For 11 long years, Sunrise Studios have been the pioneers of the incredible mecha franchise and this time around, they have gone and made their newest addition to the franchise, Gundam 00. Gundam 00 was written by none other than Yosuke Kuroda, the same man behind numerous anime like Ring ni Kakero, Demonbane and Hellsing Ultimate to just name a few. Following a well-earned reputation as one of the best mecha genre anime, Gundam 00 surpasses its predecessors as being the first in the franchise to be the very first to be animated on widescreen as well as high definition formats. Gundam 00 was directed by the capable hands of Seiji Mizushima, the same man who directed Shaman King and Full Metal Alchemist. The anime lasted for 50 action-packed episodes which were aired on Japan on October 2007 which ended on March 2009.
Set in the futuristic times, a time where fossil reserves were drained and mankind were forced into looking for a new source of power. After years of extensive research, they have finally harnessed solar power as an alternative source of power by creating three huge solar power collectors which are supported by three different orbital elevators. Each elevator is controlled by one of the three major power blocs of the world: the Union (North America), AEU (Europe) and the Human Reform League (China, Russia, India). But despite efforts on sharing this limitless power source, they are being monopolized by each of the organization, leaving third-world countries and several minor countries ravaged by countless wars to fend off their enemies by themselves. In hopes of ending all strife and war, a group of idealists have formed the so-called Celestial Beings, a group of hard-trained gundam pilots to serve their mission. Gundam 00 revolves on the stoic Gundam pilot, Setsuna F. Seiei to bring to ruition his dream of eternal peace. As the pilot of Gundam Exia, he and 3 other Gundam pilots work on different missions, oftentimes together to ultimately end all wars.
Without anyone’s knowledge, after the decision to adapt Gundam 00 into an anime, Sunrise Studios have been working non-stop for two long years in the process. It was first suggested to be titled as “Next” but with the guidance of Seiji Mizushima, decided on using “Gundam 00” for its title. Several anime adaptations were structured after the successful release of Gundam 00, together with a novelized version of the series which was wirtten ny Noboru Kimura and published by Kadokawa. Later that year, anotherl ight novel series titled “Mobile Suit Gundam 00P’ was released. The said novel revolves on the previous generation of Gundam Meisters and how the organization came to be. It doesn’t come to a surprise to a lot of people that a second season for Gundam 00 was in the works and was released late October 2008 as well as the movie animated film titled “Awakening of the Trailblazer” last September 2010.
