist's kill count to make them more threatening. Nearly all of these characters are shells of themselves & have no purpose in the plot, how easily were you shown up by Ordinal Scale of all things.
• World Building:
  • It’s been 2 years since S2, so you would expect some changes. Unfortunately, not too much has changed. But before we get to silver plated elephant in the room, let's talk about the normal stuff 1st. For starters, The Earth Sphere Federation isn't being runned by sociopaths with god complexes anymore, it’s a peaceful government with ex-Katheron people being a part of it & even some Innovaders. So unlike every other federal faction set on earth in the franchise, these guys got their shit together and worked to protect Earth, which is a nice change of pace.
  • I found it funny that they made a movie about Celestial Being, cementing their reputation as heroes in the eyes of the public. Wait, now that I think about it, Hollywood in Gundam Universe would milk the shit out of the wars that happen in-universe, as much as Bandai would milk the mobile suits with their model kits (Both Bloody Valentine Wars from SEED, the Eve Wars from Wing, the Gundam fighting tournament from Mobile Fighter, hell the One Year War from the original series would be milked to death like the many OVAs we've gotten). I would imagine the amount of box office revenue these “war” movies would make.
  • While we're still on the topic of war, let's bring up the fact that the military now basically controls Celestial Being (the ship, not the crew). While I won't deny that it does serve an important role in the final battle, it's kinda weird they would control arguably the most OP battleship in the series. Like, it has a few chambers to mass produce Innovades, areas to produce mobile suits & ships, cloaking tech, and multiple laser cannons (including the Memento Mori). With this kind of power, we're lucky it's not used in the wrong hands (then again, Veda can probably shut it down if necessary).
  • While we’re still on the subject of Celestial bodies, let's see how CB is doing. Outside of like 2 new unnamed members, not much has changed. They're still up to their usual anti-war shenanigans with one of them involving saving Marina AGAIN. So there's not a whole lot to comment until we reach the mobile suit section.
  • Now let's get to the chrome plated thorn on the side of the movie, the ELS. The Extraterrestrial Living-metal Shapeshifters are Gundam’s 2nd attempt at aliens, and like the 1st one with that useless ass space whale from SEED, it fails miserably. There's 2 aspects that the ELS fails at that would've made them interesting:
    • Aliens= when it comes to extraterrestrials in media they all come in different shapes and sizes. Maybe they're just like humans but in a different color (not remotely what I meant), maybe they have horns on their heads, multiple limbs, maybe they're furries, maybe they're made out of slime, WHATEVER. But one thing remains a constant, THEY HAVE A PERSONALITY & A REASON WHY THEY'RE INVADING EARTH. We don't know why the ELS are going after the Innovators until the end where Setsuna & Tierra go on a trip in the mothership (seriously, what were the animators smoking when they were making that sequence). Even after everything when they just stop fusing with everyone & everything on sight, we don't care as we never know them on a personal level. They're just there, so we can't get invested in their defeat or feel for their cause. And that's not even mentioning the bad designs they came up with for the ELS. They look like something I'll find in my mom's jewelry box. How am I supposed to take these guys seriously if they’re morphing into flying chandeliers?
    • This leads to their next missed opportunity, shapeshifting= Shapechangers in media are used in a variety of ways that makes them an interesting threat; Secret Invasion (EMH not the MCU), The Thing, Terminator 2, X-Men, Transformers, etc. With beings that can take the form of anyone or anything, it keeps us on our toes and has us biting out nails on who’s real and who’s not. They did that for like 5 minutes and instantly shifted to gundams & mobile suits fighting shiny blob monsters for the rest of the damn movie. It starts off a body snatcher movie with ELS fusing with potential Innovators by disguising themselves as vehicles and even humans. Not gonna lie, it was an interesting scene and added a level of mystique to the invasion, making us wonder if there are aliens unknowingly among us. One problem, It doesn’t fit a Gundam plot and doesn’t even last long. It gets worse when they just turn into the Federation’s mobile suits & spaceships to fight them. Like, these guys went from secretly infiltrating earth to being generic enemy units.
  • My point is that the ELS are really forgettable villains that fail to leave an impact as villains. And I’m not saying that the concept of aliens couldn’t work, far from it (it worked really well in Re:Rise). What I’m saying is that if you don’t make them interesting or compelling in the series, then they won’t stand out in the show (take a look at Build Fighters).
  • So overall, the world building started off ok in the beginning, but then went downhill the moment the ELS 1st appeared. I don't add anything interesting to Anno Domini, we’re just retold things we knew from the original series, & the ELS are really forgettable factions. Whatever it adds, it doesn’t complement the world at all (how easily you were beaten out by Ordinal Scale of all things).
• Mobile Suits:
  • The best thing I can say is the designs aren’t half bad. They're well equipped for battle & provide some decent action. I'll criticize the fights being made to ward off our boredom, but the action still slaps. Starting with the CB suits, we got some over the top but decent designs.
    • With Setsuna's Gundam, we got the poster boy himself, the 00 Qan [T]. In Spite of being my least favorite suit in the lineage, I can't deny that this design slaps. Keeping with the close combat aesthetic of the originals, it has a GN Sword V (that can turn into a gun), a GN shield with a beam gun, and a load of GN Sword Bits. The latter of which has a multitude of uses: it can slice enemies from afar, create a shield, make a portal, and combine with the GN Sword V to make a giant sword or a giant gun. This machine is the most OP Gundam of ALL TIME, so why isn't it my favorite? Simple, it's too OP. This thing has the power to slice a ship the size of the moon in half, it can shred suits in seconds effortlessly without moving an inch, and it can teleport. It gets wackier when it fuses with the ELS & basically becomes god-like. While we never see it in the anime, if you've seen clips from the SD games, it can morph its sword into a gun, grow tentacles, turn said tentacles into swords, and summon a metric shit ton of swords. Like….what. Look, I'm not complaining just because of the OP power scaling, because 00 can be over the top at times. But it's at least within reason. In season 2 and even season 1 for that matter, Setsuna does the over the top stuff. But those were important moments for his character. Him being the 1st to use Trans-Am, him starting up the 00 with, reconnecting Saiji & Louise with quantum brain waves, saving Lyle while allowing him to say his final goodbyes to Anew, and him connecting with the other meisters to keep fighting. They were insane moments that would fry a real robot fan’s brain, but it made sense on a thematic level. Something I can't say the same about the 00 Qan[T] or anything about this movie.
    • Next we got Lockon’s machine, the Zabanya. Remember when both Dynames & Cherudim were expertly crafted to be sniping units to provide long range support? Well this machine said fuck it & went full heavyarms in it's loadout. It has a lot of missiles, pistols, and both rifle & shield bits. I don't really like that its shield bits have to combine to block incoming attacks. The moment he says “Firing without Targeting”, a part of my soul left my body. This is no longer the amazing sniping machine that we all love with its accurate pression & clever tactics, this is a glorified beam & missile spamming machine. I didn't even bring up the fact that it didn't even have any beam sabers or any form of offensive weapons. Like, what did they do to you man.
    • We also got the birth child of both Arios & Archer, the Harute. Honestly, out of all of the CB machines in this movie, this one's my favorite. It's a good design that's evocative of the lineage of Allelujah’s Gundams. It has 2x GN Sword Rifles that can act as rifles, swords, & scissors (noice). It also got a pair of back cannons, a missile container, & some GN Scissor Bits. And like the suits that came before it, it can transform into a sexy fighter jet. Yanase knows his transforming Gundam designs, and this is no exception. I also do like the fact that it's a 2 seater, cementing Allelujah & Marie’s relationship. It also has a berserker system called the Marute mode, that's neat, I like it.
    • Finally there's the Gundam piloted by someone who’s cool but rude, the Rapheal Gundam. In a lineage thick & curvy Gundams with the Virtue & Seravee, you would think that it would follow that tradition too, right? All of the thickness is relegated to his back and it just looks like the Nadeelah with a big ass backpack. My disappointment is immeasurable. It doesn’t even have the cool weapons of the original, all it has is a regular ass GN Rifle and a pair of GN Bazookas in the back. The only cool part is that the backpack can act as claws, separate itself to act as bits, and can transform into the Seravee Gundam. To add insult to injury, the damn thing only shows up once and blows itself up in the second battle.
    • Now let's talk about 2 returning suits, the Dynames Repair & the 00 Raiser (GN Condenser Type). Dynames Repair only shows up for one scene to save Allelujah and Marie from the gooey chrome ETs, while providing fans with some fanservice. 00 Raiser (GN Condenser Type) on the other hand insults me the most for how it does a disservice to one of my all time favorite Gundam designs. The 00 doesn’t do a damn thing throughout the whole movie and then gets tentacle raped by the bad guys. I know that since it doesn’t have the original drives, it can’t do too much. But I expected it to do SOMETHING. I went in depth on why I love the 00 Raiser, why it’s Kanetake’s design at its peak. So seeing my all time favorite Gundam getting sidelined like this was a massive slap in the face for me. I
  • think the worst thing about these designs is that they weren’t coordinated in the slightest. There’s no sense of planning, no moment of Sumeragi’s clever tactics, or any moments of the Gundams doing combo moves together.
  • And there’s the mobile suits, and I can’t comment on them too much. The Union Flag Celestial Being type was pretty cool though with its GN sword II and smoke bomb, among other things. I also do like that Setsuna is using something outside of a Gundam to prove how good of a pilot he is. I love moments like this where Gundam Pilots use regular mobile suits, showing them how skilled they are.
  • With that being said there’s not many suits I can really talk about from the Federation’s side. The GN-XIV looks way better than the original GN-X machines, but outside of the V-fin, it's just another GN-X machine. Same thing for the Gaga Cannon, since its OG suicide machine with cannons on its back. The Gadelaza on the other hand is actually a pretty cool design. The mobile armor has a big ass cannon, 4x Beam guns/Sabers on its sub arms, and a metric shit ton of missiles & fangs. The thing may have been piloted by a prick, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy that scene. The only other suits worth talking about are the Brave Standard Test Type & Commander Test type. Both of which have the same weapons: 2x machine guns, a grenade, 2x GN machine guns, 2x GN beam sabers, 2x GN Cannons, 4x GN missiles, and a GN Beam Rifle. The only difference between the 2 is that the Standard type is greenish blue and piloted by random characters we barely know, while the Commander type is blue and is piloted by Graham Aker (right out of his weeb phase).
  • Outside of those 3 mobile suits & mobile armor, everything else is just a space version of a MS from the previous seasons. Here's a list in case anyone's interested:
    • Hellion Orbit Package
    • Enact Orbit Package
    • Xiaoshou
    • Tieren Space type
    • Flag Orbit Package Colony Guard Type
    • Over Flag Astro Package
    • Flag Orbit Package
    • & Realdo Orbit Package
    • I'll throw in the Realdo Hover tank too for safe measure.
  • Check the wiki if you're curious about their loadout. I’m also not gonna cover the ELS’s GN-XIV, cause they're just the regular ass GN-XS but with purple GNParticles. T
  • he only thing left to talk about is the fight scenes. Visually speaking, I thought the fights weren't half bad. They really used the movie’s budget and made the fights more fluid. However, spectacle is one thing, but substance is another. These fights may look good, but there's barely any weight to them. There's no prior drama with the enemy, any personal motive to fight, none of that. It's just to kill the aliens because “they're not like you & me. We must sound the drums of WAAAARRRR” (sorry I kinda lost it back there). All these fights feel like a distraction for how boring & convoluted the plot is, how easily you were beat out by Ordinal Scale of all things. It gets worse with the CGI of the ELS. 00 actually has pretty great CGI believe or not, since it has pretty good shading and is well animated. I don't know why, but in this movie it just looks worse. The animation is a little off, but it's mainly because it's overused.
  • Overall, in spite of good action & some decent designs, I can't really call it remarkable. It all feels pointless if action just happens with no drama or suspense in the fight. The magic of well designed machines, tactically planned fights, and emotionally charged drama is now gone.
• Verdict:
  • Before I end things off, I'll give you my 2 cents on the ending, it fucking sucks. Once Setsuna & Tierra smoke weed and see those weird ass images in the ELS’s mother ship, they go to their homeworld and bring a big ass flower. That's enough to stop the ELS from absorbing everything. That's it, THAT'S HOW THE FUCKING MOVIE ENDS? Not only the ending feels out of nowhere, be feels unearned. The only positive thing to come out of this ending is the epilogue. We see Aeolia Schenberg at a younger age talking about how he hates how selfish people are in the world with his buddy and it's honestly a well written scene with great voice acting. Then we cut to a spaceship with a group of people getting ready to explore the next frontier. And then it ends with Setsuna visiting an old Marina. If the movie didn't exist & the epilogue (modified of course) was in S2, it would've been a perfect way to end the series. But we just don't live in that world, don't we.
  • After rewatching this movie for the review, I've rewatched Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale as a palate cleanser. And judging by the amount of time I've mentioned said film in the review, I can confidently say that this is exactly what I expect from a movie following up a show; the story is new while fitting it with the themes of the show, the characters have new roles & arcs, the new characters contribute something to the story, the world building adds something new that adds insight to what came before it, the fights are motivated through drama, and the ending leaves a positive impact on the series. Awakening of the Trailblazer does none of that as the story has plots that don't feel like a Gundam story, the returning characters aren't given anything to do outside of killing metallic slime monsters, the new characters contribute next to nothing to the plot, adds something that felt out of left field, the fights have no weight to them & are there to ward away our boredom, and the ending makes no sense. Even with the context of me being an SAO fan, as a Gundam fan I'll say this, if the Sword Art Online movie is a better job than the Gundam movie, you're doing something very, VERY WRONG.
  • So ya, this movie is as bad as I remembered it. Does it ruin both seasons of Gundam 00? Surprisingly no, not in the slightest. I'll always rewatch both seasons annually and it'll still remain my favorite anime of all time. I'll just treat the movie like how Pacific Rim fans treat uprising, or how Shrek fans treat Shrek the Third. However, there's one thing that I can't deny. This movie was the beginning of an era I would like to call, “The Dark Age of Mecha”.

Yes, the whole idea is called "megasupplementation" and it works. I survived multiple bioattacks from vaccinated humans in the last years with a smaller version of this protocol and regenerated myself.
Divided into cycles for anti-parasitic/anti-fungus/anti-mold interventions, one for bloodflow optimization, one for fighting inflammation, one for general nutrient delivery and one for anti-aging/skin health/rejuvenation and possibly one for enhancing fitness performance + of course some components for defence against vaccinated humans.
Epithalon 5 mg/day (during April - September) or Endoluten 0.5 - 1 mg per day (I prefer Epithalon)
Testosterone (only important for men), around 70 mg per week
If your own testosterone production is still intact enough, you can boost it with Cistanche 500 mg + Tongkat Ali every day. Arimistane 40 - 80 mg per day can also be very worthwhile for estrogen reduction.
There exist also peptides that can repair testosterone production (Bryan Johnson doesn't know this).
Semax 250 mcg - 1 mg/day or every other day (depending on individual response)
Injectable Gluthathione or oral S-Acetyl Gluthathione (> NAC) OR high dose CMAs (Carnitine, NAC, Creatine, etc. research yourself what is a CMA) 1200 - 2400 mg NAC/day 2 - 5 g ALCAday
Vitamin D3 +K2 MK-7 oil softgel capsules 10k IU per day (Maybe some Vitamin K2, but you also get that through grass-fed cow steaks or egg yolks)
At least 2 g Vitamin C complex (!) not ascorbic acid (and best = liposomal) // but the daily optimum dosage is more around 8 - 12 g
Black Garlic extract capsules 500 mg - 2000 mg
1 - 2 g flax seeds (better than fish oil for omega 3-6-9 supply)
Daily 1-2x Adestab tablet (advanced Russian mixture of plant extracts for blood flow/pressure regulation)
Daily 2x Actiman tablet (Russian libido/blood flow mix)
If in Europe: Ecogenetics "Sin Inflamacion" capsules from Spain supplement mix, very good to fight inflammation.
Beef liver tablets (can replace a multi vitamin) or EVEN better the whole cow organ supplement mix from Nutriest or similar sources.
Liposomal vitamin B complex, try to get a lot of Vitamin B1 for brain health and cancer prevention, I take 200 mg per day liposomal.
2.5 - 10 g Colostrum per day (or 100 g if very rich and very active lifestyle)
500 mg DHEA/day (though quite pointless if using Testosterone (applicable for men only))
1000 mg Oleuropein (Olive Leaf Extract) if black garlic extract does not work
1 mg iodine (every 3 days as Lugo's solution)
3 mg+ Boron per day (more important for men) 10 mg Lithium Orotate per day (for mood boost, but more important: for anti-inflammation effects) Zeolith minerals for detox/parasite removal 0.5 - 2 g per day Diatomaceous Earth powder for detox/parasite removal a few gram per day 25 mg Zinc 500 mg - 1 g Magnesium Glycinate/Citrate/L-Threonate/Malate 2 - 4 g Sunflower Lecithin for cellular membranes and brain repair (also better than fish oil) 5 mg Tadalafil per day for bloodflow 1 - 2 g L-Citrulline per day for vasodilation/bloodflow (if required) 100 - 300 mg Aspirin every day (very important, also don't quit it suddenly) 25 - 500 mg Niacin (or Niacinamide) OR 1 g Niacinamide OR 1.5 g NMN/NMNH (if you can afford/get it though actually now in 2024, NR looks better than NMN) PQQ + Q10 high dosages for mitochondrial health 1 - 2 mg Nicotine sublingual a few times per week (after being surrounded by many mRNA biohazards or as prophylaxis) 500 mg - 1g sunflower extract per day against spike protein contaminations Nattokinase 2000 FU per day (kills spike protein contaminations, ideally don't take it together with Aspirin) 50 - 200k IU Serrapeptase per day (or even Lumbrokinase if rich) for anti-spike protein contaminations and general health/removal of waste from bloodstream. the best product here are enteric coated liquid softgel capsules from Vitalzym with systemic enzymes
Pregnenolone 50 - 100 mg 2x per week at night (neuro-steroid/stroke prevention) 500 mg Fisetin per day for longevity Creatine (5 g - add to protein powder) Taurine 5 g - add to protein powder) Lysine (5 g - add to protein powder) Leucine (3 g every 3h to maintain muscle biosynthesis) Glycine (10-50 g per day) (add to protein powder) Collagen peptides of all important types (20 g per day, add to protein powder) D-Ribose (20 g per day for 2 weeks, then continue with 10 g per day, add to protein powder) Inulin Prebiotic (add to protein powder) Hyaluronic Acid high dosage 1-2 g for collagen synthesis increase (add to protein powder) Revifort (Russian Mushroom Complex, every 2 months for 30 days, anti-cancer + liver protection) Cayenne Pepper (anti cancer) Oregano Oil Capsules 2x per day Essentiale Forte Phospholipids (liver + cell membrane repair, do not take if peanut allergy) Amla Powder Arjuna powdetablets (for heart health but obviously right now it's very expensive and in high demand) Kutki powder
Chlorella powder + Spirulina powder (or tablets) for detox and nutrients.
Graviola powder or tablets for cancer prevention IP6 (Inositol hexaphosphate) + normal Inositol megadosages for cancer treatment Indian Neem for detox/blood cleanse as required 1 - 2 g per day (anti-parasitic/viral/bacterial) Methylene Blue for mitochondria health TUDCA 500 - 1500 mg per day (for liver health)

• sublingual/injected Russian peptide bioregulators as required for treatments, especially Crystagen and Vesugen and Ovagen + add other peptides as required for individual optimization + add C60 in extra virgin olive oil or even better: C60 FullerLife Strips for anti aging + for critical disease states: CDS, Gc-MAF/Goleic, Nano Soma (Metadichol), Quinton Marine Bio Plasma, Fucoidan, ISRIB, Hydrogen Peroxide, Spooky2 Rife Machine, Eagle Research Aquacure Browns Gas Machine.
• add hyperbaric oxygen therapy and red light therapy for anti-inflammation and anti-aging/tissue rejuvenation.

As daily whey protein I use "Nitro Tech" from Muscletech, the best alternative in the EU is either from Iconfit or the Prozis zero whey line.

After over a year of writing these reviews, slugging through shows that I had mixed feelings on (except 08th, Unicorn, G Gundam, & X), I've made it to the anime that got me into this franchise. The anime that got me into anime as a whole. I'm talking about the anime that reignited the Mecha boom, Gundam 00. In my Unicorn review, I've mentioned that this and 00 was my favorite anime of all time, and honestly what can I say that hasn't been said before. I can say, “ya this anime is perfect, 20/10” and none of you would question it. Because it's not a far stretch to say this anime is the most influential Mecha series of all time. 00 may have not created militarized giant robots, it's Gundam, those existed forever. But it did popularize the idea of a well coordinated team with giant robots having specific roles in mind. Sorry folks, teens in multi-colored spandex don't use their machines to fight silly looking monsters, in this anime they fight other Mecha, and they're also terrorists. Pacific Rim, Infinite Stratos, Knights and Magic, and basically any Mecha anime involving a team, was shaped by 00. And it helps that the anime is really good, so I'm gonna explain why I love this anime.
​
But 1st a little background, when I was little pre-teen watching the 1st episode, I thought THIS SHIT WAS FUCKED UP. It's also boring, where's the Mecha laser battles & sword fights. Look, don't blame me, I was just a fucking kid, I was in middle school, I was still watching power rangers at that time. Plus I didn't know anyone who knew anything about Gundam, so I didn't bother with the rest of the show for a while (let alone finish ep 1). But then, when summer came around, after watching Justice League Doom & Captain Earth, I thought “y’know what, I like giant robots, like mature stuff, I'm a grown up, so I gave it another shot. Once I got to the 5th episode, it hit me. And since that day, I've been in love with this franchise. So I'm gonna explain why this anime got me into the franchise.

• Plot:
  • Before I give you the synopsis, I gotta talk about the opening scene. This is known as the most iconic opening of all time, and good reason. It begins in a torn down village where a fight is taking place. Rotting bodies laying on the ground, mobile suits get wrecked left to right, child soldiers fighting desperately for their lives, all while a single Enf mobile suit looms over them slaughtering them one by one with a single voice spouting out some redirect about “God’s Holy War”. A single boy running helplessly clinging to life until he's finally cornered. And as he's about to be killed, a light shot out of sky, taking out every invading MS in town. And as the little boy looks into the sky, he sees an angelic figure in the shape of a Gundam, becoming the god that he'll worship for as long as he lives. Now THAT'S how you start an anime.
  • As for the actual story, an armed organization known as Celestial Being in possession of the mobile weapons Gundam, who uses their mechanical superiority to eliminate all conflicts from the world. That one simple premise opens the floodgates to so many great stories. From getting involved with century long conflicts to stopping war from starting, anything involving warfare will be a target by Celestial Being. And the pacing is just on point, they speed up with the action, and then slow down with the character drama, and then speed up, all leading to a final stand and bittersweet ending with the possibility of more stories. It's just so good. My favorite arcs are the space arc against the Human Reform League & the Azadistan arc revolving around the civil unrest. Both of these arcs dive deep into the lore of Anno Domini & goes deep into both Allelujah’s & Setsuna’s character. The story is just really well written. And then there's the animation. For a mid 2000s anime, it looks really good, especially less than 20 years later. Even the CGI animation holds up really well. So far, it's a really great start to the series.
• Characters:
  • It's not a far stretch to say that these are easily the best characters in the anime. Every single character is written in a way that makes their motivations interesting & understandable. From the main group to the civilians, everyone was in top form here. Starting off with the fine people at Celestial Being, we have the boy who started off, Setsuna F. Seie. As the 1st person we see on screen, it's not hard to see why we get invested in his character immediately. He's a distant & stoic boy who bottles up his emotions, with a single goal to become a Gundam himself. The last part may not make sense to everyone, or his personality may turn off some people, but what saves itself is his backstory. Not only do we have the opening scene to consider, we also have more flashbacks towards his past. As a child, he was kidnapped & brainwashed into taking part in doing some messed up stuff “in the name of god”. In Wing, we're told that Heero went through brutal training that led to his distant persona. But that's so vague and we're never given an idea on what he went through, since it was told to us instead of shown. In 00, we clearly see why Setsuna would be like this. He's been through a lot and with a traumatic experience like that, who can blame him for being distant towards people.
  • And the great character writing doesn't stop there, as there's the rest of the ministers to consider. Lockon Stratos is a lot of people’s favorite just for how laid back he is. He's basically the big brother of the group and always tries to be a shoulder to lean on. He may be tough at times and does let his emotions get in the way of his actions, but he's still the most down to earth guy out there.
  • But my favorite has to go to Allelujah Haptism, as he's probably the best written character. He's Gundam’s answer to Jeckle & Haide as he has a dark side that he must suppress at all times. This Two-face persona makes him such an interesting character as in one moment he can show compassion & a good level of humanity. But when Hallelujah takes over, he'll murder the shit out of his enemies and leave their corpses to rot. It's a great contrast that shows us his inner turmoil that he constantly struggles with.
  • The only weak character of the ministers is Tierra Erde. He's not a bad character by any means, but one of the boys has to be last place. He was just so confined to the Ptolemy that we rarely see him interact with the characters outside of CB. But in spite of that, he still has a really solid character arc. He began the series cold & stern with a belief that anything less than perfection is a sign of weakness. But after nearly getting captured, he learns that even he has his limits and accepts them. I also do like how he progressively gets close to both Setsuna & Lockon after learning about their pasts.
  • There's also the rest of the group, Christina Sierra & Lichtendahl Tsery, while not having major character arcs themselves, adds a sense of humanity to the group as they feel the least serious about their work and more about the vibe of the group. That's the opposite case of Lasse Aeon, as he's too dedicated to his work to so any form of emotion and/or form any relationship with his co-workers. Feldt is also serious about her work, but is willing to open up to others, especially towards Lockon.
  • But the best characters in CB outside of the Ministers is without a doubt Ian Vassti & Sumeragi Lee Noriega. Ian is just a funny character because of his short temper & hilarious remarks. I missed it when the mechanics had personality. As for Sumeragi, she's a milky commander, what can I say. But in all seriousness, she has a really deep character as she acts as both the team tactical forecast (the most badass term for a strategist) and as a motherly figure for the team. She comforts them in their time of need & treats them like she's her own kids. I also gotta throw my 2 cents on Aeolia Schenberg before I forget. Despite his lack of screentime & lines, his importance looms all over CB.
  • The only weak CB character I can think of is Dr. Moreno as he only appears in one episode and that's about it. Also, Wang Wu Mei, while having some decent dialogue, doesn't have her role in the plot defined well. It took me a year to learn that she's basically the group’s sugar mama.
  • As for the characters from the other factions, they're filled to the brim with distinct personalities & goals. Starting off with the Union, our starring American Graham Aker steals both the show & our hearts whenever he appears on screen. He just has this grace & charisma to him that hardly any Gundam rivals have. And he also can put his money where his mouth is as a mobile suit pilot as he can keep up with the Gundams with an inferior MS and still give them a hard time. I also do like his relationship with his team, more specifically with Billy Katagiri. Billy as a character has always been interesting to me as not only he has a good back to back relationship with Graham, but also had a relationship with Sumeragi in the past. Howard & Daryl (the black dude voiced by Wolverine, not the cripple) also has a great relationship with their leader. Howard always tries to keep up with him and is the straight man with a calm & collective demeanor. As for Daryl, he's more emotional and very defensive for the captain. The man was about to throw hands with Patrick for nearly insulting him. The last memorable Union member is definitely Professor Ralph Eifman. While he does help the Union with hunting down the Gundams, he has a more calm & rational view towards them. In one scene, he prevents Graham from interfering with one of CB’s interventions involving drugs because he hates drugs that much (makes sense since he’s a college professor and all).
  • Moving into the AEU, where unfortunately Patrick Colasour & eventually Kati Mannequin are the only characters worth talking about. But even so, they're still worth talking about as they steal the show. Especially Patrick Colasour, as he's the 1st one who encounters the one of the Gundams. And let me tell you, this anime used his plot armor & cocky arrogance to great comedic effect. While Kati is a competent commander, she doesn't get expanded upon until S2. However, her rapport with Patrick is pretty funny.
  • Next we got the Human Reform League with Sergei Smirnov & Soma Peries. Sergei is an honorable soldier who's loyal to his country, while Soma is a cold hearted super soldier who'll follow her orders to the letter. This leads to a really cute father & daughter dynamic. Kim is a decent character too as he does respect his troops, but not much else.
  • As for the girls from Azadistan, Marina Ismail & Shirin Bakhtiar, let's just say they feel the same way for them as I do for Reilina, they're there I guess. However there's one character who's delightfully hateable, and that's Ali Al Saachez. This man is a menace to society and takes pride in it. A man you want to get his just desserts.
  • Same thing for the Trinity Team; Johann, Michael, & Nena. Johann is the nonchalant head of the team who justify their mass murder with being “part of the plan”. Michael is both an asshole & a straight up psychopath. And Nena is thirsty for her kuchi to be filled, and she killed an entire family because she was “jealous”.
  • And while we're still on the subject of villains, we got 2 more; Alejandro Corner & Ribbons Allmark. While Alejandro isn't the most compelling villain, it's nice to see him slither his way through any position he wants. Plus him being gay for Ribbons was pretty funny. Speaking of which, Ribbons starts off as just his sexy gay man servant AT FIRST, but then backstabs towards the end, perfectly setting up his role as a main antagonist in the next season. So while not the most interesting villain, they do set up a lot of important moments in the anime.
  • As for the side characters we got Saji Crossroad & Louise Halevy. While a lot of people don't like them because of how little they contribute to the plot (at least in the beginning), I found them really cute and a nice break from the serious moments in the anime. I like the back & forth they had as both have personalities that parallel one another, with Saji being more shy, timid, & easily embarrassed while Louis is more spoiled & whinny. I also really love Kinue as she's a strong-willed journalist who gets deeper into discovering the truth of Aeolia Schenberg’s plan. And I do like how much she cares about her brother Saiji, making her brutal death really upsetting. So the characters are really well defined and diverse.
  • However, I would be an absolute fool to ignore the great voice acting from the cast, especially Brad Swalie as Setsuna & Scott McNeil as Ali Al Saachez. Two VAs that defined my childhood in X-Men Evolution as Nightcrawler & Wolverine…oh and Light & Duo. While beaten by Unicorn in terms of voice acting years later, all the VAs gave it their A-game here.
• World Building:
  • For a timeline set on our own, it could've easily half-assed it and not put too much thought into it. But thank God they did & gave us easily the best time in the franchise. Each side has such great detail that reflects the real world with a sci-fi twist. Stuff like the architecture of famous landmarks gets a more futuristic look like white house or Tokyo tower. But the crowning jewel that isn't based on real life is definitely the Orbital Elevators. These are towering pillars reaching space that provide the Earth with Solar Energy while also serving as easy transport to space and a social hub with shops & restaurants. With lore like that, it's really easy to see why the economic blocks would take advantage of them.
  • Speaking of which, I also love how each faction is formed based on their IRL country.
    • The Union of Solar Energy is based around both North & South America, Australia, and Japan. These are mainly countries that are based on capitalist economies. They will also get involved in other wars if it benefits they're goals.
    • The Advance European Union (AEU) is both the United Kingdom & basically all of Europe. They'll take advantage of any other nation by selling weapons to them. Both the Union & AEU handles Celestial Being in a more defensive sense.
    • As for the Human Reform League, they are mainly composed of communist countries such as China, Russia, and every other Asian country. They have a super soldier program where they kidnap random children and force surgery onto them. They also take a more offensive approach towards CB as they're the ones that nearly capture both Tierra & Allelujah. The latter of which came from there & was the result of his dual personality.
  • While these blocks have easy access to the elevators, Azadistan is another story. They're one of the very last countries that heavily relies on fossil fuels, which have been affected by some rough regulations, since they never participated in the construction of said elevators, and there's a reason for that. Based heavily on Middle Eastern countries, there's the religion aspect that's evocative of the real life connection to their politics. There's 2 sides of the country that's affected by this; the Reformists who want to change their country for the better & getting access to solar energy, and the Conservatives who stick to their religious beliefs & view solar energy as blasphemy towards god. This exact turmoil is what destroyed Krugis with terrorism in the solar wars in the past, how it caused a civil war in the present, and how it'll eventually destroy them in the future.
  • And last but not least, there's Celestial Being. While not too much is known about the organization itself, you can tell they're a very well coordinated team as all of their interventions are well planned out. They're always based on the issues at hand and there's an ambiguity in these missions. One minute they're taking out militaries like it's a musou game, and the other they're saving civilians from terrorists. And all of these cleverly made tactics were made with the super computer, Veda. It's basically the backbone of a lot of the team’s tactics & is responsible for picking the pilots. You can tell by the last half of the series how important Veda is, as the Tierra couldn't access it or when the Gundams shut down instantaneously. It makes the system a vital part of the team. It also makes sense that the meisters were products of the effects of war; Setsuna was brainwashed into guerilla warfare, Lockon’s family were killed in a terrorist attack, & Allelujah was a test subject to the HRL’s super soldier program. This makes CB’s actions, while questionable at times, understandable. Team Trinity on the other hand, are the total extreme where they take out anyone they deemed a threat to the world with no ethical reasoning (let alone an actual plan).
  • So the TL;DR is that Anno Domini has a really deep world that feels so lived in. Its world building can rival that of the Universal Century in terms of lore. My only complaint is that it doesn’t go deep into the colonies, but the lore on Earth is so interesting that I can live it. Overall, the world building is top notch
• Mobile Suits:
  • The last thing this anime really does well is without a doubt the mobile suits. In both design & fight scenes, they went all out here. Of course we have to start off with Celestial Being Gundams (side note: I won’t include the 0 Gundam since it doesn’t play a major role until season 2 in spite of the opening of EP 1).
    • Starting off with the Gundam that made me believe in Kanetake supremacy, the GN-001 Gundam Exia. Easily one of the most iconic Gundam in the franchise, the seven swords live up to its name by slicing & dicing through the Enact and into our hearts. Equipped with a GN Sword that can turn into a gun (beginning my sword/gun kink), 4x GN beam sabers (2x long & 2x short), a long & short GN blade, a bladed shield, and a left hand mount vulcan gun, this thing brings close-combat to a whole other level.
    • The following Gundams follow Takayuki’s design philosophy, starting with the GN-002 Gundam Dynames. This thing excels at long range shooting with its GN Beam Sniper rifle, 2x beam pistols, and GN missiles. It also has shoulder guards that can cover its body & 2x GN beam sabers for close combat.
    • GN-003 Gundam Kyrios on the other hand is more of a hit & run machine that can transform into a fighter mode for more mobility, and I gotta say its fighter form looks slick as hell & its transformation isn't complex at all. As for weapons, it has a GN beam submachine gun, 2x handheld missile pods, a shield that can turn into a bladed claw, & 2x GN beam sabers. Even its fighter mode has weapons, with a missile container & Tail booster with 2x GN beam cannons.
    • And finally we have the thicc curvy mama, the GN-005 Gundam Virtue. This thing is a monster with heavy armor with the weapons to boot. With both the GN Bazooka & 2x GN shoulder beam cannons. And that's not all, it can strip its armor to become the GN-004 Gundam Nadheel for more mobility & use some beam sabers (with some sexy locks). It can use another type of beam rifle.
  • These Gundams are not only well armed, but also well equipped with the powerful GN Solar Reactors. These babies can provide the Gundams an infinite amount of solar energy, block communication signals, & generate a near invincible GN field which can give it some defense against incoming fire & give it atmospheric re-entry capabilities. They also have a special system they use at the end of the season called Trans-Am, which turns them red & makes them 3x faster & stronger than regular mobile suits (see what's going on here). I guess the reason I'm not bothered by its color changing effect is because you can easily make a red effect with some lights without painting the kits IRL.
  • The Gundams are versatile as individuals & as a team. Over the past reviews, I've been talking about how effective their respective Gundam teams are as both individuals & as a single unit. The reason is because this anime completely perfected the concept with Celestial Being. These 4 are well coordinated and have well defined roles.
    • Exia for close combat
    • Dynames for long range sniping
    • Kyrios for hit & run maneuvers
    • and Virtue for heavy support
  • Even by themselves, they can handle themselves as they have defensive measures to hold out.
    • Exia has range weapons
    • both Dynames & Virtue have some beam sabers with the latter being able to strip its armor,
    • and Kyrios having its shield turn into a claw
  • It's kinda funny that the Gundam team concept is like a game of telephone; ZZ started the trend, G gave them more definably roles, Wing popularized it, X & 08th made them more tactical, SEED made them more coordinated (get it), and 00 completely hit out of the park. Same thing applies to the Trinity Team.
    • The GNW-001 Gundam Throne Eins is a long range machine
    • GNW-002 Throne Drei is a support that provides energy to the Eins & provide a stealth field
    • GNW-003 Gundam Throne Zwei copies Berserk's edgelord with a big sword & left arm mounted beam gun, with some drone like fangs that can shoot beams & act as close combat bits.
  • While more violent, Trinity is still a pretty well coordinated team too. They also have GN Drive, but it's vastly different from CB’s GN Drives. For one, the particles are red, giving it a more violent look. There’s also the fact that it has stronger signal blocking capabilities & has a harmful effect to everyone surrounding it. I also like how both Haros are used on both sides. I didn't bring up Haro in any of these reviews because, while I really do like that ball of joy, it never really served much of a purpose outside of fan service. But here it not only serves as a data terminal & can help with repairs, but help the Gundams with certain actions like secondary defenses and weapons control.
  • Moving onto the other sides, outside of the GN-Xs (which are kind meh in my opinion) the other suits are grossly underrated. Which is a shame cuz these are some genuinely good mechanical designs. Starting with the Union, these are easily the best designs out of these factions.
    • The Union Flags are one of, if not, the best transformable mobile suits in the franchise as they are the apex of Anno Domini. Equipped with a linear rifle that has a rapid fire mode & long range fire mode, these things serve as great rifles. It also has a plasma sword that just looks so cool, along with a defensive rod that basically serves as a shield. And its 2 other variants are just as badass
    • The Over Flag has an even stronger rifle that can even knockback a Gundam in a single shot. And then Graham’s Union Flag Custom II, which unfortunately can't transform or even has a rifle, but is powered by a GN Solar Reactor and has a GN Beam saber, letting it go toe to toe with a gundam properly
    • There’s also the Union Realdo, which kinda underrated NGL. It just has the Flag’s armaments with some shoulder missiles. These were designed by Armored Core mechanical designer Hiroshi Fukushi.
  • On to the Human Reform League, they have the case of the “Zeon simping” and have its Tierens looking like Zakus. Even so, these are some cool looking designs. Its equipment is composed of a smoothbore cannon, machine gun, & carbon hand blade. I especially love the variations;
    • the Tieren Space type (including the commander type) with its carbon nets & gel launchers
    • the Tieren High Mobility Type with its carbon bladed smoothbore cannon
    • the Tieren Taozi with about the same weapons but has high mobility as it was made for super soldiers,
    • Tieren Long Range Cannon Type with its head cannon
  • And of these Communist Zakus were designed by good ol Kenji Teraoka. There's also the Anf with its chin machine gun & smoothbore arm cannon. All of these are good, but I can't say the same about the AEU machines. To quote our favorite engineer (RIP Kirby Morrow) “It's just a cheap knockoff of our Union Flag”. And it literally is, same frame, same transformation, same weapons, even the same designer. Even the fucking Hellion were copying the Realdos. Europeans really do like copying us, don't they? The Agrissa looks cool though.
  • The final machines are made with Pseudo GN Drives, the GN-X. Hot take: I'm not a fan of the GN-Xs. The head looks ugly, the X on its chest is silly, it has pretty lame weapons. Alvatore & Alvaaron looked cool though.
  • That's all of the Mobile Suits in 00 (at least for season 1), and if it wasn't obvious by now, these are some top tier designs. Kanetake Ebikawa became my all time favorite mechanical designer along with Takayuki Yanase. These are easily the best Mobile Suit designs in any series.
• Verdict:
  • Gundam 00 is without a doubt the best Gundam series. And it seems a lot of people are on my side. This along with Code Geass & Gurren Lagann single handedly revived the Mecha genre in the 2000’s. These became instant favorites along with many fans, and 00 was no exception. Many consider this the best Gundam series of all time, and with the kind of rep like that, they of course have to make a second season. Was it going to be a good second season? To quote our boy Tobey, “Oh boy ya”.

After over a year of writing these reviews, slugging through shows that I had mixed feelings on (except 08th, Unicorn, G Gundam, & X), I've made it to the anime that got me into this franchise. The anime that got me into anime as a whole. I'm talking about the anime that reignited the Mecha boom, Gundam 00. In my Unicorn review, I've mentioned that this and 00 was my favorite anime of all time, and honestly what can I say that hasn't been said before. I can say, “ya this anime is perfect, 20/10” and none of you would question it. Because it's not a far stretch to say this anime is the most influential Mecha series of all time. 00 may have not created militarized giant robots, it's Gundam, those existed forever. But it did popularize the idea of a well coordinated team with giant robots having specific roles in mind. Sorry folks, teens in multi-colored spandex don't use their machines to fight silly looking monsters, in this anime they fight other Mecha, and they're also terrorists. Pacific Rim, Infinite Stratos, Knights and Magic, and basically any Mecha anime involving a team, was shaped by 00. And it helps that the anime is really good, so I'm gonna explain why I love this anime.
​
But 1st a little background, when I was little pre-teen watching the 1st episode, I thought THIS SHIT WAS FUCKED UP. It's also boring, where's the Mecha laser battles & sword fights. Look, don't blame me, I was just a fucking kid, I was in middle school, I was still watching power rangers at that time. Plus I didn't know anyone who knew anything about Gundam, so I didn't bother with the rest of the show for a while (let alone finish ep 1). But then, when summer came around, after watching Justice League Doom & Captain Earth, I thought “y’know what, I like giant robots, like mature stuff, I'm a grown up, so I gave it another shot. Once I got to the 5th episode, it hit me. And since that day, I've been in love with this franchise. So I'm gonna explain why this anime got me into the franchise.

• Plot:
  • Before I give you the synopsis, I gotta talk about the opening scene. This is known as the most iconic opening of all time, and good reason. It begins in a torn down village where a fight is taking place. Rotting bodies laying on the ground, mobile suits get wrecked left to right, child soldiers fighting desperately for their lives, all while a single Enf mobile suit looms over them slaughtering them one by one with a single voice spouting out some redirect about “God’s Holy War”. A single boy running helplessly clinging to life until he's finally cornered. And as he's about to be killed, a light shot out of sky, taking out every invading MS in town. And as the little boy looks into the sky, he sees an angelic figure in the shape of a Gundam, becoming the god that he'll worship for as long as he lives. Now THAT'S how you start an anime.
  • As for the actual story, an armed organization known as Celestial Being in possession of the mobile weapons Gundam, who uses their mechanical superiority to eliminate all conflicts from the world. That one simple premise opens the floodgates to so many great stories. From getting involved with century long conflicts to stopping war from starting, anything involving warfare will be a target by Celestial Being. And the pacing is just on point, they speed up with the action, and then slow down with the character drama, and then speed up, all leading to a final stand and bittersweet ending with the possibility of more stories. It's just so good. My favorite arcs are the space arc against the Human Reform League & the Azadistan arc revolving around the civil unrest. Both of these arcs dive deep into the lore of Anno Domini & goes deep into both Allelujah’s & Setsuna’s character. The story is just really well written. And then there's the animation. For a mid 2000s anime, it looks really good, especially less than 20 years later. Even the CGI animation holds up really well. So far, it's a really great start to the series.
• Characters:
  • It's not a far stretch to say that these are easily the best characters in the anime. Every single character is written in a way that makes their motivations interesting & understandable. From the main group to the civilians, everyone was in top form here. Starting off with the fine people at Celestial Being, we have the boy who started off, Setsuna F. Seie. As the 1st person we see on screen, it's not hard to see why we get invested in his character immediately. He's a distant & stoic boy who bottles up his emotions, with a single goal to become a Gundam himself. The last part may not make sense to everyone, or his personality may turn off some people, but what saves itself is his backstory. Not only do we have the opening scene to consider, we also have more flashbacks towards his past. As a child, he was kidnapped & brainwashed into taking part in doing some messed up stuff “in the name of god”. In Wing, we're told that Heero went through brutal training that led to his distant persona. But that's so vague and we're never given an idea on what he went through, since it was told to us instead of shown. In 00, we clearly see why Setsuna would be like this. He's been through a lot and with a traumatic experience like that, who can blame him for being distant towards people.
  • And the great character writing doesn't stop there, as there's the rest of the ministers to consider. Lockon Stratos is a lot of people’s favorite just for how laid back he is. He's basically the big brother of the group and always tries to be a shoulder to lean on. He may be tough at times and does let his emotions get in the way of his actions, but he's still the most down to earth guy out there.
  • But my favorite has to go to Allelujah Haptism, as he's probably the best written character. He's Gundam’s answer to Jeckle & Haide as he has a dark side that he must suppress at all times. This Two-face persona makes him such an interesting character as in one moment he can show compassion & a good level of humanity. But when Hallelujah takes over, he'll murder the shit out of his enemies and leave their corpses to rot. It's a great contrast that shows us his inner turmoil that he constantly struggles with.
  • The only weak character of the ministers is Tierra Erde. He's not a bad character by any means, but one of the boys has to be last place. He was just so confined to the Ptolemy that we rarely see him interact with the characters outside of CB. But in spite of that, he still has a really solid character arc. He began the series cold & stern with a belief that anything less than perfection is a sign of weakness. But after nearly getting captured, he learns that even he has his limits and accepts them. I also do like how he progressively gets close to both Setsuna & Lockon after learning about their pasts.
  • There's also the rest of the group, Christina Sierra & Lichtendahl Tsery, while not having major character arcs themselves, adds a sense of humanity to the group as they feel the least serious about their work and more about the vibe of the group. That's the opposite case of Lasse Aeon, as he's too dedicated to his work to so any form of emotion and/or form any relationship with his co-workers. Feldt is also serious about her work, but is willing to open up to others, especially towards Lockon.
  • But the best characters in CB outside of the Ministers is without a doubt Ian Vassti & Sumeragi Lee Noriega. Ian is just a funny character because of his short temper & hilarious remarks. I missed it when the mechanics had personality. As for Sumeragi, she's a milky commander, what can I say. But in all seriousness, she has a really deep character as she acts as both the team tactical forecast (the most badass term for a strategist) and as a motherly figure for the team. She comforts them in their time of need & treats them like she's her own kids. I also gotta throw my 2 cents on Aeolia Schenberg before I forget. Despite his lack of screentime & lines, his importance looms all over CB.
  • The only weak CB character I can think of is Dr. Moreno as he only appears in one episode and that's about it. Also, Wang Wu Mei, while having some decent dialogue, doesn't have her role in the plot defined well. It took me a year to learn that she's basically the group’s sugar mama.
  • As for the characters from the other factions, they're filled to the brim with distinct personalities & goals. Starting off with the Union, our starring American Graham Aker steals both the show & our hearts whenever he appears on screen. He just has this grace & charisma to him that hardly any Gundam rivals have. And he also can put his money where his mouth is as a mobile suit pilot as he can keep up with the Gundams with an inferior MS and still give them a hard time. I also do like his relationship with his team, more specifically with Billy Katagiri. Billy as a character has always been interesting to me as not only he has a good back to back relationship with Graham, but also had a relationship with Sumeragi in the past. Howard & Daryl (the black dude voiced by Wolverine, not the cripple) also has a great relationship with their leader. Howard always tries to keep up with him and is the straight man with a calm & collective demeanor. As for Daryl, he's more emotional and very defensive for the captain. The man was about to throw hands with Patrick for nearly insulting him. The last memorable Union member is definitely Professor Ralph Eifman. While he does help the Union with hunting down the Gundams, he has a more calm & rational view towards them. In one scene, he prevents Graham from interfering with one of CB’s interventions involving drugs because he hates drugs that much (makes sense since he’s a college professor and all).
  • Moving into the AEU, where unfortunately Patrick Colasour & eventually Kati Mannequin are the only characters worth talking about. But even so, they're still worth talking about as they steal the show. Especially Patrick Colasour, as he's the 1st one who encounters the one of the Gundams. And let me tell you, this anime used his plot armor & cocky arrogance to great comedic effect. While Kati is a competent commander, she doesn't get expanded upon until S2. However, her rapport with Patrick is pretty funny.
  • Next we got the Human Reform League with Sergei Smirnov & Soma Peries. Sergei is an honorable soldier who's loyal to his country, while Soma is a cold hearted super soldier who'll follow her orders to the letter. This leads to a really cute father & daughter dynamic. Kim is a decent character too as he does respect his troops, but not much else.
  • As for the girls from Azadistan, Marina Ismail & Shirin Bakhtiar, let's just say they feel the same way for them as I do for Reilina, they're there I guess. However there's one character who's delightfully hateable, and that's Ali Al Saachez. This man is a menace to society and takes pride in it. A man you want to get his just desserts.
  • Same thing for the Trinity Team; Johann, Michael, & Nena. Johann is the nonchalant head of the team who justify their mass murder with being “part of the plan”. Michael is both an asshole & a straight up psychopath. And Nena is thirsty for her kuchi to be filled, and she killed an entire family because she was “jealous”.
  • And while we're still on the subject of villains, we got 2 more; Alejandro Corner & Ribbons Allmark. While Alejandro isn't the most compelling villain, it's nice to see him slither his way through any position he wants. Plus him being gay for Ribbons was pretty funny. Speaking of which, Ribbons starts off as just his sexy gay man servant AT FIRST, but then backstabs towards the end, perfectly setting up his role as a main antagonist in the next season. So while not the most interesting villain, they do set up a lot of important moments in the anime.
  • As for the side characters we got Saji Crossroad & Louise Halevy. While a lot of people don't like them because of how little they contribute to the plot (at least in the beginning), I found them really cute and a nice break from the serious moments in the anime. I like the back & forth they had as both have personalities that parallel one another, with Saji being more shy, timid, & easily embarrassed while Louis is more spoiled & whinny. I also really love Kinue as she's a strong-willed journalist who gets deeper into discovering the truth of Aeolia Schenberg’s plan. And I do like how much she cares about her brother Saiji, making her brutal death really upsetting. So the characters are really well defined and diverse.
  • However, I would be an absolute fool to ignore the great voice acting from the cast, especially Brad Swalie as Setsuna & Scott McNeil as Ali Al Saachez. Two VAs that defined my childhood in X-Men Evolution as Nightcrawler & Wolverine…oh and Light & Duo. While beaten by Unicorn in terms of voice acting years later, all the VAs gave it their A-game here.
• World Building:
  • For a timeline set on our own, it could've easily half-assed it and not put too much thought into it. But thank God they did & gave us easily the best time in the franchise. Each side has such great detail that reflects the real world with a sci-fi twist. Stuff like the architecture of famous landmarks gets a more futuristic look like white house or Tokyo tower. But the crowning jewel that isn't based on real life is definitely the Orbital Elevators. These are towering pillars reaching space that provide the Earth with Solar Energy while also serving as easy transport to space and a social hub with shops & restaurants. With lore like that, it's really easy to see why the economic blocks would take advantage of them.
  • Speaking of which, I also love how each faction is formed based on their IRL country.
    • The Union of Solar Energy is based around both North & South America, Australia, and Japan. These are mainly countries that are based on capitalist economies. They will also get involved in other wars if it benefits they're goals.
    • The Advance European Union (AEU) is both the United Kingdom & basically all of Europe. They'll take advantage of any other nation by selling weapons to them. Both the Union & AEU handles Celestial Being in a more defensive sense.
    • As for the Human Reform League, they are mainly composed of communist countries such as China, Russia, and every other Asian country. They have a super soldier program where they kidnap random children and force surgery onto them. They also take a more offensive approach towards CB as they're the ones that nearly capture both Tierra & Allelujah. The latter of which came from there & was the result of his dual personality.
  • While these blocks have easy access to the elevators, Azadistan is another story. They're one of the very last countries that heavily relies on fossil fuels, which have been affected by some rough regulations, since they never participated in the construction of said elevators, and there's a reason for that. Based heavily on Middle Eastern countries, there's the religion aspect that's evocative of the real life connection to their politics. There's 2 sides of the country that's affected by this; the Reformists who want to change their country for the better & getting access to solar energy, and the Conservatives who stick to their religious beliefs & view solar energy as blasphemy towards god. This exact turmoil is what destroyed Krugis with terrorism in the solar wars in the past, how it caused a civil war in the present, and how it'll eventually destroy them in the future.
  • And last but not least, there's Celestial Being. While not too much is known about the organization itself, you can tell they're a very well coordinated team as all of their interventions are well planned out. They're always based on the issues at hand and there's an ambiguity in these missions. One minute they're taking out militaries like it's a musou game, and the other they're saving civilians from terrorists. And all of these cleverly made tactics were made with the super computer, Veda. It's basically the backbone of a lot of the team’s tactics & is responsible for picking the pilots. You can tell by the last half of the series how important Veda is, as the Tierra couldn't access it or when the Gundams shut down instantaneously. It makes the system a vital part of the team. It also makes sense that the meisters were products of the effects of war; Setsuna was brainwashed into guerilla warfare, Lockon’s family were killed in a terrorist attack, & Allelujah was a test subject to the HRL’s super soldier program. This makes CB’s actions, while questionable at times, understandable. Team Trinity on the other hand, are the total extreme where they take out anyone they deemed a threat to the world with no ethical reasoning (let alone an actual plan).
  • So the TL;DR is that Anno Domini has a really deep world that feels so lived in. Its world building can rival that of the Universal Century in terms of lore. My only complaint is that it doesn’t go deep into the colonies, but the lore on Earth is so interesting that I can live it. Overall, the world building is top notch
• Mobile Suits:
  • The last thing this anime really does well is without a doubt the mobile suits. In both design & fight scenes, they went all out here. Of course we have to start off with Celestial Being Gundams (side note: I won’t include the 0 Gundam since it doesn’t play a major role until season 2 in spite of the opening of EP 1).
    • Starting off with the Gundam that made me believe in Kanetake supremacy, the GN-001 Gundam Exia. Easily one of the most iconic Gundam in the franchise, the seven swords live up to its name by slicing & dicing through the Enact and into our hearts. Equipped with a GN Sword that can turn into a gun (beginning my sword/gun kink), 4x GN beam sabers (2x long & 2x short), a long & short GN blade, a bladed shield, and a left hand mount vulcan gun, this thing brings close-combat to a whole other level.
    • The following Gundams follow Takayuki’s design philosophy, starting with the GN-002 Gundam Dynames. This thing excels at long range shooting with its GN Beam Sniper rifle, 2x beam pistols, and GN missiles. It also has shoulder guards that can cover its body & 2x GN beam sabers for close combat.
    • GN-003 Gundam Kyrios on the other hand is more of a hit & run machine that can transform into a fighter mode for more mobility, and I gotta say its fighter form looks slick as hell & its transformation isn't complex at all. As for weapons, it has a GN beam submachine gun, 2x handheld missile pods, a shield that can turn into a bladed claw, & 2x GN beam sabers. Even its fighter mode has weapons, with a missile container & Tail booster with 2x GN beam cannons.
    • And finally we have the thicc curvy mama, the GN-005 Gundam Virtue. This thing is a monster with heavy armor with the weapons to boot. With both the GN Bazooka & 2x GN shoulder beam cannons. And that's not all, it can strip its armor to become the GN-004 Gundam Nadheel for more mobility & use some beam sabers (with some sexy locks). It can use another type of beam rifle.
  • These Gundams are not only well armed, but also well equipped with the powerful GN Solar Reactors. These babies can provide the Gundams an infinite amount of solar energy, block communication signals, & generate a near invincible GN field which can give it some defense against incoming fire & give it atmospheric re-entry capabilities. They also have a special system they use at the end of the season called Trans-Am, which turns them red & makes them 3x faster & stronger than regular mobile suits (see what's going on here). I guess the reason I'm not bothered by its color changing effect is because you can easily make a red effect with some lights without painting the kits IRL.
  • The Gundams are versatile as individuals & as a team. Over the past reviews, I've been talking about how effective their respective Gundam teams are as both individuals & as a single unit. The reason is because this anime completely perfected the concept with Celestial Being. These 4 are well coordinated and have well defined roles.
    • Exia for close combat
    • Dynames for long range sniping
    • Kyrios for hit & run maneuvers
    • and Virtue for heavy support
  • Even by themselves, they can handle themselves as they have defensive measures to hold out.
    • Exia has range weapons
    • both Dynames & Virtue have some beam sabers with the latter being able to strip its armor,
    • and Kyrios having its shield turn into a claw
  • It's kinda funny that the Gundam team concept is like a game of telephone; ZZ started the trend, G gave them more definably roles, Wing popularized it, X & 08th made them more tactical, SEED made them more coordinated (get it), and 00 completely hit out of the park. Same thing applies to the Trinity Team.
    • The GNW-001 Gundam Throne Eins is a long range machine
    • GNW-002 Throne Drei is a support that provides energy to the Eins & provide a stealth field
    • GNW-003 Gundam Throne Zwei copies Berserk's edgelord with a big sword & left arm mounted beam gun, with some drone like fangs that can shoot beams & act as close combat bits.
  • While more violent, Trinity is still a pretty well coordinated team too. They also have GN Drive, but it's vastly different from CB’s GN Drives. For one, the particles are red, giving it a more violent look. There’s also the fact that it has stronger signal blocking capabilities & has a harmful effect to everyone surrounding it. I also like how both Haros are used on both sides. I didn't bring up Haro in any of these reviews because, while I really do like that ball of joy, it never really served much of a purpose outside of fan service. But here it not only serves as a data terminal & can help with repairs, but help the Gundams with certain actions like secondary defenses and weapons control.
  • Moving onto the other sides, outside of the GN-Xs (which are kind meh in my opinion) the other suits are grossly underrated. Which is a shame cuz these are some genuinely good mechanical designs. Starting with the Union, these are easily the best designs out of these factions.
    • The Union Flags are one of, if not, the best transformable mobile suits in the franchise as they are the apex of Anno Domini. Equipped with a linear rifle that has a rapid fire mode & long range fire mode, these things serve as great rifles. It also has a plasma sword that just looks so cool, along with a defensive rod that basically serves as a shield. And its 2 other variants are just as badass
    • The Over Flag has an even stronger rifle that can even knockback a Gundam in a single shot. And then Graham’s Union Flag Custom II, which unfortunately can't transform or even has a rifle, but is powered by a GN Solar Reactor and has a GN Beam saber, letting it go toe to toe with a gundam properly
    • There’s also the Union Realdo, which kinda underrated NGL. It just has the Flag’s armaments with some shoulder missiles. These were designed by Armored Core mechanical designer Hiroshi Fukushi.
  • On to the Human Reform League, they have the case of the “Zeon simping” and have its Tierens looking like Zakus. Even so, these are some cool looking designs. Its equipment is composed of a smoothbore cannon, machine gun, & carbon hand blade. I especially love the variations;
    • the Tieren Space type (including the commander type) with its carbon nets & gel launchers
    • the Tieren High Mobility Type with its carbon bladed smoothbore cannon
    • the Tieren Taozi with about the same weapons but has high mobility as it was made for super soldiers,
    • Tieren Long Range Cannon Type with its head cannon
  • And of these Communist Zakus were designed by good ol Kenji Teraoka. There's also the Anf with its chin machine gun & smoothbore arm cannon. All of these are good, but I can't say the same about the AEU machines. To quote our favorite engineer (RIP Kirby Morrow) “It's just a cheap knockoff of our Union Flag”. And it literally is, same frame, same transformation, same weapons, even the same designer. Even the fucking Hellion were copying the Realdos. Europeans really do like copying us, don't they? The Agrissa looks cool though.
  • The final machines are made with Pseudo GN Drives, the GN-X. Hot take: I'm not a fan of the GN-Xs. The head looks ugly, the X on its chest is silly, it has pretty lame weapons. Alvatore & Alvaaron looked cool though.
  • That's all of the Mobile Suits in 00 (at least for season 1), and if it wasn't obvious by now, these are some top tier designs. Kanetake Ebikawa became my all time favorite mechanical designer along with Takayuki Yanase. These are easily the best Mobile Suit designs in any series.
• Verdict:
  • Gundam 00 is without a doubt the best Gundam series. And it seems a lot of people are on my side. This along with Code Geass & Gurren Lagann single handedly revived the Mecha genre in the 2000’s. These became instant favorites along with many fans, and 00 was no exception. Many consider this the best Gundam series of all time, and with the kind of rep like that, they of course have to make a second season. Was it going to be a good second season? To quote our boy Tobey, “Oh boy ya”.

1. The Doors - "Strange Days" (1967)
2. Pink Floyd - "Candy And A Current Bun", "See Emily Play", "Astronomy Domine", "Chapter 24" and "Scream Thy Last Scream" (1967)
3. The Who - "Armenia City In The Sky" (1967)
4. The Nazz - "Open My Eyes" and "When I Get My Plane" (1968)
5. July - "Dandelion Seeds" and "The Way" (1968) (honestly their whole album deserves to be on this list, but these two are the most out there of the bunch).
6. The Five Day Week Straw People - "Five Day Week Straw People" and "Sunday Morning" (1968)
7. Tomorrow - "My White Bicycle", "Real Life Permanent Dream", "Revolution" (phased version), and "Hallucinations" (1968)
8. Status Quo - "Black Veils Of Melancholy", When My Mind Is Not Live", "Elizabeth Dreams", "Technicolour Dreams", "Sunny Cellophane Skies", and "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" (1968)
9. Jason Crest - "Turquoise Tandem Cycle", "Patricia's Dream" (1968), "Black Mass" (1969), and "Teagarden Lane" (1968 or 9)
10. Five Day Rain - "Too Much Of Nothing", "Leave It At That", "Reason Why", "Marie's A Woman", and "Rough Cut Marmalade" (1970)
11. Tommy James & The Shondells - "Crimson & Clover" and "I'm A Tangerine" (1968)
12. The Smoke - "My Friend Jack" and "High In A Room" (1967)
13. Small Faces - "Itchycoo Park", "Green Circles" (1967), "Odgen's Nut Gone Flake" (1968)
14. Caleb Quaye - "Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad" and "A Woman Of Distinction" (1967)
15. The Beatles - "Rain", "I'm Only Sleeping", "Love You To", "She Said, She Said", "Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966), "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "Within You, Without You", "A Day In The Life", "Blue Jay Way", "I Am The Walrus", "Baby Your A Rich Man" (1967), "The Inner Light" (1968), "Only A Northern Song", and "It's All Too Much" (1969)
16. The Monkees - "Porpoise Song" (1968)
17. Lee Michaels - "Another One", "Street Car", "Carnival Of Life" and "Why" (1968)
18. The Marmalade - "I See The Rain" (1968)
19. Cream - "World Of Pain", "Dance The Night Away", "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" (1967), and "White Room" (1968)
20. The Deviants - "I'm Coming Home", "Nothing Man", "Deviation Street", "Somewhere To Go", "Jamie's Song", "Last Man" (1968), and "Metamorphosis Explosion" (1969)
21. The Attack - "Colour Of My Mind" (1967), "Freedom For You", "Strange House", and "Now The Sun Shines" (1968)
22. Dantalian's Chariot - "Madman Running Through The Fields", "World War Three", "This Island", and "Soma" (1967)
23. Kaleidoscope (UK) - "Dive Into Yesterday", "The Murder Of Lewis Tollani", "Flight From Ashiya", "(Further Reflections) In The Room Of Percussion (1967), "Faintly Blowing" and "Music" (1969)
24. Eire Apparent - "The Clown", "Morning Glory", "Magic Carpet" (1969)
25. Gun - "Take Off" (1968), and "Dreams and Screams" (1969)
26. Tintern Abbey - "My Prayer", "Let The Wind Blow", "Busy Bee", "Vacuum Cleaner" (1967), "Hookah", "Dream", "Life Goes By", and "Witchcraft" (1968)
27. Magic Mixture - "Living On A Hill" and "Moonbeams" (1968)
28. Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera - "Talk Of The Devil" (1967) and "Air" (1968)
29. The Byrds - "Eight Miles High" (1966)
30. Steppenwolf - "Desperation" (1968)
31. Blue Cheer - "Peace Of Mind" (1969)
32. The Litter - "Kaleidoscope" (1968)
33. Aorta - "Catalyptic" and "Strange" (1969)
34. The Action - "Brain" (1967)
35. The Blues Magoos - "Scarecrow's Love Affair" (1968)
36. The Other Half - "Morning Fire" (1968)
37. Les Fleur De Lys - "Gone With The Luminous Nose" (1968)
38. Blood, Sweat & Tears - "Meagen's Gypsy Eyes" (1968)
39. Please - "Strange Ways" (1968)
40. Them - "Black Widow Spider" (1968)
41. Ohio Express - "Turn To Straw" (1968)
42. The Factory - "Path Through The Forest" (1968) and "Try A Little Sunshine" (1969)
43. Hat and Tie - "Finding It Rough" (1967)
44. Forever Amber - "The Dreamer Flies Back" (1969)
45. Almond Lettuce - "Magic Circle" (1969)
46. The Mirage - "Lazy Man" (Alternative Version) and "Ebenezer Beaver" (1967)
47. The Accent - "Red Sky At Night" (1967)
48. Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup - "Jabberwock" (1968)
49. West Coast Consortium - "Colour Sergeant Lillywhite" (1968)
50. The Unfolding - "Prana" (1967)
51. The House Of Nimrod - "Slightly-Delic" (1967)
52. Blossom Toes - "Look At Me I'm You" and "You" (1967)
53. David - "Light Of Your Mind" (1969)
54. Tales Of Justine - "Sitting On A Bluestone" (1968)
55. Rhubarb Rhubarb - "Rainmaker" (1968)
56. Syd Barrett - "No Good Trying" and "No Man's Land" (1970)
57. The Hollies - "Maker" (1967)
58. The Laurels - "Rainmaker" (1969)
59. The Tickle - "Subway", "Good Evening", and "Rose Coloured Glasses" (1967)
60. The Koobas - "Barricades" (1969)
61. Jigsaw - Tumblin' (1968)
62. The Pretty Things - "Bracelets Of Fingers" (1968)
63. The Rolling Stones - "Gomper" (1967)
64. The Cape Kennedy Construction Company - "Armageddon" (1967)
65. The Open Mind - "Magic Potion" and "Cast A Spell" (1969)
66. The Rats - The Rise And Fall Of Bernie Gripplestone (1967)
67. The Bee Gees - "Jumbo" (1967) and "Deeply Deeply, Me" (1968)
68. Paradox - "What's The Rush Dillbury?" (1968)
69. The U (Don't) Know Who - "Now And Again Rebecca" (1968)
70. Moonshine - Garden Of Men (1969)
71. The Velvet Underground - Heroin (1967)
72. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Third Stone From The Sun" and "Are You Experienced?" (1967)
73. Ultimate Spinach - "Mind Flowers" (1968)
74. The Moon - "I Must Be Dreaming" (1968)
75. Fat Matress - "Petrol Pump Assistant" (1969)
76. Savage Resurrection - "Tahitian Melody" (1968)
77. Blonde On Blonde - "All Day, All Night" (1969)
78. Flower Travellin' Band - "Dhoop" (1970)
79. The Idle Race - "Impostors Of Life's Magazine" (1968) and "Hurry Up John" (1969)
80. The Electric Prunes - "I Had To Much To Dream (Last Night) (1967)
81. Bulldog Breed - "Halo In My Hair", "Portcullis Gate" (1969), "Paper Man", "I Flew", "Austin Osmanspare" (1970)
82. Young Flowers - "Like Birds" (1967)
83. Dragonfly - "Enjoy Yourself" (1968)
84. SRC - "Black Sheep", "Daystar", "Exile" (1968)
85. Orphan Egg - "Falling" (1968)
86. Andromeda - "The Day Of The Change" (1969)
87. The Golden Dawn - "This Way Please" (1968)
88. The Deep - "Trip #76" (1966)
89. Bow Street Runners - "Electric Star" (1970)
90. Virgin Sleep - "Secret" (1968)
91. The World Of Oz - "Like A Tear" (1969)
92. The Eyes - "When The Night Falls" (1965)
93. The Master's Apprentices - "Wars Or The Hands Of Time" (1967)
94. Les Goths - "Turn Over" and "Out Of The Sun" (1968)
95. Donovan - "Three King Fishers" (1966)
96. Barclay James Harvest - "Pools Of Blue" (Advision Studios Version) (1968)
97. Wheels Of Time - "1984" (1967)
98. The Amazing Friendly Apple - "Magician" (1969)
99. Freedom - "Trying To Get A Glimpse Of You" (1968)
100. The Moles - "We Are The Moles (Part 1)" (1968)
101. Grateful Dead - "Morning Dew" (1967), "That's It For The Other One", "Dark Star", "Born Cross-Eyed" (1968), "What's Become Of The Baby", "China Cat Sunflower" (1969)
102. Jefferson Airplane - "The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil", "Rejoyce", "Spare Chaynge" (1967), "Star Track", "Share A Little Joke", "Greasy Heart", "The House At Pooneil Corners" (1968)
103. Quicksilver Messenger Service - "The Fool" (1968), "Joseph's Coat" (1969), and "Fresh Air" (1970)
104. Country Joe & The Fish - "Death Sound", "Section 43", "Bass Strings", and "Grace" (1967)
105. Moby Grape - "Bitter Wind" and "Sweet Ride (Never Again)" (1967), "What's To Choose" (1968)
106. It's A Beautiful Day - "Wasted Union Blues" (1969)
107. The Chocolate Watchband - "Dark Side Of The Mushroom" (1967), "Voyage Of The Trieste", "In The Past", "Inner Mystique", and "Medication" (1968)
108. The 13th Floor Elevators - "Rose And The Thorn" and "May The Circle Remain Unbroken" (1968)
109. The Seeds - "Travel With Your Mind" (1967)
110. The Stooges - "1969" (1969)
111. Iron Butterfly - "Filled With Fear" (1969)
112. Tim Buckley - "Song Of A Magician" (1966)

I know everyone's opinion of what makes psychedelic rock "psychedelic" is different, but what I consider to be psychedelic is reverb, tremelo, wah-wah, fuzz, feedback, sometimes ambience, far eastern instruments/feel and studio effects on vocals/instruments such as tape loops, backwards effects, phasing, echoes and distortion on vocals and or instruments which all these songs have.

Today's anniversaries are:
2001

• Daft Punk - Discovery (Dance)

2007

• Hiromi's Sonic Bloom - Time Control (jazz fusion)
  
• Neal Morse - Sōla scrīptūra (progressive rock)
  

2008

• Kamakazi - Tirer le meilleur du pire (pop rock, punk, kamakazi, montréal, pop rock, slam disques, Montréal)

2014

• Babymetal - Babymetal (Metal)
  
• Unjustly Labeled - Grotesque (drone metal)
  

2015

• God Mother - Blodfors (death metal, grindcore, hardcore, metal, punk, power violence, punk hardcore, Stockholm)
  
• Odradek - Homúnculo, Volume 3 (progressive rock, punk, alternative rock, experimental rock, math rock, post-rock, progressive rock, Piracicaba)
  
• Omega Diatribe - Abstract Ritual (djent, extreme metal, groove, groove metal, math metal, metal, modern metal, Hungary)
  

2016

• Altarage - Nihl (death metal, doom, drone, heavy metal, industrial, metal, avant-garde, blackened death metal, noise, voidgaze, Bilbao)
  
• Carpadium - What You Need (metal, rock, gainesville, jacksonville, math rock, prog, Gainesville) Read our review.
  
• Devotion - Words and Crystals (Metal) Read our review.
  
• Finnegan Shanahan - The Two Halves (experimental, new classical, avant-prog, classical, film score, new amsterdam records, sound art, New York)
  
• Ghost Horizon - Astral Possession (black metal, metal, post black metal, atmospheric, Phoenix) Read our review.
  
• Love Sex Machine - Asexual Anger (doom, metal, sludge, lovesexmachine, Lille) Read our review.
  
• Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä (metal, psychedelic black metal, Finland)
  
• Redemption - The Art of Loss (metal, progressive metal, Los Angeles)
  
• Spheron - A Clockwork Universe (metal, death metal, technical death metal, Ludwigshafen) Read our review.
  
• Voïvod - Post Society (Pop, Rock, Hard Rock, Metal)
  
• Wake - Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow (black metal, death, death metal, metal, deathgrind, doom, grindcore, hardcore, post-hardcore, powerviolence, Calgary) Read our review.
  

2017

• Ayden - Identity (alternative, progressive rock, rock, ambient rock, instrumental rock, post-rock, Poznań)
  
• Goire Garaat - The Eternal Rest (black metal, death metal, metal, atmouspheric, progressive, progressive metal, United Kingdom)
  
• Huszar - Los nuevos absolutos : Acto segundo (atmospheric black metal, black metal, blackgaze, metal, post black metal, blackwave, dreampop, new_wave, Buenos Aires)
  
• Nooumena - Controlled Freaks (experimental, ambient, artrock, experimental, progressive, France)
  
• The Ancient Mental - Philomath (djent, experimental, hong kong, metal, cinematic, classical, fusion, instrumentals, post-rock, progressive metal, Hong Kong)
  
• Whitedeath - Ⅹ (metal, self produced, noise, post-metal, progressive, stoner, Sofia)
  

2018

• Euclid C-Finder - A Standard Basis for the Set of All Discontent (punk, grindcore, hardcore, mathcore, metal, tech grind, Baltimore)
  
• Omar - *3 (jazz, omar, capsul collectif, electric., free jazz, quartet, Tours) Read our review.
  
• Terrestre - Montuhotep (rock, instrumental, postmetal, postrock, Madrid)
  

2019

• Amina Figarova - Road to the Sun (Jazz)
  
• Trevor Watts & Stephen Grew - Let It Be: Live in Liverpool (jazz, le it be, liverpool, stephen grew, trevor watts, Warsaw)
  

2020

• Big Bernie - I (math rock)
  
• Cyril Meysson - Hinterland (ambient)
  
• Embrace the Maddness - The Hellwish Chronicles, Chapter 2: Undawning Phantasm (progressive death metal)
  
• Fer Sher - Step Siblings (alternative rock, math rock)
  
• Goblin Hovel - The Comedy of Forms, the Tragedy of Function (experimental folk)
  
• Machine Girl - U-Void Synthesizer (experimental electro, hardcore)
  
• The Lone Tree in the Woods that Killed Us All - Untethered (progressive rock)
  

2021

• ⅯⅭⅯⅩⅢ - ⅯⅭⅯⅩⅢ (stoner rock)
  
• Anastasia Feruleva & Frank van de Laar - L'Esprit du temps (contemporary classical)
  
• Angelica Olstad - Transmute (contemporary classical)
  
• Architects - For Those that Wish to Exist (metalcore)
  
• Black Sheep Wall - Songs for the Enamel Queen (sludge metal)
  
• Calle Neumann, Ketil Gutvik, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and Paal Nilssen-Love - New Dance (free jazz)
  
• Colin Cannon - McGolrick (progressive rock)
  
• Couch - Couch (soul, pop)
  
• Five the Hierophant - Through Aureate Void (avant-garde doom metal)
  
• Hatch - Symphony (modern jazz)
  
• Inner Space - Echoes (post-hardcore)
  
• Interiors - Conduit Vista (progressive metal)
  
• John Zorn - Heaven and Earth Magick (avant-garde jazz)
  
• Julien Baker - Little Oblivions (indie folk)
  
• Karmanjakah - A Book about Itself (progressive metal, nu prog)
  
• King Gizard and the Lizard Wizard - Explorations into Microtonal Tunings, Volume 3: LW (psychedelic rock)
  
• Lastelle - Delicate (post-hardcore)
  
• Laura Cannell & Kate Ellis - These Feral Lands: February Sounds (contemporary classical)
  
• Long Distance Calling - Ghost (post-rock)
  
• Mister Ott - In the Flow (Ethiojazz)
  
• Moop - Ostara (jazzcore)
  
• More Soma - Hondendodendans (avant-garde jazz, free improvisation)
  
• Mosterdgas Duo - Levos Demons (experimental jazz)
  
• Noble Déchet - Ménestrel Déviance (black metal, folk)
  
• Odradek Room - Painted Mind (avant-garde doom metal)
  
• Passepartout Duo - Epigrams (ambient electro)
  
• Profond Barathre - Tinnitus (blackened doom metal)
  
• Pulses - Speak Less (post-hardcore)
  
• Richard Cheese - Big Cheese Energy (jazz, lounge)
  
• Saar & the Random Monsters - Split (post-rock, post-hardcore)
  
• Signals of Bedlam - Liar's Intuition (progressive rock)
  
• Theoretical Planets - Long Term Goals (avant-garde jazz)
  
• Thumbscrew - Never Is Enough (avant-garde jazz)
  
• Volvopenta - Simulacrum (post-rock)
  
• 四神 (Shijin) - Theory of Everything (avant-garde jazz)
  
• 苦しみ (Kurushimi) - Chaos Remains (progressive metal, jazzcore)
  

2022

• Blameful Isles - Chimerical Ⅱ (electro-jazz)
  
• Maxime Even - The Rite (progressive metal)
  

2023

• Deathtrippa - SZN (cybergrind)

All opinions are my own, but feel free to tell me any changes you'd have made.

So - first off just in case anyone is confused- this is about the REAL LIFE 2024 Spring Nationals that just passed (January 4th to January 8th). While it doesn't directly relate to Haikyuu I know some people are like me and got into Volleyball due to the anime and would enjoy casually knowing more about the real life Japanese High School Volleyball scene. This will be a long post, discussing the entire tournament, notable players (at least that I know of) and obviously the results, and award winners. Strap in. https://www.reddit.com/haikyuu/comments/18wn792/the_2024_spring_nationals_starts_in_two_days/ - Previous Post discussing notable matches, teams and players.
January 4th - First round (no seeded teams) - will skip some matches that werent particularly notable (just show their score)

• Takagawa High School (Yamaguchi) vs Seijo (Aichi) This match was a crazy draw for a first round, considering both these schools are quite strong. Takagawa was led by their 186cm Ace and Captain Ryoya Kadota - who led them to win the National Athletics Meet (Nationals between regions not teams) representing Yamaguchi Prefect. Seijo was led by Akuri Hara, setter and captain, who represented Japan at the youth level and is considered the number 1 setter of his generation (year). This school is also famous for being Yuki Ishikawa's alma mater where he won back-to-back triple crowns (Inter-high, National Athletic Meet, Spring Nationals). Takagawa won the match 2 sets to 1 (25-19, 22-25, 25-18).
• Yamagata Chuo (Yamagata) vs Omura Kogyo (Nagasaki) Omura Kogyo, led by top 5 ace Yuta Doi (185 cm tall), beat Yamagata Chuo in straight sets (18-25, 15-25)
• Shoyo (Osaka) vs Tsuchiura Nihon (Ibaraki) Another big match for a first round. Shoyo were Inter-High Semi-finalists, led by Kaio Koyama their 184cm Opposite Ace (like Ushijima). Tsuchiura Nihon is a powerhouse school led by their 190cm tall Middle Blocker Rosenmark Yukina Junior. Both the noted players were part of the Dream Team selection which selected the best youth volleyball players for a training programme. Shoyo won the match in straight sets (25-21, 25-23) with Rosenmark serving the ball out to lose the game.
• Toa High School (Tokyo no.2) vs Tokyo Gakan Niigata (Niigata) Tokyo Gakan Niigata won 1-2 (25-22, 18-25, 14-25)
• Okaya Kogyo (Nagano) vs Omono River (Akita) Okaya Kogyo defeated powerhouse team Matsumoto Kokusai led by top 3 Ace and Captain Kodai Tokudome (190 cm) to make nationals. They won in straight sets (25-19, 25-12)
• Hamamatsu Shugakusha (Shizuoka) vs Sotoku (Hiroshima) Hamamatsu are basically a real life Karasuno. This team, made up of a lot of first years, managed to beat Serei Christopher, a powerhouse, led by top 3 ace Shunta Ono (185 cm) to make nationals for the first time EVER. Their second year Outside Hitter (Wing Spiker) Akira Ogiya (184cm) was particularly notable. They beat Sutoko (regular) in straight sets (31-29, 25-21)
• Tottori Chuo Ikuei (Tottori) vs Komazawa Otaka (Tokyo venue spot) Komazawa won in straight sets (20-25, 20-25)
• Tokai University Sagami (Kanagawa) vs Municipal Amagasaki (Hyogo) Municipal Amagaski are Hyogo's powerhouse and regulars at nationals. They won the game in straight sets (19-25, 18-25)
• Kochi (Kochi) vs Science University (Hokkaido) Kochi won in straight sets. (25-17, 25-22)
• Hirosaki Engineering (Aomori) vs Kaichi (Wakayama) Kaichi, led by third year, top 5 Ace Kai Cousins (185cm) won in straight sets (14-25, 27-29)
• Tokushima Science (Tokushima) vs Ashikaga Otsuke (Tochigi) (18-25, 21-25) to Ashikaga.
• Tohoku (Miyagi) vs Takaoka Daiichi (Toyama) The school which Shiratorizawa's campus was modeled after, Tohoku, led by their third year ace and captain Andy Sakamoto (193cm) won in straight sets. (25-19, 31-29) Fun fact, Tohoku came into this torunament with the tallest average height.
• Rakunan (Kyoto) vs Nitta (Ehime) Rakunan is a Kyoto powerhouse and made Spring Nationals for the first time in 4 years, after beating rivals Higashiyama (inter high Semi-finalists) led by Top 3 Ace Hiroki Bito (187 cm). Rakunan had a double ace strategy utilizing the offensive power of their two hitters, Nakagami (Second year, 190cm) and Kusano (Third Year, 188cm). They won in straight sets (25-17, 25-18)
• Omi (Shiga) vs Prefectural Gifu Commercial (Gifu) (25-21, 34-32) to Omi.
• Takamatsu Crafts (Kagawa) vs Miyakonjo Engineering (Miyazaki) (17-25, 24-26) to Miyakonjo.
• Nishihara (Okinawa) vs Komatsu Otani (Ishikawa) (22-25, 25-18, 25-22) to Nishihara.
• Matsusakako (Mie) vs Japan Airlines (Yamanashi) (25-19, 20-25, 17-25) to Japan Airlines.
• Hanamaki East (Iwate) vs Seifu (Osaka no.2) (15-25, 17-25) to Seifu
• Higashi Fukuoka (Fukuoka) vs Shochi Fukaya (Saitama) Probably the most anticipated match of the first round. Higashi Fukuoka are a national powerhouse, not just a prefectural powerhouse, but regular title contenders for Nationals. This year they were strong, led by captain and ace Ota Yoshihara, who also was youth captain and setter for the U18 squad that won gold in the u18 AVC Asian Volleyball Championships in 2022. They went up against Shochi Fukaya, a tournament dark horse, led by ace and captain Daiki Shirano (188cm, max reach of 147cm!!) who some considered to be the secret Number one Ace of his generation. The match was tense and went to full sets where Shochi Fukaya and Shirano won (27-29, 26-24, 23-25).

January 5th - Second Round (Seeded Teams (Sundai Gakuen, Chinzei, Narashino, Fukui Institute, Tokai University Sopparo, Konko, Oita South, Kawasaki Tachibana, Koriyama Kita, Maebashi Commercial, Sendai Shoko, Matsueko) join the fray

• Fukui Institute (Fukui) vs Komazawa Otaka (Tokyo Venue) Fukui (Interhigh Semi-finalists) won in straight sets (25-19, 25-18) led by their Ace and Captain Osei Tsutsumi (189 cm).
• Takagawa High School (Yamaguchi) vs Okaya Kogyo (Nagano) Tense match, but Takagawa pulled through in full sets. (25-23, 19-25, 25-21)
• Tokyo Gakan Niigata (Niigata) vs Kochi (Kochi) (25-14, 25-21) to Tokyo Gakan Niigata
• Omura Kogyo (Nagasaki) vs Rakunan (Kyoto) A big second round match, as top 5 ace Yuta Doi faces off against Rakunans double aces, Nakagami and Kusano. In an upset, and showing the difficulty of Nationals when faced with a lack of experience, Rakunan lost to Omura Kogyo and Doi, who scored the last point in a blcok-touch back attack, in full sets. (22-25, 25-19, 25-23)
• Omi (Shiga) vs Narashino (Chiba) (13-25, 17-25) to Narashino, Nationals powerhouse.
• Konko (Okayama) vs Shoyo (Osaka) (15-25, 22-25) to Shoyo. Konko first seeded team to lose.
• Kawasaki Tachibana (Kanagawa) vs Kaichi (Wakayama) (25-22, 25-22) to Kawasaki, Kaichi and Ace Kai Cousins bow out in the 2nd round.
• Sundai Gakuen (Tokyo No.1, No.1 Seed of torunament) vs Saga Gakuen (Saga) Sundai, led by captain and u18 Libero Sena Kameoka (180cm) (who plays Wing Spiker for Sundai) and u18 Middle Blocker Yuzuki Akimoto (191cm) won in straight sets. (25-14, 25-11). Watching this schools highlights is like watching Nekoma. THE BALL JUST WONT DROP.
• Miyakonjo Engineering (Miyazaki) vs Tohoku (Miyagi) (21-25, 14-25) to Tohoku.
• Shochi Fukaya (Saitama) vs Tokai University Sapporo (Hokkaido) Shochi Fukaya turned around a one set deficit to win in full sets (23-25, 25-13, 25-21)
• Ashikaga Otsuke (Tochigi) vs Oita South (Oita) (25-20, 25-17) to Ashikaga.
• Matsueko (Shimane) vs Seifu (Osaka No.2) (22-25, 15-25) to Seifu.
• Nishihara (Okinawa) vs Koriyama Kita Tech (Fukushima) (29-27, 25-19) to Nishihara.
• Municipal Amagasaki (Hyogo) vs Chinzei (Kumamoto) Chinzei are a nationals regular and powerhouse, and have been runner ups the last two Spring Nationals led by previous ace Soma Masumoto who graduated. However poor showing at Interhigh and shoulder injury of Ace and Captain Taro Isaka (185cm) had many anticipating they would bow out early, and it sure seemed that way. However, Taro Isaka subbed on in the middle of the first set and shifted the momentum, securing Chinzei a second round reverse win in full sets. (25-17, 20-25, 20-25) Fun Fact: While Shiratorizawa campus was modeled on Tohoku, their ace centric playstyle is most definitely based on Chinzei, even down to their old man, grouchy Head Coach who has been there for decades lol.
• Japan Airlines (Yamanashi) vs Sendai Shoko (Kagoshima) (19-25, 25-22, 25-23) to Japan Airlines
• Maebashi Commercial (Gunma) vs Hamamatsu Shugakusha (Shizuoka) (11-25, 22-25) to Hamamatsu

January 6th: 3rd Round and Quarter-finals (Hell Day as Tanaka called it)

• Sundai Gakuen (Tokyo No.1) vs Takagawa High School (Yamaguchi) The MOST anticipated match of the entire tournament, many assumed whoever won this match would go on and win the tournament. Sundai were Inter-high champions without dropping a set, Takagawa won the National Athletics meets, defeating Sundai on the way - the only high school team at the point of the year to take a set from Sundai. As expected it was a fierce match with both teams playing amazing - beyond high school level. But at the end of the day, Sundai won the match in full sets, coming back from losing the first set. (21-25, 25-19, 25-17)
• Tohoku (Miyagi) vs Narashino (Chiba) Another battle of powerhouses, Tohoku led by Ace Andy Sakamoto won in full sets to advance to the Quarter-Finals. (14-25, 25-16, 25-19)
• Kawasaki Tachibana (Kanagawa) vs Ashikaga Otsuke (Tochigi) (25-18, 25-16) to Kawasaki
• Shoyo (Osaka No.1) vs Shochi Fukaya (Saitama) Shochi Fukaya and Ace Daiki Shirano fought a hard battle, but their miracle run came to a dramatic end here as at the end of a tiring 3rd set, Shirano spiked a back attack into the Shoyo block, ending their tournament and losing to the Inter high semi finalists in full sets. (19-25, 25-22, 25-22)
• Fukui Institute (Fukui) vs Omura Kogyo (Nagasaki) The fast and oppressive, almost Date Tech esque, blocking of Fukui Institute, along with their offensive cannon of an Ace Osei Tsutsumi gave Fukui the edge over Omura Kogyo and top 5 ace Yuta Doi in straight sets (25-18, 25-18)
• Tokyo Gakan Niigata (Niigata) vs Chinzei (Kumamoto) (25-27, 22-25) to Chinzei as they continue to exceed tournament expectations led by injured ace Taro Isaka and first year ace Masahiro Iwashita (189cm).
• Seifu (Osaka No.2) vs Japan Airlines (Yamanashi) (25-19, 26-24) to Seifu
• Hamamatsu Shugakusha (Shizuoka) vs Nishihara (Okinawa) (23-25, 25-16, 27-25) Hamamatsu come back from one set down to win, continue their fairy tale, Karasuno-esque first ever national tournament.

Quarter-Finals (Same Day)

• Sundai Gakuen (Tokyo No.1) vs Kawasaki Tachibana (Kanagawa) Unlike the previous match against Takagawa, Sundai easily breeze past Kawasaki to win in straight sets. (25-11, 25-16)
• Shoyo (Osaka No.1) vs Tohoku (Miyagi) Tohoku and Ace Andy Sakamoto bow out in the Quarter finals, losing in straight sets to Shoyo led by Ace Kaio Koyama. (25-23, 25-22)
• Fukui Institute (Fukui) vs Seifu (Osaka No.2) (27-25, 25-20) to Fukui and their Big Ace Osei Tsutsumi.
• Hamamatsu Shugakusha (Shizuoka) vs Chinzei (Kumamoto) The end of Hamamatsu's miracle run, as they lose in straight sets to Chinzei who continue to defy expectations, and make it to centre court (Semi-Finals) for the third Spring Nationals in a row.

January 7th - Semi-Finals (5 set games, 3 sets to win)
Sundai Gakuen (Tokyo) vs Shoyo (Osaka) Although on paper this match would look exciting as it is the Inter-High champions versus Inter-High Semi-finalists, in reality Sundai simply outclassed them in everyway. Sundai easily won, taking the game in straight sets (25-14, 25-18, 25-18) led by Sena Kameoka, Yuzuki Akimoto and left handed opposite Miyake Yudai (177cm) (Fun fact: All three of these players are third years and have been playing together since they were kids. SOURCE: Their instagrams lol) (Fun fact 2: Sundai's setter is the little brother of their left handed opposite. Guess its in the genes)
Fukui Institute (Fukui) vs Chinzei (Kumamoto) Chinzei and their Ace based playstyle finally met their match. Due to the shoulder injury, Ace Taro Isaka did not start the game for Chinzei, and Fukui and their oppressive blocking quicky took advantage of Chinzei's inexperienced first year baby-ace, and lesser Wing Spikers, shutting them out a lot with kill blocks, and showing great floor defence withone-touch blocks and great receptions. Even after Taro Isaka subbed in, Chinzei were simply no match with even the ace getting shut down multiple times, including for the last point of the game, giving Fukui the win in straight sets. (25-19, 25-23, 25-16) Fukui's first year wing spiker, Itoki Nomi (184cm) was also really good throughout the tournament.
January 8th - Finals
Sundai Gakuen (Tokyo) vs Fukui Institute (Fukui) Those who predicted that the Sundai vs Takagawa match would determine the tournament winner were ultimately proven... right. Sundai had clearly been a level ahead of not only every team they faced, but every team in the tournament. Sure they didn't have an overwhemingly powerful Ace like Fukui had but the overall strength of the team defensively, both in receiving and blocking, and offensively with their amazing combination plays and different strategies (They had two different game plans which they could switch from - one involving the Miyake brothers as setter and opposite and the other utilizing their second year giant opposite Takuma Kawano (196cm). Sundai were simply the stronger team, and although Fukui fought harder than any team Sundai mightve faced before, even Takagawa, in the end Sundai won in straight sets, only dropping a single set the entire tournament. Sundai, as a Haikyuu comparison, would basically be the tenacity and skill of Nekoma floor defense wise, Tsuki x Aone level of read blocking, and Karasuno level of combinations and setter strategies. INSANE. Final Score: (25-22, 25-15, 25-21)
Player Awards:
MVP - Sena Kameoka (180 cm, OH/WS, U18 Libero)
Outstanding Players Awards: Yuzuki Akimoto (Sundai Gakuen) Middle Blocker Sena Kameoka (Sundai Gakuen) Outside Hitter Osei Tsutsumi (Fukui Institute of Technology Fukui) Outside Hitter Eisuke Maruyama (Fukui Institute of Technology Fukui) Setter Masaya Nakamura (Shoyo) Middle Blocker Taro Isaka (Chinzei) Outisde Hitter
Best Libero - Etsushi Tanimoto (Sundai Gakuen 2nd Year)
Other Notable Players:
Andy Sakamoto (Tohoku) Rosenmark Junior (Tsuchiura Nihon) Ryoya Kadota (Takagawa) Akuri Hara (Seijo) Masahiro Iwashita (Chinzei) Yo Kurihara (Chinzei Libero) Itoki Nomi (Fukui) Kaoi Koyama (Shoyo) Miyake Yudai (Sundai) Miyake Sodai (Sundai) Takuma Kawano (Sundai) Daiki Shirano (Shochi Fukaya) Ota Yoshihara (Higashi Fukuoka) Yuta Doi (Omura Kogyo) Retsu Nakagami (Rakunan) Kanorei Kusano (Rakunan) Akira Ogiya (Hamamatsu) Kai Cousins (Kaichi)
If you have any information, questions or just corrections please feel free to ask. Also, if you want links to videos of games or channels that posted some games just let me know and I'll drop them in the comments

See the letters to the churches & understand a few things. This time matrix is not the only one. This is the one consisting of Milk and Honey , the Milky Way spun like a dreidel contained in a grid , the churning of the ocean of milk to produce soma / elixir of immortality. Between these bubbles of existence is Living Water aka electric magnetic soup or sperm of GOD. Watering seeds to create life. This is the hardest but not the only. Beast & divine in one. Learn to travel , leave , come back , we've got eternity. Tho this one infested and the turtle sits. I'm here inside turtle, couldn't get you behind your shell
https://www.youtube.com/live/WNw0UHiZtTs?si=1o1lvO5lnCKVGbm7

(WARNING - TAKES MAY EXCEED TOLERABLE TEMPERATURE LEVELS FOR YOUR AVERAGE 00 SEASON 2 HATER)

1. Marina Ismail and her song with the children is admittedly annoying as fuck but also thematically key and arguably the most vital component to the development of Setsuna's character (as well as the themes of the show as a whole). Setsuna's final resolution in Season 2 becomes essentially for him to fight in the present to pave a platform for Marina and people like her, who espouse nonviolence, to stand upon in the future. Without Marina's principles and ideals, the culmination of Mr. Gundam's arc in Season 2 simply cannot occur; if you hate based girl Marina, you hate based Mr. Gundam.
2. People who ship Setsuna and Marina completely miss the point of their relationship (or at the very least misconstrue it) in that it is not a one of mutual love, but instead a duality of beliefs. They espouse and share the same ideals and principles, come into conflict with one another due to their opposing beliefs, but at the end of the day manage to compromise with their differing methods. Theirs is a love for the idea of peace - for the former embodied by the image of the Gundam, for the latter the symbol of the song - and so if anything, they are actually competitors in a love triangle more than anything else.
3. Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy are great even before Season 2 and only more awesome as the show heads towards the latter half; their perspective of the civilian-view of CB's actions, from blind casual support of CB due to being easily-influenced teenagers hyped by the media, to hating it once it starts personally affecting their lives, to their branching experiences in season 2 - one showcasing submission to an authoritarian regime as a reaction to a changing status quo, the other indicating how these regimes can harm even uninvolved bystanders and therefore how the oppressed can be compelled to rise up against tyranny - is pure kino.
4. People who complain about Louise's issues with CB as being based off a pure misunderstanding miss the fact that A) Louise was brainwashed, groomed, and drugged by Ribbons; B) the seeds of obligation and belonging to the institution of the A-Laws has already been embedded in her and her corruption is a commentary on the method in which disinformation and propaganda can easily radicalize those who may have sympathetic reasons to be upset; and C) the show directly refutes this argument by having Louise, during one of her arguments with Saji near the end of Season 2, explain that her motivations aren't just to avenge her parents' death, but to implement the authoritarian regime of the A-Laws in order to sanction world peace (y'know, the entire motivation that the sympathetic members of the A-Laws give that people just dismiss because they say they're just a shittier version of the Titans)
5. People hate on Andrei far too much for the wrong reasons. There's a hypocritical element in condemning Andrei centrally for killing Sergei without accounting for the fact that the latter was a terrible deadbeat father who never attempted to initiate a conversation with his son. Even worse, he would go on to adopt a daughter instead of attempting to reconcile his situation with his son. Rather than hated, Andrei should be praised for not hating Soma by extension of her connection with his father, and even going as far as to treat her with fairly affable decency and sympathy. still cried when Sergei died doe ;-;
6. FINAL MEME TAKE(s) but not really memes: 1) Nena Trinity and Ali-Al Saachez were both hilarious as fuck and one of the highest points of the show. 2) nena was really cute, would cuddle as she choked me out and killed me entire family. 3) people who rag on Setsuna for the 'ore wa gandamu' line being his singular personality trait should be sent back into kindergarten and be taught a mandatory K-12 class on media literacy. 4) mr. bushido is simultaneously hilarious as fuck as well as pure awesome, being a massive shitpost made to rag on A) the flaws of the honour-code concept, B) char clones, and C) on weeb westerners, which of course many in the Western fandom don't get because they unironically think he's played straight.

Dear Ladies,
The boys woke me up a bit earlier than usual this morning. While feeding them I learned of the passing of our great mentor Ikeda Sensei. Let me just declare: the real work of disciples begins today.
I am writing this post in tribute to him. It is as he would have wished. Let's continue our 500 Seeds campaign with him in our hearts.
Ikeda Sensei starts the I am a Proud Common Mortal! section of his lecture on The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings with a story about President Toda. "When a journalist provocatively asked if he considered himself a god or a Buddha, Mr. Toda responded with enthusiasm: 'I am a proud common mortal!'”
Me, too! “I am a proud common mortal!”
Sensei explains:

Mr. Toda was steadfast in his belief that ordinary people, who possess the potential for Buddhahood just as they are, are worthy of supreme respect.

He continues:

In his novel Human Revolution, written under the pen name Myo Goku, my mentor tells the story of how the main character, Kutsuo Gan, and the other impoverished residents of a row house encountered Nichiren Buddhism. He describes how they went on to splendidly transform their family situations, achieve economic success and revitalize their lives as they awakened to their profound mission and dedicated themselves to kosen-rufu with energy and joy.

I didn't know (or maybe read but forgot) that Mr. Toda had also written a novel called The Human Revolution. He chose the Expedient Means of fiction to describe a truth that is so hard to understand through the clouded lens of society: the transformation, revitalization, and dedication of people. Fiction can be a powerful means of conveying the deepest of truths.
I am reading the final paragraph in this section as if it were Sensei's final thoughts for all of us. Let me break the paragraph down into bullets:
• We who embrace faith in the Mystic Law make our lives shine to the fullest at each moment.
The boys won't unlatch. Even if I try to move them they start fussing. Oh well, just let this moment shine to the fullest!
• We tirelessly challenge ourselves in our human revolution and live with unflagging perseverance and resilience.
If I can get them back sleeping, I am going to make a big breakfast for the family. Everyone will be sad to learn the news. But that is all the more reason for us to triumph as a family. We have a very busy day ahead of us including an appointment at the Chevrolet dealer. I really can't fully understand "unflagging perseverance and resilience" but I can grasp it in action by smiling more and locking eyes with everyone I meet.
• By triumphing over adversity and changing karma into mission, we show actual proof of creating value in a way true to our unique qualities, in accord with the principle of “cherry, plum, peach, and damson” (see OTT, 200).
We have a small grove of ginkgo trees at the entrance to the park, right near our new DCFC stations. They are at the height of their autumn foliage with golden leaves. They are gymnosperms meaning there are both male and female trees. The females are dropping their fruits now which stink so badly but are full of medicinal properties. Maybe sub ginkgo for damson in that Gosho quote? A great example of transforming karma into mission!
• Just as we are, as ordinary people, we walk the invincible path of attaining Buddhahood in this lifetime, leading the same compassionate way of life as the Buddha.
And that is what is going to happen at our November 18th discussion meeting tomorrow. Emily has already prepped us that she is going to share an unbelievable and unimaginable benefit. She won't give away a word. Can't wait for tomorrow.
• This itself is proof that we embody and practice the “secret and wonderful expedient means” and that each of us is “the Buddha of the true aspect of all phenomena."
Ladies, in honor of Sensei, let's have an even more wonderful day today, November 18th, the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the Soma Gakkai. Let's hold incredible November 18th District General Meetings this week. Let's enjoy our adventures of meeting new people!
Please don't forget to send me your weekly 500 Seeds reports today.
TAG: I adapted this post from Part III of Ikeda Sensei's lecture "Key Passages From The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings." To make it easier to read, I've edited out brackets and I have done some minor paraphrases of quotations. I've also left out sources and footnotes. If you are curious about them, please refer to the original article.