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.
The HD Remaster of Gundam SEED omits episodes 14 and 26 of the original, therefore having a total of 48 episodes.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED won the Animation of the Year in the 3rd Tokyo International Anime Fair. It was the eighth TV Feature Award winner at the Animation Kobe Awards in 2003. It was the third winner at the Japanese Otaku Awards in 2003.
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, one...of 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.
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 last...year 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.
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 to...that 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.
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