GUNDAM SEED

GUNDAM SEED

I'll start with this one, as I've just watched it this week.. 

OVERVIEW - 

Like many of the Gundam series, this is set in what would be considered an "Alternate Universe", and in a different one to many of the other series. Starting at the year "Cosmic Era 71" the world has created space colonies, generally populated by human's known as "Co-ordinators", genetically enhanced people. disagreements and racial tension between co-ordinators and "Naturals" lead to armed confrontation and about a year before the show starts one of the "PLANT" colonies was destroyed by nuclear attack, killing thousands of civilians and prompting an all out war. The show follows a young man called Kira Yamato who is part of a nation called "The Orb Union", generally refered to as just Orb, who lives on a colony created by Orb and attends a technical college there. Orb considers itself a neutral nation, uninvolved in the war and is accepting of both naturals and co-ordinators, as such Kira is a co-ordinator while all his friends are naturals. 

The first few episodes deal with an infiltration of the colony by ZAFT soldiers from the PLANT colonies (ZAFT being the name of the military but often confused by people in the series as being representative of the entire PLANT "nation") to steal/destroy weapons being made there for the "Earth Alliance", and it grows from there. 

Being a "Mecha" anime of the "real robots" variety (please search for these terms on wikipedia if you're not familiar with them) the other stars of the show are the "Mobile suits". Generally speaking the Earth Alliance uses what is termed as "Mobile armours", vehicles derived from conventional war-machines such as tanks, planes etc, generally piloted by one person. ZAFT uses mobile suits, the A-typical human-shaped piloted robots and apparently because these are "better" than the mobile armours in some way thats never really explained, ZAFT is winning the war. 

REVIEW - 

The basic story, as with most of the Gundam series, revolves around a young man, late-teens, and the struggles of a war they are thrust in to. SEED instantly delves into the "newtype" or "mentally and/or physically enhanced human" aspect of previous gundam shows from the start with the introduction of the co-ordinators, which is what they explore as the point of conflict for the series, as opposed to resources/ideology etc. 

While Kira Yamato is the main focus of the show, the story is also set around one ship, the Earth Alliance ship "Archangel" that Kira and his college friends become crew on due to the events of the first few episodes. Chasing this ship are the team who stole the prototype mobile suits from the colony, that includes a childhood friend of Kira's, Athrun Zala. A lot of the tension early on in the series comes from this fact, and I have to be honest, Kira spends most of the series crying a lot. I mean A LOT... he's described as "a kind, honest and good natured person" and a great deal of his crying is because of the fact that he's the only one who can pilot the only remaining mobile suit on the ship (as he reprogrammed its incomplete OS in order to save his life, and his friends lives) and he's constantly having to fight, and kill, to protect people. That said, Kira is like-able, you can see the torment he's in (even without the crying) in struggling to deal with what he feels he has to do and what he feels is right in the early part of the series, and it does create a degree of sympathy. 

parts of the story feel rushed however, Kira's attraction to the character "Flay" for example, is never really explained properly in the begining, similarly when his friends decide to join up to help the bridge crew of the archangel while they're on-board is dealt with all offscreen.. its literally like "I wish we could do something to help....*cut to kira in corridor seeing all his friends in uniform* oh, we joined up, so you're not fighting alone anymore!" and it never deals with why professional soldiers would just roll over and let civilian teens operate freely on the bridge of a top-secret prototype spaceship.. another example is when Athrun's father, a member of the PLANT council is elected chairman of it, completely done off-screen and barely commented on.. yet other parts of the story seem dragged on and completely over-explored, such as the re-introduction of Cagalli, and Flay's manipulation of Kira. 

I also feel the need to comment on the character "Lacus Clyne", who shows up fairly early on as possibly the most irritating character at that point. Initially appearing as somewhat of an air-headed "Idol", daughter of the then-current PLANT chairman and arranged-fiancee of Athrun, her constant singing-at-every-chance character seems only to exist as a focus for Flay's rage at co-ordinators (exposition for her behaviour) and the odd fascination the Japanese seem to have for Idol's being the answer to all social worries that is prevailent in many anime. Its when she's handed back to ZAFT via a un-sanctioned move by Kira and during the first real renunion of Kira and Athrun that you first get a glimpse of who she will really be, ordering Athrun's commander to not engage in fighting in such a way that he couldnt possibly refuse without seriously compromising his social and military status.. Lacus plays a huge part in the reconcilliation between Kira and Athrun, in questioning the public's perception of the war and is a large part of the emotional/personality evolution of the main cast as well. I'm also glad she stopped the singing in the later parts of the series too, because the songs were awful, very offputting and sometimes out-of-place in their use (and tonally akward too). she's also always accompanied by a version of the series' semi-official mascot, the "Haro", a small ball-shaped robot who in this series tends to serve no purpose other than to annoyingly utter random things like "how you feeling?" "i wont accept that" that are 90% of the time completely out of place. Worse still, she's got about 6-7 of these things... so much that it even annoys Athrun (who's the one who builds them for her!) visably at points. 

One other defining point of the series is the "SEED" ability, or factor. described early on as "beserker" it is most commenly used to begin with as a deus ex machina type event, when Kira is overwhelmed with emotion and outnumbered in battle his eyes change, with the iris colour becoming solid and paler and his pupils becoming little more than dots (normally occompanied with a cut-scene of a seed the same colour as his iris shattering) and he basically can then out-manuvour, predict and out-fight anyone else. It's hinted at during various episodes and comments by others that this was a predicted outcome of co-ordinators, called the Superior Evolutionary Element Destined factor (hence SEED), and basically allows Kira to surpass any other co-ordinator's abilities. In time its shown that the main four characters (Kira, Athrun, Lacus and Cagalli) all posses this ability. while a little clichéd in so much as its almost predictable when it'll happen, it does add to the battle scenes and is part of the in-story mystique of Kira and the near-undefeatable legend that grows around him and the ship Archangel. 

I've skipped a lot of the interaction and story of most of the characters because this is a 50-episode anime, and has quite a huge cast and complex interactions between them, the conflicts, the driving purposes behind everyone's actions and how it affects the overal outcome. It would take a massive review and discussion to examine all of it in depth.

Finally, I shall touch briefly on the romance aspect, because almost every anime has some kind of romance/sexual tension aspect to it. At the start of the series Kira is attracted to a girl named Flay, who is in a relationship with Kira's friend Sai (by parental marriage arrangement), and Athrun is in a similar situation with Lacus. (revealed to be done by genetic profiling due to falling reproduction rates among 3rd generation co-ordinators) However Flay decides to throw herself at Kira in a fake relationship in order to manipulate him into constant battle, due to her grief at seeing her father killed before her eyes. While never explicitly shown, there is a scene in phase (or episode) 16 showing Kira getting out his bed during an alert, with a pressumed naked Flay staying behind, suggesting a sexual context. Kira in time comes to realise that what was going on between him and Flay was wrong and effectively ends it, but not before fighting with Sai and after Flay realises she may actually feel for him. Kira's subsequent battle ends with his assumed death, and Flay is later kidnapped by ZAFT so they never really get to resolve it. Kira is the one who rescues Lacus early on, and they also grow close due to being the only co-ordinators on the Archangel and their friendship with Athrun. Kira eventually breaks regulations (enough to be sentenced to death if he was proper military) to return Lacus to the pursuing ZAFT forces, because he felt it was wrong for the ship's CCO to effectively treat Lacus as a hostage. Flay also grows jealous of (or concerned her instrument of vengeance will be calmed by) Cagalli, who grows to become friends with Kira and has a calming effect on him during her time on board. Cagalli also interacts with Athrun when both are shot down and stranded on a small island. Cagalli is also part of the change/evolution of Athrun's personality when she confronts him at gunpoint over the battle he had with Kira that is assumed to have killed Kira. 

Kira is nured back to health by Lacus onboard one of the PLANT colonies (again another rushed/unexplored/happened offscreen moment of relevant changes) deepening the relationship between them and is also probably the point where Kira's real personality-evolution happens. When Athrun catches up to Kira in Orb Cagalli is present, and its at this point where you're really not sure if Cagalli has a thing for Kira, or for Athrun.. an idea nixed by a revelation from Cagalli's father hinted at earlier in the series as they head back into space.. and its around this time that the pairings of Kira/Lacus and Athrun/Cagalli get cemented. There is also a romance between the captain of the Archangel and the veteran pilot who joined them at the begining, which is not really covered as much as the teen's, but is still a strong emotional point, with foreshadowing and "drama" involved, culminating in a fairly shocking conclusion. 

For those of you who want a rough idea of the over-arching background, its basically about race and racism. on one hand the PLANT's are commanded from about half-way through by a man who wants to kill off all natural's, and extends the war to that end, and the other side is being controlled by an organisation calling itself "blue cosmos" who wants to kill all co-ordinators. that message gets hammered home in the last part of the series, along with the Japanese cultural fear regarding Nuclear weapons, as both sides resort to the "unthinkable" solution of using them against each other for the complete destruction of the other.

 SUMMERY -

 Story - overall the story is strong, has a very good and relevant point, that war only creates hatred and vengance only leads to more death and destruction. It does however seem to have been written or handled poorly in places, and with a heavy hand in others. The pacing seems off, with important aspects happening in a blink of an eye and minor details taking forever to resolve. The battle scenes are short, but this is explained by the limitations of power supply in the mecha in-story, which easily allows for a "battle-per-week" format which would suit the style of the anime. in all a good story, poorly executed in places . 7/10

Production - Made during an odd time in anime history, the transition point between traditional hand-drawn animation and cel-shaded CGI it suffers from the drawbacks of both. heavy re-use of the same scene over and over (I counted the animation used to show the explosion of Flay's father's ship at being at least 20 times in the series) can distract from the battles when watching the episodes back-to-back, and when the cel-shading is used (mostly for the Archangel) its very obvious its not the same as the rest. At points the characters are poorly drawn, suffering from "fish-eyes" ( seriously, could park a small moon in the gaps between the eyes in places) and badly drawn bodies (major example is when Flay is asking to join the earth forces and holding her hands clasped together over her chest), however the Mecha themselves are almost faultless, and while these points will "annoy" at points, they dont majorly detract from the show or the story itself. probably amazing when released (2004) it feels a little dated now. 5/10

Music - Early on, the background score doesnt really stand out, its your fairly standard "space-mecha-anime" style stuff, but used effectively in a way that doesnt really take anything away from when it's used. The songs of Lacus Clyne are boring to be frank, she sounds out-of-key with it in parts, and its heavily over-used. Later on however, the last 15 or so episodes as the war and the battles are heating up, the score becomes somewhat epic.. with the BGM of the later space battles being remminiscent of the music used in Mass Effect 3 (one should say as this predates the game by close to a decade that the ME3 music is like this, really...) and that really adds a lot to the battles and the show. The opening and ending themes are not really stand-out, with the opening themes generally having an up-beat, dance-like feel to them and the ending themes (normally playing out over images of trashed mecha and spaceships) are more reflectful, slower and emotional types of music. While none of the music has me rushing to find a copy of the soundtrack, it also doesnt feel out of place or distracting (except Lacus.. HATE those songs..). 7/10

Accessability - the show doesnt really touch upon "Japanese only" concepts, nor does it follow many of the stereotypical episode ideals like a lot of the high-school/slice of life anime's do. As such I would expect there'd be no real cultural challenges or understanding needed to get into the show, making it highly accessable. 10/10

Overall Impression -  The Gundam franchise is huge, worldwide, and SEED and its follow-up "Gundam SEED Destiny" are very popular. Its animation is acceptable, while dated by current production standards, and because its a self-contained universe requires no real introduction to it, like the Gundam Unicorn OVA's do. its a long series, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on the person watching, but is action packed, with no real "slow" episodes in that respect. The story is powerful, its message relevant and when looking at it from an overall perspective, is represented well. it has its flaws, skipping over parts and dragging others out but in all its well done. about its only downpoint is the failure to redeem some characters (yzak is a child-killer and really should have been tried for war-crimes...) and the whole "Lacus is an Idol" thing feels shoe-horned in simply to have an Idol-character involved and bare's little reason or purpose to her eventual character evolution and actions.. I would honestly suggest if you've only ever seen Gundam Wing or never seen a Gundam series before, this would be a good start. 8/10

FINAL SCORE - 37/50