Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Only seven days remain until Humanity will be extinct.
"Everyone, this is Celestial Being's... No. This is going to be our last mission."
—Sumeragi Lee Noriega

The first completely new Gundam feature film in 19 years, Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A wakening of the Trailblazer is the continuation of the 2007-2009 series Gundam 00, and is intended to be the Grand Finale of the Anno Domini universe.

The year is 2314. Two years have passed since the defeat of Ribbons Almark, the Innovade who called himself "God", and the world is gradually moving towards peace. In this new world, other people around the planet are beginning to Innovate, including a mysterious man named Descartes Shaman. However, an abandoned probe from an expedition to Jupiter 130 years ago (the same expedition that built the original GN Drives) approaches Earth bringing a new crisis with it, one that threatens all of mankind. Celestial Being, still recovering from their battle with the A-Laws and Innovades, are forced into action to save humanity, and the first true innovator Setsuna F. Seiei finally obtains the Gundam he always wished for. Aeolia Schenberg's plan has moved into its final stage...

In the same way Gundam 00 introduced several new ideas into the Gundam franchise, the film lives up to its name of "Trailblazer". For the first time in the thirty year history of Gundam, A wakening of the Trailblazer introduced a living alien race, known as ELS (Extra-Terrestrial Living-Metal Shape-Shifters).

It was released in Japanese theaters on September 18. A US Premiere took place at the New York Anime Festival on October 10, the DVD/Blu-Ray version was released on December 25 in Japan, and July 5 in America.

Tropes used in Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer include:
  • Adaptation Decay: Parodied hard in the movie within the movie Celestial Being. None of the Gundam Meisters depicted in that movie looks like the real ones. In that movie, Setsuna has a scar in his face, Allelujah is a little girl, Tieria is a Scary Black Man and Lockon is a puny guy with glasses. And that Setsuna is even more Hot-Blooded than the real one!
    • And then for metatropic-irony: Lockon is shown wearing similar glasses in the opening credits before the movie within a movie and then directly after as well.
  • Animation Bump: The whole movie's animation quality is far beyond that of the series, which is to be expected. What really stands out, though, is how much attention the production team gave to small details.
  • Arm Cannon: The Braves' GN Beam Machineguns, and four of the Zabanya's GN Missile Pods.
  • Assimilation Plot: The ELS, who utilize it as their primary means of understanding new objects and concepts.
  • The Atoner: The Federation, especially the soldiers who were members of A-Laws.
  • Attack Drone: All four Gundams have some form of remote weapon, with the Raphael Gundam getting a whole other unit that can itself separate into other Attack Drones.
    • The Gadeleza takes it Up to Eleven with 14 Large GN Fangs (each the size of a mobile suit and packing their own GN Drive) that carry 10 Small GN Fangs apiece, for a grand total of 154.
  • Battle Couple: Doublelujah and SoMarie.
  • Beam Spam: Gundam Zabanya and the Gadeleza. It is glorious.
    • Gundam Harute can use its GN Cannons and GN Swords Rifles to shoot down four targets simultaneously.
  • Better to Die Than Be Killed: Graham's Heroic Sacrifice was induced at least partially by the fact that his mobile suit and himself were in the process of being assimilated by the ELS. Ditto for Andrei, who mounted a suicidal charge against a large ELS ship knowing what would happen. Patrick decides to go out like this as well when his GN-XIV begins to get assimilated, but since this is Patrick he manages to survive. Again. Also Tieria when the Raphael gets hit by the ELS
    • Incidentally the preferred method in all four cases as well as several others involving nameless grunts is Deliberate Overclocking of their unit's Trans-Am System.
  • BFS: The 00 Qan[T] uses an improved version of the Raiser Sword that gashes a massive scar into the ELS' mothership, which is the size of a moon.
  • Big Damn Heroes: The movie loves this trope. It happens no less than four times.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: One of the few sci-fi works to accurately portray just how alien two intelligent species evolving in different solar systems/environments would actually be to one-another. Not to be confused with Lockon's Haros.
  • Body Horror: Assimilation. Your whole body is slowly converted into an alien substance from the inside out that you can actually feel happening...
  • Call Back: Remember the 4th ED, "Trust You"? Watch the ending of the movie, and ask yourself if it isn't at least ironic.
    • Also, the flower that Setsuna was given at the end of season two makes a return and plays a role in the plot.
    • And Setsuna, in his dream sequence/vision, gets to look at a similar flower growing in the desert, like what Setsuna did in the 4th OP.
  • Canon Immigrant: The Flag used by Setsuna to save Marina is an Orbital Colony Guard-Type Flag with a modified GN Sword in place of the linear rifle.
  • Captain Ersatz: Mina Carmine to Nena Trinity, though it's justified. In fact, it may be the other way around. See Identical Stranger below for details.
    • Mina has the same hairstyle that Sumeragi had in the first season of the TV series, which is a smart move for somebody trying to seduce Billy.
  • Christmas Cake: Marina Ismail and Sumeragi Lee Noriega. Both are in their early thirties and still unmarried.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: An interesting case in that both sides take turns curb-stomping each other. Seriously, it's like watching a game of Pong.
  • Dead Person Conversation: Setsuna was able to "talk" with the original Lockon, Christina and Lichty while in a coma.
  • Detachment Combat: The Raphael and Seravee II, in more ways than one: Seravee can detach its legs to create Attack Drone Wave Motion Guns. Best summarized by an internet-goer: "Wait, the Gundam has a giant set of legs on its head. Also the legs are funnels. Also the funnels are a Gundam."
  • Disappears Into Light: While it doesn't involve dying, this is what happened to Setsuna and the 00 Qan[T] after the battle with ELS.
    • They do come back though... 50 years later.
  • Explosive Overclocking: Guess what happens when a GN Drive Tau-equipped mobile suit in Trans-Am is pushed beyond its operational safety limit?
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Too many characters too list.
  • Expy: The 00 Qan[T] has a Bifurcated Weapon, like a certain character in Advent Children. The fact that it's called the GN Buster Sword doesn't help.
    • Descartes Shaman looks like a Bishounen version of Aber Lindt from season two. On the other hand, his Gadelaza looks like a Protoss Carrier.
    • Several fans have pointed out that the ELS' designs are very similar to that of Vorlon ships. Even the first thing Setsuna says to them can be rephrased as "who are you and what do you want".
  • Famous Last Words:

Graham Aker: "Young man! Do you need a beacon to the future? I, Graham Aker, will gladly oblige! This is not death; it's for humankind to live on!" *sniff*
Andrei Smirnov: "I am an Earth Federation soldier; I will protect the civilians!"

  • Fan Service Pack: Mileina Vashti. She's Let Her Hair Down, and wears Zettai Ryouiki.
  • Faster-Than-Light Travel: It turns out that, after analyzing the 00 Raiser's quantization ability, Ian designed the Qan[T] to have a full-blown FTL Drive, called the "Quantum Teleport System". Setsuna uses it to travel to the ELS homeworld, so he can learn more about the ELS and the ELS learn more about humanity through him.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Being assimilated. Seriously, no one deserves that.
  • First Contact: For the first time ever in the Gundam franchise. Sadly, it's one big case of numerous It Got Worse moments piling on top of each other.
  • Five-Man Band:
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Gundam Meisters: Setsuna = phlegm, Allelujah = melancholic, Lockon = sanguine, Tieria = choleric, Marie = supine.
  • Genius Bruiser: Tieria Erde and Lockon Stratos II can be classified as such.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: All initial efforts to communicate with the ELS end up in this fashion.
  • Gratuitous English: Contrary to the title of this article, the official title of the movie is "A wakening of the Trailblazer." While those may very well all be words, no native English speaker would have such an A mazing Use of Spaces.
  • Hacker Cave: Aeolia Schoenberg's lab, with nine monitors and at least five computer towers, embodies this.
  • Heroic Sacrifice / Killed Off for Real: Graham Aker. Fans will miss his GAR-ness.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: In-universe, in the parody movie Celestial Being, all the atrocities of A-Laws was attributed to Alejandro Corner, who was already dead by the end of Season 1.
  • Hollywood Tactics: Gloriously averted with the SolBraves. They masterfully display the ability to actually watch each others' backs, use themselves as decoys to draw enemy fire, and behave like a proper squad all around.
  • Identical Stranger: Mina Carmine looks and sounds a lot like Nena Trinity, to say nothing of the similarity in their first names. What the hell's going on here? Well, according to the novel they're actually very distant relatives, with Mina being born naturally while Nena is a clone of Mina's ancestor.
  • It Got Worse: Basically sums up the whole movie, for both sides. To name a few though:
    • A massive fleet of ELS appears, having enough mass to pull two of Jupiter's moons close enough to the planet to tear them apart via tidal forces.
    • ESF mobile suits and Celestial Being's Gundams wiping the floor with the ELS fleet, which is answered by the ELS eventually assimilating a few GN-XIV and turning into them.
    • That huge fleet that appears from Jupiter and has the Earth terrified? Absolutely dwarfed by the appearance of the main unit, a command ship the size of the Moon.
    • The Gadelaza showing up and wiping out a massive amount of ELS on its own, which is subsequently assimilated by the ELS.
    • The Celestial Being firing its Wave Motion Gun and nearly cutting the ELS planetoid in half, which in return is answered by the ELS creating a barrier powerful enough to stop its second shot.
    • The appearance of the 00 Qan[T], and the Zabanya and Harute subsequently handing the ELS their collective asses.
    • Rather early on, Allelujah and Marie encounter the ELS without knowing what they are. They are nearly hit by a self-driven jeep, which they dodge. They then try escaping, but are being chased by another ELS-jeep. They split up and it chases Marie automatically. Until Hallelujah kicks in and the ELS switch their target to him. He manages to run away, by climbing up on a roof top, from where he shouts: "Haha! See if you can catch me now!"... The ELS respond by having a helicopter rise behind him.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Marina Ismail bids farewell to her Tall, Dark and Bishoujo days by the end of the film. She doesn't just age well, but also becomes blind. She gets better in the manga adaptation.
    • Possibly subverted by Klaus Grado, who more or less turn into a Cool Old Guy.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: Setsuna F. Seiei, in a meta sense.
  • Large Ham: The entire cast of Celestial Being: The Movie.
  • Last Stand: The ESF forces in the final battle fought valiantly and struggled with more than they had, but it's clear to everyone within a few minutes of battle - if not before - that they are hopelessly outnumbered "ten-thousand-to-one", and stand no hope for victory. The battle ultimately becomes an attempt to fight for just enough time for Setsuna to wake up from his coma and pilot the 00 Qan[T].
  • Le Parkour: Hallelujah has fun using this to avoid alien-possessed vehicles. He was perplexed at what to do when the helicopter came after him, however.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Harute, designed for zero-gravity combat. The prototype Brave units qualify, as well.
    • Doubly so for the Gadeleza, considering it’s even larger than the Ptolemaios Kai.
  • Lip Lock: The English dub suffers from this in a few places. Fortunately, they're small in number, and the dub as a whole manages to avert this.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Gundams Zabanya and Harute, along with the Gadelaza.
  • Male Gaze: Billy's POV shot when Mina hits on him on the ride up the orbital elevator.
  • The Messiah: Setsuna F. Seiei
  • Mid Movie Upgrades: Setsuna pilots three MS in this film, starting off with a modified Flag, then the repaired 00 Raiser (which doesn't have any GN Drives), and finally gaining the 00 Qan[T] near the end of the film. Lockon also pilots his late brother's Gundam Dynames while rescuing Allelujah and Marie, then using the Gundam Zabanya against the ELS.
  • Mind Rape: Setsuna's first attempt to contact the ELS puts him in a coma for most of the film.
    • Happens on a mass scale to all the potential Innovators on Earth when the ELS try to communicate with them.
  • Older and Wiser: Saji Crossroad, now a war veteran who has fought against the A-Laws.
  • One-Man Army: All four Gundams and the Gadelaza, thanks to liberal application of Attack Drones, Beam Spam, Macross Missile Massacre (but only for three of them), and Wave Motion Guns.
  • Overclocking Attack: The preferred method of ESF pilots to avoid assimilation; see Explosive Overclocking above.
  • Pet the Dog: H/Allelujah and Graham both received this in a meta-sense, given how the two were significantly sidelined (especially the former) in the series. The two were given good chunks of screen time in this film with the latter even being promoted to the Sixth Ranger role.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Continues the tradition in true Gundam style, though in this case it's justified by the two parties having no idea how to communicate with each other.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Andrei Smirnov finally pays his penance for killing Sergei two years prior.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Marute Mode, which not only turns the Harute's eyes red but also reveals four more.
  • Rousseau Was Right (White and White Morality)
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Two notable aversions exist:
    • The ELS have a giant, spherical battleship that increases the gravitational pull of Jupiter enough to cause two of its moons to be pulled in from their orbit and ripped apart by tidal forces. Later, the battleship approaches Earth, and the effects of something the size of The Moon are pointed out.
    • At first, it seems to be played straight with the Gadelaza: There's no practical reason for making a mobile armor the size of a cruiser packing seven GN Tau Drives and 14 MS-sized "Large GN Fangs" that each store 10 regular-sized "GN Fangs" and boast their own GN Drive Tau. The ESF might have been better off replacing the Gadelaza with an actual cruiser and the GN Fangs with GN-XIIIs, GN-XIVs, or Braves. Then you remember that it's stated to have better performance than five mobile suit platoons.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: Played with. Though Graham Aker's suicide did help Setsuna do what he needed to do, when you realize that the ELS never intended to destroy humanity and that it was all a misunderstanding, it becomes even more bittersweet. Of course, that’s all just par for the course in this franchise.
  • Serial Escalation: Pretty much the entire movie, but especially the second half/final battle. The scope, as indicated by the director, was so far beyond anything ever done in Gundam before that it was mind-boggling. And awesome.
  • Shout-Out: the Katharon ship in the "Celestial Being" movie is Axis.
    • The final fight seems reminiscent to the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi, except Setsuna does not "escape alive" from the "Death Star", which instead of exploding turns into a giant flower.
  • Silicon-Based Life: The ELS, although they also have properties similar to those of mercury.
  • Show Within a Show: The beginning of the movie starts with Saji and a few of his friends watching a movie glorifying Celestial Being's actions in the series. It. Is. Hilarious.
    • A certain fansub group even threw in some meta Stylistic Suck along with a Take That during this scene. Most of the subtitles are in Comic Sans, nearly every line has a completely unnecessary translator's note, words like "kisama", "teki" and "ore-tachi" are left untranslated, while words originally in English like "Celestial Being" are translated to their Japanese counterpart, and called attacks get distracting karaoke fonts. Anyone who has ever watched poorly-done fansubs will be in stitches.
  • Spiritual Successor: the Solbraves to the original Overflags from Season 1. The Brave Commander Type to Graham's Custom Flag, and the Brave Standard Type to the Overflag itself.
  • Starfish Aliens: The ELS.
  • Storm of Blades: Harute's Scissor Bits. It's fun to imagine the Oh Crap looks in the ELS' minds when those things let loose.
    • The 00 Qan[T]'s Sword Bits are capable of the same thing, but we never actually get to see it.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Harute's Marute Mode, which was specifically designed to be used by Hallelujah.
  • Super Prototype: Played with six ways to Sunday: The Zabanya and Harute use the recycled frames of the Cheridum and Arios from season two of the series; the 00 Raiser Repair is just that: the 00 Raiser but without any GN Drives; the Raphael uses technology derived from the Gadessa series, but aside from packing three GN Tau Drives isn't anything new; the GN-XIV and Brave units are limited production models for elite pilots; and the 00 Qan[T] and Gadelaza are actually Super Prototypes. Now guess which ones do the most damage to the ELS.
  • Take That: The Show Within a Show itself is one to movies and TV shows alike that tend to romanticize the winning side and vilifying the other so much (as Saji pointed out), which are so prevalent in Real Life. The way the Gundam Meisters are casted also mocks the racial and gender stereotyping in Hollywood (e.g. Tieria the Scary Black Man and Allelujah the little hot chick). The message of this show, in other words, seems to be, "Tired of the same old Good vs Evil stories? We've got a new one!"
  • Tempting Fate: After Hallelujah escapes ELS controlled trucks by getting on a roof he says "See if you can catch me now!" *cue ELS controlled helicopter*
  • Token Evil Teammate: Hallelujah, who is that?!
  • Took a Level in Badass: Patrick gained some serious levels since his Butt Monkey days in the series. All the proof you need is to see him in action during the final battle. Plus, he's the only Federation ace that survives.
  • Trailers Always Lie / Trailers Always Spoil: Early trailers used the early, incomplete designs of the Gundams as well as other designs which haven't appeared since. More recent trailers unveiled the complete Gundam designs along with more of their abilities, and included the appearances of the ELS, a repaired 00 Raiser, and Ribbons Almark. Then again, if the trailers are anything like the series’ opening credits...
    • Where should we begin? Decartes Shaman is just a minor ESF soldier, "Ribbons" merely one of the countless Innovades that share the same genetic baseline, the real war is with ELS and not the ESF... the list can go on and on.
  • Transforming Mecha: Harute, the Braves, and Setsuna's modified Flag. Arguably the Gadelaza as well.
  • Wave Motion Gun: The Gadelaza's "GN Blaster", which can plow though multiple ships in a single shot and was the only ESF weapon capable of stopping the derelict space station.
    • Less impressive but also present are the 00 Qan[T]'s GN Buster Rifle and the Raphael's GN Big Cannons. Not to be outdone, Harute can combine its GN Cannons and GN Sword Rifles' outputs to create this effect, and Zabanya's Attack Drones have a gimmick that does the same thing.
    • The Veda particle laser is so powerful that it can shoot a beam straight through a Moon sized spaceship.
  • Wave Motion Tuning Fork: The beam rifles used by the new Brave mobile suits, the Gadelaza's Wave Motion Gun, and the Zabanya’s Rifle Bits. The 00 Qan[T] can make one by attaching its Sword Bits to the GN Sword V, and the Harute can tune it's GN Sword Rifles and GN Cannons together.
  • We Could Have Avoided All This: The ELS’ attempts at assimilation weren't for the destruction of humanity, but an attempt to understand them. Had they told this to Setsuna instead of Mind Raping him when he tried to understand them, this whole debacle would never have happened. Then again, this is a Gundam movie, so it's pretty much par for the course.
    • Keep in mind, however, that it was pretty clear the ELS had serious trouble communicating with human minds, and the Mind Rape was an unintentional side-effect of this. The ELS did try to communicate back, but there was so much information for even Setsuna's Innovator brain. Setsuna only succeeded in communicating with the ELS via Veda's help.
    • On the other hand, judging by the images Setsuna receives at the end, the ELS have "communicated" several other sentient species into extinction, along with their entire biospheres. Also worth considering is that just as the Federation delegates questioned whether the ELS were sentient or even alive, the ELS may not have considered humans sentient. After all, their Hive Mind holds so much more information than ours that they may see us the way we see ants: alive, but with intelligences so puny that it's "okay" to kill them en masse. Had Setsuna not communicated with them and shown that humans are sentient, the ELS may very well have assimilated every living thing on Earth.
      • This doesn't seem to be the case, since they were perfectly content to leave Earth alone until people with quantum brainwaves started emerging, which appears to be the universal indication for advanced sentient life in the Gundam 00 universe. Though the ELS don't perceive this as attacking or destruction; they simply seek to understand other life-forms with same capabilities in the only way they know. Setsuna provides them with alternate method of communication along with the basic understanding of human psyche, which is a satisfying solution for them.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The subplot from the series involving Feldt's feelings for Setsuna and whether or not they were requited is still left unresolved, much to the annoyance of some.

(Translation of this image from the movie guide.)
Question: Even if Feldt was that close to him, she did not get close to [knowing] his true feelings?
Mizushima: That’s right. Feldt was told by Sumeragi, “Think of him”, but Setsuna says, “What is this uncomfortable feeling…?” It is a scene where a different matter can be thought of. It is certainly symbolic. Humans communicate using words, but there are things that are not transmitted. I wanted to show these kinds of communication difficulties in the movie. Vague but seems to imply at least that Feldt's feelings weren't rejected rather Setsuna's true feelings are an open-ended question mark.

  • Where Are They Now? Epilogue: The movie begins with one for the second season, showing where all the major players are after two years. It also ends on this note, showing the world several decades into the future with Earth's first interstellar ship about to launch, but only touching upon the fates of a small majority of the characters.
  • Where It All Began: The first part of the stinger shows an interview with Aeolia Schenberg explaining his motivations.
  • The Worf Effect: The whole reason of introducing Descartes Shaman and the Gadelaza was to show how powerful the ELS were and how hopeless the situation was.
    • Also the 00 Raiser. You know you're screwed when your resident God Mech get's easily assimilated.
  • You Should Know This Already: Everything that happened in the series.
  • Zerg Rush: The ELS’ tactic against the ESF and Celestial Being. They are also able to absorb any enemy units that so much as grazes them for their own purposes.
    • The Gadeleza packs enough GN Fangs to pull this off on its own.
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