Gundam 00 is one of my favourite Gundam series not because it is one of the most visually pleasing or because its soundtrack is composed by Kenji Kawai but because it uses our world to facilitate the story with a low barrier for entry. Its the laymans Gundam with enough realworld context for any fan to jump straight into. In the year 2307 AD Earths fossil fuels have been depleted and the world has begun to rely on Solar Energy for its source of power. Many nations have unified into three large powers poised to resolve problems on a grander scale. During the showcase event of a new mobile suit Celestial Being makes their grand debut declaring their intent to end all wars. Given that the organization holds the power of the Gundams in their hands armed interventions become their ultimatum. Gundam 00 takes a very realistic approach to modernday issues by working them into the storyline of Gundam more so than any other series before it. This time the focus is a post9/11 society with Gundams thrown into the mix. We get heavy doses of politics terrorism child soldiers and the issues of using biologically enhanced super soldiers. Compared to many other AU Gundams 00 brings a lot to the table in terms of variety. The strong premise is backed by a lot of elements that would otherwise be glossed over in other mech shows and that goes for a lot of Gundams in general. We also get a strong sense of diversity in a sort of allstar cast of various people that delve into worldly perspectives. Setsuna the main protagonist is constantly at odds with religion which does bring up some fascinating scenarios for his character. Of course some of Setunas sentiments often across as preachy when he constantlys spewing There is no God in this world. It is somewhat understandable given his circumstances but claiming I am a Gundam isnt a subtle attempt at being meta. There are a lot of ways things like this could be portrayed without dialogue and I think Gundam 00 could do some of these things better. Admittedly I liked seeing how they took on portraying the Middle East with this powerstruggle and the way in which Celestial Being handles it. Theres a lot of plotlines of Gundam 00 that I cant get enough of and others that I wish theyd dive deeper into as certain ones feel untouched. The politics were executed very well even if their message was blatantly obvious to the viewer. The biggest weak point of the show is that it tries so hard to make the plot relatable that it kind of fails to make any of the characters the same way. Setsuna was a blank template who was mainly setup with his tragic backstory rather than personal development. In fact many of the Gundam Meisters mainly relied on their coolness factors and ambition to stop all wars. The Meisters lacked meaningful substance to make me feel invested in order to be a part of their personal journey and its partly due to Setsuna hogging all the properly fleshed out backstory time because of his protagonist role. I know Setsuna was a child soldier I know Allelujah had a traumatic childhood I know Lockon has troubled past etc but show me ways in which this could really shake up the story rather than having it as set dressing for wiki profiles or little character spats. Gundam 00 does this to some extent but it is mostly based on the situational circumstances propelling the characters forward into taking action see Lockons hatred of terrorists the clash between Allelujah and Soma Peries AliAl Sachezs involvement in the story or Tieria Erde saying that the mission comes first. If we want to talk about something that the show does really well its style. Gundam 00 some amazing looking Mobile Suits and a lot of them while not exciting have a practical flair to them. I absolutely love the Tierens industrial look that still manages to keep in the iconic Zaku eye. The Gundams have their own angelic design which is ironic considering theyre all named after religious deities. The CGI is mainly relegated to space ships so Im not going to go too hard on the animators for that. Sunrise is one of the few mechafocused studios that still handdrawn a majority of their mecha shows and its hard not to give them props for continuing to do that. Id also like to point out that you should all be thankful that this is the first Gundam series not reusing footage for action or even opening footage and Im glad it stopped that trend before it got any worse. 00 is one of my favourite AU Gundam series that I can just watch over and over again since its not weighed down by anything major besides the main cast that can get a little bland at times. Sure there are some modern anime tropes that sneak into here occasionally and unnecessary conveniences but they arent as apparent as you might think. Gundam 00 may take itself seriously but it is a mech show that is on a completely different level than the others. Gundam in general manages to tackle a bunch of different issues while still being uniquely Gundam which is a big reason why I can get behind the series. Some may argue that Gundam 00 should be avoided or not to watch it but theyre completely missing the mark here. Gundam 00 is a product of our post9/11 era and it can hit all too close to home in ways that can seem pretentious. Even with the 25 episode season of the first that goes for more hardrealism there just isnt enough spent on every single faction. Many AU Gundam shows suffer for being halfbaked and unexplored Gundam 00 is no exception but thats a given because its hard for Sunrise to stray away from the wellestablished Universal Century. I guess I can see why some may wish to ignore the series but saying that 00s detriment is just redoing the Gundam: Wing plot isnt really fair. Its something new and different despite that which is why the AU Gundams can go crazy with the stories they want to tell. Watch Gundam 00 for being a fantastic mech show with a grounded story. Its one of the best starting points for new Gundam fans to be introduced to the series and does a great job of piquing the interests of those intimidated by the countless number of series thats out there.