Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 2 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season (機動戦士ガンダム00 <ダブルオー> セカンドシーズン, Kidō Senshi Gundam Double O Second Season), also known as Gundam 00 Season 2, is a 2008 original television anime series directed by Seiji Mizushima, produced by studio Sunrise and a continuation to the 2007 anime series. Staff credits also include writer Yōsuke Kuroda, character designers Michinori Chiba & Yun Kouga, and music composer Kenji Kawai. The second season aired in Japan in October 2008.

Brief Unboxing Note:

This unboxing has been updated on December 2023 to amend its page design but also add additional context to some parts of the write-up. Everything else has been left unchanged from the original post.

Background:

“The year is 2312 A.D.; four years after the United Nation forces destroyed Celestial Being. Thanks to the actions of the now-missing Gundam Meisters, most of the world’s nations have been unified under the Earth Sphere Federation. But this world is still full of conflict, and an autonomous peacekeeping force known as the A-LAWS employs brutal tactics such as the use of murderous automatons in order to suppress all resistance to the Federation government.

It is time for the Gundam Meisters to make their second advent, and their new objective is to crush this formidable force of global oppression. Setsuna reappears with his battered Gundam and joins forces with Tieria, who has been working with the remnants of Celestial Being to create a new series of Gundams using their precious solar reactors. As they try to recruit a new member and rescue an old comrade, a revolutionary new machine known as the 00 Gundam is about to awaken.”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, December 2019.

The Mobile Suit Gundam franchise is very interesting with its wide range of characters, stories and of course the action. It’s also interesting for how it allows newcomers to jump in at any point. Whilst the original few shows are one massive storyline, eventually the later instalments were mostly standalone with no connection to any previous shows, OVAs or films.

Here we have Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the 11th instalment in the Gundam franchise and one that won’t require knowledge of the previous titles to enjoy it. It takes place in the Anno Domini timeline, which is a separate continuity from the Universal Century where Amuro & Char’s saga was covered. That means a whole new cast of characters but the series keeps the same themes of war and the idea of using Gundams to fight. In this part of the series, we’ve reached the second season which continues the adventures of Setsuna & the crew after the events of what had happened at the end of the first season.

Like Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 was previously released in the UK by distributor Beez Entertainment on DVD, however, due to the publisher discontinuing at the same time as Bandai Entertainment in North America, the Gundam licenses went in limbo for a long while. Anime Limited then announced a new partnership with Sunrise to release a number of Mobile Suit Gundam titles into the UK, which admittedly has had a rocky few years due to various pushbacks.

In 2019, UK distributor Anime Limited announced their Summer of Gundam 40th Anniversary plan, which included the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 series as well as its OVA special edition and film, but the latter were delayed into 2020, so only the main series is going to be available during this plan.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Like the other Gundam UK releases on Blu-ray, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 followed the same structure as before, with a box for Part 1 and a booklet for Part 2.

The package is presented with an Amaray case and a booklet. The booklet includes character designs and mecha designs from the series. Both of these can be slotted inside Part 1’s rigid box for a complete set.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £59.99. A standard edition Blu-ray will eventually follow suit.

Physical Contents:

• Amaray packaging with info on back cover.
• 48-page Booklet

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 16th December 2019

The collector’s edition release for Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season from Anime Limited contains all 25 episodes across four Blu-ray discs, with the authoring & encoding produced by Nozomi & Rightstuf.

The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Ocean Studios English dub commissioned by Bandai Entertainment. The yellow subtitles (with white for secondary dialogue/on-screen text) are also unlockable during playback and the disc is region locked to B for Blu-ray players.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	4 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 1:

• Japanese Audio Commentary for Episodes 1 & 3
• Tactical Forecasts #3-6
• Clean Opening Song “Fleeting and Everlasting Sorrow” (Hakanaku mo Towa no Kanashi)

Disc 2:

• Japanese Audio Commentary for Episode 8
• Gundam 00 “Daybreak’s Bell” Promotional Video
• Tactical Forecasts #7-10
• Clean Closing Song “Trap” (Wana)

Disc 3:

• Japanese Audio Commentary for Episodes 14 & 17
• Tactical Forecasts #11-14
• Tactical Forecasts #15-18
• Clean Opening Song “Across from the Tears” (Namida no Mukou)

Disc 4:

• Gundam 00 Second Season Flash-like Chibi Short
• Japanese Audio Commentary for Episodes 20 & 25
• Tactical Forecasts #19-22
• Tactical Forecasts #23-25
• Clean Closing Song “trust you”

Unboxing Photos:

Last but not least, here are photos of the two parts together for the series.

Final Notes:

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland territories. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has sold out (as of December 2023), but a standard edition Blu-ray is available to order through retailer Amazon UK, Anime Limited’s store and MVM’s Anime-on-Line store.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)