Gundam 00 - Once More, with Feeling
Despite the server problems I experienced yesterday, I ended up writing a ton of crap this week that has nowhere to go. I feel sorry for you to have to read it here. Twice so if you tried to make a comment.
Anyways, yes, civilians. Noncombatants. Well, not the same exactly. But them darn things that you can’t shoot while in a war. I think. Perhaps better put, the everyday person in society. Gundam 00’s audience is squarely, as you can tell, college kids and younger. Just old enough to join the army amirite? (Yes, that means Saji and Louise–I believe they are the focal couple in this show as society’s measuring stick. Perhaps a perfect world is one where you could have a good-natured spoiled brat drag her Japanese BF to go to the mall IN SPACE and carry her crap.)
In fact, it might even be that unless you look at it from the eyes of an innocent civilian, you might not understand what the point of the exercise was.
I’m pretty close to 100% sure that, actually, Gundam 00 is about peace. It’s not really about war, or rather, war is merely an aspect of peace. It might be a human force, it might suck, it might be hell; war is a lot of things, but that is not the key message. It might not even be the key message in more Gundam show than one. Turn-A is the one other that comes to mind.
I think it’s also important to keep in mind the creators and the audience of these shows. For example, if you want to talk about pacifism, that’s fine, but I don’t think anyone cares about pacifism besides that it exists, and people should be sympathetic to people who are pacifists. On the other hand, people who make giant robots that blow stuff up (hi Billy!) are cool because giant robots that blow stuff up are cool! To people who like Gundam, hurr hurr.
The changing face of war, however, proves to be something anime has to change to match. That’s just how life is today. Something like Full Metal Panic might work as a good example. However I think Gundam 00 does a better job because it goes a step further and actually subverts the nature of authoritative nation-states and present us with the bigger picture. [I could explain more about the rightness or wrongness of consensus, the detached decision making process based on imperfect information, and all that. I hope you should be able to understand this on your own. But this assumption is important.]
A common trope in military anime is the “secret government project.” This trope helps writers to come up with expensive, above-the-law yet plausible operations that could only be given blessing by the government (should it be in-house or contracted). This is to be contrasted with the “autonomous militaristic force” trope that might color fear of abuse a shade closer to the hearts of today’s world (eg., ALAW). I think Gundam 00 goes yet another step further with “the terrorists are actually right” concept except, obviously, the protagonists are the terrorists, so we don’t realize the absurdity of it.
But are they really terrorists? The Celestial Beings remained an armed and militant organization to the very end, that applied violence as they wish. If there was order to the world they should be brought to justice. The ending of the show gave them an ambiguous status, like, I don’t know, Batman. But I think that might make them terrorists.
Which is actually a relatively rare concept in Gundam. Most of the time we’d expect more Switzerland (or the Vietcong) than Batman out of something that operates out of Just Yet Another White Base–that it should carry the sovereignty of a nation-state. At least that’s how Gundam SEED handled it, for another post 9-11 Gundam. I guess it’s a Mithril-style compromise, just like how in FMP they were sanctioned by nations but were also officially (in secret) recognized, and Swiss-like, even if they were just a bunch of mercenaries.
These organizations of military intervention (I don’t think calling this war-anything is productive) have to find a face and a role in a mostly-at-peace world. In FMP, they fought normal terrorists, armed with suicide bombs and typical motives–greed and vengeance. But in Gundam 00, our protagonists existed for the sake of military intervention (but not in the fight itself, as we saw in Mr. Bushido or Ali Al-Saachez). In practice, Mithril in FMP provides just a setting, an interface that puts a crazy guy like Sousuke in an environment like an anime high school. It provides Sousuke with war funds, toys, and a reason to do something irrational (as a guy who is totally rational otherwise. Recall that FMP is foremost a high school hijinks, comedy concept…). In Gundam 00, the notion of Celestial Being puts our Meisters more along the line of cult-ish, brain-washed soldiers. That was Setsuna, after all. Why are they going along willy nilly by the plans of some dead guy? Just how much genetic engineering and tinkering of the brain did they do? Quite a bit, for Tieria and many others.
The face of violence is no longer about men with messed-up upbringing or strange motives. It’s not about normal people who turn into criminals. Our enemies are ingrained, inconsolable from some perspectives, and born to kill (or to give you tender, loving, HILLING CARE LULZ). They are like Setsuna before his encounter with RibbonJesus. And after RibbonJesus, too. What’s more, our enemies could be anywhere. They could be your next-door neighbor, or your lover. They could be your brother, parent, or old friend. They could be your god. (This is a key thing about terrorism, actually.)
This is why Setsuna has to change. So he can kill his god. Or whatever that is your god in your life (to put it in Protestant terms).
And why do that? Not because those things lead to war and war sucks–well, maybe that’s a motivation for Setsuna. I believe when we start to ask why war sucks, we’ve already failed. Perhaps we can better ask: why did Lockon felt like he has to change? Because he knows that’s the price. Price of what? I think peace is a good, stock answer. But Sumeragi actually nails it better–it’s the price of a future that you desire. And I think that’s why we get this flashback like three times in the second season. I believe Setsuna realized why during that exchange and it started him on this weird, deus-ex-machina-y path. Of course, it helped that he actually changed thanks to magical GN particles or whatever. LULs.
To summarize, three things:
- War is contextualized in many ways; the portrayal in Gundam 00 paints a new war. The enemy of this century.
- It’s still GAR and cool to protect those you love, but that’s just one out of several possibilities as presented in Gundam 00. Setsuna (and Lockon, similarly) fought for a future that wouldn’t victimize people like him; Tieria fought for humanity’s future in general; Sumeragi did it for herself and her ideals (it’s her alcohol in a way). Everyone in the show had a reason. Gundam 00 paints an intensively personal concept of armed conflict. [This is also the FMP: The Second Raid in a nutshell.] Perhaps this is the face of war today versus of our parents’ generation, where we are no longer just grunts–no one is truly innocent if he is empowered by a system of government or a way to do something to change and strive for the future he desires.
- The nature of conflict, because it’s so personal, is also pervasive. The conflicts themselves are smaller in scope but they are just as significant in consequences. The battle is for the heart of people in a world increasing interconnected.
Gundam 00 - A New State of War
Just to continue on this post, as there’s no time is better than the present to talk about Gundam 00 right when it is wrapping up.
I find Gundam 00, fundamentally, a very refreshing show because it is a good change in direction from the traditional look at Gundam. By that I don’t mean it had a break from tradition–quite the contrary I think it’s well within the bounds of your average UC-style Gundam with some AC bits mixed in–but there’s a good feeling about its modernization. Of course, it’s not really a UC Gundam series, but that’s why the changes that we saw fit so much better. It’s tempting to look at Gundam’s rich history and draw from that to talk about Gundam 00, but I think that would be missing the point. I’m sure it will not be a futile exercise, but maybe for another time.
The mentality in 00 struck me, as said, modern. Specifically, it is a post 9/11 mentality. When the Twin DriveTower came down on that fateful day, I was about an hour away. Since then, I was (and still am) surrounded by people who has witnessed its tragic visuals in the first person. It struck me as silly as to why it didn’t occur to me so much earlier to think about Gundam 00 in those terms–not so much how Americans see the post-9-11 world, but how the Japanese see it.
Gundam 00’s idea about conflict has drastically shifted, even when its core idea, the stripped down theme that is easy to digest for the audience, hasn’t changed much. However, during the Cold War, the notion of global war was a relatively simple, black-and-white construction (as much as you’d teach grade schoolers, anyways). After the Cold War, things were less so. But after 9/11, as Hiruken Emperor says it best, our enemies are no longer here or there, a thing to be grappled or zapped. Did it couple with Japan’s lost decade, ending in early 2000? Perhaps. I believe that is its real namesake; this decade is why Gundam 00 exists.
To Japan, as I’ll paraphrase from I heard from some Japanese academic, 9/11 and the American response was a global change in the way international politics and power moved and shook; a change in the dynamics of the world. Perhaps more than 8 years later people have more or less gotten back to normal, but I think the mark it has left on the mind of an entire generation of people–not just Americans, but all who are connected to America through today’s increasingly globalized economy and culture.
This generation of teenagers and 20-somethings are people who have no recollection of the tension of the Cold War, of the scars of Vietnam and the conflicts that broke out all over the world as a result. Perhaps 00 is just trying to teach us the price of peace we enjoy today, in its own way, as repackaged for a post-9-11 world.
Year in Review: She’s Going the Distance, a Great Feat of Strength
Going to mention a list of 12 lists of 12 items each. So a nested list. All 144 items. Annotated for the most part. Don’t ask me why I use these pronouns the way I do…
Mecha as Fig Leaves, Not as Genres
This post is a response to Daniel’s post on mecha as genre.
I think going down his line of abstraction is a little too much. I mean, yeah, once you boil it down a Gundam is just a projection of one’s earthly desires into heroism. Why does Superman fly? Why is Nono topless? The difference is perhaps one of idolatry versus escapist, self-insertion, and the boat floats either way you row your pickle.
But just because they both float, it doesn’t mean they are the same thing.
And I think it’s times like this we can really appreciate anime like Evangelion because it puts a face on a notion that the world has struggled with and responded (or rather, reacted to?) with great interest. It’s so very apt that Evangelion copied from Judeo-Christian and gnostic myths, because this is all very religious. And often times classic mecha anime have a sense of institution and formality to it that is not unlike some earthen religion or Hinduism.
Still, I think Daniel’s post paves the way to model the core components of a hero story. There are three core elements: the hero, the heorics, and the the audience. What makes a show tick is how the viewer relate and perceive the relationship between the hero and the heroics. What is unique about mecha from any other hero story–that separates BGC from Nanoha, let’s say–is the identity of this projection as we perceive it. What makes mecha anime different than others like it is that this projection has god-like attributes. And I don’t just mean in terms of physical powers, but also socially and in the psyche of our heroes (ie. they serve the same role as gods in the real world).
In other words, the hero is the heroics–you can’t have a mecha anime like that.
Would you pray to it? Many mecha heroes did. Some with tears, many with passionate screams, some speak the language and can reprogram really fast.
Some easy example of this are Evangelion and Neo Ranga. The mecha themselves serve not only as an extension of a will and desire for our heroes, but they are a pathway, a means, to achieve something beyond what powers might bring. In Neo Ranga’s case, it played the role from god to oracle to judge to house pet. In Eva’s case it’s not only man’s last defense, but also a road to total destruction of man…and a comfortable hole for an emo-head to hide in. It’s gooey, warm, and feels a lot like mom. Or in Xenoglossia’s case, the boyfriend you wish you had.
Everything before Eva can be seen as a road leading up to it. Is not Astroboy an embodiment of godhood in human society? Read much Shirow lately?
Gundam 00 played this up a notch with Setsuna’s complex, right? Silly teenage extremist. By the way I thought that was the most brilliant part of Gundam 00.
(Actually several Gundam series deal with this in a pretty amusing way. Such as when a mecha pilot put too much trust in the latest tech, only to be let down by the false god.)
What is god in the Nanoha universe? Sweat, blood, tears, lesbian undertonesnever-ending power of heart, and incremental upgrades of a deadly mix between tech and magic. Ancient prophecies, modern inventions and everything in between play a role. But none of it materializes as god. If anything, Nanoha is like Hercules; if there’s a claim to godhood, it would the worship of her (and not Raising Heart… If Daniel said Mai-Hime, however, he’d be right on). I always thought what was worshipped in the Nanoha series is a sense of ethics, of right and wrong.
Anyways, can we say the same thing about the Gurren-Lagann? Is that why the second half of the series was as hollow as it was?
And I think it gets into the divide between super robots and real robots?
And that is the difference between an age of darkness and an age of enlightenment. (Yes, yes, Mobile Suit Gundam brought upon the anime world an age of enlightenment; we all can agree on that I hope.) If we think of science and technology as the god of this age, it all makes sense? And what better symbol of modern technological advancement are there than made-in-Japan humanoid weapons? Well, maybe mutated giant tentacle monsters as an alternative (and they exist in mecha anime, even). The fiction of science went well with the fiction of god-idol-heroes; they’re peas in a pod.
What made the Evangelion so profound-seeming (to clarify my earlier point) is how it handled a duality of modern gods. Mankind has always understood deities to be both kind and cruel; but it wasn’t until the past few hundred years that we questioned their identity in an organized manner; are gods really gods? And with gods we can understand (eg. science & technology, even if it’s alien), we can make stories out of them that deal with this issue. Evangelion simply took that to a step beyond gods, to the ultimate creator of such gods–man himself. Evagelion did more than just took an axe to a tree, it took a lance and pierced the veil that separated imagination from our unconscious guilt.
Once we have understood construction of gods (as defined by real robots), we worship that faceless, personless understanding and no longer the personality which we now understand. The super robot magic is lost when this happens. In Gurren Lagann’s case, we have ourselves a real robot anime with the trapping of a super robot show (at about half way through the second arc), although by then we have a lot of pretty stuff on the screen to distract us. And will Nia be saved?
I believe the opposite perspective coincidentally, is held by Gunbuster–a proper, modern day miracle where science + heart overcomes obstacles size of stars. Of course, part of the ordeal within Gurren Lagann is one that does not have a textbook happy ending, it’s thoroughly post-Evangelion. Congratulations, Simon.
And that is why things like Turn-A Gundam are so interesting.
Maybe that is why well-adjusted teenage boys and girls watch shows like Naruto and Bleach where the focus is on interpersonal relationships, and not on why my giant robot is better than your giant robot?
[Either way, when you get old enough, you will learn to appreciate Blade Runner, and by extension, Bubble Gum Crisis. That gets to the next point: I admit, I’m pretty weak from the sentai side of things, and it helps to have a healthy understanding of that genre to talk mecha. They are close relatives after all.]
Animazement 2008 Gundam Panel
This panel was a bit of a washout. There was probably 50 people tops in the room. People didn’t really get into asking questions.
The panelists were (left to right) Kotono Mitsuishi, Keiko Han and Mitsuo Fukuda.
No lynch crowd!
With a straining voice, the MC introduced the panelists to us. We then watched a clip out of Gundam Seed Destiny. Man, that was actually kind of cool?
