Mobile Suit Gundam Seed

Writer: Mitsuo Fukuda
Director: Mitsuo Fukuda
Production House: Sunrise
Review Type: Anime
Status: Completed
Genre: Mecha




Synopsis

Mankind is divided over human genetic engineering, with normal humans known as 'Naturals' and the genetically altered humans known as 'Coordinators' (Newtypes anybody?). The series is the first set in the alternate timeline entitled the Cosmic Era. Gundam Seed begins with the Bloody Valentine War between the Naturals who reside on Earth and the Coordinators who reside in the space colonies. The Naturals' army are called the Earth Alliance, while the Coordinators are called ZAFT.

Our story begins with the neutral space colony Heliopolis is invaded by the ZAFT forces, in their mission to seize 5 Mobile Suits the colony had been developing for the Earth Alliance to aid their war effort. Protagonist Kira Yamato was seemingly caught in the middle of the attack, and witnessing his friends in grave danger, pilots the Mobile Suit GAT-X105 Strike (or Strike Gundam for short) in order to ward of the invaders. As the battle escalates and Heliopolis falling apart in the ensuing destruction, the civilians board the spaceship Archangel and they embark on their journey to the Earth Alliance's base in Alaska (sounds really familiar so far Gundam fans? think Jaburo) . During this time, Kira continues to pilot the Strike Gundam to fight against repeated attacks by ZAFT but seemingly killed by childhood friend and ZAFT antagonist Athrun Zala in a battle. With the Archangel arriving in Alaska after said battle's conclusion, ZAFT launches a full scale assault on the Alaskan base, and was seemingly winning the battle when Kira, back from the dead, arrives in Alaska with a new Mobile Suit ZGMF-X10A Freedom or Freedom Gundam turning the tide, and eventually ending the battle. With the hopes of ending the war between Naturals and Coordinators, Kira and the Archangel join the Orb Union, an organization led by Lacus Kleine, who coincidentally gifted the Freedom Gundam to Kira in order to aid him in his fight for peace. Kira's childhood friend Athrun, curious of his motives in the war, decided to search for Kira to find out, and upon listening to him and Lacus, Athrun decides to join their cause to end the war.

This sets up the epic finale to this series, with the Orb Union intervening in the war, in hopes of preventing the Earth Alliance and ZAFT from annihilating each other, imposing their ideology of resolving the war with coexistence among the Naturals and Coordinators.


Chibi's Seeding Comments

Apart from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, the franchise isn't known for its innovation. Almost all of the Gundam sagas fixate on one angst-ridden teenager who suddenly stumbles upon a mobile suit, found out he was able to pilot it, and suddenly thrust into the middle of a huge war, and how said teenager deals with it. Following the rule of 'if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it', this template for the Gundam plotline has either worked or bombed in terms of storytelling. While Gundam Seed brings some new concepts to the franchise, any Gundam fan will quickly realise that originality is not director Mitsuo Fukuda-san's specialty.

Putting that aside, however, it has been a long time since the franchise came up with a truly compelling saga, and ever since the departure from the Universal Century (I still miss it dearly), the Gundam faithful had been subjected to mostly mediocre Gundam shows. Even the best alternate timeline sagas could only hold a candle to some of the worst and corniest works of the Universal Century timeline. With Gundam Seed all this had changed and the Gundam faithtul are treated to one saga that finally did the franchise and the Universal Century sagas justice.

While most old school Gundam fans might notice the astonishing similarities between Gundam Seed and the original Mobile Suit Gundam, in my opinion this series did take a step in the right direction in trying to emulate the past glory of the original. This is done to great effect as the similarities to me seems more nostalgic than a blatant rip-off. Case in point being the two main characters whose path to becoming a Gundam pilot are carbon copies to one another. Amuro Ray (the original) and Kira Yamato (Seed) are both young, inexperienced pilots at first, and both are unintended Gundam pilots, but somehow forced to be one whilst their colonies are under attack, with both protagonists being quickly exposed to the harsh reality of war. The tragedy and irony of conflict always takes center stage in both tales, and in a sense you do see Fukuda-san's intention of paying tribute to the Universal Century timeline with the extensive similarities
before taking the story in its own, different direction.

The similarities begin to fade during the second half of the series and more characteristic factors, such as the struggle between best friends Kira and Athrun, who are on opposing sides of the war, takes center stage. This, however, is when I got to experience firsthand the reason why Fukuda-san's also known as 'King of the Flashbacks'. As more important events occur and more of the cast start to become casualties, more flashbacks occur, making it so annoying that marathon-ing more than 5 episodes in a sitting becomes just to excruciating to endure. Although it is good for an anime to try and explain to newcomers what had transpired (i mean seriously, same flashback sequence 10 episodes in a row?!? geez), it just seems that there's not enough story to support certain episodes and this is a seemingly 'clever' way of filling in the gaps (if i recall correctly there are 2 FULL recap episodes as well as a flashback sequence whenever an important past event is brought up).

Flashbacks aside though, there are more well-choreographed action sequences throughout the entire series than u can shake a stick at, albeit the battle scenes are always secondary to the narrative. With the abundance of flashbacks galore about things that happened from episode 1, the storyline slowly trudges along, especially throughout the middle part of the anime, but i guess it's better than the plot being rushed (ala Gundam F91). This only lasts until the episode count hits the 30s though, where the story drastically kicks into high gear, keeping the viewer glued to his seat all the way to the conclusion of the series.

The characters of this installment, whilst the leads are definitely in a league of their own, the supporting cast seems a little wooden for my liking. It feels like most of them are only created to fill in their specified role in order to keep the flow of the plot tangible. As with most teenaged pilots, there's also the issue of angst, although they are nowhere near the testosterone-fuelled angst loons like the Gundam Wing pilots, it's just evident here as a means to distract the viewer from more pressing plot issues. In this light is where i felt that Kira reminded me so much of Amuro, being particularly angsty (he's gone from student to Gundam pilot for pete's sake), and is a really approachable character with an instant connection to the audience. Very much an exact clone of Amuro save his looks (probably more like Ikari Shinji from Evangelion), Kira is also a courageous young man that always seems to wonder his role in the war and is constantly facing conflicting emotions about himself. Kira's childhood friend and main antagonist Athrun Zala is also similar in character. There's also the complex and tumultuous connection between Earth Alliance officer Muu La Flaga and ZAFT officer Raww Le Kreuze, which raises even more questions with each answer, coupled with Raww Le Krueze's malicious intentions makes it even more meaningful to the overall primary conflict of the series (Char Aznable anyone?). The character development of the leads and their relationships with others in this installment are also very progressive (once again reminiscent of the original Gundam) throughout the course of the series. It is through these reasons that makes the particularly wooden supporting cast's performances forgivable, as the leads and the plot are more than enough to compensate for it.

The visuals in Gundam Seed are anything short of spectacular, which is truly miles ahead of any of its predecessors. There are some hints that the integration of the CGI being less than seamless, but apart from that the animation in Gundam Seed is beautiful and stunning, even if compared to completely CGI rendered features such as Appleseed. The mecha designs in this installment are in a class of its own, making each of the 5 Gundams really individualistic with a unique type of armament exclusive unto itself. From invisibility (the Blitz, my favourite in this one) to wielding beam sabers in each hand (Kira's Strike Gundam, most definitely an homage to the RX-0078) to even launching pods, or funnels that can be utilised either as an offensive or a defensive weapon (Freedom Gundam, with the funnel idea assimilated from Zeta's Quebeley, my favourite and Haman Karn's Mobile Suit). In short, these Gundams are so strong in build that I think nothing would be able to stop them, provided the right pilot is at the controls.

In conclusion, I do feel that Gundam Seed will not be as watchable to everyone the way I described it. The similarities with the previous Gundam sagas will probably anger some of the old school Gundam fans, and the constant flashbacks will also generate a certain degree of impatience for some. But for this author's final sentiment is that Gundam Seed in itself is a very watchable series, with enough flair to seperate it from other sagas, yet familiar enough to net some of the old school with similarities of the much loved older installments. A very enjoyable watch indeed.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed was written and directed by Mitsuo Fukuda and produced by Sunrise. It aired from October 2002 to September 2003, spanning 50 episodes. An OVA was released entitled Mobile Suit Gundam Seed After Phase: In the Valley of Stars was released in March 2004, spanning only one episode. A manga was written by Hajime Yatate and Yoshiyuki Tomino running from February 2003 to January 2004, with 5 volumes released in total.

Chibi's Review

Storyline: 4/5

Character Development: 4/5

Art: 5/5

Originality: 3/5