Sunday, May 31, 2020

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer


Cosmic Era 73.  The Junius Seven colony falls to Earth, plunging the planet into disaster and ZAFT and the Earth Alliance into another war.  As many struggle to recover from the chaos, a black ops Alliance unit known as Phantom Pain is dispatched to capture data regarding an AI meant for a long in development deep space exploration experiment, codenamed Stargazer.  One beautiful Coordinator scientist is determined to see this project through, taking on the role of pilot of the projects Gundam Stargazer.  In the end it will take her efforts and those of a Phantom Pain pilot bred for combat since childhood to see it through.

While technically our time in the Cosmic Era should be through, I decided to throw in one more review to officially close out Gundam Month Mark IV-THE GAUNTLET.  You don’t hear too much about Stargazer in most circles and after watching it, it’s easy to see why.  This three part Original Net Animation (ONA) is incredibly short, each episode clocking in at about 15 minutes each, and, in the end, has nothing to do with the events of Gundam Seed Destiny (the show during which this little side story happens).  That’s not to say there aren’t any good things about Stargazer, it’s just not enough to justify its existence in the end.

Some of Stargazer’s best moments are from the very beginning and that makes sense given the area it covers.  The Junius Seven drop was easily the high point of Gundam Seed Destiny, the game changer that took the conflict to the next level before squandering it’s promise with everything else.  We get to see more of the aftermath of that disaster and it is rough with cities flooded and citizens in terror.  Honestly, this ONA could have been about a group of survivors dealing with the aftermath in their own way…and we kind of do, it just isn’t a very interesting tale.  I get wanting to save a very important deep space project when there’s a risk it will be destroyed in this disaster.  But after getting it into space, is now really the time to keep focusing on it?  There is a war that comes after the Junius Seven drop and yet Selene and the DSSD are content to just tweak their new Gundam which could’ve been a game changer given what it could do in battle.  That plus the development of an AI, which we see none of in Seed or Seed Destiny, makes me think this ONA was reaching a bit with its premise and got ahead of itself.

Between the two lead characters, Sven and Selene, Sven has the more detailed and interesting backstory.  He’s the protagonist I wish Shinn Asuka could have been in Seed Destiny: he’s suffered a tremendous loss and was trained to be a soldier since he was at a young age.  He’s forced to commit heinous acts of violence for a corrupt branch of the military but he takes zero joy out of it and would probably not smile if he was patted on the back for his job like Shinn was.  I felt bad for Sven and his story couldve provided a deeper look into the Phantom Pain unit which barely got a lot of attention in Seed Destiny outside of Neo and his Extended kids (who all make cameos to show theyre all in the same unit).  Selene is beautiful and idealistic and a brilliant scientist…but her story isn’t that interesting compared to Svens.  Considering we get most of Sven’s life story in the second episode, Selene barely gets equal amounts time dedicated to her story beyond her bonding with the Stargazer AI and reminiscing about her would be love interest who dies heroically early on in the story.  Were this show bigger and more thought out, maybe she and Sven couldve become a couple and she couldve helped heal Sven’s wounds while being a strong female character capable of holding her own.

And actually, that’s the biggest problem with Stargazer.  Three fifteen minute episodes is hardly enough time to do this story proper justice.  Characters are introduced and killed off without a lot of emotional connection (though I was happy to see Sven’s murder happy Shinn equivalent mowed down after his little genocidal frenzy).  The true intent of the Stargazer project remains a bit of a mystery and the final fate of Sven and Selene is equally ambivalent.  And what effect does the Stargazer project have in the larger scope of the Cosmic Era and the Second Bloody Valentine War?  The answer to that last question is none.  When you look at other Gundam side stories like Gundam 0080, 08th MS Team and Thunderbolt, you can see why they were made and how they organically fit not just into the Universal Century timeline, but the One Year War, and why they were stories that needed to be told.  Stargazer starts off on the right track with the fallout of Junius Seven.  But the deep space project has no bearing on any aspect of Seed Destiny and in the end…just feels sadly pointless.

I wonder what this ONA could have been if it had been three full 30-45 minute episodes, or maybe even six 30 minute episodes.  The extra time couldve given it a chance to open up, develop underdeveloped plot points and even provide an interesting direction the Seed franchise couldve taken post Seed Destiny.  Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer is getting a low score but oddly enough, I don’t hate this ONA.  It has some good ideas and a good beginning point but ultimately feels incredibly incomplete.  Which is a shame because I liked more of what I saw here than I saw in the whole of Gundam Seed Destiny (further emphasizing how sad that travesty is).  The action is brutal and gut wrenching.  There’s a main character who actually got some solid character development and backstory and didn’t feel like an absolute douche like Shinn Asuka or half the cast of Seed Destiny.  The Stargazer Gundam is a thing of beauty.  This story had some potential if it could just focus on which side of the side story it really wanted to tell.  I’m really not mad, I’m just sad…this couldve been something special, a true win that the Cosmic Era needed after Seed Destiny.  I guess I’ll now think of Stargazer like I think of Gundam F91: a poorly executed story that one day deserves to have it’s story told in full properly…one day.

5/10

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