SciFi Channel started showing Gundam 00 last night on Animonday (side rant: they can show the commercials in HD but not the actual shows?). Two episodes in, and they've already skipped straight to the "We want to abolish all war" part of the non-UC Gundam formula. That doesn't seem like a good sign, but I have to give them credit for trying something a little different. So far I get the feeling that this is a lame remake of Gundam Wing with generic mecha designs, kind of like how Gundam Seed started out as a remake of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Gundam Seed managed to grab me right from the beginning, though. Gundam 00's opening was promising, showing some decidedly more western styled mecha with a nice Zaku eye homage, then fell completely to pieces, especially the extraordinarily redundant speech at the episode's end. Mojo Jojo is more concise.
Of course, I'm not expecting much from the show just based on the names alone, and I mean the names of characters, organizations, mobile suits, and anything else. Anime characters often have stupid names, especially when they're supposed to be English names, but Gundam 00 is trying to set some kind of record. Human Reform League? The Advanced European Union? How is it advanced? Because this is the future? Neither of those are as bad as Celestial Being, though. It sounds like the worst translation of Angel possible, but I'd wager it was always called that. A sniper named Lockon? If he has such good aim, what does locking on have to do with it? The name does not imply skill of any kind. Then there's the requisite blond ace's Flag mobile suit. I'm guessing it's supposed to sound like a patriotic name, but it has about the same impact as naming a giant robot Inscription or Statue. Less, actually, since those two words at least have connotations of permanence instead of wavering.
It's stuff like this that really makes me miss the Woolsey style of localization.