Thread: Gundam 00 - Gundam for Girls, Take 2

So I picked up an issue of PASH! against my own better judgement. In spite of it having a Code Geass cover, the lead story actually is on Gundam 00. Read it last night before bed...

Some background-- PASH! is an anime magazine for women. When I say "women", I mean incredibly lonely unmarried doujinshi authors who eat instant ramen for dinner every night and wear the same socks for weeks at a time. Taking that into account, perhaps this information is "biased"... but Gundam 00 is shaping out to be pretty... well... fanservicey.

Exhibit A:

Character designs by Kouga Yun.

Kouga Yun is the shoujo/Boy's Love artist responsible for Loveless (BL), Eathian (BL), Genji (shoujo/BL), Gestalt (shoujo, w/gender swapping), Crown (shoujo). She also began her career as a member of a Boy's Love doujinshi circle that slashed mainly Naruto (Kakashi/Iruka), Neon Gensis Evangelion (Kaworu/Shinji), and Yu Yu Hakusho (Kurama/Hiei, Karasu/Kurama).


Exhibit B:

This:



larger version in the gallery here: http://www.animeonline.net/gallery/s...9/limit/recent

Follow the eyelines... pairings are already implied

The promotion material nearly always shows Setsuna and Rockon next to one another and Tieria and Areruya are always together too... Ages and heights match the "rule of BL" (meaning that one partner is older/taller and is dominant)

Even their colors are complimentary: Blue/Green and Orange/Purple


Exhibit C:

Setsuna = stoic, raised within a constantly warring society, desensitized to violence, short, arabic, the "shotacon" character, messy black hair (ie. Heero + Quatre)

Lockon = always smiling, open, from a Western country, longish brunette hair, blue-eyed, "brother"-figure (ie. Duo)

Areruya = stoic, muscular, tall, quiet, spikey bangs completely obscuring one eye (ie. Trowa)

Tieria = "femenine", mysterious, stoic, quiet, "beautiful"... (we'll call him Wufei, though he's actually probably just another concession to fangirls... from the way he's being described and promoted and lack of an appropriate corresponding female character, he may ACTUALLY turn out to be gay)

There are obvious love-interests in the cast for two of the four, but that's never stopped the fangirls before:

Feruto is obviously meant for Setsuna, since they're the only two similarly-aged characters and seem intentionally designed to look pretty together.

Christina is likely for Lockon but doesn't seem "iconic" enough to end up being a main love interest. Maybe Sumeragi or Marina? (Whichever doesn't end up with Lockon will likely end up with Patrick)

That leaves Wan Lu Min for one of the boys who's left... and one boy out in the cold...

Just like Quatre in Wing.

Final male to Female ratio - 11:7

Wing's "friendly" sort of racism is also present with Chinese characters who wear traditional chinese clothing around for no explicable reason and wear hairstyles that actual Chinese people haven't used for over a hundred years. They'll probably also have ridiculous accents.

I'm more certain than ever that this is the 2nd shot at "shoujo Gundam", Wing being the first. My friend Matt is squirming in his seat, convinced that this is going to implode into a giant cascade of "emo girly bullshit"... October is very far away.


Predictions -

Who's going to die: Lockon (the big snuffly death, near the end), Patrick, one or all of the "Japan" high school students (since they seem like perfectly well, adjusted and happy children... just the sort who are easily used to illustrate the horrors of war), Graham, 2 of the following - Christina, Rasse, Rihitendaaru (cockpit fodder)

The big doujinshi pairings: Lock/Set, Al/Ti, Mariana/Feruto, faceless gangs/Sumeragi (the "boob" character)

Speaking of breasts... Feruto is only 14 and she's a D-cup >_< argh!