Full review of Gundam Seed
10 Jan 2005 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiThis is the non-spoiler version of the review =P I think I'm going into the addicted fangirl phase now ==; Expect more ramblings from now on, but I'll mark them as spoilers. There are 50 episodes for Seed, and there's a special that is set just after the finish, which I have not watched (if anyone has it I will be VERY VERY HAPPY).
(Not the best picture, but it shall have to do: Athrun left, Kira right)
Synopsis:
In the future, a significant proportion of the human population consists of "Coordinators" - or humans whose intellectual and physical capacity have been enhanced genetically. Inevitably, a divide began to form, with the Natural humans envious of the greater capability of the Coordinators, and the Coordinators looking down on the Naturals. Eventually the tension escalated to the tragedy of "Bloody Valentine", when an agriculture-based satellite(?) owned by the ZAFT/Coordinators was destroyed by the Earth's military - the OMNI Enforcers. The story begins 11 months into the war that ensued. ZAFT has received news that a number of OMNI-owned weapons (Archangel and the Gundams) are being secreted in Heliopolis, a colony owned by Orb: the problem is, Orb is a self-toted unbiased nation who has refused to take either side in the war. Heliopolis, incidentally, is also Kira's home...in the violence that followed ZAFT's invasion as they tried to steal the weapons, Kira inadvertently sees amongst the ZAFT military a familiar face - Athrun Zala, his childhood best friend. The rest is a (rather tragic) mixture of fate and reluctant warfare.
Plot:
I'm not familiar with the plot to the other Gundam series, or any mecha series, so I can't really draw comparisons. GSeed itself is full of action, the first 30 or so is a wild chase across the galaxies, around the world and into Alaska. Most of these first 30 episodes are filled with gunfire and explosions. Diplomatic talks are trimmed down so that you are only shown what is central to the plot. The main pivot point of the story occurs just before they dock in at Alaska, in a battle between the ZAFT pilots and Kira. This event pushed a number of events into motion - first and most directly of all, it caused the maturation of the attitudes Kira, Athrun and Dearka had towards the war, secondly and indirectly, it forced Lacus into taking action. The pace is very fast, I don't think you would be bored by it. After the middle, there is quite a bit of flashbacks and replays, but I think if you can't put up with that, you've obviously not watched enough shoujo! If the first part of the series was about the emotional sacrifices of the war, the last half is about the physical sacrifices. There is a lot of casualties, some die in the middle and most of them in the end, and many of them are such ironic or such necessary deaths that it really highlights the cruelty of warfare. There is a lot of questioning and condemnation of the motives and effects of war - I'm not sure if that's a reflection of the times (2002/2003 - Iraq) - but it is very much a pacifist series. It is not a series that romanticises war, in some of the most violent and biggest battle scenes, the background music is melancholic. There is a significant emotional depth to this series, which took me by surprise because I had sat down to watch this with the same sort of mindset that I'd sit down to watch, say, the Australian Open. As you might know, the latter doesn't usually get you teary.... There are a LOT of Gundams: the 5 original ones, plus 3 the Alliance developed for their own use, ZAFT made two improved versions, Orb itself also produced 3, and another was constructed out of spare repair parts previously intended for Strike Gundam. These are just the main ones, there are so many mobile suits flying around during the last climax that it became a matter of waiting for a character to reappear to make sure that he/she didn't die from one of the many explosions >__> I'm told that the ending was very rushed, maybe because I had expected it so I didn't notice. It did end with a very, very big explosion, but with the reassurance that Earth did not get demolished despite the explosion. Err...that shouldn't be a spoiler =P Considering there's a sequel to this. But the vision Kira had during the last episode (can't say any more than that without spoiling it) is incredibly cheesy and really disrupts the harsh realism about war that the series had maintained so far.
Characters:
There are a lot of characters in this one, and a very realistic horde. I think most of us would know people who resembled the characters, and if not, could imagine someone like that. Kira remains very likeably ordinary for most of the series until he gained the wisdom of self-discovery and started acting like a main character: charging in at the last second to save everyone, finding out a Deep Dark Secret concerning his Angsty Past, providing useless cheesy philosophies for his comrades and generally being The Hero™. Athrun doesn't get any sort of solidarity until after episode 30-ish, and he still reminds me of Touya Akira (Hikaru no Go). It's not just their hairstyle, their eyecolour, or the fact that their names both start with A.....*gets kicked*.....ahem....they both have an air of gravity and proud justice around them. Most of the side characters are fairly well defined, and it wasn't done at the expense of the action, which I thought was nice. My friend said that the series focused on plot rather than characters, but I found that most of the characters were developed quite nicely during the plot. People changed to circumstances, people causing circumstances, a lot of times it's the way they approach the situations that says so much. Most of the women in this one are very good, which pleasantly surprises me. Cagalli, Lacus and Mireille are all very strong women, despite being very different personality-wise. Flay is probably the most traditional anime girl, with her whining and bursting into tears at every possible moment. Luckily she doesn't get much screen time, and so I have forgiven her existence XD
Animation:
The animation and art are both beautiful, which was my main reason for watching this series. The animation is done very smoothly, and for most of the series, the action scenes were all very good. One complaint: they did get lazy towards the end and reuse quite a bit of the scenes, especially scenes for the other Gundam pilots (ie. pilots apart from Kira and the four ZAFT pilots). I can't make much comment about the voice-acting, particularly as I am not Japanese >__>; but scenes where Kira cries/howls really make my blood curdle... Surprisingly, both Athrun and Kira are voiced by men - only Nicol was voiced by a woman (which was why it took me nearly the whole series to decide that Nicol was male >_>). I say surprisingly because with Kira's personality and Athrun's hairstyle, they're usually the targets that get stuck with a female voice... Cagalli's voice is done quite well, probably by a female voice actress who has been doing too many guy parts =P I also LOVE the songs for GSeed. It went through a lot of opening and ending songs for an anime 50 episodes long, but the music was very nice.
Sorry, very long again ^^;
On a yaoi-dom scale of 1 to 5, I give GSeed 4, meaning: "Stay away from GSeed fanfics if you don't know what yaoi means."
(Not the best picture, but it shall have to do: Athrun left, Kira right)
Synopsis:
In the future, a significant proportion of the human population consists of "Coordinators" - or humans whose intellectual and physical capacity have been enhanced genetically. Inevitably, a divide began to form, with the Natural humans envious of the greater capability of the Coordinators, and the Coordinators looking down on the Naturals. Eventually the tension escalated to the tragedy of "Bloody Valentine", when an agriculture-based satellite(?) owned by the ZAFT/Coordinators was destroyed by the Earth's military - the OMNI Enforcers. The story begins 11 months into the war that ensued. ZAFT has received news that a number of OMNI-owned weapons (Archangel and the Gundams) are being secreted in Heliopolis, a colony owned by Orb: the problem is, Orb is a self-toted unbiased nation who has refused to take either side in the war. Heliopolis, incidentally, is also Kira's home...in the violence that followed ZAFT's invasion as they tried to steal the weapons, Kira inadvertently sees amongst the ZAFT military a familiar face - Athrun Zala, his childhood best friend. The rest is a (rather tragic) mixture of fate and reluctant warfare.
Plot:
I'm not familiar with the plot to the other Gundam series, or any mecha series, so I can't really draw comparisons. GSeed itself is full of action, the first 30 or so is a wild chase across the galaxies, around the world and into Alaska. Most of these first 30 episodes are filled with gunfire and explosions. Diplomatic talks are trimmed down so that you are only shown what is central to the plot. The main pivot point of the story occurs just before they dock in at Alaska, in a battle between the ZAFT pilots and Kira. This event pushed a number of events into motion - first and most directly of all, it caused the maturation of the attitudes Kira, Athrun and Dearka had towards the war, secondly and indirectly, it forced Lacus into taking action. The pace is very fast, I don't think you would be bored by it. After the middle, there is quite a bit of flashbacks and replays, but I think if you can't put up with that, you've obviously not watched enough shoujo! If the first part of the series was about the emotional sacrifices of the war, the last half is about the physical sacrifices. There is a lot of casualties, some die in the middle and most of them in the end, and many of them are such ironic or such necessary deaths that it really highlights the cruelty of warfare. There is a lot of questioning and condemnation of the motives and effects of war - I'm not sure if that's a reflection of the times (2002/2003 - Iraq) - but it is very much a pacifist series. It is not a series that romanticises war, in some of the most violent and biggest battle scenes, the background music is melancholic. There is a significant emotional depth to this series, which took me by surprise because I had sat down to watch this with the same sort of mindset that I'd sit down to watch, say, the Australian Open. As you might know, the latter doesn't usually get you teary.... There are a LOT of Gundams: the 5 original ones, plus 3 the Alliance developed for their own use, ZAFT made two improved versions, Orb itself also produced 3, and another was constructed out of spare repair parts previously intended for Strike Gundam. These are just the main ones, there are so many mobile suits flying around during the last climax that it became a matter of waiting for a character to reappear to make sure that he/she didn't die from one of the many explosions >__> I'm told that the ending was very rushed, maybe because I had expected it so I didn't notice. It did end with a very, very big explosion, but with the reassurance that Earth did not get demolished despite the explosion. Err...that shouldn't be a spoiler =P Considering there's a sequel to this. But the vision Kira had during the last episode (can't say any more than that without spoiling it) is incredibly cheesy and really disrupts the harsh realism about war that the series had maintained so far.
Characters:
There are a lot of characters in this one, and a very realistic horde. I think most of us would know people who resembled the characters, and if not, could imagine someone like that. Kira remains very likeably ordinary for most of the series until he gained the wisdom of self-discovery and started acting like a main character: charging in at the last second to save everyone, finding out a Deep Dark Secret concerning his Angsty Past, providing useless cheesy philosophies for his comrades and generally being The Hero™. Athrun doesn't get any sort of solidarity until after episode 30-ish, and he still reminds me of Touya Akira (Hikaru no Go). It's not just their hairstyle, their eyecolour, or the fact that their names both start with A.....*gets kicked*.....ahem....they both have an air of gravity and proud justice around them. Most of the side characters are fairly well defined, and it wasn't done at the expense of the action, which I thought was nice. My friend said that the series focused on plot rather than characters, but I found that most of the characters were developed quite nicely during the plot. People changed to circumstances, people causing circumstances, a lot of times it's the way they approach the situations that says so much. Most of the women in this one are very good, which pleasantly surprises me. Cagalli, Lacus and Mireille are all very strong women, despite being very different personality-wise. Flay is probably the most traditional anime girl, with her whining and bursting into tears at every possible moment. Luckily she doesn't get much screen time, and so I have forgiven her existence XD
Animation:
The animation and art are both beautiful, which was my main reason for watching this series. The animation is done very smoothly, and for most of the series, the action scenes were all very good. One complaint: they did get lazy towards the end and reuse quite a bit of the scenes, especially scenes for the other Gundam pilots (ie. pilots apart from Kira and the four ZAFT pilots). I can't make much comment about the voice-acting, particularly as I am not Japanese >__>; but scenes where Kira cries/howls really make my blood curdle... Surprisingly, both Athrun and Kira are voiced by men - only Nicol was voiced by a woman (which was why it took me nearly the whole series to decide that Nicol was male >_>). I say surprisingly because with Kira's personality and Athrun's hairstyle, they're usually the targets that get stuck with a female voice... Cagalli's voice is done quite well, probably by a female voice actress who has been doing too many guy parts =P I also LOVE the songs for GSeed. It went through a lot of opening and ending songs for an anime 50 episodes long, but the music was very nice.
Sorry, very long again ^^;
On a yaoi-dom scale of 1 to 5, I give GSeed 4, meaning: "Stay away from GSeed fanfics if you don't know what yaoi means."
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 09:01 am (UTC)*pout* so much to do, so little time to avoid doing it. *returns to studying* GAH! another quiz?? why is there an assesment every day??
*dies* wakarimasen, ..wakarimasen yo T__T *nerumasu* *okirumaSEN*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 09:40 am (UTC)Hmm, I did some research and found out something interesting about the voice actors:
Kira Yamato (Hoshi Souichirou) - Oujirou (angelic layer)
Athrun Zala (Ishida Akira) - Satoshi (dnangel); Kaoru (evangelion); Hakkai (saiyuki)
Muu La Fllaga (Koyasu Takehito) - Hotohori =P
Yzak Jule (Seki Tomokazu) - man...this guy's done too much: Kyou (fruits basket); Chichiri (fy); Touya (cardcaptor); Shuuichi (gravitation); Kamui (x); Ken (weiss kreuz)
Rau La Cruz (Seki Toshihiko) - Duo Maxwell (GW); Mouse (ranma); watari (yami no matsuei)
Murrue Ramius/narrator/haro (Mitsuishi Kotono): Kagura (furuba); Tsukino Usagi (sailorbroom)
=___=||| I'm really scarred by the last one...and man, Murrue was a cool character too.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 01:58 am (UTC)O.O I don't know why I forgot that seki tomokazu did kyou.. I've always thought of him as a chichiri/seele sort of person. o.o
whoa, nice big chunky names there, they would have cost a bit to employ? hmm, I thought of gundam seed as a "not so big anime" which is strange considering how I had no reason to. o.o I can't stand seki toshihiko's singing :/
argh! kagura has the same actress as misato??? *dies*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 05:24 am (UTC)By the way, which one's more familiar - kimi or anata? Because I see "kimi" used by girls in the context of calling their boyfriends, but "anata" is also what wives call their husbands... But "kimi" also gets used for people who've just met and aren't enemies... Eeek. @___@
Hehehe....Seki Toshihiko doesn't sing this time...I think? I don't have his song anyhow ^^; I do have Seki Tomokazu's song for his character...
Don't tell me a 90 degree bow is something you do to the Japanese emperor or something ==;
no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 04:14 am (UTC)o.o we got taught anata in class so I'm guessing it's less familiar and more formal, but from what you say I'm guessing that I'm wrong.. (cool, I'm right either way and wrong either way :D *pause* oh, I'm fence sitting -__-')
is seki tomokazu's song good? I tend to admire his voice a bit more (mainly cause I was impressed by his performances in eva and some other randomy animes, not excluding fusigi yuugi :D)
90 degree bow is the most repectful bow isn't it? *doesn't know* bowing on one's knees seems pretty repectful too, but that's prolly for a different context? *dies from lack of knowledge*
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 12:50 am (UTC)Duo's song (Goodbye and Good luck? I think?) was bad, but I think it was because of the song itself, not the poor guy singing it LOL. At least he was in tune half the time...either that or he was so off-tune he was in tune...maybe that's why the song sounded funny ~~; But Yzak's song was really weird...it was SLOW, for a guy just as violent and vengeful as Kyou...it was just...weird >___>;
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 01:27 am (UTC)oh dear, I wonder if the actors get to object to some of the things they have to sing to. *pause* though I do still prefer seki tomokazu's voice (he sounds so so different each time, he really creates the characters he plays ^o^)
*pout* wanna watch T__T