The removal of the face vents from the Gundam suits in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 changed the whole aura of the mechs. The face vents gave the robots a human element, as they looked similar to a mouth. The mouth made the machines look much less menacing. It obviously helped that the Gundams were the good guys in most of the prior anime, so the look disarmed a lot of viewers. Whereas, the mouthless introduction gave them a mysterious and shrouded vibe that clouded the intentions of the people piloting them.
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It’s a great way to bring in the faction known as Celestial Being that the Gundams were a part of. The intentions of the group were unknown, but don’t seem wholly good. As it turned out, the group is a band of anti-heroes in some sense. They wanted to stop the wars around the world by intervening themselves. It’s essentially violence to stop violence, which is far from a perfect mission. It’s killing to stop the deaths of the innocent. Americans can definitely connect the dots from these Gundam pilots to the heroes in Gundam Wing. The heroes in that series were called assassins and somehow this group’s secretive aesthetic feels eerily similar.
Their New Appearance Was Ready For War
Throughout most Gundam series there are mobile suits that didn’t have anthropomorphic features, but they weren’t gundams either. They were mobile suits that featured visors or the iconic mono-eyes. Most of those units were seen as foot soldiers or innumerable fodder to throw at the opposing enemy. Usually, Gundams slice through mono-eye units in seconds, so they don’t carry the same significance as their stronger, main character counterparts.
Gundam 00 flipped this concept around, but it also built off some past models that featured mouthless mechs. Mobile Fighter G Gundam did a great job of denoting when fights were about to ratchet up with Shining Gundam. Most conflicts showed the Shining Gundam taking a beating in its normal form, which would then result in Domon Kashu’s anger transforming the robot into its super mode. This power-up split the mouth portion open and unveiled a bright red shroud face underneath. Shining Gundam would then use shining finger and usually win the battle.
American audiences gathered a baseline from the look that an expressionless face meant business. It always signified that the intensity of the fight was raised. In the same way, Gundam 00 introduced the units as far superior machines to the rest of the world’s militaries. Furthermore in this universe, Gundams hadn’t existed prior to the show, so it was a fresh start from a design standpoint.
Rogue Outfit Deserved Tougher Look
Celestial Being brought the hammer of unbiased justice down onto a warring world. It didn’t carry an allegiance to a particular country, and a faceless look fit that. They also drop in unannounced and exit the scene just as quickly giving them a spy vibe. They come in and accomplish their mission swiftly but don’t want to cause extensive, unneeded damage to anyone else.
Fair or unfair, they’re also labeled as “terrorists” to politicians across the world, so they fit from a narrative level too. They have a look that can be manipulated by anyone and act as threats to any country. This means nations have to band together and set aside their differences in order to stop a greater threat, which is exactly what Celestial Being wants. Did you like the new look of the gundams in Gundam 00? Let us know in the comments.
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