Milena velba milk

Rant about green flag kt.
Green forest kt
Also Noone has proposed to one another yet We just in dating phase, not in relationship 🤷🏼‍♂️
Continuation...
So as usual hami tya bhaktapur bata wednesday farkyem ghar. Then we chatted for a while and she continuously requested me to rant about her and so whats I did. But she was expecting a roast lol Haha. Thursday, i was busy with college assignments so we didnt talk that much haiii but she called me on my mobile and we talked for a lil bit and we came up with a plan to go to pulchowki this saturday. Friday mero international student eligibility scholarship ko lagi naxal ma interview thiyo so tya gako they. Thikai vayo interview ani ma ghar ayera sute.
Ani tespaxi baneshwor ghumna niske ma college mates vetna like bato ma she called me and we were on phone the whole time in bus, bla bla kura vo ani i found it funny when she asked aru kt lai vetna ta gairachainau ni and eben apologised to me if she was sounding desperate for attention, anyways ma khayera farke around 7. So, friday is club night for me and bois. So as usual my best friend said club jam vanera but i denied yesterday because club gaye vane hiking jana mildaina vanera, sathi pheri risayo ma sanga, hike ma tyo ni auna wala plan thiyo but ma club jana namanera risayo u ani audina vanyo. So at last, we decided, she and i will go alone.
Tara u sanga kunai ramro luga thena hike ma lagaune vanthyo soo i said chinta naliga, i will bring one t-shirt for you merai lagau. And she agreed. Teii 7 baje samma Sato bato pugam vanera plan banaye ani halka chat garera sutyem. Uslai pheri nidra lagenaxa 12 baje and she had had messaged me lol but ma nidayi sakera herina. Mero ni ankha 4:56 ma khulyo ani ma fresh vayera ani uslai uthauna call gare(personal alarm things) ani tespaci Dubai jana ready vayera 6 baje tira afno afno ghar bata niskem.
Ma chadai pugeko they so,tya i bought some bananas and snacks to munch on because why not. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Ani tespaxi tyo ni ayoo, saw her from distance, waved hi andbwe hugged and i was standing there like a stud holding ek darjan kera.😂 and she was like kasle khanxa yetro thulo thulo kera which i found funny. Anyways she complimented that i looked cute today banera Soo hamii micro chadyem
ani me being chalak as i am, bought earphone instead of air pods so that we can share it in a romantic way. Ek earphone do atma moment vayo for next 30min or so. Hahaha aba hera mero mobile ma matra dik chik song (the script, post molane, drake, lil baby, rammstein, pink flyod shits) haru matra thiyo so she wasn't really impressed with my music taste balla talla photograph vane euta romantic song vetyo tyo sunyo majale othrr than that i felt she tolerated listening to my favourite songs. I really glad that I didn't play Travis Scott songs to her though. (By the Travis Scott is fucking legend)
Tespaxi, pugem, we bought snacks and some drinks and around 8 pm hidyem mathi. Uslai pheri yad ayo she has to take her medicines, so we stopped at nearby bhati looking hotel for chiya and sel. She ordered black tea and I ordered milk tea. She wanted to dip her sel in my jutho chiya ani she asked if she can try. And she drank my jutho chiya brooooo what😭😭 mero siblings ra cousins le ni das choti socha houuu. Teii aba khayera hidyem. Then i remembered that i bought her t-shirt and i showed her that, she was looking fine af already but she still wanted to wear mine. Najik ko hotel ma gayera change garyo and it was suiting her well.
Anii teii Guff gardai hidira them. Ekdam jiskera. Also she wore my jacket lol. Bichma basera couple wala photography ni garem also ek arka ko roast pani hanira them. Vro laughed at my dumbest jokes yrrr. Lolol lamest jokes possible. J hos ramailo nai vaira thiyo. We were listening to romantic songsz talking about past experiences, and sharing opinions. Just idk i wanted to prank my ex gf which she somehow agreed for, but network nai milena lol. Tespaxi we sat and ate chips tyo ni tesle malai afnai hath le khuwayo, so cuteeeeeee haha. Jhan afai euta khane, malai 3-4 wota ekchoti khuwaune like a child. Haha. It was cute though. We then again clicked pictures, rested. Ani teii jiskera basira them. About nonsense stuffs literally. Bato ma she was like playing with my hair ani maile ni usko tanira they kapal. Harek kura ma rich kid Rich kid Banera malai jiskaira thiyo tho which was halka annoying.
Literally hath ma hath samayera hidira them haha. Looked cute haha. Asked one uncle to click our couple pictures and it came out cute. Ma chor jasto dekhira chu vanira they, to Which she said, that i look good and i have good or say decent fashion sense Alsoo teii usko crush ko nam ni samw merai ho which i found halka weird but it's true. Tespaxi weather suddenly change vayo, ani pani parna thalyo.
Do jaan, ek umbrella moment vayo hamro. Cuddle garyem anii listened to romantic songs like mila ho tumse, aye ho zindagi me, rabata bala bala. Nachdai rain ma gayira them alsoo singing with our chateko bora voice We still continued the journey despite rain. Anii like ma bato ma thadai hidxu soo she wss like tmi side laga chup chap and scolded me lol ki tmlai kei vayo vane, ma k garne (flirting way ma) haha which I found cute. Tespaxi vir chada ni u agadi hidne ani malai paxadi bata tanera lagnii it was cute. Alsooo like ma bolna like chup chap basyo vane ni like sodhni where are u lost, k sochira testo testo, basically attention chaira thiyo lol. Alsooo like mero lagi chata ni samatyo and like maile eta aau uta auu Vanda ni testai manii. Teii ek arka ko pura billa udaira them belabela ma.
Tespaxi like 1 bajna lako thiyo so ajai 2hrs journey baki thiyo so we decided to return without reaching mathi samma. Bato ma testaii, hath ma hath samayera hidira them alsoo like maile chorna bitikai tesle kehi minutes pachi afai tyo hath samauthiyo which I found so cuteee. More couple pictures lim testai testai. Khadai ramaudaii ghumyem. Alsoo we talked about dark secrets also.. by the way, like she was so considerate k. Tyo jacket layera ako thena, so i gave her mine but bela bela ma she gave me to wear it chiso lagxa tmlai Banera lagau. Alsooo saman haru ni samaidira thiyo. Alsooo bela bela gentleman gentleman Banera malai jiskaira thiyo lol.
Coincidentally pulchowki hiking bato ma tesko school friends le dekhyo hamlai cuddle gardai also hath samaudai ani uslai jiskiyo halka so for sometimes she became sad jasto but pachi pheri mood fresh vayo anii teii pheri ramrari bolna thalem. Halka gham lageko thiyo tyo bela, soo we clicked more pics anii teii Guff gardai hidira thiyem. Ek arka lai herdai smile gardai, dank jokes crack gardai tala jharyam. Alsoo like i said tmi tmlaima dependent ma lagxu bahira chinta naleuu jiskeea. To which she was like yes yes malai laga lol
(Kunai kunai incident yad airaxaina) Tara it was cute moments together. Literally i couldn't believe we were meeting for the second time.
Tespaci gadi chadyem ani lagankhel gayem. Gadi ma she was sleeping on my shoulders. Cuteeeee haha. Lagankhel to durbar square, jada i bought her two jhumkas. Tespaxii patan ma rooftop lasa something something ma basem anii enjoyed momo pizza testai ani pay garne bela she didn't let me pay even if i was insisting i will pay. Literally 1000+ ko bill thiyo and she paid. Ani tespaxi i wanted to buy a ring lkina vane i lost my ring mathi hike Garda kheri anii instead she bought us matching bracelets which was cute but 300 houuu, costly lol.
Tespaci we went to have coffee in Himalayan java coffee for which i paid Clicked cute little mirror selfies. Drank coffees. Teslai mero coffee khanu man thiyo soo she again drank my jutho by asking if i can try. Enjoyed the view ani teii Guff gaff garem. Ramailo vayo ta ekchin basera. Was finally like we are back to real world after getting lost in the woods.
Tespaxi hamii farkida coincidentally lalitpur ma jatra raixa soo tyo heryam buttt literally it was so crowded lol. Uslai bacha jasto samatera anii protect garera literally tanira they from crowd like escaping game jasto. By the way, i love newari culture and cuisine. Anii testaii lagankhel pugem. Uslai bus ma chadaye ani we hugged for the last time and departed. By the way, she took my shirt and new jacket again. Mero wardrobe chorxa ki kya ho.
Bato bhari i was thinking about today memories. It was soooo fun houuuu. Literally hardly 18 hrs time spend garyo hola asti ani ajako milayera but i feeel like i have known her from so many years.
Maile ajako kati payw kura ani incidents haru chutaira xu buttt seriously kati wota cute cute moments thiyo ajaa ta hahaha sochda kheri ni blush garxu hahaha.
Are we stuck in rom com movie?
Excited for the next meet. What future holds for us?

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”.