T5W#249-Top 5 Gundam Franchise Nods in Gundam Seed

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed was the first Gundam series of the new millennium, debuting in 2002 and 23 years after Mobile Suit Gundam first aired in Japan in 1979.  A franchise that old being able to churn out new series with new characters, ideas and amazing mecha is pretty awesome.  However, there comes a time when going back to the well and rehashing or making directs omages to popular ideas of the past can happen.  And man, Gundam Seed definitely dips into that well a few times.  From poking fun at old concepts to directly lifting old storylines and giving them a Seed facelift, todays Top 5 Wednesday covers the Top 5 Gundam Franchise Nods in Gundam Seed.  Do they work?  Do they not work?  Well let’s find out.

#5-Weapons Platforms (Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory)

Towards the end of Stardust Memory, Gundam Pilot Kou Uraki receives his second Gundam prototype to use against the Delaz Fleet, the RX-78GP03S Gundam Dendrobium Stamen.  The Gundam sees plenty of action in the final battle to stop Operation Stardust but the Gundam itself doesn’t sortie as usual.  The Stamen comes with a hulking weapons platform chalk full of missiles, rocket launchers, missiles, beam sabers and shields and more missiles.  The thing is made out to be less of a Gundam and more of a Gundam esque tank.  Apparently this was a popular thing with the creators of Seed as Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala both receives similar mega attachments for the Freedom and Justice respectively.  It feels a bit like overkill since those units proved more than once they could handle entire battalions of Mobile Suits on their own.

#4-The Astray Team (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam)

When Kira and company arrive in Orb, we learn that the country is indeed working on it’s own Mobile Suits: models inspired by the Strike, the Astray units.  The debut team of pilots assigned to these units is a bubbly and kind of bumbling girls who don’t really hold a candle to piloting these machines compared to everyone else in the show, especially when Cagalli shows up to show them up.  The concept of an all female Mobile Suit team is nothing new to the Gundam franchise.  In Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, the League Militarie had their own team of beautiful pilots backing up Uso Eving and his Victory Gundam.  Sadly, that’s not the only thing those two teams have in common.  Both teams don’t last very long and meet equally grizzly ends on the battlefield.

#3-Orb, the neutral nation (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing)

Speaking of Orb, it’s a neutral nation that is determined to stay out of the Bloody Valentine War, rarely allowing Alliance or ZAFT ships into their borders and boldly declaring they will hold their ground if either side should try to push them to enter the conflict.  While it’s easy to cite the Side 6 colony cluster from Mobile Suit Gundam as the prime example of a neutral nation in a time of war, the Earth side scenery brings to mind the Sanc Kingdrom from Gundam Wing.  Home to series characters Relena Peacecraft and Zechs Merquise, the country is a beacon of absolute pacifism and Relena even takes in wounded Treize Faction soldiers.  Much like the Shrike and Astray Team above, the Sanc Kingdom and Orb both find themselves under siege.  The Sanc Kingdom actually gets decimated twice in two separate conflicts while Orb’s ruling leader sacrifices his life and an important piece of Orb real estate to make sure the Archangel and his Daughter Cagalli escape the Earth.

#2-War for Two (Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08^th MS Team)

In the very first episode of 08^th MS Team, Ensign Shiro Amada finds himself stranded in space after saving a fellow pilot (his soon to be teammate Terry Sanders) from a Zeon attack.  As luck would have it, he’s stuck in a debris field with a beautiful Zeon pilot named Aina Sachalin.  The two bond before they are rescued, setting up one of the most important plots of the entire series.  Gundam Seed decided to use almost this same exact setup for their own series, except they changed the setting to an isolated island on Earth.  Cagalli and Athrun meet and bond while waiting for rescue, kicking off their series long romance that continues in Seed Destiny.  The episode itself is even titled “War for Two” same as the 08^th MS Team debut episode…not even trying to be subtle.

#1-The Very Beginning (Mobile Suit Gundam)

Everyone should have gotten this.  While it is a brand new era with brand new factions and enhanced humans, the Bloody Valentine War is a recreation of the war that started it all: The One Year War from Mobile Suit Gundam.  From missile strikes against colonies to the ZAFT conquest of the Earth, the narraration of the Bloody Valentine War up until the first moments of the series is almost a beat for beat retelling of the start of the war between the Earth Federation and Zeon.  And then we get to the colony of Heliopolis, a neutral colony that’s home to a secret Mobile Suit Project.  Sure the actual attack seems to include some shades of Gundam 0083’s infamous Gundamjack (but more so in Seed Destiny), but Kira’s first moments in the Strike are a definite mirror of Gundam legend Amuro Ray’s first minutes in the original RX-78-2 Gundam.  While it was neat to see these events play out, it did make viewers worry that history would repeat itself with a new coat of paint.  Thankfully, Seed did do more to stand on its own rather than relying on rehashing every single Gundam story from the last 20 years…Seed Destiny though…that’s another matter for another time.