Many have noted the similarities between the main star of Gundam 00, Setsuna F. Seiei, and the male lead from Full Metal Panic, Sagara Sousuke. There are indeed quite a few similarities between the two, such as both of them having a past as a child soldier, and both being pilots of some form of mecha. However, I would like to think that despite their similar backgrounds, Sagara is a few hundred levels better than Setsuna.
Let me explain why.
- Mecha
- Professionalism
- Humor
- Manliness
While Sagara pilots a cool looking ARX-7 Arbalest, and eventually moves on to ARX-8 Laevatein, Setsuna has a rather gay looking mobile suit named Exia. The body design for the 2 are quite identical, but what makes the difference between cool and gay is the head of the mecha. A head design with a Monomolecular Cutter attached trashes a head design with a stupid “V” any day, any time. The V won’t save your ass in battle, but the weapon would.
ARX-7 Arbalest
ARX-8
In Gundam 00, Exia has the worst design. I think Kyrios and Dynames are design to look a million times cooler than Exia, despite all of them being totally unoriginal designs.
Gundam Exia
Exia emits GN particles which jam radars and allows it to gain flight abilities is something like a cheat code. By jamming the radar and communications, it would drive the enemy into disarray and allow one to gain an advantage. ARX-7 does not even require such a cheap shot tactic to win a battle.
You might now say that ARX-7 has the Lambda Driver to gain the upper hand. But the enemy has units with Lambda Drivers too, hence making it a fair match. On the other hand, only the Celestial Being’s Gundams have the particles. Not much of a fair match now, isn’t it.
One thing cool about ARX-7 is the A.I, which apparently is something that Exia does not possess.
Also, let’s not forget that with the GN particles’ advantage, Exia still lost to AEU’s latest modified prototype mobile suit. Then again, it might have totally been the Setsuna’s fault for being such a weakling.
Sagara is by all means, more professional than Setsuna, in terms of both skill and attitude. Setsuna is merely a weak-minded kid who has a horrible childhood, and hence is selfish and places his own interests in front of his organisation’s. Sure, Setsuna can fire a gun and fight in war, but I’m 100% certain that if he goes head on against Sagara, he would be dead within minutes. After all, Sagara could take down mechas with his own skills when he was a child, but Setsuna would have been in the netherworld if not for the Celestial Being pilot which saved his sorry ass.
He should have been dead ages ago…
Also, without Exia, Setsuna is nothing but a wimpy loser. Without ARX-7 /ARX-8, Sagara still remains a true blue soldier. This is what separates the boys from the men.
Both of them are serious in their own ways, but many of Sagara’s antics are amusingly funny. I find it hard to surpress my laughter when Sagara tries to be serious and ends up handling matters of daily life in a rather unexpected way. Setsuna, on the other hand, is a rather boring character.
In short, Sagara can make me laugh, but Setsuna can’t. I need some humor in anime.
Sagara is like Kamina from Gurren Lagann, while Setsuna reminds me of Ikari Shinji from Evangelion.
Sagara’s manliness has made him unknowingly cause 2 hawt babes to fall head over heels with him. Setsuna lacks the charms and the spirit of a man to do so.
What more need I say?
I shall stop here for now, as any further comparison would end up in Setsuna being totally disgraced. Not that I have not put him to enough shame. I think comparing him with Sousuke was probably too much. After all, it would probably take him a few centuries for him to attain Sousuke’s level of professionalism and manliness.
“and eventually moves on to ARX-8 Laevatein”
Huh ? Like, in the novels or smth. ? What that has to do with anime ?
Karry > Yes he does move on to an ARX-8 after his ARX-7 was totally smashed. I’m talking about FMP as a whole, not just the anime. A true FMP fan would not just stop at where the anime ended.
i totally agree… as a true fmp fan… good job
“A true FMP fan would not just stop at where the anime ended.”
Okay. Got it. But then whats the point in comparing it to anime-only Gundam00 ?
Karry > I’m comparing them because their male protagonists are somewhat similar. It doesn’t matter whether if it’s an anime-only or manga,novel and anime series, since I am not comparing between the 2 anime series, but making a comparison between the 2 characters. There’s a difference.
Arbalest is a stupid machine. Btw Arbalest has ECS, and Exia also has some visual cloaking device. Arbalest however has only 1 sword while Exia has 7.
tj_han > IMO, more swords does not mean that it has a greater combat ability, nor is it cooler.
And in fact, the machine doesn’t really matter. In the end, it all boils down to the skills of the pilot, which in this case, I am sure Sousuke far exceeds Setsuna.
Hmm… Maybe I should have just left out the mention of the mechas, and focused on comparing the 2 characters instead.
In close combat Setsuna as of now is better then Sagara. Sagara is a better pilot when it comes to firearms.
Also, the mass of each suit is relevant. Exia has flight capability and a 5-6 times greater mass. I don’t know if your aware of this but is a heavy weight boxer puncher a feather weight the results would be davastating.
Also, by the looks of it, both have great speed. The difference is probably minimal.
Lambda Driver blocks only physical attacks, so things like beam sabers and beam guns would be enough to damage Arbalest.
In other words, Exia has an advantage only by a little bit.
it doesn’t metter what your point of view for setsuna or exia.the fact is you can count for yourself how many series of gundam has been publish rather than fmp.beat it.Gundam Rules!
megaroad -> it’s not true that lambda driver blocks only physical attacks, it can block anything depending on the pilot’s skills. if you had watched TSR it was said that a lambda driver is a power field generator. which can pretty much block anything from projectile to physical attacks, only a lamda driver can counter a lambda driver
chuunin-Khai -> true that there are many gundam series produced, but have seen the full metal panic the second raid? if you compare the animation quality its like a goddess and an old maid! the old maid is the animation quality of the gundam series that’s why it took long to produce the FMP series! It’s true
a ‘lil trivia: Exia, Laevatein and the Arbalest(Kyo-ani version, not sure with the GONZO version) were designed by the same person
oh please… i dun like Gundam 00 very much but this is just stupid. There 2 completely different animes meaning how can you compare 2 machines from different animes? and your clearly biased, no one cares that you like Full metal panic more
Haven’t seen FMP but it really doesn’t matter first off you say your comparing characters and the first thing you state is what mecha they pilot. thats like saying lets talk about fruit and then say carrots are better just because. Gundam 00 was a series made to be completely serious its not a slapstick comedy for god sake. Setsuna is a brooding killer and totally serious and if you have seen Gundam 00 you obviously blatantly forgot Neena who btw is a girl. Also Exia would stomp the ARX-8. Who cares if you think it looks cooler. ARX-8 weighs in at 8.7m and 10.3t the Exia is 18.7m at 57.2t now i dunno about you but simple math denotes thats roughly 2 and a 1/4 times bigger and close to 5 and a 1/2 times heavier not to mention weapons would have to scale with size to. Plus GN drives give flight abilities as well as jamming as you said but cheap tactics? really? i didn’t think anybody considered something cheap when your in a warzone. Not to mention GN drives also have the Trans-AM ability causing the GN drive to work at 300%. Exia moves so fast after-images appear. In short comparing apples to carrots is stupid and if Exia used Trans-AM even if this thing had the Lambda drive it wouldn’t even be able to hit the Exia and Setsuna would just pound the crap out of it.
Sousuke pawns Setsuna on any given day…
with regards to some arguments here pointing out that Exia will defeat ARX-7/ARX-8 based on their size, then please take note that ARX-7 defeated a Behemoth, one that is far larger than Exia, and ARX-8 defeated 5 venom-type ASes (Codarls) and 3 Behemoths in a matter of minutes!=]
Zyrell->’thats like saying lets talk about fruit and then say carrots are better’
i agree.i think you should stop comparing 2 totally different mecha from 2 totally different anime.if you want to argue,i suggest to argue only about the chara…
While I admire the dedication that some 00 fans showed by looking up specs for the different mecha and for coming up with lucid and well thought out arguments why the Exia technology is “fair”, I feel I only need one argument for why I like Sousuke better. Sagara is an old friend. When an anime episode ends, or a manga issue is finished, or a light novel is completed, I miss him . . . and Chidori, of course.
I would simply like to present:
A) No one cares
B) The author cares too much
C) No one cares that the author cares
With that in mind, I find it difficult to compare the two anime series. Both charactres and mech are invariably different; the ARX-8 and the GN-001 were designed for different universes and stories (specifics, that is: they are both war machines in every essence). With respects to characters, once again, while there are similarities, the context is differnet, hence, making it a waste of time (unless one was narrow-minded and biased to begin with).
Hence, both are fine anime, and rather than wasting efforts towards choosing which is better, critisism of the author seems to be in order. Perhapes someone with no life and no appreciation for anime with good story may create such an article, devoid of information. Perhapes if the author of this article removed his random inappropriate descriptions of the GN-001 and Gundam 00’s protagonist, this article may have more value.
As a final note towards those who wish to know which unit is superior, I’d like to say that the GN-001 was already destroyed, (following the fact that the ARX-7 was also destroyed). Hence if anyone wishes to make comparisons between Exia and the ARX-8, that is unlikely. The new GN-0000 has increased performance and specs, and alongside that, Setsuna comes into season 2 with a more mature persona.
My final word is simple: don’t bother comparing the two anime, because that is simply absurd, akin to saying
“My 0.5 mechanical pencil is better than yours!”
“But it’s a ballpoint pen!”
“I don’t care; it’s still better”
Pencils and pens are used for similar purposes but in different situations, just like how Gundam 00 and Full Metal Panic! are both anime, but with different stories.
Totally agree with Infinite Zenith. This is really biased and childish.