The final battle between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance has
begun but a much more personal battle is being fought in the middle of it. Now united, Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala
depart on separate missions to stop the insane wishes of Rau Le Crueset and
Patrick Zala. Murrue faces her former
first officer Natarle. Mu risks
everything to protect the woman he loves and Flay, Lacus and Cagalli all make
their final decisions about where their hearts truly lie. The battle for peace begins…and it wont end
without the sacrifices of those closest to the hearts of Kira and Athrun.
Still reeling from a bunch of major last minute turn
bombshells, Gundam Seed entered its final five episodes with a lot of ground to
cover even though the premise was simple enough: Azrael and Patrick Zala had to
be stopped. It was a Gundam finale
though. And that means epic battles in
space, a lot of bloodshed, characters lost, philosophies being shouted back and
forth…and more extra shouting because that’s all certain characters were made
to do.
The one character I’m most proud of in this entire finale
is Natarle. From the moment Flay came
onboard the Dominion and she welcomed her hug, I knew the girl I wanted to like
was going to get a proper good ending.
Well…she didn’t make it, sadly.
But Natarle made her choice to go against being the soldier who follows
orders, no matter what it takes.
Instead, she gave Azrael the verbal smackdown he had coming and
sacrificed herself and her ship to end that little creeps life. Cause if anyone had to go in this finale…well
it was three people-Azrael, Zala and Le Crueset. It was a heartbreaking goodbye for Natarle,
coming only moments after Azrael tried to blow up the Archangel…and Mu had to
sacrifice his life to save his love, Murrue.
The beautiful captain lost her closest friends in this battle…so im glad
she gave the order to rid the Cosmic Era of the slime that is “I always Win “
Azrael.
It was a manic race against time to stop Patrick Zala
from firing his Genesis super laser and destroying the Earth. Surprisingly, the
kill count for the good guys kind of stopped after the loss of Natarle and Mu
in the final episode…well there was one other major death but ill get
there. I wont lie though, at one point I
wanted good guys to just win because I was done with Azrael’s screaming in
psychotic fashion Gundam Team and Rau Le Crueset’s psycho genocidal
banter. It can make anyones head hurt
and makes me long for the days when the Zabi’s were a bit more…subtle by
comparison. Rau just kept going on and
on about how he knew all about humanity and it’s penchant for destruction
because he wasn’t hugged enough as a clone kid.
Rau really could have been something closer to Char than anyone else
before if he hadn’t been given that last minute “I’m a Clone of Mu’s Dad”
storyline and instead was made an opportunist looking to seize control of ZAFT
himself for various, more interesting reasons.
In the end, he was just a screaming lunatic who will never be as cool or
as remembered as the man who first dawned that iconic mask. Mu said it best of Le Crueset, “He has no
past, no future, and probably no identity.”
As for Athrun’s dad, his troops finally decided to wizen
up and NOT destroy the Earth because that’s crazy talk. In a very Shakesperean move, the demented,
deluded and just plain insane ZAFT leader found himself gunned down by his own
men before everyone abandoned the base.
Of course, even dying in poor Athrun’s arms, Zala’s last words were to
make sure Genesis was fired and Earth was destroyed…yeah I’m not sorry he’s
gone. Basically, even bad guy who needed
to go, got taken out in some very satisfactory fashions. The best was Yzak finally getting a chance to
tear into Azrael’s Gundam Team, killing two of them himself. Never thought I’d say this but, way to go guy.
Ok, time to talk about the last major death of the
series: Flay. The final five episodes
finally saw her doing something military related as she became an officer on
the Dominion under Natarle’s command. At
first I was really, really, REALLY looking forward to scowling at any attempts
to get her redeemed before the end of the series. But considering she’s spent time with Le
Crueset and Azrael, Flay’s seen that her kind of dark crazy is way outclassed
by others. The more she said she wanted
to get back to Kira and the others, I did believe her. I didn’t at first because when Cagalli was
telling Athrun about Flay and calling her “a good friend of Kira’s”, I scoffed
because most of the reflective montage was of all the horrible, manipulative
things Flay had done to him. But Kira
did get one final Newtype-esque chance to say goodbye to the girl who used and
abused him. It’s also worth noting that Kira forgave Athrun and Yzak for the
crimes he witnessed. It’s not wrong to
think he’d forgive Flay too…that’s just the kind of guy Kira is. So, no real Flay bashing, even at the end.
Well with Le Crueset, Zala and Azrael dead, the war was
pretty much over and done with so…then what?
Well, the series has a special 5 min OVA extended ending where we get to
check in with everyone post Genesis.
Kira and Lacus are living on a beach with war orphans. Athrun and Cagalli are together. Flay, Miri and Murrue have all gone their
separate ways. And Yzak and Dearka are
back with ZAFT in new capacities. All in
all, the finale was…sometimes good but other times sort of underwhelming. Maybe because it was mostly screaming and
explosions without the amount of emotional weight the show wanted. The loss of Natarle and Mu was the major high
point for me, emotionally. After that,
it was blow everything up using all the reusable animation possible. Maybe I just couldn’t get past those last
minute curveballs about Clones, Perfect Coordinators and mad men in masks. Gundam Seed tried to do too much to stand out
from what came before and in doing so, produced a bit of a mess with some
decent moments and good character cap offs.
Which brings us to the very end…sort of. How was Mobile Suit Gundam Seed? It was…ok.
Overall updating the One Year War with Naturals vs. Coordinators worked
because of the ethical and societal problems it addressed. The series worked best when focusing on a
pretty good cast of characters rather than trying to nod or pay homage to a
million and one different Gundam tales of yesteryear. Kira and Athrun were good leads, though I
wish we could’ve had more time with Athrun early on in the first half to offset
watching Kira make a million bad choices because of Flay. The supporting cast was some of my favorites
with Murrue and Natarle being the hottest commanding officers around; Mu being
the cool big brother; and Kira’s friends getting better character arcs than
Kira. The animation was also a mixed
bag. Digi Paint Anime is hit and miss
and sometimes it worked well when it came to mecha designs and the action on
Earth. In space, it was a little more
miss as it looked like everything was sliding than naturally moving
around. The series hit its stride around
the third act, then tried to go beyond overboard in the last act, resulting in
a shaky finale that had its moments but overall felt like too much story
without a total payoff. But I didn’t
hate Seed as a whole. What I liked, I
really liked and I think it’s a fascinating watch since it was the first new
Gundam of the new millennia.
Final Score for Mobile Suit Gundam Seed is 7/10. For new fans it’s a decent starting point,
even if it is very, very familiar to veteran fans. And when the show is doing its own thing and
not trying to be an already told Gundam story, it does work a lot.
But, as we all know by now, this show was mega popular
and was the first of the Alternate Gundam Universe shows to spawn a direct
sequel…and man…I’m not looking forward to this.
But I’m committed and this is happening.
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny starts Next Monday, right here at
the Gundam Anime Corner.
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