Hey everybody this is Patz the Anime Banzai resident mecha freak here. I have decided to take over writing episode reviews for Gundam 00 and at the moment I am just going to start with the most recently aired episode and with time go back and do some write-ups on the episodes that have passed. So lets get to it.

When episode 18 closed we saw Setsuna about to engage the Gundam Thrones in action. As it turns out this is only the start because while Setsuna is fighting Tieria and Lockon end up joining in on the action to stop the Thrones because they have decided that once they started attacking civilians that the Thrones are nothing better then terrorists.

The fight between these two groups was quite a sight to see and showed just how well the Meisters really work together as a team. The most bizarre thing that came out of it though was when Tieria activated the Nadleeh Gundam and seems to have some kind of trump card known as the Trial System that only he possesses that allows him to disable any other units that are linked in to Veda. The fight sadly ends in a bit of a stalemate with the Thrones just deciding to run away.

Next we are back with Saji and Louise in the hospital. It seems that Louise has decided that Saji needs to return home to Japan to go back to school. She basically tells him that she wants to see him follow his dream of working in space and tells him to succeed at his dream for her. It then enters into a montage of Louise and Saji in their relationship. These 2 are the biggest wild card in the series so far. From what it seems we have most likely seen the last of Louise for a little while but I for one hope that it isn’t the end for her character. It still leaves where the hack is everything going with Saji. I can speculate forever on this character but I think the only thing I can say for sure is that it is driving me nuts wondering when he will become significant.

What we are left with in this episode is the confrontation between Setsuna and Lockon because as it turns out Setsuna was a member of the KPSA a terrorist group who seems to be responsible for the deaths of Lockon’s family. This is one of those things I just don’t really get. It seemed a little forced to have these 2 characters connected together in that way. First off I thought Lockon and his family were from Ireland which just begs the question why was a middle eastern terrorist group attacking the Irish. But oh well it gave us some decent insight into both of these characters which is something that we have needed for awhile. But at the same time it makes us wonder what the heck is going on with Tieria because at the end of this whole thing he says something along the lines of “So this is a human”. The thing is he says it in a tone that comes off as if he wasn’t one himself.

The ending is the part that really has me wondering where the heck this show is going. As the episode comes to a close we are shown a shot of men representing the 3 nations in Antarctica going down some kind of service elevator and entering into a room with what looks like has 30 GN Drives sitting in it. This would mean that some mysterious party is actually handing over these tools to the nations almost as if they are trying to keep war going for the long haul which is basically the opposite of what Celestial Being is supposed to be doing. Which begs the question who is making these drives. It is safe to assume that they are the same kind of fake drives that are being used to power the Thrones. It seems that this is all looking like it is going to come to a head very soon which actually has me very worried and excited because with only 6 episodes left before the show goes on Hiatus it is looking like things are going to be just loaded with major developments and action but at the same time I am starting to feel that we might end up being left with some kind of major cliffhanger at the end of this season which just makes me nervous to think about.