Cannot Catharsize: Gundam 00

It's spring-time, so that means one thing....gloom and sorrow for the next 4-5 months as I try to recoup from the loss of a season's worth of anime! Most of you probably don't know, but right about now is when most anime series in Japan wrap up, and spare some of the really popular ones, will not return ever again, or at least not until the fall. Some of the really popular ones, like Naruto and Bleach, usually go into filler mode during the summer months, which basically means weeks upon weeks of painfully inane dialogue, drawn-out, underdeveloped, insipid plotlines, and action sequences that look as if a 4-year old might have drawn them (I was thinking of using 12, but there are some really good 12 year old artists, so I chose 4, because at that age, kids don't really have full control of their bodies, so there's no way they can draw that well).

Sadly, the series that I am most crestfallen to see go (at least until its next season) is Gundam 00. For those of you unfamiliar with the Gundam franchise, it is probably the most popular franchise in Japanese anime, featuring gigantic robots fighting in armed conflict. While the series is diverse in theme and plot, most of the series' go something along the lines of: war breaks out, lots of people die, gundam emerges, wreaks havoc, gets owned at some point in the story, regroups, then takes a huge dump on the enemies collective face in some enormous climactic battle (yea, that last bit was a bit of a stretch, but you get the picture).

Most Gundam series are fairly predictable, with a small core of main characters (usually the gundam pilots and their love interests), an amazingly insane/talented enemy pilot (or group of enemy pilots), and a whole crap ton of fringe supporting characters. Thus, we have good guys vs bad guys, where the good guys get the upper hand, then begin to struggle, then get owned, then make the come back, then beat the bad guys, and the world is saved. End Series. Usually there's a spoon full of intrigue/theme in there, but not much.

What makes Gundam 00 so interesting is that the conflict is not between a force for good vs a force for evil. In actuality, it is two conflicting ideals battling with one another: one ideal choosing to impose order on the world to end conflict (the Gundams), and another ideal choosing freedom despite conflict. In this way, even though the series is still Gundams vs bad guys, the bad guys are not so bad (with possibly one exception, a warmongering terrorist who seems to only exist to perpetuate war). LIkewise, some of the "good guys" you grow to dislike, simply because of their blind pursuit of the ideal of peace at all costs (one Chinese girl is so blind as to say that "I don't care the price the world has to pay, as long as it changes." Pretty dangerous thoughts coming from a 17 year old Asian girl).

The first season of Gundam 00 also ended in a huge cliffhanger, with the good guys in complete disarray, new bad guys emerging, and the revelation of a new mobile suit (the aptly named, "Gundam 00") that, in the words of the Chinese girl, "will change the world." Needless to say, my already weak ability to process myself through catharsis has been rendered utterly incapable of freeing myself from the Gundam 00 universe, leaving me with hours upon hours of speculation and Wikipedia-surfing in search of new revelations and details (Ok, the hours upon hours may be a bit of hyperbole, maybe minutes upon minutes is more truthful, but saying minutes makes me seem so much less loser-like. And loser-like is what I'm going for, right?). If you don't know what catharsis is, please read the Wikipedia article, because it's really the explanation as to why we get emotional through experiences that we see in the form of art, but do not necessarily experience ourselves. It's a wonderful word which expresses exactly why I'm so attached to anime: because it's the art form that is most difficult for me to process myself out of. But, that's another article for another day.

I leave you with one of my favorite songs (206 play counts on my Ipod as of today, #7 of my most played songs), the first OP of Gundam 00, "Daybreak's Bell," by L'Arc-en-Ciel.