Mobile Suit Gundam Seed (eps. 1-34)

My first exposure to the Gundam Universe, like many of you, was Gundam Wing. I still remember getting home late from school that first day and plunking down in front of the TV and becoming hooked with that great opening sequence of the Wing Gundam entering the Earth's atmosphere for the first time. Then I started getting into the orginal Moble Suit Gundam series and its plot heavy, retro action experiance. Hell, I even got into G Gundam.

This is basicaly to tell you that this is all coming from a big Gundam Fan.

So how is this new series, Gundam Seed? Well, think of the over-the-top robots and battles of Gundam Wing and the "War is Hell" mentality and crying of the orginal Gundam series and you will have a pretty good idea.

The basic stroy is that once again, the Earth and its Colonies are at war and like always, the sides of who's right and wrong is more then a little grey.

After years of genetic manipulation, scientists have been able to create the ultimate pinnacle of the human race. Called Coordinators, these people have fast psyhical and mental ablitites that quickly make then both feared and hated by the populace at large. The Coordinators are forced to flee into space, and create there home base on the colony PLANT and create their own government called Zaft (Hmm, who are they suppose to be?)

Still fighting continues betweent the "Naturals" and Coordinators leading to a nuclear attack on a peaceful colony by the Earth which begins a horrible war.

Now Zaft has already developed Moble Suits, which leaves Earth government fighting only with tanks and ships. The show begins as the Earth forces about to move out their prototype Moblie Suit called, say it with me, Gundams. The exchange is to take place on the colony Helopolios, because of its neutral stance on the war, but this doesn't stop Zaft from trying to steal the suits.

As the cololny begins to crumble, a young student named Kira Yamato is forced into the Strike Gundam and has to battle to save his friends. The other four suits are stolen by Zaft and the few remaining Earth force officers have to escape on the new battleship Archangle (think White Base) with Kira and his friends as captives. However, Kira is a Coordinator and he soon has to fight against his own kind, and his childhood best friend Asuruan to save the people he now holds dear, no matter how much he hates fighting.

Ok, got that all out of the way, now for the part you really want to know about: How cool are these Gundams!?!?

The main five Gundams are built with different functions in mind. Duel is made for short range combat with two swords and mini-lasers and missles, Buster is built for long range attacks with to laser rifles that can combine for an amazing blast that can take down ships with a single shot, and Blitz is made for stealth and features a cloaking device and missle studded shield. (These three all belong to Zaft)

Then we have the main two Gundams. Kira pilots the veristale Stike, which come in three mode. Flight has extra boosters and a laser rifle, Sword with a, well, huge freaking sword with a laser edge, and Cannon which has a large blaster cannon. Asuruan pilots the Aegis, which is just as versital, but both a gun mode (the suit actual transforms into a cannon) and hand to hand (laser blades are built into its hands and feet) are available without the switching that Strike needs.

Later in the series, three more suits come into play for the Earth side, Calamity, Raider and Forbbiden(which is a remodel of my favorite Gundam, Deathscythe). Also Strike and Aegis get upgrades and become Freedom and Justice Gundam respectivly. These suits haven't really done anything yet, just hanged in the background, so I can't comment on them just now.

Yes, they are pretty cool, however if you've seen both Gundam Wing and the orginal Gundam, this all may feel a little old hat.

The best friends forced to fight each other is a nice twist, but its handled with a lot of crying and almost-fights that really takes awhile to build up the emotions of the viewer. Plus we have lost of shceming from underlings, like the resiquite masked character Commander Kurruuze of Zaft, and "guess which characters will turn out to be siblings" that we are use to in Gundam.

This is also hurt by the shows sluggish pacing. I'm a fan of character building as the next guy, but we normaly get two-three episode streches without any Gundam action. These all just feel like filler, which isn't helped by the the four clip shows so far (I could maybe understand two, but FOUR?!? come on), and flashback laden episodes. This just comes off as padding the story and lazy. I could easly see these 34 eps being cut down to 20 easily.

While not that orginal, there is still a lot to like here. The animation is quite good and the battle scenes are kenitic and fast paced. Plenty of big explosions and dying characters can be found here, so its certinaly not boring to watch and hang on too.

One of my favorite elements of the show has to be a young, female cadet named Frey. We know that Gundam shows normally don't have the strongest female characters and Frey easily out classes all those girls. After seeing her farther killed in battle, Frey becomes oppsessed with bringing down Kira, who she blames for not protecting her father. She basically builds up Kira's self esteem, but leaves troubling ideas in his mind, which she hopes will cause him to wig out and be killed in battle. The way she seems to switch from maniacal laughter to crying, curled up on the ground is campy fun. Her relationship with Kira lead to much controversy in Japan when Frey seduced the young teen into doing naughty things (Kira is 16, Frey is 15 for refrence of the contraversy). Still, watching just how crazy Frey will become is part of the fun of the show.

Also, a nice addition is a third power in this struggle, the neutral country of Orb. Like the Swiss, they are staying out of the fight, but their power and technology is feared by both Earth and Zaft. They even have an army of mass produced Gundams called Astray which leads me to think that they must be up to something. Which side will they land on? Are they about to make their own play? This new wrinkle keeps things lively as the show moves on.

In the end, if you are a Gundam fan, you will probably enjoy watching this new series, but it will feel pretty much like a rehash. I can imagine new fans really getting into the show, which is good, but Gundam may need to think of a new twist that is different, but not G Gundam differenet, to keep things fresh for us older fans soon.

If you have any other questions, I'm happy to answer them!

Added: June 19th 2003
Reviewer: Charles Panning
Score:
Related Link: Want a look at these new Gundams? Click here!
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