Cosmic Era 73. It’s
been two years since the end of the Bloody Valentine War that rocked the Earth
Sphere. An uneasy truce now exists
between the Earth based Naturals and the Space faring Coordinators. A sudden attack on a ZAFT facility results in
the thefts of three prototype Gundam Mobile Suits and plunges both Naturals and
Coordinators back into a state of mistrust.
As a conflict greater than the previous war gears up, the next
generation of ZAFT pilots aboard the new battleship Minerva, finds itself at
the forefront of this next page in history.
Among these youths is Gundam Pilot Shinn Asuka, a young man who has
never forgiven the kingdom of Orb for the loss of his family during the war.
With vengeance in his eyes, Shinn begins a battle for his people that puts him
on a direct course for the heroes of the previous war…including Kira Yamato and
Athrun Zala.
Despite the critical reception from long time die hard
fans, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed was a massive success, propelling the franchise
into the next millennium. Some catchy
Jpop tunes (good ones too) and a legion of dedicated fanbases for several of
the series leads prompted the studio to do something not done for a very long
time. Gundam Seed is the first series
since Zeta Gundam to gain a direct sequel series. Though, does Gundam Seed Destiny looks as
likely to end up with the same kind of ire that Gundam ZZ has had since its
debut in the late 80s? Well…it isn’t off
to the best of starts, so that’s not a good sign.
The problem with Seed Destiny’s debut episode is that its
all very “been there, done that”. The
one best example of this is once again, we have another Gundamjacking. It’s not just that this sudden surprise
attack at the ZAFT base mirrors the attack on Torrington Base from Gundam
0083…but we started Gundam Seed with a Gundamjack of it’s own (even if they
weren’t exactly called Gundams yet). It
feels so lazy to immedietly recycle a same starting point for a fresh new
series (though its not like this is the only sequel series guilty of this
practice…looking at you Code Geass R2).
It isn’t helped that, unlike Gundam 0083, Seed Destiny starts off
incredibly dull. 0083 gave us a pretty
cool training exercise between an instructor and his small class of could be
Gundam pilots. Seed Destiny gives us…a
very long and drawn out conversation between ZAFT Chairman Durandal and
Princess Cagalli. Even Seed for all its
rehashing of the beginning of the original series was a better insta starter
than this slow cooker. The art of the
show and the Gundams themselves are even more of a mixed bag. The most polished scenes in the premiere are
anytime we get a through showcase of the cockpit interior and Shinn’s multi
level launching of his Impulse Gundam.
Otherwise, Seed Destiny so far looks about the same as Seed…again
lazy. Even ZZ has a different feel to
its character designs and artstyle than Zeta.
Seeing as how I’ve spent more time making comparisons
between several other Gundam entries, I take it as a sign that Seed Destiny is
off to a very rocky start. Sure some of
the mechs, especially the Impulse, look pretty.
But that all too familiar feeling of “we’ve been here before Gundam…a
few times”, is a feeling I cant shake and that’s not the best kind of First
Impression you want to make on any kind of Anime, especially a next chapter in
a long running franchise like Gundam.
There could be promise in the new cast and the opening and ending themes
sound awesome (no shock there since they brought back T.M. Revolution and Nami Tamaki
for the OP and ED respectively and their themes on Seed rocked as well). Overall though, this could be a tough slog
for another 50 episodes…one I may have to endure for a future project so…pray
for me.
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