Anime: Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED

This review covers the first season of Gundam Seed. I feel such a disclaimer is warranted due to alarmingly high number of negative opinions I've heard about the second one. And considering that the first one ain't exactly the most flawless experience, I'm really wary of delving into that. But! Time will tell.
Now, about gundam seed...

Art & Animation

it's a good effort for its time, animation is mostly good, there are all kinds of scenes, world is varied, characters look good enough, too, with few excesses, although nothing truly atrocious for anime. it succeeds at depicting an epic war, but it has no special shine or truly amazing designs of its own. gundams look like gundams, explosions explode and captains have animated boob-shake after their ship gets hit. hah.
8/10

Sound

gundam seed sports solid voicework for its varied characters, their roles aren't horrible enough to warrant constant screaming or something of the sort, so thank gods for that!
what it does have, tho, is a constant stream of orchestral music of the most epic variety. seriously, there are so few moments of silence in this anime that at first I was often laughing at the regular bursts of bombastic orchestral parts, coming at me one after another. it's a shame that this music is not particularly good! I don't remember a single theme, I just remember that it was always there. since the show was pretty mainstream, I guess, the OP/ED are very bad j-crap with injected cheesy trance. a good candidate for worst musical style ever. shame, really. but it's nothing extraordinary for anime, you get used to bombastic bgms after a few episodes, actors still do a solid job, and, well, fortunately, I can skip the OPs!
7/10

Story

gundam seed is not the most unique flower of a story out there, it's actually quite the opposite, very predictable in most of its aspects, and only the relatively interesting progress up to way into the second half of the season is a thing that keeps this above the average mark.

the story, simply put, is about war between humans and genetically advanced humans+, the action is taking place in open space, earth and space colonies, and because of the scale, it's all pretty damn epic. Epic. now there is a word that the creators of this anime surely wanted to apply to their work, and it shows! the battles are big, the tension is high, casualties huge, lasers even huger.

but it's not enough to have epic scale, you also have to have solid progression of events, and, well, seed does ok in this aspect. the first half especially, documenting the trip "home", is interesting, which follows the established journey form well. Once we get into the second half, though, things take a turn for the political, which in itself might not be so bad, but the second half is also where cheese gains strength, pace picks up and events do not progress normally, but rush into each other. Where before a distance that took tens of episodes to cover is now traveled in five minutes. Along with this intensification of war effort the strongest and most interesting part of seed - characters - start speed development as well, and in the process they plain simple lose a lot of believability about them.
and, worst of all, even though the political setup might have spawned some interesting events, political manipulations and actions (that we only see hints of in a certain young lady's career), there's very little of that in actuality - things quickly set their destination to "ending", and it's all one big battle.

and battles can be cool, but there is one sin animes suffer from, and for the longest time gundam seed avoided it by being somewhat coolheaded, but at the very end it loses it, and, well, it devolves into the typical simultaneous screaming/shooting/cutting montage combined with a battle of "logic", which, as a rule, is incoherent stream of unjustified edginess, ugh. and seed did so well before that, while not being particularly original, it maintained a multitude of compelling political viewpoints, but all that is gone in the end, in a "classic" move that is not interesting nor unexpected. sadness!

6/10

Characters

characters are the strongest aspect of gundam seed. frankly, it's the reason why it's worth bothering with this at all. in a surprise move, the main characters are not ultra-edgy, they are somewhat moody and misunderstood etc etc, but they do not suffer too bad from regular outbursts of improvised monologues on justice. in addition to these moody fellas, there is quite a lovable bunch of other guys and gals around them, most of them interesting and/or appealing in at least some way, and, thus, when set up against each other they do hold up the viewer's interest well. it is only in the second half that plain annoying "evil" guys pop up, and the interesting secondary characters get to only do what they're supposed to do in battle.

characters also show nice emotional and, well, romantic development with a few twists along the way to keep things interesting, and because of how moderate and pleasant to look at this development is the greater the shame is when in the second half this romantic aspect, along with everything else, engages turbo mode, and, well, what used to be a nicely paced development, quickly turns into something that is a bit more hard to understand. along with the intensification, comes formalism, inconvenient characters are rid of, some turn into villains, while others die for the sake of tragedy and drama. everything good needs these things, right? or at least so seem to think the writers of this show.

but I liked the characters in the first half big time, in the second half they get a bit messy as the focus goes from them to war, and, well, sadness, again!
Cagalli gets 8, rest get 6, I'll give you guys, in total, 7/10.

Value & Enjoyment

it's gundam, it had a fair bit of budget, it's bombastic, it's considerably better (at least this season is) than gundam 00, and it sports a really cute bunch of characters who get all romantic with each other. if that tickles your fancy, give it a go, it's an enjoyable ride. but it's not really original, it sticks to established forms, plots and character types, and, while it had budget, neither the visuals, nor the audial aspects are really masterpiece or even considerably above average tier. so I'd say it's a 6/10. solid enjoyment, nothing extraordinary.

oh, and I already said "solid enjoyment", so, I guess that sums up my experience as well. I liked it, especially the first half was a very pleasant ride, and it's a shame that they killed it big time with the final third or so, but oh well. hmmm. 6.5 in enjoyment, rounded down to 6?

What can be said about a show like this where at the end it can be inspirational, entertaining, informative, challenging, while maintaining that most will at least want to see it again and again?

What can be said where the characters (both main and secondary) are all memorable with deep connections and can be related to by most anyone?

What can be said where a show basically provides and invokes all the human emotions?

The Gundam series essential re-launch has provided many with intrigue and a new legion of fans, while maintaining most of its core fan base.

Everything about the show, from its sound to entertainment value, can be appreciated even by some of the most cynical of people. Yes, it is a show whose central theme revolves around war, which can be difficult to view by some, particularly if anyone holds strong pacifistic tendencies. And yes, it does contain its own weaknesses if you look hard enough. That being said, I still am hard pressed to find reasons not to watch it, rather than reasons to re-watch. It is my own personal opinion that a strong series has a very strong tendency for repeat viewings, and Gundam Seed easily fits that mold.

Its plot is rather solid, not perfect, but solid and most will find comfort in the development of the characters (both main and secondary). While many small corrections were made to the show and redone in the form of the Special Editions, I found myself engrossed and completely enveloped in a series which many find hard not to appreciate in some fashion. The show received wide acclaim from both within Japan and found wide success in the U.S. and abroad as well.

Additionally, the show has enjoyed another aspect which can be lost in the wave of anime which is continuously released: staying power. You'll find that most who have seen Gundam Seed have it on an all-time favorite list (both for avid anime fans and even casual ones). While the show was aimed towards a specific young audience, it is and can be enjoyed by nearly everyone above the age of 13. The show does have a few adult themes in it as well, one was the subject of controversy within Japan when it originally aired.

The scores which accompany this review reflect the values at the time it was aired and should not be confused with comparisons to today, as several of the categories are severely outmatched when compared to the technology used in play today.

Those who viewed the show usually followed it up with the viewership of its sequel: Gundam Seed DESTINY.

So, for those who haven't seen a masterpiece of its time, it is with great pride that I can say Gundam Seed is a show never to be missed.

~Imagonna

At first glance, Gundam Seed is your typical Gundam show with all the required elements that make the franchise instantly recognized. We have lots of mechas with very neat designs, some kind of racial conflict, a spaceship with a crew to support the protagonist, a talking haro, an Earth Federation and a colony-based nation, a masked villain, a red-white-blue Gundam for the protagonist, as well as many other. This is a fine start, as Gundams shows with such elements are usually decent and fun at minimum.

Gundam Seed, however, has a lot more to this. It's a character-driven experience that occurs on a very interesting setting inhabited by natural humans and those genetically modificated at birth. It proposes far more than your typical Newtype theory that usually boosts the Gundam sagas, making the overall feel and the realism of the setting far more plausable and mature. Besides a character development almost unmatched by other shounen shows, Gundam Seed also has many other strengths to make it unique within the Gundam franchise and attractive to anyone who can surpass the initial prejudice about the big human-shaped robots. It's the best of what a war drama can do when mixed with a good paced action, appealing a lot to shounen fans, but also targeting those who would enjoy more than mindless mecha combats. In resumo, Gundam Seed has an almost perfect mix that, as a consequence, turns its flaws very passable.

Art & Animation
Gundam Seed's character design is made by this guy Hirai Hisashi, the same behind Fafner, Infinite Ryvius, Scryed, and other more recent shows. It has quality, with characters that don't look like super kids, instead they all have a more serene and calm expression as a base. This fits perfectly for Gundam Seed because it's a show that is void of cuteness, cheesy girls, cartoonish smiles, and anything that lack seriousness. Visually the characters lack variety in their faces, but that issue is barely noticed in the show, mainly because most characters are easily distinguished one from another by their hairstyle, height, clothing, and other small details.

1. 
   The awesome robots
   The Gundams, in other hand, received one of the best treatment in the Gundam franchise. The show has tons of them. The variety is superb and the plausability for the mechas is usually decent, making them less fo a magical big chunk of metal and more of a military walking tank. Spaceships are more simplified, but varied enough considering you won't be seeing that much of spaceship battles after the first fifteen episodes or so.
   
   The recycled scenes
   Gundam Seed's biggest flaw, however, is in its animation. While combats are nicely done when involing two unique mechas, most scenes that involve generic mecha, mainly the large scale battles, are recycled tons of time through the show. The space sequences, in particular, suffer a lot from this, making the first fifteen episodes or so even worse than they are. In addition to these recycled combats, you can expect many rememberances scenes that can grow a bit annoying and break some momentum at the wrong times.
   

Sound
If there is a guide somewhere teaching how to perfect sound direction, the guys behind Gundam Seed were very close to nail all its instructions. The soundtrack is remarkable, with a bunch of solid songs fit for the shounen style, merging entrances and endings to enhance the drama and a nice usage of background songs to many parts of the tale. Sound effects and background music also hit the mark, crafing an amusing sensation of action, tension, or relaxation when needed.

1. 
   The voice-acting
   However, if there is something that boosts Gundam Seed's overall value in its sound direction, it is the voice-acting. Nearly all voices are brimming with personality and style, which manages to be a huge contribution to the already well written cast. There is maturity to the cast in this department that expels any sense of stupidty, cartoon comedy, and even the typically high-pitched girls. Rewatching the show in 2010, 2012, and even 2015 works to show how superb the voice-actors performed here, something rarely achieved in the industry.
   

Story
Gundam Seed proposes a new universe for the Gundam franchise. It's not about Newtypes and their psychic abilities, but still has a basic Earth Federation and colony nation to create an initial conflict to move the story forward. Gundam Seed, instead of clinging to the fact that humans are naturally evolving to be esper-like entities in space, uses genetic engineering to propose a race of more advanced humans, named "Coordinators" by the show. These humans have their genes modified before birth and are perfectly fit to all sorts of tasks. This is exactly the same concept proposed by the movie Gattaca and the consequences are the same as there: conflicts bewteen those naturally born and those with enhanced abilities. Within the setting, these conflicts rose exponentially until the Earth Federation released a nuclear attack to space colonies where coordinators inhabited. That vicious act started an all out war. Coordinators were fewer, but far more skilled, while naturals had the numbers but not the same degree of organization. Within this war a neutral nation of Orb (basically Japan) is secretely aiding the Earth Federation to develop new mobile suits. ZAFT, the coordinator's army, catches wind of this information and stage an attack against Orb's space colony. From there the young coordinator Kira is dragged into the conflict and flees from ZAFT while piloting one of the prototype mobile suits to protect his friends.

1. Scenario
   As mentioned, Gundam Seed braves a setting built upon a very possible future where humans can be genetically modified before birth to maximize their skills, reduce their weakness, and so on. This possible future sets up for an outstanding backstage for the story, which pretty much questions about prejudice, jealously, and other human sins when both Naturals and Coordinatores clash. As a Gundam show, the complexity falls to political struggles and is developed in a steady pace, but in the end it never boils down to big questionings, as many of the issues are solved with all-out quick combats instead of long years of rebellions, terrorism, wars, etc.
   
   Old Friend/New Enemy
   We've all seen how powerful the concept of old friends become enemies can be. Berserk and Gungrave used that fact as huge plot devices and were very successful. Initially, Gundam Seed rides in this same concept, putting Kira Yamato against his old friend Athrun Zala. Their struggle, however, is basically different from the two beforementioned shows, as Athrun never really falls to evil. In fact, he is far more righteous and just than Kira at first, creating a very interesting conflict between those two that is never truly solved.
   
   Bad Start, Stupid Battles
   
   Gundam Seed biggest issue is its start. Not the first episodes, as they are quite good to show you the cast and the scenario, but what follows up until episode 15 or so. All these episodes are composed by constant cat-and-rat play between Archangel and the ZAFT ships. They are always on the run, with Archangel trying to reach the Moon while Raw Le Creuse and his crew follow and try to bring them down. This is fine, but Gundam Seed abuses of repetition here. It should be fine if they tried to run, used protection from the Artemis shield, found Lacus and moved on. But somehow the director found a necessity to put a combat in every single episode, even if completely unfit. You'll always see Strike launching, Blitz, Duel, Aegis, and Buster fighting, and this will repeat again and again. Watching combats between these five mechas without any different outcomes grows boring for sure. But endure and he rest is simply top-quality.

   Show Spoiler
   
   
   Great Sequence
   After the first arc the show moves smoothly for a very strong middle part, when political play comes to the spotlight and the setting is better presented and detailed. The show is not really dependent on twists and turns, making the whole experience very straightforward, but managing to surprise you with decent use of coincidences and other plot devices to move things forward. You'll have permanent deaths, a few political backstabs, some nice strategy play in some combats, and many other good elements for a war shounen show.
   
   A good pace after the struggling start
   Gundam Seed, however, always dedicate lots of time to build up its cast. As a consequence, the show is not very action-demanding (after the first episodes) and combats start to play a minor role until near the end, when we have a new villain appearing, and the focus changes to large scale battles and save the world stuff. Regardless of being very typical and expected, the ending is good enough to fill any plot holes left and create a good feeling for the last combats.
   

Character
As I said, Gundam Seed is a character-driven experience, with almost every episode dedicated to developing characters and making them more human as possible. At first the cast is not anything new, with a protagonist that looks your typical shounen boy, a big breasted woman and a bunch of useless teenagers dragged in the war. However, as episodes moves on the show puts its biggest strength to play. All sorts of events have their consequences in Gundam Seed's cast, from protagonists to support. While they appear as stereotypes, they act accordingly to what is expected of them. Kira gets his load of doubts and questions about what he is doing while Athrun, with his righteous thinking, tries to convince Kira to join the coordinators. Kira's friends slowly learn that they must do something useful within all the mess that occurs. Murrue and Natarle have their divergences but act as adults to surpass them (hell, that's hard to see in animes from 2008 onward). All their personalities are very unique and human like, filled with doubts but still clinging to their principles and not suddenly changing just to fit the plot.

1. All-round Development
   Kira's change is slow, but superb. He starts as a crybaby and later learn to deal with all his problems and put his super-strength to use, becoming a determined man with a very defined goal and working towards it. He becomes far more than your typical protagonist that never truly finds his purpose right until the last episode. Not only that, but his skills also steadily increase, making the young genius pilot turn to a immortal god-like Gundam freak in a great pace. Athrun, Cagalli, Lacus, Flay, and almost all other support cast feeds on such a good development as well. The villain Raw Le Creuse is also determined without being stupidly mad or dumb (like what happens with the new villain shown in the last string of episodes).
   
   Powerful Support
   All the cast is affected by the environment and events, and most importantly, they are shaped within the show and for the show. Flay's sick desire to bed Kira. Sai's jealously and admiration for Kira. Murrue's maturity and care. Natarle's devotion and righteouness. Even truly side-characters as Izak have a decent personality with a charismatic feeling. All the support cast gets a personality and a development as almost unseen in most shows up to date. This makes hard even to define who else is a "protagonist" besides Kira. Athrun could run for the spot, but Cagalli is also extremely important, as Lacus Clyne, Flay, Raw Le Creuse, and others.
   
   Serious Cast
   And perhaps another very important thing for me is the complete absence of fanservice in terms of ecchiness and lolis. We only get two pantsu scenes in the whole show and they last just for a few seconds. Lacus could be defined as a "cute" girl, but she acts with such maturity and without any signs of stupid tsundere behaviors. Even the big breasted Murrue is never overused for her boobs besides some passable bouncing whenever the ship is hit by enemy fire. Compared to recent loli-plagued shows and stupid protagonists Gundam Seed stands as a true behemoth here.
   
   But this Seed factor
   Although the show manages to deliver a superb tale, right when it is at its peak it just spouts this "Seed Factor" around as an excuse for Kira's amazing burst of skill. Much like the Newtype, this Seed factor tries to be a workaround to make protagonists better than the rest. There is, however, absolutely no need for that, as the situation alone is reason enough for Kira to be that awesome, for Athrun to keep it up, and for Lacus to lead her rebellion. Considering there is also a severe lack of explanation for what the Seed factor really is, this visual element just ends up being a stupid shounen element thrown right in the middle of a mature shounen drama. If it didn't exists at all, it wouldn't make any single damn difference.
   

Value
A Gundam is a Gundam. Here we have all the required elements to make this a Gundam show and a lot more. Gundam Seed impacted very positively for the franchise, from superb-looking mecha models that are easily distinguished and a great tool of advertisement, to one of the best character development found in a shounen show up to date. Gundam Seed's execution is not flawless, it has issues with the retarded and unecessary combats by the start and the ending is very predictable, but the middle part of the plot is full of good moments and a few surprising events. Most of all, the show feels mature through every episode and never loses its focus or resort to fillers. There are two recaps episodes (taken out of the remastered version), but they are passable.

Enjoyment
Gundam shows were never about strategy play, but always had a good amount of political intrigue and human-based conflicts. Gundam Seed also has this bits of political intrigue and backstabbing, and is also absurdly fun to watch if you like some nice mecha here and there or if you endure the first string of episodes. I don't remember older shows using merging endings, but Gundam Seed uses this masterfully, creating cliffhangers that are extremely good and making Kira's appearances something awesome to expect. The battles are great as well, even with all the recycled scenes and name-yelling.

Fans of Gundams and mechas will certainly be very pleased to watch this. Those who like a nice setting and a good political play will also find lots of enjoyment here if you endure the first 15 episodes or so. Anyone looking for great character development will find very few (if any at all) shounen shows with such quality and depth. Those who have a inner hatred to mecha shows or Gundams can also give a chance to this and maybe it can change the way you think like it did to myself.

Comments
No matter how many times I watch animes, I still find it hard to point issues in Gundam Seed besides the initial stupid combats and the average ending. Everything else is masterfully done, with a superb and complex setting, dozens of great characters that have the right amount of spotlight and development, a protagonist that grows to be an outstanding character, Lacus Clyne and her naturally great personality, Athrun and his stupid but enjoyable righteouness and lack of self-confidence, etc. Not only that, but the mechas are also gorgeous for a 2002 show.

Before 2005 (when I first watched Gundam Seed) I was a giant-robot hater to the core, only respecting Evangelion within this genre. I've watched Gundam Wing and was not amused by its slower pace and less likeable characters, and because of that I put Gundam Seed in my list but avoided watching it for a while. It was only when the show topped most of the anime reviews and sites by that time that I gave it a chance.

That changed my mind and made me think twice before ditching a mecha show after that. I've watched many other mecha shows since then, from other Gundams to magic-robot series. I can say that most of them are crap and a few are absurdly crap. In fact the average and good ones are so rare that I can see why most people don't even bother by watching this genre unless it can extract some joy from nice combats and good-looking mecha designs. However, not only amongst this genre, but among all other genres, I found only a few shows with such a warm and human-like cast as this.

Anyway, sorry for the very long review. I think I overdid a little but is far better than my previous where I didn't gave my exact reasons to support my scores.

Notice: This review covers both seasons of the franchise. I won’t bother making two different ones for the same story.

Have no denials; SEED is the remake of the original Gundam and it is also the blueprint for the later 00. I was quite positive and enthusiastic about the original universe because it was the first mecha in general to be so mature and it bridged the mecha genre with space opera. The problem is that the maker, Tomino, didn’t try any harder afterwards. It’s not like it is illegal to rehash your own works and labeling them alternative settings or something, but he has done that, like, twenty times in a span of 30 years (including his other mecha shows as well) which tends to become tiresome after awhile. Other directors don’t do that so obviously, they keep experimenting, and they definitely do a lot better directing, yet Tomino is just redoing the same old formula with slight alterations. And sure, it sales like crazy, just like all of the identical mecha shows Nagai directed in the 70’s. That doesn’t mean they are great; they are simply easily digested and cool for the target audience.

The first issue I had with this particular retelling is in the animation. The style they used in the faces felt stupid to me compared to the original. I mean, lol, they look like the Smurfs! Am I really supposed to feel the same dramatic tension as before if everything now looks more childish?

Before you start nagging about me trolling about the animation, let me reassure you that I am not talking about the coloring or the robot designs. I admit that the technology improves and makes them look more and more fancier, more poser, and more cool to go buy the plamo. The thing is, they also start looking like a circus instead of just trying to tell a story. What the hell is wrong with the color palette? Red Gundams, Blue Gundams, Gold, Silver, Diamond, Pearl, POKEMON GOTTA CATHCEM ALL! Seriously, there used to be a lot less models in the original, each one having more significance. But now look at this mess, a new model every 5 episodes, with new power ups, new weapons, new boosters and whatever. Am I watching this for the story or the Playmobil variations? Yeah, it even fits the name, Playmobile Suit Gundam, you change one every month. Doesn’t that detract from the importance of the robot or even the pilots themselves? It all turns to a technology race, who gets to create or steal the latest model and blast to pieces the other side before the next model appears in 5 episodes to kick his sorry ass. It’s no longer about the talent of the pilot. It also turns to a fashion model contest, like, who gets to have the best looking one. My favorite is the PINK Gundam, because it was piloted by a pop idol… A pop WHAT???

Oh that’s right, now we have pop idols as well. With pink hair to boot. Singing about world peace on top of everything else. Why do I get the feeling Tomino ripped off ideas from Macross? Skip that, he really did if you think how he included aliens in his later 00 variation (and boy did they suck).

Furthermore, although SEED, like any other Gundam, had some of the best visuals of its time, this particular version was heavy on repeated footage. I could excuse that in the early 80’s because of the technology restraints but in the early 2000’s this is plain lazy and an excuse to save money out of a franchise that sales like crazy. I also never liked the way robots explode with pink smoke in this version; it made everything look gay. Heck, combined with THAT sort of faces it really was gayer. So no, in all the animation and artwork in this and most other series felt inferior to the original. And I don’t mean the number of polygons or the frames per second; I mean the aesthetic part about how serious everything looks. I didn’t like it that much.

After that I will talk a bit about the sound part and more specifically about the soundtrack. Damn, so many different openings and so many different songs, and they are all pop full of teen angst. And sure, the target audience is blood-boiling teenagers and the ballads of the original universe would probably feel out of place. At the same time, this is exactly what makes the whole thing sillier as the feeling of the original was a lot more mature and serious, while this is like dancing drunk in a nightclub. Me no likes pop, but I do admit they are catchy and very memorable for their (inferior) kind.

As for the voice acting, ok, aside from the occasional THE CHARACTERS DON’T MAKE SENSE trademark of Tomino, I guess they were ok. Full of corny ideology and screaming, the cornerstone of teen angst. I can’t say I hated it or anything, it was actually fitting the feeling of the show.

And now the story part. I will not repeat what I said in my review of the original since IT’S THE EXACT SAME STORY LIKE IN ALL GUNDAMS! Something about a war between the space colonies and Earth, as well as the racial hatred between normal humans and a new breed of space-people. There are lots of twists and turns to this and I guess the overall story is quite amazing… with the exception of the pacing. It is mostly slow and has long summaries and even lots of recap episodes. Add to that repeated footage in battles and imbalanced power levels amongst the stats of the robots and the pilots (one moment they have a hard time beating one huge tank, the next they easily defeat three of them).

It could easily be told in half the time, yet look at that THEY MADE A SECOND SEASON! Yup, SEED DESTINY came around a few years later and tried to stretch to double a story which was already stretched more than it should. The result was plain terrible and was considered one of the worst sequels of all time; a huge contrast to how Zeta Gundam was perceived as a much better sequel in the original universe (although it too suffered a lot from the Tomino syndrome). The pacing was awful, the story was going in circles, the new characters failed to be as captivating as the first. The only bright part in it was the introduction of a bunch of warmongers, who constantly spurred conflicts so that wars will never end. Too bad it didn’t last too long and the rest was mostly boring and a rehash of something we saw one year earlier. So what could have been an amazing 25 episode show unfortunately was stretched to last a hundred.

The characters are… well… colorful. The teen angst goes off the scales and there are lots of twists and turn-heels, as well as lots of romance and out-of-screen sex. On a basic level there is so much variety, coloring and development, that you will definitely find someone to root for. And they are not immortal either; about half of them are dead by the end of the show, proving that this is really war and not Bleach. The problem is again Tomino’s bad habit of throwing turn-heels and mood swings every two episodes, as if everybody has permanent PMS. It becomes irritating since you just can’t get to know someone before he starts backstabbing his buddies for a handful of peanuts. Teen angst at its best.

The second season screwed up big time by replacing the interesting chemistry of Athrun and Kira to this emo idiot called Asura. That guy was a bigger murdering asshole than even Sasuke from Naruto and he received such a bad fame from the fans, the scriptwriter rushed to replace him with the original heroes in the second half. I see how they tried to repeat what happened with Amuro and Kamille in the original series but phailed hard.

There is definitely value in this anime, even if doesn’t deserve it. It sold too well and rekindled the interest of the fans in the mecha action. At the same time it is nowhere near as well directed or that artistic as some other Gundam series, such as Turn-A or 08th MS. So not really recommended.

And now for some excused scorings.

Gundam Seed strays from traditional "gundamness" by focusing less on the political intrigue and focusing more on character development and relationships. Yes, there is a LOT of mech in this but they are some of the best looking gundam models to date and the show in general was very enjoyable.

Animation:
There are a lot of battles in this which calls for a lot of FX which I thought they did an excellent job of except when they used CG animation, that always stands out. Characters are well drawn and look quite different from previous Gundam series (the males were drawn quite attractive) and do expect a bit of gore and death as it increases the potency of the message. Oh, and geez Lacus Clyne...

Sound:
The OP/EDs in this series far surpasses most other series for me. Many of the OP/EDs were outstanding and is what actually got me hooked on this in the first place. This coupled with a strong symphonic OST and throw in Rie Tanaka and a lot of other very talented VAs and you've got a winner.

Story:
I actually found the story very interesting in how it starts with Zaft stealing the Natural's experimental gundam suits. After this causes a colony to be destroyed, we find a young, coordinator boy stuck between not wanting to fight and fighting in order to protect those that he values. After having to fight his old closest friend and a few near-death occasions, they both realize that the war will go on indefinitely unless they do something.

I loved how the story was portrayed in such a fashion that the viewer would side with Kira and the Earth forces at first. It was jarring at first but eventually the realization comes that, in fact, no one is the "good side". Even Kira's gang doesn't know if what they are doing is right, but they continue to fight to seek the truth.

Behind all the fights there are also love triangles and unforeseen motives within Kira's group of friends and even the Coordinators. Though not as intense as a true romance/drama, it goes far beyond what I've seen in prior gundam series. The initial conclusion is expanded with an extended final episode, but this is not the true end as Destiny fills that gap.

Character:
Kira Yamato has many mysteries behind him. He seems to be an ordinary child but turns out to be a highly skilled coordinator and is able to pilot his Strike gundam almost instantly once he was in the cockpit. His internal conflict continues throughout the series and he finds relief for his soul physically through girls in the series. Kira's skills and determination increase greatly through the show and he is a veteran ace by the end. His many experiences also teach him that he must fight not to kill but rather to fight to end the killing. A rather tough goal but one shared by other gundam shows.

In general, most of the characters are portrayed in greater depth than one would expect for a gundam series. Though some may not like the trade off of battles and politics for romance and characters that actually seem palpable as humans (or coordinators I guess).

Value:
Despite the length of the show, I found it enjoyable, similar in intensity to the first few arcs in Naruto (meaning marathon mode). There is definite re-watch value in the series and just seeing the Freedom kick butt.

Note: This review is based on KAA fansubs, which are pretty good both translation and quality wise. Recommended.



Originally created by the pair of Yatate Hajime and Tomino Yushiyuki (both having a billion of other Gundam series under their belts) and directed by Fukuda Mitsuo Gundam Seed is another great, if not the best yet, addition to the humongous franchise. Zaft (Coordinators) battle Earth Forces (Naturals). Coordinator while still human is a product of biotechnology, a person who has been born with his genes manipulated. In turn they possess superior intelligence, reflexes and physique to that of the Naturals. Unfortunately, Naturals didn't like the fact that they were inferior now and so thanks to that a lot of anti-coordinator movement groups were created, including Blue Cosmos, which tells everyone that Coordinators are enemies of the nature, God. In a situation like that it didn't take too long for Naturals and Coordinators to start fighting each other. Even though the community of Naturals was originally more than ten times bigger than that of mentally superior Coordinators, the war is being fought equally.

Anger. Greed. Envy. Misunderstandings. Racism. Religion. Politics. Fear. There are countless of reasons why somebody could start a war. Imagine that whenever you got angry, or come to want something from someone, you could start a war and take whatever you want. That's how it was in the past, when the world was ruled under monarchies. But even now, it's not like everyone decides to start a war, the ones in the government, politics do. It's not like soldiers themselves are so keen to fight, it's not like they get much out of fighting, at least not as much as they are risking. Yet even though it's pretty easy to start it, ending a war is extremely hard. People whose relatives have perished, people who were hurt in wars, all of them will want revenge, but after they get it, the other side, which was hurt by their revenge, wants their own one. In turn it creates a never-ending circle of hatred and unless something critical happens the war might never end until one side completely annihilates the other. Winning wasn't that tragic in the past, but now, when nuclear weapons are abound, what winning actually means? Extermination of the entire race?

Gundam Seed proved to be a much better show than I had originally anticipated. While I thought it will concentrate on never ending mecha fights, it actually was all about an anti-war message. Ironically, the main weakness of this show is that it is Gundam, was this show independent from the franchise it might have been even better. The main thing that dragged an otherwise semi-perfect story down was a huge load of unnecessary and useless mecha fights. It's a saving grace that even though story is slow paced and slightly boring at the beginning, character's aren't. For more than thirty episodes characters carry the story solely by themselves and do their best to mask its weaknesses. All in all, while slightly dragged down, Gundam Seed's story is a great one, never before in anime I have seen war portrayed in such a realistic way.

Animation: 7/10

The animation done by Sunrise, while obviously of higher budget than Scryed and Infinite Ryvius, retains its old charm. Character designs are look pretty nice (just look at Lacus Clyne~~), while backgrounds are colorful and eye-pleasing (thought not particularly high on detail). Gundam fights are pretty well animated as well; though you might at first be surprised by pink explosions (heh). On the other hand the animators didn't really do miracles here, and though drawings are pleasant, I doubt this show will remain in your memory thanks to the art. Well, but I assure you, it will remain for other reasons.

The only thing I didn't particularly like with the animation was the designs of mechas themselves. After hearing so much about Gundam I was expecting so see some very detailed and memorable mobile suits. Unfortunately most of the mechas look pretty plain and not that different from the old Transformers. Heck, Neon Genesis Evangelion has much better suit designs.

Sound: 8/10

Music is of high quality. Most of the OPs, while mostly energetic jpop songs go with the show's atmosphere very well. Even though there is still a room for improvement, I enjoyed them, not skipping any even once. For the most part the same applies for EDs as well, save for the first one. Anna ni Issho datta no ni by See-Saw is a freaking great song, even while writing this review I'm listening to it. I was actually looking forward to the ending of every episode of the first half of Gundam simply so I could hear that awesome song again.

Background music, composed by Sahashi Toshihiko (Hunter x Hunter, Full Metal Panic!), sounds pretty nice as well. There is a lot of memorable tracks in the show which help to keep up its energetic and at times grand atmosphere. Symphonic music seriously owns in space, though it's much more energetic than you might imagine here in Gundam series. Also the vocal version of Akatsuki no Kuruma by FictionJunction YUUKA is one of the best lyrical music pieces I have heard in awhile, it even beats the first ending song of this show I have mentioned before. While played only three or four times in the whole show, it not only makes the already meaningful scenes more enjoyable, but also very inviting to re-watch as well. I was stuck on one of such scenes for more than twenty minutes. Kind of made me understand the feelings of all those Japanese youth massively going to karaoke boxes every day.

Lastly voice-actors. Well, Gundam is a massive franchise, so, it's no wonder they went with star like seiyuu cast. Anyway, the first one I would like to mention is one of the most marvelous voice performances in the history of anime, which won Tanaka Rie (Chobits as Chii, .hack//Sign as Morganna) the second place in my all-time favourite female seiyuu list. Lacus Clyne is a marvelous character, and her voice is just as marvelous if not even more so. I will never forget, neither Lacus Clyne, nor her voice, as long as I live. No wonder she was the most famous singer in the galaxy. Other voice-actors include Hoshi Soouichirou (Naruto as Gaara, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni as Maebara Keiichi, Infinite Ryvius as Aiba Yuuki) as Kira Yamato (though I must say, I didn't like him here as much as I did in other shows), Kuwashima Houko (Claymore as Clare, Infinite Ryvius as Housen Aoi, Fullmetal Alchemist as Rose Tomas) who does a great job at being hysterical as Allster Flay, Koyasu Takehito (Bobobo as Bobobo, Gungrave as Balladbird Lee) who does a pretty good job with Mwu La Flaga and finally Seki Toshihiko (Trigun as Legato Bluesummers) who makes Raww Le Klueze sound as cool as his character is. Oh, I've nearly forgotten Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon as Usagi Tsukino, Neon Genesis Evangelion as Misato Katsuragi, Great Teacher Onizuka as Urumi Kanzaki) who, unfortunately, voices one of my least favourite characters here - Murrue Ramius.

Story: 8/10

My only gripe with the show's setting is that even though they always highlight the fact that Coordinators are superior to humans in intelligence, it doesn't really look so when they are interacting with each other. It seems that the difference in "intelligence" only emerges when they are piloting their Gundams. Even though Coordinators, supposedly can program and work 10 times faster than Naturals, for some reason, they don't have superior Gundams deviced. What's even weirded is that the show actually starts from Zaft stealing 'superior' Gundams from Earth Forces. I mean hell, how the heck Earth Forces could have built superior Gundams when Zaft is much more advanced? Well, either way, if you can overlook such minor inconsistences, the setting and the world of the show is magnificently well done.

The only thing that plagues otherwise very intelligent and complex story, full of politics and philosophy, is Gundam fights which fail to bring any conclusion. I mean nearly all fights at the first half of the show were like - "Bad guys appear, good guy comes out to fight, damages their units, they retreat, the end". No closure, no conclusion, it took damn thirty episodes for these useless skirmishes to end and for the first casualty to finally show its face. Hundreds of nameless guys died, but who cares about them, when real characters, even though battle all the time neither die nor get hurt. Fortunately, at the latter half of the show the fights get much more brutal and immersing. You can no longer tell the ending of the battle and the number of casualties before the fight itself then.

Probably the strongest point of the story is its ability to make viewer unable to predict anything. You can't really tell what's going to happen next (except that there are going to be mecha fights either way, heh), since the show does very good job at showing how both fighting sides are both evil and good. Soon you can't really tell which side you are sympathizing with, same with the characters. There are so many unpredictable twists that it's pretty much impossible to know what's going to happen next. And that's one of the most important factors which decide either I'll like the show or not. And I did like it, and very much at that.

Finally the message of the show is simply astoundingly well done. Even I, who in essence enjoys wars, and thinks of military strategics as one of the most suitable professions for himself, started to wish that the war in Gundam Seed would finally end. Damn the wars, I'll stick with strategy computer games.

Character: 9/10

Its already Sunrise's trademark to have good characters. Both Infinite Ryvius and Scryed had great characters, Gundam Seed is no exception. Again, the show has a lot of characters, actually, so many that you might have trouble counting them. What's so good about them is that all of them have diverse personalities and actually "feel" like human beings. While there are both static and developing characters, all of them do a great job at what they are supposed to do. Main lead, Kira, undergoes one of the longest and substantial developments I have ever seen in a show to this date yet. Other characters like, let's say Cagalli, who starts as a very rash girl, Athrun, one of the most loyal soldiers of Zaft, and especially Fllay, who goes from a crybaby to a venomous avenger to a person worth of sympathy, have truly great development curves. Pretty much after every episode you can see minor changes in their personalities and perceptions. On the other hand static characters hold their ground firmly too. Through the whole running time of the show I was really interested in La Klueze and fortunately, my interest was fully satisfied. Finally, I found Lacus Clyne to be one of the best female characters in any show I have ever seen. While at first I underestimated her as an idealistic and unsophisticated songstress, I was pretty much left speechless at the latter half of the show when she finally shows her true colors (Her PVC figure stands proudly on the top of my desk presently).

The only thing I found slightly irritating in the characters department is that people like Ramius and Waltfield, are put into the shoes of military captains. Even though good and profound characters they are simply incompetent at leading an army. While Ramius is always making poor decisions influenced by emotions, Waltfield is simply too soft to be a commander. Who in their right mind would warn enemy encampment before a surprise attack? Even though I realize that this show does this intentionally, trying to make all characters on the 'good' guys side look kind and making them carry the anti-war message, I still find it quite ironical that Lacus Clyne, who is originally a songstress, is the most capable and competent person at leading the army. -_-;

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator[/u]:

Sai - ISTP (D)
Nicol - ISFP (D)
Yzak - ENTJ (C)
Dearka - ESTP (C)
Miriallia - ESFJ (D)
Athrun Zala - ISTJ (B)
Fllay Alster - ESFJ (B)
Kira Yamato - ISFJ (B)
Lacus Clyne - INFJ (A+)
Mwu La Flaga - ESTP (E)
Murrue Ramius - ISFP (D)
Raww Le Klueze - INTJ (A)
Andrew Waltfield - ESTP (D)
Cagalli Yulla Athha - ISTP (B)

Show Spoiler

Value: 7/10

Re-watch value is plagued by many unnecessary mecha fights throughout the show. Were there three times less fighting the Value score might have been even as high as 9.

1. Conclusion[/u]: If you're a fan of mecha then this show is a must watch, though even if you dislike mecha, you shouldn't overlook it either. While I myself am not keen on mecha fights I enjoyed this show a great deal thanks to its profound, innovative characters and deep story. If you have enjoyed this, shows like Infinite Ryvius or other Gundams

might be worth checking out.[/i][/ol]