Gênero: Action, Award Winning, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Estudio: Sunrise
Sinopse:
In the year Cosmic Era 0071, the space colony Heliopolis remains neutral in the great war raging across the galaxy between Coordinators, human beings whose biological traits have been altered before birth, and Naturals, unaltered people who remain on the planet Earth. The Naturals' deep hatred of the Coordinators drove the advanced beings into space, seeking shelter in man-made colonies.
Kira Yamato is a Coordinator and university student on Heliopolis, when his life is thrown into disarray as ZAFT, the military organization composed of rebellious Coordinators, attacks the colony in an effort to steal a set of five state-of-the-art military mobile suits known as Gundams.
While ZAFT manages to make off with four of the mobile suits, Kira take control of the final Gundam, the Strike. Surviving the battle, Kira and his college friends join the crew of the Archangel, a ship run by the Earth Alliance, and the young soldiers experience the horrors of war and the loss that comes with it.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Nenhum episódio encontrado.
Comentários
kiriska
Gundam SEED started off as just another Gundam series for me. I watched it because it was airing and convenient... I didn't expect it to become my favorite Gundam series of all time. STORY - At this point, you'd have to stretch pretty far to find a Gundam series with a mindblowingly different premise, so there's no point in really focusing on the fact that yes, this is another series about teenagers in giant robots fighting a war that's pretty pointless. There is nothing new about Gundam SEED, but then, it deserves points for being able to stand out despite that very fact. For me, oneof the most appealing things about SEED was its very easy-to-understand plotline. The root of the war, while decidedly trivial to some extent, is simple. I'm sure more than a few people were confused, and subsequently put off, by the political madness that ravaged the plots of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, as well as newer classics like Gundam Wing, so it was nice to see something so simple come along.
In addition to the war, one of the strongest story points for me was the conflict between Athrun and Kira. The cruelty and tragicness of pitting friend against friend works very well here, and I know I've said before that I'm just a sucker for this kind of stuff. For SEED, this conflict was well done, progressed smoothly, and resolved rather satisfactory. It was pretty neat to see the same conflict mirrored later with Dearka and Yzak too. Also, this series was one of the first in a long time to surprise me so much with things happening in the story. People died. People you really didn't expect to die died. So many people die that at some point, you kind of started wondering if anyone was actually going to live! But despite the number of deaths, you never got the feeling that it was overdone, or that any of the characters' deaths didn't have some significance or meaning, and that's definitely a feat.
Those two aspects of SEED made up for all the cliches that came with being a Gundam series -- white mask's ulterior motive was nothing amazing, and the ending to the war wasn't anything special either. But by the end of it all, it isn't the basics of the story that's important, it's all the progress you've made with the characters and their own personal resolutions.
CHARACTER - The characters in SEED probably contributed the most to gaining my favor. All of them are exceptionally well done. Yes, even the minor characters, which is definitely a rarity in anime. All of them seem like real people; they're complex and have emotions, motives, flaws. Both of the protagonists are split between a side that has to fight and a side that hurt because of everything that's happening. After all the stoic personalities in Gundam Wing, it was incredible for me to see characters that would actually cry. On several occasions, even. In fact, for the first half of the series, it seriously surprised me just how much of a crybaby Kira was. But it worked for his character, so even though he kind of turned into a godmodding, self-righteous bastard later on, it was okay.
Kira aside, for me, Athrun was the most interesting character and had the most depth. Throughout the entire series, he was in conflict. And as soon as one conflict was resolved, another would present itself. The poor guy was in constant turmoil, which was really great to see. He was easy to relate to and never grew out of reach like Kira did. Secondary characters like Cagalli and Lacus were also refreshing to see -- female characters that had strength to stand up on their own. Indeed, one might venture to say that our male protagonists depended much more on their female counterparts than the other way around, as is traditionally the case.
It would be exhausting to go through the list of other characters, though many of them are also important and very relevant. Suffice to say that there are almost NO flat characters in SEED. All of them have dimension and depth and develop throughout the series. I don't really think this happens in many other anime.
ARTWORK & ANIMATION - I rather like the art style of SEED (the same people also did Sokyuu no Fafner); it's pleasing to the eye and works well for the content of the series. The animation itself is pretty average, and I'm still waiting for the day when explosions in the distance graduate from looking like Pacman, but oh well. There's nothing else really worth noting, but it certainly isn't an ugly series.
MUSIC - I... adore the music for this entire series. All three instrumental soundtracks are well worth getting! The battle music is strong and epic! The introspection music is interesting and intriguing! The tragic music makes the already tragic scene ten times more touching. It's just fantastic all around. After the bigshots Yoko Kanno and Yuki Kajiura, it's Toshihiko Sahashi that makes it on my playlist the most! And the OP/ED themes are pretty much all top notch as well. I've been a fan of T.M. Revolution for a long time, so "Invoke" was perfect for the first opening. SEED introduced the world to Nami Tamaki, and I must say I've definitely become a fan since her debut. SEE-SAW and Mika Nakashima are always good as well, and even the lesser known artists in the lineup are pretty awesome.
DUBBING & VOCALS - I saw the first half of this series in English but ended up seeing the second half subbed (because SEED was, for some reason, so unpopular that CN shoved it in a death slot). The dub was nothing spectacular certainly, but it was decent. None of the voices were up to par with their Japanese counterparts, but the only one that seriously annoyed me was Richard Cox, and that was mostly because the man can't seem to change his voice between characters (and thus, the character he voiced sounded like Inuyasha to me). The Japanese cast, on the other hand, is top notch. Akira Ishida as Athrun remains one of my favorite performances ever, and Souichiro Hoshi as Kira was pretty great too. And of course, you can't forget Rie Tanaka as Lacus -- Lacus has several songs she performs within the series and Tanaka is the one singing all of them. It always pleases me when they're able to do that and helps reaffirm the fact that the Japanese seem to take their voice acting much more seriously than we do.
OVERALL - I know I haven't seen all of the Gundam series out there, but of those I've seen, this is definitely my favorite. The characters come to life and everything else falls into place behind that. A lot of people cling onto Mobile Suit Gundam as the only good one because it's the original, but though it was a good series that obviously propelled the creation of all subsequent Gundams, for this generation of anime fans, it's sorely outdated. I really feel like Gundam SEED should be the series taking its place for the post-2000 generation of fans. That statement may bode well in Japan, as this series was wildly popular, but I'm disappointed to see that it failed miserably in the States. Chalk that up to other factors though, 'cause this series is damn good.
2Daggers
Gundam Seed was my first taste into the Gudam universe. At first I was really hesitant to start watching this series because I thought the show was for children because of the mecha. However once I started watching the series, I couldn't stop without finishing it. Story: 9/10 The whole series is basically about an ongoing war between the Natural human race and the genetically superior Coordinators. This may seem like a straightforward plotline, however several things push the plot so it is not as simple as it seems. Throughout the series you are left wondering which side is truly the right side to be on. Throughoutthe series you get to see both sides of the story as much of the Natural's justifications are shown with Kira and most of Coordinator's justifications are shown with Athrun.
Art: 8/10
Because this is a very old series, the art style is very different from the art style today. It's not to say that it's bad, but it might take some getting used to for someone who has only started watching anime recently. The battle scenes have a lot of flashing lights and aren't choreographed too badly. I would say this area is the weakest point of the whole series.
Sound: 9/10
I thought that all of the opening and ending songs really fit the series as a whole. The best music to me was Rie Tanaka's singing throughout the series. I was really amazed when I first heard her sing has Lacus Clyne because she sung for her own character. In my experience, many people usually get singers to sing their character roles. So I was really impressed that she sung her own song and that she was actually very good at it.
Character: 10/10
The characters are the strongest point of this series. This series is built on the interaction between the characters. The battles and action almost seems secondary to me compared to the drama occurring between the main characters. This series has a lot of characters that pushed the plotline forward, but the main characters really shone above the others.
Kira Yamato is the main protagonist of the story. During the beginning of the series he really is a normal person with many weaknesses and faults. However as the series progresses, he grows and matures in order to face the trials given to him. I believe Kira's growth as a person is one of the things that really grabs a viewer. He grows from a weak school student to a leader that many people can count on.
Athrun Zala is another main protagonist of the story. Athrun enters the story on the opposite side of the war as Kira. Their past history of being childhood friends becomes one of the key factors in the story as Athrun and Kira both fight on opposite sides in the war. Athrun's emotional struggle continues throughout the series as he tries to figure out what is the right thing to do.
Lacus Clyne is one the main female protagonists of the story. While originally appearing as Athrun's finance, she later becomes Kira's love interest. Lacus's first appearance in the series is as a normal girl who doesn't hold any importance in the war aside from the fact that her father is the High Supreme Councilor of the Coordinators. However as the story progresses, Lacus quickly shows her strength as she rallies up support against the war in face of great opposition.
Cagalli Yula Athha is the other female protagonist. Although very close with Kira in the beginning of the series, she later becomes Athrun's love interest. She appears in the beginning of the series as a strong woman who is capable of fighting for what she believes in. Later on in the series her heritage of being the daughter of Orb's leader is revealed.
Overall: 10/10
Gundam Seed is one of my most favorite series of all time. I would say that this is a must see series for all new, incoming anime fans.
slpless
I’m not really into mecha anime, so when I decided to watch Gundam SEED (GS) I was a bit reluctant. I was primarily expecting lots of action and very little on story and characters. However, considering the positive reviews I decided to give it a chance. Anyway, before I start I would like to say that I watched several universal century Gundams (0079, Zeta, and Char’s Counterattack) and even did reviews for them. So I may make several references and comparisons. GS was considered to be an updated version of the original Mobile Suit Gundam (MSG)for the 21st century, as it deals with more contemporary issues (ie cloning, genetic modification, etc). So it should be no surprise that GS starts out in a very similar vein to MSG. However, this isn’t to say that GS copied MSG, instead GS took the best parts of MSG and improved it. Well at least for the first half of the series. The pacing was a definite improvement as it was nearly flawless, I can’t really separate the episodes easily as they blended so well together which makes GS ideal for marathoning. The story is also very similar, 2 warring factions, political intrigue, and the viewpoint of both sides, typical Gundam. I don’t need to get in to specifics, in general the crew of the <new advanced ship> attempts to escape/fight off another ship and its crew. This is while trying to get to a specific destination and completing various checkpoints. Sure it wasn’t the most original of stories but paired with its fast pace and execution it was damn entertaining in its own right. However, in the case of GS the characters take a much bigger role. While the 1st half was good and entertaining it doesn’t compare to its 2nd half.
The 2nd half was where GS breaks free from its MSG roots and finds its true self. Here, GS really focuses on the characters, in particular the conflict between Kira and Athrun. Not only them, there was a lot of focus on the various character’s conflicts as well as plenty of character development. Here the action/battles take an even more secondary focus and the characters/narrative clearly becomes the primary focus. The overall structure of the story improved tremendously as it’s no longer linear (from checkpoint to checkpoint); instead GS features a more dynamics story structure. Pacing for the 2nd half moves even faster and GS rides this momentum until the very end. However, its not without its faults. The new antagonist introduced felt like they were introduced for the sake of having Gundam battles/make more toys. This is due to them being extremely one-dimensional. Finally, there were quite a few coincidences and illogical moments throughout. For example, when the odds becomes overwhelming Kira or someone else coming out of nowhere to save the day. Considering the overall quality of everything else, those moments can easily be forgiven.
As I mentioned before there was a much bigger focus on the characters in GS than in MSG. For the most part, the characters are multi-dimensional and likeable, the major exception being the newly introduced antagonist in the 2nd half. Kira in particular has gone through quite a bit of development. The angst Kira goes through in the beginning is often exaggerated by some people. If anything Kira is quite admirable, fighting/doing what he has to despite his fears and doubts. He doesn’t let his feelings get in the way of what needs to be done and the only person he’s complained/confided in was Fray. This is unlike Amuro or most of the cast of Zeta where they do whatever they want for no concern for the greater good. However, Athrun get my vote for most complex and interesting character in GS. Not only does he have to deal with having his best friend as an enemy, he also has to deal with his father, own beliefs, etc. Plus he’s a badass when it comes to all forms of combat.
In terms of purely technical merit, GS features good animation and artwork. Rarely does the quality drop. My only major complaint would be with the constant use of recycled animation, a major pet peeve of mine. Also, the action scenes feel a bit uninspired. Gundam shoots, close up of plot screaming, Gundam does a melee attack, close up of pilot and repeat. What made these mecha battles more exciting was the excellent and powerful music. The ost in general is also well done and features some very good insert songs.
Another interesting thing to note would be the recap episodes. Normally, I hate recaps but in the case of GS there were a few that were worth watching. This is because some of the recap episodes actually add background information to the GS universe. Nevertheless a recap episode is still a recap episode and they had far too many. (Not 1 or 2 recap episodes but 4!)
I also have to warn the viewer that GS features many references to other Gundam titles and the Gundam universe in general. References such as newtypes, Char clones, etc will go over the head of viewers not familiar with the Gundam universe. While its not necessary to watch other Gundams to enjoy GS it will most likely increase one’s enjoyment.
GS is easily one of the better mecha anime titles I’ve seen. The first half was light and enjoyable with a fast paced plot, albeit very linear. It feels like the crew of the Archangel was simply moving form checkpoint to checkpoint. When the 2nd half comes the overall quality increases. This is partly due to GS becoming its own and really focus on the character/narrative. The 2nd half was distinctly more serious and dramatic. Plus it takes its momentum and keeps building and building until the very end. Animation and art were all top notch, suffering from a few thing namely, recycled animation and slightly uninspired action scenes. GS also suffered from too many coincidences and illogical moments. Although, considering the quality of everything else, those things can be ignored. In the end Gundam SEED is fast paced entertaining watch, but the true strength of Gundam SEED can be found in the 2nd half with its characters.
lacus_clyne08
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED---an excellent combination of science fiction, mecha, action, drama and romance. This is, indeed, the best gundam series and the best anime I've watched in my life! There are a variety of reasons why I like this anime. The plot (or the story itself) is well-organized. There are a lot of twists and other shocking revelations in the story, making this a must-seen anime. The role of each character is relevant to the story---each character is connected to one another, making the story more interesting. And besides, the personality of the characters are those in which you can relate to. Aside from the wonderfulstory and the characters involved in it, I also appreciate very much the theme songs used in this anime. In my own opinion, the theme songs are suitable to the anime itself. These songs add more color to the anime. As a matter of fact, these songs are my favorite ones because for me, they convey special messages and at the same time, they have a beautiful tone that when you hear them, you start to have a feeling of relaxation.
Above of all, you can get a lot of moral lessons or values, especially about friendship, love, and loyalty to your own nation. So you better not miss this anime series for only once in a lifetime comes an anime like this. That's why I'm giving this anime a perfect overall rating because one thing I can say about this anime is---PERFECT!
Bombolz
This is my first review so I will keep it simple. Gundam seed was the first anime I have seen so I felt it was appropriate that my first review should be about it. Also, please keep in mind that 7 is a good score, as I use 5 as my average. STORY: 7/10 The story of Gundam Seed explores in depth the racial issues between genetically enhanced humans (referred to as Co-ordinators) and normal humans. The story itself revolves around Kira Yamato, who is a co-ordinator living as a student in neutral territory. The war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty),the alliance governing the co-ordinators has escalated tremendously and tensions build up as the result of the war is uncertain and with no sight in end. Early forecasts had initially believed that the Earth Alliance would have a complete victory and win the war with sheer numbers, but years have passed and there is no end in sight. Kira Yamato and his friends are involved in a ZAFT attack on neutral territory under the suspicion of developing weapons for the Earth Alliance. Leaving him with no choice, Kira Yamato is forced onto the battlefield in order to protect his friends. During Kira's journey, he discovers the consequences of his actions and that in order to protect his friends he has killed many people who also have friends and family. Gundam Seed magnificently explores the terrible effects of war and the weight of death is regarded highly as the viewer also experiences grief along with Kira along the journey. Gundam Seed's backstory is intriguing but the actual journey should not be underestimated. Overall, the story is satisfying and well thought out, demonstrating aspects of ethical issues and racial differences.
ART: 4/10
The art style in Gundam SEED takes a unique approach, differing from conventional anime of it's time. Despite the lacking art clarity (due to being a fairly old series and airing in 2002), Gundam Seed manages to incorporate high level of details that are noticeable even in the background, particularly in battle scenes which more than makes up for the old art. The character designs are fairly standard, and the civilian clothing can be considered somewhat strange, but the actual mecha design and uniform were excellent. The most disappointing factor in Gundam Seed's art was that it recycled scenes to the point of the audience noticing. Many battle scenes were reused over and over again, appearing many times throughout the course of the anime.
SOUND: 9/10
One of the strong factors in this anime was the sound. The opening and ending songs were not particularly special but nevertheless accomplishes it's job. The music was particularly effective during battle scenes, and the viewer can feel the emotions of the music, excitement as the battle was raging, or melancholy as the anime explores the death of a character. The music involved an entire orchestra and are well deserving of the effort developing the music. There is a very large amount of soundtracks used in Gundam SEED, and it never gets too repetitive as there are many variations of each theme and the anime constantly changes between them. Find the Way, by Mika Nakashima became one of my favorite songs, and this song was incorporated into one of the final ending themes. This song had a particularly large impact as the anime was reaching it's climax and already so many people have died in the war, I feel that his song expresses the feelings extremely well.
CHARACTER: 7/10
Another strong point of this anime, the audience is introduced to a wide variety of characters, some of which are particularly lacking in present anime. The main character himself encompasses a charisma that uniquely defines him and differentiates him from other characters. Other characters, despite being supporting characters also display a characteristic that is rarely seen in other anime and the viewer is able to empathize with both sides of the war. Gundam Seed was explored through the views of many characters, and not just through the main character. Furthermore, the characters in Gundam Seed actually felt like real people, they had a presence which showed that they had emotions and flaws in their characters. Every character had emotions, and flaws, even the minor characters.Through the course of the 50 episodes, the viewer finds himself/herself attached to many of the characters in Gundam SEED.
ENJOYMENT: 9/10
I found myself to enjoy this series greatly, and have rewatched the series several times. Being the first anime I have watched it pleases me to say that I was glad that it was the first anime I have seen.
OVERALL: 7/10
A great anime that has become one of my all-time favourites. The art may take a while to get used to, but a splendid anime nonetheless. The series has been Remastered in HD, but it looks mostly the same.
ggultra2764
My thoughts haven't changed much since last year after watching SEED in its entirety and I had dropped this last year after seeing 9 episodes. Like Gundam Wing, this series got a great deal of hype and praise from fans in the early to mid 2000s among Gundam fans. At the same time, there are folks that accuse SEED of being a poor-man's Gundam 0079 with its blatant rip-off of story elements and structure from the original 1970s series and its nice load of angst and melodrama that are regularly pushed throughout the course of the series. Between my original watch of SEED from lastyear and now, I'm gonna have to go with the latter camp.
I might as well deal with the elephant in the room and address the obvious dilemma with SEED in its blatant use of elements, themes and plot structure from 0079 and several older titles in the Universal Century continuity of the franchise. If you've seen your fair share of older Gundam titles, you will see enough parallels in what gets rehashed from UC titles here in SEED. The clashes between humans and enhanced humans with Naturals and Coordinators? That's a recurring plot element with many later titles in the UC continuity with Oldtypes and Newtypes. The struggle of the lone battleship's journey to get to allied headquarters against enemy forces with the Archangel? The same thing happened with White Base in 0079. The enemy stealing allied Gundam units here? The same thing was done in Gundam 0083. A great tragedy starting war between Naturals and Coordinators with the Bloody Valentine massacre? Same thing occurred with the 30 Bunch Incident with Zeta Gundam. Kira getting a Gundam upgrade in SEED's second half? Same thing done in Zeta with Kamille. I could go on, but I don't want to drag this review out any further than necessary.
Setting aside its obvious use of Universal Century themes and elements, the series does make some attempt at adding in some new elements to its plot by adding modern issues into the story of the series such as cloning, genetic engineering and nuclear weaponry. Plus, some of the major characters do get enough focus and depth where you know who they are and can care for their issues, like Cagalli and some members among both Naturals and Coordinators. However, this series has a pretty large cast and characterization suffers in this series greatly thanks to SEED's greater focus on plot development and advancement. Characters who get introduced either get reduced to archetypes, don't get enough focus for viewers to connect with them or the series rushes through any developments that could have been built up on throughout SEED's episodes. Like many past Gundam titles, this series has a high kill count with mooks, supporting and even major characters. You'll be caring less for many of the character deaths here since SEED never bothers to devote enough focus on many of its characters and the nice amount of angst that gets packed during such moments.
Ah, the angst. SEED loves pushing its angst and melodrama quite heavily at many points throughout its run in its superficial attempts to have you care for the issues faced by the show's characters. However much like Gundam Wing, the series gets too overbearing with its angst and melodrama where it makes what should be emotional moments pretty irksome and even laughable as characters either get reduced to pathetic angsting messes, screaming out character names if they get killed or get in the habit of spewing random philosophic rhetoric during heated battles in a vain attempt to sound like they are saying something meaningful. The plot does become a bit of a mess in later episodes of the series when multiple story developments get rushed through and resolved during the climactic final battle of the series, as well as trying to toss in some unconvincing romantic pairings among major characters that seemed artificial and lacked natural chemistry. Also, expect some clip shows and recap episodes to pop up at points in the series.
The animation to SEED is a mixed bag. The series sports a diverse number of scenic shots in space, Earth and on space colonies that are nicely detailed and sport vivid color. Mecha designs look slick and pleasing on the eyes, despite their obvious influence from past Gundam titles and there is some decent use of CG animation in rendering space battleships and weapons moving or being used despite sticking out prominently compared to the cel-shaded animation. However, character designs are a bit on the plain side and the series likes resorting to a nice number of animation shortcuts rather frequently throughout the course of its run such as speed stripes, still shots and reused animation frames. The soundtrack consists of dramatic music inserts and upbeat J-Pop tracks used for OP and ED tracks that are pleasing on the ears, do well at flowing at whatever scenes they are played in and is perhaps the highlight of the series for me.
Overall, I feel Gundam SEED is just as overhyped as Wing in being a quality addition to the Gundam franchise thanks to its complete ripping of major elements and plot structure from Gundam UC titles, its heavy reliance on angst and melodrama, limited depth and focus on many of its characters and rushed later episodes. You would be better off watching Turn A Gundam if you are looking for a good quality alternate continuity title in the Gundam franchise.
Xiaolang8
Gundam SEED definitely is one of my favorite animes of all time. Like all the other Gundam series out there, Gundam SEED has a very intricate plot filled with lots of action. The one thing that makes Gundam SEED stand out is the balance it finds between story, character development, and the blend of genres. I found this universe to be the most interesting and appealing: a world where genetic engineering has gone to the point of allowing people to choose the genes of their children, resulting in a race called the Coordinators. But because of their abilities, they are heavilydiscriminated against and a war erupts between the two sides. The background story makes a lot of sense as well. Naturals (non-Coordinators) have the advantage in terms of numbers and medicine research while Coordinators have the ability to pilot mobile suits more efficiently and have a faster learning curve with new technology. The background story is probably what sold me on this series and continually makes it my favorite.
The plot is a little unbelievable at first but you learn to just go with it. Kira Yamato gets dragged into the war on the side of the Naturals having grown up in Orb, a neutral colony. The art is great and there is a lot of character development for all the main characters. The action is also top notch, sending chills down your spine even if you have seen Gundam series before.
Unfortunately, during the second half of the series, it does get a little repetitive by repeating parts of past episodes and there are a lot of replay fighting shots (i.e. the same angle on the Archangel as it fires its missiles) and the fact that Kira gets the most flexible type of Gundam (Strike has several different modes it can use) is a little cliche.
Overall, the series is a must see for non-Gundam fans. Veteran Gundam fans should definitely try it out as well, but it is slightly different from previous series. The artwork is a lot more modern (at least comparatively) and the characters may not be as likable for hardcore fans. Nonetheless, Gundam SEED brings a nice balance between action, adventure, sci-fi, and a dash of romance. People looking for a enjoyable mecha anime have found the best one, at least in the opinion of this reviewer.
BornIn1142
Story: The story isn't bad. It's certainly quite interesting, with the occasional decent plot twist thrown in. However, even a cursory comparison to the first Gundam series will reveal that it's far from original. SEED plays it safe - by treading ground already visited by its predecessors. Does it do it better? I can't say, I've never seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam. All I know is that I considered SEED's tensely plotted, fast-paced storyline to be the best thing about it (no matter what my score says). It drums up excitement and suspense, and (like the whole Gundam franchise) isn't afraid to show thedeadly consequences of war realistically, which is another narrative pro. There's always conflict in SEED - physical, idealogical and personal - which keeps things interesting.
Art: Gundam SEED's art is fairly good. Other than the common anime problem of many characters having awfully similar builds and faces, the designs are good and the animation too. I can't say I paid much attention to it, though, since I typically don't consider it especially important. I did spot occurrences of reused animation, especially towards the end. And I don't mean just a few scenes.
Sound: I watched the dub. The voice acting is, in my opinion, very good. Apart from minor instances of awkward delivery, the performances completely succeed in conveying emotions and atmosphere. Some of the voices tend to sound annoying, but considering the characters they belong to, that's actually fitting. The scoring isn't extraordinary, but still quite good. Especially towards the end, certain tracks help give events a very epic and emotional feel. The opening and ending songs are all generically decent, with some standing above the others a bit.
Character: This is probably the hardest section to rate. I'll put it like this: Gundam SEED's cast of characters can be divided into two. Half of the characters are interesting and likable, the other half make me want to puke. Perhaps I'm exaggerating - most characters I'm indifferent to, there are only several that make me want to puke. But I stand by my view that Gundam SEED has some of the worst, most annoying characters I've witnessed in anime. Don't get me wrong, most of the main cast has some measure of depth and good development; some of them just tend to be impossibly annoying. Flay Allster provided a new definition for uselessness. Lacus Clyne and her bouncing robot tennis balls made me want to punch the screen. And Kira... Oh, boy. The protagonist, Kira Yamato, deserves special attention.
Quite frankly, Kira is the worst canon Mary Sue I've ever seen. The little bastard combines being perfect at everything (an actual character trait) with irritatingly unfailing fighting skills and a smug idiocy that made me root for the enemy. He then tops it off with more of Vitamin Whine than most people can stand. He even worsens other characters, like Cagalli. And yet, SEED shows it can do better, with awesome characters like Mu la Flaga, Murrue Ramius, Natarle Badgiruel, Andrew Waltfeld, etc. They could only do so much though.
Enjoyment: This section has very much to do with Characters. To put it bluntly, if SEED had fewer crappy characters, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. There were situations that were almost painful to watch, and I know I'm not the only one. The berserk mode, for instance, unfailingly caused eye-rolling reactions on my part. My enjoyment increased a lot towards the end of the series though, where the climatic battles didn't leave much room for angst and other annoyances.
Overall: What can I say? I'm glad I watched Gundam SEED. A lot of bad has been said about it in some circles, which worried me a little. True, a lot of good has been said as well, but that has always come off as fanboyism. SEED isn't close to being among my favorites, but I liked it well enough. Some pretty good fights and tense story made sure of that.
danceljoy
I never had an interest in Gundam before "Mecha! Ewwww! Robots! Yuck!" but this series made me correct myself. And honestly, for me this is one of the best drama animes I have ever watched. Story (9/10) No other mecha captivated my heart other that this one. It is very exciting and suspenseful-- characters are forced into difficult situations where any decision they made will always include sacrifices. The drama is excellent; characters meeting, fighting and dying in a very sad and surprising way. Another thing is that it focuses on the effect of war and death and its causes to young people who are fighting forthe reason adults gave them-- racism, genetic manipulation, genocide and hatred.
On the negative side, it is not very original since it borrowed a lot of element from earlier gundams. Viewers may find SOME things too coincidental or almost impossible to happen and assume that it is "not deep" because of its story. In short, there were many "miracles."
But even with its bad characteristics, I found the story very beautiful, and the climaxes featured in all throughout the series shines out in every aspect.
Art (8/10)
Animation is eye-candy--many cute and lovable boys and girls. Fashion of both uniforms and casual wear are lovable and cool. Ships and mobile suits of course are cool looking. A lot of character(or mobile suit) posing or movement are memorable and produces dramatic and artistic effect.
However, the animation is inconsistent and the characters tend to look like each other at that times. Lots of scenes are re-used--some trademark moves should have been shown at different angles.
Also, this anime was made in 2002, so its not in high definition.
Sound (10/10)
Sound is amazing. Because I heard the first ending "Anna ni Issho da atta no ni", I watched this show that I don't even plan on watching. The techno- background music are nostalgic, heartwarming: the characters have their image soundtracks which are very helpful. Voice acting is also superb and each character's voice is memorable and unique to him/her.
Characte (9/10)
For me, Gundam Seed has portrayed its themes pretty well; it is not a "trying-hard to be deep" anime. It is true to its purpose: to show war and and its effect on teenagers' problems. This anime is the first one to show me tons of crying scenes with boys--which may seem sissy to others.
Overall, the worst things about this series are the unnecessary flashbacks, super unnecessary nudities(though only few of them) and an adult scene(only an implication) and overreaction of some characters. But lastly, I love here the most is that there are no presence of an evil or good side, it just shows that in war, all are victims.
In my opinion, GS' characters are nothing new (but of course the main protagonists have something... special in them in a way). They are just teens with different personalities and unique traits that are strangled by the horrors of war, continually fighting for their lives, their friends, idealistic immature beliefs or for a reason they have not defined. And those wide array of characters meet in ways unexpected. They learn, and mature as the series progresses. Fans may not love all of them, but they are certainly memorable and almost each of them contributes to the overall drama of the anime.
Enjoyment (9/10)
I enjoyed it a lot.This is a must watch for mecha fans and gundam enthusiasts though some may compare it too much to its predecessors. This Gundam series was also hailed as the first one that was loved by fans outside the Gundam realm and liked by many non-mecha fans. Based on reading other reviews, Gundam Seed is not a copy cat at all of the original MS Gundam, it made used a lot of elements at the start but the series eventually it became entirely different later on.
This is very gender friendly and the characters are very addictive. Yet Lastly, I don't recommend this to kids.
OVERALL: 9
sylvanelite
SEED had the makings to be a gundam classic, instead it became the epitome of why people dislike the gundam series. From a personal viewpoint, I am a huge gundam fan, I've seen every series, and usually enjoy them. This was not the case with SEED. To fans of SEED, I apologise for writing a mostly negative review. To people who may be thinking about converting to the Mecha genre, or to people who have grown up watching gundam, take SEED with a grain of salt, you may want to shop around before setting your sights on this series. Story: The story of SEED is almost identical tothat of original gundam, with many recurring themes, mecha and unfortunately plot holes. The first gundam series was released in 1979, making it one of the oldest mecha shows to exits. As such, it had a rather lacklustre plot, however, it could be excused because it invented the term "real robot". SEED has no such excuse. After nearly 25 years, the plot features little improvement. The recurring theme of "Coordinators vs Naturals" is about the only plot device the series entails, and proceeds to extrapolate every aspect of this concept far beyond what would be logical or reasonable. The idea is a good premise, that I want to make clear. But the execution is what drags the series down. The series is plagued with flashbacks, and re-telling of events so many times that it looses any significant value it may have started with. Surely if the war was so important, there would be more than 1 event to flashback? Apparently not. The series uses plot devices that border on the ridiculous. Due to giving away spoilers, and there being too many to list, I'll refrain from the details (some may mark my review down because of this, I'm wiling to live with that...)
Art:
The main drive behind SEED is the artwork. Googling gundad seed will result in many high-definition shiny CGI models of the main mecha in the show. Unfortunately, this is about all the series amounts to. Most of the mecha are rendered in such a way, that still images are used to perform almost any action sequence. Most of the main mecha have around 3 different animation patters, and the 50 episodes are made up of these attacks played back on different backgrounds. Additionally, there is a substantial drop in quality between still, and live footage. When a mecha shows up for the first time, it will be rendered with a nice and brilliant shine. However, when the mecha moves, the view will be disappointed to see the shine is now gone, replaced with blobs of blue white and red. Other aspects of the artwork include many battle inconsistencies, such as firing dozens of missiles, and only showing three hitting their mark/being shot down. Other aspects of the fight include lasers coming out at 30, 40 degrees from the gun nozzle. This is a prime example of the animators using recycled frames to try and fill a battle, the gundam may be facing straight-on, but it will be firing at enemies above and to the left, without turning the gun.
Sound:
The sound, and background music in particular, is very good. I can find little fault with them in this regard. The sound effects also suit the mecha. The voice acting is a little dry, but compared to the other shortcomings of the series, I'm willing to let these aspects go, and say the sound track is very good.
Character:
This was an extremely disappointing aspect of the show. Some characters were much too unbelievable to be considered "real robot" pilots. The battles were not won through skill from the main cast, more it was won through complete lack of skill by the minor cast. Almost every mecha pilot, who is not in a gundam, has trouble keeping the robot upright. This makes some of the fights seem like dancing around totem poles, waiting for the poles to randomly fall over trying to watch you dance. Good mehca battles should be fair battles, not overly trivialised cumbersome ones. Piloting skills aside, the rest of the cast borders on annoying. If the viewer can get past the "why are 15 year-olds piloting the best mecha/battleship we own" factor, they are met with conflicting emotions, that run so deep characters can be hugging one minute, stabbing each other the next, and be hugging again in five minutes time. Most of the cast seem to poddle along like a learner driver, trying to figure which gear they need to be in, stalling when the get it wrong, restarting, then doing it all over again. It tried to make characters "real" but served to make them anything but "real".
Enjoyment:
I'm normally someone to say "enjoy it for what it is", and I can get through watching the worst of the worst that way. But SEED just featured too many flashbacks, too many recycled frames, and enough plot holes to make swiss cheese jealous. Watching this on DVD, it is clear to see what the company tried to do, they provide 4 episodes per DVD, 3 of these serve as filler, and the 4th serves to have a cliff-hanger to rope people into buying the next DVD... only to have them faced with another 3 episodes of filler. The series also managed to fail at meeting most gundam standards, with the mecha dropping many real robot traits.
Overall:
SEED serves as good homage material, showing the infamous "Zaku" to many gundam fans for the first time. But with enormous amounts of filler, the plot, battles and animation quickly become repetitive and dry. Perhaps SEED would have made a good OVA, or 8 episode series. But it was much too long, and suffered from very unbelievable situations to rope together the little plot that didn't have holes in it.
ivorykeys
If you love Gundam Wing, you'll love Gundam Seed. It's full of exciting twists and turns and each episode has you at the edge of your seat wanting to see more. The characters are amazing! It's really hard to put in words how awesome this anime series is but it's defintely worth seeing over and over again. WATCH IT!!! lol
Keyira
Gundam seed is one of my All time fav anime :) it was very enjoyable watching this anime. Story: the story of gundam seed is about a cordinator, named Kira yamoto, who somehow pilots the so-called ''gundam''. it is a battle between ZAFT and Earth alliance, and Kira was forced to join Earth alliance to fight ZAFT even though Kira is a cordinator, Kira and the rest of the crew in Archangel, later figures the Earth alliance's evil deeds and are unclear of what they are fighting for. it is very intresting how Kira find out many things happened to and related to him,especially about his sister.
Art and Sound: i quite like this animation :) very good, not alot of echi and not alot of wearidness where the character just look totally awful. I like the way the animation developed over-over time and the gundams :) However, they sometimes uses repeat scenes of gundams fighting :) which brings it down a little :)
Character: I like the personalities of Kira, he's quiet and kind, isn't perverted and OVER-kind, he's strong on the outside, maybe because he pilots the gundam, but he's actually weak inside (and scared) As of Female characters, Cagali is my fav :) i like her personality and her looks ^.^ honestly, i love Cagali that much :) as for lacus, she's the second :) the person dubbed her english voice is just wonderful, she's the princess of princesses :) The character i totally hate is hmm i cant remember her name... kira's first girlfriend... she's totally a badass, and i hate her dubbed voice. :)
Enjoyment eah?: This anime is totally awsome. :) i loved it verymuch and it is very entertaining. maybe because i'm a alltime gundam fan. I watched Gundam Seed Destiny before this so i know alot of things happened before even watching this. even so i rated the enjoyment 10/10 because it just is very enjoyable :) I like how they linked abit of Romance into Gundam Seed even though it only says its ''action'' :)
Overall: I Recommand this anime to anyone who is bored of those sadass romance animes, watch Gundam Seed. it's a sad-ass-action anime :)
Thats it folks :) thanks for reading this review :) hope it helped "_" sry for my lameness :) hehe ^.^ until next time.
CodeBlazeFate
I thought SEEDs gave you trees and flowers, not politics and robots! *SPOILERS FOR GUNDAM SEED. I WILL BE REVIEWING THE 2011 HD REMASTER. TO ANY DIEHARDS OUT THERE, PLEASE DO NOT BE DISPLEASED WITH THE FACT THIS GOT A SCORE LESS THAN 9 OR 10? ALSO, PLEASE WARD OFF SEED HATERS FROM ATTACKING ME DUE TO ME ONLY GIVING IT A DECENT SCORE?* Ah, Gundam SEED. One of the more vocally divisive Gundam shows out there despite having a higher MAL score than most Gundam shows. I have a weird experience with this show, and honestly, the tone of this review will likely flop between positiveand defensive, and cynical and negative. There is a LOT to talk about regarding my experiences of this show, and let me say, I wanted to put this down several times in the first half. Also, this is melodrama incarnate. Not much of a hyperbole there. Now, was it worth it, or did it blow up in red mobile suit smoke? Let's find out, shall we?
STORY: 5/10
Let's talk about the premise. A group in space declaring hostility against the Earth Federation, the group attacking a civilian base in the Federation, only for our protagonist to find a Gundam during the time his neighbors are dying, and stops the attack only to find out he must now join an army after most of the civilians in his area have died. That's right. If you've caught on, you would know that this show starts off as a ripoff of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The rest of the show is about two coordinators forced to fight in opposite sides of a war as they make friends and hope to not have to kill each other. Also, there are plenty of politics, not just between the two sides, that being Earth and the PLANTS, but also between Earth and ORB and even among ORB members, Earth forces, and PLANT forces. It is interesting seeing many attempts to stop this war with minimal bloodshed and with more diplomacy. That, and there are some really strong moments in the story, like in episode 29 or 27 for the HD remaster. However, there are a good number of gaping plot holes throughout, and they get increasingly large throughout, and it dosen't even TRY to explain or hand wave anything like with Code Geass or Gurren Lagann, not that hand waving disagreeable plot points is a good thing.
The SEED mechanic is the biggest deus ex machina crap ever, since we don't even know the FIRST THING about it other than it being a voluntary-ish deus ex machina. Also, the finale in particular has a few ass pull moments that would rival those of Gundam 00 2nd season. However, it does pose some interesting politics and moral ideologies, the latter of which, if done even remotely correctly like with this show, can really help an otherwise flawed as frig plot such as this. Also, expect some horrific cases of Sunrise's bring characters back to life/ don't kill off characters when they have no chance of survival. Believe me, the latter happens to the protagonist TWICE, and the former actually happens to one minor antagonist in particular, and believe me, they use these a lot in this show, and it's almost maddening in certain situations. Plus, the execution of the ending was kinda dumb, and even has that whole deal Sunrise does that I just mentioned. Plus, the melodrama is extreme, and more often then not, not worth it. They should've really toned it down at points.
CHARACTERS: 6/10
I'll be upfront. The characters in the first half bothered me for most part, particularly in the second cour. However, they certainly got a lot better in the second half, even with a few things wrong here and there... Now, Kira Yamato. His moral compass towards the middle of the first half becomes such an unbelievable moral compass, that he actually becomes rather unlivable at points, however, thanks to Andy, a charismatic antagonist with a bleak yet common (in this show at least) viewpoint of war, Kira actually reflects on his actions and moral compass, and becomes a more cohesive individual because of it. Many side characters aren't that special but are decent none the less, except Mu La Flaga. He was kinda cool. There are two I need to mention though. Sai. Poor Sai. Got treated poorly by Flay, and got his ass nearly kicked by Kira, and disappeared for most of the final arc for some reason. Literally, he's hardly even there at all for the last 10 episodes. As for Flay, *SIGH* oh boy. She is so damn useless and bitchy. She literally contributes nothing but drama, and that's what makes her a faulty character rather that a character who we're supposed to hate for the right reasons. Now, some of the villains actually have a point in their messed up ideals, but don't have a whole lot going for them aside from Andy, and the most prominent antagonist, Le Cruset, who gives us an ASTOUNDING performance in the last 7 episodes. There is also Arthrun, who's probably the best protagonistic character here. His comrades, are mostly good at their job as characters and pilots, except for Yzak, but even he improves towards the end. There's also Lacus, who's songstress idol part of her character is underutilized, and has a drastic and not built up surge of maturity around episode 34. Unfortunately, for episodes 8-20, I could not stand a lot of these people, and that's a big problem with the second cour in particular, even if, like I said, the second cour actually makes many of them actually tolerable.
ART: 3/10
For the good, there's the Gundams and other Mobile Suits. They look cool, and many of the battles, especially in the last 5 episodes, look pretty cool, especially those laser effects in those last 5 episodes, not to say they didn't look good before, because they did, but it's obvious that they pulled all the stops in the last 5 episodes. At points, the character models can look ok.
For the bad, just about everything else. The character models look so damn wonky. Back in the mid-2000's, many companies tried their hand at digital animation, but for the most part, failed to get it right until 2006 with shoes like Haruhi and Code Geass using it to excellent effect. This show, Gundam SEED, highlights just how bad it can get. The facial expressions look horrendous at many points, and it takes a while to even adjust to the wonky digital models. Hell, there is a lot of Studio Sunrise's trademark animation recycling going on, especially with the openings and fight scenes, way more than normal, and that is just unacceptable. Also, the CGI is hideous and poorly integrated a whole lot, especially in the first half.
SOUND: 6/10
The OST, is pretty good with many well done emotional pieces, and Lacus's song that's sung a few times, ("In this quiet night") is good too. Now, OP 1 and OP 2 both kinda suck. They are pretty weak despite some cool points. Now, OP 3, is pretty damn awesome, and actually gets pretty catchy. OP 4 is very nice and just perfect as a way to encapsulate the final stretch of this anime as it just feels like something nice and emotional and gratifying coming to an end (even if this show up until the final cour has been kinda bad), making it just as good as OP 3. Now, for ED 1, it also fails at being an emotional piece. ED 2 for the original, is pretty. Now REMASTER ED 2 on the other hand, is definitely a great emotional ED, and I loved it. Now, ED 3, which only plays once in the HD version, is decent enough. Now, the dub. It's awful.Most of the voices are downright terrible, and they even swapped the good sound effects of the original with some crappy stock sound effects just to censor this for young Cartoon Network audiences, which this show can only really cater to anyone over the age of 13. Damn Bandai dub.
ENJOYMENT: 5/10
The first 7 episodes left me believing that this show would be pretty good. However, most of the episodes from the range of 8-20 infuriatied me and I nearly dropped it. Luckily most of 21-28 was decent afterward, especially with Andy. Then, most of the episodes after that were actually pretty alright, sometimes even good, minus the plot holes. The battles got progressively better for the most part as well. Still, that second cour was hell. Can't forgive that...
OVERALL: 5/10 RAW SCORE: 49/100
Overal, I was kinda disappointed in some areas, and even with how cool the 2nd half got at times, it just has too many major plot holes to be truly good, and the characters aren't that great either, mostly. That's not to say that I thought this was a genuinely bad series, but he first half definitely hindered this series as a whole, and the plot holes are egregious. Sure, the fights got cooler as the show progressed, but the second cour, man did it leave me sour! Still, after that it grew much nore tolerable and fun, even if the plot in that half got worse. Even still, I can see why some people do praise this series. It has some decent conflicting ideals and actually tries it's hand at politics in war and had characters make peaceful attempts at resolutions. I just wish it was less derivative and full of infuriating melodrama and awful character art and CGI. Well, with that said, I bid you adieu.
CCZilla
On February 14th, Anime News Network added all 50 episodes of the 2002 entry of Sunrise's long-running Gundam franchise to watch for free on their website. As part of my crusade to watch all of the Gundam TV shows before I die, I picked up Mobile Suit Gundam Seed. One month and nine days later, I've seen all 50 episodes and it's an experience I don't regret, although the show could've been stronger in several areas. The story can easily be divided into two parts. The first part is a loose remake of the original Mobile Suit Gundam and arguably the weaker part of the series.Several characters from the original series are copied here. For instance, Mu La Flaga is definitely meant to be a combination of some elements from Ryu and Bright from the original series. Rau Le Crueset is undoubtedly similar to Char Aznable but with more of a pessimistic view of humanity.
This re-usage of character types is both a good and bad thing. Good because the character types are familiar and can be easily related to, yet bad because the writers don't bring anything new to the table and thus have trouble giving several of these characters unique personalities.
When these characters clash, the drama all too often feels heavy handed. Our leads (especially Kira) literally spend episodes on end crying over things that, instead of making them stronger, only make them look weak as our leads. In the case of Kira, how could anyone entrust their life to a kid insecure with his own identity? Or is it because he always pilots THE most powerful Gundam throughout the show and he can just use them the best?
Another major fault of this show is the rather shoddy animation. Several shots are repeated over and over, with the animators eventually resorting to taking animation from the openings themselves. It doesn't help that 3 or 4 episodes around the halfway mark are recap episodes, a time when this show truly became a chore to watch.
Still, there are good qualities to this show namely the second part of the series. This is when Gundam Seed branches off into its own thing. Once the war between the Naturals and the Coordinators enters the spotlight, the show honestly becomes a thrill. The fights reach high levels of intensity, the drama less heavy-handed (not by much, though) and some characters become much more rounded. The final battle is one of the most exciting fights I've seen in an anime ever, spanning the last two and a half episodes and chock full of amazing Gundam action.
Another plus this show has is its amazing score. From the very catchy opening themes to the soaring soundtrack composed by the talented Toshihiko Sahashi, the music may very well be this show's strongest point.
I don't want to keep going on and on, so I'll cut it short here. Gundam fans should receive mild enjoyment from this show. Its stern commentary of war is admirable and provides for an interesting and intelligent watch near the end. All the die-hard fans have to do is stick through the show's weak beginning. Now obviously, this show was made for a casual fan with very little Gundam knowledge like myself. Die-had fans need to keep in mind that that's not a bad thing. If this show can get new fans involved in the franchise, then so be it.
Now, onto Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny...
kekekeKaj
Energetic and pacey, the first opening theme of "Gundam Seed" captures the feel of the anime perfectly. With so much action, drama and tragedy, it doesn't take a genius to see why this is such a highly regarded show in the mecha genre. With an aggressive opening sequence of events, the tone is set from the very first episodes when two close friends Kira and Athrun find themselves caught up on opposite sides of an outbreaking war. And it's one hell of a war, one that is both epic and tragic, where there are no "right" sides, and where people are forced to choose between conflictingfeelings and loyalties. The strength of "Gundam Seed" lies in its portrayal of war, both in terms of production values and the ideals that drives it. For a 50-episoder, it's mightily impressive that its story rarely feels like it's dragging its feet. It's a rollercoaster of a ride from start to finish with plenty of heroic deaths and shocking twists along the way. For enjoyment value, "Gundam Seed" easily ranks amongst the heavy weights.
The music deserves special mention for its excellent quality. Though the opening and ending themes, with the exception of the first OP "Invoke", aren't spectacular, the background music really really shines through. There are two main aspects to the depiction of war in "Gundam Seed": the collossal feel of its political struggles and spectacular mecha battles, and the human, emotional drama underneath. The background music plays a giant part by creating exactly the right kind of atmosphere for both these aspects. For the first, the soundtrack provides a number of suitably grand pieces. During the awesome battles scenes, the powerful, swelling orchestral score is in perfect fusion with the explosive action sequences to make the whole experience positively exhilarating. The more touching scenes, often teeming with raw, human emotions, are also intensified by the heart felt instrumentals in the background. The through the roof production values also throws up numerous other small pleasures. I especially like the way the episodes tend to naturally fade into the ending credits/theme, and also the returning eyecatch really caught my er... eye (and ear) with its enchanting ballerina in a music box effect.
"Gundam Seed" shouldn't be dismissed as all flash and melodrama though, because underneath all the gloss and the theatrics, it has a surprising amount of substance in its war-related themes. The web of motives and ideals of the cast is not just complicated, but in constant change throughout the course of the series, and "Gundam Seed" does remarkably well in mapping them out clearly and making them easy to understand. One of the series' strength is painting everything in shades of grey rather simplifying issues down clear differences of black and white. It's clear that there are no "right and wrong" sides to this war - none of the parties involved in it are completely bad, nor completely innocent in general. The naturals may have fired the first shot, fueled by their hatred born from prejudice and fear of the genetically enhanced "artificial" Coordinators, who they barely view as human beings, but the Coordinators struts around with a certain air of arrogance and superiority, and seeks the total extermination of the Naturals, who they see as threats to their existence. Even as I despised the leaders of both sides for being so manipulative and deceiving the masses with their hatred propaganda, "Gundam Seed" made me sympathise with the more ordinary, helpless people caught up in the war against their will, as well as the lower ranked soldiers who are often torn between obeying orders and upholding their own ideals and moral principles. By focusing on these kind of people from both sides of the war, and showing them becoming more and more disillusioned, questioning the reasons that they fight for, it really makes it difficult to decide who to root for.
Prejudice is a theme that features heavily in "Gundam Seed". It manifests in different levels of severity. At the worst level it's systematic prejudice, the kind that give rise to irrational hatred and triggers off wars. But the anime took pains to illustrate that even the nice, ordinary, sensible people like Kira's classmates are not totally unsucceptible to these feelings now and then. When push comes to shove, even they can display the unpalatable taint of prejudice. At the most subtle level, it's actually unclear what's right and what's wrong. For example, upon hearing a Coordinator sing in an incredibly beautiful voice, is it really so wrong to wonder whether this is due to genetic enhancements? It's a similar kind of question to how far political correctness should be taken to, and "Gundam Seed" does a sublime job of presenting this kind of dilemma.
While most of the cast of "Gundam Seed" are thoughtfully fleshed out (though admittedly I didn't take a particular liking to any of them, nor did any of them seem particularly interesting, thus the relatively low score I gave for the characters), there a few that are a little subpar. One of these is the popstar Lacsus. To start off with, she seems to play the role of a sweet, naive pop princess ("Really? Am I really not allowed to go wandering around on a warship belonging to an enemy nation?") with pink hair that matches her personality perfectly. Halfway through, the producers appeared to change their mind about what kind of character they want her to be, and so she ended up suddenly maturing into a personality that's more suitable for her ambassador role. I didn't find this change of personality particularly convincing.
Also, le Cruz comes off as just another one of those "one dimensionally crazy bad guys who just want to destroy the world coz he's crazy" type of character. Speaking of le Cruz, the unravelling of his mysterious background is brilliantly executed, but having uncovered it, I struggle to figure out its relevance to the story. And here we move to the series' weakest point - the unexplained significance of le Cruz's background (there may be none, of course, but the build up to this feels so deliberate that I have trouble getting my head to accept this idea) is just one of many unexplained or badly explained plot points. On one occasion this resulted in such a jarring experience that I had to briefly skim back through a couple episodes to convince myself that I didn't just accidently skipped past an episode and missed some crucial story development. One aspect they really should have dwelled upon some more is the whole Seed thing. I only really touched on it without going into details. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to have any connections with those Berserker pilots. (Speaking of those, is it just me, or does it seems like every good guy and their dog turn out to be Berserkers by the end?!)
In addition, even though the storyline itself isn't exactly slow paced, its progression does often get bogged down by repeats of previously shown events. The repeats, which are not presented in the form of flashbacks, are both more frequent and longer than necessary and some are so bad that I'm not sure whether they are meant to be recap episodes or not. I'm a pretty patient viewer generally, but even I was a bit restless sitting through all of those. Those partial recap episodes practically disappear during the later stages of the series, which just makes me think the earlier ones are just stalling for time so they don't break the "Gundam series must be 50 episodes long" golden rule. I wouldn't have minded seeing a more detailed explanation of the story if they had so many episodes to spare.
Apart from the that, the rest of my complaints are mostly minor. They include things like Lacsus' overrated songs; the rather unusual character design that takes a bit of getting used to; the horrific noises the characters make when crying; the uncalled for fanservice in the opening credits which made it look like there was going to be a lot of fiery romance in it, which there isn't; then there are all those Gundam cliches (well it is a Gundam after all) - the obligatory man in mask, the practically invincible hero, the ridiculously overpowered Gundams etc. Also, while the "Gundam Seed" is well dramatised in general, it is guilty of being a little overly melodramatic at times, especially with the somewhat stereotypical overly emotional female characters who annoyed me sometimes with their over the top reactions. With the most trivial of events enough to make them squawk, go all tearful and dish out bear hugs, it does make some of the character interaction slight cringeworthy to watch. In addition, "Gundam Seed" is also occasionally guilty of the Saikano Syndrome, where some of the characters seem to do stupid things for no apparently reason other than to create more drama and tragedy for the series, like during the battle involving the Desert Tiger.
Still, this is mostly nit-picking, because ultimately, "Gundam Seed" gets it spot on when it matters. The excitement, the drama, the action can all be regarded as close to the very best on offer in its genre. It may not be the most perfect of anime, and may not leave a long lasting impression (my extremely good impressions of it went stale rather quickly afterwards), but its strong points and the sheer passion contained within it is more than enough to make it stand out from the crowd. Even if you've been avoiding the Gundam franchise, you might still find yourself pleasantly surprised by this offering.
OtakuFreak
Hey there. I give this anime a lot of good points but don't be fooled. For any anime fan this would be a good show, but to the true Hardcore Gundam fan, it's a complete upset. It seems our guys in Japan are runing out of new Gundam ideas, ever since they started to over do it on the Gundams (thanks alot G Gundam!!). What I mean is, they placed too many Gundams in one series, that's one of many defalts. In Mobile Suit Gundam, there should only be one (or two, depends on the story), like the Highlander. The Gundam is to be seen asthe most powerful weapon. Of course they make that obvious but too obvious. The Gundams in these shows are ridiculously powerful, what happened to the Original Gundam concept? They turned a real mecha concept into a super mecha concept, and Gundam shouldn't be that way.
Another thing that caught my attention was that they were reviving the Universal Century world and changing it's name to Cosmic Era. At first I thought that would be okay but after they added five Gundams I was oh boy, then adding even more Gundams....god dam them. Making too many Gundams like that ruins the series.
Even though the anime was good and the art design was very well done, what pissed me off the most was it's really annoying characters. All of them are complaintive baby faced loosers!! Amuro would have no problem taking these upstarts down.
All in all, the story: good, designs: nice, concept: over done, characters: to annoying, and over all: well you can obviously see it. I'd watch it again but I don't know if I'll get pissed or happy. Don't expect Seed Destiny to be any different, it's teenage angst is way over. Hopefully Stargazer will replenish the Fans. I'm sticking to Universal Century.
PS
Gundam Seed Astray is actually way better then the Original Story line.
Atlos
(TLDR at the bottom, thanks for reading.) Gundam seed sets out to be a modern retelling of original gundam. Not a remake but a re-imagining, gundam seed changes plenty of things from the original gundam story, usually for the worse. This is the first problem with seed is constantly calling back to a previous story and following the structure of being a re-imagining and not it's own story. It ends up being a story we have already seen. The first half of the series is a slog to sit through with the overall pacing of the show stretched out to absurd lengths making it extremely boring tosit through. The worse thing is that these are some of the better episodes of the series. There is a certain point in the anime where Kira "Jesus" Yamato acquires the freedom gundam. Before this gundam seed was just an overly-melodramatic, kind of ugly, poorly written gundam series but it was at least barely serviceable. But after Kira get the freedom gundam all the stakes in the story disappear because he is now so much stronger than everyone else.
The main character Kira Yamato is a shitty self insert pretending to be an actual character. He's not physically strong and cries a lot while simultaneously being the strongest, most badass character in the series. There is a certain point that summarises what I am saying. At a certain point, he has sex with his best friends fiancé and then says something to the effect of "there is no point doing anything because I am so much better than you" and he just accepts it. He is essentially space kirito and this show is space sword art online.
ZAFT and the alliance are cartoonishly evil so the writers can justify them being the villains. I explain what I mean I am going to go through some of the plot. Before the series starts the alliance blames ZAFT for a terrorist attack (from a third party) and in return nuked a colony killing millions, ZAFT retaliates be using something called a neutron jammer preventing nuclear reactions from happening. While this prevents another nuclear bomb going off it also causes a large power outage due to nuclear powerplants shutting down. So the alliance declares war in ZAFT and the series starts. Throughout the whole of gundam seed ZAFT are presented as the villains but when the writers realize that they haven't done anything wrong they decide to turn the top brass or ZAFT into a bunch of genocidal monsters when it is revealed that they are planning to use a secret weapon to destroy the earth.
Earlier in this review, I mentioned that the series takes a massive nosedive when Kira gets the freedom gundam. At least before Kira gets it there was a moral aspect to it that killing people is bad and that Kira does not want to do that and this is his main character arc. But when Kira get the freedom gundam the series shoots itself in the foot by giving him so many overpowered weapon that he can just take out enemy mobile suit without harm the pilot, undoing any progress the series could have made. Shooting yourself in the foot is a recurring theme in seed.
There are many times where gundam seed will prevent interesting idea and either abandon them without properly exploring them or by undoing any progress the series could have made. Flay is a manipulative and vindictive character who exploits Kira for her own gain. This is a concept that hasn't really been done before in gundam, so it is a shame where the series doesn't explore this at all and just abandons the plotline halfway through. Or making the series about space racism between the coordinators and the naturals. The series shots itself in the foot again by only ever presenting the coordinators as so much better the naturals and leaving the plotline by the wayside.
I have talked enough about the plot because there is not too much to say about the audiovisual aspects of the series. Everything looks ugly and all the characters have the same face and just generally look off. The mecha design is lacklustre being overly complicated make gundam seed look more like a super robot anime. There is also lots of reused animation and stock footage. The soundtrack isn't that memorable either.
TLDR: Gundam seed is sword art online but in space
KillerMan91
Gundam SEED is part of Sunrises very popular Gundam series. Gundam SEED takes place at cosmic era. Story: Story was mixed bag. First ~15 eps were rather boring but when events moved to earth story took more speed. From 30 onwards it was so addicitive that I watched last 20 eps in one day. Theme was rather generic (two sides at war) but it had some interesting details so it didn't bother me. Story was easy to understand and had some nice twists. Character: This section is one of the big positive things in this series. Characters were easy to like (expect Flay...god I hated her) and they hadsome emotions unlike in some other series. Characters had some deveploment through the series which was nice to see. First Kira battled only for his friends but when story goes foward he unterstand why he needs to fight. Other characters have also nice deveploment within series. Some of the main characters may seem unrealistic like Lacus. So beatifull and kind pink haired princess but it didn't bother me because I am not looking realism from anime. I see it enough when I walk on the streets at the city. Another positive thing is that in this series main female characters had something other meaning than look pretty and cry for main male characters. Cagalli fighted in front lines and Lacus had her own way to impact to the war. Using her song voice and authority. If I had to marry some anime girl it would be lacus. So beatifull, kind and innocent.... I loved her.
Artwork&Animation:
Art and animation were really nice done when you consider that this series was made 2002. Gundams looked cool and expecially main characters were well made and animated. Some secondary characters had some flaws but nothing major. Battle animations were recycled a lot but it didn't bother me. Overall all was nice.
Music:
This is easily the strongest area in this series. The second best soundtrack ever in my opinion. Only the sequel GSD has better. All songs fitted well in the series (Battle songs were great) and all opening and ending songs were one of the best ever. SEED had enertic battle songs and it had awesome peacefull songs (singed by Lacus). Awesome balance. Pure gold.
Enjoyment:
I enjoyed this series a lot. Beginning may be slow like I said but when it takes some speed it doesn't let you go.
Overall:
Overall really good mecha anime. I had my own assumptions for this series before I watched it because it had got so much crap from internet. Gladly I forced myself to watch this anime. From this onwards I watch series before I make my judgements. I recommend this anime if you have even little interest towards mecha series and even if you generally dislike mecha series this series wasn't all about fighting. Story was decent and this had nice charactes. Very good overall.
NV2301
An outstanding series which probes deep into the causes and philosophy behind warfare, and gives a great insight into human nature. Context: I never got the big deal about Gundam, so much to the extent that during my childhood days in Japan, I helped the girls build a flowery Mikoshi (portable Shinto shrine) when the guys decided to do a Gundam one. 10 years down the road, I watched a few episodes of SEED with my cousin on Cartoon Network. The dub was horrific, but it got me hooked enough to obtain the subs - and became an all-time favourate series of mine and itis about time I wrote a review for it!
Story 10/10:
Apparently a carbon-copy of the 1979 Gundam original which I've never watched, I throughly liked the series. The story really hits home with serious real-life issues that the world faces today, which makes it especially outstanding. It is also very character-driven which will be described later.
The first thing which hit me was that it was about genetically modified human beings. Genetics today has been causing plenty of controversy these days and a few years after SEED has finished airing, I've read on the BBC about how we will be able to create designer babies (hair, eye colour etc). This is EXACTLY the same as the premise of SEED which is simply great foresight, considering cloning was still relatively new in 2002.
Secondly, the long desert sequence in Africa is all about the philosophy of war and rules of engagement. We have international laws on warfare, but SEED portrays the brutal reality that victory, loss and surrender is hardly clear-cut. The desert sequence also shows an authoritarian regime which brutally represses people, but still allows decent living standards for those who comply. We then have the insurgents fighting no matter what. This really relates well to parts of the world today.
Thirdly, we have the aspects of human hatred and the desire for revenge dominating the series from episode 20-30ish. It is all too easy to go an eye-for-an-eye but SEED portrays how such a response results in a vicious cycle of hate, war and destruction. It is very true that people really go nuts after losing their loved ones and become hell-bent on revenge. The propaganda and biased views of authority to mobilise/brainwash the populace is also there.
Last but not least, the Orb and Lacus faction saga portrays aspects of humility, forgiveness and reconciliation - something very hard for humans to achieve, yet it is portrayed (and I agree) this is the only way forward. Us humans have to learn how to yield, instead of the "me, me, me" attitude which so dominates today.
Character 10/10
The character development is excellent in this series. The mindset of the main cast evolves, adapts and changes excellently to the events that occur during the series, and there is good representation of personalites and motives. Despite the immensely huge cast, it is surprisingly fluid and well balanced.
Case in point is the cynical side characer, Kazui who is also portrayed as a wimp. However, his cynical and fearful reaction to various situations are perfectly plausible in the confusion of war. It is simply impossible to see through people, including your closest friends.
Other notable excellence is the desire to protect your own friends at any cost, and the reactions to the death of friends. To sum it up, it is simply so excellent I cannot put everything down.
Art: 7/10
Fairly good art and animation, and the X10A_Freedom Gundam to me was simply pr0n. That aside, there is severe overuse of recycled stock footage in battles, and what's with the PINK explosions? The animation while fairly smooth comes nowhere near close to Fullmetal Panic Fumoffu? which came out in the same time period.
Sound: 10/10
The BGM is nothing short of astonishing. We have 4 CDs full of music throughout this series and they are extremely well timed and used throughout the whole series. It is the music which made the revelation behind Kira's scientific history so epic. While music cannot save shoddy stories, the combination of excellent music to an excellent storyline just pushes up the value of the series even further.
The vocal tracks are also great, and the way "Akatsuki no Kuruma" and "Find The Way" were used during the series is simply breathtaking. The former in episode 40 still sends shivers down my skin.
Enjoyment: 8/10
While I eventually ended up enjoying this series tremendously due to the plot and characters, it was extremely challenging to grasp the cause of the events and get up to speed with the plot at the beginning which was extremely frustrating. It is already hard enough to get to know new characters without the chaos of invading armed units!
Overall: 9/10
I arrive here with very little left to say. Simply excellent - except the art and animation which is "only" good, as well as the excessive re-use of footage which brings the mark down to a 9.
