T5W#453-Top 5 TM Revolution Songs from Gundam Seed

Whether you love it or hate it (personally I love it), JPop was a huge part of Gundam entrance into the new millennium with Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny.  Plenty would accuse the series of focusing more on promoting musical artists more than making a good series but many more adore the incredibly catchy opening and ending themes and insert songs from Lacus Clyne and Meer Campbell.  One important artist closely associated with this era of Gundam is Takanori Ishikawa, better known by his stage name T.M. Revolution.  TM’s voice is the first everyone heard when Seed debuted in 2002 and beyond theme music, he also leant his voice to a couple of characters in both Seed and Seed Destiny.  In this weeks Top 5 Wednesday, we’re continuing our Gundam Anniversary Month with a selection of the best tracks this awesome dude contributed to the long and illustrious line of Gundam Opening and Ending Themes (Inserts too).  There are my Top 5 TM Revolution Songs from Gundam Seed.
 
#5-Freedom (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom)

I’ll be honest, I learned his real name long ago btu never committed it to memory.  But when I heard the first few notes of this song, I realized TM Revolution was back with a brand new opening track for the Cosmic Era.  While still bombastic and exciting, Freedom has a more mature and aged sound to it.  While it’s only been a couple of years for the cast of Seed in universe, it’s been 20 years since Gundam Seed began.  Freedom feels like a veteran Gundam pilot coming out of retirement, hopping into the cockpit and flying off to kick some ass once more.

 
#4-Ignited (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny)

Just as he provided the opening theme for SEED, TM returned to SEED Destiny for its first OP as well. Ignited feels like a natural next step after Invoke.  With SEED Destiny switching focus to a new group of fresh pilots destined to be ZAFT’s next elite Gundam team, there’s an air of Top Gun esque “go get em” energy to this theme song.  It never quite hits the excellent heights of Invoke but it’s still an enjoyable beginning theme for the SEED sequel (and one of many good songs the show doesn’t deserve).
 

#3-Zips (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED)

This was actually one of the first TM Revolution songs I ever heard and I never knew it was from SEED but it’s kind of obvious in retrospect.  The music video for this one shows TM wandering down the halls of a ship before the red alert goes off.  This song is a certainly on any Cosmic Era pilots playlist as it screams “Stuff is about to go down so suit up and get in the robot.”  It’s easily a song that can play against any major action sequence.  Funny enough, Zips in one of the SEED Compilation Films and plays during a scene where Kira is in battle while reminiscing about sleeping with Flay Alster…the song clearly fits one situation more than the other.
 

#2-Meteor (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED)

You could call this TM Revolutions Hope Theme for the series.  The moment this song drops is such an iconic moment in the Seed franchise.  Just when it looks like the Archangels is about to bite it, Kira shows up in the brand spanking new Freedom Gundam and this song kicks in, starting off a tad ominous before escalating into something more hopeful.  It’s a perfect companion theme for the new Kira, who seems to have his head straightened out as well as his priorities.  But he isnt above tearing Mobile Suits a new one just to make a point when he’s trying to save lives.  It’s just such a freaking awesome way to show off the arrival of a new Gundam in all of its shiny Digipainted glory.
 

#1-Invoke (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED)

Now this is the song that should kick off a new era of Gundam.  His first song for the franchise, TM throws all of his trademark awesomeness into this one.  It’s got a sick beat, feels appropriate for a big action mecha Anime and has this cool tendency to sort of chill in between verses before building to a big explosion in the main chorus pieces.  In my opinion, this is one of the best OPs in all of Gundam and I can see why it’s made TM Revolution such a mainstay in the SEED franchise. Now that I think about it, he might be one of the few artists to contribute so much awesome tuneage to Gundam (maybe not the most, that’s maybe a topic for another Top 5).  But it all started with Invoke and it still kicks ass more than 20 years later.