Mobile Suit Gundam SEED

Synopsis

In the year C.E. (Cosmic Era) 71, during a ongoing war between the Earth Alliance (Humans known as Naturals) and ZAFT (Also known as Zodiac Alliance Freedom Treaty, who are made up of humans called Coordinators who have had their genes genetically modified to enhance their abilities) a neutral space colony called Heliopolis was secretly holding a top secret facility, holding five new mobile suits called Gundams. However, ZAFT had found out about this and attacked Heliopolis, stealing four out of the five Gundams. During the battle, a civilian named Kira Yamato stumbles upon the Strike Gundam, the remaining Gundam of the Earth Alliance, and is forced to pilot it. In the midst of the battle, Kira encounters his longtime childhood friend, Athrun Zala who is one of the five ZAFT pilots who had hijacked one of the new Earth Alliance Gundams, the Aegis Gundam. Kira being a Coordinator, who was living peacefully among other Naturals, is the only one capable to pilot the Strike Gundam. However, Kira is not part of ZAFT, even though they are his own kind. Since he has nowhere else to turn to, he and his other friends who were on Heliopolis decide to side with the Earth Alliance and they join up with the Earth Alliance battleship, the Archangel, and it’s crew. Together, they fight in an ongoing war against ZAFT while struggling with the horrors that war can bring in hopes that one day, the war between Naturals and Coordinators will come to an end.

Review

For those who have watched the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series, you will see a lot of similarities between most of the first half of Gundam SEED and the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The Heliopolis colony being attacked by ZAFT is very reminiscent of when the Zeon attacked Side 7 in Mobile Suit Gundam, where the prototype Gundams were being held. Kira and his friends being forced to work as crew on the Archangel is also very reminiscent of Amuro Ray and others from Side 7 being forced to work as crew on the White Base. Not to mention the whole desert arc in SEED has its similarities to the Desert Arc in Mobile Suit Gundam where Amuro met Ramba Ral. This may be one of the reasons a lot of U.C. Gundam fans have been discouraged from watching Gundam SEED, because they think it’s a rip off of Mobile Suit Gundam. While I’m not going to deny that, I’d like to think that SEED instead decided to incorporate much of what made Mobile Suit Gundam a great Gundam series, while incorporating its own uniqueness.

 After a little over half of the series, SEED decides to take a different route from what it once had taken. The prominence of borrowed plot elements from Mobile Suit Gundam start to fade away and more characteristic factors, such as the conflict between Kira and Athrun, begin to take centerstage. After that point, the plot begins to slow down for the next few episodes as the struggle between Kira and Athrun had finally came to a close. However, the last fifteen to sixteen episodes of this series is where the story begins to pick up tremendously. In my opinion, the intensity of the action becomes incredibly strong in the last fifteen episodes of the series.

As for the characters, like any mecha anime involving war and death, there are plenty of moments where we get to see the characters are shown being emotional and dramatic. One could also say that the characters in SEED show a lot of angst at times, especially Kira and Athrun. While SEED does seem to lack a strong supporting cast, this is fine as the plot and the main characters more than make up for that.

As for the animation, Gundam SEED is beautifully animated, especially compared to some of the earlier Gundam series. Being the first Gundam series to fully incorporate GCI animation, SEED manages to be quite visually stunning. The character and mech designs are also very well done. Some of my favorite Gundam designs in this series being that of the Blitz, the Freedom, the Justice, and the Providence Gundams.

Musically, this show is very strong. With amazing opening themes, ending themes, and insert songs from popular singers such as T.M. Revolution, See-Saw, FictionJunction YUUKA, and Nami Tamaki, Gundam SEED has some very powerful vocal music. Not to mention we can’t forget that Gundam SEED has some amazing background music that fits the mood of this series perfectly. I’d expect nothing less from Toshihiko Sahashi, who also does the background music for the Full Metal Panic anime franchise. A lot of the music in the last fifteen episodes of the series is very powerful and really helps to set the mood of the series, especially compared to a lot of the earlier music used in the series.

As for the whole dub vs. sub debate, while Bandai has been known for doing a lot of good Gundam dubs with good to exceptional voice acting, with such series such as Mobile Suit Gundam, Gundam 0080, Gundam 0083, and Gundam F91, Gundam SEED was just wasn’t one of those. Though at this point, I think only Bandai really knows why they flopped so badly on the dub with Gundam SEED. A lot of the voice acting just does not fit the characters at all in my opinion and they come off as sounding very annoying. While I admit that I didn’t listen to very much of the dub, I listened to it enough to know it was a bad dub. The only voice I thought even sounded ok was Athrun’s dub voice. However, I’d highly advise watching Gundam SEED in Japanese with English subtitles if you want a truly enjoyable experience watching this series. The voice acting is extremely well done and fits all the characters perfectly in my opinion. You can’t go wrong with great seiyuu talent such as Houko Kuwashima, Rie Tanaka, Kotono Mitsuishi, Akira Ishida, Tomokazu Seki, Takehito Koyasu, and many more.

In the end, Gundam SEED is obviously not for everyone. The degree to which it incorporates material from the original Mobile Suit Gundam will obviously make this series disliked by some. Even still, I believe Gundam SEED is a very worthwhile series. It contains enough originality to distinguish it from other Gundam series, while retaining various elements from other Gundam series that we have known to love. My final thought, Gundam SEED is a great Gundam series. It remains strong from the beginning and gets even stronger as it goes on to the very end. It is definitely one of the best Alternate Universe Gundam series by far and definitely one of the better Gundam series to date.

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