Last updated September 06, 2006.
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December 08, 2003:

Largely on a whim, I gave Gundam SEED another chance. I had watched the first episode a while back when the show was still new, just to see what this whole Gundam thing was about, but quickly dismissed it because it didn't exactly grab me. However, this time around I was quickly hooked.

Strike
Strike

Chalk it up to another casualty to the winning combination of Giant Robots and Emotional Resonance, but for whatever reason, Gundam SEED kicks ass. This show is immensely popular with anime fans in both Japan and in the English-speaking fansub community (ha ha, "community") and for good reason.

In a nutshell, it's the story of two sides fighting a bitter war:  the ZAFT faction of genetically enhanced Coordinators versus the Naturals of the Earth Alliance. There really are no good guys or bad guys here, and the viewer can easily develop loyalties with either side.

Lacus
Lacus, a Coordinator

The focus of the story lies with Kira Yamato, a talented mecha pilot fighting on the side of the Earth Alliance. Thankfully, he deals with the typical mecha-pilot angst quite well and required little prodding to get in the damned robot. As far as I'm concerned, though, the real gem of the series is one of the secondary leads, Flay, who starts out rather annoying, but by episode 13 or 14 turns FUCKING COOL in an "oh, you evil red-headed bitch" kind of way. I rather wish the show had developed her scheming a bit more than it did.

Flay
Flay, a Natural

A few more notes: I'm not particularly enamoured of the mecha design, which seems fraught with superfluous wing-dings, like a riced-out Honda Civic. It's the same opinion I have regarding the mecha from RahXephon, for example. At least the mecha in Gundam SEED don't have feathers, for Chrissakes.

I did rather enjoy the voice acting of Mitusishi Kotono.

Ramius
Mitsuishi Kotono as Ramius

This could prove to be an expensive series to follow. With 50 episodes and the possibility of a second season looming, I can expect to be buying a lot of DVDs. There had damn well better be at least six episodes per disc.

 

TEEEEEEE!!!