Gundam 00

The best way to sum this series up is Gundam Wing meets Full Metal Panic's Sousuke Sagara minus the humor. If that doesn't make any sense, don't worry about it.

For the uninitiated, the series is about a team of mecha pilots who try to end the world's wars by destroying all other armed forces. Each pilot has his own reasons for fighting and their respective stories are explored and developed throughout the first season. Each Gundam iteration depicts the horrors of war and its effect on people, and Gundam 00 is no different. The war culture in Gundam 00 is an extreme what-if scenario based on today's energy crisis. I think the second season lacked the depth of the first season though - as the story began focusing on the central story line, some the side characters were tossed aside. Sad!

Visually, this is the most impressive of the Gundams (being the newest helps), and a smaller episode count really cut down on re-used animation frames and "summary" episodes which were prevalent in some of the past series. Despite these aesthetic pluses, I feel that this series lacks the emotional punch its predecessors delivered. Comparing this series with older Gundams is unfair though, since I rate most of those highly. As a body of work unto itself, Gundam 00 was one of the few series I itched to watch weekly this past year.

kenholic rating: 8 out of 10.