Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: And the Sixth Ranger role for this movie goes to... See Pet the Dog on the main page.
  • Crazy Awesome: Anything with Hallelujah is guaranteed to be this, but this time he gets GN Scissor Bits to play around with.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Basically everything in the movie, but especially when the 00 Qan[T] shows up and the Gundams and Braves absolutely unload on the ELS.
    • The 00 Qan[T] gets about five minutes of screen time but still manages to be even more of a blatant hax than 00 Raiser. Hell, 00 Qan[T] is compared to the Turn A as the most powerful mobile suit in the entire Gundam multiverse.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: The movie spoofing the events of the series proper, which manages to fake you out until Alejandro Corner shows up, the 00 Gundam starts doing dramatic hand motions, and the Gundams all have unique Trans-Am colors, which they combine to fire a huge beam. After watching it, when finally alone, Saji states (with a bit of disappointment) that he wasn't in the movie.
    • Then there's any scene with Patrick in it.
    • Saji actually manages to have one. In the hospital scene, when an ELS resembling Ribbons Almark enters the room, Saji goes on to actually protect Louise... by throwing a chair in Ribbons' head.
    • When Hallelujah takes over in the beginning of the movie:

Hallelujah: I see. They are after the one with the strongest quantum brainwaves."
Allelujah: Hallelujah? You're back?
Hallelujah: No time for chit-chat! I'm borrowing your body, dude!"

  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Setsuna returning to Marina in the epilogue, 50 years later, with his upgraded 00 Qan[T] standing in a sunny field full of flowers... itself covered in flowers.
    • The entire sequence from Setsuna waking up from his coma through to him launching in the 00 Qan[T], it begins with Feldt hugging Setsuna, who hugs her back (a rather telling action as he is usually rather protective of his personal space), Feldt then goes back to her post rather than follow the crews suggestion that she stay with him, when asked why she won't say says that she'll be able to feel his presence no matter where he is, and then offers a gentle smile right before he launches.
    • Mileina Vashti declaring her love for Tieria, regardless of his physical form, was one of the most heartwarming moment in the movie. People in the theater collectively went "d'aww!" and laughed at Ian's reaction following this moment.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: All of the awesomeness in this movie is accompanied by equally awesome (and sometimes downright scary) music.
    • Kenji Kawai took at least three ("Trans-Am Raiser", "Masurao", "Fight") scores from the TV series, remixed them with a much larger orchestral group, and combined them together with vocal accompaniment (via One-Woman Wail and Ethereal Choir). The end result is called "Final Mission ~ Quantum Burst", and its not only eight minutes of pure concentrated awesome but also the movie's cue for the Meisters to hand the ELS their collective asses. If you somehow have yet to hear it unimpeded by the action going on when it's playing, stop doing yourself such a disfavor.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Arguably Graham. Hey, let's take the one character whose entire philosophical message in the TV series was how you shouldn't commit suicide and have him commit suicide!
  • Fan Dumb: It is staggering how many people are claiming this movie is "the worst thing to ever happen to Gundam" because either:

a) "Setsuna never got laid!";
b) "It was nothing but Beam Spam and had no plot!";
c) "It's not UC!";

d) "It ripped-off Macross!";

e) "The 00 Qan[T] didn't do anything!"; or, most prominently,

f) "Why are there aliens in my Gundam?!?!".

  • God Mode Sue: The 00 Qan[T] probably would be this if it was used in any kind of military capacity. All the teething problems of the 00 Raiser have been ironed out, and the occasional instances when we see some measure of its power are impressive indeed. In fact, it's an arguable rival for the mighty Turn a Gundam as "most powerful mobile suit in the franchise", which is saying a lot in Gundam 00's relatively low-tech setting compared to Turn A's. As is, though, Setsuna is far more interested in using it for its primary purpose -- a highly-advanced communications device.
    • Word of God posits that the Qan[T] is so powerful that it could have taken on the entire ELS force alone. And won.
      • It was later clarified that this was ignoring several important factors, such as the pilot's stamina. Yes, the Qan[T] could have killed the entire ELS force... given two straight weeks of continuous battle, which no human being (Innovator or otherwise) would be capable of.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: What happens to those being assimilated is unpleasant.
    • Case in point: If you look closely you can actually see blood on the crystals passing through the skin.
  • Holy Shit Quotient: IF you can actually keep track of what's happening during the battles, your jaw will be on the floor the whole time. Even then, it's still mind-boggling how much action they managed to fit on the screen. Each battle tops the previous one in terms of sheer intensity.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Descartes, the Earth military's first Innovator, is an arrogant dick who is painfully aware that his superiors see him as nothing more than a living weapon. Kati's reaction when she first meets him is about as mixed as the audience's.
  • Narm: Several instances. For one, was the rotating shot of Setsuna's crotch while he was being Mind Raped by the ELS strictly necessary?
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Andrei.
  • Scenery Porn: The closing shot of the Distant Finale.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: The Movie may have ended the 00 universe, but not the number of Setsuna/Marina and Setsuna/Feldt shippers clawing at each others’ throats. In fact, it probably made it worse.
    • In the manga adaptation, which isn't part of the official canon according to Sunrise's policy, Setsuna ends up marrying Marina in the Distant Finale.
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The movie was actually quite effective at getting its message across, but the epilogue just unnecessarily beats you over the head: "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved through understanding."
  • Tear Jerker: Andrei's death, despite his previous status as The Scrappy. The accompanying music was what really did it, though.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Descartes was actually billed as the fifth main character alongside the Gundam pilots, but he's assimilated half-way through the movie. Which ties into...
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Given the early focus on Descartes and his uber-mecha Gadeleza it seems kind of surprising that neither reappears in the movie once the pair have been assimilated.
  • Too Cool to Live: Graham.
  • Too Powerful to Live: Descartes.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The whole movie's animation quality is the best in the Gundam franchise yet, and the battles among the best choreographed ever. Special mention, however, must be given to the flashback of the ELS' origins.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: After the tragic losses he experienced on the first season, getting caught up in the conflict on the second season (and becoming a semi-Sixth Ranger at that time), and introducing the setting of the movie and having his own part in it, it's strange that Saji doesn't get a short screentime among the other characters when everyone was looking at the giant space flower.
  • X Meets Y: Depending on who you ask, the movie is either Gundam meets Star Trek meets The X-Files, or Gundam meets Independence Day meets Transformers. You can even argue that the plot element of the ELS targeting potential Innovators practically comes from Kamen Rider Agito.
    • Or, hey, even "Gundam meets Ender's Game, what with the aliens being unable to understand the individuality/sentience of humankind and the hero traversing time and space to communicate with them and then return years later, no where near the age he should be.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Gundam_00:_Awakening_of_the_Trailblazer/YMMV?oldid=1518696"