This’ll be the final show I blog this season. Sorry, I love Sunrise mecha shows too much to pass it by. So basically, Buddy Complex is Gundam 00 except gay mind-melding is built into the premise from the beginning instead of tacked on in a half-assed way in the middle. Furthermore, our hero is not the leader of a terrorist organization (yet) and actually appears to have a soul unlike Setsuna F. Seiei. I like all the changes so far. It’s like Valvrave too (of course) except they’re playing this one straight.

Sunrise mecha shows generally attempt to portray the futility of war. Gundam 00 did this by creating an organization that was “above” the law and “above” the nations, which made war to end war. Of course, this was essentially a terrorist organization, and I’m not sure you can call it peace if it is maintained at the point of a sword. Our heroes were oligarchs ruling the world at the point of a gun, and we as the audience were supposed to be fully on their side. That was difficult for me.

In Buddy Complex, fortunately, we’re taking the more traditional route of showing the stupidity of war by having people fight each other for no apparent reason. Aoba is already set up in a position where he has to fight Hina. Of course, he has no desire whatsoever to fight Hina. “You are a foe of Zoglia!” she says as she points her gun at him. But Aoba is not a foe of Zogilia. In fact, Aoba does not give a single fuck about Zogliia. Aoba did not know Zogilia existed until a few hours ago. Here again is another piece of evidence towards the futility of war: the two sides, arbitrarily divided by some invisible line, attempt to kill each other and most of the people doing so aren’t even sure why except for the fact that they are an “enemy.” If you aren’t for Zogilia you’re against Zogilia. But, as Jesus said, it should be whoever is not against you is for you. By being a time traveler, outside the system of modern nation-states, Aoba is equipped to see the situation more clearly for what it is. Note that he is an outsider, but he is not looking down at humanity like a group of superior beings looking down on ants, like Celestial Being does. Aoba is fully human and sees himself as such, he simply does not belong to any modern nation.

Speaking of modern nations, how does the world of Buddy Complex differ from our own? So far, all we have to go on is a few maps. I will extrapolate from these maps to introduce my theory of the history of Buddy Complex’s world. Note that this is all speculation.

First, the Soviet Union presumably still exists, although it has been renamed the Rodina Union. Also none of the Soviet satellite states appear to be included in its borders. Perhaps they remain as puppet states, but are not included on the map.

The biggest difference is that China has been split in half. Dohua makes up Eastern China (and includes North Korea!) and the Republic of Zogilia makes up Western China, including Tibet, Xingua, and parts of a few other Chinese provinces. Furthermore, Zogilia controls parts of India, North of Bangladesh, along with most of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam, Nepal, and parts of Mongolia. How did this happen?

I imagine that in this alternate universe, India and Pakistan went to war over Kashmir and annihilated one another with nuclear weapons. It was the greatest disaster in all of human history, and the world agreed to do away with nuclear weapons forever. That made them free to fight one another using conventional weapons with comparatively little consequences!

This made the Chinese more expansionist. They annexed North Korea and North Vietnam diplomatically. The Vietnam war ended in a draw so South Vietnam remained independent. The Chinese continued to expand into southeast Asia at the point of the sword.

However, this violent expansion was not without consequences. The Chinese empire overexpanded, leading to a revolution on the periphery and an alliance of the distant provinces against the Han oppressors. Due to a lack of territorial integrity, the revolution in North Korea was ruthlessly repressed. However, the rest of the Chinese colonies were able to gain their independence. They named themselves the “Republic of Zogilia”, and like most countries with the word “Republic” in their name, were actually a dictatorship. Despite their diverse languages and races, they were able to maintain their sense of national unity by drumming up hatred against their Han oppressors and fighting them in an endless war.

United, the people of Zogilia were stronger than the Han. While continuing their fight, evenly matched with the Han, they slowly expanded further into Southeast Asia and Mongolia.

Then vast deposits of magic ores were discovered in Zogilia, and the battle against the Han turned. Dohua maintained control over their main population centers on the Eastern seaboard, but it looked like an unwinnable battle. They finally made peace with Zogilia, ceding the land they had conquered thus far. Zogilia had little interest in gaining control over the enormous, starving and impoverished cities of the East, and agreed to the terms of the surrender. However, they needed a common enemy to unite the disparate peoples of their nation. They found it in the Rodina Union to the North. After a lengthy war, Rodina was “liberated” from the Politburo and became a Zogilian puppet state.

Eventually, Rodinia was fully annexed, along with its satellite states in the Crimea, Central Asia, Europe, and Alaska (gained in a conventional war with the United States). Needing a war effort to join together its disparate populations, Zogilia invaded Western Europe, and the western powers banded together in order to contain Zogilia’s endless expansionism.

Africa, the Middle East and South America are wartorn hellholes that nobody wants to mess with.

So what will next week’s episode bring? I predict some more NICE COUPLING while Dio bitches about Aoba and Aoba wishes he were doing it with Hina.