Kidou Senshi Gundam 00 Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer

The story was very good, giving us elements that all make sense through the watching. I still don't know how I feel about it, because the relevance for the 00 series is huge and basically it brings it to a closing, still, I felt certain things went too slow and certain things went too quickly. I wanted more character interaction and development and maybe a little less war in space. Of course Gundam is about giant robots and all that shooting, however, I felt they lost too much screen time giving us tech details (ship doors opening and closing, arriving, leaving...) and the final fight got a bit tiring in my perception, I would rather have more character interaction and a bit less shooting, but still I'm really happy about the movie. The story gives us since the beginning this message it's going to be deep and that it will have a major impact in the series, not being just another filler like movie but a very decisive one. The art was amazing from beginning to end, the animation is very well done, the frames and the CGI is very well inserted into the conventional animation, something that sounds really hard to do considering other animes that couldn't use CGI so well. The light, the movement, the angles, the colors, everything seems to be in place, I loved it, a work of art. The sound is beautiful during all the movie, the songs, the effects, however, I found some sound effects a bit annoying and tiring, I know the intention was to show the emergence of the enemy's attack, but because the fighting scenes were quite long, they got me a bit tired, still, the voice acting is excellent and the songs during the movie (specially during the final act) brought me so many emotions, it was beautiful. The characters, I felt like they were enough, however, I missed more character development. Gundam 00 is an anime that succeeded at working many primary, secondary and tertiary characters at the same time thought the episodes, so it's normal fans get really interested in their particular stories, some personal questions remain, like "how did Alleluja met Celestial Being? How did he live until then?", "How was the Lockon brothers' life since their childhood? What did they work with? What did they study?", "How did Tieria came to be? What memories does he have?", as a fan I would have loved if a movie or OVA worked those characters a bit more, maybe something more slice of life. I had a very good time watching this movie, I wasn't bored for a second. In general, the movie is really good, it's among my favorite movies of all time for sure. The message we see at the ending is so beautiful, all the art and the music make the experience so deep and emotional. The way the final act closed is a mix of so many emotions, the solution for the final arc got me teary because of how genuine it was, of how simple the world can be, of how still there's hope for people to see through fear and bad emotions to find peace and understanding. I liked how all the moments were linked to the episodes and to what the anime promises us since the start, for sure it was a big surprise for who decided to watch Gundam 00 thinking it would be only about giant robots fighting, because it's definitely about soooo much more. I think it's a movie that can inspire people to be better.

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 & 2 of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Awakening of the TrailBlazer. Have you ever watched Gundam 00? Have you ever watched Transformers 1 directed by Michael Bay or Independence Day? You have essentially watched this film then, however despite that, I really think there is quite a bit of merit to this film if you seperate it in your own mind from the 00 canon (the Anno Domini timeline). The animation in this movie is some of the best honestly, the action sequences are greatly animated despite some weird choreography and the fact that the aliens that are fought in this movie have no real defining features. All of the upgraded suits get their chances to flex their new weaponry and maneuverability. Getting to see the powerscaling that happened between Season 2 and the time this movie takes place is also something, considering everyone has access to Trans Am now. The usage of CG for the aliens is actually rather natural. I still stand by the fact that this is one of the most beautiful anime movies I've watched. Sound is really nothing that stands out, I loved the OST in the 00 series and also all the intro/ending songs from them, but nothing here really blows my mind. The voice actors in both the dub and sub do a solid performance especially the VA's for Setsuna and Graham as they take a lot of the spotlight in this film. There are a lot of interesting setpieces in this movie that are action movie cliches, examples including Allelujah and Marie being chased by aliens and doing acrobatics for example as well as the entire final act. But the plot itself is all over the place. These aliens are invading Earth, but there is absolutely no reason why. Not only that but the entire theme was to understand what the aliens themselves are thinking, but that is not given to the viewer in any sort of direct way in TrailBlazer. In fact the philosophy of this film is really lacking when compared to the brilliance of 00 season 1 and some of the slightly less brilliant but still thought provoking questions in 00 season 2. Character arcs are all over the place, Setsuna is the only one who's evolving in a way that makes sense following the series. Allelujah, Marie and Lyle all stay relatively the same, but at least Graham dropped the entire Mr. Bushido nonsense which is honestly one of the dumbest fuckest things ever which would have made this movie even worse. Tieria is absolutely useless here which is unfortunate because before Setsuna became OP as fuck, Tieria was easily the best Celestial Being meister and he had my favorite Mobile Suit. Now Tieria is like Navi from the legend of Zelda in which he just sits on Setsuna's shoulder spouting exposition (I know his physical body was destroyed in season 2 and he's been integrated into Veda, that's no excuse for him not to have bodies he can upload his being into). Louis and Saji are in this movie and don't really do much at all, considering the Qan-[T] no longer really needs the 00 Raiser, Saji is truly useless again and Louis' arc has been over despite the fact that it could have been expanded more since she's an innovator. Oh yeah, there are some minor shipping things like Nena Trinity and Billy Katagiri, this makes no sense, but after Sumeragi bitchslapped Katagiri despite him letting her live in his house for 2 years. What even happened during that relationship? Of course Patrick and Kati are a thing, that was inevitable. But a lot of the Hetero couples they seem to be pushing just because they're hetero. Tieria x the curly haired Celestial Being associate despite the fact they have no chemistry really. Both Setsuna x Feldt and Setsuna x Marina have no soul to them, because I just can't see Setsuna as a romantic or compassionate person despite all the changes he's gone through. All of the old ships that have sailed are still great, Allelujah x Soma, Louis x Saji despite having no point in this movie. But enough about shipping, the plot overall is just not that great, aliens are there, why? Fuck you T-1000 that's why. Overall while I did have immense amounts of fun watching all the explosions in this movie, some of the most fun in my life, there are many aspects of this film that are terribly written and ruin the 00 franchise as a whole, opening up a can of worms that can't really be sealed again. For those reasons, Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer gets a 6/10 from me.