More Gundam 00 S2 info

More info today, though most of it is expanded from yesterdays post:

Second Season is Federation vs. Anti-Federation.

The story follows the confrontation between the independent security enforcement organization within the Federation called “Arrows” which suppresses the Anti-Federation elements.

Gundam Meisters gather again to pilot Gundams. Their purpose is still to “extermination of war through military prowess”. However, they act as people whose Gundams were entrusted to by Aeolia.

Setsuna takes a leadership role in the second season. He wanders the world while knowing that peace is achieved by the Feddies through the distortion of truth. This is his motivation.

Most people aren’t aware of the severe oppression of Arrows due to the Federation’s complete control of information. It fights to protect peace to a degree of recognition.

Setsuna is a man who can only fight. He is conscious of the hypocrisy of “extermination of war through military prowess”. However, it is necessary to stop imminent war. Therefore he appears more militaristic than before. He tries not to get swayed towards the pacifist road that the heroine-like Marina takes.

Lockon is dead. He will not be revived.

They decreased the lines used to draw the 4 Gundams so that more effort could be placed into the action. And the two lines (the beard that is the symbol of Gundam) were added in.

The story of 00 has three overlapping layers, one is Aeolia’s plan, another is the Meisters’, and the last is how war affects the normal citizens who get involved. Saji is involved in CB’s fight in an unexpected way. Louise’s situation in the last episode of the first season will be made clear. The relationship between Saji and Louise exist in one axis.

Pages 20-21 has introductions of the Meisters.

Setsuna:
To sever the distortion caused by the false peace from the world.

Director’s comments –
Setsuna has greatly changed internally in the last 4 years. He resents the state of the current world and is conflicted about whether his actions were correct.

Lockon:
The bullet that shoots the spark, shakes history again

Heads to the battlefield with his partner Haro. Pilots the Keldim Gundam.

Director’s comments –
He is here after shouldering inevitable circumstance and joining CB. This time, to visually showcase the confrontation with the “Arrows”, the Meisters’ uniforms are seen.

Allelujah
What does the will to unite see in the new world?

Director’s comments –
Allelujah is changed by his surrounding environments. Whether the cross that previously killed his comrades affect him will become an important point. (?)

Tieria
One chooses and starts to walk the road to the future

Seriously injured in the decisive final battle in which he flew the Gundam Nadleeh but he was rescued by an organization and his life saved. Afterwards, he did his best to rebuild Celestial Being. Presently he looks for the meaning of his personal struggle.
And here’s a clearer pic of the Meisters and their new Gundams:

Gundam 00 Season 2 – Let the anticipation begin

It has begun.

And by that, I mean the surge of info on season 2 of Gundam 00. A few days ago, a new picture of the 4 Gundam Meisters and the 00 Gundam was shown in a Japanese commercial. And now, the designs of the meisters for s2 and their new Gundams has been revealed:

Meisters:

Gundams:

And here’s some translated information (originally from Gunota blog):

Characters:
Setsuna F. Seiei – 21-years-old. Lived as a boy soldier in his native Kurdish and became a Gundam Meister with Celestial Being. Engaged in one-on-one combat with Graham in a final battle. Went missing. 4 years after, what does he think of as he looks at the world without conflict the Earth Sphere Federation ushered in?

Lockon Stratos – 29-years-old. Expert marksman and Gundam Meister affiliated with Celestial Being. 4 years ago, he and his bitter enemy Saachez shot each other simultaneously and (*unreadable portion*) This Lockon (*unreadable*) heads to the battlefield together with his partner Haro and, as a Gundam Meister, pilots the Keldim Gundam.

Allelujah Haptism – 24-years-old.

Tieria Erde – Age unknown. Seriously injured in the decisive final battle in which he flew the Gundam Nadleeh but he was rescued by an organization and his life saved. Afterwards, he did his best to rebuild Celestial Being. Previously, he had thought of Veda as an absolute being but now he looks for the meaning of his personal struggle.

Mecha (definitely iffy on the names here):
GN-0000 00 Gundam – New generation Gundam developed as a successor unit to the Gundam Exia. A formidable mecha equipped with 2 GN Drives on its shoulders, it boasts astounding GN particle emission and its performance overwhelms that of all other mobile suits. Pilot: Setsuna F. Seiei

Keldim Gundam

Arios Gundam

Selavii Gundam – A heavy armament model piloted by Tieria Erde that largely carries over features of the Gundam Virtue. Furthermore, it was developed with the intent of strengthening offense and while the 2 shoulder-equipped GN cannons are simple in form, their firepower far exceeds the Virtue’s.

Info from Kouryaku No Yakata‘s Newtype summaries:

– The second season will revolve around an independent security enforcement organization within the Federation called “Arrows” that suppresses anti-Federation elements.

– Setsuna will take on a leadership role.

– Most people aren’t aware of the severe oppression of Arrows due to the Federation’s complete control of information.

– Lockon died and isn’t coming back.

– The show will air in MBS’ Sunday 5 pm timeslot starting in October.

Macross Frontier Episode 13

Now this was one hell of an episode.

The episode starts out exactly where episode 12 ended, with Alto’s VF going down in the middle of the Galia 4 jungle, and both him and Ranka discovering the remains of what appears to be the SDF-1 Macross. Both of them are trapped in the jungle for the time being, as something is jamming the systems of Alto’s VF, so they try to make the best of their situation. However, Ranka goes missing, and Alto heads off to the Macross where he believes she might have been taken. All this while, Brera in his VF-27 is keeping a close watch on them.

Alto soon discovers that the Macross is in fact the SDF-04 Global, which was the flagship of the 117th Research Fleet, the same one Ranka was a part off before it was destroyed by the Vajra. He also surmises that the jamming effect is coming from the Global. Alto heads in, while Brera descends into the depths of the planet, where Ranka is being held captive by what appears to be some sort of Vajra queen. Meanwhile, Alto explores the innards of the Global, and discovers that the crew had been experimenting on Vajra. He also discovers a family photo featuring a young Ranka. The Vajra queen continues to lay countless eggs until Brera appears and attacks the queen, fending off multiple lesser Vajra in the process. Alto descends into the queens chamber and tries to save Ranka, but is cut off by a green barrier, which surrounds Ranka. Brera manages to succesifly harm the queen, however, the pain felt by the queen is also somehow felt by Ranka. Alto and Brera are forced out of the queens chamber, and Alto heads for his VF. The Global begins to glow, and starts to lift off into the air. Alto’s manages to get his VF working again, and heads for the Global, which then breaks apart, revealing a massive Vajra mothership. Various other Vajra cruisers also rise up from beneath the surface, forming a massive fleet. All of a sudden, Brera attacks Alto. They both engage eachother in the air, but eventually, Brera holds alto at gunpoint, and prepares to fire his gunpods energy blast right at Alto’s VF. However, he is saved at the last minute by Mikhail and Sheryl. Meanwhile, nearby the UN military base, Grace uncovers a massive device of sorts, and activates it, revealing in the process that she is the same as Brera; a cyborg of sorts. The device activates, and forms a massive fold bubble, which spreads out across the planet, destroying everything in its path. Alto, Mikhail and Sheryl speed away from the planet, and the Vajra fleet begins to fold away. Mikhail and Sheryl fly towards the fold openings of the Vajra fleet to get away from the planet, while Alto continues to try and outfly the massive fold blast that has now abosrbed a good chunk of the planet.
So yeah…wow. This was one intense episode. So it turns out that the Macross wasn’t actually the SDF-1, but another ship of the same make; the SDF-04 Global, which of course is named after the SDF-1’s infamous captain. It is interesting to learn that other ships identical to the SDF-1 were made, because prior to this episode, this was not known. There was an SDF-2 originally planned during Space War 1, which was actually much larger than the SDF-1, but the design was later remade into the Megaroad class of colony ships. And being that it the Global is numered 4th, it is highly likely that there are other SDF ships out there in active service.

This episode also confirms that Brera is Ranka’s brother, as he is shown with her in the flashbacks of her as a little girl with her parents. This episode also continues to show that Ranka and the Vajra are connected. Actually, to be more specific, Ranka and the Vajra Queen are connected. When Brera shot the queens blue crystal, Ranka felt the same pain the queen did. Perhaps she was part of the Vajra experiments conducted onboard the Global?

This episode also brings up more questions about the Vajra. Just what exactly are they? While they have the markings of the Protoculture, the fact that there were experiments on them aboard the Global could mean that they were created by the 117th Research Fleet. We’ll have to wait and see.

Of course, this episode also confirms that Grace defenitly has her own goals, but it still needs to be learned as to why she detonated the LAI Dimension Eater. Perhaps it was to erase all evidence of what happened to the 117th? And I wonder if she is truly dead, or if she was simply aborbed into the anomoly. It could also be that the Grace on Gallia was simply one of her remotely controlled bodies.

Also, it seems the cockpit of the VF-27 has a holographic lay-over of sorts which makes the cockpit seem featureless, thus allowing for a full view of the surroundings. We can see this when Mikhail blasts Brera’s gunpod. There is a split second where the lay-over goes down and we see a standard cockpit and Brera in a traditional pilot suit. Very nifty stuff.

AKB48 Super Post…kinda

Well, over the last few weeks, we’ve been hit with a flood of new AKB news. Here’s my oppinions and some general info on the latest stuff from Akihabara.

First of all is the new…single, Baby!Baby!Baby. Let me just get this off my chest…the song sucks. It is so horribly boring and generic that I find it hard to enjoy listening to it. There is a silver lining to this single though, and thats the tracks that accompany the BBB. The first track is simply an alternate version of BBB, which of course, sucks just as much. Its the other 2 tracks that, for me at least, are the silver lining to this single. Those tracks are the awesome Shonichi (from Stage B3) and Yume wo shinaseru wake ni ikanai (from Himawari-Gumi 2). These 2 songs blow BBB out of the freaking water. Both songs are far superior to BBB, and it makes me wonder why they didn’t choose one of these songs to be the new single instead. At least then it would have all been good. Both songs could have had awesome PV’s as well. I won’t comment on the PV for BBB yet, as I haven’t seen it as of yet.

My other big gripe about this single is the total shafting of Team K and B. Of the five front girls chosen for this single, not ONE is from Team K. Team B is somewhat represented in the group, though they really need to realize that Mayu Watanabe is not Team B on her own. Only 2 other members of Team B are in the single (though my favorite member, Yuki Kashiwagi is there, so I guess I should be happy). I am tired of Team A constantly getting the spotlight though. Yes, I realize they were the first team of the group, but 2 other teams have been formed since then, and I don’t think the AKB higher ups realize this yet. In fact, I don’t get why Team A gets so much damn attention…Team K and B are so much more awesome than they are (don’t get me wrong, I love Team A, but I love the other teams as well, if not more than A, so I hate seeing them get shafted)

Also, its been speculated that BBB may be part of the future A5 Stage. If it is…then I’m not looking forward to is whatsoever. Team A stages usually aren’t my fvaorite anyway, as the other teams stages usually are much better IMO.

The next bit of big news is the release of the DVD for the Request Hour Set List Best 100 (SHIBUYA-AX) concert. From what we know about this release…it is going to be epic. It is essenttially all of the Stage shows up till at least Himawari 1 combined into 3 disks, though the songs are sung in the Shibuya AX concert. The bad thing about this release? The DVD set costs a whopping 16800 yen! Thats about $160 American/Canadian. So yeah, if you want this, better start putting away some money.

So yeah, I’m done for today. Expect a post on the awesomely awesome 13th episode of Macross Frontier sometime tomorrow. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this episode!